Jasper County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1907 — A FEW REMARKS. [ARTICLE]

A FEW REMARKS.

Several gentleman were sitting on the veranda of a hotel one warm evening recently, when the conversation turned upon the subject of profits in the various kinds of business. A banker who was present inquired of a newspaper man whose name we suppress on account of respect for his family, if newspapers ever made any money. The newspaper man said there were instances of the kind, but they were rare, and pointed to-the facttbat Mr. Cramer, of the Evening Wisconsin, had made so much money that he was obliged to start a bank of his own to hold it all. Yes, he said, newspapers quite frequently make money, but instead of hoarding it away they put it into their business, adding new attractions to their paper. He said he had known country newspapers to make as high as two or three dollars a day, during harvest when the editor put his printer in charge of the office while he took his customary vacation. A druggist who was present said he always bad an idea the newspapers made all the money that was made, except what was made by the meat market men. This was intended to wake up a leading meat man who eat in a chair tipped back against the building. The druggist said that he had often watched a butcher when he sold a roast. The butcher would saw off a roast, throw it‘on the scales and it would weigh eight pounds, and then he began to trim it. He would chop out about two pounds of the backbone with his cleaver, then dissect out a pound of ribs, remove the kidney tallow, and when he had got done, and spiked it up in a ball with skewers, it would weigh about four pounds. The druggist said if he could have the profits of a meat market for three months he would pay the nationaL/ffsbt and stop so much talk aboui it. The gentleman from the meat market here arose and was recognized by the speaker of the house. Ha said he had thought seriously of becominga druggist when he was a young man, but when he saw that prescriptions containing only five cents worth of drugs were sold to customers for fifty cents, his conscience would not permit him, and he had sold meat in order that he might lead a Christian life and stand some show after death. He said if the druggist wanted to go into the business of selling meat, and undersell the present dealers, he could probably find a vacant building somewhere that could be had for a reasonable rent. The druggist said he supposed a man in business had to live, but be was sorry the man of meat had such a tender conscience, as he would have starved to death years ago if he had kept a drug store. A druggist he said, charged something for his knowledge, the same as a lawyer, as it took years to learn the profession so as not to get strychnine in the place of asafetida. “A druggist,” said he, casting a withering glance at the market man, “must know something, and perhaps it is as well that you didn’t at—” Friends rushed in and separated them, but the thread of pleasant conversation had been broken, and the porch soon after was deserted.