gentleman reminded her that they were in
the British department. After a while, they
observed the label at the top of the case, and
instantly retracted their admiration. " Oh!"
said the gentleman, pointing to the label,
"these are Brummagem ware—shams!"
Whatever may have been Brummagem gold-
beating in ancient times, and in days of
imperfect art, when long wars impeded the
education of English taste, it is mere ignorance
to keep up the censure in these times. It is
merely accepting and retailing vulgar phrases
without any inquiry, which is the stupidest
form of ignorance. Perhaps some of the
prejudice may be removed by a brief account of
what a Birmingham manufacture of gold
chains is at this day.

Twenty years ago, the making of gold
chains occupied a dozen or twenty people in
Birmingham. Now, the establishment we are
entering, alone, employs probably eight times
that number. Formerly, a small master
undertook the business in a little back shop:
drew out his wire with his own hands; cut
the devices himself; soldered the pieces
himself; in short, worked under the disadvantage
of great waste of time, of effort, and of gold.
Into the same shop more and more machinery
has been since introduced as it was gradually
devised by clever heads. This machinery is
made on the spot, and the whole is set to
work by steam. Few things in the arts can
be more striking than the contrast between
the murky chambers where the forging and
grinding—the Plutonic processes of machine-
making—are going on, and the upper
chambers, light and quiet, where the delicate
fingers of women and girls are arranging and
fastening the cobweb links of the most
delicate chain-work. The whole establishment
is most picturesque. While in some speculative
towns in our island great warehouses
and other edifices have sprung up too quickly,
and are standing untenanted, a rising
manufacture like this cannot find room. In the case
before us, more room is preparing. A large
steam-engine will soon be at work, and the
processes will be more conveniently connected.
Meantime, house after house has been
absorbed into the concern. There are steps up
here, and steps down there; and galleries
across courts; and long ranges of low-roofed
chambers; and wooden staircases, in yards;—
care being taken, however, to preserve in the
midst an isolated, well-lighted chamber, where
part of the stock is kept, where some high
officials abide, and where there are four
counters or hatches, where the people present
themselves outside, to receive their work.
All this has grown out of the original little
back-shop.

Below, there is a refinery. It is for the
establishment alone; but, just like that we have
already described—only on a smaller scale.
First, the rolling-mill shows us its powers by
a speedy experiment;—it flattens a halfpenny,
making it oblong at the first turn, and, by
degrees, with the help of some annealing in
the furnace, drawing it out into a long ribbon
of shining copper, which is rolled up, tied
with a wire, and presented to us as a curiosity.
Next, we see coils of thick round wire, of a
dirty white, which we can hardly believe to
be gold. It is gold, however, and is speedily
drawn out into wire. Then, there are cutting,
and piercing, and snipping machines—all
bright and diligent; and the women and
girls who work them are bright and diligent
too. Here, in this long room, lighted with
lattices along the whole range, the machines
stand, and the women sit, in a row—quiet,
warm, and comfortable. Here we see sheets
of soft metal (for solder) cut into strips
or squares; here, again, a woman is holding
such a strip to a machine, and snipping the
metal very fine, into minute shreds, all alike,
These are to be laid or stuck on little joins
in the chain-work, or clasps, or swivel hinges,
where soldering is required. Next, we find
a dozen workwomen, each at her machine,
pushing snips of gold into grooves, where
they are pierced with a pattern, or one or
two holes of a pattern, and made to fall
into a receiver below. Each may take about
a second of time. Farther on, slender gold
wire is twisted into links by myriads. At
every seat the counter is cut out in a
semicircle, whereby room is saved, and the worker
has a free use of her arms. Under every such
semicircle hangs a leathern pouch, to catch
every particle that falls, and to hold the tools.
On shelves everywhere are ranges of steel
dies; and larger pieces of the metal, for
massive links or for clasps, or for watch-keys
and other ornaments, are stamped from
these. On the whole, we may say, that in
these lower rooms the separate pieces are
prepared for being put together elsewhere.

That putting together appears to novices
very blinding work; but, we are assured that
it becomes so easy, by practice, that the girls
could almost do it with their eyes shut. In
such a case we should certainly shut ours;
for they ache with the mere sight of such
poking and picking, and ranging of the white
rings—all exactly like one another. They are
ranged in a groove of a plate of metal, or on
a block of pumice-stone. When pricked into
a precise row, they are anointed, at their
points of junction, with borax. Each worker
has a little saucer of borax, wet, and stirred
with a camel-hair pencil. With this pencil
she transfers a little of the borax to the
flattened point of a sort of bodkin, and then
anoints the links where they join. When the
whole row is thus treated, she turns on the
gas, and, with a small blow-pipe, directs
the flame upon the solder. It bubbles and
spreads in the heat, and makes the row of
links into a chain. There would be no end of
describing the loops and hoops, and joints and
embossings, which are soldered at these gas-
pipes, after being taken up by tiny tweezers,
and delicately treated by all manner of little