Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 78, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1911 — DEFEATS ICE TRUST [ARTICLE]

DEFEATS ICE TRUST

Boy Lets Pails Filled With Water Freeze and Stores Cakes. Got Idea by Thawing Out Pall In Henyard and Now Is Capitalist Himself—Sells Product to His * Neighbors. • ’ I.V • ' » Ware, Mass.—How would you like to be Independent of the ice trust next summer when the hot rays of the sqn are beating down and your refrigerator is empty, though you have had a card in ypur window for several days and have telephoned the ice trust and been choked off with the reply, “You will get your ice when it arrives and not before?” The 11-year-old son of a Ware sign painter has solved the problem/. Having already made two tons of ice and sold it to his father for 30 cente.a hundred pounds, he is busy making a further supply which he proposes to sell to neighbors next summer. Jerome is the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Henry Eldredge of 57 East street and is one of nine children. It is a case of hustle to keep the family supplied With the necessities of life, and to each of the children old enough to be of assistance is assigned a task which makes the burdens lighter for all. Jerome feeds the hens, which are supposed to keep the family table supplied with fresh eggs, but usually fail in coming up to expectations. He also feeds the lone family pig and keeps Mrs. Eldredge supplied with coal and kindlings from the shed. Jerome has a longing to get a college education and become a lawyer, but has been told repeatedly that a college education costs money, and the only way he can get it is by strict economy and thrift.

It was while watering the hens one cold morning that Jerome hit upon the scheme of the Ice plant. The pan containing the water was filled with a cake of ice each morning, and It was necessary for Jerome to turn the pan bottom side up and pour hot water on it, the cake of ice then dropping out. In a, short time there was a pile of Ice that worried Jerome, because it came from water been rendered muddy and Impure by the hens and was unfit for use, but it occurred to him that he could draw water from the kitchen faucet that was pure, place it In receptacles, allow It to freeze, then get the cakes of Ice out In the same manner as he did from the hens’ pen. He asked his father If he would pay him the same price for ice that he had paid the iceman last year. Mr. Bldredge said he would be glad to do so If the Ice were of good quality and he would contract for two tons. The Ice has been delivered and paid for. Jerome has about two dozen receptacles of various styles and sizes. He first began with what stewpans and kettles he could abduct from his mother’s pantry, but now be has pressed the family wash tub, coal hod, wash pan, wash basin and about everything else into use, and has made square wooden boxes, which he fills with water and makes large cakes of ice In. These boxes he has already sold to his mother for use next summer for flower beds. The price was more than cost of the lumber to make them. The cakes of Ice vary In size from two to seventy-five pounds, and during zero weather Jerome has made as many as fifty cakes of Ice In a day. Jerome attends the seventh grade In the South street school. His four-year-old brother. John Harold, suggested a few weeks ago that he be taken Into partnership on a percentage basis, and he would keep the business moving while Jerome was In school. The suggestion was favorably received, and Johnny Is as Interested In the business as any one could be. When the neighbors’ boys come around Johnny keeps his eyes open and allows none of them near the lee plant explaining that the Ice must he clean and pure or it cannot be marketed. The boys have met some dlscouragement in the ice making business. At first Jerome used ordinary wooden pails and tin palls, but with the first freezing the palls were hopelessly ruined; aa tha Ice burst the pails in many places. The boys have learned that common enameled ware is best. Tin palls that are small at the bottom and large at the top are also useful, as the loe swells at the top much like

a loaf of bread, and does not burst the receptacle. Warm weather Is also discouraging, as the ice that has already frozen in the dishes thaws. Jerome says they can literally see their money melt away. Each morning, the ice made during the previous 24 hours is packed into large dry goods boxes and sawdust is packed around the cakes. Jerome says that he will build an icehouse in the spring.