The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-11-13

.NIi-celLany-
g,ra,,ese ,soiners and their cois.
rFrom .he San Francisco Bulletin.

rISrnm the San Francisco Bulletin.
The japanese calling themselves the Ha-ya |
IA kee troupe are fitting mp the stage of the |
Metropolitan Theatre in the similitude OF a
japanese temple for the exhibition of their
feats of strength and legertiemain. They are
said to be all OF one family, and the very car
penters who are doing the joiner work are
members OF that family. Japanese carpen-
tiers have an advantage over American me
chanics, in the fact that they have four hands
instead of two, their toes being as HANDY as
their fingers. But they gain nothing by IL,
because they make no use of work Deiches ol
vices. If japanese carpenter wants 10
sharpen a saw, he squats on ms haihs,
places the back Of the tool TO pc opera
ted on the ground, grips one end OF the saw
with his left hand. sezeS the other with the
toes CT his right foot, and goes to work with
as much confidence as Yankee carpen-
ter at a bench. Their tools are not like
American tools, though they have
faint similarity, showing that all tools have
one common parentage, whether their inven-
tor was Tubal Cain or some other artiicer.
All japanese saws are shaped like butchers
cleayers. The handle is like the handle of
ceayer but ilattish, as if Whitfield out of
piece of inch board, the metal shank of the
saw IS driven into that handle, and the whole
is secured by being wrapped with the split
cane. The metal OF the saw is about the sub
stance OF our saws, but the teeth are narrow
er, giving more of them to an inch, and much
longer. They are all pointed towards the
handle, and cut the wood like SO many hooks.
When japanese wants to rip plank, he
places il across anything which will elevate
the end few inches, then stands ON the wood
and cuts il by Selling the cleaver looking
saw in both hands and pulling il towards
him. Thus, by a number of Short qaick
up strokes, he gets through plank not so
speedily, but quite as effectively as an Amer
lean carpenter would with the long, slow
down stroke of the rip saw. The planes
are small, with single irons and no handles.
The planes are shorter, lighter, and the
wood shallower than ours, being generally
not more than an inch deep. To plane piece
of wood they lay il on the ground, squat on
their hams, hold it fast With their toes, and
work the plane with both hands toward them.
To drill hole they have short awl, inserted
IN the end of round stick, eight or nine
inches long. They take the wood between
their toes, squat as before, and make the hole
by rubbing the handle of the awl between
their hands in less time than one of our car
penters conld drill one with a Simblet. Theil
hammers are solid cylindrical pieces no
made shapely with waists and graceful out
line like oars They have the same fiat sidet
handles as the saws. The Japs have iron
squares, not unlike Anne lean squares marked
with degrees. Their measures are brass
very light and very flnted. On one side the
inch, or what stands for the inch with us, is
3 6 inches, find divided into ten parts. On
the other side is different scale, measuring
1916 inches and divided into twelve parts