Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1885 — Bristles and Brushes. [ARTICLE]

Bristles and Brushes.

Over $200,000 capital is invested in Boston in the manufacture of bristle brushes. The raw material used in a year will amount to about $300,000, and the value of the manufactured product in the same time is not far from $500,000. There are six regular bristle brush manufactories jn tike city, besides several “attic” factories. Probably the largest establishment of the kind in Boston is the one at No. 290 Commercial street, which employs about sixty hands, and keeps some $20,000 or $30,000 worth of unmanufactured stock on hand all the time. One reason for keeping so much raw material in stock is the fact that there are no dealers in tho article of bristles in the city. New York is the great center of the trade for this country. It does all the importing, and the larger part of the work of preparing the American product for market. The best bristles are imported, and come mainly from Russia and Germany, a few fine ones coming from Franca The Russian and German bristles are coarser, longer, heavier and straighter than tho American article. They will range'in length from three to six and even seven inches, and are worth at New York from 50 cents to $4 per pound, the short and dark colored, or gray, being the lowest in price, and the long and white the highest. American bristles come mostly from the Western States, although they are obtained from the large abattoirs in all parts of the country. There are large concerns in New York City that buy up the bristles from tho slaughter houses, paying some years 3 to 4 cents per hog for the season, and in others as high as Bto 10 cents. The present price is from 5 to 6 cents per hog. These bristles are boiled, washed, dried straightened, laid one way, assorted into different lengths and colors, and tied up in bundles about four inches in diameter for market. Only a small part of tbe raw material can be utilized for bristles. These hairs come from the back of tbe head and along the spine. The “fur” which grows on the sides of the animal is too short and curly, and it is so!d to mattress factories to be made into the nice “South American horse hair” mattresses which are advertised to be sold cheap. This “wool,” as it is called, is worth only 4 to 5 cents per, pound, after it is haggled. The bristles, which vary in length from 2) to 5 inches, are done up in bundles, the different sizes varying from each other by a quarter of aa inch. The prices vary from 30 cents to $1.50 per pound, according to length and whiteness. The difference between two sizes of the same quality is about 15 or 20 cents.— Farm and Home.

Gov. Oglesby Experiences Browning. During his boyhood days Gov. liichard J. Oglesby came very near being drowned. He thus tells iiis experience in the water: “When I was a boy I was bathing with some friends and got beyond my depth and was unable to swim. I had heard that when a person indhe water goes down the third time he drowns. I counted distinctly the number of times I sank, and when 1 started down the third time I said to myself, ‘Hero goes the third and last time. Now I am dead.’ Every event of my life passed before me with vivid distinctness, but without creating any peculiar feeliDg. I saw tkern go by as if they were a swift-moving panorama. I was dead. I knew that I was dead, and a sweeter death one can not die. My consciousness suddenly departed, and I died without a struggle of pain." He was rescued immediately after touching bottom the third time, and, after working with him for nearly an hour, life was restored. —Bloomington (III.) Pantograph.