The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-08-11
USEFUL IS THE BAMBOO
Made Into Light Curtains That Give
Privacy to Suburban Nsw
Workers..
Yankee Machinery That Success
fully Competss With the Dsft
Japanese Fngera
Manufactured Prod acts 81 . FoTsiRa
Wood That Are Pepuisr-Mads in
This Country.

The light bamboo curtain is giving thu
same privacy to suburban New Workers
this year that the venetian blind has Ions
given to West Indians and Aher jewellers
in warm climates. Several years ago these
rolling curtains of split bamboo made Their
appearance in this city under the name OF
sidarris, and they were found so useful
that they soon became popular favorites,
particularly in the suburban towns. The
suburban New Yorker had fallen into the
habit of living much In public when out
side the walls of his house.
Fashion decreed long ago that the front
fence must come down, and the piazza,
usually not far from the street, was SO ex-
posed that it was. useless for comfortable
%lounging and demanded the anne dress
that must be worn for walking or calling.
The bamboo curtain came to remedy this
evil and to give to the American piazza
greater privacy and comfort. 1t is cheap
enough for the smallest cottage, pretty
for everybody who has a piazza. Like
most things that are cheap, pretty and use
full, 1t has made a place for itself.
Possibly there may be some remote ham
let in the United States where the bamboo
curtain has not yet appeared, and for the
benefit of that hamlet it may be necessary
to describe it. 1t is simply a rolling shade
made of thin strips of split bamboo. with a
round bamboo rod at top and bottom to
give it strength and ropes running through
two small pulleys to raise 1t or let it down.
1t is so loosely made that the wind whis-
ties through it readily, yet 1t has enough
solidity to make a shield from the sun. 1t
may be run up or down as easily as any
shade, and it is not only a protection
against the sun, but a valuable screen to
shield the summer lounger from the gaze
of every passerby. 1t is used only upon the
piazza.
The bamboo curtain is too familiar here
abOuts to need any description for the New
Yorker, urban or suburban, but there are
some curious things about 1t that must at
tract the idle notice OF the summer loung-
er. 1t has a foreign look throughout and
seems to bear the delicate odors of lacquer
and find cabinet work that we associate
with Japan. The Stats are tiny things,
perhaps a quarter OF an inch wide and a
sixteenth of an inch thick. Wherever the
marks of a joint appear, they are not in one
SlaO VI t"O, III Ii tIDuSI VI Ulc SlaIS TO
cover a foot or more in height, and each
one exactly over the one below it, showing
that all those Stats have been deity cut
from one stalk of bamboo. So neatly and
evenly is this cutting dcne that the sum
mer lounger is likely to wonder at the pa
thence and dexterity of the Japanese work
men who make these things.
But the patient japanese workmen who
make these screens ara II alI9Jlv DnnI A M ar.
lean citizens, and all the foreign look is
manufactured to order and by machinery.
1t is not in Toxic or Yokohama that the
bamboo curtains are made, but in New
York or Brooklyn. Sidarris is n good name
for them because it has a far away sound,
and few people know what it means. The
bamboo is a genuine product of the tropics,
but the manufacturing is all done on one
side or other of the East river-largely in
Brooklyn, and not far from the navy ward,
This applies, however, only to the bamboo
shades and other bamboo work used in and
about this city. Nearly every large city in
the country has at least one factory where
bamboo goods are made. Some of the
largest OF these factories, after those of
New York and Brooklyn, are in Philadel-
phia, st. Louis and san Francisco. In all
of these factories, although the price of
labor is 20 times higher than in Japan, the
goods are made as cheaply as they can be
made in the east because the work is done
with machinery.
Beyond a few ornamental chairs and ia
bles, the bamboo curtain is the first popu-
lar use to which bamboo has been put in
this country. 1T probably will not be the
last, Tor bamboo has a habit of making it.
sell so useful wherever it goes that it's &C
qua'ntance is cultivated. The raw mate
rial has to be imported, for bamboo has not
yet been successfully raised in this coun-
try. The Chinese in California nave tried
Ii, but without any great success. Some
lonely trees grow in st. Augustine in Flor
ida, but they are mere travesties upon the
real bamboo of the tropics.
For commercial purposes bamboo comes
to this country In the holds of sailing YES
sells, tied up in long cylindrical bundles,
and the packages of it that one NAV fire.
quently see unloading in South street are
not good samples of the bamboo of the East
Indies, except for business uses. The i'm
mense stalks, sometimes a foot thick and
Gofeet long, seldom come here, because they
are not needed. Our bamboog goods are bet
ter made from small growths, and it is not
much matter whetherthe stalks are straight
or crooked. They are often crooked, but
they are easily Strengthened.
Our raw material" says a maker of
bamboo goods, comes principally from
China, Japan and India. In these three
countries we find more than 60 varieties,
ranging between 2 feet and 20 feet in height
aud half an inch and s, 10, IL inches in
diameter. Every one Of these varieties is
noted for its durability, its great tendency
to bend when steamed, its unique property
OF splitting into pieces of any thickness
desired, and the high polish it will take.
For any of these qualities no other wood
compares with it. In some varieties the
joints are only from five to eight inches
apart, and III others they are upward of five
feet apart, These larger kinds are rare
and are used only in the manufacture of
the more costly furniture.
What bamboo articles do we make2 A
great many, and still not nearly as many as
we might, nor as many as we probably
shall when Americans come to know BAN
boo better. We make Sidarris or japanese
curtains, screens, fretwork, baskets and
hampers, fancy boxes, parasols, chairs.
stools, flower stands, ~settees, hatracks,
tables, cabinets, brackets, easels, portieres,
scrolls and fancy woodwork of every de-
scriptlon. Most OF these things, You will
notice, are fancy articles. Palmer and
more useful things will come III time. AS
soon rs there is demand for them we are
ready to make half the furnishing and tit
ting of n house from bamboo.
"Do not confound bamboo work with
goods made OF rattan. Bamboo is hollow