Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 January 1903 — Letter to John Kohler. [ARTICLE]

Letter to John Kohler.

■Rensselaer, Ind. Dear Sir: You buy your horseshoes and nails; your grand-father, if be was a blacksmith, made ’em. You ean’t afford to hammer them out by hand, when you can buy as good, or better perhaps, ready made to your hand, for a little more than tbe oost of the iron. What do you think of a painter who goes on buying his linseed oil and white-lead, and mixing, and tinting by hand, and charging bis time for work that is far betterdone than he can do it; done by machinery; done as your horseshoes and nails are made. Mistake isn’t it? - He is wasting his chance in the world. There is no better stuff to do business with than good horseshoes and paint; and no better work than putting them on. Good horseshoes well put on: “It’s the putting ’em on that makes yon a blacksmith: no matter who makes ’em. Who wants to go back to old times, and make his own horseshoes? Between us two that painter don’t know how to make good paint—he used to; but, paint has run away from him. Yours truly, F. W. Devoe & Co.