December i, 1908.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



91 



Congo Free State, rubber from the French territory north of the 

 Congo also being included. 



Mr. Musly took me in hand at once and showed mc through 

 the great warehouses where were huge stocks of gutta-percha, 

 balata, and Congo rubbers. These vaults and storehouses were 

 arranged round an open courtyard just back of the firm's of- 

 fices, the whole fronting on the great quay where ocean-going 

 steamers from all parts of the tropical world were unloading 

 freight practically into their yard. So near were they that the 

 transfer from steamers to storehouse amounted only to about 

 4 cents (Dutch) per cwt. Indeed, now that we are on the 

 topic, prices for handling and storage were exceedingly reasonable, 

 and in just about this proportion in all parts of the city, the 

 average per month for warehouseing and insurance being about 

 6 cents per cwt. 



After carefully inspecting the huge stores of gums and noting 

 the concentration of the whole business and the ability to ex- 

 amine the whole of each shipment, we proceeded to what is 

 perhaps the most unique and practical india-rubber and gutta- 

 percha sample room in existence. Here are arranged, in dark- 

 ened cabinets, small samples of every shipment of any importance 

 of gutta-percha and rubber that the house has made for 20 

 years back, and naturally there are samples of rubbers long since 

 gone out of existence and their names even forgotten in the 

 trade. 



One thing that struck me particularly in connection with this 

 great house was the wonderful attention to detail. Then, too, 

 they had simple methods of doing things. For example, the rub- 

 bers that were shipped in burlap when ready for shipment were 

 protected against theft, by having the seams of the bags painted. 



Then whoever opened the bag w'ould find it impossible to close 

 it again without <ietection unless he had a pot of just the shade 

 of paint used, somewhere about his person. 



Deeply interested as he was in his own business, Mr. .Musly 

 was even more anxious to impress upon me not only the beau- 

 ties but the commercial importance of the great city in which he 

 made his home. As far as I could learn he really had outside of 

 his family and his business only two fads. One was Rotterdam, 

 its prosperity and its greatness, and the other was football, in 

 which game he is not only proficient, but a staunch supporter of 

 the Dutch eleven that has won many victories over the French 

 and the English. 



His story of the growth of Rotterdam was really very 

 dramatic. Standing on the granite quay, he pointed across the 

 river to the other shore where, as far as the eye could reach 

 up and down stream, were great warehouses, and thousands of 

 steamers and river craft, big and little, and pictured the time 

 when, 30 years ago, the whole had been waste land occupied by a 

 few fishermen's huts. Then came Louis Pincoff, who formed 

 a monster company, erected great warehouses, and forecasted the 



Large Stock of Gutta-Percha in the Rotterdam Warehouse of Weise & Co. 



