the "ruse" of disguising
himself as a tramp, and, feigning great distress and abject poverty, he
appeared shivering at the door of Huntsman's foundry late one night
when the workmen were about to begin their labours at steel-casting,
and asked for admission to warm himself by the furnace fire. The
workmen's hearts were moved, and they permitted him to enter. We have
the above facts from the descendants of the Huntsman family; but we add
the traditional story preserved in the neighbourhood, as given in a
well-known book on metallurgy:--

"One cold winter's night, while the snow was falling in heavy flakes,
and the manufactory threw its red glared light over the neighbourhood,
a person of the most abject appearance presented himself at the
entrance, praying for permission to share the warmth and shelter which
it afforded. The humane workmen found the appeal irresistible, and the
apparent beggar was permitted to take up his quarters in a warm corner
of the building. A careful scrutiny would have discovered little real
sleep in the drowsiness which seemed to overtake the stranger; for he
eagerly watched every movement of the workmen while they went through
the operations of the newly discovered process. He observed, first of
all, that bars of blistered steel were broken into small pieces, two or
three inches in length, and placed in crucibles of fire clay. When
nearly full, a little green glass broken into small fragments was
spread over the top, and the whole covered over with a closely-fitting
cover. The crucibles were then placed in a furnace previously prepared
for them, and after a lapse of from three to four hours, during which
the crucibles were examined from time to time to see that the metal was
thoroughly melted and incorporated, the workmen proceeded to lift the
crucible from its place on the furnace by means of tongs, and its
molten contents, blazing, sparkling, and spurting, were poured into a
mould of cast-iron previously prepared: here it was suffered to cool,
while the crucibles were again filled, and the process repeated. When
cool, the mould was unscrewed, and a bar of cast-steel presented
itself, which only required the aid of the hammerman to form a finished
bar of cast-steel. How the unauthorized spectator of these operations
effected his escape without detection tradition does not say; but it
tells us that, before many months had passed, the Huntsman manufactory
was not the only one where cas