ts, the prices of good workable shell
having risen to to such an extent that it paid to hunt for and dig up
the scrap flung away in former years, as much as 15s. to 20s. per bag
being obtained for some of these finds. One smart little master who
recollected where his scrap was deposited some years before, in the
neighbourhood of St. Luke's, paid the spot a visit, and finding it still
unbuilt upon, set to work, and carted most of it back, and having
improved tools, made a handsome profit by this resurrection movement.--
See "_Trades_."

~Pens.~--The question as to who made the first steel pen has often been
debated; but though Perry and Mason, Mitchell and Gillott, and others
besides, have been named as the real original, it is evident that
someone had come before them; for, in a letter written at least 200
years back (lately published by the Camden Society), the writer, Mary
Hatton, offered to procure some pens made of steel for her brother, as
"neither the glass pens nor any other sort was near so good." Silver
pens were advertised for sale in the _Morning Chronicle_, in June, 1788,
as well as "fountain pens;" and it has been claimed that an American
supplied his friends with metallic pens a dozen years prior to that
date. There was a Sheffield artisan, too, before our local men came to
the front, who made some pens on the principle of the quill, a long
hollow barrel, pointed and split; but they were considered more in the
light of curiosities than for use, and fetched prices accordingly. Mr.
James Perry is said to have given his workmen 5s. each for making pens,
as late as 1824; and Mr. Gillott got 1s. each for a gross he made on the
morning of his marriage. In 1835, the lowest wholesale price was 5s. per
gross; now they can be had at a trifle over 1d. per gross. Even after
the introduction of presses for the manufacture of steel pens (in 1829),
there was considerable quantities of little machines made here for
cutting quill pens, the "grey goose quill" being in the market for
school use as late as 1855, and many bankers and others have not yet
discarded them. In May, 1853, a quantity of machinery was sent out to
America, where many skilled workmen had gone previously; and now our
Yankee cousins not only make their own pens, and run us close in all
foreign markets, but actually send their productions to Birmingham
itself.--See "_Trades_."

~People's Hall.~--The foundation stone of the People's Hall, corner of
Loveda