MODERN BLACKSMITHING 13 



very good shop." The shop was a building of rough 

 boards 18x20 — the average farmer has a better wood 

 shed. A big wood block like the chopping block in a 

 butcher shop, was placed so close to the forge that he 

 could only get edgewise between. On this block was 

 to be found, anvil and all his tools, the latter were few 

 and primitive, and would have been an honor to our 

 father Cain, the first mechanic and blacksmith. What 

 thinkest thou, my brother smith? Having spent years 

 to learn the trade you must submit to a comparison 

 with smiths of this caliber. Their work being inferior 

 they must work cheap, and in some, perhaps many, 

 cases set the price on your work. Smiths of this kind 

 cannot expect to be respected. There might be some 

 show for them in Dawson City or among the natives 

 in that vicinity, but not in civilized America. 



