The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-28
THE VICTORIA GROSS.
How the Medals Are Made from Mott

l
 How the Medals Are Made from Molten Bronze.
 The pathway to the Victoria cross lies
 along the edge of a grave. says writer
 in the Montreal Herald. No wealth can
 purchase it; no prince of the most im-
 perial purple can, with all his pride of
 place, procure the privilege of wearing 1t suspended among the insignia of the
 orders which blaze upon the breast. It
 must be won as it is worn, worthily,
 and it marks the wearer as king among his fellows, though he be only a
 private in the army, a bluejacket in the
 navy, or the least considered of the
 on-combatants in the world. For
 valor!" That is its motto. That is the
 Inspiration of it's award. It can only be
 won by him who is not merely not
 afraid to look on the face of death, but 1 is willing to dare the King of Terrors
 and try fall with him, with the odds
 in favor of the grim conqueror coming ffvictorious. The Victoria cross Is not | yet fifty years old, for 1t was instituted by royal warrant dated January 20,
 1856, at the end of the Crimean war, and it's design is understood to have ~%~At the artist hand of the prince consort. It's object was, as every one knows, Ito place all persons on perfectly
 equal footing in relation to eligibility for the decoration, that neither rank,
 nor long service, nor wounds nor any
 other circumstances or condition what ever, save the merit of conspicuous bravery, shall be held to establish sufficient claim to the honor"--qualiff- cations which were on April 23 1881, more clearly defined as conspicuous bravery or devotion to the country in the presence of the enemy"-the condi- tion which makes the youngest private the equal of the commander-in-c chief himself and binds them in the brother hood of blood bravery when the bronze cross hangs upon their breast.
 Whenever occasion call sfor the be- stowal of the cross the war office sends written order to the silversmiths for the number required. The order inva- riably states that they are to be made the same as before," an almost super fluous instruction, one would think, for it is hardly within the region of specu- lative politics that any jeweler would be found bold enough co vary the pat tern least of all the firm which has al- ways made the crosses and preserves i all the traditions of the manufacture l as carefully and as worthily as they de- serve
 With the order for making crosses | there is sent supply cf bronze, which l once formed part of some Russian guns l taken in the Crimea. The process of l the mantlfa ctllre of the Victoria cross is entirely different from that of all | other war medals and decorations. AL though, therefore. their intrinsic worth | is practically nothing, for the worth of | the bronze would not exceed a few ! pence at the most, vet the cost of pro- | duction is relatively considered. h. deed. it has often happened that in the auction room. to which necessity or some circumstance of another character has brought the bronze badge of cour- age the collector has willingly paid for the emblem which he is not privileged | to wear sum 100 times greater than it originally cost to produce
 In the case Of the ordinary medals steel dies are made and the articles are stamped up complete with one blow of the press, so that they can be turned out by the hundreds and thousands with t little or no trouble at all For the Vic- [ toria cross, however, no does are in ex- '