The daily gazette., 1876-03-11
The Japanese Woikmen.
THE MARVELLOUS ACCURACY OF THEIR
woRK-MEAsURrNG BY THE EYE.

THE MvRyELoUS ACCURACY OF THEIR
woRK-MEAsURrNG BY THE EYE.
The New York Worlds special Cen
tennial correspondent writes as fol-
lows about the Japanese workmen at
the Centennial grounds:
The Japanese carpenters at werk
fascinate crowds of curiosity hunters,
Yankee artisans and thieves. To keep
al at n distance guard fence has
been set around the Japanese building
An old boss Philadelphia carpenter
whom / saw leaning over the fence
yesterday afternoon said, in answer to
my question whether any one could
go inside:
go, no. They had to put up this
concern to keep out just such men as
me. They've got tools in there that
American carpenters can't hold a
candle to, and they found out that
some folks around here wasn't above
stealing. But the tools amt half as
ingenious as their ways of handlin'
| 'em. I've watched that fellow up
there now for half a day. and l never
seen him use rule nor measurin'
rod. D-d if he don't measure every
thing with his eye. See him now-see
him saw off that connection between
them too posts; gee how quick he saws
it in two with that little fine tool of
his. Now lsok at him put it up
There-it fits to hairs breadth, and
yet he did it with his eye! Now no.
tice that little cuss over yender. He's
fixin one dove tail to fit into another;
he hain't touched anything lin the
shape of rule since he began, and
you'll see he'll make them two joints
set as if they was melted into each
other. Hi! didn't tell you SO! | can
see like a microscope; you couldn't
get your finger nail in the crack.
"What is the wood they use?"
"Mostly kind of cedar, straighter,
and whittier. and closer grained than
ours, not so red, and without the odoI
Of American cedar"
"But that lighter colored and harder
wood, with those elaborate carvings,
over the front entrance and under the
window lintels?"
| "I don't exactly know the name of
that wood. It's very fine-almost as
fine as some of our lockwood, but har-
der, and has, as you see, large broad
ornamental grain"
"And the roof tiles-what materi
|al?"
"Kaholc. clay mixture of theil
own. Each tile weighs about rs much
as one of our bricks"
| These tiles are of peculiar construc
tion-convoluted on one side, the
other side slightly convoluted, tapping
undpr and into the convOlutiOn of if,
neighbor, so that tiles are jointed side
wise by the device of their own con
structien. did not see that they were
knitted together up and down the roo
by any joint or catch, but they over.
Tapped one another, as American
shingles do, and were fastened to the
roof by deep underlayer of water
proof cement.
| remarked to the old carpenter
that such q roof must be very heavy.
"Heavy! Yes, indeed. That theiI
roof must weigh nigh on to two tons.
But just see how beautifully they
contrive to support it without letting
| it seem to be heavy and without seem
ing to make any fuss. See how light
all the timber gear is; yet how wei
the uprights are distributed and how
Well placed the slender braces are. Il
| | didn't tell you, you'd never think
that roof was so heavy. When they
get the building finished and painted
you'll think of the roof as the lightes
part of it, and the whole thing ii
seem as if you could take 1t up OF
your back and carry it away"