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Show BRITISH TRY TO SAVE OLD SMITHY Auto and Tractor Eliminate Anvil Worker. Hertford, England. Strenuous efforts are being made here and in other agricultural districts of England to save the picturesque old-fashioned village vil-lage blacksmith from passing Into oblivion. The smith of England today Is not "tolling and rejoicing" to draw undue attention to himself, but Is "sorrowing" "sorrow-ing" a great deal more than In the days when Longfellow idealized him all because of the advent of the automobile auto-mobile and the motor tractor. In their desire to "stive" the village blacksmith the Hertfordshire county council members announced recently particulars of a plan designed to keep alive the decaying industry which has been so hard hit by the modern organization or-ganization of the big manufacturers and their agents who supply standardized standard-ized parts of farm Implements arl machinery on lines of mass production. The ministry of agriculture, too, has become interested In the scheme to prevent the passing of the blacksmith and lias agreed to co-operate iu the movement. Special committees nppointed to Investigate In-vestigate the plight of the smithy have reported that there are many articles In popular demand which cannot be satisfactorily produced by factory methods because of the skill and the handiwork of the craftsman which should count more than mere cheapness. cheap-ness. With a view to giving the village blacksmith a new lease on life, a special spe-cial exhibit was arranged for the recent Herts agricultural show, where prizes were awarded for agricultural implements, wrought iron gates, scroll work, door fittings, general utility wares, such as weather vanes and umbrella um-brella and golf stands. F. W. Speaight, director of the exhibit, ex-hibit, has also proposed various other schemes designed to prevent the garage from replacing the blacksmith shop and silencing the ring of the anvil forever. |