The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1904-11-18
HENDRICK, The CABINET
* MAKER, ~
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BY S. Rhett Roman.
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lie APPEARED suddenly one day in
II the small settlement in the heart
Of the mountains through an accident
of fate, evidently from some large cen
ter, for his knowledge of country life
and ways were limited, and it took
him quite a number of years even to
partially assimilate with the people.
Hendrick lived lonely life and was
reticent as to his own affairs.
He began by making shelves and bits
Of furniture out of the beautiful and
varied woods of the forest to furnish
the dilapidated cottage he leased from
its owner, old SchenckS, who had gone
away, being supposed to be connected
with the illicit whisky trade.
Then Hendrick gradually became a
cabinet-maker of considerable renown
all through that remote section of the
country, for he developed wonderful
skill at the work.
There was something as foreign
about Hendricks air and manner as
there was in the shape and construc-
ton of his chairs, sofas. cabinets and
other pieces of furniture, which he sold
readily enough to the tourists and
summer visitors who came to the
mountains and crowded the hotels for
at least two months of the year, for
Hendricks work was as strange as it
was beautiful.
During the long winter months when
bleak winds and snowstorms kept the
people indoors. when the forests were
bare, the fields brown and the trick
ling mountain streams were frozen
hard. Hendrick, sitting by his fire,
made carvings, delicate and intricate,
and did inlaid work of rare beauty for
the tables and quaint cabinets, so diff
ferent from anything the people who
bought them could find elsewhere.
Hendrick built his workshop by the
side of the main road, over which all
the traffic of the mountains and We
hicles of every description passed, and
a stones throw from the weather
beaten cottage he renovated, and where
he lived his solitary life.
Hendricks thick and slightly curl
lIlS AdIl W DO VI u ucSi ~ hCoioh SOAo4
when he first came to the mountains
but it grew quite gray during the sue
ceeding years, and his strong, rugged
face acquired seams and lines of care
and an expression of repressed melan-
choly as time went on.
That he was familiar with some
other language besides the English
which he spoke well and fiuently, was
evident, for he was in the habit OF
singing in subdued tone as he
worked, and the words of the sweet
plaintive songs were incomprehensible
as well as musical
There was much village gossip and
interest when at last a letter came for
Hendrick, large, square letter, with
foreign stamp, aud its address dis
closed that his first name was Carl.
1t was unlocked for, evidently, fol
when the postmaster beckoned Hen
dricl az he stood in the doorway OF
one of the village stores, and held uI
the letter, Hendrick strobe forward
hurriedly and the loiterers around no.
ticed that his face blanched as he
thrust the letter in his pocket and went
off, forgetting his package of pur-
chases on old Sam Browns counter.
The day following Hendricks shor
was closed and locked, and any one
peering through the window panes
could see his bright, sharp-edged tools
lying along the side of a half-finished
piece of work, while his blouse hung
on peg by the door.
Nor did any smoke issue from the
chimney of the red-roofed cottage
buried among the tall chestnut ant
cedar trees.
Two weeks later Hendrick reap
peared, and was again hard at worl
planning and cutting and oiling thu
hard woods he so dexterously fash
toned into pieces of furniture such a.
the Franciscan monks invented cen
turtles ago, or those which the cabinet
makers of the old German towns o
Holland and of Milan MANUFACTURED
during the troublous middle ages. an,