The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-05
HlaTnRY OE SCIENTIFIC PROGREss.
AnonG 49, WoRKkRs IN sLLHER.
BY JAMES PARTON.

..-..a,,,,. IN ,be :, ,ortbetu part of Lake Huron,
e,o.,Soso ,,topr thousand Islands" lying fat
and green in the sun, without a tree OF nut
unon them. see at length, in the dlstance'
tnddino ule n large storehouse, evidently not
,,,aao he indian hands. The thing is neither
v5ch NOR rare: the ouly wonder IS, how 1t got
g. Eor many hours before coming in sight
aIt this buiding, no sign of human life is visible,
unless. percbance, the joyful passengers catch
tbesieht of q dug-out canoe, with blanket for
a sail. in which an Indian fisherman sits solitary
and mo,ionless, as thoueh he, too, were Que OF
tbe beinanimate features of the scene. On drawing
near this most unexpected structure, the curl
osity of the travellers is changed into wild
wonder. It is a storehouse with all the modern
improvements, and over the door is a we'll
painted sign, bearing the words Raspberry
JAM"
II the present writer, when he first beheld this
Bipn had read thereon ''opera glasses for hire,"
q or 'ikid gloves cleaned by new and improved
method" he could not have been more sur
pGised or more puzzled. The explanation, no "
ever, was very simple. Many years ago, 1T seems,
Yankee visiting that region discovered tnou-
sands upon thousands of acres of raspberry
bushes hanging full of fruit, and all going to
waste. He also observed that Indian girls aud
squaWs in considerable numbers lived near by.
Putting this and that together, he conceived the
idea o a novel speculation. Ia the summer fol-
lowing he returned to the place with copper
kettle, many barrels OF sugar, and plenty OF
large stone jars. For one cent pail he bad as
many TaspbeIries picked as he could use; aud he
kept boiling and jarring until he had filled all
his vessels with JAM when he put them on board
o sloop, took them down to Detroit, and sold
them. The article being approved, and the specu.
latiOn being profitable, he returned every year
10 the raspberry country, and the business grew
to an extent which warranted the erection of
this large and welappointed building In the
Western country the raspberry jam made in the
region Of Lake Huron has been for twenty years
an established article of trade. We had the
curiosity once to taste tarts made of IT, and can
testify that 1t was as bad as heart could wish.
1t appeared to be soggy mixture of melted
brown sugar and small seeds.
But that is neither here nor there. The oddity
OF our adventure was in discovering such an
establishment IN such place. Since that time
we have often had similar surprises especially
established themselves in the most out, of-the-
way hooks. In hamlet of three or four houses
and u church we see such signs as "MelodeOn
Aanuactory." At a town in Northern Vermont
we find four hundred men busy the year round
in making those great Fairbanks Scales which
can weigh an apple or train of cars. There is
nothing in st. Johnsbury which marks it out as
the town in the universe httest to produce huge
scales for mankind. The business exists there
because, forty years ago, there were three excel
lent heads in the place upon the shoulders of
ihree orolaers, who put those heads together and
learned nov 70 make and how to sell scales. All
selves which appear to have no co1gruIJy Win
the places in which they are found. We heard the
other day of village in which are made every
year three bushels OF gold rings. We ourselves
passed, some time ago, in a remarkably plain
New England town, mandatory of fine dia-
mOnd jewery. In another town-Providence-
there are seventy-two manufactures of common
jeWelry. Now what is there in the character
or in the situation of this city of Roger Will
liams that should have invited thither 80 many
makers OF cheap trinkets? 1t is solid town,
that makes little show, of its great wealth, and
contains less than the average number of
people capable of wearing ia Wdry ornaments.
Nevertheless along with machine shops of
Titanic power, and cotton mills of vast extent
We find these seventy-tWo manufactures of
jewelry. The reason is that about the year
1795 one man, named Dodge, prospered in
Providence by making such jewelry as the
simple people OF those simple old times would
buy OF the passing peddler. His prosperity lured
others into the business, until 1t has grown to
Its present proportions, and supplies half the
country with the ghtteTlng trash which we all
despise upon others and love upon ourselves.
But there is something at Providence less to
be expected even than eeventy-two manufacto-
Ties OF iewelry; 1t Is the largest mandatory of
solid silVerwRre in the worldl In city so ele-
CANT and refined as Providence, where wealth is so
real and stable, we should naturally expect to
find on the sideboards lenty of silver plate; but
we were unprepared to discover there three or
four hundred skilful men making silverWare for
the rest OF mankind, and all in one establish
ment-that of the Gorham Manufacturing Com
The kind in existence, but 1t is the most COM
plete. Every operation of the business, from
the melting of the coin out of which the ware
is made, to the making of the packing boxes in
which it is conveyed 10 New York, takes place
in this one congregation of buildings. Nor do
we hesitate to say, after an attentive eXamina-
tion of the products of European taste, that the
articles bearing the stamp of this American
house are not equalled by those imported There
is fine simplicity and boldness of outline about
the forms produced here, together with an
absence of useless and pointless ornament
which render them at once more pleasing and
more useful than any others we have seen.
II was while going over this interesting esta-
blishment that the raspberry jam incident re-
Cured to us. This thing, however, is both rich
and rare; and yet the wonder remains how it
got there. 1t got there because, forty wears
ago, an honest man began there a business
which has grown steadily to this day. II got
there just as all the rooted business of New Eng
land got where we find them now. In the brief
history OF this one enterprise we NAV read the
history OF the industry of New England, Not
the less, however, ought the detailed history to
pe Wrlttenj for 1t would be book full of every
KIND OF interest and instruction.
IL was an honest man, we repeat who founded
tnls establishment. We believe there is no
ASuse ol business of the first class in the world
" taiLy ,y years standing, the success of which
itS sCdieafly traeeable to its serving the public
W'n nd0, nuTy; Yy An old clerk of Mr. A. Il. stewart
oneI, tbiggs' informed us that, in the day of
Stewart had only a retail drv vs. 81 mnen MI;
blshment was this-"non;t IuleS Oh me esta-
Du neNsi iat itb bo diSs GUY defectsD Now MAJ,
who lays down rule of that nSsnrdh new business
be n very honest or very abb must either
likely to be both, for sterling abiitneh. lie Is
rily honest 1t is not surprising, there,nseae neeessa