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A GOOD PIN MONEY JOB
FOR YOUNGSTERS
H A V E you ever gone into a
drug store to buy a package
of old-fashioned quill toothpicks?
If you have done so
you have found them neatly
put up in circular packets tied with colored
string, twelve to the bundle. If
you inquired of the pharmacist you found
out, probably to your amazement, that
these, so common in raw form on every
farm, are imported from the busy communities
of
geese farmers
of ContinentalEurope.
Herein
you have
been confronted with a
striking example of
American shiftlessness.
A by-product of almost
every barnyard is thus
thrown away. It is
absurd to think that so
By M O N R O E W O O L L E Y
simple a commodity as
quill toothpicks should
come from foreign
countries, notably
thrifty France, far over
seas. The quill toothpick industry
should furnish a lucrative field for juveniles—for
American farm boys and girls
to make clean side money for their wants,
by means of less labor than would be required
by any of the ordinary, underpaid
pin money occupations.
Any dentist will tell you that nothing
in the way of a toothpick is better to rid
one's teeth of food particles after a meal.
Many dental treatises recommend the
use of this kind of toothpick. Indeed,
in some quarters, the toothbrush is getting
to be looked upon with disfavor as a
448
Old-Fashioned, but Still Popular
Neatly cleaned and packed in bundles such as
the one shown above, quill toothpicks find a
steady and lucrative market in the United
States.
producer of irritated and sore gums. In
some cases it is better to cleanse the
teeth of particles of food with a quill
pick and then thoroughly rinse the mouth
with a wash in which emetine is an ingredient.
France, like China, is notorious as a
producer of geese. The French get out
of their geese all they can. They sell
the eggs, the oil, the flesh, the feathers,
and the quills. The quills they put up
in dozen
bundles of
two sizes,
one large
and one
small size,
for feminine
and masculine use
respectively. These
they export after
stocking the retail
stores at home.
There is no reason
why we should im­
port a single quill
toothpick from
abroad. Although
we have no big
goose farms similar
to those of France and Germany,
geese are quite common on many farms.
and if it is inadvisable to build up a
national industry covering this common
commodity, boys and girls should find a
ready market for such quantities of
sharpened quills as they can manufacture
and sell through local drug stores. All
that is necessary to do in preparing the
quills is to cut off the feathered end,
leaving about two inches of quill, clean
out thoroughly the animal matter from
within, and then with one stroke of a
sharp knife prepare the point.