The Rise of Silas Lapham | Page 7

a lot
of that paint-ore red-hot for forty-eight hours; kept the Kanuck and his
family up, firing. The presence of iron in the ore showed with the
magnet from the start; and when he came to test it, he found out that it
contained about seventy-five per cent. of the peroxide of iron."
Lapham pronounced the scientific phrases with a sort of reverent
satisfaction, as if awed through his pride by a little lingering
uncertainty as to what peroxide was. He accented it as if it were
purr-ox-EYED; and Bartley had to get him to spell it.
"Well, and what then?" he asked, when he had made a note of the
percentage.
"What then?" echoed Lapham. "Well, then, the fellow set down and
told me, 'You've got a paint here,' says he, 'that's going to drive every
other mineral paint out of the market. Why' says he, 'it'll drive 'em right
into the Back Bay!' Of course, I didn't know what the Back Bay was
then, but I begun to open my eyes; thought I'd had 'em open before, but
I guess I hadn't. Says he, 'That paint has got hydraulic cement in it, and
it can stand fire and water and acids;' he named over a lot of things.
Says he, 'It'll mix easily with linseed oil, whether you want to use it
boiled or raw; and it ain't a-going to crack nor fade any; and it ain't
a-going to scale. When you've got your arrangements for burning it
properly, you're going to have a paint that will stand like the everlasting
hills, in every climate under the sun.' Then he went into a lot of
particulars, and I begun to think he was drawing a long-bow, and meant
to make his bill accordingly. So I kept pretty cool; but the fellow's bill
didn't amount to anything hardly--said I might pay him after I got going;

young chap, and pretty easy; but every word he said was gospel. Well, I
ain't a-going to brag up my paint; I don't suppose you came here to hear
me blow"
"Oh yes, I did," said Bartley. "That's what I want. Tell all there is to tell,
and I can boil it down afterward. A man can't make a greater mistake
with a reporter than to hold back anything out of modesty. It may be
the very thing we want to know. What we want is the whole truth; and
more; we've got so much modesty of our own that we can temper
almost any statement.
Lapham looked as if he did not quite like this tone, and he resumed a
little more quietly. Oh, there isn't really very much more to say about
the paint itself. But you can use it for almost anything where a paint is
wanted, inside or out. It'll prevent decay, and it'll stop it, after it's begun,
in tin or iron. You can paint the inside of a cistern or a bath-tub with it,
and water won't hurt it; and you can paint a steam-boiler with it, and
heat won't. You can cover a brick wall with it, or a railroad car, or the
deck of a steamboat, and you can't do a better thing for either."
"Never tried it on the human conscience, I suppose," suggested Bartley.
"No, sir," replied Lapham gravely. "I guess you want to keep that as
free from paint as you can, if you want much use of it. I never cared to
try any of it on mine." Lapham suddenly lifted his bulk up out of his
swivel-chair, and led the way out into the wareroom beyond the office
partitions, where rows and ranks of casks, barrels, and kegs stretched
dimly back to the rear of the building, and diffused an honest, clean,
wholesome smell of oil and paint. They were labelled and branded as
containing each so many pounds of Lapham's Mineral Paint, and each
bore the mystic devices, N.L.f. 1835--S.L.t. 1855. "There!" said
Lapham, kicking one of the largest casks with the toe of his boot,
"that's about our biggest package; and here," he added, laying his hand
affectionately on the head of a very small keg, as if it were the head of
a child, which it resembled in size, "this is the smallest. We used to put
the paint on the market dry, but now we grind every ounce of it in
oil--very best quality of linseed oil--and warrant it. We find it gives
more satisfaction. Now, come back to the office, and I'll show you our

fancy brands."
It was very cool and pleasant in that dim wareroom, with the rafters
showing overhead in a cloudy perspective, and darkening away into the
perpetual twilight at the rear of the building; and Bartley had found an
agreeable seat on