His circumstances improving with the increased use of his invention, Bramah proceeded to undertake the manufacture of the pumps, pipes, &c., required for its construction; and, remembering his friend the Yorkshire blacksmith, who had made his first tools for him out of the old files and razor-blades, he sent for him to London to take charge of his blacksmith's department, in which he proved a most useful assistant.

If a ton of that red mud had become watch-springs or razor-blades, the price had gone up into thousands of dollars. My friends, you and I are the raw material, the green trees, the red mud. The Needful Knocks are necessary to make us serviceable. Every bump is raising our price. Every bump is disclosing a path to a larger life.

Their conversation was very edifying. One would tell how he cut the hoses of the engines at fires, with razor-blades fastened to his shoes; another, how many pocket-books he and his associates had taken at this or that fire; and a third, the mariner of breaking open stores, and the best mode of disposing of stolen goods.