The product, in cases
where the imitation is accurate, is equally valuable except to those who
delight in thinking that coral insects, Italian craftsmen and elephants
have been laboring for years to put a trinket into their hands. The Lord
may be trusted to deal with such selfish souls according to their
deserts.
But it is very low praise for a synthetic product that it can pass
itself off, more or less acceptably, as a natural product. If that is
all we could do without it. It must be an improvement in some respects
on anything to be found in nature or it does not represent a real
advance. So celluloid and its congeners are not confined to the shapes
of shell and coral and crystal, or to the grain of ivory and wood and
horn, the colors of amber and amethyst and lapis lazuli, but can be
given forms and textures and tints that were never known before 1869.
Let me see now, have I mentioned all the uses of celluloid? Oh, no,
there are handles for canes, umbrellas, mirrors and brushes, knives,
whistles, toys, blown animals, card cases, chains, charms, brooches,
badges, bracelets, rings, book bindings, hairpins, campaign buttons,
cuff and collar buttons, cuffs, collars and dickies, tags, cups, knobs,
paper cutters, picture frames, chessmen, pool balls, ping pong balls,
piano keys, dental plates, masks for disfigured faces, penholders,
eyeglass frames, goggles, playing cards--and you can carry on the list
as far as you like.
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