The Osceola times., 1883-11-17
CROSSW ALK TALK.
An o,d.rim. blacksmith wakes Eo,hu.,.


asfic.
Detroit Free Press.
Great show isn't it?" said an old gen.
tleman as he came out of the Art Loan
building.
at is indeed wonderful" was the Ie-
ply.
"What most interested you in the
building?'
There's so much of great interest it is
hard to make choice"
"Wcll, sir that armor hit me the hard
est, could study that for hours"
Perhaps you're an old soldier"
"No, sir; I'm an old blacksmith; learn
ed my trade down in Massachusetts, fifty
years ago, and couldn't help, as ! look.
ed at that armor in there, comparing
blacksmithing as learned it with the
trade as it must have been understood
hundreds of years ago"
ayes, the smiths of the sixteenth CEN
tury were most skillfil artisans.
"Why they excelled the blacksmith of
1880 as much as the blacksmith of 1880
excelled the blacksmith of to-dayw
"Aren't the blacksmiths of to-day as
good workmen as those of lSs0?'
ave haven't got any blacksmitbs now
They are all specialists. In fact the only
approach to relic of olI-time black
smithing is the horseshoer, and he is by
no means what the horseshoer of fifty
years ago WAS"
"Why mott"
Nowadays the horseshoer gets his
horse shoe already turned punched and
groovedj he gets his nails ready made
buys both articles by the keg."
"Quite an Improvement
an money-making sense, perhaps,
yes. But doubt it. In mechanical
sense, no. 1t takes away all art, for
there is art in blacksmithing. When
Mr.. Longiellow wrote The Village Black.
smith, he had genuine poetic material
to work from; but I'd like to see some
poet try to make hero out of the black
smith Of 1883"
Are you not trihc hard on the mod
ern mechanic?"
''1h, bear in mind Pm not beraiing
the man for going TO the forge, but ! am
bewailing the lost opportunity. Now,
for instance, when learned blacksmith
ing, learned everything shoeing horses
to iroiiing of a wagon and making edged
tools. The apprentice of to-day has
only to learn one little branch of the
business and even then he has machin.
cry to help him OUT
"But why vas it necessary for yoa TO
learn so wide a range of the business"
Because the business had a wide
range. Your village blacksmith of fifty
years ago used to make door hinge or
latch, an eight-penny nail or q shinglc
nail, plow chain or clevis. n drag tooth
or scythe, hammers, shovels, tongs, chop
ping axes, carpenters tools - in fact, any
| thing made of iion, he could make, and
he was no good unless he could make it
we'll"
"You did not have the les then
that we have now or that general excel
lence would not have been indeed"
facilities. Why, | remember when
making nails, for instance, We used to he
obliged to cut up our European irun-it
is all in rounded end bars thrc, inches
wide--into strips nearly the size of our
nails, and in that way, in fact. we had to
do all our work We we're Obliged. 50 TO
speak, to work almost directly from tnc
native materials"
and yet you admit that the black.
smiths of fifty years ago were not so
skillful as those of the fifteenth CEN
tury?"
Certainly. Why the best smith in
all New England couldn't have made
that armor in there with all of its deli
cate and perfectly fitting pieces. And
they had TO hammer everything out by
hand and fit it, too,'
at is fortunate that such skill is not
necessary at present"
We'll, dunno but it is, but then even
an old blacksmith may have an honest
pride in his trade"