The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-01-24
BAMBOO IN CHINA,
Used for Building Houses and
For Food.
WHAT WOULD HE DO WITHOUT ITO
Masts, Cordage. Kites, Fences, Bridges.
and Pipes for Carrying Water are
Made From 1t.

Just go and look at your long, slend.
er bam boo fishing pole, and try to fancy
what house would look like built Of
that sort of thing. Yet when China.
man wishes to build house, he doesn't
hire an architect and look up a con.
tractor, and turn gray over plumbers
and decorators; he just merely goes and
plants few bamboo roots. Then he
goes off quietly attending to his bust.
ness and lets them grow. In a few
months he has fine forest of bamboo
from forty to eighty feet high, and
with stalks ranging from half an inch
to eighteen inches in diameter. He
digs trench the shape and size he
wishes his house, and proceeds to cut
the trees he thiake proper size and
set them up in this thrench, which he
then fills up. With the slenderer
stalks he makes the rafters and shin
giles it with bamboo leaves. The win.
/ dows are delicate lattice work of BAN
boo, and the furniture of slender BAN
boo, bent and curled and plated. His
water bucket is good big stalk sawed
off just below the joint and made as
deep as he needs above it. For bottle
he takes slender piece and treats it
in the same way. If in the confusion
Of building he mislays his knife he just
takes good sharp edge of bamboo and
does just as we'll for everything ex-
cept cutting bamboo as if it were
Sheffield steel. While he is building
he keeps off the pangs of hunger by
cutting the little tender shoots Just as
they peep from the ground, and cook.
ing them like asparagus. Of course we
all know how dangerous it is to move
at once into new house, it is so like.
ly to be damp, and SO Mr.. Sin Foo
catches a severe cold. All he does is
to run out to his bamboo thicket, gath.
er few leaves, boil them. and drink
the tea. In day or so he is all right
and ready to enjoy the delicious dinner
which Mrs. Sin Foo has prepared in
honor of the "roof-raising She has
delicate boiled bamboo shoots, bamboo
grains baked in bamboo joint with
honey, and bamboo shoots candied with
sugar. can't tell you all they make Of
Jail Doo. MdstS anu COrudSe, klGeS,
fences. bridges, fans, pipes for carrying
water over the rice fields, the finest Of
paper, and in 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 bamboo pole where they wish
to sink the well. This gradually works
its way into the ground. When sunk
= to its full length, they fasten another
to the end of it and keep on twirling.
! This operation they keep up until they
I strike gas or oil, which comes gushing
t up through the poles. They use them
/. also for bringing brine to the surface
t from the salt wells. And then Just
S think how much cleaner, prettier, and
S more graceful it is than our ugly iron
Q work. Apropos of this remember an
d incident of the dainty little japanese
: folk who took part in the Columbian
Q Exposition. In the space allotted fol
n their village was one of our ordinary
G iron water taps. 1t never occurs to III
n to notice how hideous they are, but the
y japanese looked at it, shuddered as ont
S man, and at once set about hiding tn,
J hateful object with clean, shining BAN
b boo.-Chicago Inter Ocean.