Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1895-02-23
THE USEFUL BAMBOO.
The Chinese Utilize 1t in q variet
Or wnvs

The Chinese Utilize 1t in q Variety
of Ways. :,
Just 60 and look at your long. slender
bamboo fishing pole, and try to fancy
what n 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 con-
tractor, and turn gray over plumbers
and decorators. he just merely goes
and plants few bamboo roots. Then
he goes on quietly attending to his bust.
ness and let's them grow. In few
months he has fine forest of bamboo
from forty to eighty feet high, ind with
stalks ranging from half an inch to
eighteen inches In diameter. He digs
a trench the shape and size he wishes
his house, and proceeds to cut the trees
he thinks the proper size and sets them
up in this trench, which he then fills
up. With the slendcrcr stalks he makes
the rnfters and shingles 1t with bamboo
leaves. The windows are delicate lat
tice work Of bamboo, and the furniture
Il of slender bamboo, bent and curled
and plated. Ills water bucket Is .
good big stalk sawed Off just below the
Joint and made as deep as he needs
above II.
For bottle he takes slender piece
and treats 1t in the same way. II In
the confusion of building he mislnys
his knife he just takes good sharp
edge of bamboo, and does Just Us well
for everything except cutting bamboo,
rs II II were Sheffield steel. While he
IL building lie keeps of the pangs Of
hunger by cutting the little tender
shoots just as they peep from the
ground, and cooking them like aspara.
gus. or course we nll know how dan.
gcrOus Il Is to move ut once into new
house, 1t Is SO likely to be damp, and 40
Mr.. Sin Foo catches severe cold. All
h0 does Is to run out TO his bamboo
thicket, gather a few leaves, boil them
and drink the ten. In day or so he ID
all right and ready to enjoy the deli.
cious dinner which Mrs. Sin Foo has
prepared in honor Of the "roof raising"
She has delicate boiled bamboo shoots,
bamboo giS,ins baked In n bamboo
Joint with honey and bamboo shoots
candlcd with sugar.
can't tell you all they make of BAN.
boo. Masts and cordnge, kites, 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 Il
bore gas wells with 1t. They begin by
twlrling followed bamboo pole where
they wish TO sink the well. This grndu
ally works It's way into the ground
When sunk TO its full length, they
fnsten another to the end Of 1t, and keel
on twlrling. This operation they kcel
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. Ant
then just think how much cleaner
prettier and more graceful 1t is thar
our ugly iron work. Apropos Of thi,
] remember an incident of the dalnt,
little Japanese folk who took part II
the Columbian Exposition last year
III the space allotted for their villag,
was one Of our ordinary iron watcl
taps. 1t never occurs to us to notice
how hidcous they are. but the Japanes,
looked mt II, shuddcrcd as one man. an,
ut once set about hiding the hateful oh
jcct with clean, shining bamboo.