The St. Johns herald., 1889-07-04
A TALK ON CANES.
Differ ent Styles and Different Ways o
 Carrying the sticks.

CdEryinS the SCickt
 'sThe fashion in canes, as we'll a5 in the way of carrying these necessary concomitants of stylish dress" said a dealer h these articles, changes from year to year. When our fathers were lads the proper caper was 10 car ry a whalebone or malacca stick. The dandies of those days apparently never earned that cane should be carried in any other way than by its handle. It remained for the young men of the present day to invent the aesthetic tyle of swinging a stick that is dell- ;ately balanced between the thumb and iorefnger, while the proper accompa- aying gait was the springing walk with bent knees and arms akimbo. Then came the genuine esthetic style with al its limpid limpness, by which the languid cane was held in front of the body, while the elbows were we'll forward and the shoulders nope bent even than in the swinging style. The fashion of holding the fer 'ule down followed, then of grasping 5he stick by the middle with the fe.'rule oointing forward, and now the cane should be carried by the mid lle with the handle forward. The material for canes is even more varied than the styles of carrying them. The buckhorn handle and plain stickis about as popular now as any thing and $ the result of the reaction aGc-1.;clst the ,raze for silver heads. Many canes Ire made from imported woods, the celebrated whongee sticks coming from 'hina, where they are celebrated for he regularity of their joints, which Ire the points at which the leaves
 ranch off. The orange and lemon arc
 ;ghly prized and are imported prin-
 :pally from the West Indies, although
 Jrida is supplying many of these at
 present time. The orange stick is
 aown by its beautiful green bark.
 -ith fine longitudinal markings an6
 ;le lemon by the symmetry of its pro
 ,Ortions and uoth prominence and reg
 .arity Of its knots. Myrtle stick lave value on account of the pecui
 arity cf their appearance and are i'm JJTted f.,o.n Algeria. The rajah stic! $ another importation and is specie; if palm grown in Borneo. Those cane:
 nown as -a;I1 canes are distinguished
 y aa angular or more or less fiat sur nee, are brownish or spotted in ap
 earance and have neither knob nOI
 url. The most celebrated of all pain
 anes i5 the malacca, which doubtless will never lose its popularity with mer ,f middle or advanced age. The ma acca stick is cut from Q species .alamus, slender climbing palm, ano loes not como from Malacca, as tho lame would imply, but from smaI
 own On the opposite coast of Su
 latra. Other imported canes are .bony, palmetto, rosewood, thorn
 actus hlirwood. part idge wood ant ots of other varieties. The manufac' re of canes is by ID means the sin: .le process one might imagine 1t to Dc Jersey many families support ther elves by gathering sticks fit for cane. ghica they find in the swamp traightening them with an old vis. teaning them over 8 common ire lett.e, and after roughly scrapi:
 he.n. sending them in bundles to t. ity manufacturers. Many import:
 f cl5S come i1 their na,iVe twisted rocked state and have 10 be straig!. ned by mechanical means in the fac .ories. The process is to bury thea n hot sand until they become plidJi~ n front of the sand are boards abou K feet long fixed at an angle incline, o the workman and having notches i 1 ;heir edges. When a stick is pliabt | the workman puts it in a notch and | bends it in an opposite direction tc hat in which it is naturally crooked. It is then left awhile to set. To form ln artificial crook or curl for the | handle the workman places one enc | in a vise and then bends it, at the same time pouring on the yielding wood a constant stream of fire from gas jet. Sometimes tho wood i charred, but this is rubbed smooth ,. sandpaper. There are lots of othe' interesting points about canes, whic' I have not time to enlighten you upn- just now. Come in again and l Il to vOl1 soma mora n-Rr0Ol<l--r F2~lc