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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.