The Old-Fashioned Way

414 IMPROVEMENT ERA

Soul-Ship of the Dispensations, launched in the days of Adam on the heaving ocean of the ages, and now on its last voyage over the stormy billows of Time to the beaconing coast of Eternity?

The Old-Fashioned Way

Here is being made one of the famous Damascus blades. That swarty Syrian knows the secret which nas made these swords the most famous in the world and he will teach it to the boy at his knee, who is an apprentice to the trade; but neither you nor any other foreigner will ever learn it. It is said that the Russians have produced some blades equal to these in beauty and temper, but they are made by a different method. Ever since the time of the Crusades these swords have been noted for the beautifully watered and limned appearance as well as for their temper. Some Damascus swords will cut a bar of iron or divide a film of gauze floating in the air. Such a blade as the one the man at the right is hammering can be bent into a hoop and put in a collar-box; but, given the chance, it will fly back uninjured to its former shape.

© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. A sword-maker of Damascus whose swords were once con- sidered the finest in the world —Syria