Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1893-12-15
WITH JAPANESE Fl

Belief They Are Made In This Country.
Japanese Curtains.
The light bamboo curtain is giving the
Nme privacy to suburban New Yorkers
this year that the venetian blind has long
given to West Indians and other 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 Same dress
that must be worn for walking or calling
The bamboo curtain came to remedy this
evil and to give to tho American piazza
greater privacy and comfort. 1t is cheap
enough for the smallest cottage. pretty
enough for the most expensive and useful
for everybody who has piazza Like
most things that are cheap, pretty and use
full, 1t has made 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 rolling shade
made of thin strips of split bamboo, with n
round bamboo rod at top and bottom to
| give it strength and ropes running through
| two small pulleys to raise it or let it down.
! 1t is so loosely made that the wind whis-
ties through 1t readily, yet it has enough
| solidity to make Il shield from the sun. 1t
| may be run up or down as easily an any
| shade, and it is not only n protection
| against the sun, but valuable screen to
| shield the summer lounger from tho gaze
OF every passerby 1t il used only upon the
| piazza.
The bamboo curtain is too familiar hero
abouts to need any description for the New
Yorker, urban or suburban, but there are
| nome curious things about it that must at
| tract the idle notice OF the summer loung-
er. 1t Inns n foreign look throughout and
seems to bear the delicate odors of lacquer
and fine cabinet work that we associate
with Japan. The stats are tiny things,
perhaps quarter of an inch wide and a
sixteenth of an inch thick. Wherever the
| marks of joint appear, they are not in ono
| Stat or two, but in enough of the stats to
cover foot or more in height, and each
one exactly over the one below it, showing
that all those Stats have been deftly cut
| from one stalk of bamboo. So neatly aud
evenly is this cutting done 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 are usually good Amer
lean citizens, and all the foreign look Is
manufactured to order and by machinery.
1t is not in Toxic or Yokohama that tho
bamboo curtains are made, but in New
York or Brooklyn. Sidarris is n good name
for them because it has far away sound,
and few people know what it means. Tho
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
Brook Ign, and not far from the navy yard,
This applies, however, only to the bambo
shades and other bamboo work used in aud
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 nll
Of these factories, although the price of
labor is 20 times higher than in Japan, the
goods are made IN chcaply Ms they can be
made In the east because the work IL done
with machinery
Beyond few ornamental chairs and tn
bles. the bamboo curtain is the first popu-
lar use to which bamboo has been put in
this country. 1t probably will not he the
last. for bamboo has IL habit OF making it
4 n nanlN -kaa... - ~.
| quaintance Is cultivated. The raw mate
rial has to be imported. for BAN boo has not
yet been successfully raised in this coun-
try. The Chinese in California have tried
it. but without any great success. Some
lonely trees grow in st. Augustine in Flor
ha, 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 may fire.
quently see unloading in South street are
not good samples OF the BAN boo of the East
Indies. except for business uses. The I'M
mense stalks, sometimes n foot thick and
GO feet long, seldom come here, because they
are not needed. Our bamboo goods are bet
ter made from small growths, and it is not
much matter whether the stab 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 go varieties,
ranging between 2 feet and co feet in height
and half an inch and s. 10. II 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 in others they arc upward OF five
feet apart. These larger kinds ars rare
and are used only in the manufacture of
the more costly furniture.
"What bamboo articles do we maker 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
bco 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, porteres.
scrolls and fancy woodwork of every de
scription. Most of these things, you Will
notice, are fancy articles. Palmer and
more useful things will come in time. As
soon as there is demand for them we are
ready to make half the furnishing and 1T
ting of a house from bamboo