The Decatur Daily Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 11

PAGE ELEVEN. jffraM and Review Sunday Magazine, August 14, 1932, Backyard Industries Replace Regular Jobs for Many Decatur Workers x- ZM piL jf I office. $1 Ci. TfTT J7V7T'. JAWsi 4T' EiN Twenty 's C5sJ XjMSl Ja.fV street helps him keep up with 17 I i-' I -ti.

a- rders while Bobby I4 ilr1 i trip rrml xM I fp tfeS'-J Wyatt Logan and Cecil Smith have added basket weaving to other farm chores on rural route 3, Decatur. Between farm jobs they bring a truck load of their merchandise to Decatur for sale. Charles Matheny has made berry boxes on a small scale for years. The depression did not hurt his business, he has taken in sons of his friends and neighbors to learn the trade. The enlarged factory has been doing well.

Handicraft, Once Recrea tion, Has Become the Means of Livelihood for Industrious Men and omen. By CHARLES M. SWART Herald -Rcvic'c Staff Reporter) ECATUR persons are hecomine -ircustomed to living with the depression, are turning it to their own ends. There is Earl Brownie? 1259 North Cm ton. who for years had been employed fin Decatur construction jobs as a carrier He had made, good money, worked regularly, saved as much as he could.

Kut the depression brought a stop to const -if lion, and work stopped with it. Kis savings were wiped out and it looked though he w.uld have to depend on char-i'v. F-ut Mr. Erownlee conceived an idea A not only makes him a meager lii'ing, helps his friends and neighbors to make ir.twv for themselves. With willows growing lush in the river he decided to try his hand at furniture.

He experimented a while he hd worked out several serviceable isisns. Then he started hauling in trees limbs, making them into chairs and benrhf-s. Poon he found that he could sell the ri-h willow furniture faster than he eonM make it. The sets sold at a low price. were anxious to buy porch nr lawn furniture that would stand the lend rustic atmosphere.

Mr. Krownlee enlisted the help of neigh-and friends. Xow in the yard of a virant house at the intersection of Grand avfmie and Clinton street, a factory hums. HOWARD BROWN. 21.

Brush College road, found thnt he had matured nt a time husky young men with to go to work, make money, were a cn the market. He searched the town work, found noihing but statements factories and shops already were with employes and extra-lists. Thpn he noticed that a great many that passed his home on Brush road carried fishing poles on the He wondered where these fishermen En their bait. Some cf them, he knew. and dug worms or seined for But many of the cars carried "f.n that he thought must be too busy with 'h'r things to dig worms.

When they rst fishing they went for the sport of it, thought. So they wouldn't want to take f.rr. to hunt bait befcre starting. He took his minnow seine ar.d brought a Rood supply. His neighbor had spaded a cariien.

found a number of angle worms, i it himself, picked up a good sup-P'V. Then he made the rounds of the neigh-hrhood and got his friends to save worms him. A sign in front of his home announced hait could be bought at nom-ial prices. It wasn't lone before fishermen stopping regularly to stock up with nit. Mr.

Brown built a concrete minnow pond this year, keeps it stocked, and makes hit living expenses. Closely akin to the bait selling idea, is the fish market plan that furnishes gocd "catches' for luckless fishermen. Unemployed men with nothing to do but to fish, put in their full time at that. The law averages and the knowledge gained by constant, fishing, brings them a productive catch. On almost any river road, near almost any bridce across Lake Pecatur, these fishermen are to be found.

They "il camp beside the road or take quarters ft nrarr-y cabin. Their signs announce: "Fresh Fish For Sale." sion Consequently he took in the sons of several of his friends and neighbors, taught them the art cf making the baskets out of prepared wood. JCow he turns out thousands of the crates and containers, selling them to fruit and berry growers, to produce houses, wherever they are needed in large quantities. WOMEN, in the meanwhile, have turned to cake baking and to other household novelties in which they excelled in better days, to which they now turn for much needed Of course women always have baked cakes and pies for extra money. But never before have so many women entered into it in earnest-Men and boys have taken up automobile washing in their home garages, adding the task of polishing and waxing the cars for a slight additional charge for the washing.

Almost every filling station has on file a number of names of men and boys who will call for a car, wash and polish it, return it within a given time. Women who have played piano for years for their own entertainment, are placing cards in the windows announcing that thev will give lessons to pupils. Other instruments also are being taught in home studios. Children who are slow in school are being tutored this summer at small rates by teachers who have been without employment or without pay for months. Rabbit' breeding, alwaj-s a popular hobby in Decatur, has been the salvation of some of its adherants.

Men who were emploved in shops or businesses, who bought fine rabbits and raised them for show purposes, find themselves selling the prize animals for the oven. Their hobby has become their livelihood. Any housewife can tell you, after answering the door a score of times on a busy-wash day. that Decatur people have a will to live. They are trying to adapt themselves to present conditions.

They are doing their best to invent new jobs and crafts, to replace the ones that failed them in the last three years. over the lot Practically all the cages were turned over, but he didn't lose a single animal. If I had been a minute late getting those bulls out, though, there is no telling what would have happened." It is a. point of pride with Mr. Noyes that he loses very few animals.

By watching their diet, keeping their cages clean, and knowing what medicines to give them when anything goes wrong, he keeps them in health during the long summer's grind. The loss of an animal is a serious matter, for most of them are expensive. They range' in price much by size, from the smaller monkeys that cost upward from $25. to the elephants, which cost in the thousands. A "green" or untrained elephant, may cost from $2,500 to one that has been trained well may bring $10,000 or more.

That is another reason why there are no bullets in Mr. Beatty's pistols. A good "green" cat may cost from $250 to trained ones are practically impossible to buy. Circuses don't want any of their lions or tigers shot. The movie company that goes to Africa to make its thrillers may give its cameramen and actors the protection of a squad of gun-bearers carrying and ready to use high-powered rifles loaded with real bullets.

Both Mr. Beatty and Mr. Noyes have worked on "African" locations in Hollywood (practically all the Hagenbeck-Wallace menagerie was used in the filming of And both know that when an actor or a trainer undertakes to give a bit of realism to a "jungle" scene in Hc'lywood. he has only the protection of paper bullets and his own nerve. Howard Brown, a young man who found no market for his brawn, has discovered a living in selling select worms and minnows to anglers too busy to provide their own bait.

A new concrete minnow pond is evidence of expansion of his business. CHARLES MATHENY, 1050 East William street, who for years had supplied Decatur's markets with fruit, berry, and vegetable baskets, found that his business did not suffer seriously from the depres With Death state this seems to be a characteristic method of meeting the depression. So wide spread has it become that the state health department has sent out a warning against carelessness on the part of venders and customers. was a man's pride and joy. I used to try to copy my teacher's writing.

That's where I learned to write fancy, like this and he scrolled out a calling card with curls and queues on every letter. (Continued from Page 9). and feel the heat here as much as if they had never been in the tropics. They have to have air, and their cages are left open all the time except when the circus train Is moving or during a storm. 'W1 IND is the thing most feared by a circus man.

I remember an occa sion in Maryland Junction, severaT years ago, when a windstorm came up suddenly while everyone was over at the mess tent eating dinner. Only three or four of the roustabouts and I were in the menagerie tent. A clown came in and warned us that a bad storm was coming up fast. "I told the boys to close the cages and while they were doing that I ran over and began striking the leg chains off the elephants. There were 20 of those bulls and I hadn't even thought to pick up a gaff to manage them with.

But they knew there was trouble in the air, and were not in a mood to start anything. With nothing but my bare hands I got them out of the tent, off the lot, and over into a nearby wheat field before the wind hit. "It blew like the mischief for four or five minutes, then it was all over. Those bulls were scared half to death. They showed no disposition to run away.

They huddled together and all of them wanted to stand as close to me as they could. My problem, instead of being to keen them together, was to keep them from squeezing in on me too much. "Everything had gone down but the big Playing And their fish are fresh. They still swim in tubs of water when the less lucky fishermen, who pause to pick out a good string to take home, buy them. Having been hooked by the professional fisherman, the fish need only to be strung on the amateur's line, carried home to the frying pan.

ME ST persistent of the depression ureakers are Wyatt Logan and Cecil Smith, rural -route three, who appear on the streets this summer with a truck load of baskets, chairs and ornaments made of 4 strips of wood. These were made last winter when farm tasks were at low ebb. Hickory and white pine trees were cut into fine strips and woven into baskets, chairs, and ornaments while the strips were pliable. Permitted to dry. the material took on rigidity, made servicable merchandise that also was ornamental enough to appeal to the eye of the average housewife.

Now, with the summer work on the farm touching a lull period, the youths are peddling the baskets and chairs from house to house in the city. They are selling enough of them to make their living expenses. They expect their handicraft to net them enough money to tide them and their families over the winter. But wayside of articles other than baskets-and chairs have increased in numbers. There are men who carry about tiny ice boxes, selling frozen refreshments through the office buildings and business houses to clerks and businessmen who have no time to leave their work.

There are, of course, roadside stands for cold drinks, sandwiches, produce. Home made ice cream has appeared on the market, together with frozen puddings. Not only in Decatur, but all over the FRANK A. WISE. 526 East Grand avenue, found work slow in his chosen business, contracting.

But he found also that householders were seizing upon the present time to improve the appearance of their homes. Women and men alike were turning to the appearance of their yards, finding the need of repair here, the need of construction of trifling pieces there. So Wise started building trellises, pagodas, and other garden pieces. He also developed a reputation in the neighborhood as a When a doll broke or a screen door wouldn't' function, or a waffle iron wouldn't heat or an ice box wouldn't chill, the household calls on Mr. Wise.

"Usually," he said. "I fix what they bring to me. I always do my best." But as soon as the depression slacks up, Mr. Wise says, he is going to get back into his own kind of work. Then there is the man who once was a personal secretary to a wealthy social light in the East.

He was well trained in the ways of society, but his best bet, when the depression forced his employer to release him, was his hand writing. But no one could afford, in hard times, to pay for penmanship, especially in an age of typewriters. "Yes sir," said Leroy Collins, for that was his name. "I used to live here. I learned to write in the old ward school that stood where the Gastmarr" school is now.

Those were the days when penmanship Bert Noyes. superintendent of the Hagenbeck-Wallace menagerie. statt Photo. top. The main poles of the menagerie tent were snapped and the cam-as spread all.