The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-10
| H. Hamilton, President of Great Firm of Silversniths, Tells Why Whiting Manufac- turing Company Selected Bridgeport as its Permanent HOme-AddreSS Filled With In-
 teresting Facts and Matters of Immediate and Historical Interest.

The address given by H. IT. Ham,
 ilton, president of the Whiting
 Mfg. CO. before the Board of Trade
 last night. included a most inter
 ,esting comparison between New
 York and Bridgeport as advantag-- E 'eous sites for a manufacturing To-
 cation.
 An enormous objection to New
 York, the speaker said. was the
 high cost of land and the conse-
 quent difficulty of building factor
 fes that can be economically ope-
 rated. The difficulty of housing
 workmen in New York was also
 very great. but in Bridgeport com
 paratively simple
 On the other hand both water
 and gas cost more in Bridgeport
 than in New York. but coal is
 cheaper. In respect to certain
 inland cities which the companies
 looked over. coal can be landed at
 the boiler in Bridgeport for 75 cents
 A ton less.
 The nearness of the city to New
 York is a prime fact in its favor.
 It has railroad facilities and sew
 eral steamboat lines. The latter
 guarantee competition in freights.
 Much skilled labor is available in
 Bridgeport that cannot be found in
 other places. Mir HamIlton's ad-
 dress follows:
 Bridgeport Board of Trade:
 There is a story of a prospective bridegroom who failed to show up at the church with the rest of the we'd ding party. ..f suppose he lost his courage" said someone to the best man. Lost it?' was the answer, ~0h mol He found iti''
 Now if I had found my courage in- stead of losing 1t. I might have had strength of mind enough to decline Enos asked me to speak before this assemblage. may as we'll confess that when I found myself committed to hold forth, I realized that there were many things could do to a better ad- vantage than attempting to make an address
 On second thought, however, my spirits revived somewhat came to the conclusion that there were at least three subjects on which I could tslk to you;-silversmithing, about which know something-Bridgep
 about which you know something. The connection between the two about which before long, I hope. we are both going to know a great deal.
 In migrating to Connecticut. in the bright a jewel. the Whiting company is but following in the footsteps of its earliest predecessors
 The first silverware fashioned in the young Colonies was made in New England by English or Scotch emil grants and these were followed hv workmen who were born here or who came here from some of the sister states
 am glad to- say that these old siiversmiths seem to have found the business very profltable-and that they. themselves. were held in high esteem-some of them filling honored civic and judicial positions.
 Paui Revere a Silversnith-
 The most famous of them all. Paul Revere. is perhaps better known to the world as a Patriot than as a sil- sIn civil life he was a sil- of much prominence having his trade under his father. To-day his productions are eagerly sought by collectors. not alone for their historic values. but as fine ex- amples of old colonial silverware.
 We find the early silversmiths fill- ing all sorts of elective positions-An- drew Tyler for instance, who before
  Boston. was for seven years. so the town rolls record,-scayenger as well as fire ward. In those days. as in these the scavenger Cor as we should now say the head of the street clean ing department) was a citizen of some little consequence.
 Later in the Eighteenth century. however, the silversmith trade is paid a somewhat left handed compliment William Homes. who was Benjamin r-~mmw~ nwN NTwn 4.- Boston. was known so his biographers proudly declare. as ''the honest silver smith"
 But au the siiversmiths were not to be. found in Boston. even in the earliest of Colonial day-Connecticut had her share of them and their pro- ductfons are still to be found in many cherished collections
 In an exhibition of colonial silver. held in New York lately. were four cups-lent by the Congre- gatfonal church of Farmington. One of them Is considered to be among the oldest pieces of American manufac- ture known to be in existence. It was made by a Connecticut man-David Jess-of Hartford. who established himself as a silversrnith early in the second half of the Seventeenth cen turn Among others could be men tioned Jonathan Otis patriot as well as silversmith, who was harried out 
 In Middletown where he was active in aiding those made destitute by the war.
 :Bridgeport's Open Door,
 Time and patience both have stheir limits. consequently. will not pursue further the subject of early colonial silversmiths-but before leaving 1t, I have one word more to say-In early days when a silversmith started in business he had first of all to receive the freedom of the city in which he worked Nowadays that honor seems 10 be confined to royal princes and to who tell us they have reached the North Pole.
 However, there Is a freedom of a -ity which far transcends in value those formal parchments which, used To be handed to our predecessors.-It Is. a freedom of cordial welcome, of rnfeigned interest, and neighborly It is this freedom which I feel has been rendered to the Whiting Mfg. Go. by the City of as represented by those l here tonight, and for this beg on