, 1884-05-27
THE MEERSCHAUM.
A Visit to an Expert Pipemaker on
the Rhine.
Festoons OF Wonderful Pipes of Fan.
tastic odeIIng Portrait
Pipes from Photographic
M~eerschaGm Quarry.


lDetrolt Free Press.l
MAyence is about as far up the Rhine as
tourists go in the steamers. It has a cathe.
dral remarkable for its ugliness to the ordi.
nary observer and for its beauty to the archi.
tect. Going from the river front leading to
the square on which the cathedral stands is a
narrow, winding street with tall houses and
a slit of blue sky overhead.
At the corners are some of the most won
derful pipe stores in the world.
These places are lined and hung and fes-
TONED with pipes of every description. There
are the long Rhine pipes with their chromoed
China bowls and meerschaum pipes of every
variety. Perhaps the most wonderful pipes
to be seen there arc those from the Black
Forest with bowls as big rs your head.
These bowls are of the knot of some tree, and
they are carved with all sorts Of fantastic de.
vices, the favorite being hounds and hunter
chasing a deer.
Leading from one of these pipe shops is a
very narrow, creaky and uncertain stairway
winding up to the roof. AS 1t nears the ton
1t becomes narrower, creakier and more un-
certain, and a rope dangling down is the only
thing the climber has to guide him in his
upward journey. In the very top room
with a window projecting ovtr the NOISY,
red, tile-steep roof sits one of tho
most expert pipe-makers on the Rhine.
He has n little workbench fixed almost in
the window, and attached TO it Is a small
lathe and wise. Chunks of white meer.
schnum are on a shelf. and the table is GOV.
cred with the white dust that comes from the
turning and carving. From that high win.
dow is a view Of the muddy Rhine and the
long bridge of boats which stretches across
it. This workman at odd times comes down
to the ordinary pipo work-tho Nubian'
head, the bowl in the claws of a fowl, and
the other conventional shapes that meer-
schaum pipes in the tobacconist's Window
have made us familiar with. but his general
work is much ahead OF that.
PORTRAIT PIPES.
He is All artist in his way-a portrait artist.
Before him at this time was a photograph of
President Garfield, and with the bowl of the
future pipe fixed in the wise he was fashion.
ing with minute chisels the mass of meer-
schaum into a sculptured head of the dead
president. This particular pipe has been or.
dered from America, and it was to cost a big
amount; just how much the American was to
pay FOR 1t the German couldn't say, and how
much the carver was to receive he wouldn't
say. Anyhow, before it reached the smokers
hands there were several large profits to be
made, and no doubt tho smallest was that Of
the artist who mnde it. 1t seemed that quite
a large business was done in this style of por-
traiture. Some photos of handsome Young
N'et anu pipes WbIb 10 Dc Ilaue
with the features copied. 1t seemed rather a
shady compliment to pay to the girls, as their
faces were sure to become anything but the
lily color they would be when they left the
carver's hands.
There were few specimens of this work.
mans skill in the little attic room, for it was
a workshop and not a showroom; but in the
shops below could be seen his work-surly
heads OF bismarck, the side whiskers and
rnIliNnrNr ESQ
OF Unser Fritz, bearded like a pard, - heads
of Gladstone and Beaconsheld to catch the
English tourist, and heads of dashing beauties
with rakish Gainsborough hats for any one
that wished to buy. The German was n worker
and not a talker. He was silent and indus
trious, and while he carved he pulled away
Mt a very huge and very ordinary pipe that
required to DO filed at least once a week il
he smoked necessarily. AS the halter never
wears a good hat, so the maker OF the most
expensive pipes in the world smokes one of
the cheapest.
COMES MEERsCHAUM?
As near us could be gathered from bis
rather gruff romarks the meerschaum was
quarried in the chunks we saw it AMI n large
specimen was exceedingly rare. The Jumps
when soft could easily be pressed together
INK any other piece of clay, but the pressure
would spoil the porousness OF it and it would
not color. The chips of the meerschnum TINT
were too small to make little pipes or cigar.
holders OF were kneaded together and n sort
OF cheap meerschaum pipe made, that the
dealer on the off streets in England could sell
at n very low figure and yet be quite truthful
in their assurance that they were genuine
meerschaum, while as the line .honored pun
has It they were a mere sham instead, and
would under no provocaticn color. The nice
thing about these pipes is that the ordinary
smoker cannot tell the cheap from the dear.