k at it, and golden when we drink from it.

The obstacle to the introduction of the superior plated ware now made by
the Gorham Company is its costliness. The best plated ware costs five
times as much as the worst, and one fourth as much as solid silver. We
saw the other day three large salvers, which, at a distance of six feet,
looked very nearly alike. All of them bore a most brilliant polish, and
all were elaborately decorated. One of them was a trashy article, made
of an alloy of lead and tin, covered with a "blush" of silver. It had
been stamped out and shaped at one blow by a stamping-machine, and left
in the silver solution subject to the action of the battery for perhaps
fifteen minutes. It was very heavy, and when it was suspended and struck
it gave forth a dull leaden sound. The price of this abomination was
thirty-seven dollars and a half, and it would last, with careful
occasional usage, for a year. Daily use would disclose its real quality
in a few weeks. Another of these salvers was of solid silver, to which
no objection could be made except that its price was nine hundred and
fifty dollars. The third was of that superior plated ware introduced
recently by the Gorham Company of Providence. The base of this article
was the metal now called nickel silver,--a mixture of copper, nickel,
and zinc,--3 very hard and ringing compound, perfectly white, and
capable of a high polish. Upon this hard surface as much silver had been
deposited as upon the best Sheffield plated ware, which is about as
much as can be smoothly put upon it by the electro-plating process. When
this salver was struck, it rang like a bell, and it would not bend under
the weight of a man. Such a salver, used continually, will retain its
lustre for a whole generation, and when, after that long period, it
begins to lose its silver coating, it can be re-silvered and made as
good as ever. But the price of this article was two hundred
dollars,--more than five times the cost of the leaden trash, and a
fourth of the price of the solid salver. Nevertheless, plated ware of
this quality is the only kind which it is good economy to buy. There are
few more extravagant purchases we can make in housekeeping than lead and
brass ware, covered with a film of silver so thin that one ounce of the
precious metal can actually be spread over two acres of it.

One fact can easily be borne in mind: good serviceable plated articles
cost, and _must_ cost, from one fourth