The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 23, 1896, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1336. 17 East academies closing up; dealers making assignments; ess in the harness market—all these igns that seem to point with unerring nger to the inevitable ‘‘passing of the horse.” Not that the equine species will become extinct by any means, but that its sphere of fuiness will be gradually narrowed ds compared with which the world of the 1 horse was glorious. The eable and trolley cars have driven out horses by the thousand; the electric- carriage is threaten thousands more; while the bicycie is causing the abandon- horses here, there and 1 one feels constrained to ng fame of the animal years ago was man's \b companion and as- ventive genius of the twenticth cent might sing a requiem, n charity of heart, over the grave of the horse’s vanished greatness. Last year horse-dealers and liverymen s icted that the “bicycle craze’ would rt-lived; that it had already reached beight, and would die away, just as cther fads had died. What are the facts? Last year 450,000 bicyclesjwere made in this coantry, and at the present time the supply is not equal to the demand. less than $25,000,000 is said to be invested in bicycle and tire factories in the United States. The product of this year bids fair to be double that of last. Does anybody foresee a boom in horses? And what 1s the horse prospect? Just -] se of sistant. e sk this: While it will be admitted that horses of fast able distinct and superior breed may be as costly as yet, judg- e prices of the low as com- | all appearance! be perma othe pared with tt ¥For m in a meas w ture, and even, e fact that his flesh, which was o tle value while attached to his bones ed for ex- vort—in the hope that the dead horse may bring in more profit than the live one—the animal may blame the bicycle. The use of the wheel universal. The rich ride it pleasure; the person of for pleasure, health and economy; strong patronize the wheel maintain a perfect physical ¢ f sC ting to be health and | erate income the weak, to get up muscle a etite; the pale maiden draws ruddy health from the | exhilarating exercise, ax e worn-out clerk is eiven new life and vigor by an in- spiriting acquaintance with the winged wheel i we say that the whe is actually killing off the horse? A de ago, the horse’s sphere was unassailable. How chancged the scene! Conditi have un- dergone a small-sized revolution. That vulg; horse, m, “There are no flies on the | ,” must be consigned, along with the remains of the equine steed, to a canning | factory and the foreign stomach. The horse is in peril of his life from that con- testing flier—the winged wheel. Livery- men, in order to keep up with the times, nd ahead on their books, have i many instances established cycleries in connec- tion with their stables. imates of the number of bicyles in use in San Francisco alone have been ob- tained with the result that the lowest was 15,000, and the average of all estimates only a little less than 20,000 Two Sundays ago an actual count was made of the number of bikes that passed into Golden Gate Park through the Baker- street entrance. It showed 9000 wheelmen for that single day; and, certainly, wheel- men by the hundred took advantage of the fine weather to ride out into the country about the bay, with never a thought of the park, on that very same Sunday. “Wheelmen have been kept in some by bad weatner this winter,”” said one of the leading wheelmen, *but with the coming of spring you will see double the interest in cycling that existed last year. Wheel- men deserve some credit, I think, for agitating the question of good roads. When we get paved highways though I suppose the horseless carriage will come into use and not only run out the last of the horses but give bicycling a hard rub. Then, just about the time the horseless carriage is in full sway, the flying machine will be perfected, and we'll just flap our wings, rise up and move north, east, south or west through the air at our pleasure. But the bicycle has the call now, and, mark my words, the wheel craze is going !,o grow. Why, at the late bicycle show in New York 1094 different makes of bicycles were exhibited. . “You are aware that before railroads and streetcar lines traversed all the goun- try the wayside inns were largely patron- by journeying horsemen. Well, the syside inn gradually fell behind, and no business was done to speak of for years until the wheel mania struck the country. Let me tell you right here that the wheel- men have put the wayside inns'in the bay region on a paying basis once more. Twenty wheelmen to one horseman is about the proportion in which the patrons of wayside inns are now measured up. The proprietors cater to the cyclist custom and set out excellent meals for us. and confined to limits | No | | and that's all. | bave bicycles as well. 177 W 7 ,/‘//' E 'Y ) CIENT carriage-houses failing | ing out the cigarette, so far as wheelmen in the populous centers of the | are concerned. The deleterious effectsof famous fashionable riding | the cigarette are recognized and wheel- g horse. | men appreciate the fact that while riding their lungs are continuously open. Wheelmen smoke as much as ever, though, only a rider can’t keep a cigar in his mouth, and hence cigars have been thrown overboard, while out touring, and pipe and tobacco are called into requisi- tion. ‘‘Bicycie-face? Oh, that caricature on a wheelman’s supposed anxiety is funny, A bealth ton such as the wheel, can’t be affected by a joke.” But the horse has stanch champions, t00, and they are determined to fight every inch of the field from which the conquer- ing whee! is slowly but surely, it seems, driving the noble steed of flesh and blood. Keevers of livery stables, saddlers, har- ness-dealers, carriage-makers, with a few candid exceptions, refuse to admit that the | dullness which hangs about their occupa- tions and trades is attributable, in a mate- rial dezree. to the inroads of the bicycle. “‘Hard times. Lack of money—that’s the thing that hurts us,” is the common expression among them. “But,” one may venture, *“businessis brisk in nearly all other lines. How is it that hard ‘imes stays with you when oth- ers have ceased to feel any depression?”’ Sometimes an admission is drawn out to the effect that ‘‘Perhaps the bicycle is do- ing more than we imagine, butwe can’t see it that way.’’ “The craze reached its climax last sum- { mer and it will die out gradually,” is an- other declaration that is heard nowadays from horsemen and harness-dealers. J. C. Johnson, the head of the firm of J. C. Johnson & Co., wholesale harness and saddlery house, believed that the horse would be more popular than ever in a year or two. The harness and livery-stabie business had suffered last year, but the business was certain to come back. Soon only people who couldn’t afford to keep a horse and carriage would be seen on bicycles. “People who ride bicycles all the time are those who cannot afford a horse and buggy.'’ said Mr. Johnson. “Those who can afford to keep horses and equipages | We don't expect custom from the one, and the other will be a patron anyhow. Some harness-houses are keeping bicycles for sale. The bicycle is not a permanent thing. The liverymen have had the hardest tussle with the bicycle.” And Mr. Johnson smiled the smile of confidence and maintained that the wheel was only a temporary innovation. Charles L. Haskell, one of the leading retail harness-dealers, was outspoken and candid in his views. He looked 2t the whole matter with a cool business eye. “The retail harness trade has been sorely affected by the bicycle,” averred Mr. Haskell. “Every man in my busi- ness knows it too, or ought to know it if he doesn’t. My trade was excellent up to about a.year ago, and I had a line of cus- tomers that came as regularly as clock- work. When others were crying ‘hard times’ I had no complaint to make; but when business all around me began to re- sume its normal life, and people in other lines seemed jubilant, I thought it mighty strange that may receipts should show a startling jalling off. *‘One day I sat in my oftice and observed | to myself: ‘What’s the matter with my business? Not a soul comes in all day. What's the reason? I began thinking seriously. The question of hard times bobbed up and I dashed it aside. I cud- geled my brain for an hour, and when I zot up I swore that I knew the cause of the dullne: ““‘It’s the infernal bicycle,’ said I. Buj T didn’t waste any time railing against the wheel, I pride myself on having some business sense. Since the bicycle was in- juring my harness trade, what was to be done to offset the inroads? You know what I did? Just sat right down again at my desk and, without a moment’s detay, wrote an order to the biggest bicycle fac- tory I knew of for 100 bicycles. I divided my store into harness and cycle depart- ments. Ninety of those wheels went off the first month. My receipts are now about as big as ever, but 1 have been mak- ing up in the sale of ‘bicycles what I have lost on harness. The bicycle has been do- ing up the horse, in a measure—no ques- tion about it. The bicycle has helped to cause the building of horse-canning fac- tories in Oregon.’” The manager of a big wholesale harness establishment not only backed up Mr. Haskell’s statements, but went the retailer several degrees better or worse in his ref- erence to ‘‘the passing of the horse.” He said he felt like copying an expres- sion from a well-known railroad magnate, and saying ““The bicycle be dashed.” “To tell the plain truth,” he went on, ““the bicycle has injured our business to an extent that is actually inconceivable. And what is more there is going to be no limit to the bicycle movement. The wheel has come to stay. It is going to work more injury to the harness business next year than it will this year, and year after next the depression will be greater still. Ten “Another thing. The bicycle is knock- years from now people will bardly think 7 | | | of going down to San Jose on a train or by | horse. minous pavements between all the larger cities and towns, and meantime some Yankee will have applied electricity to the wheel and a man will ride down to the Garden City without straining his muscles in the least inside of two hours. “Bicycles have been the ruination, I might say, of the livery business. Our house feels the falling-off in the demands for livery harness. A few years ago, the young man would take his girl out of a Sunday in a neat buggy and ride to the country behind a rapid-stepping horse. Ten years ago the stables could never sap- ply the Sunday and holiday demand for horses and carriages. How isit now? All the stables are overstocked with horses. Taey have carriages lying continuously idle on their hands. They have more har- ness than they kno%w what to do with, and they can’t sell it to some other liveryman, for they are allin the same boat. What does the young man with a girl do now? He spends his hohdays on his bike. He teaches his girl to ride, and they now go out wheeling side by side. “When somebody introduces electricity as the motive power of the wheel, then those who don’t feel equal to the task of working the treadle for great distances on the bicycle will buy a wheel with an elec- tric motor, and ride without any varticular physical effort. You’ll see! The wheel is going to capture the whole people in time. “Why, sir, business is improving in all lines but ours and a few others that are being knocked ot along with the horse. damage. Ten years ago there were some 7000 horses pulling streetcars in this and neighboring cities. How is it to-day? You find a few bobtail-cars still running, but people regard these as relics of a past age. The electric-car has driven them out. The horses are thrown on the coun- try. The demand for horses is down near the zero mark, and only the other day, in one of the northern counties of California, a band of 300 horses was sold for a total of $250, or a little over 80 cents apiece. “Goto the mines. We used to supply the miners with harness for the mule teams which hauled the ore. We did an immense business, but we don’t do it any longer. The mule team has seen its day in the mines. What's the reason? The miners have gone to the nearest mountain stream and used the water power to gene- rate electricity, which is conveved to the mines and does the hauling. Horses are being crowded out everywhere. No won- aer horses are being butchered for meat. “It's a rather gloomy picture for our business; but it’s a fact nevertheless. The bicycle is pushing us hard, and when elec- tricity i8 fastened to the wheel we'll be pushed harder still.” 0. F. Willey of the firm of O. F. Willey &Co., wholesale harness and carriage deai- ers, had not given the subject sufficient attention to enable him to say just what relation the bicycle may have to the dull- nessiin the harness and carriage business. “It certainly burts the carriage tradc some,” he said. “I hear many complaints from livery-stable men, who claim that the bicycle is taking trade away from them. In so far the wheel hurts the livery men it hurts the carriage trade.” ‘W. Davis, wholesale harness dealer, thought that the princival effect of the modern ‘‘safety” was on the livery busi- ness in the cities. *“We can’t help feeling the hurt a little,” he continued. “When a liveryman who ordered ten sets of harness last year says he needs only half that many this year some explanation has to be looked for, and { I guess the bicycle explains the difference. Last Sunday I hired a rig for $6 that [ couldn’t have got under $10 two years ago. But hard times brought down prices in every line. Somebody told me a while ago that the bicycle craze was dying out. I don’t hear anything about a horse craze, though.” ‘William Walcom is a-carriage-painter at the Fashion carriage factory on Ellis street. His firm has plenty of business ‘“for the times,” and he laughed at the idea of the bicycle retiring the horse. “Hard times” was his definition of the cause of the cullness. “There is one odd thing, though,” re- marked Mr. Walcom, aiter a few seconds of thought, “and I wonder if this bicycle theory explains it. Really I never thought | of bicycles and buggies in this relation before. Our buggy trade is going out—we don’t make buggies extensively any more. ‘We tonfine ourselves to carriage building, coaches and fine equipages. What's the matter with the buggies? No demand for them. It is rough on the buggy trade when three-quarters of the buggies in the stables lie idle continuously. A buggy, when in use, needs to be painted about once a year. If a firm of painters does business for stables that use 200 buggies it will have 200 buggies to paint. If the stables have to put three-quarters of those buggies aside the painter suffers a falling off of three-quarters in that buggy paint- ing particular. Tam not disposed to con- tradict you if you say that bicycles have rung the knell of the buggy trade. In former years we have turned out of this shop as many as forty pleasure buggies a month. To-day if we turn out half a dozen we are doing remarkably well.” Among the proprietors of livery stables the idea that the bicycle has come to stay and is increasing its influence is treatea with scorn. Some of them peer far into the future and see junk-shops full of bi- ‘cycles and the winged wheel in general disfavor. Manager Bailey of the Golden Gate stables said that cycling had acted as a drawback last meason, especially with the saddle-horse trade, but the saddle business had been returning during the winter. “Lack of money is the cause of whatever dullness exists,” he said. Peter Garrity of the City Hall stables on Golden Gate avenue did a large livery business formerly. His son was asked by a representative of THE CALL if the estab- lishment had suffered any from the en- croachments of the bike. “We maintain a good livery business,” said he, “‘and hadn’t ought to complain.” “‘But,” persisted the gleaner of facts, There witl be asphaltum or bitu- | dullness which has affected all “Electricity is doing a big partof the | 1 yesterday made a tour of the cigar-stands “‘you must have felt in some measure the | other liverymen 2"’ | | “OI course,” was the response; “business { | isn’t all that it used to be; but you can’t| | blame the bicycle for that. A few years | | ago we boarded a great many horses for business men and collectors. The street- | | cars have branched out in every direction, making a network over the City, and even | running far beyond the City limits. Agents | and collectors no longerfeel thatany horse | | is required. They don’t feel like paying | $40 2 month board for a horse or $2 a day for the use of a horse and rig, because they | can just step aboard a car and go wherever | | they please in the City. They have no | horse to look after, and can travel around all day, and all it costs them is 50 cents or | 75 cents. A good deal of difference between | | that and §2; you see!” “Who runs the cyclery next door?’ ‘A brother of mine.” “‘So the old gentleman has one son to | | attend to the livery stable and another to | | conduct the bicycle business, and he runs them side by side?” “That’s about it.” | The fact is that Peter Garrity, shrewd, | | far-sighted man, noted the inroads made | | on his livery trade by the popular bike. | He was not the kind of man to stickto a | losing game when there was any relief in sight, and he went to work and fitted up a | | big room 1mmediately adjoining his sta- | bles as a bicycle store. He has made a | little fortune in bicycles and is not troubled | by the encroachments of the bike on his | livery stable. Like Mr. Haskell, the har- ness dealer, what he losesin one way he | makes up 1n another. | Itis true that the streetcars have made a | hole in the livery trade. It is true, too, | that the cable and trolley have knocked | | out horses wholesale—made them a drug | on the market; but the horse, in *‘pass- | ing,” may look with some degree of satis- | | faction on the very wheel which has op- erated largely to his undoing, because that | same wheel is eharming away hosts of old | | patrons of the streetcars and thus'making | ;ot 1tself a roundabent vehicle of revenge. | | E.E. Ames, the manager of the carriage | factory of Studebaker Bros. & Co., said | | that the bicycle had injured that portion of the trade relating to the livery business, | “Livery men throughout the country | | have complained,” said he; “but it is ap- parent to us, however, that the bicycle furor of 1895 is over with and that busi- ness will svon settle down to conditions like those which preceded the craze. The bike has made inroads on us to a certain extent, but we have letters from gentle- men who are desirous of trading their bicycles in part payment for buggies. Our belief is that about nine-tenths of the people who purchase bicyeles would not buy horses and carriages for pleasure,, because they cannot afford to keep them; yet those same people might go to a livery stable and pay $2 to $5 for a horse and ng. Our trade with liverymen is so slight, as | compared to the whole trade, that such a | falling-off doesn’t worry us. Very few | people who are able to own horses and vehicles will eschew them for the bicycle. “It has been widely reported to be our intention to enlist in the bicycle manufac- turing industry. We contemplated no such thing. We have had to run an extra force to keep up with the requirements of the carriage trade. “We have received fully 50,000 letters on the subject of the bicycle factory that we were reported to have in view."” Captain Dilban of the Van Ness Riding Academy said his patrons fell away last summer and things looked blue for his school, but the winter has brought back much of the old custom. “The wheel was an attractive diversion while it was new,” said the captain, “‘but it has come into | such common use that the parties who de- sire to be exclusive cannot bear to ride in | the park any more, and they naturally return to the more exciusive and more ex- pensive horseback riding.”” The captain had an idea that bloomers showed up all the defects in a woman's ficure, while horseback riding made all the graces plain. Does the biking havit interfere with the smoking habit? That is another question. Nearly every smoker who bikes will tell you that it does. ‘“You cannot smoke with comfor. while riding a wheel,” they say. There1s not only no satisfaction in smoking while cutting the wind at such speed, but it is even dangerous to try. Besides the incon- venience of handling the cigar ut all times, the smoke and ashes are liable to injure the eyes of the rider. . Nearly every man who bikes is or has been a smoker. Ergo—if the smoking habit is unseated even to a small degree with every man who bikes, does it not save him that much money—the vrice of the cigars or cigarettes that he does not smoke ? Biking is said to be a healthful exercise. Smoking is allezed to be an unhealthful luxury. Subtracting that much of the unhealthful luxury that is cut off by the speedy wheel, and addinz it to the alreadv healthful exercise, the result must be still more health. That goes without saying. This philosophy applies, of course, only to the unbloomered biker. The woman cn the wheel as off does not figure in a dis- cussion of the smoking habit, As previously stated in this article bi- cycle statisticians say there are 20,000 peo- ple in the City who ride the wheel asa regular diversion. Very conservative people say 15,000. Of this number it is es- timated that not more than one-tenth are women. Take the conservative estimate and leave out the women and you have 13,500 men 1n this City who do not smoke as much as they used to—that is as a rule and taking the word of the average bicy- clist himself. Of course, there are men who smoke and smoke in spite of everything, On. the other hand, there are men who confess to have quit tobacco entirely in deference to the wheel. That evens the matter. 13,500 men reformed in a measure from smoking, it is reasonable to expect the effect to be felt in the cigar trade. In order to determine this, a CALL man on that part of Market and Kearny streets where the crowd is thickest at all times, .nnd put the question to the men behind l With |. the counter, Has the rapid spread of the bicycle habit affected the cigar trade so far as you have noticed ? The answers were varied. Many ad- mitted that they felt some falling off in trade. Others, while admitting that biking [ and smoking could natgo on well together, declared their sales to be unaffected. Some of them declared it was all a matter of location, so far as the cigar-dealer was concerned; that although the bike took away from one man a number of his cus- tomers addicted to the habir, it gave them to some other dealer at some other piace. This was the view of the wholesaler. Mose Gunst, for instance, insisted that as many cigars were smoked to-day as at any previous time—perhaps more. ‘“‘If a man can’t smoke on his wheel, he will hurry to some place where he can put his feet up on the balcony railing of a half-way house and enjoy his | cigar. While we may not sell so many ®oods to a downtown house our sales at the out-of-town resorts—the Cliff House, for instance—have increased tenfold. It takes more than a fad to break up a man of fixed habits. Go to the bicycle ‘rests,’ half-way houses and the neighborhood of cycleries and you will find the sky clouded with tobacco smoke that formerly floated up from the streets of the city.” But this opinion is not sustained by the wheelmen themselves. They say they do not smoke on the wheel and have not the same desire to smoke when at rest as be- fore they were overcome by the seductions of the wheel. Som e devotees of the wheel were found in the cigar business, and in every instance they declared this to be true. On the other hand the agent of a well- known whesl, head of a large establish- ment in the City, said: “I am an ardent wheelman—ride a great deal. I emalsoa smoker from way back and have been for years. I smoke as many cigars, I guess, asIever did. However, itis true a man can’t smoke on a wheel or don’t want to, and a man must quit smoking for that time—that follows. Therefore I have no doubt that some men, perhaps many men, are diverted very considerably irom the smoking habit.” H. L. Zimmerly, behind the counter at Michalitschke & Co.’s stand at 900 Market street, said: “There is no doubt that the wheel has considerable effect on the smoking habit. We notice it here espe-, cially on Sunday. Many men who used to frequent this neighborhood are not here. They are away on their wheels, ‘“What is true of Sunday is true of every other day in a less degree. They don’t take cigars with them on their excursions. I ride the wheel and I know that I have not the desire to smoke that I had. In fact, Tdon’t smoke at all. I am training for the races and I know at least fifty other men who are doing the same, none of whom, I believe, smoke at all. All of them dia smoke befor: they took to the wheel. Yes, I think the bike has stopped a zood deal of smoking.” N. P. Paterson, 730 Market street, said: ‘It stands to reason that bicycling inter- feres with the smoking habit to a very con- siderable extent. Still, I can’t say that I have noticed its effect on my trade.” A. L. Bertelson of Market street rides the wheel himself and claims to have the trade of a considerable number of riders. He said: “Ttis true that a man cannot smoke while he is riding. But if he is given to smoking he will smoke at every stop, and probably will smoke with a greater relish for his exercise. That is my experience in the matter.” H. L. Indell said: “I sell more cigars than I did a year ago and I think that is the rule with dealers throughout the City. People, however, do not buy the expensive grades they used to, because times are harder. Men who never bought less than a 1214-cent cigar are now conteat with a ten-cent smoke. My boys belong to the Olympic Cluband are interested in cycling and I know something of the habits of bikers. It is natural to suppose that peo- ple cannot smoke at high pressure like that, but I am sure it has not affected the cigar trade.” J. C. Hiler, 637 Market street: “‘Smoking on a bike is very injurious and very few people are guilty of it. Still I have not noticed that my trade has been affected by the cycling fad.” Sam Dannenbaum, 828 Market street: “There is no doubt in the world but that the wide favor into which the bike has sprung is affecting the cigar trade and not alone the cigar irade but many others. It takes people out of town and away from their ordinary resorts. People who used to spend their afternoons promenading Market street are now to be found in the park and on the country roads. I miss very many who used to be familiar figures, and I attribute their absence to the bicycle habit.” Dan P. Carter, 842 Market street: ‘‘The bicycle makes a great difference in the number of cigars smoked ia this City, but, distributed among all the dealers, no one is affected to any appreciable extent. But the bicycle rider does not smoke as much as the man who travels otherwise. A man buys a cigar especially to smoke on the way if he is taking a trip on a streetcar. The man who drives out with his friends or his family for 2 day will stop at a cigar- store before starting and get a supply of cigars. Not so the cycler. Be don’t want to smoke. His mouth is dry enough as it is from the exercise. He chews gum in- stead. Inoticea great difference in the number of people on Sunday.” Haley & Thorton said: “We have no kick coming from the loss of trade on ac- count of the bicycle. We sell as many cigars as we did six yearsago. We don't see that it has affected our business in any way.” G. M. Garwood, 1200 Market street, corner Golden Gate avenue, although on the line of the bicycle track, declared he saw mno difference in his trade since the in- troduction of the bike. M. Blaskower & Co., corner Kearny and Geary streets: “It may have some effect on the smoking habit, but it is hard to .| done nothing but the housework. tell. I think our same.” sales are about the Gross & Deutch, 5 Kearny street: don’t notice any difference~in the ness.” “We busi- However much the cigar-dealers may disclaim any loss of trade on account of the bike—and in every instance where they did so it was with some sadness of tone, the billiara-table men are frank in confessing that the wheel has encroached very materially upon their business. The manufacturers hear constant complaints of slackening proiits from their customers. They say that young men who formerly spent much money over the tables now find greater enjoyment out of doors on the silent and speedy wheel. As wassaid at the beginning the horse has some stanch friends. The equine steed will die hard if die he must, But livery-stables and harness-makers and carnage-builders feel that he has been losing ground, and the feeling is natural. On the other hand a new cyclery springs into existence every few days, and all of them seem to be do- ing heaps of business. The war ison. A thousand years hence. perhavs, the skele- ton of a horse will be a curiosity in a dime museum. HAPPY BY HIS INDUSTRY. How Alex Gray Avoided the Effects of Hard Times. Alex Gray is the name of one of the most contented workingmen in San Fran- cisco, although he has not had work at his trade for nearly three years. Heisa na- tive of Glasgow, Scotland, and when a boy served his apprenticeship as a marble-cuat- ter, becoming a first-class workman and always drawing the best wages until hard times came. He had saved some money, but it did not last many months when he | had to support a large family. Work at | his trade was out of the question and so Alex Gray, the Kindling Peddler. [Sketched from life by @ * Call” artist.) was any other job when hundreds of men were willing to stand all nightin a line for the chance of earning a dollar a day But Alex did not stand in line, nor did he go to the Associated Charities with a tale of woe. He simply went into busi- ness for himself. Itisa modest venture, to be sure, but it has been enough to keep his family in comparative comfort during the hard times. The best of it is he has had no competitors. His plan was to go about new buildings and along the water front and get all the old lumber he could. This he carried to his home in the rear of a building on Third street, and there cut it into pieces of equal lengths and tied it into neat bundles. It was just the right size for small cookstoves, and by going from house to house he found a ready sale for all he could split at 5 cents a bundle. In less than a month dozens of people came to his place to buy kindling, and he had not the least difficulty in finding new cus;omers every time he went out with a load. In speaking of the matter Alex said: “Of course I didn’t make $3a day, but I didn’t expect to. My children have had their meals regularly, and my wife l‘l‘gs e have been comfortable, and have a little money in case things should suddenly get worse. But I don’t see how they can, and as I have been promised work at my trade in a few weeks I feel most hopeful.” Alex Gray is a man of powerful physique. He can carry a dozen planks many blocks and never get tired. He is happy and cheerful all the time, and says he will never complain of his lot as long as he has the use of his arms and legs. “People always want something,” he says, “‘and if you give them what they want they will pay you for it.” ITS NAME IS NAMELESS, How a Town in Georgia Has Gone Down g in History. J. R. Shepard, a prominent citizen ot Nameless, Laurens County, Ga., was in the city yesterday on business, and while here told a reporter how his town got its queer name. “‘After the Postoffice authorities at ‘Washington decided to give us a post- affice,” said Mr. Shepard, “the question of naming it arose. 1 had interested myself in getting the office, and therefore it was by common consent left to me to suggest &2 name to the authorities. Accordingly I sent on a name that I thought was a beauty, and while awaiting a reply I pictured how some day that same name would be known all over the country, and that the town would grow and blossom as the rose, for I believe there is much in a name. Finally the answer came back that, while the name I had selected was a good one, it was too similar to another postoffice in Georgia. Then I put my brain to work on another name. I just knew they would accep: it, but the same answer came back as before. Still another and other names were sent, and each time the authorities would write back that there was either another postoffice in the State by that name, or that if it was adopted there would be confusion in the mails. **At last I sat down and wrote out a list of several hundred nameg, and told them if they could not find one in the list to suit them the office would remain nameless, for I had suggested every name I had ever heard of. Indue time the answer came back, ‘Let it remain Nameless,” and ever since then it has had tbat name, which, while alittle odd, is not such a bad name after ail Macon Telegraph. NEW DAY.TO- . GASH BUYERS ONLY ABOUT S50 Of the Very Highest Grade * $100 BICYCLES —TO BE SOLD FOR— SO EACE! Judges of such wheels know that_they will go uickly. Such a chance cannot be offered by any deater becanse the price 1s less than his wheels cost at wholesale. ‘The conditions tarowing these NEW TO-DAY. o5 4 / &) WHY ncknowledged as L "’UL\'U and MOST sSUC BECAUSE His reputation has been established by effect- U OF CHRONIC DISEAS N where other physicians of ac- ed ability had failed. FACTS ARE STUBBORN THINGS. Doctor Sweany successfully treats all chronie disenses of the Head, Throat, Lungs, Heart, Stomach, Liver and Kidneys, disorders of the Bladder, Rupture and P ALL PRIVATE DISEASES are permanently cured so that there will be 1o relapse in the future. he distressing ills re- DEBILITY AND unfit_you for ay duties of In order to get cured of t sulting _from 7Ot SEMINAL W NE: marriage, study and th life and make your very e all false ¥ e treatment of this noted sof this character are of an IMPO NG OF THE BRAI im should secu while theré still is tim pe ce in treating wor and and sense to seek Doctor of squandering time and money upon the uncertainties of patent medicines and picayune specialists. THE POOR who call at his office on Friday afternoons are welcome to the Doctor's valu- able services free of charge. WRITE Your troubles if living away from the clf Thousands are cured at home by correspon ence and medicines sent them. Doctor Sweany’s patients will get all the advantages ope, with dili- lical Institutions. proper treatment Doctor Swean h disease of experience and travel in gent study in her best M Letters are NCH, in ENGLISH, F SWEDISH, NORWE i FIAN and DA 3 Office hours—9 A. . to 2to5and 7 10 8p. M. Sunday, 10 .M. 1012 M. Address F. L. SWEANY, M. D., 737 Market Street, Oj Office, San ¥ site Examiner Cal. THE APEX Bicycle Perfection is represented in the Monarch. All @ the bicycle goodness that the best bi- makers know is incorporated s king of wheels. No chronom- eter could be made with more care, or with greater accuracy. Every part of the MONARGH is in perfect harmony with all other parts. So perfect is the distribution of weight, so accurate the adjust- ment of gear, that the Monarch will outspeed, outlast, outrival any wheel on the market to-ds Made io four models, RS0 and §100; For ehil. ok o wadt s lon s o 60 ‘aud 875 Sead fothe Mouarst Baok oo 0 MONARCH CYCLE MFG. 0., ~— 3and b Front Street, SAN FRANCISCO. [ in thi Standard —— We give you the BEST for $20 less” than others de- mand. Thorough methods do the business. We've studied them for your benefit. €ATALOGUE TELLS ALL. INDIANA BICYCLE GO, J. 8. CONWELL, Manager, 18 and 20 McAllister St., S. F. Ll 1836 RAMBLERS 1895 Models Will be Sold for B85.00. COME WHILE THEY LAST. 1896 RAIMDIErS.vseryer veveveseevrensr$100.08 1895 Ramblers....omsvvnneree §5.0( THOS. H. B. VARNEY, 1325 Market st., S. F. 427 S. Spring st., Los Angeles. wheels on the market seldom occur. ‘T'he sale will begin February 25 at our new store, 933 Markes 8t., opposite Mason. Take elevator. WHEELER & WILSON MFG. CO, FOR _TWO VEAR! . 324 POST ST, LATHE WORK ZL:'L.BANGRUF‘I' &