boom of the furnace blowing - engines to sound forth the
spirit of life and progress that everywhere prevailed.
At the middle and to one side of the furnace yard stood
a small whitewashed building, of rectangular form and so
plain, that except for a peculiar shaped flue at the top one
might have questioned long and failed to tell for what the
structure was used. A glance within the single side-door,
however, goes a long way toward solving the problem. Ar
ticles of glass of all shapes and sizes meet the eye. Count
less bottles are to be seen standing on long shelves; flasks,
beakers and funnels appear in plain view on a heavy table
to the right. A large glass demijohn occupies a corner
shelf. Against the opposite wall of the room is a counter
like table, overhung a short distance above by a wide board
flue of like dimensions. On this table a gas lamp and small
oil stove are burning, heating vessels of various shapes. A
glance to the left shows a board partition in which are two
doors, the one to the rear closed, the other partly open, re
veiling a small office.
In this small building as elsewhere the same busy spirit
prevailed. The chemist, Johnson, had his share to perform
as well as the rest. He was hard at work, as chemists often
are, with innumerable samples for analysis still untouched
an# expecting to receive more at any time. The sound of
coptinual pounding came from the back room known as the
“sample room." The “nigger" was preparing the samples
of ore for analysis. The Chemist hurried about, now here,
now there, now attending to this, now to that, scarce stop
ping in his work for a single moment. To watch him one
might have thought his chief aim in life was to economize
time, or perhaps to see just how many things he could keep
going at once.
A long row of small, rather dirty flasks, each about one
third full of a colorless liquid, stood on a low side table.
“Now for the closing actl" thought the Chemist as he