The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1895-09-07
THE YOUNG PEOPLE.

IHE 1OUNG SEOPLE.
INTERESTING READING FOR THE
BRIGHT BOYS AND GIRLS.
How Reads Are Made-Birds as Bar
ometers-Po1ly Did Say Uncle-An
Inventors Dream-Why She Was
Happy-The Ant Doctor.
Half a dozen years ago many a fat
dame rode out in her carriage with
thousands OF black and white beads
looped and tasseled upon her dress.
There were pendants OF beads on her
hat; beads dangled from her parasol
and ner Swapping bag tingled with.
beads. Children in school wore them
as necklaces, bracelets and
rings Of a score Of different colors.
Today their use in the United States
has largely gone out Of fashion except
within certain narrow limits, and the
manufacture Of them, still a great in-
dustry, depends for its support mainly
upon South America, Africa and the
islands of the sea. In those countries
beads have been worn for hundreds Of
years, and fashion has little influence
upon their use. Indeed, if explorers
are to be believed, many a black say
age is clad in a necklace of beads and
very little else.
Chinese are the oldest bead makers
In the world. They have made beads
so long that even their historians do
not mention a time when the industry
was not ancient. And the Chinese to-
day do the work just as their forefath-
ers did, and the styles are exactly the
same.
After the Chinese no people are so ex-
pert as the Venetians. At present there
are more than 1000 workmen in the
island of Murano alone who are en-
gagged in bead making. The few man
ufasturers in other parts of the world
have all learned the secret Of the craft
in Venice.
For bead making there must be a
rope walk connected with the glass fac
tory. A rope walk is a narrow, straight
gallery about $50 feet long, and so sit
uated that the middle is not far from
the furnaces in which the glass is melt
ordinary tubes like those used in al
most every drug store. Two brawny
Workmen, with BARE brown arms, seize
a huge wedge Of the metal" as the
motion glass is called, between their
blow pipes, and after it has been blown
hollow they gradually stretch 1t out
into long, swinging rope
When it has been reduced to the
proper size for the beads about to be
made, it is laid away to cool, after
which workman comes along, and, in
wonderfully deft manner, chips it
into fragments of uniform size Often
for small beads these are not much
larger than a grain Of wheat, but so
carefully is the work done that the lit
he cylinders are rarely cracked or
spoiled.
The pieces are now picked up by boys
and placed in tub with sand and
ashes and stirred up carefully In this
way the holes in the embryo beads are
stuffed full, thus preventing the dan
ger OF the sides fiattening together
when heat is applied.
They are next placed in a skillet
just such one as the housewife uses
tn frying eggs-and stirred over a very
hot fire until the ragged edges where
the pieces were broken from the tube
are rounded, giving the bead a globular
form: AS soon as they are cool the
ashes and sand are shaken out Of them
In sieve and then they are separated
according to size by other sleeves. They
are taken next to long table around
which whole flock of boys and girls
are sitting. If the glass is colored, as
1t is, the piles Of beads on the table
suggest a rainbow, with every hue,
from jet black, through red, green, vel
low and blue up to white
Each child has needle and thread,
and by long practice the beads are
placed on strings with almost incon-
ceivable swiftness. And the children
keep an exact account, too, so that the
manufacturer knows just how many
beads he is sending out The threads
are tied into bundles and shipped to
almost every port where a vessel
touches.-Chicago Record.
Some Feathered Jokers,
All residents Of the country should
be familiar with birds. 'Haye birds q
sense Of humor?' is the question asked
by Colette Smiley, in the Chautauquan,
and number Of bright incidents Of
bird-lffe quoted to prove that they
have. She says:
One must not only be thoroughly we'll
acquainted with it's habits but he must
be able to enjoy the doings Of a pert
mischief maker if the catbird is to be
appreciated at it's full worth One day
as the writer was watching wood
thrush in quiet grove where it was
enjoying life in it's own way with Oc-
cas1onal spurts Of song to enlven the
occasion, a catbird appeared on
branch not very far from the thrush,
but little below it. Just then the
thrush began to sing. Instantly the
catbtrd spread its legs bit, shook it's
wing slightly clear OF its body, cooked
one eye up at the thrush and gave a
cry that must have sounded derislve to
the dullest ear. The thrush stopped
short and instantly the catbird took up
kto1 b. T.