Tombstone epitaph., 1890-07-19
A COSTUME OF
It Can Be Obtained by Any One Willing to Wear It.
The Art of Silver Plating SO Perfected That It Stops at Nothing-Achieve- msnts Which Seem Almost Miracu-
 lous-Expenstvs Fluids.

WQaG WOulu you Say JO SllNcE- plated man?" asked leading manufact- urer of electro-plated wares to repre- sentative of the New York Herald.
 "A silver-plated man?"
 "Yes, man with coating of solid silver as thick as he could pay for it on such parts of his body as would bear the pressure. Wouldn't he be good dime museum freak?"
 'fCan a man be silver-plated?"
 'It is merely question of purse and pluck" answered the manufacturer. "Silver-plating has become an art of high degree since old Prof. Jacobi acci- dentally discovered the secret of plating non-metallic substances over coating of plumbago in St. Petersburg in 1888. I could take man into my works and rig him out with bracelet of silver or gold, or copper if he preferred it, in weeks time, or even less. All the man would have to do would be to submit his arm to my treatment, and then patient ly hold that member in the electro bath until the dynamos had time to finish the work. plate on wood, plaster and glass every day, and human flesh would be no harder to cover with silver than either of the former substances.
 To those who have devoted no study to the recent improvements in electro plating, the present achievements of the manufacturers are almost miracu- lous. In the factory which visited l saw many startling evidences of the ad- vancament of the art
 A pair of glass vases originally worth S5, were marked S320, and they were cheap at the price. They are covered with $50 worth of silver, which grace fully twines around the glass in the form of vine. Two or three clusters of grapes hang from the vine, half-con- cealed by the leaves.
 After the vase receives it's coating of silver, which is nearly half an inch thick, it passes into the hands of the designer. Thence it goes to the en- graver, and finally comes to the chaser and burnisher for the finishing touches.
 Other vases, less elaborately orna- mented and requiring less metal, come cheaper, some as low as $50 pair. The effect. however, in every instance is be- wiidering and were the good King George curious to know how the apple came to be inside of the dumpling. im- agine his anxiety to learn how this glass ever found It's way inside of it's tightly fitting coat of silver had one of these later-day marvels been exhibited before his royal gaze.
 ''Do you see those little baby shoes?" asked the manufacturer. as he pointed to pair of tiny shoes, apparently of pure silver.
 Well, if you examine them carefully you will see that they have been worn. The toe of one is out, and the sides are frayed with wear. They were brought to me by wealthy lady. They were her baby's first shoes, and the baby is dead. She wanted them silver plated. I have had the work very carefully done. The shape is preserved exactly, even the breaks in the seams can be seen. They can now be kept for any length of time. Rather pretty idea, don't you think SOP"
 Formerly" exclaimed the manu- facturer, "the silver-platers made molds of whatever they wanted to plate when the substance was not metal. These molds were covered with plum bago and plated. Then they were cut in two and soldered together over the article they were intended to cover. We do things better nowadays. Each man. nfacturer has his own secret method of applying the plumbago to the article to be plated, and the plating is done over the article at once. This kind of plat ing is not patentable, as the process has been in use for over half century in one way or another.
 ''It would be impossible to use the old mold method in our work, for two arti- cles are seldom the same in size and shape. It is true that we might use molds and turn out a gross or so of glass bottles. but our method is just as easy and far simpler. Then with canes the old method would be worse than use- less. No two canes. are the same in shape.
 'T wouldn't advise you to take drink of that water" added the manufacturer, as I was leaving the factory. That little tank is worth $500 as it stands. It contains that amount of gold. This larger one is worth S700 in coin silver. Expensive fluids, rather. After taking a bath in one of them I fancy a man would have on pretty good costume to play the part of King Midas in a char ade. It might be rather tight-fttiDg, though"