CHAPTER XV

THE IRON BISCUITS

In the Sharon town band I played the
clarinet from the time I was thirteen until I
left that town several years later to chase the
fireflies of vanishing jobs that marked the
last administration of Cleveland.?^ A bands-
man at thirteen, I became a master puddler
at sixteen.^ At that time there were but five
boys of that age who had become full-fledged
puddlers. Of these young iron workers, I
suppose there were few that "doubled in
brass." But why should not an iron worker
be a musician? The anvil, symbol of his
trade, is a musical instrument and is heard in
the anvil chorus from Trovatore. In our roll-
ing mill we did not have an anvil on which
the "bloom" was beaten by a trip-hammer as
is done in the Old Country. The "squeezer"
which combines the functions of hammer and
anvil did the work instead.
