Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 57, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1908 — IMMIGRANTS' OLD BEDDING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IMMIGRANTS' OLD BEDDING.

Said to Be Solid M New York Dealers For Use in Their TVade. New York dealers say that the luxurious divans of the rich are not Infrequently constructed from materials which at one time formed part of the humble couches of immigrants from the region of the Baltic Sea. A considerable part of the mattress stuffing used by manufacturers in New York consists of sea grass harvested on the shores of»Barnegat Bay. Following big storms this variety of eel grass is found uprooted and driven close Inshore in large masses. Men come from as far as Philadelphia to gather it. The gratis is spread on the beach, where it is cured very much as hay is, and after being' baled is shipped to New York dealeA, who sell it to furniture makers. The grass brings an average of $22 a <4n and finds a market as far west as DenVer. About' 175 tons is received by the local market in a year and most of the stuff goes to make up the’middle layer of filling in mattresses for beds and divans.

For a long time the American grass had no competitor except from Canadg. But of. late another source of supply has been found, j A sea grass similar to that found on the coast of New Jersey is produced on thef bores of the Baltic Sea and Is brought to this country In the bedding of the Immigrants. After serving the uses of the steamship Companies in the bunks of the steerage the sea grass is sold to small dealers, and resold by them to the large dealers In New York for sls a ton. * Many dealers at first refused to carry this eda grass, remembering Its strange history and fearing infection, but competition overcame their scruples and they felt themselves obliged to handle the stuff. An average of 150 tons a year Is now used by the New York .trade and Is made up into mattresses and upholstered chairs. One New York firm which handles the Baltic grass received word recently from a Philadelphia firm that the grass shipped to it contained a very lively colony of fleas. The dealer wrote back that fleas were foreign ttvthe nature of the grass and received the reply that there could be no doubt of that, since the fleas had shown a marked desire to exchange their abiding place for the person of the buyer. This Incident caused an investigation, which brought to light the origin and history of the Baltic grass The dealers say that the Baltic grass sold to them is not disinfected, being put In hales as it Is taken from the immigrants' bunks and supplied :to the trade, with any additions which It may have received on the passage over.—New York Sun.

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Naw Orleans, who refused to his poet of duty when the yeWow fever epidemic broke out and died from the treacherous disease after a short illness.

The Rev. Placide Louis Chapelle,