[Illustration: _Photo. by Johnston & Hoffmann_ Bathgate and Co's
premises, Old Court House Street]

[Illustration: Grosvenor House. Containing Phelps & Co's, and James
Monteith & Co's., premises.]

Before finally quitting the subject relating to business matters the
following may interest a good many people, more particularly those
engaged in the jute trade: When the jute baling industry was first
started, and for many years afterwards, it was carried on principally
in the very heart of the city, in Canning Street, and various streets
and lanes, branching off and in the neighbourhood, such as Sukea's
Lane, Bonfield Lane, Jackson Ghaut Street, and many other back slums,
some of which have altogether disappeared to make room for street,
and other structural improvements. There were no hydraulic presses in
those days for the baling of jute, and the work had to be done by hand
screws worked from the upper floor, on the same principle as the
capstan of a sailing vessel, by gangs of coolies in old, tumble-down
and dilapidated godowns. The jute was compressed into bales weighing
300 lbs. only, and it was not until the advent of the hydraulic
presses in the seventies that bales containing first of all 350 and
later 400 lbs. were shipped from Calcutta, and the baling was
transferred from the town to Chitpore and the other side of the Canal.
To illustrate another phase of the vast changes that have taken place,
in this instance in the matter of exports, I very well remember F.W.
Heilgers & Co., who happened one year to be the largest exporters,
advertising the fact by printing a list of the various shippers and
their shipments, with their own name at the head in larger type than
that of the other firms, with a total of 120,000 or 130,000 bales!!!