i8 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



made by the natives, which are polished to 

 an extraordinary degree by the patient 

 workers. One of these is shown in figure 3. 

 The surface of the wood is first rubbed ener- 

 getically with an emery-cloth and then fin- 

 ished with a gentle friction by means of 

 oiled skins. Maple is not found in large 

 quantities in the islands, but there is a 

 species of wood that finishes very like 

 maple. Figure 4 illustrates a box con- 

 structed of this wood, which is exceeding!}' 

 heavy, being intended for a treasure chest. 

 When the weighted lid is down a number of 

 us pass over it, and these chains are 

 heavily padlocked. In order to get the lid 

 open it is necessary to cut the links of the 

 chain. It will lie noticed that the box it- 

 self is made of very thick pieces of lumber. 



One of the oddest boxes made by the 

 Filipino carpenter is illustrated in Figure 

 5. It is constructed of mahogany with a 

 cover secured to the body of the box by 

 means of three metal shafts passing through 

 the lid as shown. The bottoms of the shafts 

 are secured to the interior of the box. When 

 the cover is closed nuts are used to screw 

 it securely to the top and a wrench is re- 

 quired in order to remove the cover. 



Figure 6 is one of various types of up- 

 right chests noticed in process of construc- 

 tion in a • in ii ■■-<■ woodworking establish- 

 ment at Manila. It has the appearance of a 

 piece of household furniture, but is in- 

 tended for transportation purposes. When 



the box is shipped the uprights at the back 

 can be removed and placed inside. They 

 support a small and a large mirror as shown. 

 Not infrequent!}' the Chinese hardwood ar- 

 tisan of the islands goes to the extreme 

 when it comes to strengthening the box, 

 contrary to the custom of the Filipino. In 

 this instance six powerful brass hinges of 

 the strap order are securely fastened upon 

 the doors. 



Lately American tools have been provided 

 for the boxmakers in Manila 'shops, so that 

 much of the tedious manual labor is abol- 

 ished. Formerly all boards' were cut by 

 hand-sawing processes, but of late Amer- 

 ican circular saws have been introduced into 

 some of the more progressive shops in the 

 islands. 



With high-grade hardwoods cheaper than 

 the cheapest pine it is in no wise remarkable 

 thai the Chinese and Filipinos of the islands 

 i in produce handsome boxes at very low 



9, particularly when the native car- 

 le liter receives for his work less than fifty 

 cents a day. Large numbers of these boxes 



xported annually and the cabinet mak- 

 ing industry of the Philippines has been 

 greatly stimulated by this trade. Boxes of 

 the more fanciful designs and rarer woods 

 also find their way out of the islands into 

 appreciating hands, since almost every trav- 

 eler and soldier on leaving the Philippines 

 curies with him one or more of these boxes, 

 which make very useful little souvenirs. 



Anecdote and Incident. 



Objected to Dying Friday Night. 

 E, C. Brainenl of the Nicola Brothers Com 

 it Pittsburg, is the father of a promis 

 ing six-year-old son, whose fondness for school 

 ur kindergarten is not a prominent character- 

 istic. On a recent Friday evening, the little 

 i hap was kneeling by the side of his cot, re- 

 peating the well-known devotion of child 

 hood: 



•New I lay me down to sleep, 

 ] pray the Lord my soul to keep; - 

 If I should die before I wake " 



When suddenly breaking off in his prayer 

 the young scamp continued: "And you know, 

 Lord, I don't wan. to die tonight, for to- 

 morrow is Saturday." 



' ' Suppose he does find it. What good is 

 the North Pole to anybody?" 



Here the caller's patience gave way. 



"I didn't know but you might have BOmi 

 isity, as an expert, to know what kind of 

 lumber it's made of," he said, turning on his 

 heel, and walking out. 



His Possible Interest in the North Pole. 

 The Youth 's Companion tells an amusing 

 dote concerning the sordid, utilitarian 

 of everything, including the achieve- 

 ments of science, that some persons have. 



A public spirited citizen, who was trying 



to raise funds to assist a well-known Arctic 



irer in fitting out an expedition for polar 



resent a wealthy lumber dealer, 



ami asked him I ribution. 



'■What's the good of it?" asked the lum- 

 ber dealer. 



"The good of it I Won't it be worth some- 

 thing to mankind if he discovers the North 



An Order With a String to It. 

 Clem E. Lloyd, Philadelphia sales man 

 of the Cherry River Boom & Lumber Com- 



tells "i an order he n eently reci 

 on a postal, from a German customer up the 

 state. The requisition was made out in due 



and called for the immediate shipment 

 of one-third of a car each of 3x12, 2x10 and 

 2x8 spruce dimension. Immediately below 

 the order was a postscript which read, "£ 

 writing the above order I have been out and 

 looked around the yard and find I don't ice I 

 the stock, so please cancel. ' ' 



Bird's-eye Maple Explained. 



"When a man lias spent etgntj years and 

 more than $75,000 in studying the ways of 

 wild things," said Greenleaf Davis of Patten, 

 Me., "it would seem as if he should know 

 tiling about the nature of animals and 

 birds, but I am obliged to own that I am more 

 ignorant today than I was when my father 

 came here from Massachusetts and built a 

 mill in 1824, when I was nine years old. 

 He left all his-property to me, including miles 

 Of timber lands and money in bank, and I 



have spent all of it, except this spot where 

 my camp stands. 



"What have I accomplished? That depends 

 very much upon how you look at it. The 

 way the world sees things, my life has been 

 wasted. Instead of being rich I am very 

 poor, so poor that the town keeps me in the 

 almshouse free of cost through the cold 

 weather. I have almost assured myself of 

 \ cry many facts, though I am not absolutely 

 ■ ertain concerning any except two. 



"The first is that every woodpecker that 

 digs a hole in a tree for a nest chooses the 

 east side. I have spent more than half a 

 century studying woodpeckers. Within half a 

 mile of my camp are 612 woodpecker nests. 

 I have the largest collection of woodpeckers 

 in the woild, though none of them is tame 

 or more than half domesticated. I have spent 

 as much as $250 in a year buying meat to 

 feed the woodpeckers. Nobody living or dead 

 has studied the woodpeckers so much as I 

 have, but the sum of my knowledge is very 

 small. 



"I know that these birds insist on having 

 the holes that enter their nests face the east 

 because I have waited until the eggs were 

 laid in the holes in posts I had put out and 

 then turned the posts about. I have done this 

 when the birds were away, and never has any 

 bird continued to incubate her young when 

 the hole was changed from due east. I think 

 the woodpeckers choose an eastern aspect for 

 the reason that they can know when the sun 

 is up. They are all early risers, and having 

 no Marm clocks they made sun dials of their 

 nests. 



"My second discovery is of some commer- 

 cial use. For hundreds of years lumbermen 

 and cabinetmakers have been studying to 

 learn what causes maple wood to assume the 

 mottled and spotted form known as 'bird's- 

 In a hundred rock maple trees perhaps 

 one Is a bird's-eye. Nobody can pick the spe- 

 cific tree out by Inspecting the bark or the 

 manner of growth. You may have to chop 

 200 trees before you find one, but it is worth 

 the sacrifice. 



"Fact is. the woodpeckers make all the 

 bird's-eye maple there Is In the world. In 

 living about the woods they come to a rock 

 maple tree that yields very sweet sap in the 

 season when sap is running. Most birds like 

 sweets — woodpeckers are very fond of sugar. 

 Having found a tree yielding a large per cent 

 of sugar the birds peck holes in the trunk and 

 then stand against the bark and drink the sap 

 as it oozes out. 



"After the sap has ceased to flow and the 

 trees have leaved out new wood and bark 

 form in those small holes. The pecking and 

 sap gatherings go on for years until the 

 tree, having given up so much sap to the 

 birds, begins to furnish fluid containing less 

 sugar. In ten or twelve years after the birds 

 quit a tree the holes are all grown up. and 

 nobody can pick out the big bird's-eyes from 

 other trees that the woodpeckers did not 

 visit. 



"More than fifty years ago I started in to 

 Induce the woodpeckers to help me make 

 bird's-eye maples. This spring I had more 

 than 1,000 birds in my employ for two months. 

 On the side hill overlooking my camp ire 

 about 300 bird's-eye maples of my own make. 

 I know every one of them, though nobody else 

 can guess at the valuable trees. If I live a 

 few years longer I am going to begin cutting, 

 after which I shall have more money than I 

 can spend. If I die I have left a record of 

 every tree, so that the Audubon society can 

 market the wood and devote the money to giv- 

 ing protection to woodpeckers." 



Randleman, N. C, has a new. $12,000 chair 

 factory. Its output will be from three to five 

 hundred hardwood bottom dining chairs per day. 



