The record-union., 1894-06-21
WOODEN ACTORS.
Some of the Tricks of the Modern
Melodrama.
The Basket Making Trade In New
York and How
1t Pays.

Down in the dimness of cellar in
/ Fourth avenue-a cellar where there is
always a soft, warm, damp atmosphere,
suggestive of the early stages of Turk
ish bath or the limp hand-shake of some
people-men in half undress. but pro-
long day, year in and year out. and weave
baskets.
II is a very quiet, as well as very
shadowy cellar. You hear no sound
when you enter there and leave the clat-
ter of the street behind you, save the tap,
tap of the hammers and mallets used in
the building OF the basket-frames and the
rattle of the willows rs they are whipped
to and fro in those deft but gnarly and
calloused fingers.
For thirty years or more those men, or
other men who are now dead or have
wandered otherwheres, have sat upon
those same little square boxes, with their
! legs stretched out and turned and
| twisted, and doubled and pounded and
hammered innumerable willows from
many different quarters Of the world.
1t isn't much of a business in New
| York either. The output of all the New
York and Brooklyn shops is only drop
in the bucket to the enormous amount OF
basket work that is used even within the
immediate range of the New York mar
ket.
But it's a great trade for all that.
| There's diversity in it that is amazing.
! The willows, which are unloaded at the
door and upon which the men are forever
at work, meet you at every crook and
turn in one form or another. The big
| basket that your laundress totes your
clothes to the wash in, the hamper that
your boarding mistress lugs to market
on a Saturday, the carriage, perhaps. that
| your wife trundles the baby In, the trunk
/ that your drummer friend and your Eu
| roDe-going acquaintance pack their
/ things in, the waste basket that yawns
for your letters to the editor, and good
share of other things that you would
never think of are from the hands of the
| basket max ers down in that dingy cellar.
They even make actors there-baSket-
work actors that never have any lines to
speak, but are none the less indispensa-
| bic to the modern melodrama. The chap
| who is actually thrown over the cliff
while the mob of Irish peasants howls
out it's hatred of landlords is invariably
one of these basket-work actors. They
are impervious alike to Kisses and ap-
plause, and never murmur at long
series of One-night stands. Cabbages
and back-number eggs cannot wound
| them.
| Whole menageries are turned out, too,
| by the basket-makers' nimble fingers.
The elephants and camelopards in which
| Imre Kiralfy's soul delights are born
there, in sections, then fastened to-
| gether and covered first with canvas
and afterwards with glory. In the re-
cesses OF the dark sub-cellar, where in
sulphur vapors, the willows are put to
| bleach out to snow whiteness, there linger
vet few dust-cOvered animals and parts
OF animals which never get sick, never
need feeding and never howl for light or
air or food.
Now, abroad" said the basket-man,
''there are whole communities where
men, women and children do nothing but
make baskets their whole lives long.
Last year, the statistics show, there were
! imported into the United States, from
France, Germany, Belgium and England
principally. 1857 1856 worth of manufact-
ured baskets, and 500, S67 worth of will
lows. Why, twenty-five tons would in
clude all that is grown here for baskets.
| The chief farms are over in Jersey
down around Philadelphia and on
Long Island. But the American willows
are better than the foreign. except in the
very small sizes. Those are found best in
| France. The foreign willows are SO ILL
assorted, too, that there Is about per
| cent, loss on them. The rattans which
are used for the uprights, or framework
of the baskets, are brought all the way
| from the East Indies, as dunnage in the
big ships"
"Oh, foreigners; all foreigners. l
actually don't know more than three
basket-makers who are native born
! Americans. They don't seem to take to
I oh 10 fT0H NTg
| well, too. A good man gets about $40
a week, and a good piece man can
run up as much as that. | used to
have men, of the erratic sort. who would
come TO work Thursday and earn that
much before the weeks end. There are
not more than 200 basket-makers around
New York now."
"What figure does the Indian work
cut7"
VIRTUALLY none, of late. There used
to be considerable sale for Indian work
about holiday time, but the aniline dyes
they used faded quickly, and their bas
kets, which are all made of the lightest
sort of splints, became unpopular. The
SCOPE of the basket business is growing
every year. There is great demand for
| fancy work, especially with celluloid
strips. plated in to relieve The silver and
gold and colors with which we wash the
| willow work.
Here are some things made to order
for gifts. This basket for silver is a gem
! for looks, and it will outlive any family.
| The trade in trunks is getting to be great
! A basket trunk, covered with leather, is
one thing that baggage-smasher cannot
phase at all In Europe they are popular
| because they are light; all the luggage
there is carried by weight"
Are there any gypsy basket-makers?"
mo, but the gypsies are great users of
baskets. And-I suppose it is because
| they have been so much ahroad-they
! know good work better than any other
customers. They will have none but the
best and are willing to pay any kind of
prices provided they get just what they
want. .u-New York World.