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104 them they had to say and believe that "Fashion is void of feeling and deaf to argument."

Still, there was a rough, rude world outside of civilization, which Fashion, enthroned at Paris, could not rule or reach for many years after the issue of her edicts. Ornamental buttons and beads of brass, glass, steel, and iron continued to be as attractive to the North American Indians. Hottentots, and Tartars as if they were worn by all ranks in London and New York. Thus, the fall in these trades was somewhat broken by the demand for those productions which was still kept up in the barbarous regions of the earth. Matthew Boulton, who may be called the father of half the trades of Birmingham, and who laid down that broad and strong foundation on which the business character of the town was built, developed those almost infinite varieties of handicraft which won for it the name of "toyshop of the world." For years before the American Revolution he erected his blocks of workshops at Soho, a suburb of Birmingham, then a wild and barren heath. In 1774 it had become the most extensive and remarkable establishment in England. In none before or since was there ever such a wonderful variety of articles wrought out simultaneously. At that time it employed a thousand workmen, who, from the unprecedented variety of skilled occupations they represented