The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1894-11-22
ORIENTAL ARTISANS.
me wood ssA ivory Csrvers ana eflver-
smfths Of Canton,

me Woou Huo ivory CAryerH ana buveY-
smiths Of Canton.
"In the City Of Canton" ia the title OF
p gossipy paper by Floron6e O'Driscoll,
M. p, In Tho Century. In describing the
patient and sk illed artisans the writer says,
Farther along the streets were the ivory
earvers, all working In sight Of the pass
ersby. Men shaped from dingy coated
elephants tusk objects of living wonder
and beauty-sprites and COLLINS, gods
and devils, cnricatures Of human form,
things unlike anything ON the earth, or in
the waters beneath, or in the heavens
above. Animals, birds and creeping
things grew out Of this dead ivory to take
the shape and live In almost noisy gam.
bols around tho spiral tusk. Paper knives,
weights combs, backs for brushes orna-
ments, hairpins cunningly carved globes
within globes, toys and many strange
things had birth In these quaint and
primitive workshops.
Near by were the wood carvers, sitting
on the floors Of their booths and holding
with their feet the timber from which
they chopped out and with chisels graved
dragons, scrolls. flowers, birds, signs for
shops, flgurehcads for boats, chair backs
maryelousiy carved cabinets and curious
ly fanciful objects. Every workman chip
ped away as II his lifo depended upon his
industry, and seemingly developed each
design as he worked from the inner con-
seriousness of his weird Imagination. l
could SEQ no prearranged design for any
piece of carving, nor were there any mod
els to DO seen in the ivory shops
Tho silver worker hammered away at
his pots, and reptiles and lying things,
manikins, clementals, giants and legend
airy personages grew out of his labors. He
also skillfully wove wires together, which
took shape as delicate flligree TOWNS, or he
Joined tiny leafiike plates with flligree
scrolls, and with the beautiful sheeny
feathers from q kingfsher's breast inlaid
the plates In brilliant and unfading tints.
The gold worker displayed cunning
workmanship Of like nature The gold
beaten in his open shop two or three feet
back from the passing streams of peo-
pie hammered AWAY at ingots, bars and
plates until the thin leaf for gliding was
obtained. Two workmen had an anvil
placed on tho ground between them. The
sheets of gold were divided by dark brown
tissue, and with very wide faced hammer,
fixed upon very thick, straight handle,
they beat away, blow after blow in turn.
Behind each beaten stood boy with q
large feather fan, whose duty IL was to
fan the laborer while he toiled.
The stone carvers, like most craftsmen,
sat above their work. Unlike the western
ers, whose hammer faces are hard and
ohiscl heads soft the Chinese stonecutter
uses soft iron hammer-a round mop
like lump of iron with handle through
the center. The chisel Is of iron, with
steel point and head. The round, hard
steel head wears in a short time o cup
shaped hole or socket in the hammer, and
1t seems almost a marvel that a true blow
can be struck with such tool. The stone
cutter uses long handsaws and sits to his
work. With one hand ho pushes the saw;
with the other no moves in the opposite
direction little water mop to keep the
saw cut clear.
The blacksmiths, filters, file cutters,
iron founders and iron workers were all to
BIO seen laboring away in their little shops.
Flo cutters sat, and holding with their
toes an untempered file iron in grooved
anvil notched it, using little steel cut
ting tool and hammer with amazing ra-
pidity