The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-31
RARESl WOODS ON EARTH.
WHERE THEY COME FROM AND
 HoW PREPARED
snskewood at Twenty-Five Cents $
 Pound.

river in New York, there lie piled up in
 rough, unsymmetrical heaps, large
 numbers of coarsely hewn, dirty logs.
 An ignorant observer might take these
 to be supplies for a kindling wood fac
 tory, and certainly would be surprised
 to learn that the dirty sticks of timber
 are the most valuable woods in the
 world in their rough form.
 There is mahogany there, and quan-
 tity of it; ebony Black sea walnut and
 costly snakewood, but it all lies thete
 seemingly unguarded and beaten by
 the weather as though it were the
 cheapest sort of white pine.
 Tt doesn't look very valuable, does
 it?" said the manager of one of the
 companies which sell much of the cost"
 ly timber; but that is the wood that
 some day will be worked over, polished
 and made into the most beautiful Wood-
 work that money can buy. That one
 big log that those workmen are carry
 ing is worth two thousand dollars, and
 l have seen a log in mahogany only a
 little larger than that which was sold
 for nine thousand dollars. It was
 twenty-eight feet long and five feet
 thick, and was the finest piece of the
 wood that I have ever seen. Pretty
 good price for single stick, isn't it?
 It was perfectly sound log, though,
 and its coloring and marking were re-
 markable. That is why it brought such
 high price.
 Mahogany is like diamonds" he con- tinued "The value of each stick is de-
 termined by it's markings and freedom from flaws. hWen the logs are sold in
 the rough, as you see them here, there is a big element of chance in their pur
 chase. The expert can judge them only by outward appearance and must be able to tell by the general look of the logs whether they are sound and
 whether the marking which shows on the outside is apt to continue through the piece. After a good deal of experi- ence one is able to size up piece of timber pretty correctly, but while we are all fooled once in a while, and that is one of the uncertainties of the busi- ness. Some one once said that mahog- any was the king of woods and he was not far wrong. It is certainly the most durable on account of it's hardness, and the polish that it takes gives it right to the title It isn't what 1t used to be, though.
 Thirty years ago all the best of the wood was designated as San Domingo from the place in which it grew. It was the best that was ever cut and attained a great reputation, but it is almost inn possible to get now The choice wood is all gone and there is not enough to be had now to supply one e-hundredth part of the demand for it. We still get the wood from San Domingo, but it is all second growth, smaller than the old mahogany and much inferior to it, Mahogany from Central America was sold in large quantities here years ago also but it was found to be soft and straight grained and now it has prac- tically stopped coming to this market Nowadays we get the wood from Cuba and Mexico. The Cuban product comes in small sizes, but is of good texture and hard. It is from Mexico, though that the great markets of the world are now supplied, not only with the best mahogany but also with much that is soft, though much better than the old | South American product.
 Many people have the idea that | there is no more good mahogany and l that all that is cut now is soft. This assertion is the outcome of individual | experience in procuring good of poor 1 wood those who have received the best | grades pronounce the Mexican wood | hard and beautiful in texture. An inn | pression also exists that mahogany is | expensive and only to be indulged in | by few That is untrue. The facili- | ties for procuring the wood and the de- | vices for reducing it into lumber have | so improved that it's cost to-day com | pares favorably with some of our do- | mestic hard-woods such as cherry. | The cost of working it is certainly not | greater than any of the domestic | woods. It lasts better than the domes- tic article. though
 "The process of veneering is what | makes all the hard woods expensive, as this work costs as much as the timber in the rough. The wood is cut very thin, about one-thirtieth of an inch, say. A layer of glue is placed over the wood to which the strip is laid on, smoothed down by hand and then ldT1pGu DelWS6il LWO lIbt plcSSeS, Oi cauls, as we call them. It takes some time for the glue to dry. Then the clamps are removed, the wood sand-pa- pered and scraped and the real work of polishing begins with the application of filters to fill the pores of the wood and make it smooth. Then almost endless rubbing has to be done to develop the polish It is a long process and expen- sve, for that reason, but no more cost !y in the case of mahogany than any other wood. The average cost of ma- hogany in the rough is from one hun ired and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars thousand feet.
 If you think mahogany is very eX- I pensive, what do you think about Cir ,assian walnut which we import from Russia, and which costs almost double? which comes from South I America, costs from three to four times IS much as mahogany, and is fully as 'ich in coloring It is used but little, , however, on account of it's cost. Satin wood, product of the West Indies, | ,osts almost as much as rosewood too. l 7 This is a beautiful light yellow wood, , which also takes a high polish. Eng f ish brown oak is also fully as expensive i