Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1910 — Output of Matches. [ARTICLE]

Output of Matches.

An expert in the match industry estimates last year’s output of matches at I,soo,ooo,ooo,ooo—fifteen hundred billions—the New York World says. This provided something like 3.000,000 matches a minute for the use of the civilized world. Plenty of people now living remember when the sulphur match in its present form was unknown. And the old flint has nos yet gone entirely out of . use. . In fact, it has had a recent revival of practical usefulness and is on sale now as a substitute-for matches perhaps more extensively than at any time in the last half century. In neat little leather cases, with a pocket for the very inflammable ‘‘kindling,” fire flints and steel are offered at most places where hunting outfits are for sale. They are so well made that no special skill is required in their use and a fire is produced quite as quickly as with a match. Among the Eskimos the possession of a flint is the sure mark of wealth, or was until fur traders from the south began bringing matches into the arctic circle and made it possible for a man to attain the distinction of havIng a fire starter by the simple exchange of a few furs for a box of matches. - Sometimes a man who has worked hard all his life, retires, and becomei so shiftless that he doesn’t keep hit spectacles cleaa. . A. Domestic Convenience. Garson —Have you hot water in your house? De Long—Yea; my wife’s mother lives with us.