The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-02-17
THE GOLD BRATER'S ART.
A Fascination About IL Even In a
Dingy Basement
Rhythmicsi swing ofthe Heavy Ham,
mers That Reduce Bars OF Metal 10
FtImy, Transparent sheets-Beaters
Who Lose Their Sktll-Delicate
Work by Girls.
New York SUM-


To the gteenhorn there was glamor
about the very words "gold beaten. 1t
sounded like the age OF chivalry and
alchemy. He would not have been sur
prised to read that the Gold Beater's Guild
had INST to quaff wassail out of a golden
bowl wrought in cunning designs by
master hands. But instead, of that he read
that some of them were trying to get up a
union to maintain the standard of wages.
Even this roused the greenhorn to in
terest, however, and for several days the
cable cars ratified in time to the ringing
in his head; "Gold beaters gold heaters
gold heaters r. Finally one sloppy, soggy,
half-hesrted sort of day, he was passing
along lower Fourth avenue, when he be.
came conscious of dull CLEAN Of yellow
light at one side. At first he thought
that somebody had hlched the sun and
locked 1t up in the back room OF shop.
and he was exceedingly glad to have dis
covered the robbery. Then he saw that
it was only the glimmer from a great
crumpled sheet OF gold leaf, or something
that looked like it, hanging in window
full of bottles of gliding and silvering
and other aids to gorgeousness He went
right in.
"Do you know where there are any gold
beaterss" he inquired bra'ely.
He did it bravely, because .he felt as If
he were asking the little shopkeeper for
the address OF the syndicate for bottling
and shipping the water from the fountain
OF youth or for the number Of the Phil
osopher's Stone Company tLimited).
Sure enough, the little shopkeeper stared.
"Why-well-oh, yes. l know where
there are gold heaters." he said obviously
There's ore right around in Third ave-
nue. near Fourteenth street. But l don't
believe he III let you see his men at work. "
But the greenhorn was Off The glamour
was thicker than ever 1t must be gor-
geous sight Ito behold men hammering
away at the shining metal. Probably the
air around them would be like golden
mist full of flakes of gold flying like
sparks of red hot steel from the anvil.
The greenhorn grew poetic and fancied
that 1t would he u good deal like looking
at this sunsets in summer when the air Is
thick with golden notes dancing In the
suns rays. Then he slipped in the I'M
poetic black mud under the elevated road
and almost fell into the cable roads
trench, after which he picked his way
down q light of steep, dirty steps, pushed
open a grimy doo- and entered the haunt
OF the gold heaters.
The greenhorn wanted to learn all
about the latest and most improved
methods of gold beating. Strange as 1t
may seem, there are no such things as
Il, "A l.s..t l..
In MIR. keely's shop 1t Is done now as
1t was done years. perhap. centuries, ago.
AS for all the CLEAN and glory with which
the greenhouse imagination had Invested
the process-weli. this is the true story
of how IL Is done.
Almost any body can guess what Third
avenue basement wound he like. 1t is
low, dark, dirty. On "a raised platform
by the front window of this particular
basement sat seven or eight girls TRIM
ming the gold leaves and putting them
into Books ready for sale. Back in the
darkness of the long room there was IA
glow of live Goals and at the end there
was door opening into lighter room
where, outlined against the windows,
were the figures Of stalwart men swing
ing rhythimcally and increasingly ponder
Gus hammers which rose ami fell with
the regularity of rendnlums.
These pendulums licked, too. Nightly,
to be sure but dulled and mnfiied SO that
there was no reyerberation. Poe would
have shut his eyes and said that horrible
giant hearts were beating as the telitale
heart Of the murdered man did. But the
greenhorn was not Poe. and all he
thought of was whether Mr.. keely would
let him go out there and see the hammers
come down upon the gold. Alas he was
indeed greenhorn. Not that MIR.
Kelley was not willing. He was as ILL
ing as if his name had been Barkis. He
began at the very teginnipg and told all
about IL.
~ buy the metal in bars" he said
"Of the Governmenty No You see, the
Government doesn't sell less than IS 600
worth mt q time, so | buy Of q dealer.
Then take tina natal and put 1t in one