Harpers Ferry Station Sign; Engineers Searching for Paint Mixer

Painter’s Secret.
The living worth of good work is always recognized, even in small things. Sign-painters do not usually achieve wealth or fame, yet the Chicago News declares that fortune awaits the man who painted a station sign at Harper’s Ferry, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, shortly after the completion of the line at that point. The Western Society of Engineers has the sign on exhibition at their rooms.

The engineers are trying to ascertain who mixed the paint and applied it to the sign, which was placed in position at Harper’s Ferry station about thirty years ago. The summer’s heat and winter’s storms have in no way dimmed the lustre of the paint used to make the words “Harper’s Ferry.” They stand out as boldly as the day they were formed by the artist’s brush.

The wood around the letters has been worn about one-sixteenth of an inch by sand beaten against it by fierce winds, but the letters have withstood the elements.

It is asserted that no paint manufactured nowdays is equal in durability to that which was applied to the old sign, and if the person who mixed it is living and will take advantage of the secret he possesses as to its composition it is said he can, by engaging in the paint manufacturing business, soon accumulate wealth.