machine shop in active operation
where R. Wolfenden's sons now ply the trade of dyers. Hebronville also
would then, as now, have greeted the visitor with the music of swift
shuttles and whirling spindles, as he passed on to the end of his tour
of inspection at Kent's grist mill, the oldest, probably, in the
country.

These rude mills were the original sources of a progressive,
ever-widening, material prosperity for which Attleboro is justly noted.
Its people display great business thrift; its many commodious factories
are crowded with skilled mechanics and trained artisans; and its
abundant products are sold by men of enterprise in all the markets of
the world. The farm and garden products of the town make a very
respectable display at the annual local and county fairs; the textile
and other manufactures would make no mean showing; but all these
industries are eclipsed by the one business that absorbs the majority of
labor and capital, namely, the making of jewelry.

It has been facetiously, sometimes sneeringly, remarked that the
Attleboro jewelers are as nearly creators as finite beings can be,
because they almost make something out of nothing, while the cheap
trinkets they turn out by the barrel have to be hurried to market by
rapid express, lest they corrode and tarnish before they can be disposed
of. Such jests, however, convey a very erroneous and unfair notion of
the real character of most of the work done in those large shops, and
the amount of money invested in the business. It is true that grades of
very poor jewelry are made in Attleboro, and it is equally true that
most of the goods manufactured there are both costly and durable; it is
not "washed brass" that goes to the trade with the stamp of those great
firms upon it, but heavy rolled plate goods, containing such a thickness
of fine gold that they may be deeply cut with the graver's tool, and
will never wear down to the baser metal which it conceals. The curious
and wonderful processes of this complex manufacture cannot be even
hinted at in the space of such an article as this, and only an
approximate estimate of the value of these products and the number of
employes working upon them can be given in figures.

The census reports for the year 1880 enumerate the different
manufactures of the town as artisans' tools, boots and shoes, boxes,
brushes, buttons, carriages and wagons, coffin trimmings, cooking and
heating apparatus, cotton goods, cotton, wool