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THE SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C- FRIDAY. MAY 13, 1938 Connecticut Yankee Established America's First Hardware Store Celebration of National Hardware Week Recalls Story of Amasa Goodyear and His Son, Who Later Won Fame as an Inventor but Who Was a Failure in the Business Today Carried on Successfully by Nearly 37,000 Retailers Throughout the United States. © Western Newspaper Union. By ELMO SCOTT WATSON B ACK in 1807 a Connecti cut Yankee named Amasa Goodyear made the first pearl buttons ever produced in this country and a little later branched out in to the manufacture of other kinds. His business grew so rapidly that by 1812 he was supplying the United States government with ail the metal buttons used on the uniforms of its soldiers in our second war with Eng land. From buttons Amasa Goodyear’s Yankee ingenuity led him into other fields of invention and he patented a number of articles, the most important being a hayfork. Goodyear’s next venture was in a new field—that of retailing the articles which he manufactured and in 1827 he opened up in Church alley in the little village of Salem, near Waterbury, Conn., a small store which is believed to be the first hardware store in the United States. Today in this country there are nearly 37,000 hardware stores who trace their “ancestry” back to that little shop in Church alley in Salem village and as they join in the an nual celebration of National Hardware Week, which is being observed from May 9 to 14, it is interesting to trace the development through the last 111 years of this branch of American business. It would be pleasant to record that the pioneer hardware store owner of this country was out standingly successful in his ven ture. But, unfortunately, just the opposite is true. For Amasa Goodyear placed the store in charge of his son, Charles, and although history has written this son down as one of its great in ventors—for he was the Charles Goodyear of India rubber fame— apparently he was not a good business man. At least, it is re corded that the pioneer hardware stores failed because of Charles Goodyear’s speculations in real estate and in January, 1831, it passed into the possession of Cur tis and Hand who were prominent in developing retail hardware stores as outlets for various arti cles of domestic manufacture. The story of Amasa Goodyear’s pioneer venture is an interesting chapter in American economic history. In the colonial days all supplies were brought from Eu rope. But as this country be came more settled and the Eng lish colonies became better es- iiiiiifil This is the typical hardware store of yesteryear with its dark, oily floors, poor lighting, crowded and poorly arranged stock, much of it under glass where the customers are nnable to inspect it closely. facture not only to secure reve nue by taxation but also for pro tection for British manufactur ers. Besides taxing sugar, tea and other necessities consumed by her colonies, England also tried to prohibit them from man ufacturing any commodity which was or could be made in the Mother Country. Depending upon her colonies for raw materials, she required that these materials and the fin ished products be carried in British-built ships, manned by British subjects and that all ex ports and imports of the colo nies be shipped through England where a tax was levied. Thus it will be seen how the develop ment of manufacture in the col onies was retarded and why the American Revolution was quite as much an economic as a politi cal rebellion. With the establishment of American independence, howev er, restrictions upon American inventive genius and expansion were removed. Small home man- Here is a modern hardware store, rearranged and designed by hardware association experts. It has plenty of i'ght, a systematic arrangement of its merchandise, most of which is ont where people can “heft it” before baying. tablished as governmental units, trades were set up to do specific work or make specific commodi ties. The Village Blacksmith The village blacksmith was the foundation of the American man ufacture of hardware. He made the bars and hinges for doors and the early, crude implements for agriculture. With the finding of coal and other minerals in great abundance, manufacture of various items of hardware began on a small scale which became increasingly larger as the years passed. Before long the Mother Coun try was beginning to look upon this development with an un- friandly eye and she began im posing restrictions upon manu- ufacturers grew up to supply the local demand but for years by far the greatest part of the man ufactured goods was still import ed from Europe. Despite the fact that the restrictions upon colonial manufacture had been a factor in bringing about the Revolution, early American manufacturers had little encouragement from the majority of American people who still favored foreign-made goods. Nor was this discrimina tion of short duration. In fact, it lasted almost until the Civil war. When the Berlin and Milan de crees ot Napoleon and the re taliation of the British “Orders of Council” placed a blockade around Europe and reduced neu tral shipping to almost nothing. they forced a new problem upon American manufacturers. Since no goods could be imported from Europe, domestic manufacturers were called upon to meet de mands with which they could not cope with the machines and proc esses then available. Industrial Revolution This marked the advent of the American “industrial revolution” in 1808, which eventually carried the new nation from a negative position to the world’s greatest manufacturing nation and which changed the United States from a purely agricultural to a manu facturing country. As new ma chines were invented, new proc esses worked out and new pro duction methods brought into ac tion, American manufacturing assumed a real magnitude and spread rapidly throughout New England, New York and Pennsyl vania. Coincidentally with the growth of manufacture came the neces sity for retail outlets for the man ufactured products and this brought into existence hardware stores along with other kinds of retail establishments. Although Amasa Goodyear has the distinc tion of being the first to operate a hardware store, he was soon followed by others. One of these was Christopher Hubber (later Casey and Hubber), who started in New York. He was followed by George H. Gray & Co. in 1829 and Hesner & Green in Boston. The articles offered for sale, even by the largest dealers, were limited in number and variety. Among the small articles were Goodyear’s molasses gates, Fenn’s cockstop and leather fau cets, cast bits and screws (not very salable), nails, shoe and side strap hammers, wooden awl han dles, mill, circular and hand saws, Britannia wares, carpen ters’ planes, manure and hay forks, shovels and scythes. All these had not come into use in 1828 or 1830, but American hardware sold by dealers in 1834 included wire screws, coffee mills, andirons, cow bells, scythes, pewter faucets, clothes lines, window cords, hemp and manila rope, brushes, paints, guns, axes, tacks and brads, locks and latches, hammers and hatch ets, glass door knobs, auger bits, lead pencils and buttons. A Great Variety At the beginning of the Nine teenth century, "hardware” chiefly meant mechanics’ tools and builders’ hardware, whereas today it includes so vast a va riety of goods as to make it dififi- cul* to enumerate them. Com prising, as it does, all small arti cles made of metal that are pat ented and used in construction of houses or for household purposes, as well as tools of mechanics’ trades and professional men, it simplifies labor, it economizes the time of the housewife, it cov ers all that could be classed as house-furnishing goods for kitch en and dining room service, the product of the tin shop and of stamped ware manufacturers, as well as tin plate, sheet iron, fence wire, etc. It has within its range also sporting goods, such as guns, ri fles, ammunition, baseball; in fact, goods for all outdoor sports. The recent wave of manufacture of electrical household appliances finds its most efficient distribu tion through hardware channels, and manufacturers of paints, var nishes and agricultural imple ments, with sundry affiliated lines, look to the hardware fra ternity as the best means of reaching the consumer. It is not uncommon for a large hardware house to have in its catalogue nearly 50,000 kinds and sizes of articles. An interesting glimpse of the old-fashioned hardware store is given by D. Fletcher Barber of Boston, former president of the National Retail Hardware asso ciation in these reminiscences: "As I look back over 50 years in the hardware business, I can see many changes, but it is diffi cult to summarize what has tak en place during this period. A half or even a quarter of a cen tury ago stocks were very sim ple in amount of merchandise and limited as to selection. Store equipment was poor and inade quate and while fitted to the lim ited needs of those days, would, be totally unsuited for today’s requirements. Display of hard ware was not given much con sideration, and was so little thought of that shutters were put in nearly all stores at night and over Sunday. Windows were gen erally made up of small panes of glass and in most cases not a plate glass. Windows were not dressed more often than once a month. “The hardware stores in the cities of New England did not sell stoves and kitchenware, al though the country and suburban town stores did. Stoves were given a prominent place, often reaching to the front door. “The city stores imported many of their tools, and the saws that were sold were those manu factured by Spear & Jackson or Groves & Sons. We sold a great many files, also planes, bit braces, carving tools and other fine tools. Cutlery of the better kind was nearly all English made and we can remember the old Jonathan Crooks knives which most boys thought the best made. Razors were nearly all English made, as the German products were sold only as very low priced goods. Table knives were for the most part sold with the fork handle to match the knife han dle, and there was a great va riety of handles and bolsters, which was the finish of the cov ering over the ends of the han dles. The better kinds had real ivory handles and some were sol id silver plated knives, very ex pensive as compared with the present day prices. Plated ware began with a base of brass or inferior metal, which was changed later to nickel or combination of metal which more nearly resem bled silver service. “The shelving showed what would today be considered a very poor appearance, since not many boxes were used. Goods were put up in packages of brown paper, with green labels, and, when opened, had to be tied up, gener ally in a very loose and slipshod manner. I know one of the first things I had to learn was to tie samples on the front of a pack age so that they would stay in shape and not fall out. “The manifest object, of course, was to show what was in the package, and a good deal of time was spent in tying up these packages and putting them back on the shelf in an orderly man ner, which was known to the boys of the store, at least, as “clear ing up.” Generally the goods were left on the counter or around and there had to be a real session of “clearing up” at certain times. "Files were one of the hard things to keep in shape, as the samples had to be tied ‘fore and aft’ and shown on the shelves broadside to. Most of the pres ent day clerks would find it a rather difficult job to tie on a four-inch japanned side pulley on a package of a half dozen or dozen and have it stay in shape. To some extent, after a number of years, wooden boxes were used and, in general, these were covered by pasting green paper over the front and the samples screwed to the front of the box. This was a big improvement over the old method, and some thought the height of perfection had been reached when most of the front stores showed good clean paper fronts. “The effort to display cutlery in show cases has been, and is to some extent even now, depend ent largely upon the experience of the dealer and his disposition toward fine display. They used to be tied upon packages or boxes. Sometimes boxes were made which would hold a full package, having a recessed top for the sample, and sometimes they were fastened to the top by means of clips or strings. Oth er times a sail needle was used with hard twine. In fact, this method with copper wire was used mainly for sampling on shelf boxes.” WHAT TO EAT and WHY ★ ★ ★ ^ 4]Olllton CfOuJ.151 Noted Food * Authority Describes the ACID- and ALKALINE- ASH FOODS and Explains Their Role in Maintaining the ACID-BASE BALANCE of the Body 'fa ^ By C. HOUSTON GOUDISS , • East 8#th Street, New Xerk Citr. A CIDITY is the topic of the hour. On every side we hear > people complaining that they have too much acid in their systems, that they suffer from acid stomach, acid headaches, acid mouth, acidosis. In fact, most adults fancy themselves victims of a great battle between acid and alkaline forces, with the acid having the bet- <$ ter of it. They confuse gastric acidity —which is entirely normal, for the healthy stomach is al ways strongly acid—with the potential acidity of foods which leave an acid residue fol lowing digestion. And many of them are convinced that they should take drastic steps to over come the danger of acidosis. —★— The Vogue oi Acidosis There are fashions in disease, just as in dress, home furnishings . and automobiles. Ten years ago, we heard much about the evils of auto intoxication, and it was some time be fore people realized that they had been misled by the ex treme claims of those who had some sort of rem edy to sell. And now it is acidosis that is the most talked of complaint. Friends cau tion one another against this or that food, with the mistaken idea that it causes or aggravates an acid condition. Food faddists have frightened thousands by suggest ing that acidosis is brought about by mixing various kinds of foods. —★— Health Endangered Indeed, we have come to a point where the fear of a so-called acid condition is assuming proportions which indicate the possibility of real trouble unless the American people get the true facts and put aside these foolish delusions. Physiologists believe that fear and worry have a detrimental ef fect on digestion, and, in turn, on the general health. Thus eating meals in constant fear of acidity may upset the digestion and bring about the very symptoms that you are trying to avoid. One well- known authority contends that perhaps 90 per cent of digestive distress, attributed to the kind or combinations of food eaten, is ac tually due to unfavorable mental or emotional states, and other causes such as over-eating, even when fatigued, or consuming at one meal too many foods that are difficult to digest. It, therefore, becomes apparent that thousands of people are contributing to their own discomfort as a result of fear, ignorance, or a blind belief in mis leading claims which are opposed to scientific facts. Acidosis Uncommon The danger is not from acidosis, but from the fear of this bugbear, and from self medication in the be lief that certain remedies are re quired to overcome a fancied con- H0USEH0LD QUESTIONS Send for This FREE CHART Showing Which Foods Are Acid and Which Alkaline I k NE of the principles in planning v r a balanced diet is to include at least enough alkaline, or base-form ing foods, to balance the acid-form, ing foods. To help you distinguish the foods that belong in each group, C. Hous ton Goudiss offers to send a free chart listing the principal acid-ash and alkaline-ash foods. Address C. Houston Goudiss, 6 East 39th St., New York City. Boil Canned Fruit.—Tinned fruit is greatly improved in flavor if turned out into a saucepan and boiled for one minute. • • • Cleaning the Tub.—A badly- stained enamel bath can be cleaned by being rubbed all over with a cdt lemon. Leave for a short while and then clean in the ordinary way. • • * To Peel Oranges Quickly.—Put them in boiling water for five min utes or so. This will also make them juicier. * * * Proper Heat for Cake.—Angel food cake is apt to be tough if the oven is too hot; 250 degrees Fahrenheit is the proper tempera ture. • • • One Creamed Dish.—In selecting a soup for a meal remember that creamed soups should not be served when there are creamed vegetables or creamed fish to fol low. * * * When Baking Apples, Etc.—Use muffin tins for baking apples, onions, stuffed peppers, etc. They will keep their shape much better. • • • Salt for Lard Shortening.— Many cooks add a small amount of salt when using lard for short ening in pastry and pies. This insures better results and flavor. Hove You a Question? Ask C. Houston Goudiss C. Houston Goudiss has put at the disposal of readers of this news paper all the facilities of his famous Experimental Kitchen Laboratory in New York City. He will gladly answer questions concerning foods, diet, nutrition, and their relation to health. You are also invited to con sult him in matters of personal hygiene. It’s not necessary to write a letter unless you desire, for post card inquiries will receive the same careful attention. Address him at 6 East 39th Street, New York City. dition. For in spite of the large amount of acid produced in me tabolism, the blood normally re mains remarkably constant and slightly alkaline, due to a highly efficient buffer system. Perhaps you wonder, if this is so, why doctors and dietitians talk so much about the acid-base bal ance. —— The Acid-Base Balance To understand this phrase, you must know that every food leaves an ash when burned in the body, just as ashes remain when coal or wood is burned in a furnace. In the body, the ash consists of valu able minerals which are required in large amounts to maintain op timal health. Some foods, such as meat, fish, eggs and cereals, leave an acid ash because the predominating minerals are phosphorus, chlor ine and sulphur. Other foods, chiefly milk and most fruits and vegetables, leave an alkaline ash because the remaining minerals are principally calcium, magne sium, potassium and sodium. These are the base-forming foods. Besides the alkaline ash and acid ash foods, there is a group of foods, including sugar, cornstarch and purified fats, which are so highly refined that no minerals remain after they are burned; and some other foods, such as butter and cream, leave a balance of the two types of ash. These are known as neutral foods. —★— Cannot Trust Your Tongue The sense of taste cannot be re lied upon as a guide in determin ing which foods are acid and which alkaline. For example, ce reals, which are bland to the taste, have an acid reaction fol lowing digestion. Bread, likewise, is acid forming, although you would not suspect that fact from its taste. On the other hand, po tatoes, though somewhat similar to bread in flavor and food value, are one of our most valuable alka-» line foods, and dried lima beans are the most highly alkaline of any food known. If it seems curious that such bland foods should have an acid ash, you may find it even harder to believe that oranges, lemons, grapefruit, peaches and tomatoes, which taste acid in the mouth, leave an alkaline ash following digestion. But the fact is that the body performs a clever bit of chemical engineering and the final effect on the blood is alkaline. —★— Homemaker's Responsibility A balanced diet must include sufficient base-forming foods to neutralise and counter-balance the effects of the acids formed In metabolism. That is one reason why it is so important for the homemaker to provide her family with plenty of milk, fruits and vegetables, in ad dition to the necessary meat, fish, eggs and cereals. In general, one is likely to feel better when base-forming foods predominate, at least slightly, in the diet over acid-forming foods. Some authorities believe that this may be duo not so much to their effect on the acid-base balance as to the fact that they provide such splendid amounts of vitamins, minerals and fiber. However, one must not make the mistake of becoming so enthu siastic over building a highly al kaline diet that one overlooks good foods necessary to round out a balanced diet. To those homemakers who take seriously the important job of feeding a family, and wish to be correctly informed, I shall gladly send a chart showing which foods are alkaline and which acid. It can be used as a helpful guide in planning a balanced diet. Send for this chart and increa your food- knowledge. In the meantime, don’t under any cir cumstances allow misguided indi viduals to frighten you into join ing the vast army of acid-minded people who are so concerned over the possibilities of acidosis that they haven’t time to enjoy life. Mrs. S. T. R.—No, egg whites most certainly are not toxic, ex cept to people who have an al lergy toward this food. For all normal individuals, they offer ah excellent source of protein. Mrs. R. McK.—Generally speak ing, the ideal weight for men and women over thirty is their nor mal weight at the age of thirty. From that time on, the scales should be watched, and the food intake reduced as soon as a gain is noticed. When maturity is reached, food is no longer re quired to support growth, and un less muscular activity is main tained at a high level, the total energy requirement will gradual ly decline. Miss M. V.—Indeed I am not against the eating of fried foods, except in abnormal conditions where, for some reason, the fat in take must be restricted. The mod erate use of fried foods, which have been properly cooked, makes the diet palatable and interesting. e WNU—C. Houston Goudiss—1938—10 “It’s a Hit! ” Say Millions About Pepsodent with IRIUM Irium contained in BOTH Pepeodent Tooth Powder and Pepeodent Tooth Paste tnosns do try Pspsodsnt containing Irium. This new, modernized dentifrice—with the help of remarkable Irium — can gently brash away dingy snrface-staina ...and SAFELY polish your teeth to a da tsling natural brilliance. Contains NO DRUGS, NO GRIT, NO PUMICBt • Far too often dull, masking surface- stains hide the true natural radiance of your teeth. 9 chances out of 10—you’ve tried and tried to remove these unsightly stains... brushing your teeth faithfully morning and night. But have you succeeded? If not,then by all