The writer is aware that much has been omitted in this sketch which ought to have been spoken of; but in a magazine article, intended simply to give a general idea of the place, such must of necessity be the case.  Much space might, for instance, be most justly devoted to the business men and merchants of Fitchburg, who, by hard work and fair dealing, have acquired honorable names in the community.  It would be quite possible to fill several more pages with such matters, but it is probable that the readers of the “BAY STATE” will coincide with the opinion that it is about time to stop.

[Illustration:  Fitchburg seal]

* * * * *

THE PAST AND FUTURE OF GOLD.

BY DAVID M. BALFOUR.

Gold, from the earliest times to the present day, has been regarded as one of the most precious of metals.  Next to osmium, iodium, and platinum, it is the heaviest of metals, being nineteen times heavier than water.  Next to iron it is the most extensively diffused metal upon our planet.  It occurs in granite, the oldest rock known to us, and in all the rocks derived from it.  It is, however, much more common in alluvial grounds than among primitive and pyrogenous rocks.  Nine-tenths of the gold which has been produced has been obtained from alluvial beds.  Gold mines are generally situated at the extreme limits of civilization.  Herodotus notes the fact and he is confirmed by Humbolt.  It is first mentioned in Genesis ii:  11.  It was found in the country of Havilah, where the rivers Euphrates and Tigris unite and discharge their waters into the Persian Gulf.  Gold is never found in mass, in veins, or lodes; it is interspersed, in threads or flakes, throughout quartz or other rocks.  It is the only metal of a yellow color; it is easily chrystallizable, and always assumes one or more of the symmetrical shapes,—­such as the cube or octahedron.  It affords a resplendent polish, and may be exposed, for any length of time, to the atmosphere without suffering change, and is remarkable for its beauty.  Its malleability is such that a cubic inch will cover a surface of eighteen hundred square feet; and its ductility is such that a cube of four inches could be drawn into a wire which would extend around the earth.

Gold in its relative value to silver has varied greatly at different periods.

In the days of the patriarch Abraham, it was one to eight; B.C. 1000, it was one to twelve; B.C. 500, it was one to thirteen; at the commencement of the Christian era, it was one to nine; A.D. 500, it was one to eighteen; in 1100, it was one to eight; in 1400, it was one to eleven; in 1545, it was one to six; in 1551 it was one to two; in 1600, it was one to ten; in 1627, it was one to thirteen; in 1700, it was one to fifteen and one-half; it held the latter ratio, with but slight variation, until 1872, when it began to rise, and in 1876 it rose to one to twenty; it soon afterwards gradually declined, and now stands