ON THE MANUFACTURE OP MATCHES IN NEW YORK. 169 



the phosphorus used in the composition as the foreign matches pay, 

 including phosphorus, brimstone, timber, manufactured boxes and all. 



Matches are sold at various prices, which generally yield the retail 

 dealer a profit of about ten per cent. But a good many of the matches 

 which are sold at retail do not come into possession of the consumer as 

 they leave the purchaser, and this occurs in this wise. A large number of 

 boys are engaged in New York and other cities in peddling matches about 

 the streets. The matches which they sell are not put up in the small 

 boxes in which they are usually sold, but in large paper boxes which hold 

 a much greater number. These boxes have no labels upon them, but the 

 matches are generally of a good kind, and, of course, there must be some 

 secret about it, which is this ; the matches are for the most part stolen out 

 of the boxes which are honestly filled in the factories. For instance, these 

 peddling boys buy several gross of matches ; the boxes contain from fifty 

 to eighty matches, from which these little rascals take about one fourth and 

 thus make up the boxes which they sell so cheaply. In this way they commit 

 a fraud upon those who purchase the matches in the small boxes, and do an 

 injury to the honest manufacturer, who loses his reputation for fairly filling 

 his boxes, when, though he really does so, the fault lies entirely with the 

 boys. All the manufacturers complain loudly of this fraud, but we know 

 of no way to prevent it, except to make it public, and warn all honest 

 people against aiding and abetting in it, by purchasing the matches sold by 

 boys in large boxes without labels. 



It would be supposed that owing to the combustible properties of 

 matches, and the ease with which they are ignited, fires would fre- 

 quently occur in the factories in which they are made ; such, however, is 

 not the fact. The matches do sometimes accidentally ignite in the hands 

 of the persons engaged in cutting them in two, or in putting them 

 into boxes, but they are immediately extinguished before they can do any 

 damage by throwing them into a bucket or cask containing water, and 

 which stands in the near neighbourhood of the table where they work. 

 People would also make a mistake in supposing the match-making business 

 to be an unhealthy one. While going through several of the factories, we 

 watched carefully for indications of disease among the many operatives, 

 but could find none of any consequence. They all appeared to be in the 

 enjoyment of good health and spirits, and worked away singing and laugh- 

 ing, and seemingly as happy as they could wish to be. We learn, how- 

 ever, that there is a decaying of the jaw-bone which is peculiar to persons 

 working at this business. It has very rarely manifested itself, however, 

 and only when the bone has been exposed by some accident to the jaw, 

 or the loss of a tooth. Phosphorus is used medicinally, as a tonic, and is 

 useful in many cases of constitutional weakness. We saw several persons 

 who had been constantly employed in the business for seventeen years, 

 who showed no symptoms of disease ; on the contrary, they seemed 

 remarkably healthy. 



By a process discovered a few years ago by an Austrian chemist, phos- 



