Sept. 19, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



233 



would have dwindled away to 23. By that time, close 

 intermarriage among the whites would have begun to work 

 out their complete destruction, and in a very few years 

 more the blacks would have completely supplanted them. 

 Out of the two equal races with which we originally 

 peopled the island, the one race would have quintupled 

 itself, and the other race would have utterly died out, 

 simply owing to the fact that the women in the one case 

 married early, while in the other case they married late. 



So far, I have taken it for granted that both the races 

 will keep quite distinct. But in real life, it is quite impos- 

 sible to put two races in close contact with one another, and 

 yet prevent constant intermarriage or its practical equiva- 

 lent. Do what you wUl, the two races wiU get mixed. 

 Take an example where pride of race and prejudice are at 

 the very worst ; where one might naturally imagine that 

 intermixture would be hardest and tardiest ; where the 

 very name of miscegenation is scouted and detested. In 

 Jamaica, the total population in ISSl was in round ntimbers 

 560,000. Out of these, only 14,000 were white. But what 

 effect had this small body of whites had in leavening the 

 total population of the island ? It seems incredible, but 

 the brown people (mulattoes, quadroons, &c,) the mixed off- 

 spring of the two races, numbered over 100,000. Pioughly 

 speaking, one may say there were 450,000 blacks, 14,000 

 whites, and 100,000 of mixed parentage. Nothing could 

 better show how absurdly impossible is the attempt to 

 ensure purity of race where two distinct populations occupy 

 the same district And when one gets such close inter- 

 mixture, the problem of separating between the two races 

 becomes after a time absolutely insoluble. 

 {To be cotitinued.) 



THE WOEKSHOP AT HOME. 



By a Workixg Man. 



SUPPOSE that in Fig. 12 (p. 155) the ends, t, t (e), 

 instead of being of the form there shown, had been 

 made of the shape t in Fig. 15, and that the opening into 



H 



Fig. 15. 



which they fit, instead of having parallel sides, as seen from 

 the top, were formed as at s in the figure above, we should 

 have what is kno^ii among joiners as a rudimentary form 

 of the " dovetail " joint, one of the commonest employed 

 in joinery and cabinet-making. ^ in Fig. 15, is called the 

 " pin," and s the " socket." Before proceeding to a de- 



Fig. 16. 



tailed description of the way of making the joint, I may 

 advert to a kind of imitation of it, known as " mitre and 

 key," which is used in the trays of dressing-cases and the 

 like, and which is a good deal stronger than it looks. 

 Fig. 16 illustrates it. It represents ooe side and part of 



the end of a small box or tray. The two pieces of board 

 are first "mitred" {i.e., planed at an angle of 45^), 

 and joined with glue. Subsequently, two or three 

 cuts, as shown at k k, are made with a saw alter- 

 nately upwards and downwards, and slips of very 

 thin wood glued and driven into them, the projecting 

 pieces being removed when the glue is cold. I shall 

 presently have something to say about the way of cut- 

 ting mitres, as the mitre-joint is a very common one in 

 picture-frames, ic. To return now to our dovetail. Fig. 

 17 representing the ordinary form of it. The dovetails. 



Fig. 17. 



(7, appear on the front of the box, drawer, or other 

 piece of work ; and the pins are cut very much smaller, 

 in order that they may show as little as possible. ";' They 

 are made first. The workman as often as not marks 

 them out with his eye, but the amateur had better do 

 so by measurement. The wood being first properly 

 planed up and squared, the marking-gauge (Fig. 8, p. 154) 

 is set to the thickness of the board, and both the sides 

 and ends of the box marked in both sides as at ra m. 

 The two end-pieces should be at least twice as thick as 

 the intermediate ones. A, Fig. 18, shows how the 

 pieces are marked ; they are cut down to the gauge- 

 Hue g I, with the tenon-saw (Fig. 2, p. 154) and the 

 intermediate wood removed with the chisel. Note 

 that in cutting towards the boitom of the intervals 

 between the pins, the flat face of the chisel is held next the 

 solid thickness of the board, and the tendency should be 

 rather to leaving the outside edges on g I higher than the 

 middle than otherwise. This insures a closer joint. To 

 the same end the pencil lines marking the pins should be 

 left visible in sawing. Having thus cut out our puis neatly, 

 we lay the second piece of wood down on our bench or 

 table, and setting the pin-piece upright upon it, with the 

 pins in their intended places, and with their thicker ends 

 on the gauge-Hue, or towards the inside of our box or 

 drawer, we pass a thin, sharp bradawl along the two 



Figs. IS and 19. 



sloping sides of each of them, and so mark out their shapes. 

 Then, as before, we put the end or dovetail pieces upright, 

 and with our tenon-saw saw along their gauge-lines, leaving 

 them just visible. Finally, we remove the little piece of 

 wood with the aid of a chisel, and our dovetail piece, as 

 shown in Fig. 1 9, is complete. Fig. 1 7, above, shows how these 



