as high as $15, according to the magnitude of the stones and the size of
the holes I bored in them. Now, however, all that good time is past.
Nobody wants filigree gold jewelry any more, and there is so little demand
for fine wire of the precious metals that few draw plates are desired. The
prices now are no more than from $1.25 up to say $8, but it is very rare
that one is required the cost of which is more than $4. And of that a very
large part must go to the lapidary to pay for the stone and for his work
in cutting it to an even round disk. Then, what I get for the long and
hard work of boring the stone by hand is very little. 'By hand?' Oh, yes.
That must always be the only good way. The work of the machine is not
perfect. It never produces such good plates as are made by the hand and
eye of the trained artisan. 'How are they bored?' Ah, sir, you must excuse
me that I do not tell you that. It is simple, but there is just a little
of it that is a secret, and that little makes a vast difference between
producing work which is good and that which is not. It has cost me no
little to learn it, and while it is worth very little just now, perhaps
fashion may change, and plates may be wanted to make gold wire again to an
extent that may be profitable. I do not wish to tell everybody that which
will deprive me of the little advantage my knowledge gives me. 'The
stones?' Oh, we of course do not use finely colored ones. They are too
valuable. But those that we employ must be genuine sapphires and rubies,
sound and without flaws. Here are some. You see they look like only
irregular lumps of muddy-tinted broken glass. Here is a finished one."

The old lady exhibited a piece of solid brass about an inch long,
three-quarters of an inch in width, and one-sixteenth in thickness. In its
center was a small disk of stone with a hole through it, a hole that was
very smooth, wide on one side and hardly perceptible on the other. The
stone was sunk deep into the brass and bedded firmly in it. She went on:

"You will find, if you try, that you can with difficulty push through that
hole a hair from your beard. But, small as it is, it must be perfectly
smooth, and of an accurate gauge. I do not any longer myself set the
stones in the brass, as I am not so strong as I once was. My son does that
for me. But neither he nor my daughter, nor anybody else in this country,
I believe, can bore the holes so well as I can even yet. 'How long does a
draw