Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931), Wednesday 14 December 1904, page 10


J. M. WENDTS JEWELLERY

EMPORIUM.

The jewellery and watchmaking firm of VT. M. Wendt, of Rundle Street, was estab-lished in Adelaide in 1854, and it celebrated its jubilee this year by building a large, modern establishment that" is second to none of its kind in Australasia. For some time before the demolition of the old shop, and the erection of the new premises, the business of the firm had grown to such an enormous extent that the space available for the display of an immense variety of articles, exhibiting the jeweller's art m the highest degree, was totally inadequate. Ample room, however, is now provided by the imposing new building, the spacious entrance to which from the street is orna-mented with beautiful Mosaic tiles, whde there is a suitable Wunderlich pressed metal ceiling. The walls throughout the building are constructed of Metropolitan red bricks, while the frontage to Rundlestreet is built of double-pressed bricks, neatly tuck-pointed, with cor-nices and dressings, finished in Portland cement. On either side of the entrance is a large expanse of plateglass for the show .windows, the upper portions being closed in with cathedral leaded-lights. Two large semi-circular leaded triple-light plateglass Windows have been placed above the en-trance, and between them hangs the large clock that marked the entrance to the old premises. The front shop with the show-room in the rear is a spacious apartment. Exclusive of the sloping show windows, measuring 12 ft-, which display the goods to the best advantage, the length of the shop and showroom is 115 ft., with a width of 22 ft. Along the western and eastern walls for this entire length are elaborate fehow-cases, reaching to the ceiling from the floor, while there are also somewhat simi-lar cases for displaying jewellery in cen-tral positions in the shop. In the show-room there are wonderful collections of fancy articles and leather goods, besides bronze and brass ware of unique designs. ÎTesh stocks are being continually received, and splendid provision has been made for fully catering for the wants of the public during Christmas week. The arrangements for thoroughly lighting the whole building by means of overhead areas are perfect, the most improved style having been adopted, and Tobin tubes provide a perfect system of ventilation. At the rear of the premises are the general office, the strong-room, packing-rooms, furnace-room, and store-cellars. A handsome stairway leads from the shop to the first floor, where the t optician's department is situated. This * branch of the firm's business has made,

rapid strides of late, and the conveniences for- customers are on an elaborate scale. 'There are the waiting-room, the sight-test-ing apartment, the dark-room, the work-room, and the optician's storeroom. In addition, on the first floor rooms for the storage of jewellery, the watchmaking de« partaient, the jewellers' workrooms the brush-room, two luncheon rooms, and lava-tories, have been built.

.^An armored coat for dogs, to serve as a protection against motor-cars, has been in-vented by a New Yorker. The coat is stud-ded with sharp steel points, like a steel hedgehog. If the armored dog is run into by a motor car the sharp points puncture the tire, and the consequent rush of re-leased air blows the dog out of danger.

Though only 17 years old, Ellen C. Rob-bins, of j. Hartford, Connecticut, has just been married for the third time. Her first níisbarid, H. C. Robbins, was believed to have been killed in a railway accident, so she" married a man named Miner. Rob-bins returned, however, but she secured a divorce, and has now been married again |o Miner.

The natives of certain parts of India are in" the habit every year, in the summer, of digging the dry river banks for fish, which they dig out by hundreds, just as they would potatoes. The mud lumps are bro-ken open, and the fish, perhaps 8 or 10 ,*n. long, will always be found alive, and often frisky, as if just removed from its sup-posedly native element-the water.

The bell at the modern church of Llandevaud, in Monmouthshire-a church built about 50 years ago-has a curious history. The present building was erected on the site of a pre-Reformation church, and whilst the building was m hand a local far-mer offered to give an old bell, which was in one of his barns. The offer was gladly accepted and the bell turned out to be the original "one from old Llandevaud, which, after some 300 years' silence, once, mote nïl9~ ¿ho. people to. p&rxçh*