The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-12-20
WALKING STICK AND CANE.
There is Said to be a. Distinction
With a Difference Between
Them.
Natural Malacca Makes tho Richest
Cane and Also the Most
Elegant.
Walking Sticks of Natural Wood the
Caper-Methods Of Wounding
Sprout for Stick.

C0per-methOdS OF "OuuOluR
sprout for Stick.
'tYou call .em all canes in this country
but cane and walking stick are far diff
ferent abroad said an old English manu-
facturer of walking sticks in Broadwa.
basement one day last week to New Yorl
Sun reporter. IA cane is hollow reed. +.
bamboo or rattan, and the richest thing ir
the line is natural 1nalacca stick, which
commands high price il full length
walking stick can be cut out between the
joints at which the leaves sprout. The
malacca in its natural state is as rich il
color as four-year-old lneerschaum pip<
which has been carefully smoked by an ex-
pert. The common malacca cane is known
as painted stick; that is. the joints have
been filed down and cleverlv painted over.
Not one in thousand can detect the work
which makes painted malacca look as we'll
as a natural cane. Malaccas have been
popular as presentation sticks for twenty
five years. and turned ebony sticks have
been their only rivals for adornment, with
gold and silver heads. Rubber has failed
to take the place of ebony, because it in
varjably turns green with age.
II have no love for anything but natural
sands of men are with me in this. Millions
of beautiful walking sticks are imported in
the rough every year and finished up in
this country. In fact, America is the great
est market in the world for them. Eng
land and Germany send us the raw mate
world-yes, even from Florida and South
America. Orange sticks and palms from
Florida 90 to England and come back here
for no reason that can see, and England
and Germany draw supplies from all parts
of Asia, Europe, Africa, and the South Sea
Islands. The waking stick business is
great industry which has been growing
constantly for fifty years. and on the other
side Of the pond big fortunes are invested
in it. Come into the stock room and let
me show you the varieties we have and tell
you where they come from.
Here is stick which is still extremely
popular and has held it's place for many
stick, which is known to the trade as Mad
aQasoar vine, What it is I do not know,
but it ie formidable weapon, as good as
three Irish blackthorns. Here are countless
blackthorns at 80 per dozen, and we have
some worth twice as much, owing to their
regularity of growth and natural knobs.
Here is novelty. It ia cabbage stalk
from the isle of Guernsey, where cabbage
stalks grow tall and make wood. Here is
something similar from New Jersey, light
but substantial mullin stalk, of which we
have sold thousands in the last five years.
1t is pretty stick, as light as feather and
stiff withal. but nobody who was not posted
would think that the velvet-feaved plant
had any such stamina.
"Here is fad which in recent years has
taken a strong hold in this country" said
the cane maker. taking up handsome
stick deeply pitted with oval indentations.
''This is what theIdealers call English crab.
It is really wounded oak, and that let's mo
into an explanation of one of the tricks of
the trade which learned when was boy.
You must know that in the older countries
the gathering of walking sticks is not
waited to certain extent there. and an old
hunter for material does not look out for
to-day only, but has an eye to tho future
crop. If in his travels he finds likely
sprout which will make q walking stick a
year or two later, he trains it to better suit
stick of it he lops off the main branch to
give the sprout a chance to take up the sap.
If there is a young oak he sits down and
patiently Rashes it at intervals along
its length. In a year each of these
knife thrusts heals up with an oval
wood when the bark IS peeled. Some
hunters carry pricking wheel, such as
harness maker uses to mark stitches on
leather, and runs four lines of indentations
deeply into the bark of pear or apple
sprout. What We know as lnedlar sticks
are often treated in this manner. The med
lar 10 fruit which doesn't grow in this
country. and in the old country it is never
eaten until it is rotten. Here are lots of
sticks which have been scari6ed a year be-
fore they were cut. See, some of them are
wounded in crescents with a gouae and 9TH
ers are wounded with knife or Wheel
They are all pretty and go we'll with the
public. Here is an acacia stick denuded of
its bark and marked all over with hero
Rlyphics which were cut into the wood a
year or so before the sprout was cut. Since
l came to this country have treated lots of
sticks to the knife and cut them year
later. When lived in Newark used to 70
out Sundays and work up walking sticks t6r
q next years crop. I used to Irvine two
young sprouts together or score the bark of
young hickories, oaks and nanny berries and
then go out and cut them the following
spring. 1t is quite an art selecting and
marking sticks. and everybody cannot do
favorite sticks to work upon. and l have
made many'a dollar from them. Here il a
stick which was all the rage last year un
der the name of English hazel, although
the greater part Of them were imported
">~eS- 49, AAAeeAS
sequently great deal Of ingenuity was ex-
erted in putting shepherds crooks and
ciamols hotns on them with other woods,
Then many of them were mounted with
stag-horn heads and silver bands. It is
neither durable nor heavy stick. but the
satin gloss of the bark is attractive. Here
is myrtle stick, which is sold without var
nishing, and is choice thing at $12 doz-
On in the rough, without head or ferrule,
It is the least durable of all. because the
bark peels easily. Here is the Florida
orange stick With beautifully veined, green
bark. 1t has been popular for ten or fifte On
years and IS heavy and strong, but the
bark chips easily. This is an Irish black
thorn. which is worth $1.5O. You csn
always tell blackthorn by the three
sprouts at each knot. There is the twio
and the two thorns each flank it. I sell
many blackthorns, and every man who buys
one tells his friends that he Just received it
from the old sod. have no objection to
that: It is like the German with his wechse
wood-that sweet-davored stick of which
the old Germans make long pipe stems.