St. Louis Post-Dispatch
January 22, 1911

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~ §T. LOUIS, SUNDAY MORNING, TANUARY 22, in. “e TELS ~MARGI , “VOL. 3. NO. 155.

ARKER” “If the Women Will Stay Home and Take Care of Their Own Fumaces They May Accomplish Something. “All This~ Publicity Just: Antagonizes People---Big Manufacturers Have Feelings, the Same as Other People.” “Every Cranky Furnace Has Its Peculiarities and Must Be Treated Ditferently.” "I Know 1 Can Stop the Smoke Nuisance in St. Louis if I Am Let Alone.” “Sixty Per Cent of the Smoké Comes’ Out of - the Resident Districts of the City.”

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Ai Bly at Avs. > ‘ ee, ae Ss. r Se ai ey 2 4 ie te i hab “ : Oe, SAMAK Silane , : 7 2 . libel : > x t say ~ + nf a > —e* v7 . a . > A 2 ee. G4 aT + + “es oI toe } oa vod te "x me, 4, , , : he AOE 2 ‘ lie _ a” -ARIET IN “THE. cLovuns 4 nce THIS ws ‘SMOKE INSPECTOR PSRKER.. AS HE DOES NOT APPEAR, Post-Disatc Writer and Illustr.tor Inspects the Smoke ~ Inspector and Finds He Is Bearing Up Bravely Under

the: ‘Avalanche of What se sah hy : \ % fat AE Dy mo nen ceonmneres Women Are Saying. About and Ruined Gowns and Lace Curtains.

: RE ( {UERITE MARTYN, 13 Met awe is responsible for the wreck lips when gloves that? Were in become like unto a chimney _ grreep's In the course of, a street ear ride down : Savin: white, oe : faces and ° necks are revealed sand lace yokes; when ionce snowy. lingeric mt es tar ahd féathers after a stroll on the‘ when we must ‘proudly simulate a: pref- ie ie : ‘for'dun-colored garments that won't show } 1 while: white | furs and pastel shades are? ns a: Ihave heard applied to THAT nie s nb! bling ot “smoke: “talk toute long have re- | <p ple yoleano. And lately every ) ual woman would have taken on the ap- “I don’t need this publicity. : ) ot. a veritable chimney. And every teal m » bride - party, kaffee klatsch haa’ become { years. unto | which those stag affairs the ‘ mila in comparison. a big talkative club like the Wednes- ‘eet some ‘Conversation into cir- } know about producing it?’ I inquired. Pog: - : nd ‘to them is due the eredit for pre-}. reBent. general uprising and riot- {. sons against the smoke evil. Nor): mes } of smoke talk been permitted . } thin ri but deeds have rah ree “aie. another has fumed | -of extricating from the | 3 . ; ‘man at whom the volleys have (. roadside. . The position of a lone man| we Durden of the’ blame for! } the. otherwise fair, ay be Ldthadittigs it to a com- bate own sex, I felt re- ire to the Smoke Inspec- | ity “ae to find not * gloomy, | “peda ‘but the Smoke In-' ly by the brightly polished | “Which everywhere point. | Elevator Kpapacter, Street | | what ts not news) or had died’ of | veancitye. with the pattérns of our face ; ( “The system I have adopted is this: I write | ) age to get him up here in the office. Then we, 4S wa - jocularity, he ‘informed me. He has © regular Teddy Roosevelt expanse of *teeth and permanent furrows plowed in .his, chesoks by ‘smiles. But conversation was not invaded by lev- ity in the least degree. Mr. ’Parker did not éxactly beam upon me. -At the same time I found him unworried and unappalled by the enormity of the i problem confronting him. Serene and confident is ha that he can and will accomplish his elected task (.iffonly he is’ let entirely alone. As for the { agitation, he rather suspects ‘there’ is one and that he in some quarters is being. held respon- sible: But he is deaf and blind to it, as no (information has come ‘to him officially and , through the lawfully authorized channels. He doesn’t read the newspapers. His equanimity is not at all disturbed. : Knows Every Unique Plant. ; HEN I at last discovered Mr. Parker in the VW inner office, lost in the recesses of his big chair, dictating .to a handsome .stenog- rapher, nobody eould have blamed him for being resentful of intrusion... “I don’t know. that I have swing to Lie out to the papers,” he began’ when’ I had mentioned the Post-Dispatch’ and he had. knitted his brows apparently trying hard sto remember where he had heard that. name before. . ee Everybody knows me. I've been in business in St.. Lotiis' about 26 I was a boiler contractor before I took ) this office. I venture to say I am famillar with the engine room of every plant in the city.” “And do you think you khow as much about \ dcing away with smoke. as the ¢ngines seem to “But of course you do,” I hastily corrected “myself, “or ‘you wouldn't be in office.” “I know beyond peradventure or any ques- tion that I can stop the smoke in St. Louis, if I am let alone,”’ he announced with decision. “But I have my own way and nobody tan tell me any- thing about it.” ° ; Pictures Make ‘Em Mad. A eas you mind telling us what is your | till ti i way?" “Oh, that would be impossible. Each | ease has to be treated with individually.’ All this publicity just antagonizes people. We are all hu- man beings, just one big family, full of faults. | , And big manufactuvers have feelings the same ‘| ' as other people. Now, you print a picture of a man’s plant and that just makes him mad. I- know how it made me,feel when you printed | stute about the. smoke from the city hall and } other city bulildings.. I never look at_a news- | { paper any more. ' There is too much levity { on the side of the press and public, This is a! serious matter to me. ): F ' z } } ie, eT : three letters to an offender against the smoke! | Ordinance. By the second idetter I usually man- josh and jolly him along.” “Diplomacy?” I remarked, “Yes. Isn't that the way all the big nations | of the world are handled? That surely is a sys- tem that has been tried and proven. “Well, before the plant owner, leaves here I al-' have his promise. that he will take steps to r condition by tomorrow |

LE eh OAR, OS Peat ag ‘plant in at 10. Saas I always make it to-(

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MR: PARKER IS CLETAIN HE CAN ABOLISH THE SMOKE ALL BY HIMSELF. — ' ? firri up to eghame and tngominy before the public? “If the Post-Dispatch would print the pictures ot the stacks that have reduced their smoke I! would give them alt the information they wanted.” Women Haven’t Helped Yet. VAY: are some of the three or four hundred, then?’ “Why, all the breweries are putting in smoke consumers right along and many of the laundries and one ice company is putting one of its plants in proper condition right now.” “Are you co-operating with the women in their campaign of smoke inspection?” ‘Didn't know they had one. They sent to me for some report cards and I gave them out. But hew. am I to know anything about their move- ments except through these card reports, and J haven’t received one yet.” Then I informed him something of the great amount of feeling and energy the women are ex- pending informing themselves upon the manners and habits of furnaces, districting the city, inter- viewing stokers, matching and comparing the various colors and degrees of density of the smoke and volunteering their assistance to the Smoke Inspector. ’ “Do you think they can accomplish anything?” I asked. “So far as the campaign of education among themselves is concerned, yes,”” he exclaimed with decision. “I went out to the Wednesday Club and tried to give them some technical information. Now, if they will stay home and take care of their own furnaces they may accomplish something. For 60 per cent of the smoke comes out of the residence district.” Know What Combustion Is? FEAR my gaze had begun to stray out of the window of Mr. Parker’s office where a dense blanket of smoke veiled in mystery the whole downtown district and great billows of variously graded smoke clouds in lazily moving masses evolved wonderful pictures in monochrome, Wasn't it Mrs. Pattison who discovered a source of consolation for this’ oppression when she de- clared upon her authority as an art critic that it needed only the soul of an artist to appreciate these atmospheric effects in St. Louis yes, even in Mii) Creek Valley? Well, when Mr. Parker be- gan recommenaing alliterative soft soap and ab- sent treatment. for.smoke offenders my hopes listlessly were resorting to Mrs. Pattison’s rem- edy. But at this assertion of Mr. Parker that 60 per cent of the nuisanceis created in the: homes, I woke up to wonder.if out in Portland place or Hawthorne beulevard and beyond King’s highway, among practical] and fastidious householders, the smoke could be so plainly evident and insistent as here at Twelfth street without having long ago caused a more riotous demonstration than even the pres- ent anti-smoke agitation. : “T went out to the Wednesday Club and I also supplied a delegation from the Teachers’ College with some technical data,” went on Mr. Parker.

1 FORMATION oF. SMOKE | INSPECTOR. PerectR

“T suspect it has something to do with smoke?” I replied. . “Not complete combustion. Combuétion,” he repeated, studiously, “is an element which is two parts oxygen and one part carbon in the presence or suitable heat. Smoke, the soot you can pick up on your finger, is free carbon or carbon mon- oxide or CO or incomplete combustion. It is when you have carbon dioxide or CO2 that you have complete combustion.” + “But the smoke,” I brought up abruptly coming to again—for my eyes would irreverently stray to that ble smokescape out there. I found my- self absently counting 40, 41, 42 chimneys as they mischievously played hide and seek behind the big billowing smoke pillows.

ine Parker, will. you please tell me. the cause of the smoke jn St. Louis and if there is any hope o7 its ever being done away with?” “Well, the causes are innumerable and each furnace must be treated differently. Bad furnace construction, undersized stacks, undersized bollers, improper. care and burning of. coal, the hab nearly all furnace tenders have of stirring up smoke with the poker or shaking as grates. But you can’t hand out rules, - “ag I \may, ‘every cranky -fasnace has. its own peculiarities and has to be. treated differently, and I know them all. “Yes, the smoke can be abolished,” he ‘sald | “have Pooecaivsr amped co!

* * “No, I atuies a phi had I wouldn't give it to « Know me wthoat any ae tisement.” i yer “But the People are always desk. Some of them good, some bad. But Jw

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