After liming, the hair is all removed and the absorbed lime is neutralized with boric or hydrochloric acid, and the skin is split into two thicknesses. The outer or grain side is used for the manufacture of thin, fancy leathers used in book binding, etc., while the flesh side is made into wash leather. It is first drenched, then put into stocks and pounded until it is partly dried and the fibrous structure has become loose and open, sawdust generally being employed to facilitate the process.

Fish oil is now rubbed upon the skins in small quantities, as long as the oil is absorbed. The moisture dries out as the oil is absorbed, the skins being hung up occasionally and exposed to the air. When the skins have absorbed enough oil they lose their limy odor and acquire a peculiar mustard-like smell, due to the oxidation of the oil. They are then packed loosely in boxes, where they heat rapidly, and must be taken out and exposed to the air to prevent overheating. During this time they give off much pungent vapor and turn yellow. They are then washed in a warm solution of alkali to remove the excess of fat. The oil which is removed is liberated from the soapy fluid and sold as "sod oil."

The skins are next bleached in the sun, being moistened occasionally with a solution of potassium permanganate, followed by washing with sulphurous acid or sodium peroxide. The leather is then permanently softened and suited for all the purposes of toilet or cleansing uses.-The Spatula.

THE SMALL MERCHANT VERSUS THE DEPARTMENT STORE.

The present time sees the so called department store in the front rank of business ventures. The tendency has been to concentrate under one roof and management all the variety of merchandise usually carried by individual traders in distinct and separate stores. But the department store, while filling its mission as a matter of economy and convenience to the public, will not, I trust, ever encroach to a very alarming extent on the great army of small traders. These small traders are part and parcel of our thriving cities and towns; their places of business being found along all thoroughfares and their proprietors identified with the best element of our social and business life. By small traders I refer more especially to those engaged in business where the capital employed ranges from $500 or less up to say about $2000.

In an investment of that amount of money the proprietor must depend almost entirely upon his own individual efforts to do the buying and the selling, to handle the money, to keep the books, and in fact in every way have his own personality alone responsible for the success of his venture.

The wholesale dealer looks largely to those small traders as distributors of his wares and merchandise.

He solicits their patronage, extending liberal lines of credit, and therefore is vitally interested in seeing them prosper. A careful survey of the situation will convince any one that the success of the small trader is not a mere matter of chance; that he must possess honesty and ability; that method and system must enter into a small business as well as a large one to bring about satisfactory adjustment. It is only by having an inventory from time to time, also, that his actual gain or loss in business can be determined. He thus is placed in position also to know the salable condition of his stock and can add to it or reduce it intelligently.

A small business means, of necessity, small profits. Therefore, our prompt and reliable customer is thrifty and economical. He thinks of saving as well as of getting. He always makes business his first thought; pleasure comes afterwards, and all the more enjoyable. He believes in the old adage, "Keep the shop, and thy shop will keep thee."-GEO. H. HOVEY.

BUSINESS REQUIRES EXPERIENCE.

During the last twenty-five years there has been a very material change in almost everything connected with our existence. War, for example, is at present conducted on very different lines from what formerly prevailed, and the change in business is no less conspicuous. Any nation that engages in war or any man who enters upon business to-day, without such an experience and preparation as insures the use of the best up-to-date methods, is almost sure to meet disaster. Experience in war and experience in business are alike essential to success.

It may be possible occasionally to point out a business in which a man has succeeded without previous experience, but it is far easier to point out a very large number of cases wherein lack of experience has brought on disaster. That experience was lacking on the part of the one who failed may have escaped notice in some cases when the failure occurred, from the fact that some years had intervened between the time the business was begun and when the failure occurred. Nevertheless, it was inexperience that caused the disaster, and the disaster was delayed only during the period necessary to exhaust or consume the assets of the business.

Business cannot be learned from books nor acquired at school. A theoretical course in business is only an introduction to its practice. It requires thorough training to make a successful business man. Employment in a prosperous and progressive establishment, affording as it does the opportunity for watching causes and effects, and stimulating a desire to excel in the duties imposed, is the only practical training school.

To enumerate causes of business failures would be an almost endless task. The causes are extremely numerous, but for the most part they are mixed up with one kind or another of inexperience. Buying cheaply and

selling at high prices are not the only conditions to insure success. Good buying is an art, the practice of which requires one to know many things and to understand many conditions. Speaking in general terms, goods can be bought cheapest when bought in a manner that causes the seller the least expense to make the sale. Therefore, the buyer's condition of solvency, his ability to pay promptly, his management of the details of his business, and other conditions peculiar to himself, all affect the prices that he pays for his goods. But all these are things which require forethought; that demand for their proper, employment an intelligent study of conditions and a thorough acquaintance with surroundings, which are only other names for experience.-G. W. WERLIN.

AS TO SIGHT DRAFTS.

It is an inflexible rule among some merchants never to accept a sight draft, no matter how great the provocation of the creditor, or how reasonable from the business point of view is this peremptory demand, for remittance. There are certainly two sides to this question, the same as any other, and the merchant who simply returns a draft marked "not accepted" without following the same with a word of explanation certainly weakens his position with the creditor who holds his overdue bills. It is one of those little things which affect a man's business standing more than he realizes. We have been very much interested in reading a short article by Mr. Arthur W. Foote, addressed to the merchants of the country, in which he says among other things:

The average business man is possibly too apt to overlook the effect of little things. It may be that he permits the draft made by a creditor for a natural account to go back unpaid, for lack of funds, carelessly giving the bank as a reason, "Amount not correct," or "Not due." Again, he orders it returned because of a petty claim against his creditors, or, perhaps more frequently, gives that as the reason for non-payment when there is another cause.

Most business houses send a notice of a draft to follow by first rendering a statement of account, showing details, the maturity of various bills being emphasized, and asking that a remittance be made, or the draft honored. Some houses notify their customers in other ways, and as a rule ample time is given for a reply to reach them, so that a payment or a claim can be duly considered before the draft goes forward.

Under these conditions it certainly is wrong to permit a creditor's draft to be returned, for he has shown you the courtesy that is due from one business man to another, and naturally expects similar treatment at your hands.

However, if one has been careless and not prepared for the draft which would have been withheld, upon proper and sufficient excuse being given, it is better to

give frankly the true reason, or to make some arrangement to protect the draft, whether correct or not, trusting your creditor to make good your claim. He, having trusted you with his goods, is justified in expecting you will rely upon him to correct some trivial difference.

It should be borne in mind that the handling of a natural account by a creditor is attended with expense, consequently you put him to unnecessary expense when you permit his draft to go into the bank's hands, only to be refused; nor is this all. His books show plainly whether you are in the habit of honoring a draft or not, and your credit is affected accordingly.—From an article in Shoe and Leather Facts.

HOW I DRESSED MY SHOW WINDOW.

Some time ago I had occasion to visit a wholesale house, and saw an extra fine lot of cinchona bark in almost perfect quills. It struck me that I could utilize some for dressing one of my windows. The idea is not by any means new, but a description of how I did the trick may be of interest. I borrowed several pounds of good quills, promising to return them shortly, also the original case in which they had been imported. About three inches from the top of the box I inserted three cross-pieces, on which the bark was laid so as to give the appearance of a full case. This was then labeled with the common and botanical names of the bark, and its habitat and uses. The case was placed in the center of the window, and back of it was suspended a sketch map of the world, the countries yielding cinchona bark being colored blue.

To the right of the case I set out a bottle each of quinine, cinchonine, cinchonidine, and quinidine sulphates and hydrochlorides, with this legend: "All these and several more are made from Cinchona Bark." Back of this part of the show I set up a percolator containing two pounds of the ground bark, and reversed on top of it a winchester of the U. S. P. menstruum for fluid extract. The percolate which was allowed to come through very slowly was received in a graduated jar. On another retort stand I had a liter separator containing 250 cubic centimeters each of the percolate and of benzol.

In a porcelain dish I placed some of the crude resinlike alkaloids which had been washed out of another bath, and in a second evaporating dish I put almost a quarter of an ounce of quinine sulphate. This combination was ticketed, "This is how quinine is made," and on the first dish was a label stating that it contained the crude alkaloids as obtained from the bark, and the second dish was labeled as containing the pure quinine sulphate.

On the other side of the case I set up another packed percolator, and a complete line of the preparations of cinchona, such as the extract, tincture, wine, etc., all with

my own label. Right in front of the case of bark and in the very front of the window I placed a 100-ounce quinine sulphate tin. This also I had borrowed; the label was intact, and the whole in good condition. The empty tin was filled to within two inches of the top with sawdust. This was carefully covered with white paper, sufficient margin being left to paste to the tin. I did not want to have any accident, and I did not want the public to get onto the fraud I was perpetrating. When the paper was well secured I poured on four ounces of quinine, spread it out carefully, and no one would have suspected that the tin contained anything but the real thing. Then a cardboard was attached to it with this legend: "This tin contains 100 ounces of quinine sulphate. It required 150 pounds of the best Cinchona Bark, and the greatest scientific skill, to make it."

Now we come to the point of the show. All around the back and the sides of the window I placed piles of Cincho-Fer, a tonic which I prepare, properly ticketed with prices and the uses for which it is recommended. The display made a lot of talk, for every one in town saw it, and as one result the sale of Cincho-Fer increased immensely. I intend making a series of these windows with different drugs, and to work in my own preparations at the same time.

This is one way to use show windows, and I think the right way. From an article by F. R. MACY in the Canadian Pharmaceutical Journal.

THAT LITTLE ACCOUNT.

The first object of keeping a set of books is, of course, to have a true record of all transactions; the second is to secure that record with as little labor as possible. You don't want any useless books, useless forms, or unnecessary red tape; the complicated methods of fifty years ago won't do to-day. They are as much out of date as a suit of clothes that's old.

All transactions must be entered if you want your books to show what your business is doing, but it is especially important that you have a complete record of amounts due you. Creditors will always remind you— debtors won't, sometimes. The first thing is to get the amount in a book. Don't trust to loose memoranda; any separate sheet of paper may be lost, and the smaller it is the more chance of it. At the same time you may not feel like making a regular entry of every ten, fifteen, or twenty-five cent charge that you have, running it through your sales-book and ledger, nor like having a separate set of books for petty entries. But you should have the record, and to suggest an easy and practical way of obtaining it is the purpose of this article.

Get an indexed book. The volume of your small charges may require the subdivision of the letters of the alphabet, or again, you may be able to combine two, three, or four letters. You can easily get a book to

suit you. Be sure that you have the book so arranged that the names in each section of the alphabet have plenty of room. Suppose that John Smith buys a quarter's worth of cigars on credit. You turn to S, or to Sm or to R S T, depending on the way you have indexed your book, which I will call a "scratcher," and enter the sale. John Smith, perhaps, has several charges during the month, amounting, for instance, to $3 65. If he comes in before the end of the month and wants to pay, you don't have to hunt through every charge for his account. There may be three or four other names in the same section as his, but not enough to make his amounts hard to find. Two or three minutes are sufficient to ascertain that he owes you $3.65, and when he pays you, you just mark, in red ink, the amounts "Paid $3.65," with a date in numbers "5-16-1900," and treat the amount as a cash sale. You have saved the trouble and time necessary to make ledger postings of the sales and a cash-book and ledger entry of the payment, and still you have a complete record of all transactions. The idea in marking the amount is that you will know how much he paid you.

At the first of the month you can make out your bills for the amounts as shown in the scratcher. Then, if you want, you can transfer them to your regular books by making a sales-book entry, "John Smith, May account as per scratcher, $3 65," which still saves you several entries. This transference can be shown by a sheet marked in black ink. You can check the amounts thus transferred by comparing the total of entries made in your sales-book with the total of amounts you have checked. The use of red ink to indicate payment and black for transference will prevent errors. It will not be necessary to transfer every amount from the scratcher to the sales-book; many of your bills will be paid on presentation. Such you can leave remain as scratcher entries and treat as cash sales when paid. Experience will teach, if it hasn't taught, which they are.

Any reduction of the number of your entries, beside the lessening of the possibility of error, makes your books less involved, and it is easier for you to see at a glance just what each account is. And the labor-saving is not the least virtue of the scheme. If you are keeping books all day long, you need all the short cuts you can get; if it is only a part of your duties, any time you can save from this mere drudgery can very properly be more advantageously used in more important matters.-A. H. CRAIG in The Spatula.

A CHAPTER ON SUPPOSITORIES.

The average prescription for suppositories calls for a small quantity, six to a dozen perhaps, and on this account the cold process-triturating, massing, and forming with the fingers-is to be preferred to molding, as it is much more expeditious.

In molding suppositories, it is more difficult to get good results, and there is always the risk of accident in removing them from the molds, which would necessitate the repetition of the operation. The medicaments prescribed are nearly always insoluble in cacao butter, and therefore are liable to be unevenly distributed through the mass, or if the distribution is successful the medicament may settle in the point of the suppository while cooling and make an unevenly colored and unsightly preparation. unsightly preparation. Where this is the case, aside from their unsightliness, they may prove irritating to the patient, owing to the concentration of the medicine in the point, and thus defeat the purpose for which they were prescribed.

The compressing machines, by which suppositories are molded by pressure, are likewise unsuitable for small quantities on account of the waste, whereby the medication of each suppository falls short of the amount prescribed, there being nearly as much waste in a batch of half a dozen as in a batch of a hundred. This waste comprises that part of the mass that sticks to and is left in the machine, and that which escapes around the sides of the plunger, an important quantity in a small batch.

Then, too, there is the impossibility of exactly calculating the amount of cacao butter to use when the medication is tannin, bismuth, or some other ingredient that is used in comparatively large proportion. All things considered, the cold process is preferable for prescription work, both as to time saving and efficiency of the finished product.

The cacao butter should be finely grated and mixed with five per cent of corn-starch by lightly shaking the two together in the glass-stoppered jar in which they are kept on the prescription case. The corn-starch prevents the particles of cacao butter from massing together in the container and allows of trituration without massing in use.

In making the suppositories the cacao butter and medicament should be lightly triturated together in a pill mortar until thoroughly mixed, care being taken to use as little pressure as possible so that the mass remain pulverulent until triturating is complete.

Then with a little lanolin the mass may be formed exactly as a pill mass is, the mass rolled out and divided on a five-grain pill machine, the cutter being pressed down about half-way through the mass.

The grooves of the pill machine thus form the suppositories, as to length and diameter, and it is only necessary to point the end, flatten the base, and eradicate the mark of the fracture where the suppositories were broken apart by rolling with a spatula. A dozen suppositories may be thus made in fifteen to twenty minutes. As working up and beating cacao butter slightly raises its melting point, it is quite admissible to use lanolin for massing.

In cases where it is necessary to use some wax in a mass, on account of warm weather or the presence of deliquescent salts like chloral hydrate, this may be done by melting together ten parts of white wax and ninety parts of cacao butter, and when cold grating the mixture up fine. The melting point of this mixture and also of the plain cacao butter used should be carefully ascertained and marked on the container of each. By combining the two at the time of using in proper proportion any desired melting point between their respective figures may be obtained, or any proportion of wax, from one to ten per cent, may be thus introduced into the mass. Starch U. S. P.-Corn-starch should be used for dusting suppositories, never lycopodium; the latter is irritating to mucous surfaces.-Portions of a paper presented by W. A. DAWSON to the New York State Pharmaceutical Association, and printed in the American Druggist.

HOW A COUNTRY DRUGGIST SECURED A PROFITABLE TRADE IN BLACK PEPPER.

In our country town with its adjacent farming community quite an important season is the fall "butchering," which begins late in November and runs well through December. For weeks beforehand the people, principally the working class, discuss the weight of their hogs, the quantity of lard and sausage they will make, and the various methods of curing, smoking, and pickling hams, shoulders, etc.

The old method of smoking meat was to hang it in a smoke-house, and for several weeks to burn under it a slow fire of hickory wood. More recently pyroligneous acid solutions are used, and the outside of the meat is simply washed over. A druggist in a near-by town has acquired quite a reputation for a preparation of this kind, which he calls "Liquid Smoke," and for which he has a profitable sale. Accordingly druggists are interested in butchering.

Two years ago I determined to make an effort to secure the trade for the black pepper used in making sausage at this butchering time. Previously my annual sale of pepper was probably not more than twenty-five pounds. The grocers seemed to have the pepper trade as well as the trade in ground spices.

One day in passing a grocery store that had recently been sold out, I noticed a large coffee-mill still in the room. An idea struck me: I would grind pepper. Stepping in, I found the mill almost new and in excellent condition. I inquired if it were for sale. The owner said yes; he would take ten dollars for it, though it had cost him nearly thirty. I bought it on the spot.

Right away I ordered a bale of Singapore grain pepper, and just before the butchering season began I advertised on my window: "PURE PEPPER FOR BUTCHERING! OUR OWN GRINDING." Then one bright day I set

the mill on a box on the sidewalk in front of my store, stood the open bale of whole pepper alongside, and hung up a card: "THIS PEPPER WILL BE GROUND HERE TODAY." I then hired two men at 50 cents each, and set them at work turning the wheels.

My display at once attracted attention. Passers-by stopped and examined the grains and got the strong aroma of the freshly ground pepper. Comments were various, but everybody agreed in saying: "Well, that's the pure stuff anyhow." I soon saw that it was good advertising.

Thinking it would be well to have the pepper done up in conveninent packages, it occurred to me that a glass container would be the best, and quart Mason fruit jars struck me as just the thing. They were cheaper than tin boxes, and would be more useful in the household when empty. I found they would hold just about a pound of pepper, and I bought a gross, as I was satisfied they would answer the purpose and help sell the pepper.

The next day I set the mill in the front window, made a display of the jars filled with pepper, and hung up placards: "PURE FRESH PEPPER! Our Own GRINDING— 20 CENTS A QUART."

Trade opened at once. Customers recommended my pepper to their neighbors, and I soon saw people coming into my store who had never been in it before. When the season fore. When the season was over I had sold more than three hundred pounds of pepper, and as it cost in the grain that year six cents a pound, and the jars a little over three cents each, my profit was about 100 per cent.

Later I found that a smaller package for table use would sell readily throughout the year, so I now carry pint jars filled with pure pepper to meet a regular and increasing demand.

Furthermore, I have used the same idea in other lines, for I sell bicarbonate of soda and powdered borax in pint Mason jars, and my sales in these articles have run up wonderfully. The bicarbonate of soda costing by the keg two cents a pound sells readily at ten cents, thus giving a profit of five cents.

By a few methods of this kind and a little effort in convincing people of the purity of his goods, there is no reason why the druggist should not have the bulk of the spice trade also. Cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, pepper, and mustard as sold by the ordinary grocer are not usually the best goods, and the druggist can easily get a reputation for strong, pure spices. Then by putting them up in convenient packages-jelly tumblers answer well-he can soon build up a profitable little addition to his regular business. Of course a neatly printed label bearing the druggist's name should be attached to each package.-C. J. WOLFE in the American Druggist.