The record-union., 1895-01-29
THE USEFUL BAMBOO.
The Chinese Utilize 1t in Variety of
Ways.

Just go and look at your long, slender
bamboo fishing pole and try to fancy
what q house would look like built of
that sort OF thing. Yet when Chinaman
wishes to build a house he doesn't hire
an architect and look up a contractor,
and turn gray over plumbers and decor
ators; he just merely goes and plants a
few bamboo roots. Then he goes on quiz
city attending 10 his business and lets
them grow. In few months he has q
fine forest OF BAN boo from forty to eighty
feet high, and with stalks ranging from
half an inch to eighteen inches in diam
eter. He digs trench the size and shape
he wishes his house and proceeds to cut
the trees he thinks the proper size and
set them up III this trench, which he then
fills up. With the slenderer stalks he
makes the rafters and shingles it with
bamboo leaves. The windows are deli
cate lattice work of bamboo, and the fur
| niture is of slender bamboo, bent and
curled and plated. His water bucket is
d good big stalk sawed off just below the
joint and made as deep as he needs above
it.
For a bottle he takes slender piece
and treats it in the same way. Ii in the
confusion of building he mislays his
knife he just takes good sharp edge OF
bamboo, and does just as well Ior every
thing, except cutting bamboo, as if it
We're Sherleld steel. While he is build
ing he keeps off the pangs OF hunger by
cutting the little tender shoots just as
tney peep from the ground, and cooking
them like asparagus. OF course, we all
know how dangerous 1t is to move at
once into a new Aouse-it is so likely to
be damp, and SO Mr.. Sin Foo catches a
severe cold. All he does is to run out to
his bamboo thicket, gather few leaves,
boil them and drink the tea. In day or
two he is all right and ready to enjoy the
delicious dinner which Mrs. Sin Foo has
| prepared in honor Of the roof raising"
She mas delicate boiled bamboo shoots,
! bamboo grains baked III bamboo joint
with honey, and bamboo shoots candied
with sugar.
| | can't tell you all they make of bam-
| boo. MastS aud cordage, kites, fences,
! bridges, fans, pipes for carrying water
over The rice fields, the finest OF paper
and, III fact, nearly everything they use.
The StrangeSt OF all uses is TO bore gas
and oil wells with it. They begin by
twirling a followed bamb boo pole where
! they wish to sink the wes. This gradu-
ally W WorkS It's way into the ground. When
sunk TO It's full length they fasten another
| TO the end OF il, and keep on twirling.
This operation they keep up until they
| strike gas or oil, which comes gushing
| up through the poles. They use them
! also for bringing brine to the surface
from the salt wells. And just think how
| much cleaner, prettier ana More graceful
| it is tnan our ugly ironwork. Apropos
or THIS l remember an instance OF the
dainty little Japanese folk who took part
in the Colum bian Exposition last year.
In the space allotted for their village was
one of our ordinary iron water taps. 1t
never occurred to us to notice how
hideous they are, but the japanese looked
at 1t, shuddered as one man, and al once
set about hiding the hateful object with
clean, shining bamboo.