forestry is practical and financial.

September saw the departure of most of New Hampshire's "summer folks," above referred to, although a few of the large hotels in the mountains and highlands remain open into October and many owners of summer homes continue to occupy them until snow flies, appreciating fully the facts that autumn days in New Hampshire are in many respects the most beautiful of the year.

Vacationists, going from New Hampshire, met on the way school and college boys returning to Dartmouth, St. Paul's and Phillips Exeter, all of which institutions have been forced, as usual, to turn away intending students because of lack of accommodations. This is also true of New Hampshire University, and because, here, it is New Hampshire boys and girls who are for the most part the sufferers, the story of overcrowding and work done under unfavorable conditions makes the greater impression. In many of the cities of the state the public schools, also, are laboring under the same handicap of insufficient housing. The light breaks through these clouds, however, on such occasions as the dedications of the new high school buildings at Laconia and Conway, the latter structure a memorial to A. Crosby Kennett from his widow and sons. Both buildings are splendidly adapted to the purposes of modern education.

Of educational as well as social interest were the annual meetings of the State Federation of Woman's Clubs at Durham and the state association of librarians at Hampton Beach, during the month. A notable event, simply but suitably commemorated, was the centennial anniversary of the New Hampshire Historical Society.

Most of the New Hampshire agricultural fairs were held during September, with entire success. At that glorified fair, the Eastern States Exposition, in Springfield, Mass., New Hampshire, this year, after a period of absence, once more was worthily represented.

New Hampshire raised with gratify

ing ease its quota of Red Cross relief for Japan.

Governor Fred H. Brown presented the views of New Hampshire as to the future of the New England railroads to the interstate commerce commission.

During the month two financial statements of pleasing import were made. from the capital. According to State Treasurer George E. Farrand the net debt of the commonwealth at the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 1923, was $181,966.85, having been lowered by $763,705.97 during the year, one half of which was during the administration of Governor Albert O. Brown, Republican, and the other half during that of Governor Fred H. Brown, Democrat. Other good evidence of thrift was the announcement by Chairman James O. Lyford of the state bank commission that during the same period the deposits in the 66 savings institutions under its supervision increased $12,719,462.01, now amounting to $162,293,906.02.

After nine months of harmony, the Democratic Governor and the Republican majority of his Executive Council reached a deadlock, in September, over the appointment of a member of the police commission in the city of Manchester; and the war between the farmers and the gunners over the damage done to apple orchards by partridges broke out afresh because of the delay experienced by the agriculturists in securing a settlement of their claims under the law of 1923. -H. C. P.

A

crowded grandstand on a hot October afternoon. The smell of peanuts and popcorn. The monotonous tones of boys hawking soft drinks and "Official Scores." A portly gentleman in shirtsleeves with hat pushed back on his moist forehead. Beside him, in the shadow of his corpulence, a wide-eyed small boy with the expression of one about to behold mysteries. Beyond the boy a thin stoop shouldered youth with the air of a dusty office clinging about him. And below, the focus of the eyes of these three and of those of the thousands of others who crowd the grandstands and the bleachers, a well worn patch of ground on which are already moving tiny figures in grey and white uniform, warriors in the great contest which shall decide for another year the world championship in the Great American Game. These are familiar things to the baseball fan. Familiar also the thrill which comes as the pitcher releases the first ball of the game and it comes speeding with incredible swiftness toward the plate. Familiar also the thrill which comes as thud of running feet and the sigh of the crowd as the ball drops at last into the fielder's glove far down the field. But were it possible, in the space while the next batsman takes his place, to show you close-ups of bat and glove and mitt, one more familiar thing might be added to the list the Sign of the Lucky Dog

-The Editors. which stands on the top of a Plymouth factory on the Daniel Webster Highway. For the New Hampshire product manufactured in that factory has no small part in the Big League Game.

There are only a few firms in the United States which do a high grade sporting goods business; and among these Draper and Maynard stands high. Refusing to compete with other manufacturers in quantity production of cheap goods, the firm has built up such a reputation for quality that the name

synonymous with the best materials and workmanship wherever games are played. Draper and Maynard is a growing concern, and its growth is based entirely upon the production of the highest grade of sporting goods which can be made. And because competition based upon quality is good clean sportsmanlike competition, Mr. Maynard can say with pride, "We have no competitors. They are all our friends. Why, when we had our fire here in 1912, every competitor without exception wrote us just as soon as the news reached him, offering us the use of any part of his factory for any process of our manufacture, until we could get on our feet again."

Plymouth was a glove town in the old days. Down in Glove Hollow about two miles from the present village, in a little square frame building, a few workmen cut out buckskin driving

gloves, bundled them into packages and sent them out to the farmers' wives oi the neighborhood to be sewed. The story goes that the industry which made. Gloversville, N. Y., almost settled in Plymouth, that the Englishmen bent upon founding the business came first to the New Hampshire town in search of a site but were persuaded away from New England by some enterprising New York Jews who offered them a factory already built for their purposes. Had an enterprising Board of Trade in Plymouth been able to offer counter inducements, the history of the town might have been different from what it has been. But in the light of later developments one cannot think too regretfully of the loss of this business.

It was not very much later, in 1882 or thereabouts, that Arthur Irwin, professional baseball player, designed a padded glove and brought his design to Plymouth to find a manufacturer. In the years that followed, the glove salesmen who went out from Glove Hollow carried as a novelty and curiosity a few

samples of the odd glove, and in many cases merchants pushed up glove sales by using in their windows, displays of the freak gloves to draw the attention of the crowds.

From that beginning has grown the great business of Draper and Maynard. From Glove Hollow the business moved to Ashland and thence to Plymouth, and to-day it comprises not only the main brick building which is a familiar landmark of the town, but also several smaller workrooms in various parts of the town, a new storehouse down by the tracks, a knitting factory up the river. And even to-day, though to a much less extent than formerly, farmers' wives in the surrounding country make a little pin money in long winter evenings by sewing covers on baseballs.

The business has been in a unique sense a local institution. To one who has recently visited the Amoskeag or other of our large mills it is something of a surprise to look down the work rooms and see only good Yankee faces. Most of the employees come from Ply

mouth and the surrounding farms. Nearly all of them are native Americans; all of them take in their work the pride of skilled artisans. And the management is proud of the help. "We have the best help in New England," said the manager, "and we have a fine record for holding our employees. Some twenty-five of them have been with us over twenty-five years each. One of them has been in our employ fortyseven years. He 'got through' for good the other day, but he will be back again before the year is out. And when he comes back his job is waiting for him."

In its human relations, in the homogeneity of its help, the company has a provincial, homely atmosphere. But as soon as one turns to the product itself, one is startled by the fact that in so small a compass are gathered materials of such variety from so many corners of the earth.

Here is the room where men are winding baseballs-some 200 dozen a day the year round. This man is stamping out covers from horsehide-alum tanned. One hundred and forty horse hides a day are required to keep the department running at reasonable speed and some of the hides come from the eating horses of Russia and France and Germany. Over there little two ounce balls of pure Para rubber from the West Indies are being wound with woolen yarn which had its origin on the backs of sheep on the western prairies and far Australia. It takes 1040 feet of yarn to make one baseball. The balls which are made in this fashion are the best grade, some few of them will attain the Official League Stamp. But there are other balls built in the factory softer playground balls, indoor baseballs, balls which do not require the standard center. In these instead of the rubber from Para may be used sponge from the Florida reefs, bought by the schooner load for this purpose. Instead of woolen yarn to wind around the center, one may find goat hair from

Siberia, cattle hair from Chili, scraps from an English tennis ball factory (practically the entire waste from this kind of production finds its way to Plymouth), sweepings from a cotton mill, trimmings from a felt hat factory, shoddy, curled hair. Five hundred cowhides a week go into the manufacture of baseball gloves, footballs, basketballs, etc., and these hides come from Sweden and Switzerland, from English tanneries, from South America. For some grades of baseball gloves and for the softer boxing gloves, sheep skins are imported from Australia Australia or brought from Southern California. Kapoc from Java and from the Philippine Islands, Mississippi cotton and Sea Island cotton, goat skins from Asia, deer skins from Canada: one could go on enumerating the countries which contribute their choicest products for the manufacture of New Hampshire sporting goods. Only the best of each kind of material comes in, for only the best is good enough to use.

But the quality of Draper and Maynard materials does not stop with materials. Several times during its manufacture every ball, every glove, every piece of equipment is rigidly examined for possible defects. And for final testing out of new ideas, there is the "laboratory" ball park across the way, maintained by the company, in which the boys and men of Plymouth, in hotly contested games, try out the very latest things in equipment.

Quality counts. The combination of the best materials and the most expert workmanship has results. It is the claim of the company that nearly 90% of the professional ball players of the country. use Draper and Maynard goods. That glove with the signature of Babe Ruth stamped upon it is not just a model named after a great player, with the idea of catching the eye of the customer. It is really made from the pattern Babe Ruth prefers. And he ought to know what a good glove is.

T

HROUGHOUT New England today the Playground is considered a city institution and impractical in a town. True, it has been developed in the city where the needs and conditions of city life have shaped its ideas and methods. On the other hand, the great success of the Drake Field in Pittsfield, a town of two thousand people located fifteen miles from the nearest city, proves conclusively that the Playground belongs to the small town as much as to the city.

Outside the one fact that he has more room for play in his own dooryard, the country boy needs the supervised Playground just as much as his city cousin, perhaps more. Each day parents tell us how glad they are send their children to a place where there is no danger from passing autos. Others speak of the relief that comes from the feeling that someone else will attend

each one plays fairly. In the country the "bully" offers a problem of the same type as the city "gang." On a Playground we have the "bully" at a grave disadvantage, for he does not dare to plague the little ones or try to enforce his will. It does not take long for them to learn that each must wait for his turn and that mere size and strength are of no avail if the majority wish otherwise. At the outset of this experiment it would have been folly to forecast the phenominal success that has attended

this venture. During the past two months more than 24,000 people have been on the Field, an average of over 450 a day. Under these conditions the fact that there has not been a single accident on the Field requiring the presence of a doctor becomes all the more remarkable. Furthermore, we challenge any Playground to rival our record of not a single piece or part of our extensive equipment lost or stolen in the past two years.

to the little ones for a few hours each day. Another comment, frequently made, is that these children are so busy that they can do no mischief and learn no bad habits.

From the point of view of the children, the field offers the chance to have a good time in a hundred different ways. They find a large number of new games. and many kinds of apparatus on which to do stunts. Above all, there is someone to watch everything and see that

Nearly every New England town has a large Common or some sort of Park, a part of which could be used for this purpose without alteration. Aside from the upkeep of the grounds, the expense of the Playground supervision and equipment has cost the Town of Pittsfield less than five hundred dollars during the past year. What better investment can be made in the health and happiness of our children?