The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-09-07

The British consul at Wenchow in his
last report gives some interesting details
respecting the manufacture of steatite or
soapstone ornaments in China. The
mines are distant AZ miles from Wenchow
and are reached ty a boat journey of
seven miles over rough ground. The
hills containing steatite are owned by
20 to 80 families, who in some cases work
the mines themselves, in others engage
miners to do it on their account.
The galleries are driven into the sides
of the hills and are often nearly mile
in length. The composition of the hills
propped up by supports of timber; for
the same reason the floors are full of mire
and clay, SO that the miners wear special
clothing, made principally of rhea fibre.
They lead hard life, living in straw
huts on the hillside. The stone when
first extracted is soft, hardening on ex-
posure to the air. It is brought out OF
the mine in shovels, and is sold at the
pit mouth to the carvers at a uniform
price of about I'D. per pound. This
would be when the purchaser buys it in
gross, without first selecting it in any
way. When picked over the mineral
varies very considerably in value-accord-
ing to the size of the lump, its shape, and
above all it's colors. The colors are given
as purple, red, motJled red, black, dark
blue, gray, white, eggshell white, aiade"
beeswax and "frozen.n Of these "jade"
(the white variety, not the green) and
frozen" are the most valuable. Indeed
SO valuable is the latter that good speci-
mems of it are said to fetch more than real
| de itself.
The industry finds employment at the
present time for some 1000 miners and
| carvers A great impetus was given to
| it by the opening of Wenchow to foreign
| trade. Previous to that event the chief
purchasers of soapstone were officials
| ind literary men, and the article most
often carved was stamp or seal. When
| the stone, articles were produced to meet
| what was supposed to be their taste
| Such were landscapes in low or high
relief, flower vases, plates and trays,
| fruit dishes, cups, teapots and pagodas
| If left to his own devices the native
carver proceeds first to examine his stone,
much as cameo cutter would do, to
| discover how best he can take advantage
of its shape and shades of color. There
| is for this reason room for wide differ
ence in artistic quality, apart altogeth-
| or from the intrinsic value of the miner
al. and carved pieces vary in price from a
| few cents to so and upward. And among
the more purely native articles produced
are. besides the seals, writing material,
and the like; flower vases, square, round
or hexagonal; boxes for sealing wermil-
chiefly having the character for long
lifen in open work on the cover; small
sandalwood burners, flower baskets, and
balls, candlesticks, chessmen Tor as we
should regard them, draughts,) cups,
bowls and lamps. idols, as the Star Of
Mercy; lions, monkeys and othersanimals.
Less ambitious workmen content them
selves with polishing the stone and cut
ting in relief certain common emblems, as
the sun, moon, clouds, mist, the lutte,
chessboard, books, scrolls; Of the charac-
tiers for happiness, promotion, old age,
and posterity. 1t is said to be peculiar
Of the retail that these goods
house to house peddlers than at the
mines. The reason given is that the ex-
peddler glad to dispose oft at any price.
But the facts may be quite otherwise,
and the story an ingenious concoction in
the interests Of the peddlers.
TiA--aa