tory of
silver-ware in the world. For the first ten years he made nothing but
spoons, thimbles, and silver combs, with an occasional napkin-ring, if
any one in Providence was bold enough to order one. Businesses grew very
slowly in those days. It was thought a grand success when Jabez Gorham,
after nearly twenty years' exertion, had fifteen men employed in making
spoons, forks, thimbles, napkin-rings, children's mugs, and such small
ware. Nor would Mr. Gorham, of his own motion, have ever carried the
business much farther; certainly not to the point of producing articles
that approach the rank of works of art. We have heard the old gentleman
say, that he often stood at a store-window in Boston, wondering by what
process certain operations were performed in silver, the results of
which he saw before him in the form of pitchers and teapots.

But in due course of time Mr. John Gorham, the present head of the
house, eldest son of the founder, came upon the scene,--an aspiring,
ingenious young man, whose nature it was to excel in anything in which
he might chance to engage. The silversmith's art was then so little
known in the United States that neither workmen nor information could be
obtained here in its higher branches. Mr. John Gorham crossed the ocean
soon after coming of age, and examined every leading silver
establishment in Europe. He was freely admitted everywhere, as no one in
the business had ever thought of America as a possible competitor; still
less did any one see in this quiet Yankee youth the person who was to
annihilate the American demand for European, silver-ware, and produce
articles which famous European houses would servilely copy. From the
time of Mr. John Gorham's return dates the eminence of the present
company, and of the production of the costlier kinds of silver-ware, on
a great scale, in the United States. From first to last, the company
have induced sixty-three accomplished workmen to come from Europe and
settle in Providence, some of whom might not unjustly be enrolled in the
list of artists.

The war gave an amazing development to this business, as it did to all
others ministering to pleasure or the sense of beauty. When the war
began, in 1861, the Gorham Company employed about one hundred and fifty
men; and in 1864 this number had increased to four hundred, all engaged
in making articles of solid silver. Even with this great force the
company were sometimes unable to supply the demand for t