orders. Unscrewing the top, we see that the
upper end of the tube is divided into compartments,
which look like the mouth of a revolver;
and here, protected from each other,
the leads are bestowed, safe—despite their
great length,—through their owner's roughest
travelling.

Some drawers in. a counter are pulled out.
One is divided inlo compartments, each of
which holds a handful of something different
from all the rest. This drawer contains one
hundred gross of pencil-cases in parts;—the
tube, the rack and barrel, the propelling wire.
the slide, the top, the various chambers, and
screws, and niceties. In another drawer, there
is a dazzling and beautiful heap of pure
amethysts and topazes from far countries, of vast
aggregate value: and, farther on, we see the
elegant onyx and white cornelian from South
America (a very recent importation), and the
sardonyx, now in high favour for seals and
the tops of pencil-cases. Its delicate layer of
white upon red, (or the reverse,) the undermost
colour coming out in the engraving, makes
it singularly fit for the purpose. Then, there
is a paperful of small turquoises, which are
poured out and handled like a sample of
lentils. These are from Persia; and they have
to be re-cut in England, the Persian tools
being of the roughest. Then, there are blood-
stones, and pebbles out of number, and pints
of glittering fragments of Galifornian gold;—
rich materials tossed together, to be drawn
out for use at the bidding of capricious fashion;
for, fashion seems to be as capricious here,
among these stones and ores that have
required cycles of ages to compose, as in the
milliner's shop, where the materials are drawn
from the pods of a season and the insects of a
summer. On shelves against the walls, are
ranged rows and piles of steel dies,—that
pretty and cosily piece of apparatus, which we
find in almost all these manufactories—together
with the inexhaustible stamping and cutting
machines, the blow-pipe, the borax, and soft
metal for solder, the pumice-stone and wire-
bed, the turning wheel, the circular saw,
and the bath of diluted aquafortis, and
the pan of boxwood sawdust, in which the
pretty things are dried when they come
out of "pickle." From buttons to epergnes,
we iind this apparatus everywhere. The
steel dies are an everlasting study:—the block,
like the conical weight of a pair of warehouse
scales, seeming very large for the little figure
indented in the upper surface. Here, in this
manufactory, the figures are of the bugle, a
favourite form of watch-key,—the deer's foot,
(a pretty study for the same purpose,) and a
large variety of patterns,—the tulip, the
acanthus, and other foliage, flowers or fruit, climbing
up the summit of the pencil-case, as if it were
a little Corinthian capital.

And now for the process. The silver or
goId comes from the rolling-mill, and is passed
in slips through a series of draw-plates, each
smaller than the last , and finally through the
one which is to give it its fluted or other
pattern. Soldering at the join, filing away
the roughness left by the solder, washing in
an aquafortis bath, come next. A slit for the
slide is then made; the rims and screws and
slides are added, and you have a pencil-case
complete. We observed that a large proportion
of the tops are hexagonal, or of some angular
form, to prevent their rolling off the table.

Some of the pencil-cases are so small, and
some of the watch-keys are so elaborate, that it
requires a, moment's consideration to decide
which is which; and again, ladies' crochet-
needles, of gold, diversely ornamented, are
very like pencil-cases. Sorne of each kind are
specked over with turquoise or garnets; and
all appear to be designed for ornament, rather
than for use. It is quite a relief to turn the eye
upon a shovelful of the yellow sawdust, where
substantial pencil-cases, fit for manly fingers
are drying. On the whole, perhaps, the most
striking feature is the prodigious extent of the
production. We ask where all these can
possibly go; for a pencil-case is a thing which
lasts half a century, as the manufacturer
himself observes. These do not go to America;
for, in such things, the Americans are our
chief rivals. They supply their own wants,
and a good deal more. We send our pencil-
cases and trinkets over a good part of
the world, however; and the caprice of
fashion causes a great adventitious demand
at home. In reply to our remark about this
vast production, the manufacturer observes,
"Yes, we cut up gold and silver as the year
comes in and as the year goes out."
Something of a change, this, since the old days of
cedar pencils!

Here is a steel die with an elegant pyramidal
pattern; the half of a watch-key. We see
the inch of metal stamped; and then another
inch, for the other half: and then the filing
and snipping of the edges; and then the
laying in of the solder inside; and the binding
together of the two halves with wire; and the
repose on the bed of wire on the pumice-
stone, to be broiled red hot; and the neat
cleaning when cool; the polishing, and the
leaving certain parts of the pattern dead,
while others are burnished; and the fixing of
the steel cylinder at the point, and the turning
of the rims. All this for a watch-key!
But we are shown another, which does not
look like anything very studied; and we are
told, and are at once convinced, that it consists
of no less than thirteen parts. Other keys
which look more fanciful, consist of ten, eight,
or seven. None are the simple affair that a
novice would suppose, now that we require
the convenience of being able to wind up our
watches without twisting the chain or ribbon
with every turn of the key.

But we must leave these niceties; the
little pistols, the deer's feet, the bugle-horns,
and all the dainty fancies embodied in watch-
keys and knick-knacks. Here, as elsewhere,
every atom is saved, of sweeping and wash;