HARDWOOD RECORD 



25 



tlio last sliipmonl. viilmil at iflXKI, wliicli \v:is oiiIciihI last Jaiuiaiy. lias 

 not yot nrrlvid liori>. Much of this delay in slilpment occurs tlirongh the 

 lunilM>r iH'lng liausshippod nt Ilambure, and the Beirut Importer feels lliat 

 It the Memphis shipper had an oneieetle forwarding agent in New Yorlt or 

 in New Orleans, who would lake the trouble to have the lumber shipped 

 direct to some Mediterranean port, such as Naples, Genoa, or Trieste, for 

 transshipment, it would arrive here much quicker. The trade with Syria 

 in red gum and in other cabinet woods is one which is capable of consider- 

 able expansion, as almost all wooden furniture used here is made locally, 

 where cabinetmakers I'eceive, on an average, but eiglit.v-one and onc-lialf 

 ccnt.s per day. Moreover, the climate here, together with the rough han- 

 dling that furniture receives whenever it is moved, makes the life of an 

 ordinary piece of wooden furniture comparatively brief; and this helps to 

 keep up tile demand for new furniture. 



The American hard and semi-hard woods are already qnite popular with 

 Beirut cabinetmakers, and if they could be assured of prompt deliveries 

 and of reasonable prices, they would no doubt use these woods much more 

 largel.v than they do at present. The firm is anxious to do more business 

 In American cabinet and furniture woods, and would be glad to receive 

 quolations, prices, and samples from reputable American shippers. The 

 firm is a member of tlie American Syrian Chamber of Commerce, and can 

 handle correspondence in English, rrospective shippers to Syria can get a 

 great deal of valuable information relative to credits, banking arrange- 



ments, drafts, etc.. by applying to a New York lirm whose address and 

 that of the Beirut importing house referred to are obtainable from the 

 Bureau of Foreign and DomeKtlc Commerce, Washington, D. C. 



The red gum lumber exports to foreign countries do not include 

 the whole of this \yood that leaves the shores of the United States. 

 Box sliooks and slack cooperage stock draw heavily upon red gum, 

 but precise figures cannot be quoted because statistics are not kept 

 in a way to show various woods separately. 



The trade in red gum lumber with South America is very small. 

 The whole continent in the course of a year does not buy as much 

 as one steam tug will carry. Africa takes seven times as much as 

 South America. Oceania buys none. That is a hard market to reach 

 under existing conditions. So is Asia. With the opening of the 

 Panama canal an enormous field will be open to the shippers of this 

 wood. The market will include the whole west coast of the two 

 Americas from Cape Horn as far north as anyone may want to go. 

 On the other side of the sea it will embrace China and the other 

 countries of ea.stern Asin : An^trnli-i and the numerous islands of 

 the Pacific ocean. 



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The little town of Cornwall, on the bank of the St. Lawrence river 

 in northeastern Ontario, sends .$2,000 a year into the United States 

 to buy the choicest hickory that can be found between Arkansas and 

 New England; and when the hickory arrives it is carefully stored 

 until the stormy weather of winter sets in. About that time a small 

 troup of Indians, from eight to a dozen, arrive at Cornwall from the 

 back country where they spent the summer in idleness. The hickory 

 billets are turned over to them, and they begin their winter work of 

 whittling lacrofse sticks. By the time the warm days of spring call 

 the children of the wilderness back to the wild, they have reduced 

 the hickory to the finished product, and they depart for the frontiers, 

 leaving others to put the sticks on the market and collect the cash 

 from the sales. 



That is said to be the only lacrosse-stick factory in the world, and 

 the work is done wholly by Indians. The product is sold in the 

 United States, England, New Zealand, Australia, but mostly in 

 Canada. Doubtless white men could master the art of making the 

 sticks if they would set about it, and perhaps other than Indiaa? 

 have made a few sticks at times; but the industry has always been 

 in the hands of Indians. They claim to possess the secret of giving 

 the proper and peculiar curve to the stick, and weaving the lattice 

 or net of thongs just right. They have handed the secret down from 

 generation to generation, until today the last spot on earth where 

 the sticks are made is at Cornwall. 



It is claimed that the game originated in that place. That is 

 claiming more than can be proved. It may have originated there, 

 for all anybody knows to the contrary; but if it did, it had spread 

 far and wide a long time ago. It originated among the Indians, 

 but no man knows when. The name now applied to it is French, 

 but that is not the original name. Probably there were as many 

 original names as there were Indian tribes who played the game. 

 One of the names in use 150 years ago was ' ' baggatiway. ' ' 



At the present time the game is played in accordance with strict 

 rules, and in a scientific manner. The sticks are four or five feet 

 long, curved at the end, with a net of leather thongs or catgut, 

 forming a loose pocket in which the ball is scooped up from the 

 ground and carried in a horizontal position. The ball is of hard 

 rubber, about three inches or less in diameter. It must not be touched 

 by hand or foot while the game is being played. The goals consist 

 of posts at each end of the course. The course may be two or three 

 hundred yards, and up to half a mile. The game consists in putting 

 the ball past the goal. The game is now usually played with twelve 

 on each side, but the number is optional. There is abundant oppor- 

 tunity for rough play; and the police are sometimes obliged to stop 

 scrimmages in which the sticks are used like sabers to whack every 



opponent that comes within range. Tlu- li.-ill is thrown with great 

 force from the net on the stick, and wliizzes down the field like a 

 small cannon ball. 



The game is popular in Canada, and is occasionally played in the 

 United States. It is regularly seen at the Indian school at Carlisle, Pa. 

 The sticks are kept for sale in Chicago; but it is said that the last 

 game was played in that city four or five years ago. 



No wood except hickory will stand the strenuosity of the game. 

 The sticks are rough in appearance. They have none of the grace 

 and fine polish of a golf stick or tennis racket, but look "home 

 made," which they are. 



The game was played by the Indians of Canada and far south in 

 the present territory of the United States. It was popular with 

 Sioux Indians also. The wide region over which the Indians were 

 acquainted with it indicates that its origin was very long ago — ■ 

 earlier than we have any history in America. 



It is now possible to make it a rough game, but it was far worse 

 the way the Indians played it when they had the whole thing to 

 themselves. Instead of twenty-four persons engaged, as is the 

 custom now, there were formerly small armies. The traveler Catliu 

 in 1763 saw 600 Indians in one game, and they kept it up for hours. 

 Such a game was little less bloody, and no less exciting, than a 

 Eoman gladiatorial show. 



A rubber ball is now used, and it is dangerous enough when slung 

 from the net several hundred feet down the field; but such a ball is 

 a toy compared with what the wild Indians used in their fierce games. 

 Thqir softest ball was a round knot cut from a chestnut oak or some 

 other hardwood tree. They generally used round stones the size of 

 a baseball. In Canada and in the northern part of the United States 

 they found exactly what they wanted in the glacial gravel beds. 

 They picked round, smooth granite pebbles weighing from one to 

 two pounds. These were hurled with all the velocity that the stoutest 

 warriors could impart. One might as well be struck with a cannon 

 ball as with such a stone slung from the net of a lacrosse-stick. 

 The apparatus with which David knocked out Goliath was harmless 

 in comparison. In the excitement of the game the Indians paid little 

 attention to the lists of dead and wounded. It was part of the play. 



It is significant that, as far as history shows, the Indians played 

 the game only in the region where hickory was obtainable. It was 

 the "indispensable wood" then as it still is. No other could endure 

 the strains, twists, knocks and jerks of the wild games of the natives 

 when they slung stones and oak knots down a half-mile field. Today 

 the last remnants of the Indians who still make the sticks send from 

 Canada into the United States to procure the wood which their 

 ancestors used centuries ago. 



