Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-02-28
TALK ON CANES.

TALK ON CANES.
At Styles and Different Ways Of
Carrying tho Sticks.
The fashion in canes. as we'll as in
the way Of carrying these necessary
concomitants Of stylish DRESS" said q
dealer In these articles, "changes
from Year to year. When our fathers
were lads the proper caper was to car
~ . whaleboqe or malacca stick. The
handles OF those days apparently never
learned that cane should he carried
in any other way than by its handle.
1t remained for the young men of the
present day to invent the aesthetic
style OF swinging stick that is deli
cately balanced between the thumb and
forefnger. while the proper accompa-
nying gait was the springing walk
with bent knees and arms akimbo.
Then came the genuine aesthetic
style with all its limpid limpness. by
which the languid cane was held in
front OF the body, while the elbows
were well forward and the shoulders
more bent even than in the swinging
style The fashion of holding the fer
rule down followed, then of grasping
the stick by the middle with the ferrule
pointing forward. and now the cane
should be carried by the mid
die with the handle forward. The
material for canes is even more varied
than the styles of carrying them.
The buckhorn handle and plain stick is
about as popular now as any thing and
is the result of the reaction against the
craze for silver heads. Many canes
are made from imported woods, the
celebrated whongee sticks coming from
China, where they are celebrated for
the regularity of their joints, which
are the points at which the leaves
branch off. The orange and lemon are
highly priced and are imported prin-
cipally from the West Indies, although
Florida is supplying many of these at
the present time. The orange stick is
known by its beautiful green bark,
with fine longitudinal markings and
the lemon by the symmetry of its pro-
portions and both prominence and reg
ularity of its knots. Myrtle sticks
have value On account of the pecul-
iarity of their appearance and are i'm
ported from Algeria. The rajah stick
is another importation and is species |
of palm grown in Borneo. Those canes
known as palm canes are distinguished |
by an angular or more or less fiat sur
face, are brownish or spotted in ap-
pearance and have neither knob nor
curl The most celebrated of all palm
canes is the nalacca, which doubtless
will never lose its popularity with men
of middle or advanced age. The ma
lacca stick is cut from a species of
calamus, a slender climbing palm, and
does not come from Malacca, as the
name would imply. but from a small
town on the opposite coast of SUI
matra- Other imported canes are of
ebony, palmetto, rosewood, thorn,
cactus HARDWOOD. partridge wood and
lots of other varieties. The manufact-
ure Of canes is by no means the sim
pie process one might imagine it to be.
In Jersey many families support them
selves by gathering sticks fit for canes,
which they find in the swamps,
them with an old wise.
steaming them over a common iron
kettle, and after roughly scraping
hem. sending them in bundles to the
,ity manufacturers. Many imported
sticks come in their native twisted or
crooked state and have to be straight
,ned by mechanical means in the fac
;ories. The process is to bury them
n hot sand until they become pliable.
In front of the sand are boards about
Xix feet long fixed at an angle inclined {
% the workman and having notches in
heir edges. When a stick is pliabl0
he workman puts it in notch and
,ends it in an opposite direction to
hat in which it is naturally crooked.
t is then left awhile to set To form
IN artificial crook or curl for the
handle the workman places one end ;
n q wise and then bends it, at the I
anne time pouring on the yielding
wood constant stream of fire from
,as jet. Sometimes the wood is
haired, but this is rubbed smooth BY
andpaper. There are lots OF other
points about canes. which
have not time to enlighten you upon I
ust now. Come in again and I'll tell
GU some more. Brooklyn Eagle
NOVELTIES IN JEWECRY. q