Michigan Artisan; 1909-03-25

Notes:

Issue of a furniture trade magazine published in Grand Rapids, Mich. It was published twice monthly, beginning in 1880. and / GRAN: ,/RAPIDS Twenty-Ninth Year-No. 18 MARCIl 25. 1909 Semi-Monthly Davenport Beds and Parlor Furniture IFe have the Write tor DESIGNS Catalogues or call and and see us. PRICES. OUt" workma1tship of the very best. Show Rooms 35 to 41 North Capital Ave. Variety to select from the largest. One of OUI' big telling Da.venport Bed•• mission design. I! THOMAS MADDEN, SON & CO., Indianapolis, Ind. I A~lsbrook & Jones Furniture CO. STURGIS, MICH. ASK FOR CATALOG SHOWING THIS SUITE COMPLETE Oak and Mahogany !IIIII "- . 1_0. __ . __ II, r I I ~:_'',~~ -----_._-------------~ I , I "The Better Make" IWE HAVE OVER 400 PIECESIN OUR UNE. Bedroom and Dining Room Furniture -----:SUITES TO MATCH.----- Nelson-Matter Furniture Company GRANDRAPIDS.MICH. !II ,, • • Factory and Salesroom. 37 Canal Street Catalogues to Dealers on Heavy Plate Paper. MICHIGAN ARTISA!\ ~----------------------------------------------- ----------1 !i When in Doubt Where to Buy I , the Best Birdseye Maple Goods I I Hitch Your Wagon I to a Star If a price of $11.25 for a full ser-pentine birdseye dresser, 22x28 platc1 40 inch base, is of interest to you ask us about it, and YOl1 will thank your lucky stars for ,vriting USj for you have never seen a better value. A postal brings our catalog promptly, No. 500 DRESSER. Qtrl. O:lk, Mahogany ann Birdseye Maple. Top 2211:16. Mirror Mx34. III I, ,,III II! Michigan Star Furniture Co. l . ~~_~-~_-~l :~ ~I-----------------------------------------------~-----------------------------------~ II Luce-Redmond Chair Company, Ltd. , BIG RAPIDS, MICHIGAN I IIt ! !I , l Office Chairs, Dining Chairs. Reception Chairs and Rockers. Slipper Rockers. Colonial Parlor Suites. Desk and Dressing Chairs. In Dark and T nna Mahogany. Birch. Bird' <-eye Maple. Quartered Oak and Circa,sian WaInul . ._-------------------- -------- . 2 MICHIGAN ARTISAN [ Sligh's Select Styles Sell and Satisfy MANY NEW FEATURES ADDED FOR SPRING SEASON. I 1,I1 !I~----_._---_._-------- EVERYTHING FOR THE BEDROOM (Medium and Fine Quality). Office and Salesroom corner Prescott and Buchanan Streets, Grand Rapids, Mich. Write for catalogue. We lead in Style, Contlrufuon anel Finish. See our Catalogue. Our line on permanent exhibi-lion 7th Floor, New Manllfact- .. .,.' Buading, c,am! Rapid,. '" ---~- ------... I, M ~!ri~£!!t!e:!.?u?s e I I Hotel PantJind I (European Piau) Rates $1.00 and Up. I The N~~:n~~:~~;,~~~nili:I~~~oc II THE FINEST IN THE WORLD. I J, BOYD PANTLIND. Prop. I I ...- --.-_---.., ".....---------_. ! UNION FURNIIo~~~, £~.!! GED,SPRATT I China Closets 8H~OY~N~:18. Buffets Bookcases II • Manufacturers of Chairs and Rockers. A complete line of Oak Diners with quarter sawed veneer backs and seats. A large line of Elm Diners, medium priced. A select line of Ladies' Rocken. Bent and. high arm Rockers with solid seats, veneer roU seats, cob-blerseats and up-holstered leather cOffij.\rete.. High Chairs and Children's Rockers. rOil 'Will get in 0'11 the ground f1oo't' "When you buy [ram UI. No. 542 Oak, Solid Seat. Price, $1H~~. No. !540~ Same as No. &42 on Iy Ouartered Oak 'Ie-neer Seat. $18 ~:;. i GRAND VUpfLt:' ,l D Iv 29th Year-No. 18. ---=c--=:- --=- --=- .-==-== = = == .=. ----= GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., MARCH 25, 1909. PIANOS SELLING WELL. Higher Priced Grades Went Well, Even Though There Was a Panic. As pianos must uuqnestionably be classed among the luxuries. it ""voud be a vcry natural inference that the piano trade suffered more last year than many others. Yet stich is not the truth. As a matter of fact it did better than some of the trades outside of the luxuries. A peculiar fact about the 1909 trade was that the low priced branch snfferecl more than the high priced branc.h~. the exact reverse of ordinary exper-ience. Perhaps the anSV,lcr to this enigma may be fOUlFI in the fact that the losses to the class of buyers \vhich demand high priced pianos were largely paper losses, while the losses to the \vage earner, the person who buys the low priced piano, were actual money losses, The man or woman \vho was thrO\VIl out of employ-ment by the bad tinlcs could not continuE.' payments on the piano bought on the installment plan_ The re-sult was that thousands of pjanos sold on installment \ve.re throv.nl back on the hands of the dealers and so the low priced branch of the trade suffered more than the high priced branch. Yet for all that, the piano trade fared comparatively well. Another notable feature is the influence of the. piano player On the sales of pianos. It is now gener-ally admitted that this attachment has had the effect of increasing sales. It is estimated that fully twelve per cent of the pianos sold in 1908 had players at-tached. If the season had been normal the percent.age \vonld doubtless have heen higher. @ * @ Museum of Bad Taste. The worhl's first ;'~Iu~eum of Bad Taste" has heen opened in Stuttgart, the capital of \fVurtemberg. It is intended to make it a permanent exhibition of ;";horrihle examples" in the dOIYlainof the liberal arts. It consists for the present of a bev,rildering variety of obj ects representing the most classic departures from the dictates of good taste which the human race has committed, and it "i,vill be added to from time to time, as often as fresh freaks come to the museum's nO-tice. The project originated with Professor Pazau-rek. the director of the Industrial Museum, which has $1.00 per YeM. devoted a special section of its buildings to the pur-pose. The ;'Lad taste" museum is divided into three sep-arate c1epartnlcnts-improper use of materials, offense against construction, ideals, and anomaly in decorative effects. Illustrative of misused materials is shown a col-lection of articles wherein wood, iron, ceramics, and other substances are employed to represent something else than that \vhich they really are. Among the "sins of construction'" is an array of ob-jects 'which are plainly unsuitable for the purpose for V\,chichthey appear to be designed, such as vessels which do not stand firmly and cannot be cleaned, dishes 1-vithgrotesquely cut corners or projections, and absurd contradictions between form and objectl such as thermometers in the shape of riding whips, inkstands shaped like revolvers. etc_ There are long showcases full of "bad form" specimens born of speculating upon patriotic and religiolls sentiments, Among the former is a collection of freak ideas that orrginated in connec-tion with the Zeppelin craze last autumn. Tn the department elevoted to decorative eccentrici-ties the museum contains examples designed to show h1tl11anity its sins in the direction of overdoing and underdoing. IVr tlsetltn curators from all parts of Germany are j0111'neying to Stuttgart to inspect the new museum, l"vhich, it is generally agreed, fills a long-felt practi-cal "ivant. @ * @ Manufacturers of Bowling Alleys and Billiard Tables Suffer from Prohibition. On account of the rapid advance of the movement toward prohibition in the sale of intoxicating liquors, especially in the southern states, the manufacturers of hilliard tables have suffered heavy losses in trade. Hundreds of billiard room Qutfits, purchased on con-tract. have been returned, and the ,varehouses are filled with second-hand goods. Supposing that many of the saloons would be converted into bowling alleys, manufacturers of howling materials stocked up heav-jly and no,....h.a. ve the goods on hand. It is stated that the Brunswick & Balke factory at Muskegon will be operated in the manufacture of bank and office furni-ture hereafter. 4 MICHIGAN ARTISAN INSTALLMENT MERCHANTS ASSAILED. The Legitimacy of Their Methods in Transacting Business Questioned. Marion F. Washburne, a staff writer employed by the Ladies' Home Journal, bitterly arraigns installment mer-chants in the April number of that publication. In the furniture trade the installment business is carried on largely by men of character, although the selfish, the heartless, the grasping and the grafting element has not been eliminated. It has well been said that "all kinds of men are necessary in ppoulating a world" and it is there-fore but ""tural that all kinds of men should engage in the furniture trade. For the purpose of affording legiti-mate dealers an account of the investigations of Mrs. 'Washburne, the following paragraphs were clipped from the Jau mal : As might be expected the price of goods bought in this way is always high and often exorbitant. One author-ity ~stimates that three or four times the actual value is by no means an uncommon figure, although, of course, not the rule. The prices of sewing-machines sold in this way, considering the cost of production, abnormally high, and the price of furniture bought on the installment plan by ignorant, young rnarried people, eager to set up house~ keeping and impatient of the delays entailed by saving up to pay cash, is often twice what the articles are worth. But there are still greater dangers in this method of purchasing. Indeed, unwary buyers on the installment plan, as a rule, do not realize until too late what a seriotls risk they run when they entcr into such agrcements. It is not simply that they are pretty sure to pay far more than the goods are worth, but that, if they fail to pay the installments when due, they lose both the goods and the money they have already paid; or, worse stillJ they lose not only the goods aud the money, but other goods which have been paid for. The lease form of contract used in almost all branches of the installment businessl except when a chattel mort-gage is used, is so good for the seller and so bad for the buyer that intending purchasers would seldom sign it if they understood exactly what it meant. Consequently, canny advertisers fail to mention that a lease has to be signed. Salesmen speak only of Ilsigning the contract"; they are careful not to use the words "lease" or "mort-gage." The trap-clauses, drawn up by the best lawyers the dealers can engage, and so framed as to be strictly within the law, are usually printed in very fine type and are almost never read by the purchaser before signing. The forms of "contracf' differ slightly, of course, in the various cities, but in essentials they are the same. In the form commonly used in New York the purchaser agrees that "when said goods have been fully paid for, according to the terms of this agreement, they shall be-come my property, and not otherwise." In Philadelphia forms, after a similiar clause in favor of the sellerJ there is this additional clause: HAnd the lessee hereby waives and relea,?cs all relid frorn any and all appraisem·ent, stay or exemption laws of any State now in force, or hereafter to be passed"; and it further authorizes an attorney to enter judgment against the "less.ee" Of buyer Hfor the whole amount of the hire unpaid, with costs <:If suit, release of errors, without stay of execution, and with ten per cent. added for collecting fees." In short, the so-called "contract" is nothing more nor less than a lease, by signing which a womensurren-ders all rights under both present and future laws, and in return gets merely rented goods, with no o\vnership rights in them until after the last payment has been made. A very serious statement in regard to the quality of goods furnished by dealers follows. It is worthy of the at-tention of all deale-rs.: Goods thus secured are nearly always undergrade. Often their quality is so inferior that the customer has to get new articles by the time the old ones are paid for. Then, again, such articles as stoves, for instance, are fre-quently sent without necessary castings or other parts; yet the customer is wholly unable to force the dealer to supply these missing parts. Here, for example, is a case in point: A stove costing thirty-nine dollars was bought from an installment firm. When it was delivered it lacked some castings. The purchaser paid regularly, and with each payment sent in a complaint; while the concern, with each receipt, promised to n1ake matters right. This went on until only the last payment of four dollars was due, when the purchaser refused to make it until the castings should be put in. A legal agency which was applied to induced the firm, on threat of publicity, not to remove the stove, as it started to do, and not to insist on the last pay-ment uutil the castings had been delivered. The pur-chaser is still waiting for them, and mean\vhiIe has paid thirty-five dollars for an imperfect stove. Far worse is a case brought before the Legal Protec-tion Committee of the New Century Club of Philadelphia. A woman had bought a piano on the installment planJ signiug a lease-form. After she had paid two hundred and fifty dollars she fell behind in her payments for three months, because her husband was out of work. The com-pany insisted on its right to take back the piano and to keep both the instrument and the two hundred and fifty dollIars. Another instance from Philadelphia illustrates several points already mentioned. The goods purchased by a woman on a lease fell apart in a short time, and the company exchanged them for articles at a higher price upon payment of the difference. The new furniture, how-ever, was also markedly defective, and the customer again complained, holding back one week's payment in the hope of forcing a satisfactory settlement. But when the com-pany had taken back the first consignmcnt of furniture it failed to give her written credit for that exchauge. So when she held back this week's payment all the furniture in her house was taken away. It is not an uncommon thing for certain partial~pay-ment concerns to put all the goods, even when purchased at different times, into one bill and to treat it as one con-tract. At first this arrangement does not look unfair, and few women object to it. But it works out wrong, as the following instance· from Chicago shows: A woman bought furniture costing two hundred and twenty-one ----~---------------------- -- -- MICHIGAN ARTISAN dollars in April. The next October she hought <L parlo:" stove for thirty-one dollars from the same firm. She paid for the furniture in full, but was rcrniss in settling for the stove after having paid two hundred and twenty-four dol-lars on the \I\,rholeaccount. The furniture house thert::up-on took a\vay both the st<Jve and the furniture, and against this inju~tiC',e she hall no r-eelress. Again: In a bill of goods bought on time-payments by a woman jn the same city were twenty-five dollars worth of carpets and a stove. She paid tvventy-five dollar s dO\,,'D and ordered the carpets and stove sent at once. Tl~e cu-pets came, but not the stove. It ,vas mi<hvi'.-,tel' and she was going to fit and lay the carpets herseJ-i, ~o ;;he "',;as urgent about the stove; still it \vas not :3ent. For tour days she and an assistant sewed on th.: o::arpds in the cold flat, and still th,~ installment people kept promising the stove. Then she said if it did not come the iifth ·l~lYshe would buy her goods else,vhere, It did not come, and she went to another firm and made a good bargain. \Vhen the first people she had dealt \vith sa\v the \vagon:.; (Jf the second firm bef01-e her door they sent in haste, tore up the carpets she had made and laid with such difficulity and had paid for in full, and took them of[, Neither had she, in the opinion of her la,vycr, any legal redress. Even when a \voman has no intention of buying any-thing on the installment plan she is not infreqliently trapped into signing a "contract." For il1stance; A wo-rnall goes into a store intending to boy a bed. She has the money ready to pay for it. but the suave clerk assures her that she can buy a bed much more cheaply if she will take the 'whole set. She can pay down the money she has and send in the rest at her conveniencc. It sounds tempt-ing, and she does Volantthe set badly. So she. yiel<..1s, and pays her money clown for a first payment. Then-and only then-does she find that she has to sign a "contract." OftelJ she is given no time to read the paper, but is hur-ried into signing it. Occasionally, jf she \vill not be bul-lied, she is smoothly assured that the paper is only a form which is never enforced. If she is still firm she finds out that she must sign or lose the money she has paid. Among the various other dangers of this kind is this one, rcported from Philadelphia. An agent of a certain company called with a useful appliance at the store of a poor \voman. She needed the instrument, but, as it \va.s too expensive for her to buy, she refused to consider his terms. lIe then asked her to let him leave it \·vith her for a ten days' trial, and said he would send for it at his own expense. She at last consented and signed what he called a "receipt.!.' It looked like one~ but \~'as in reality a contract sale. \\Then the case 'was tried she had no de-fense, as the document \vas never read by the owner, and the terms cOllld not be altered by the facts of the case. Still another drawback to buying goods on the install-ment plan is that you cannot safely move \vithol1t first obtaining the pennission of the concern from vvhich you have bought the goods, and these firms sometimes refuse their consent to a change of· residence because it makes their collections harder, and every move, of course, mean.'> a change of address in their books. Think of the diffi-culties and inconveniences of such a 5ituation! Imagine having to stay ill a house or a neighborhood you do llot like because the firm from which you have ~'bought'J your furniture refuses to give you permission to move! A Western Legal Aid Society had a peculiarly sad case of this kind brought to its notice. One of its clients \vas the hunest, hard~,vorking wife of an ex-cDl1vict. Af-ter his release he waS honest for ten years. Then he gave way to temptation and was sentenced to a year in prison. They had secured some furniture on the installment plan, and the wife 11mv went to the furniture honse, explained the situation, and got permission to move to a neighbor-hood where her sad story \~'as not known. H·er plan was to take rcmners and so support herself until her husband was again free. But the furniture people, \vho at first cOBsented, later changed their minus on the ground that their security was endangered, took her furniture away from her, and practically turned her out into the street. The Legal Aid Society could obtain no redress for her. Of course, efforts have been made in various ways to remedy the evils of this vicious system of doing business. The chief forces now engag-ec1 in fighting the iniquity are the Legal Aid Societies, Protective Associations, Em-ergency Aiels, aml other philanthropic organizations for the help of the poor. They all do the hest they can, but they are pessimistic as regards the effecti.veness of legal remedies. M.issouri has lnade~ perhaps, the greatest ad-vance in trying tu regulate this fDrm of buying and selling by adopting a .statue providing that) in case a seller of goods on the installment plan takcs back the goods, he must pay to the buyer the amounts which the latter has paid him, less a reasonable rental for the time he has had the goods, which in no case shall exceed twenty-five per cent. of the amount paid. In fact, as might be supposed, he always collects the full twenty-five pec cenl. But as the la\\' applies only to cases in vvhich the ownership of the goods remains \vith the seller until the full purchase price is paid the installment dealers usually get around the statute in this perfectly leg-al way: they sell their goods outright and then take a mortgage on then1 for the amount due; then, when the buyer fails to pay, the mort-gage is foreclosed and the goods are seized and taken off. The intricacies of the mortgage form of payment for goods bought on the installment plan are greater even than those uf the lease form. Then, too, most dealers who sell goods on the mortgage plan charge an exorbitant interest, and the laws of most States permit the impo-sition. In Illinois ten per cent. a month-one hundred and t\'>'enty per c.ent. a year !~is often asked, In I.\1issouri however, the lender of money on a chattel mortage can-not charge more than one per cent. a month; if he does so he i.s liable to criminat prosecution. The partial-pay-ment concerns in that State, hO\.vever, usually get around this point by charging twenty-five dollars for goods that are really worth only fifteen dollars. The installment plan of buying goods~ in brief, is a far reaching evH; it bears heavlly on the poor and the people of only moderate mea~sJ the wage or salary earn-ers and the small business people, and it entraps the yOllng at the very beginning of their married life into a (Continued on page 13.) 6 MICHIGAN ARTISAN Modern Undertaking. Modern methods of undertaking caU for the high-est possible skill in embalming and arranging every detail of burial. From the old methods of placing a body on ice, with its attendant unsanitary conditions, the under-taker has reached a high point of perfection in embalm-ing, but not content with the advanced methods exper- Co-Operative Buying Practical. The executive committee of the Minnesota associa-tion of retailers, several months ago, decided to test the value of co-operative buying. The movement received the hearty support of members of the association and the sum of $7,000 was invested in staples. By plac-ing large cash orders the sum of $1,200 was saved. The association will prosecute the plan vigorously, Made by LUC6~Redmond Chair 00., Big Rapids, Mich. iments are BOW under way which will, it is contended, make it unnecessary evep to make any incision in a body when the embalming process is being performed. One of the most advanced undertakers says it win l:e possible to embalm by placing the body in au air tight chamber and by subjecting it to a pressure of the gases of certain embalming materials to perform the work which now is done by injecting fluids into the veins. purchasing only such goods as the mail order houses handle. It has been shown that co-operative buying enables the retailer to compete sllccessfully with the mail order houses. @ * @ Gimbel Brothers, the great merchants of Philadel-phia, will establish a store in New York. A building 200 x 400 feet in size and thirteen stories high will be erected for their use. ,I I CHI G A N Selfridge's. American Department Store in London. /\.t last a modern department store has been opened in London by H. G. Selfridge, a fonner Chicagoan. The event ,vas celebrated On 1·Iarch 15, vvhen 200,000 people thronged the store and expressed their snrprise and delight at the beautiful and complete arrange- Made by Star Furniture Co., Zeeland, Mich. mellts. For the first ti me the other large stores used advertisements in the llnvspapcrs illustrated by signetl dravlLngs of \Nell knmvn artists of the Punch staff. ~\lr. Sefridge received many cablegrams from Chicago friends wishing him Success. The store is of eight stories and has three stories below the street. Xo skyscrapers arc allowed to be constructed in London. In an interview :.\Jr. Selfridge said: "1 think we have had a successful opening. Please tell my former fellow merchants in the United States of America, and especially those in eh icago, how pleased I have been to get their congratulatory telegrams. I hope to sho\v London "\vhat the genuinely modern store ought to be. I a111 here in the center of a population of twelve mil-lions of people and arn sure there is room and business enough for us all. 1 intend to do business strictly on English lines. I am not trying to Americanize the trade here." There is onl.v one picture in Selfridge!s office; that is a big portrait of l\Tarshall' Fie1d. The chief point in Selfridge's a:1vertising is the dig-nity and lllocleratiorl of his statement. Selfridge's bus-iness lnaxims, reiterated in every advertisement, are dignity, courtesy, energy, integrity, originality, liher- ARTISAN 7 ality and value. Here is a characteristic paragraph frorn his advertisement: "Here the charm of newness is to be experienced to the full, for at Selfridge's everything is new except the splendid old, time-tried principles that must govern it -integrity, sincerity, liberality in dealing and courte-ous service .." Harrod's store, Selfridge's chiefest rival, discovered that it ,vas entitled to a diamond jubilee and advertised it heavily that day in order to offset Selfridge's open-ing. London, howeverl packed Selfridge's to the doors .. @ * @ The Best They Have Issued. In ] annary the :Ylanistee (Mich.) Manufacturiug Company brought out a new line of sideboards, buffets, (!rt':S,"cTS, princess dressers, chiffoniers, commodes and hachelors' "\\'ardrobcs. for the spring trade of 1909, that was very mLtch better than anything they had ever at-tempted hitherto, and their sales in Chicago showed that their efforts were appreciated. Their new 80- page catalogue is also the best they have ever issued. In it are illustrated t"\vcnty-fouf sideboards, eleven buf-fets, fifteen chiffoniers, four bachclorsl wardrobesl four princess dressers, fourteen dressers, three combination dressers and three commodes. These goods are made in p1a-in and selected Cjllartercc1 oak, finished goldeIll weathered and early English, ancI the construction and finish is solid and satisfactory. 'The catalogue is a handy reference book for the up-to-date furniture mer-chant. @ * @ For Sale at Once. The best paying complete House Furnishing business in Michigan. Old established, good prices, a gold mine for a hustler. Address "Bargain," care }1ichigan Artisan. Nov. 25th-tt . -------------------. i We Manufacture the Largest Line of in the Uniled States, ~uitahle for S \l n day Schools, Halls, Sream-era and all public resorts. We also manufacture Brass Trimmed I r 0 n Beds, Spring Beds, Cots and Cribs in a. large variety. S~nd for Calalogu~ and Prien to KAUffMAN MfG. CO. ASHLAND, OHIO • -----------------~ 8 MICHIGAN ARTISAN On short notice we can fill orders for large or small assorted lots of Big Six Association goods. Q!lick deliveries and low rates of freight guaranteed. Our goods are the best of their class. A trial order will prove the truth of this statement. The Big Six Manufacturers of Evansville possess unequaled facilities for ship-ping goods promptly. All have sidings in or adjoining their factories and cars can be dispatched direct over the great railroad systems of the East, South and West. Upon the receipt of a request from any responsible dealer, catalogues illustrat-ing, pricing and describing the Q!lick Selling Lines of the Big Six Car Loading Asso-ciation will be forwarded. THE KARGES fURNITURE CO. Manufacturers of Chamber Suites. Wardrobes. Chiffoniers, Odd Dress~rs, Chifforohes. THE BOSSE FURNITURE CO. Manufacturers of Kitchen Cabinets, K. D. Wardrobes. Cupboards and Safes, in imitation golden oak. plain oak and quartc:red oak. THE WORLD FURNITURE CO, Manufacturers of Mantel and Upright Folding Beds, BuJfers, Hall Trees, China Closets, Combination Book and Library Cases. THE GLOBE FURNITURE CO. Manufacturers of Sideboards in plain oak, imitation quartered oak and solid I quartered oak. Chamber Suites, Odd Dressers, Beds and Chiffoniers in imitation quartered oak. imitation mahogany and imitation golden oak. THE BOCKSTEGE FURNITURE CO. Manufacturers of the "Superior" Line of Parlor, Library, Dining and Dressing Tables. THE METAL FURNITURE CO. Manufacturers of ·.·Hygiene" Guaranteed Bralls and Iron Beds, Cribs, Wire Springs and Cots. ~----_._-------- Made by The Karg~s Furniture Co. II ! __ • .1. _ •• .1) MICHIGAN ARTISAN I II Made by Gloll~ Furniture Co . .. . ..l Made hy Bosse f'urniture Co. Made by Bockslege Furniture Co. Made by The Bockstege Furniture Co. I!I IIII ,,II I II II 10 MICHIGAN ARTISAN EVANSVILLE EVANSVILLE, IKD., March 23.-!vIanufacturers say that business conditions are fairly satisfactory. Orders arc liberal and most of the factories are funning on a better schedule of time. Appraisers F. E. Becker, F. L. Stoltz and H. H. Schu have reported on the assets of the. bankrupt Standard Chair Company. The schedule shows stock valued at $5,699.73, saw mill at $12,002.70, machinery, $3,883.50, accounts, $2,162.28; total $28,748.21. Fifty-five claims have, thus far, been proven. The liabilities far exceed the known assets. The Furniture :1ianufacturers' Association held a meeting recently at the E. B. A. hall. The new presi-dent, Eli D. 1\Iiller, made an address outlining the work that would probably come before the association. It was voted that the new home of the association be established in the Furniture Exchange building. A spacious room has been set aside on the first floor for this purpose. A committee was appointed to submit plans for the furnishing of these rOoms. They are to be nicely fitted out for meeting and entertainment pur-poses. They will be kept open all the time for visiting buyers and manufacturers. It was also unanimously voted to broaden the use-fulness of the association by admitting members from the furniture supply houses and the stove manufactur-ers. Assurance ha-s already been given to the directors of the association that the next annual meeting of the Retail Furniture Dealers of the United States will be held here during June, 1910. The directors of the Exchange reported that they expect the building to be ready to receive samples of furniture on and a.Her April 1, and' beieve they will have the opening of the building not later than April 15. The standard committees were appointed by the president, and a banner year is looked for in the asso-ciation's work. They hope, by extensive advertising in all trade papers, to build up for Evansville the largest furniture industry in anyone city of the nation. Edward Ploeger of the Bosse Furniture Company states that business is running along nicely. He looks for a good spring trade. Their factory is running on full time. The Henderson Desk Company are erect-ing a new warehouse. :!\tfr. Ploeger is also interested in this concern. Benjamin Bosse of the Globe Furniture Company, in speaking of business conditions, said that he was very well satisfied, and that all the factories in which he was interested were running on full time. Mr. E. A. Schor of the Karges Fnrniture Company states that orders are coming in very well, and that trade with Mexico, which dropped off during the panic, is now picking up again. They are sending out their 1909 catalogue. Charles Friose of tbe ~World Furniture Company said that business is iniproving, and that his company is getting a nice share of the orders from ~ocal terri-tory. The Bockstege Furniture Company report business fair. Orders are not coming in quite as fast as they might, but the factory is running on full time, sixty hours. Eli D. Miller of the Eli D. Miller Folding Bed Company states that business is getting better. lIe thinks it will increase right along, and that by the first of the month business conditions will be very much ilJlprn\,ed. IiGus" Nonweiler of the Evansville Furniture Com-pany says that trade is improving and that prospects for the coming spring are fair. They have been run-ning their factory eight hours a Jay, but are now run-ning nine. The Evansville NIetal Bed Company, the Buehner Chair Company, and the Evansville Desk Company all gave good reports. Messrs. C. E. Booth of Austin, Texas, and 1. A. Terrell of Dallas, Texas, visited in the city. Every piece of furniture manufactured by the fac-tories of the Big Six Carloading Association earns a snbstantial profit for the retailer. vVhy? The goods meet the requirements and satisfy the tastes of busi-nesS men, mechanics, farmers and laboring men, all classes with whom the retailer finds it profitable to deal. Keep tbis fact in mind and attend the Evans-ville furniture exposition in April. @ * @ Heavy Losses by Theft. I'Department stores suffer heavy loss by theft every year," said a man on the detective staff of a large local store. "For this reaSOn the management is ,continu-ally spending large amounts to check this leakage, which seems to spring from every possible source. The detective staff has to be changed or modified every few months for several reasons. For one thing, the pro-fessional shoplifter who carries away in concealment every <lay considerable quantities of goods learns to spy out a detective very quickly. For another thing, the petty pilferer who steals because she wants more than she can afford, or the genuine kleptomaniac, are all equally clever in spotting a detective. Then, again, there is the dishonest em-ploye. The clerks naturally 500n learn the store de-tectives. Of course, the examinations are conducted as much as a measure of protection for the honest em-ploye as to discover the dishonest, and ther'e ate sel-dom any objections to this necessary system; but we are looking for new ideas and improved methods all the time, for the quantity of goods that passes unpaid for out of a store in the course of a year is almost un-believable."- Philadelphia Record. ~----------- ~IICHIGAN ARTISAN 11 -----.-------.--------""1 IF IT'S THE BEST REFRIGERATOR IT'S AN ALASKA Over 850,000 Alaska refrigerators sold since 181('8. Desirable features of an Alaska Refrigerator: Small consumption of ice. Maximum amount of cold, dry air. Absolutely sanitary provision chamber. Simplicity of operation. Perfect preservation of food. We sell to dealers only. WRITE FOR CATALOG. The Alaska Refrigerator Company Exclusi've Refrigerator .LVaInu!acturers, MUSKEGO:--r, MICHIGAN. L. E. MaoD. New York Manager, 35 Warren St .• New York City . ____ .J • Grand Rapids and New York the "Greatest." "l'\cwYork is the greatest furniture market in the country and Grand Rapids (1fich.) the greatest manu-facturing center," declared the Kew York Sun recent-ly. ilJamestowll is a close second to Grand Rapids and a great deal of manufacturing is done in Chicago.-" Continuing, the Sun said: "'T'hree furniture exposi-tions are held during the year. The first and most notable, at Grand Rapids, opens on January 2. This is of so much importance to the trade that a large party of New York and eastern buyers ,vent to it from the metropolis this year in a special Pullman car. "The second is held at Chicago immedately after the close of the Grand Rapids exposition. The third is opened in this city about the middle of January. "The main ohject of these expositions is to present the new styles prepared for the market. It has been stated that ISO carloads, comprising 15JOOO pieces, were shown this year at C;rand Rapids. "The season opened in marked contrast \"olith last season. Last year many factories had shut do\vn and those vvhich kept running ha(l generally reduced their working force so that thousands of \vorkmen had been thro\vl1 out of employment. YVith the opening of this year the reverse was the case. The factories ,vere all running 011 full time in view of the known fact that stocks in the hands of dealers were unusually low. "The large attendance of eastern buyers at the Grand Rapids exposition was regarded a~ an early justification of the manufacturers' hopeful anticipa-tions, and consequently there was a prevailing feeling of encouragement. The manufacturers had their samples ready in ample time for the exposition, and it was admitted they had clone justice to the ideas of the designers, "The feeling in ~ew York as to the future is fairly expressed by the following utterance of a recognized authority in the trade: IThis season is likely to prove a satisfactory one to the manufacturers generally, to all who can give dollar for dollar in strong selling val-u, es. The fact that buying is now being done on a steady, and even strong, market, will make for the benefit of the trade as well. Indeed there are instances as in the case of rnirror plates, ,<\!here an advance has taken place.' 'J ~,everal statements contained in the above are inac-curate as follo\v5: lilt is admitted that the manufac-turers had clone justice to the ideas of the designers," Made by the Star Furniture Co., Zeeland, Mich. CorrectedJ the statement would readJ I'the designers had done justice to the ideas of the manufacturers.JJ Six, instead of threeJ expositions are held annually in the trade centers mentioned. Fifteen thousand pieces would scarcely represent the lines manufactured in Grand Rapids, not to men-tton the out-of-to\vl1 lines. Chicago outranks Jamestown in the quantity of goods produced. 12 ~I I CHI G A K ART I S A l\ L IvlICHIGAI\ INSTALLMENT MERCHANTS ASSAILED. (Continued from page 5.) mistake which goes far to destroy their faith in the integ-rity of business methods. Sometimes, too, in ignorantly trying to extricate themselves from the difficulties in which they find they have become involv'ccl, they plunge into yet greater trouble by going to a chattel mortgage man and getting a loan on the goods with \vhich to pay off the merchant. They generally have to pay this lender ten per cent. a month for the loan, thus rnaking a bad lnatter worse. \Vhen they are thus entangled, generally beyond extrication. they turn at last to the Emergency Aid or other philanthropic organization or relief. Some-times, especially in 1fissouri, help is given by having- the mortgage transferred to a member of the society appealed to, and a~ she is ahvays a person of standing- in the C0111- flwnit:r the tirnc-payment people know it is to their inter-est to settle all a,,; equitable terms as possible. As might have been expected the author otters a remedy for the evils depicted. "Have nothing to do \vitlt such a business. Sensible people shou1d refuse to deal in any way with the partial payment houses," rn the follmv-ing sentences the \1I;'riter expresses the opinion that no harm could foHm\' deals with the installment houses, pro-vided no contracts were signed. "There arc times \\'hell even the most sensible of women want cnxlit, and have a rig-ht to it. All stores of any standing sell on time pay-ments, bnt they do not as a rule, reqni re the signing of any "contract." ]'11ey sdl the goods outrig·bt on a recog-nized credit basis. If, then, yon need soniC goods at onct', an(\ yet havc no money in hand to pay for thelll, go to the lilerchant in your neighborhood, the onc \vha knows you best or who can find out about you most readily, state )iOltr case frank-ly, and ask him to let you have the goods on \veekly or monthly payments. Do not shrink fro111 answering any questions he may ask you in order to scttle the question of your responsibility. This information is his justiftca-tion as a business man for undertaking the risk. Do not be misled if his price is higher than those 1'011 have seen advertised. It probably is not higher, considering the quality of his goods; but even if it is it is much better for Y011 to pay that increased price than to run the risks in-volvecl in buying from a professed installment house. This dealer will not come and take the goods a\va:y from you after you have paid all but a fe\'i7dollars on them, If you buy other goods frolli him anel fall back temporarily in your payments he cannot invade your house and seize all the goods he has sold to you, \vhcther 1ul1y paid for or lIot. Neither tan he compel you to stay on in a house you no longer wish to live in. In short, if you treat him fairly and honestly he will treat Y011 equally ,·vell; and that cer-tainly is worth paying for." One million and four hundred thousand copies of the Journal containing the above article have been distributed eluring the current month, and the same has been, or \vill be read, by three million wome11. \·Vhat the women read they discuss among themselves and if their conclusions in regard to the contract plan of purchasing- household goods shall be unfavorable, the business will be more or ARTISAN 1·, " less affected. Leg-itimate installment retailers need no de-fense; it remains for the illegitimate to reform their methods or go into the mail order business. @ * @ Wire Much Used in Furniture. The \'lire trade is separated into two relatively well marked divisions--steel wire and copper \-vire. The steel \"ire trade is much greater in volume, but meas-ured by money the copper traclc probably ,"vill not fall far behind. Broadly speaking, the uses are as differ- Made by Manistee Manufacturing Co., Manistee, Mich. ent as the material, hut at some points they meet in the same employment, as for example in telephone and telegraph equipment. Copper \'lire is userl almost ex-clusively in electrical equipment, v'vhile steel wire is an important factor in a great many indtlstries. One of its most conspicuous uses is in the manufac-ture of cables for bridge construction, hut the num-her of tons consumecl annually for that purpose would ~e lost in comparison with the tons required by the manufacturing trade for buildings and ordinary house-hold furnishings. Steel wire serves may purposes never suspected by persons outside of the trade. There is not a hinge and hardly a butt on a door of which it does not form a component part. Every nail driven nowadays and every spring is furnished by the wire trade,. A great many of the most essential household artIcles could not he lnanufactured without the aid of wire. •, •• I II h . MICHIGAN ARTISAN Mad, by NELSON MAlTER FURNITURE CO. GRAND RAPIDS. MICH. • !III • MICHIGAN ARTISAN 15 Short History of American Art. \Ve should all be familiar with the history of onr own country. This is just as true of art as of other matters. The fact that vve are short on old masters and long on chromos should make no difference in our reverent appreciation of our own ideal. Draw near, therefore, litte children, that you may becoIne cultured and educated. The first evidence of art in 0111" dear country is dis-covere( l in the rude dv,'cllings of our forefathers. 'J'h:s is ",,,hat might he callcel the XC\V England Church per- Made by the Karges Furniture Co., Evansville, Ind. iod. By some it is called the Colonial. ]'his period has found .its culmination in the arrang-emcnt of the New England back pattor. One the one side is the glass case, filled with specimens of flora and fauna, and On the other side, on the \vhite marble table, importcel at great expensc from the mother country, is the fam-ly autograph album. L~nderneath is the rag carpet. and ovcrhead is the bluc ceiling. rrhis v..ras high art in the Colonial period. The next period is the Paternal Of I\Iotto periocl, a ~ort of rombination of father-of-his-country chromo." and God l\less Our I-lome. :\0 home ,vas considered to be a true center of art in its highest phase that did not have a picture of George \Vashington crossing the Delaware in the front hall, and a ·worsted motto, worked v'lith loving care by the 10-year-old feminine prodigy of the family, hung up in the front room. 1'his period held undisputed sway for nearly half a century and even novv its influence may be seen. The next was the gas house period, or the period \vhen panoramas of the battle of Gettysburg were dis-played in every important center, and no child was considered properly educated unless he had had the principal points in the battlefield pointed out by a vet-eran of the late war, who was dravving a pension and getting a rake-off on the gate receipts at the same time. \\ie then began to have so many periods that it is (l1fficult iu:.- the earnest student to differentiate among all of them. \Ve shall, however, do the best we can. \Vhen vve have begun to get a respectablc collec-tion of herocs together it was inevitable that statues should be erected to their blessed memories. This was accordingly clone, with the result that now no park tS complete without the counterfeit presenments of most of the politicians of the past, and a few of those whom we really love, all done into brass or an alloy by \'vorkmcll who didn't belong to a unio11. 1'hese statucs arc most of them imperishable. \\l e couldn't get rid of them if we wanted to. Thev are here to stay. Nature may protest, and the wind and rain do their best, but they are manufactured of too stern stuff. At the same timc that this was happening our arch-itecture ,vas beginning to look np. Now it is on such a high plane that our principal buildings are mostly capped with snow. And so far as oil paintings are concerned, we have them to burn-only we do not burn them. \\That is now termed the modern period of Ameri-can art is one in which the department store vies with the paint factories to produce the greatest amount of color in the smallest space. Culture clubs throughout the country are giving talks about old masters, illus-trated with moving pictures; a collector is doing his best to keep the old masters all out of the country by storing them in England until the tariff is lowered; magazines are reproducing our principal actresses in a glorious Renaissance of halftones; frames were never so cheap, and cozy corners were never so uncomfort-ablo. On the whole, art is booming. \iI1ith a kodak in one hand and a blowpipe in the other we can reproduce almost everything that nature gives out, from a red, \vhite and hlue landscape to \~rall street water coIor.- Kc\v York Times. @ * @ Will Furnish the Blackstone. The Nelson-1\'Iatter Furniture Company of Grand Rapids \ivill fUfnish the furniture for the bedrooms con-tained in the new Hotel Blackstone, now under COll-struction in Chicago. The contract calls for suites amounting in value to $100,000. The Blackstone will be a mammoth) modern house. costing $1,500,000, and the furnishings $750,000. @ * @ Bulman Will Help Duncan. Frank R. Bulman has been engaged by the Dutlcan- Schell Company of Keokuk, Iowa, to assist Mr. Dun-can in buying stock for the firm. 16 :.1ICHIGAN ARTISAN !:STABLISHI!.O 1880 "UBI.ISHI!D BY MiCHIGAN ARTISAN CO. ON THE IOnt AND 25TH OF EACH MONTH OFFICE-l08.no, 112 NORTH DIVISION ST•• GRAND RAPIDS. MICH. EI'ITE.RiHI IN THE PDSTOFFICE AT llR"ND RAPIDS, MICH., AS 8ECOND (:I.AU MATTER. A letter from Evansville states that the Ju!y meet-ing of the National Association of Retail Furniture Dcalers will probably be held in that city, and it seems fair to suppose that Chicago has given consent to the change. During the past five years Chicago has claimed the association for its own, and in permitting the association to hold a convention in Evansville, the big city evidences tender regard for the thriving town founded by Dob Evans 011 the Ohio one-half a century and perhaps more ago. Evansville is well located geographically and it has the conveniences necessary to accommodate and' entertain a large crowd. The new furniture exchange and the thirty factories in op-eration in that city will prove of more than common in-terest to dealers attending the convention. The state of Indiana is largely repr,esented in the membership of the association, and the ever busy Hoosiers will appre-ciate the change to Ohio river water after so many years of experiment with the mystifying fluid pumped out of Lake Michigan. It is understood that Evans-villc has given a bond to return the association in good order to Chicago, and to guard it especially against the danger growing out of 1\I1ike~{ulvihill's desire to make St. Louis the future abode of the association. + + \Nhen J. B. Howard of the Graud Rapids Chair Company returned from St. Louis recently, a friend asked: "How did you find the Annhyserbooshvill-ians, Jim?" "Kicking," the salesman replied. An instant's reflection supplies the explanation. vVhy should not kicking prevail in St. Louis? That city is he most important mule market in world. + + A Norwegian boast,;'i of having invented a patented process for coloring woods. "\Vhole stcms of green trees arc colored; the sap is pressed out of the stem by force and the dye injected in its place. It is claimed that wood treated by this process is much more dur-able than ordinary wood and will not warp;" The process may be new, but the result is of no more value than the green stains of 1880. + + The basis of style should be utility, determined in accordance with one's occupation or habits; then form should he designed, embracing certain general charac-teristics which could gradually be developed along the lines of individual taste. The style of last year is the anomally of this in certain branches of the furniture trade. To put a fine point upon a business proposition it is not necessary to sharpetfa pencil upon a buzz planer. A young man living in Grand Rapids tried to do so recently. The attending surgeon dressed the remains of two fingers. + + Intelligent composition is permissable in the fur-niture trade, but when a cabinet maker places Louis XV. chair backs on Roman stools it is time to ring the fire alarm bells and call out the police reserves. + + A statue of the Venus of Milo with a clock imbed-ded in her stomach is one of the freaky things seen in a jewelry store. + + Discontinued the Manufacture of Furniture and Ac-quired Millions. In the year lBRO Seneca B. Anderson engagecI in the manufacture of bedsteads in a small way in a small town in southwestern l\Iichigan. The tracks of a forty mile line of railway were stretched through the village, and whenever the ,engineer did not forget to stop, persons desiring to enter or leave the cars at Berlamont were permitted to do so. If such persons were in a hurry they walked to Grand Junction, three miles distant, a point where all trains from the four quarters of Van Buren county were compelled by la''''' to pause if but for a moment. Mr. Andcrson had an advantage in the prose-cution of his industry~ in a tract of choice hardwood ti111- ber~ and the disposition of the yeomanry of the section to accept modest wages for their services, aided in the ,win-ning of a fair measure of success. The shipping facilities of the Kalamazoo & South Haven railroad were none too good. Occasionally one of the three freight cars owned by the corporation would go astray and in that event Mr. Anderson was obligl1cd to carry his Ol1tput of bedsteads to G·rand Junction on a wagon. After several years of operation, good fortune visited 11r. Anderson. His factory was destroyed by fire late one dark night and relieved him of the burden of his investment. His pockets were emptied, after paying his bills, but ::V1r.Anderson, freed of harrassing burdens, sought for fresh fields for exploitation. Endm~red by nature with a good constitu-tion, tact, energy, "gumption" and sagacity by inheritance and acquirement, IVlr. Anderson became an explorer of the woodlands of Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky and in a few years his knowledge and ability were found to be so valuable by investors that he found full employment for his energies. Locating at ~lemphis he engaged in the manufacture of hardwood lumber and veneers, dealing mainly in gUl11 and cotton wood. A great factory is operated under the name of the Anderson-Tully company, and the owners are rated as multimillionaires by the agencies. :Y1r.Anderson has not forgotten his ex-periences at little old Berlamont, although the place is no longer written on the maps~ and a dear old mother, living at South Haven~ where Mr. Anderson was born, frequent-ly calls the rich, hustling lumberman to the hearth side. A dutyfu! son, he never fails to respond. MICHIGAN ARTISAN Furniture in Europe Seen Through American Eyes. l\'1iner S. Keeler, president of the Keeler Brass Com~ pany, has returned from a short trip to Europe, made in company "vith \Vil1iam H, Gay, president of the Berkey & Gay Furniture Company, A. \!I/. Hampe, president ot the Royal Furniture Company, and A. 1iargantin, de-signer for the Berkey & Gay -Furniture Company. The purpose of their trip was the study of furniture in London, Liverpool, Paris, Ant,,'verp, The l-lagllc and Amsterdam. Four weeks wefe pleasantly spent in the cities named. Mr. Keeler was more especially inter-ested in the t-rimmil1gs used on furniture rather than the finishc(l article. The party visited many museums and art galleries in the cities of continental -Europe and inspected the exhibits. l\'fr. Keeler, in conver-sation with a representative of the Artisan, stated that the French cabinet makers adhere closely to the per-iod styles, which they produce in beautiful forms. Only brass trimmings are used. L'Art Nouveau, which Iud its inception in France a few years ago, and flol1rishecl for a short time, is not used by the French cabinet makers of the present. l\.{uch of the 'Nark turned out is ordered especially by individuals to gratiIy a fancy or taste and not for general stock. The \vork pro-duced is the result of skill and artistic feeling of a high order. .I II England the modifications of early Eng-lish designs are in favor alHl the cabinet makers and jobbers enjoy important trade with cities on the conti-nent. 'l'he brass work for case goods is not so well made as in the United States. The finish is poor and the appliances for attaching the same to drawers crude and out-of-date. The displays in the furniture stores of London and Paris were very interesting and credit-able. Selfridge, the American merchant, will soon open a great department store in London. He was unable to establish a sky scraper on aCcount of the laws gov-erning the erection of buildings in that city. By c01i-structing three stories underground and five ahove he had managed to gain a sufficient floor space for his bus-ness. Although stormy weather prevailed, the return trip ,vas made on the steamship Lusitania in five days. During their first sojourn in London the party \Vas quartered at the famous hotel Cecil, and the cold rooms, the inferior bathing facilities and the lack of conveniences were in striking contrast to the accom-modations furnished by the high grade hotels of the United States. At the Piccadilly. where the party spent. two days after returning from the continent, the accommodations were very good and the building COlll-fortably heated by steam. @ * @ Will Move the Show. In :March, 1910 a business show will be put on in Chicago, to continue several weeks. Upon its conclu-sion the exhibits, decorations and accoutrements will be loaded on flat cars and moved to St. Louis, where the goods \vill exhibited for a number of weeks. Tho' R.<k~~~.t.(=I ever made and Buy Nationally Advertised II II I,,I III!I , III ! II!I ,l II I: ROYAL CHAIR CO., I~-----_._--------------' "Rsh theButton-and~st" "The Push Button Kind" Royal ~ Royal Chairs M.orris . Choir. • '-n.._f1u1lanlll..a with or with.out footrest. M.de with loose cush-ions or uphol~ stered. ( All interchangeable) So that if your customer lik.es a frame that has loose cushions on, take them out and put in the upholstering. Your cuslomers want Royal Chairs. Write for catalog. STURGIS, MICH. ,----------------------------. • This cut illustrates one of our most popular numbers. It is built of the finest Indiana quarter sawed white oak. and is perfectly con-structed and finished. The price? ] ust ask for our special discounts on our entire line, I ROWL!!IP.~~U!G.CO. ,• 17 • MICHIGAN ARTISAN ELEMENTS OF STYLE. By Arthur Kirkpatrick, Instructor and Designer in the Grand Rapids School of Designing. Immediately following that period in the history of the manufacture of furniture which might well be called the "dark ages" of furniture, people- of wealth and taste found that in order to furnish their homes with anything at all artistic or pleasing to the eye that they had to revert to antiques manufactured in the eighteenth century. There arose a very large and widespread growth in the admiration for and desire to possess genuine Chippendale, Sheraton and Adams pieces, so much so that England and the continent of Europe were raked from end to end by the hunters A antique furniture, who picked up a lot of inferior arti-cles, in the hope which dwells in the breast of "every collector of antiques of getting something of great value at a small outlay. There are many romantic stories of collectors who picked up in some out-of-the-way farm house, say a Marie Autoiuette table for a few shillings, and after-wards sold it for a fabulous price, or the man who purchased an old bureau for a song, and after getting it home, and commencing to scrape off the paint with which it was smeared, discovered that it was richly inlaid, of historical value and almost priceless. This craze naturally led to the antique dealers and smaIl furniture makers "faking" antique, and many highly prized old pieces owe their existence to those skillful imitators. One of the most difficult to detect of these frauds was the ingenious manner in which they made really presentable articles from old chests, discarded paneling and odds and ends of old lumber picked up when old buildings were being'demolished. This state of affairs naturally. came to an end, but the beautifnl lines and sterling worth of the old models had still to be satisfied, and a number of reputable man-ufacturers commenced to honestly reproduce period furl'litureJ and ~old it as reproductions, and there is little question ?ut that the reproduction compares in most instances Very favorably with the original. There is, in every community, a class which wiII not be satisfied by the inartistic, whose taste for pure lines and good coloring and general harmony of effect 'demand that their furniture, decoration and all their surroundings, shall harmonize without refe-rence to any past style or period. There is no reason why the fur-niture of Chippendale, Sheraton, and others sbo.uld be considered perfect. There was a demand made upon the architects and designers of the latter end of Queen Victoria's reign for something typical of their Own time, rather than a slavish following of old masters. From the time of the later Georges, and all through Victoria's reign, furniture, decoration and architecture fell upon evil days. Art appeared to be at a stand-still, and there was created and pnt upon the market the" most hideous and incongruous furniture that the world has ever seen. The Ath~rican manufacturers, with a. few exceptions. practically new beginners, fol-lowed along the same dismal lines, with perhaps more grotesque results. The first designer in England of any note of the Victorian period was one" B. J. Talbert, who, had he l.ived longer, might have proved worthy to be classed with' the .great designers of the eighteenth century, bnt unfortunately he died young. The next move in the direction of freedom from conventionality and purity of line and color, in furniture and the do-mestic arts, came from William Morris, the eccentric artist, socialist and poet. \Vhen one considers his wonderful versatility, energy and industry, and notes with wonder, the many tbing's he did and did so well, it seems astonishing that he alone should stand out as the originator and as the undoubted father of the mod-ern wave in furniture which swept over! England some fifteen or twenty years ago, and more! recently com-pletely revolutionized America. Mis~ion, Arts and Crafts and the Morris chair; everythinft that tends to daintiness, quaintness, purity and harmopy in domestic surroundings, can be directly traced t~ the influence of Morris. Contemporary with and following Morris were some very able men, notably one ~obinson, who founded the furniture department of the great London House of Liberty, which in itself is now a recognized style. It is to be deeply regretted that Morris should have died, when little past fifty, as his remarkable genius might have solved for us today the problem which is eating the hearts out of the manufacturers of H\~lhat shall we make next?" The same demand is heard on every hand. "'Can't we get up something new, some-thing different, something that will get away from the other fellows?" COlonial has been reproduced TO death. There is not a piece of furniture made in the eighteenth century which has not been copied, meas-ured, and published over and- over again for the de1ec-tatiC111and encouragement "of our designers, and yet ",IICHIGAN ARTISAN 19 each recurring- season brings the same old groups of Colonial and would-be Colonial, in most of which the on ly good points about them are the finish and price. ]n casting about for another style to popularize, if we cannot invent a ne,v one of our own, there seems. to be nothing in view at the present time but the 1foc1ern English, or for an easy term, let us call it the Liberty style, or the mixture of Dutch, Queen Anne and Eliza-bethan ,;v'liich one manufacturer of our acquaintance aptly dubs "Cromwellian," ® * @ An Antique Collector. A. D. Porter of the l\Jichigan Harrel company, Grand Rapids, on the occasion of a visit to relatives in the state of Connecticut, met a lovable old aunty who was affected with the antique hobhy_ She had collected many hun-dreds of pieces of furniture, china, rugs and laces and talked by day and dreamed at night of their values. Her husband was patient, good-natured, and indulgent, and the pursuit of his wife's hobby greatly amused him. Dur-ing 1fr. Porter's stay aunty learned that the Pecks, of Stamford, off-side relatives of Mr. Porter, had filled the attics of their homes with anhques, to make space for modern, if not altogether beautiful things, and hecame greatly interested. Her curiosity expanded with the pass-ing of the clays, and when finally 1'\.'lr.Porter arranged for a visit to the Peck's \vith aLl11ty,the lady's heart was filled ",rith as much happiness as a bride's on her \vedding day. When amIty was escorted to thc attics the desire to acquire the beautiful things found in the discard was so overpowering that she purchased a sufficient quantity to fill a freight car and causen them to be packed and shipped to her home. \\'lien several wagons convcying the valuables drove up to aUllty's door the indulgent hus-band's interest \vas aroused. "vVhere do you intend to put all that stuff?" he enquired. "Why I hadn't thought of that. Can't \\le build an addition to the house?" Oh, yes \ve could but \ve 1von't," the husband replied. I sug-gest that you direct the drivers of those wagons to drivc to the rear of our premises and clump the stuff into the Housatonic river, hvo hundred feet below." Aunt)' Porter had a notion that the treasures might be stored in the barn, displacing the family vehicles. Aunty's plan pre-vailed. Furniture Used Only in Photograph Galleries. The lHichigan Art Carving Company, Grand Rap-ids, prochtces a line of photograph gallery furniture \;vhich goes to all parts of the country. This is a spe-cialty and the demand is somewhatlimitecl. Photographers' furniture is unlike other, though the materials used are the same. It is, as a rule, pro-fusely decorated with carvings, and much of it is so rnade that with a few twists of the wrist its appear,.. ance can be changed. A high-backed ornate Eliza-bethan chair can be converted into a bench by lifting off the back. Another high back can be changed to an ordinary arm chair by letting the decorated top piece swing out of view. There are posing chairs for adults and babies and a variety of other things the pho-tographer must have. There are only three or four factories of this kind in the country, and the company here is one of the largest. The company also produces wood letters) both plain and ornamental, for sign mak-ers and decorators. The company employs about fifty hands in a building that has had three cnlargements in the last ten years. @ * @ A Temple for the Elks. A great many men engaged in the furniture and kin-dred trades will he pleased to learn that Daisy lodge, B. P.O. E., of Grand Rapids, has determined to erect a temple during the current year, and that it will be ready, rI I STAR CASTER CUP CO. NORTH UNION STREET, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. I IIIIII I {PATJ!:f',o'j AI''''U.hU l<"OR} We have adopted celluloid as a base for our Caster Cups, making the best cup on the market. Celluloid is a great improvement over bases made of otber material. When it is necessary to move a piece supported by cups with celluloid bases it can be done witb ease. as tbe bases are per-fectly smooth. Celluloid does not sweat and by the use of these cups tables are never marred. These cups are finished in Golden Oak and White Maple. finisbed I1.lt'ht. If you will try a sample order of these good/; you will d~8ireto kandle them in quantities. PRICES: Size 2M inches $5.50 per hundred. SiZl!:2}{ Inches 4.50 per hundred. f. o. b. Grand RapidG. 1'RY A SAMPLE ORDER. I~---_. • for oc·cupancy during the Jannary selling season III 1910. Thousands of manufacturers and salesmen are members of the fraternity. @ * @ Cold Feet. There are no pessimists in the ranks of the manufac-turers of furniture. Occasionally a salesman is -at-tacked with chilliness in his pedalics, when his useful-ness in the trade goes, and he drops out to work on dad's farm, or to liye upon the earnings of his wife ""vhen she takes up millinery or dressmaking. 20 MICHIGAN ARTISAN RELICS IN WHITE HOUSE. Little Furniture and Few Furnishings of the Olden Days. The \Vhite House was built on classic lines and stands as a monument to \Vashington's and Jefferson's judgment in following the principles of the masters in architecture. I ts first occupants,Adams, Jefferson, Madison, :Monroe, and John Quincy Adams, all were men of high culture and refined tastes. They ,vere familiar with the most brilliant courts of Europe. It therefore follows that the furnishings of the 'White House of their choice m-list have been of the same kind and in the same good taste as that which they pur-chased for their family residences, much of \vhich is proudly preserved by their descendants. Had there been from early days a properly appointed curator of the-furnishings of the president's house, it now would contain some furnishings, at least, such as grace the old John Adams home at Quincy, Mass., today. The handsome mahogany doors and the mahogany \voodwork in the state parlors and family dining room of the \'ihite House were retained in the 11cKim res-torations, made in the summer of 1902, and are the or-iginal mahogany which Hoban used when he rebuilt the mansion after its destruction by the British in 1814. Of course a great deal of the furniture and bric-a-brac in the house at that time was destroyed, but by no means all of it. Mrs. Madison knew for some days that the British were coming, and she tells of the difficulties she encountered during those days in obtaining wagons to carry the things she most desired to save. Everybody knows the story of how she had the portrait of 'Vashington cut from the frame and con-signed to the care of trustworthy friends, but whether it is the large painting now hanging in the red room is decidedly doubtful. The classic Italian marble mantels, now in the red and green rooms, but formerly in the state dining room, date also from the rebuilding of the mansion after the British fire. Between the windows on the south side of the green room is a most interesting pier table. Mr. McKim found parts of it. hroken and dis-colored, in the attic. He had it brought down, de-signed the classic legs, on which it now stands, to har-monize with the mantel, and had it placed between the windows. V\.Tith the handsome mirror which sur-mounts it is one of the most attractive features of the green room, which by many is considered the most ar-tistic of the state parlors. There is another original piece of furniture in this apartment. It is an octa-gonal white marble table, severely plain but of grace-ful outline, and was undoubtedly chosen by one of the very early mistresses of the mansion. There was comparatively little bric-a-brac in the vVhite House when the restoration was made in 1902, which Mr. McKim regarded as being worthy of a place in the president's residence, and this was unquestion-ably a correct estimate. although some pieces were dis-carded, whieh for historic associations seemingly might have been retained. From just which administra~ tion some of this brie-a-brae dates is a hard matter to determine. Probably the oldest piece in the mansion is a tall vase of French faience, decorated with a rural scene and bearing on its rounded standard the inscription: "Sue des environs de Passy prise de 1a maison de Franklyn." The tradition is that this vase was pre-sented to Benjamin Franklin while he was the Ameri .. can diplomatic representative at Paris, 1776-'85, and that a good many years after his death it was given to the president's house. A few years ago there -was a mate to this vase, but one summer it mysteriously disappeared from the \Vhite House, as so many other of its belongings have done: There are two other French faience vases, decorated with figures which are of the same period as the Franklin vase, but of which there seems to be no record. On the mantel in the blue room rests the most his-toric clock in the house. It is of heavy French gilt, and its oblong base is covered with the emblems of the first empire. The clock is surmounted with small fig-ures of Liberty. It was presented by Napoleon I. to General Lafayette, who on the occasion of his second visit to the United States gave it to the 'White House as an expression of his appreciation of the kindness he had received from the American people. There is a small inlaid, lacquer cabinet in the green room which is accredited with having been brought to President Buchanan by the first diplomatic representa-tive from Japan. There used to be two Japanese bowls of the same make with this cabinet, but for some reason they were discarded when the house was re-stored. At the time of the Centennial at Philadelphia in 1876 Austria, with other nations, .made an exhibit, and at its close sent to the White House one of the articles of its exhibit, a handsome piece of tapestry mounted in a gilt frame screen. It stands in front of the fire-place in the green room. \\That is perbaps the most intresting piece of furni-ture historically is the old cabinet table now standing in the room lately occupied by President Roosevelt as his den. This table was made from the lumber of the ship Resolute and presented to the United States during the Hayes adll1inistration, and around it the cabinet meetings were held from that time until the executive offices were moved into their present quar-ters. the little building at the end of the west colonnade. The president's "den" also contains the three-faced black onyx clock which told time for the statesmen for many years in the cabinet room. A classic white marble mantel, its shelf upheld by the familiar thirteen bound arrows and cap, replaced the heavy mottled marble mantel in this room at the time of the restora-tion of the mansion, and it bears a tablet with the fol-lowing inscription: "This room was first used for meetings of the cabinet during the administration of President Johnsou. It continued to be so used until MICHIGAN ARTISAN 21 r-- --_._---------_._----_._----_._-------------~ Single Cone All Steel Springs Are very popular with the Furniture Trade. III , II II $2~ I Each I Net II II II We manufacture a full line of Single and Double Cane All Wire Springs. I SMITH &. DAvIsyMFG~'CO..St. Louis. "------_. $2~III II,I I IIIII •I I• --_._-_._--_. ------------_ .... Each Net No. 46. Single Cone. $2 Each. Net. the year lVICMIL IIere the treaty of peace with Spain was signed." The suite of furniture in the president's bedroorn is also interesting historically as it ,vas made during President Buchanan's administration for the room oc-cupied by the Prince of \Vales while he was a visitor at the ''''hite House, and has been called "The Prince of \\Fales suite" ever since. It is of black ,valnut elab-orately carved "",ith a fruit and leaf design, and there is a round center table Lesicle the three regulation pieces of the set. The bed is finished \vith the high old-fash-ioned canopy aIld curtains. The library of the presidcnt's house was started by 11rs. Fillmore, "vhol with the late lvIrs. Emily Donald-son \Vilcox, the daughter of a niece of President Jack-son, who "...a.s born in the \Vhite House, chose the first books which went into it. It is in the oval room on the second floor, over the blue room, and has ahvays been one of the most attractive apartments in the man-sion. Aside from the books, it does not now contain much of historic importancc. There is a handsome old davenport \",.'hich has been there for two or three generations, and several pieces of bric-a-brac which were purchased by President Arthur. This \vas :.Mrs. John Adams' reception roolll. Imagine the interest we \vauld have in it if it contained toclay the furniture with which she furnished it! Several very handsome pieces of bric-a-brac and other ornarnentations have been added to the \\,Thite House since the restoration of '02. Mr. :YfcKim de-signed at that time, the graceful vases standing in the niches of the east stainvay. He also chose the old Flemish tapestry hanging on the north wall of the state dining rOOlD. The exquisite blue Sevres vases, three feet 1n height, ~tanding at the right and left of the large ·window opening upon the east colonnade \""ere presented by the French government some time before that elate. The French government also gave the artistic busts of \Vashington, Benjamin Franklin, and Jefferson, which grace three of the cast room mantels, and the one of Lafayette, which rests on the pier table in the green room. This gift is to be increased by a bust of Lincoln, and the genetous .French government has commissioned I\Irs. Saint Gaudens to make the design for this from the well-known Saint Gaudens head of Lincoln. The gift of the busts was accompanied by eight exquisite Sevres vases, in wisteria, maple leaf, columbine, and fleur de lis designs, which ornament the east room mantels. vVhile Mr. McKim consulted Mrs. Roosevelt in all his plans in remodeling and furnishing the mansion, and the refined, stately apartments are a monument to her good taste and judgment, as well as to Mr. Mc- Kim's, yet she chose but few art ornaments for the mansion. \Vhen IVlrs. Roosevelt removed from the cabinet in the red room the Japanese figures represent-ing the dress of the different periods in Japan's history, which the Japanese ambassador, Baron Takahira, pre-sented to her some time ago, she had them replaced 22 ;v1ICHIGAN ARTISAN with several sri1alrSevres and Limoges vases and some miniature Biscuit de Sevres figures, which are exceed-ingly dainty and pr<;tty. It will have to bc acknowledged that the' historic portraits in the \Vhite House are not an unalloyed joy. Unfortunately the best qualified artists have not al-ways been employed in painting the portraits, and there has been a remarkable disregard as to the size or scale of the paintings, or the character of their frames, either to make them harmonize with each other or to fit their architectural environment. This is es-pecially to be regretted, as the portraits of the presi-dents are really an official collection, selected and pur-chased, through a committee of course, by congress, and is an evil which should be remedied as rapidly as possible. Sargent's picture of Roosevelt hangs on the west wall of the main hallway and is regarded by ~rtists 'as the best canvass in the house, ;llthoughPresident Roosevelt's friends \\tere 110t enthusiastic' over'the Jife-likeness of the picture. On the opposite wall is a pic· ture of :yrcKinley, which ,vas accepted because of the enthusiastic indorsement as to its likeness to the orig-inal by the late Senator Hanna, but the technique of the painting cau,S'esgnashing of teeth among the artists who see it. On the walls of the corridor running back to the main hallway hang the portraits of Benjamll1 Harrison ",!-,~ld,Grover Cleveland, by Eastman Johnson; the life size painting of Aruthur by Huntington; and one of President Garfield by E. F. Andrews. The "ELI" FOLDING BEDS ~:tfrTR~'~Nm i.~ .. No Stock complete without the Eli Beds in Mantel and Upright. ELI 0 MILLER &. Co Evannl1le. lad'"". • ' • Write for cuts and prices ON S"-',-E IN FURNITURE EXCHANCE, CHICACO. .. The only "First Ladies of the Land" who have been honored by having their portraits hung upon the White House walls are ~{rs. Roosevelt, :Mrs. Harrison, 1\1rs. Hayes, Mrs. Julia Gardiner Tyler, Mrs. James K. Polk and Mrs. Van Buren. These hang upon the walls of the ground floor cast corridor, and from want of out-door lighting, have to be under electric lighting, which is, of course, unfortunate. The pictures in each case have been gifts to the White House, The Daughters of the Americau Rev-olution gave the large painting of Mrs. Harrison, and the "\Toman's Christian Temperance Union the one of Mrs. Polk, but there is no record of the donors of the portraits of Mrs. Van Buren and Mrs. Tyler. The lat-est addition is the pain'ting of Mrs. Roosevelt by ehar-tran, which was presented hy the French republic to Otlr' government. It is unfair and uncourteous in us as a nation that all of the wives of our presidents are not represented among the portraits in the "Vhite House, and it is hoped this stigma may soon be removed. An effort is to be made to enlist the women of the states who have had the honor of having a daughter who has been the mistress of the White House to club together and place her portrait upon the walls, as the women of Ten':' nessee did for Mrs. Polk. In this effort care will be taken that only the best artists are commissioned to do the work and that a uniiormity of design is followed in all the pictures. The mist historic part of the 'White House-that is, the coJlection of pr~sidential ware-is contained in six cabinets stanuing in the lower east corridor of the mansion. Soon after Ivirs. Rosevelt became the mis-tress of the mansion she saw that there was nothing in it representative of the great majority of the presi-dents who have occupied the high office beyond their portraits. This and the desire to save something of the presidential china which was then in the v\Thite House led her to start the collection. She was so suc-cessful in this endeavor that the collection now con-tains some piece of china, plate, or glass which was llsed by every president's family except those of Zach-ary Taylor, 'William Henry Harrison, Tyler, Van Buren and Johnson, anu efforts are now under way whereby it is expected that the collection will be com-pleted within a year. It has been made a part of the Bureau of public buildings and grounds, and is the permanent property of the government.-N ew York Times. @ * @ Hotel Orders to be Filled. A syndicate of capitalists 'HriJI erect an open all year hotel in Rochester, N, Y., with six hunderd rooms. It will be up-ta-date. The Dorchester-on-the-Bay hotel to be be erected in Boston will have one hundred rooms with hot and cold water and salt bath. A swimming pool 60xlOO feet, a roof garden (to be used as a solarium in winter) will be special features. The bay for a distance of twenty-five miles "riH be in view from the rpof garden, MICHIGAN ARTISAN 23 STORE FURNITURE AND FIXTURES. Demand for Them Shows a Revival in Other Business Lines. FUt"niture and display fixtures in the merchandise business has not only reached the point of a business in itself, but it has become an· art. Along in the fifties and sixties mercantile life knew no such appliance as a window fixture or display form, or cases with sliding doors for the pro-tection 0 f goods. Merchandise was suspended in show \\'inoow5 on strings or c lot h e s 1i n e s, strewn about the base and garments were heaped promis-cllously on tables or on the floor. Disor-der reigned and the salesman had to drag his goods out of chaos when ,vaiting on a customer. Show windows were simp-ly for admitting light. At the present time the business of making and supplying store furniture and fixtures has reached ideal conditions. Fixtures and cases have become indispensible in the conduct of a well ordered store and interior decorations and ,vindows dressers demand the fixtures just as a mechanic does his tools. 'There is now a great demand for them, an evidence of prosperity, because makers of store equipments soon feel effects of lethargy in general business lines. The Sketch by Otto Jiranek. Grand Rapids, Mich. ..... - - ....... I Gran~.~~'!1~!E~~~Sc~o_rI i~l :I , I : I .W•• co now pntting ont th. bost c."., Cup, with wek b.,os ovet II offered to the trade. These are finished in Golden Oak and White Maple in a light finish. These goods are admirable for polished floors and furn-iturere.~ ts.Theywill not sweat or mar. I PRICES: I I Size 2% inches '4.00 per hundred ---4 1 Slze 2~ inches' 5.00 per hundred Try a Sample Order. F. O.B. (}'rand Rapids. • merchants buy goods before they do fixtnres to show them. \~.rhen they buy both in abundance business must be good. One is amazed at the enormous number and var:' iety of stands, hall trees, pede'stals-cases, seats and wardrobes used in the mercantile trade. The output of one factory alone in Grand R~pids exceeds one million dollars. Two others are of' scarcely less l1TI-portancc. @) * @ YOUR OPPORTUNITY. Vv'hen a feller's in the gutter and is freighted with des-pair, And the future's lookin' dismal with nO sunshine any~ where; When he hasn't got a nickel, and he hasn't got a friend, And the weary way he's treadin" doesn-'t seem to have an end; There's a chance for you, my brother) just to boost him up the road, To encourage him a little and to lighten up his load; That's the time to prove your friendship, if it be sin-cere and true- \\Then a feller's in the gutter and he don't know what to do. @ * @ It has been proven that in business as well as in politics slogans are of much value. The beverage that maue a certain city in \V isconsin famous; the fur-niture that ma.de Grand Rapids kno\vn to the world; the immense trade of George C. Flint & Co,) in New York, and other successful enterprises numbering thousands have been built up with the aid of slogans. rn discussing the value of a slogan recently, a traveling salesman employed by one of the great industries de-clared that a slogan set in motion in the factories a few days before the late presidential election ensured suc-cess for 11r. Taft. 'The slogan was· used where it would do the most good. "On the 15th of October," the gentleman declared, "the country was overwhelmingly in favor of Bryan. A day or two later .the working-men in the shops were advised to 'vote for Taft and keep your job.' The appeal to the stomach proved more potential than the appeal to reason." @ * @ Grand Rapids Furniture Club. Contractor :I\forgan is making excellent progress in the construction of the Grand Rapids Furniture Club. The building adjoins the hotel Pant1ind and members of the club and guests will be served from the cafe and buf-fet of that hostelry. Elegant dining, reading and loung-ing rooms, a spacious lobby, cloak rooms and other con-veniences will he provided. The walls are "pane]ed in figured woods and the floors are of tiles, mosaics or red birch. Cosy open fires, handsome electroliers and a col-lection of the best furniture manufactured in the world will make the club a delightful resort for furniture men; 24 MICHIGAN ARTISAN --------------------~ The tlea80n for hanquete is now here. Our Banquet Table Top is JUBt the thing. for banquet •• OUR LARGE NEW UNE OF DINING and OFFICE TABLES are the best on the American market when prices and quality are considered. Stow & Davis Furniture Co. GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. City .Ueuoom. 4th floor, Blodgett Bid". KEEPING COUNT OF CASH. >--'---,-------------------- The Register and Its Value to Business in Modern Times. The use of the cash register in all kinds of stores and business houses has become so general that the public accepts their presence as it does that of so many other modern inventions, without remark. After all, the 1110St remarkable feature about the cash regis-ter is that it was lacking so long a time. Cp to the time of its introduction the storekeeper relied on meth-ods that were almost prirnitive in their simplicity, Though cumbered with more or less clumsy safe-guards, he still clung to the ancient custom of throw-ing all money taken in during the day into a cash drawer to which practically the enti'(e force of the store had access. The shopkeepers of Pompeii and the retail dealers of a generation ago used the same hit or miss Ulethod of dealing with the day's receipts. Could some sooth-sayer have foretold to the confiding merchant of that earlier -day that in centuries to come men would have ;n their stores a money changer of brass and iron which would guard their money, count it and at the end of the day tell him what goods had been sold, which apprentice had made each sale and the price re-ceived, undoubtedly that soothsayer would have been regarded as a Pompeiian nature faker of the first water and the ensuing eruption of Vesuvius would have been considered condign punishment meted out to those who harbored the vain babbler. After all the centuries of development in other di-redions that intervelied the salesman for a modern cash register company would probably have had much the same reception at the hands of the progressive merchants of twenty-five years ago. But when he came he brought with him the proof of his assertions and the first real advance within t~e memory of man in the cash department of store keepers was begun. The cash register had found its place. \\ihen, in 1882, the proprietor of the "general store" 111 the village of Coalton, Ohio, made use of the first cash register, although he appreciated its value to him and the increased profits which resultecl from its use, even the wildest flight of his imagination could not compass the enormous business which should grow from that seed. A manufacturing company which in 1884 had but a single dingy shop employing one man and two boys has today one of the most up-to-date and largest plants in the world with thirty-four acres of floor space and employing 7,000 people. Owing to the marvelous rapidity with which the cash register has found favor this Yankee invention is now adapted to reckon in the currency of a dozen or more different countries. It is as proficient in handling the yen in Japan, the rupees and pice of India, the pounds and shillings of England as it is the dollars and cents of its native land. Hundreds of thousands of cash registers are now in use. During the last year the sales exceeded all previous records, and with brighter business pros-pects in sight the coming year promises a phenomenal increase. @ * (~ A Warm Campaign. M. E. Case, buyer for the Lindholm Furniture com-pany, Sioux City, Iowa, arrived in Grand Rapids on March 2, accompanied hy Frank Donahne aud wife. Mr. Donahue is the proprietor of the West house, the leading public house in the city of the Sioux. During the past year a large addition to the hotel was erected and Mr. Donahue's purpose in coming to Grand Rapids was the purchase of furniture for the same, Mrs. Donahue was very much interested in the deal, and her suggestions proved of great value in selecting the goods required. The order for bedroom furniture was placed with the Muske-gon Valley Furniture company, represented by Hugo Kanitz, ,ecretary and Charles G. White, western sales-rnan. Orders for chairs and upholstered goods were taken by Grand Rapids houses. MICHIGAN ARTISAN ARTISTIC andINEXPENSIVE CATALOGUE COVERS LET US FIGURE ON YOUR PHOTOGRAPHING ENGRAVING and PRINTING PERFECT WORK PROMPT DEUVERIES COMPLETE CATALOGS MICHIGAN ENGRAVING CO. .t Right Price. GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 25 26 MICHIGAN ARTISAN NEEDS IN FIRE INSURANCE. Greater Care Should be Taken in Inventory Work. The subject of fire insurance may safely be said di-rectly to interes.t a larger part of the general public than auy other outside the vital problems of life. vVithout going into statistics, which would be impos-sible in so -limited an article, we know that in 1907 the insurance companies paid in losses $135,270,569 to pro-perty owners in the United States. The relations ob-taining therefore _betwet:t1, let us say, the buyers and sellers of fire insurance are very important. Fire insurance is not an exact science, that is, no matter how many risks of a certain class a company may have on its books it cannot be sure as in life insur-ance that practically only a certain number will become ---------~ Fred J. Zimmer 39 E. Bridge 51;, Gmtd R.pid~ Mich. MoW of HIGH GRADE UPHOLSTERED. FURNITURE Writefor Guts and Price8. I• Every Piece Cuaranteed PERFECT. claims in a given time, nor can it be sure what propor-tion of the face value of policies under which loss is sustained will he payable. These facts have affected and governed the making or building up of premium rates for fire insurance, and as might be expected in any business where no more exact formulae than the above can be applied great var-iations have been shown in rates at different periods 'or by different undenvriters at the same period. The influence of competition has been and always will be a potent factor in the price of this commodity, especially in districts where no companies' agreement for the maintenance of rates exist, white a wide differ-ence of opinion as to the adequate rate on a certain character of risks has often existed between com-panies baseJ entirely on what their individual exper-ience was up to that time. Periods of reckless rate cutting have occurred in the past and still develop at intervals; at this date, however, chiefly limited to. suburban or country dis-tricts where the personal equation of the local agents, with their some til'rye private busin'essfeiid is in evi-dence and where the influence of the rating board of the larger companies is only slightly felt. Science has crept in, an arbitrary science you may say, in scheduling and indexing the business or mer- LOCcant'ile,r.isks of the larger towns and cities, and the 'dog >,,,,",,",, w '"do" lli' w"~"'". tricts as fast as may be. By calling the methods of rating at present in use arbitrary science, is meant that no decision that certain rates are adequate is final nor is it certain that if the fire experience of a year be normal in New York city while San Francisco suf-fered, let us say that the rates in Kew York will stay the same. They may be raised to meet the deficit at the other side of the continent. . This is apportion-ment and arbitrary adjustment. Class rating of risks, except for basic rates, to which would be added in each case loading of premium for de-terioration, deficiencies in protective features, occupa-tion, etc., as shown in the individual risks, cannot be successfully accomplished, except perhaps with dwell-ings which, according to construction materials used and when distinctly in or out of fire protection, i. e., nearness to water supply and engines, have been rated by class for a considerable time with as far as is known a fair profit to the companies. 1\'lost men insure their business property adequate-ly and in direct ratio to the hazard of their occupation. Very few of the same men or any others adequately insure their private property or inventory it thorough-ly enough to know what they really own in valnes. Particularly does this hold true in respect to their household furniture, books, and jewelry. How many men if asked about the terms and conditions of the standard fire insurance policy of the state of New York could say they ever had read one over? The fact that not one man in a thousand knows anything of the legal contract he has accepted is a serious det-riment to high business development and plays not a small part in the terrible fire drama, enacted in so many places every day in the United States. Not until a fuller realization of the responsibility llevolving upon owners and lessees of property be comes a reality will our abnormal destruction by fire of property interest be checked and the general rate of premiums be reduced to a lower level. Vve New Yorkers pay a high price for our fire protection, as· we do for all the other privileges of living in the most ex-pensively run civ.ilized' city in the world, and we seem to be proud of it and not anxious to change. If we would take the time to study and to carry out the best protective: measures, coupled with stricter rules for the proper segregation of hazardous occupa-tions, either by locality, absolutely fireproof housing, or both, we would not' continue very long to pay, for instance, from five to ten times per capita what citizens of London or Berlin find their charges. With thous-ands of gallons of water a minute crashing throitgh the windows of his building the careless owner and tenant would probably indorse an ordinance prohibit-ing wooden dust bins, the promiscuous throwing of oily waste, rags and papers under stairs, etc. Keeping away from technical details which no one will read or remember. what does the payment of say, $300,000,000 a year for fire and marine insurance prem-iums mean to us as a tax? The American people are burning their forest interests down and their houses, r------------------------------ If III MICHIGAN ARTISAN ----------., MUSKEGON Moon Desk Co. MICHIGAN 52' long; 30' wide. Furnished with cen~ ter drawer with lock. Square edge construc-tion, sanitary style. Satin Finish - Golden oak, weathered oak, or imitation mahogany. No. 55. !------------------------------- A Desk within the reach of all. MUSKEGON. MICH. MOON DESK CO. No.5UA. do-wn at a most astonishing and satisfactory pace if vve are trying to qualify as a race of pyromaniacs, but if our self-regard as a sane, progTessive nation is to be preserved to us ,ve 1111:5t give more time to OUf fire in-surance agent and not consider hinl merely a nccessar.r evil. Out of all the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of clothing, jev,re1ry, etc., on the steamer Repub-lic only a few thousands were imiUred. Had they all been so covered the problem of the stearnship com-panies for adjustment of loss to passengers would have been simplified. A Letter understanding of the causes of fire, its pre-vention and the true relations between the great fire insurance companies and ourselves is a national duty_ The best advice to the reading, thinking public is to get in touch \vith a reputable and responsible insurance broker and go over all values v.lith him; to make in-ventories, to check up existing policies and to take out sufficient 111 addition to cover oneself thoroughly Particular notice should be paid to the standing of companies one insures wi th to see that the written Or printed fonns correctly describe the property covered and that all required clauses are attached. l\0 one can fail of feeling a sense of satisfaction over~ a job well clone, and \vhile there \vill be in many instances a lot of hard \vork involved it will be amply repaid in the event of a fire loss-~ ew York Sun. @ * @ A letter \vritten by an official of a certain corpora-tion engaged in the Inanufacture of ;;ecclesiastical art fllrnitl~re" was received by the Artisan recently asking for the address of a designer capable of preparing "'~first class flat or perspective designs; a Illan who could, if need be, call upon prospective purchasers among clergymen." \Vith an experience of thirty years contact with designers~ th~ Artisan is prepared to suggest the names of artists who are capable of supplying any ~{)rt of help a clergy-man might (le~'ire. If a clergyman needed advice in the purchase of a horse, the l\rtisan would recommend de- ----------------------------- ... signer ::\e\v of Grand Rapids. If a clergyman wished to consult a designer on the art of mllsic, the Artisan \-vould unhesitatingly name Louis Hahn, also of Grand Rapids. [f a clergyman should seek information in regard to the dramatic art the J\r'tisan would write the name of John E. Brmver, of Grand Rapids, in red ink. If a clergyman deemed it necessary to extend his knowledge of painting in oils and water colors, the Artisan\vould mail to him the address of \V. E. Horner of Indianapolis. If a clergy-lllan were to seek the aid of a professor of the national habit (the game of poker), or a man with a tank when he (1esired to entertain friends, he would be obliged to look for such assistance outside of the designers' fratern-ity_ ~ ------- ~ I I MUSKEGON VALLEY FURNITURE COMPANY II ,I MUSKEGON III MICH •••• IIII COlOnial SUIIBS II Toll post BedS Odd DressBrs ChiliOniers WorOroDBS lomBS' TOilets DreSSing Tames ,, Monogony IniOIO GOOOS II II I I Line on .alein Manufacturera' Building, Grand Rapid •. j I "-- ---- 2, 28 MICHIGAN ----~ Richmond Chair Co. Richmond, Indiana Double Cane Line "Slip Seats"-the latest and best method of double cane seating. Catalogues to the Trade. ..--------_. II II II IIII I I III ~--------------------------- ARTISAN ____ 0 ----- Color in Decoration. In Good Hoasekeeping for February is a 1110St inter-esting discussion of "Color Harmony in Home Decora-tion." The authors, ~iary and Lewis Theiss obtained an intervie\v with Frank Alva Parsons of the New York Art School and the result is a very comprehensive treat-ise on the subject of color and harmony as they should be applied to horne decoration. The most important points emphasized by :vIr. Parsons arc given below. Lack of color harmony in home decoration is as in-sidiously harmful as lack of fresh air. A demand for bet-ter art in the hotTle has become universal in America. Eliminating the element of discord in decorations has brought about a new harmony in tIle home. Rooms are fitted OLlt harmoniously by salesmen of the largest furnishing 11()llseswhere- four years ago not a salesman in Alnerica had any scientific knowledge of what he was trying to do, Mr. \Vm. Sloane Coffin a graduate of Yale was the first to urge the necessity of teaching the art of color harmony in home furnishings. It was through his efforts that a class in "art in horne furnishings" was fonned at the \~rest-Side Young J\tlen's Christian Association in New York under the leadership of Me. Parsons. Twenty of the leading salesmen and best paid employes of the 1.:trgest furnishing houses inN ew York made up the ..:::ass. A course of twenty lectures with discussions and quizzes was taken. The class was very popular and grew rapielly. LIst winter a class of 101, took the course and,• Henry Svhmit 8 Co. HOPKINS AND HARRIET ST5. CiDclDDAti. OLio makersQf Upholstered Furniture '0' LODGE and PULPIT, PARLOR, LIBRARY, HOTEL and CLUB ROOM L ----------_.- ... the attendance \'Ilas ninety-eight per cent. \V0111en of wealth learned of the class through salesmen and asked l\Jr. Parsons to teach -them. A class was formed of many of New York's richest women. Thert are thirty-four members of this class which meets once a week -in the home of one {)f the members. Next winter the course will be donhled in length so great has been the interest displayed. The work done by the women is similar to that of the men. It deals in harmony in color, form and decorations. Color harmony is based on color relationship. Color is formed first by the primary colors, red, blue and yellow, then by combinations of these colors. Colors are either blood relations or complimentary. The colors next each other are blood relations as yellow and green. They are parts of one -another. The complimentary colors lie op-posite each other in a circle as yello\'v and violet. So we have two ways to form a color scheme by associating re-lated colors or by combining complimentary colors. There should never be a mixture of the two classes. Harmony in color is gained by putting colors together that are re-lated. Colors that lie next each other in the spectrum are related and so are in harmony. But this harmony can be increased by making the colors still more alike. Yel-low and green in equal parts form a new color that is more harmonious than the original colors together. Com-plimentary colors may be combined with a harmonious result. Red and green mixed in certain proportions make gray, an absolute neurtal half way between the colors. Between red and gray we can obtain any tone of red by uniting red and green, the red approaching grey as we increase the amount of green in the mixture. The same thing is true of green and gray, the green approaching gray as we increase the amount of red in the mixture. A red that is one quarter green and a green that is one quarter red harmonize better than pure green and a pure red. Better still is the harmony between a red that is half green and green that is half red. When we get red that is three-quarters green and green that is three quar· ters red we get harmony of the closest kind, both shades being close to the neutral gray. MICHIGAN ARTISAN 29 ~----------- ,------------------------~ i FIVE COMPLETE LINES OF ! REfRIGERATORS I II!,,,I ,,I! II, II h- __ , , ,---,----,----,----~ at RIGHT PRICES Opalite Lined. Enamel Lined. C h arc 0 a 1 Filled and Zinc Lined. Zinc Lined w((h Re-movable Ice Tank. Galvanized Iron Lined; Stationary 1ce Tank. Send for new Catalogue and let UJ ndrM )'Oti price. Oallen~eKefri~mtor (0.. GRAND HAVEN, MICH" U, S,A, An eqLlal mixture of the con1ponent colors of each pair of compliments produces a neutral gray half way between them. The spectrnm comes to resemble a wheel \"lith gray in the center and the original six colors for the ri111) the lines of color radiating from gray being like the spokes, Three values arc recognized in colof, hue, value and intensity, I-lues of color change according :0 the proportion of its component parts. The value of color changes as it grows lighter or c1arker. The nearer \vhite the lighter it is, the nearer black the darker it is, The sky is lighter by sunlight than by moonlight. Yet may be the same COlOf. The difference lies in the alTlOllnt of light. Yello\\! is the most penetrating color, violet the least. A turkey red is the brightest and most brilliant red that can be produced. In choosing papers, textiles furniture, carpets, each of these qualities must be taken into con-sideration, and hue, value, intensity, resemblance to light or darkness. If anyone color stands out more than another in a r00111the harmony is spoiled. The question of light must be considered; whether natural or artificial light will be used in the r00111. Colors appear different umler two lights. They are clifferent. A blue \vallpapcr looks green at night. The ydlmv rays of the lamp or gas are absorbed by the paper and the combination yel-low and blue makes green. Red by day becomes orange at night. In buying, articles should be examined under daylight aud artificial light. The colors of nature should be remen"'lbered and in a room the lightest parts should be overhead, the darkest underioot and the side walls be-tween the two soft colors are best. Gray harmonizes with all types of c:ornpkxion in a farnily. The decoration of our horne expresses sornething. A room must not only be a mere color harrnony, it must be in accordance with the purpose of the room. In a library the colors should be nelltral-nothing to disturb the oc-cupant A ballroom should be just the opposite. The drawing room comes between the two. In a bedroOlll cool! soothing colors with few ornaments should be the rule. No elaborate pattern in wall paper or hangings to catch the eye of the convalescent. Loud colors excite one! soft colors are restfuL The colors chosen for rooms of southern exposure should be quiet, a dark hall needs a bright paper, Yellow and light red rose are best for this. North rooms need bright colors) yellow, neutral oranges and rcd. Between north-ern and southern rooms neutral colors of each of these extremes should be used. lij\ miscolored house may be positively injurious. @ * @ American and European Plans. Architects have about completed plans for the re-construction necessary for providing accommodations on both American and European plans in the !\1orton Honse, Grand Rapids. The contract for the work will be let very soon and completed before the opening of the- midsnmmer exposition. --------------- --- -~ - - - - - 30 MICHIGAN ARTISAN FRANK CRITICS IN THE FLAT. Ended a Dream About $2,000 Worth of Furniture. HIf you're entertaining the idea that your household furniture, no,matter how costly and nifty it may be, is one of your assets worth considering, then stop dream-ir: tg," petulantly remarked a man who is making prep-arations to go away from here. "\Vhen you have to sell your furniture you'll find out what I mean by that remark. "I know, because I have just sold the furniture of my 8-room flat. \Vhcn my Chicago firm sent me to New York it was the understanding that I was to stick around here for a while, five or six years anyhow. Soon after :-Jew Year's the firm began to hint in correspon-dence that it was thinking of shutting up its Kew York branch, and a week or so later, despite my wailings, the firm recalled me to Chicago, and I'm on my \\'ay back there now-for life, I suppose, gosh hang it. "Vihen ] came to New Yark I decided that I was going to live in comfort here. The wife and I spent a month picking out furniture. It was pretty nice stuff, rather above the av-,¥rage for flat furniture. Ev-ery bit of it was substantial, -staple goods, and no fluff or gingerbread about it. "IVe had to buy the whole flatkecping outfit from canape to crackers ..and the buy set me back just a few dollars less than two thousand bucks. I got the piano second hand at a bargain-an immense bargain-though it was almost new, with not a nick on it. J got half a dozen shadow box pictures second han,:, too, at a bargain; but all the rest was dead new. "Well, when I got my recall to Chicago] advertised my flat furniture to be sold all in a bunch, nothing sep-arate, dealers ignored, ad invited those interested to come and have a look after 8 o'clock of evenings. "The interested folk were right on the job. The first of them obviously had ignored that part of my adver-tisement which said that dealers would be ignored, for a blind man could have seen through a Scotch mist that they were dealers. "The first of them to heavc along rang the bell while my grandfather's clock in the hall still was chiming the hour of 8-a pretty punctual customer. He was a squat young man with a pair of black, hawk-ish eyes, a very flash topcoat several sizes too large for him, a gummy notebook and a stub of a pencil. "I led the way and illuminated all the r~oms while he bustled through the flat. His scorn as he glanced at my stuff was manifest. It irritated me. "'Say,' I said to him when he h'isted the coverings on one of my brass beds, to see if they were boxed springs, 'are you a dealer?' "He grinned indulgently at me. a ',",Vhat's the difference?' he replied. in a confiden-tial tone, 'You can't get anything for this ju-I mean this stuff, ex~ept from dealers. Stuff like this is a drug, you know.' "'\Vell,' I said, still irritated, 'I tonk the pains't0 say in my advertisement that I didn't care to deal witt: dealers, and I meant it,' and I started to guide him to the hall door. " 'vVell, I'll tell you what 1'1 do, mister,' said he, not budging at all. 'I'd have to practically give this stuff away; but I like to hclp folks out that are in a pickle. I'll give you two and a half for your mess.' "1fess! That got me on the raw. :\{oreover, it got me on the raw to have him assume so complacently that I was in a pickle and therefore forced to sell my gear at the first figllre offered. "'Beat it l' I blurted out almost before he'd finished making me that proposition. 'On your way.' "He didn't budge from the bedroom where this lit-tle colloquy was held. H'I'll tell you what I'll do, then,' said he, jabbing away at his gummy notebook with his stub of a pencil. 'I want to help you out, as J say, and so I'll loosf'tl up a little with you. I'll hand yOll three for the mess right now. \Vant it?' and he dug into hiS trousers poc'K:d and produced a large greasy wad of b-ills, at the same time glancing up at me with a sort of contemptuous cupidity. " 'Good-night,' said I, and I literally nudged him to" the hall door and then nudged him out, while he pro-tested that maybe after he had another peek around he might offer me a few dollars more for the mess. uTwo more feHows of the same strip€, palpable dealers, appeared before 9 o'clock, bllt I spotted them for dealers when I went to the door~I attended all rings myself-and I woudn't let 'em in. They wanted . to argue it out with me, one of them swore that he wasn't a dealer, but that he was going to get married next Sunday night and that he was looking for furni-ture to fix up a flat. I fanned him, all the same, be cause the stub of a pencil was sticking behind his ear and his not€book was protruding from his o~rercoat pocket. "Along toward 11 o'clock, when the wife and I were making the preliminary moves toward turning in, a gay yonng creature who looked and acted like a chorus girl swung along. She was accompanied by a gloomy young man who had a lot of bright finger jewelry. " "Seuse me for coming .so late,' said the young woman, as she breezed past me in the hall, 'but Muttsy and I have been to the theatre,' and she swept into the parlor, nodded condescendingly to my wife and sat down at the piano. Very much at home young \"{oman, that. " 'I seen your ad,' she said to me, whacking a vic-ious discord on the piano, 'and I thought I'd chop around and have a peek. Fm looking for a pianner,' and she walloped the piano again. "'But,' I explained to herl 'I'm not selling the stuff in parcels. It·s got to be sold as one lot.' "La, la, that's what they all say,' chirpec] the young woman, gayly, hitting the piano two or three more Strausslike chords and turning around to grin at us. 'I thought rd have a peek at the pianner anyhow How much yOll askin' for it? Isn't a bad little old ~-----------------------_._- -- :llICHIGAN ARTISAN 31 box, but second hand pianners is as common as sea-weed. Take twenty-five for it?' "No, I wouldn't take twenty-five for it~I told her, and, moreover, I wouldn't even consider the matter of selling the piano separately. Let me say here, by the way, that I got that piano, as I said, at an immense bargain, and at that I paid two hundred and fifty for It, for it was a high grade instrument. H '\Vell, daneha carc, old top,' said the young ,vo-man to me agreeably, and then my wife beat it to her bedroom when the young woman began to pound out a ragtime song and to hum to the malignant air of the same, H 'Aw, come on, Tinkie, these folks is gain' to beel,' put in the gloomy young man accompanying the breezy young woman, and then she got up from the stool, kissed her fingertips at me and zephyred svvish-ingly down the hall. I found my wife rolling around .all her bed with laughter when I returned from letting 'em out. "N ext day while I "vas at work dozens of folks called to see the furniture, but 111:r "vHe met most of them at the door and told them that the sluff could only be seen, as the advertisement stated, after 8 o'clock in the evening, when I'd be home. 'rhree or four parties of women refused to take her word for this, pushed their way into the apartment and lllooched around, pa,;ving things over and asking questions, "They began to flock in while I was at dinner. The dealers J met at the door and dismissed with scant speech, but the young couples I admitted. "The women of the couples did all of the talking and examining. The men just stood around on one foot· and then the other and looked neutral and sad about the whole proceedings. uSome real nice little pieces here," said one of the women to my wife with great condescension, Ibut then, too, you've got a lot of truck here that I wouldn't have for any money.' " 'Yes?' said my wife, glancing at me with laughter in her eyes-she sees laughs where I only see knocks, "'Oh, not for any money,' the business-like young woman went on, while her husband tried to catch her eye. 'But I'll tell you just what we can and will do-we like to be frank and aboveboard about these things, don't we, Egbert, addressing her melancholy man. I\Ve will give you $150 cash on the nail, for what you've got, including the piano.' "That made me so sore that 1 had to scamper out of the room for fear I'd say something ornery, and I left to my wife the job of getting rid of that couple. "Another woman, also accompanied by a whipped-looking husband, went through the place like a general of an army on a tour of inspection. She said hardly a word, but just scowled a tour furniture, and she shook her head over most of it in a mighty overpowering, re-ducing sort of a way. Ii '\\lell, she said to me after her impressive march through the whole plant, from kitchen to spare room. 'there are four or five pieces here that maybe I'd talk business with you about if you diU the right thing. The piano, the cabinet in the parlor, the writing desk, that mahogany chair in the parlor, and that orrnolu clock-what do you want for the lot? Now, your seiling price, remember-no tucking it on.' HSoll1e cavalierly, el1? I told her that the stuff was only to be sold in one lot. " 'Oh, humbug and nonsense'" she was good enough to chop back at me. 'You'll never sell it as a lot. There's a lot of stuff here that nobody'd even look at. Come, now, and let's not waste any more time. \Vhat do you want for the pieces I have named?' "I executed a disappearance again and permitted my wife to nudge her and her whipped male creature to the door. I was afraid of myself, you know. "'Are these beds-er-well, they're not buggy or anything ?'another woman ,~'ho came along a little later, also with a dismal man, asked my wife. l\ly wife replied that if they were she had not noticed it . "'Oh. weU, lots of folks can live with bedbugs and never notice 'em, you knmv,' the woman reassured my wife. IGet sort 0' used to 'eml you know,' and then for the first time I observed that my wife's keen sense of humor was put to a strai:q.. I'd hate to say, for fear of not being believed, just how quickly she got that woman and her husband out of the hall door. II'Huh 1 D'ye mean to tell me that you've only had this stuff for one year?' another woman said to the wift. and I with a tone and manner that plainly was intenden to toss uS to the Ananias Club in a heap. '\Vell, of course folks selling stuff in a hurry like this have to say something. \iVe'll give you $150 for it, won't "ve, Jim?' "Jim nodded affirmatively, and they, too, were out of the cloor in something less than jig time. HAll told, I received about sixty people, not count-ing the dealers, who professed to be interested in my furniture. The highest price I was offered for the whole layout of furniture was $300, and the woman who made me that offer was good enough to say that she named that high figure because she felt for folks that ,vere in trouble. 'ISO 1sent the whole bunch of furniture to an auc-tion room, and when it was finally disposed of the auc-tioneer told me that I was clanged lucky to 've gut $326.45 out of it, not counting his percentage for auc-tioning it off. "'So don't imagine that your furniture is an asset. The next time I've got a flat full of furniture that I can't use any longer I'm going to distribute it among my friends by way of gifts and earn the name of being a generous cluck, at any rate, There'd be more satis-faction in that system than practically giving it away, anyhow."-N ew York Sun. @ * @ On account of the slmvness of the mail service, a trav-eling salesman in the northwest is considering the advisa-bility of employing homing pigeons when sending in his orders to the factory. He would not need many birds at present. ,-- 32 MICHIGAN ARTISAN .....------------- IiI ._-_._-_._------., - - -- ------- ---- MICHIGAN ARTISAN ~, ----~--------------------.------ I,III I .-------------.,I We make Buffets that sell at a profit for the dealer. Our 186 shown here ~ Is a good olle. TVc !1(17.!C InanJ' others. Refer to our January, Hl09 Cafa!ol::nc,il yOIl hm'c lIone drop us a postal. Manistee Manufacturing ===Company· MANISTEE. MICHIGAN ~------_._---------------- .--- •I I,,, ,,, I!\ I!,, ,: All Made fmm Tb.()ro~hly Sea5(med Stock. ,,! LENN1~vrt~M~CCO~. . ,,...----_._-- OUR OAK AND MAHOGANY DINING EXTENSION TABLES ARE BEST MADE BEST FINISHED VALUES r ! .. I, I,I III .1 -----------------_ ..I. Buffet No. 186 Selected Quartered White Oak. Golden Finish. Rubbed and Polished. French Beveled Mirror, 12x36-.. Size of top, 21x46. Height, 58 inches .. Swell top and swell top drawers .. One drawer lined. Price $18.00 ----._------------------ No 384); ----~-....I I III II I I ---_._--~ ---'--" -------------------------- I Whi tePrin ting CO. GRAND RAPIDS. MICHIGAN HIGH GRADE CATALOGS COMPLETE 33 • MICHIGAN ARTISAN r-~'~~-'--- !I II! 1I II II !I 35 -------------~--'---------,-,--,-----~ ! Michigan ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN No. 106. Furniture Co. Manufacturers at CHAMBER FURNITURE in Mahogany, Quartered and Plain Oak. Odd Dressers in Birch and Imita-tion Mahogany. The best goods for the prke on the market. Write for prices. A Busy Man's Recreation. YV. D. Trump. the general superintendent of the Pere "Tvlarqllette railroad. cperating- one of the l1lDst ex-tensive systems of transportation in the \vorl(l, is a very husy man, hut, like all \vise busy men. does not allo\\' the performance of his duties to call [or the full emplo:rment of his time. Recreation is necessary for his physical and mental 'welfare, as it is for every suc-cessful man ill business. In his leisure hours 1\1r. Trump is a cabinet maker. The spacious attic of his house in Detroit is provided \vith the tools, benches and other conveniences necessary to the cabinet maker, and the articles produced \vonld do credtt to an expert. Not only in fashioning original designs, but in re- ....----------------"" j Big Rapids Furn- I I iture Mfg. Co. IIII!I I '-""---------------------~I! BIG RAPIDS, MICH. SIDEBOARDS BUFFETS HALL RACKS In Quartered Onk, Goldt"l1 and Early English Finish. No. 128. Price $12. 2 o.1l.'fjl days)". o. b. JhgRnplds. No. 106. @ @ III III!I II I II 1 A Difference of Interest. l\Tan[l1facturers of cheap and medium priced furniture are more directly interested in the changes proposed in the tariff on looking glass plate than themanufaeturers of high grade stuff. Of the materials used in a cheap dresser the lnirror plate represents the largest single' item of cost, while in a similar piece of high grade, the labor cost is the largest item. For instance, the cost of a mirror for a uresser that sells f(lr $100.00 is not much· more than a mirror for a dresser that sells for $2.0.00. ~------------------------ --- -_._. - - -- -- 35' MICHiGAN AR'fISAN ~-'--'-----~------------_._------'--~--- II MORTISER COMBINED MACHINE Complete Dulfit of HAND and FOOT POWER MACHINERY WHY THEY PAY THE CABINET MAKER He can save a manufacturer's profit as Well as a dealer's profit. He can make more mOlleywith less capital invested. He can hold' a bett('T and more satls(actory trade with b is t:uslomets. He 'call manufacture in as good j;tyle and finish, and at as iaw cos1 as the factories. The local cahin"'t maker has been forced into only the dealer's trade alld profit. bEocause of machine mant!facturel:l goods of factories. All outfIt of Rarnes Patent Foot and Hand-Power Machinery, reinstates the cabinet maker with ad"antagesequal to his competitors. If desired, these machines will be sold on trial. The purchaser can hav~ ample time to test Ihem in his own shop and 011the work be wishes them Lodo. lJescriptiv. catalogue and price Hst free. W. f. &. JOnN B4RNES CO.,654 Ruby St ••Rockford, 111. HAND TENONER .. No.3 WOOD LJ\THE No.4 SAW (ready 101'ripping) II,r. HAND CIRCULAR RIP SAW FORMER OR MOULDER ---------------------------------- No. 'J SCROLL SA W ____ .--4 ~-----------------------------------------_._---_._~ I Il IIII II , :I I I II! I No.4 SAW (ready for cross-cutting) MADE BY LUCE FURNITURE CO., GRAXD RAf'fD5. MfCH. ..------------------_._---'- •IIII I I!! I II• MICHIGAN ARTISAN 37 .... ---------_._----~ \ ! I I I f------- MANUFACTURERS OF I DETROIT, MICH. ! j HARDWOOD ~~ ~ ~~~ ~ I I I I I I I I I ! I IF"tI Ii"' ,ho"" on!~l I at the (act01'Y. __ I --------'---------------~I I~-----------_._----~---..- Window Displays. 'VVchave spoken Inan)' tiules regarding the necessity of using. intelligence in the building of a \vindow display. The good \vinc1O'wdecorator bas in mind before he com-mence:'> his work an idea of what the whole \vill look like 1 Made by World Furniture Co., EvanBviUod,Ind. when he gets throttg"h. He has formed a conception, a l1lt'lltal image of what etTcet it is likely to produce on the casual pas.-:er-by. TIe (loes 110t g-rab up a lot of stuff-nsnally tllc fir~.t to cOllle to hi.s hClnd- ,111(\ chuck it head-long i11tO the \vindmvs. The idea to create is not that it is Plonm Manufa(\urin~ (ompanJ Reed Furniture Ba \;ty Carriages Go-Carts f ,..----------_._._--------- .... I I Here's That is Bargain Bargain a a I No. 537. 28:x42 top. I Quarter Sawed Oak, Cross $7 50 I Band Rim, Polished, •• • ! Y(JU can't mak.e money faster than hy buyi~ this fine library I Table by the doz.en, un(e$ayou make up a carload out of th~ and other good things we have to show you. PALMER MANUFACTURING CO. ! ~--10-15-to -1043 Palmer Ave., DETROJT M-JC-H.-_ t .... a j L1l1k store the window belongs to. First, consider what it is you desire to advertise. 1\ext take up the idea of \vimlmv (lisplay, and thlnk of an arrangement \vhich will be simple and c.atchy, bearing in mind the materials with which you have to \york. With the plan farmed, the ar.., rangement \vill ,york out nicely. Some difficulties will arise, of course, but they \-vill not be many. Remember-, the forming of the plan! after the choice of the goods, is the most important thing. "rhe plan should be oue w'hich is not to excite interest alone, but interest in the goods thelnsclves. J i you want beauty alone, why not get a hea1.1tiJnl painting :and leave it in the window? You want heauty and taste and art\~.tic arrangement, but above all }"011 want to sell goods.-Oregotl Tradesman. ------~ I II SPECIALTIES: ~1~tg'E'BQUAORA. K VENEERS MAHOGANY VENEERS HOFFMAN BROTHERS COMPANY 804 W, Mail St" FORTWAYNE, INOIAMA .. ... [Tf:lE BIG WHITESifC}l~'j II We Furnish Every Article of Printing I Needed lJy Business Men !I , lI1JCHIGAN ARTISAN WHITE PRINTING COMPANY 108, no, and 112 North Division Street, I IIIf ,! t,II ,I IIf III•I jGrand Rapids, Mich. rTHE--BIG WHI-T-E'-SHopl ...._1 _ • .. MICHIGAN ARTISAN ------------- --------,I Hafner Furniture Company ESTABLISHED 1873. r-------- II 2620 Dearborn St., CHICAGO Couches Box Couches Adjustable Lounges Davenports Bed Davenports Leather Chairs and Rockers No. 3130CQUCH-Size 30 inches wide and '75inches long. A bea.utiful design, of gen-erous dimensions. Heavy hardwood frame elaborately decorated with carvings and rnould~ iugs. The two-inch, half~round mOlllding that extends along the lower edge is finished cross· banded. The upholstering is plain with ruffled sides. This couch is double stuffed with stitched spring edges. The filling is aitow and cotton felt top. Heavy white canvas duck bottom. ,Hafner warranted steel spring construction,having 28 springs in the~ea~ and 9 in the head Shipped K. D" legs off, and weighs about 1251bs. CATALOG UPON REQUEST Satnplesabown at Man-l, lfaeturel's' Furniture Ex-cha. n.ge)Wabash Ave. and 14th St., Chicago, Price No. 1 Leather, $25. 39 '----------------------------_. --------_ ..... Popularize Your Store. In the conveninces afforded the public there is evety- \\There a recognition of th.e principle that a rnodern store is a public utility and in the larger sense belongs to its patrons or visitors. An experienced harchvare IlJcrchant, \vho has made a specialty of housefurnishing goods, said recently on the subject of customers' comfort( that it ,\\,;0111d be 111uch better for the small dealers if they would adopt some ot the methods of the larger dealers and the departlT1ent stores. He is fully persuaded that buying amid pleasant sur-roundings and under conditions that inspire confidence becomes a pastime, and tends to induce customers to shop at such a store. "The large stores," he adds! "certainly tinderstand how to provide for the comfort of their cus-tomers, and although some few may folIo\v their exarnple, I fear that the majority of dealers are very far behind in this respect. I have given special attenti0tl to heating u,nd ventilating my plac.e for some year." past. but still I feel that it is wanting in the comfort which I have !1oticc(l when I have had occasion to \'isit any of the large stores." Continuing, he said: "1 fed sure that we sJmlud all benefit by greater attention to the personal conveniences and comfort of our customers. \Ve may not go so far as to supply afternoon tea, and reading and \vriting rooms for customers' benefit, but I am sure, that :\ve would do \veH to give greater

Date Created:

1909-03-25T00:00:00Z

Data Provider:

Grand Rapids Public Library (Grand Rapids, Mich.)

Collection:

29:18

Subject Topic:

Periodicals and Furniture Industry

Language:

English

Rights:

© Grand Rapids Public Library. All Rights Reserved.

URL:

http://cdm16055.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16055coll20/id/108