Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 December 1895 — IN GENERAL [ARTICLE]

IN GENERAL

The latest trust will control tho trade iu carpet tacks. Prices have already been nearly doubled. Obituary: At D|es Moines, lowa, Gen. Ed Wright.—At Jacksonville, 1)1., John Robertson. —At Hastings, Minn., Geo. W. Gilkoy. 74. At Philadelphia! Mrs! Margaret C. Agnew.—At Ind., Rebecca Howard, 78.—At Los' Angeles, Cal., Prof. M. S. Bcbb, of Rockford, 111.—At Decatur, 111., James. Burley, 88. A thousand Scandinavians equipped with bundles, bales and boxes lift Chicago over the Nickel Plate Itoad Monday, afternoon for their annual Christmas excursion to their native lands. Forty buses, piled high with luggage and packed'full* with excursionists, conveyed the party to the depot. A Swedish brass; bail'd was stationed in the depot. During the wait for the special train tho baud played patriotic Norwegian, Danish and, Swedish airs, while the entire^ crowd joined in the choruses. A gang of pick pocSbts followed.the excursionists to the station, but were eaptui' -d by .deteeth os "aiicl Inirned away before any valuables. Halviu Cbristulfersen was the only one in the party who was left, lie was weary with celebrating the event and sat on his tin trunk on the platform dreaming of birds and a midnight sun while the train rolled out of the station; The price of camphor has for some time been tending steadily upward. It is now sold by wholesale druggists at 64 eeuis a pound, and will probably go much higher, though wholesalers do not look for it to reach sl. Several things have combined to force up the price of this commodity. All the camphor for (lie (rude comes from Japan and the Island of Formosa. The latter lias lately come under the Mikado's dominion, and there is a Forestry Commission in- Japan which regnlates the cutting of the camphor trees, from which the gum is obtained. The gum is extracted from the wood by cutting the trees into small pieces and boiling out the gum. It means the de-struction-of the trees, and the Government has limited the cutting. Stevenson & Co.7 'Chicago, wholesale druggists, say the demand has been greatly increased lately by the manufacture of smokeless powder, of which it is a constituent, It is also used in the inannfayture of celluloid. Another thing that tends to send prices skyward is the buying of all raw camphor in sight by a London syndicate.