The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-15

| to another room where 1t is trimmed and sandpapered, The latter process is more interesting. Another drum-like wheel covered with sandpaper revolves rapidly on a shaft, and workmen hold | the guitar bodies against it until they are completely smooth and clean. The necks are next put on, then the finger boards, and the frets. Again the half- completed instruments are put away to dry and age.
 The making of the mandolin is more complicated. Along one side of the room in which they are made dozens of skull-shaped iron moulds are arranged. Some of these have two or more pieces of wood cut like an orange peel elamped | to them, Each day a workman adds another piece until the body of the mandolin is complete. The shells are then laid away in racks to dry, ranged along like 90 many gourds.
 The making of the mother-of-pearl in- lay is an art in itself The great rough gray shells used are brought from Aus tralia or from California. The poorest cost about eight cents a. pound and the best about forty-five cents. They vary in size from four inches up to eight inches in diameter. In one of the corners of the shop, almost enclosed by huge piles of drying mandolins, the pearl is cut The sawyer selects a shell from the cupboard where they are kept and rasps it apart on a wheel armed with small, biting teeth. The sound which 1t gives out resembles the grat- ing of a rusty hinge. All the waste parts having been cut away, the slabs are ground smooth and even tinted on a large grindstone. A workman cuts them with a small hand saw to the size and shape lequired, and they are glued in place in the inlay. Sometimes de- signs are carved on them with small flanged drills. such as the diamond pol isher uses in cutting cameos.
 One of the most interesting places in the whole shop is the storeroom It is locked, and the spectacled, gray hair ed custodian Is very careful about let ting any one inside, The room Is filled with tall racks loaded down with pieces of mandolin and guitars, bits of veneer, and all kinds of fragrant foreign woods, some of them most beautifully colored. Enough material is stored here in a ripening process to make thousands of instruments When workman needs particular piece of wood in his work he applies to the GUS todian and 1t is picked out--but the old workman is very Jealous of his treas ures. Every caution is taken to pre- vent fire for if the pieces should be destroyed the loss would be very great. The wood might be replaced at once, but it couldn't be given age
 In another long room the finished in- struments are kept-thousands of them. Here there are number of prize man. dolins just back from the Antwerp ex- hibition. They are Beautifully lnlaid in mother-of-pearl with gold trimmings, and the value of each exceeds $500.
 The most expensive mandolin ever made at the factory was of solid she'll pearl with pearl finger board and neck, ivory keys and gold ornaments, and 1t took almost year to complete it. At the worlds fair i'll Chicago many thou sands of persons examined it and went home to tell their friends that they had seen the finest instrument of the kind ever made, It was afterward pur= chased for $1500 by the actress Corinne, and she frequently uses it on the stage. |
 The various instruments having been put together they are taken to the pol | ishing room. Here long row of work | men rub on the shellac and then polish | it off with their calloused palms It is | a long and tedious operation, and when | the instruments come out they are strung and tested and then sent out for | shipment.
 Tn another part of the building there | is complete machine shop, where all | the screws and wires and metal orna- ments of the instruments are made. | The number of pieces which go to make up guitar is almost inconeeivable. | By actual count the best guitar has 7610 pieces entering into it's construc- tion, the best mandolin 3,S53, the best | banjo 344, and the best zither 3,205 A high grade guitar passes through sev- enty hands, a mandolin sixty hands, a banjo forty hands and zlther fifty hands. Twenty-seven different varie- ties of wood are used In constructing the various instruments, including rose- wood, mahogany, spruce, six varieties of maple, elm, hickory, lignum vitae, ebony, olive, whitewood, and Spanish cedar The workmen are among the IuOSl ShlHeu dllu lHlelilBeuJ or the, CfhIL.
 The banjo is coming into greater pop ularity every day. It is made very sim ply and can be sold correspondingly cheap, The banjo was the invention of a negro who lived in the town of Ban- ioemas, near the coast of Java, about fifty years ago. He was the direct des- cendant, no doubt, of Noah's son Ham, who is said to have invented the violin and strung it with hairs from the the 'possum's tail, leaving that member hairless forever afterward. The Java negro took cheesebox, and crossing 1t with goatskin, he ran a handle through It. Then he fitted 1t with violin strings, tuning them to the first, third, fifth and aigth notes of the octave. Having thus the instrument he named it banjo" after the town in which he ived, and proceeded forthwith to make t talk" Its popularity grew with tre- nendous rapidity, making a conquest many years ago with the "Ethiopian Serenaders."
 Bonaparie's Apprentice Years, At this point Bonepartes apprentice
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