{"id":184,"date":"2020-03-28T20:55:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-28T20:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/?page_id=184"},"modified":"2021-07-12T19:32:28","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T19:32:28","slug":"612-household-words-conducted-by","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/household-words-2\/612-household-words-conducted-by\/","title":{"rendered":"Pg. 612"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Household<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

612 HOUSEHOLD WORDS. [Conducted by<\/p>\n\n\n\n

composition of which the\nstick-maker pro\u00adbably numbers among his secrets; and lastly, they are\nvarnished. Sometimes the surface is charred, and the charred portion scraped\noff here and there, so as to impart a mottled appearance to the stick.\nSometimes, but more frequently on the Continent than in England, lithographic\ntransfers decorate the surface of the stick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These every-day, steady-looking,\nthorough\u00adgoing, middle-class serviceable walking-sticks form the mainstay and\nsupport of the manu\u00adfacture, like as willow-pattern plates and twopenny cups\nand saucers are commercially more important to the Staffordshire potteries than\nParian statuettes or dessert services. But still the more ornate and\naristocratic sticks and canes give employment to a large number of work-people:\nwhalebone, tortoise\u00adshell, ram\u2019s horn, rhinoceros\u2019 horn, gutta percha,\nshark-spine, narwhal-horn, ivory\u2014 these are some only among many substances employed\nfor sticks. The mode of working each kind does not differ materially from that\nof manufacturing other articles from the same materials; but there is a curious\nexception in relation to tortoiseshell: the raspings and parings of this\nsubstance are susceptible of being conglomerated by heat and pressure, and\nformed into elongated rods for sticks\u2014a capital mode of picking up crumbs, and\nmaking them useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to the ferules, crooks,\nhandles, and decorative appendages, who shall number them? Gold, silver,\nsham-gold, sham-silver, ivory, ebony, tortoiseshell, mother o\u2019 pearl, agate,\ncornelian, jasper, jade, leather, hair, silk, skin\u2014all are employed. What\noffence crooks have given, that they should be out of favour, does not appear;\nbut certain it is that the rectangular handle is now in the ascendant: it juts\nout in stern precision from the vertical stem, and ignores Hogarth\u2019s theory of\nthe beauty of curved lines. It sometimes aspires to stags\u2019 heads, and at others\ndescends to stags\u2019 feet; and not unfrequently it makes a Jenny Lind-ish attempt\nat portraiture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So large has this manufacture\nnow become, that the principal London maker is said to sell annually about one\nhundred and fifty thousand walking-sticks made of English wood, and three\nhundred and sixty thousand rattans and canes for making the more ex\u00adpensive\nvarieties. The polished ash sticks are mostly made at Birmingham; where they\nare sawn and turned by machine-lathes, previous to the polishing. The\nimportation of walking- sticks from abroad is not very considerable, as the\nEnglish makers strive to meet all the demand that may arise: this relates to\nthe finished sticks, and not to the raw material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a nationality even in\nwalking-sticks. Germany makes better whalebone sticks than England, and is also\nexpert in making elastic and tough sticks from the almost impenetrable hide of\nthe rhinoceros. Austria excels in the sticks with carved ivory handles; but\nEngland bears the palm for those ornamented with silver wire, or gold and\nsilver chasing. Paris is said to have had, in 1847, no less than one hundred and\nsixty-five manufacturers, and nine hundred and sixty-two workpeople employed in\nmaking walking- sticks and whips ; but, as we cannot tell how many have been\nadded to these numbers from other and similar trades, so are we likewise\nwithout data to settle the numerical claims of the walking-sticks. There were,\nhowever, four thousand five hundred and fifty-six cwts. of rattans, bamboos,\nand other canes imported into France in 1850, and this seems to tell\nsignificantly of a large walking-cane manu\u00adfacture in that country. The little\nGrand Ducal (if anything so little can be grand) State of Hesse excels all\nother countries in the manufacture of pictorial walking-sticks. In neatly\ntransferring lithographic patterns to sticks Hesse is unrivalled. They are sold\nlargely to England and America, and some of them are exceedingly elegant; the\npatterns are transferred from paper while the ink from the printing, whether\ncoloured or black, is wet, and the stick is afterwards varnished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Hamburg seems to be the\nwalking- stick metropolis. Herr Meyer, of that city, is the king of\nstick-makers. His star of walking-sticks, radiating in all its splendour in the\nZollverein department of the Great Exhibition, attracted many an admiring gaze.\nVery little less than five hundred varieties there made their appearance; from\nthe ornate and costly, down to the useful and cheap. Being a free port for the\nreception of sticks and canes from all parts of the world, and (hand-labour\nbeing cheaper there than in London, Hamburg drives a large trade in this\ndepartment of industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crochetty walking-sticks\noccasionally make a noise in the world\u2014walking-sticks which contain a shop full\nof furniture (more or less) in their bosoms. A Scottish physician has lately\nconstructed a walking-stick containing a variety of medical instruments and\nmedicines. Another sagacious personage has enriched society with a\nwalking-stick containing a com\u00adpass, a mirror, a dressing-case, an inkstand, a\ntelescope, a thermometer, a set of drawing instruments, stationery, and\nlucifers. A third, thoughtful concerning the supply of nature\u2019s wants, has made\na walking-stick which acts as a miniature larder and wine\u00adcellar; for it\ncontains a long cylindrical bottle, a wine-glass on similar elongated prin\u00adciples,\nand a receptacle for biscuits or com\u00adpressed meat. Another has contrived to\npack away in his walking-stick a useful map of London and a compass. A fifth\n(perhaps an electro-biological gentleman) has made a walking-stick with a\ncomplete galvanic battery in its interior; \u201con holding the knob in the hand, a\nshock is slightly felt, and by taking a piece of silver or copper in each hand,\nand touching the knob on each side, the shock is greatly increased!\u201d
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

612 HOUSEHOLD WORDS. [Conducted by composition of which the stick-maker pro\u00adbably numbers among his secrets; and lastly, they are varnished. Sometimes the surface is charred, and the charred portion scraped off here and there, so as to impart a mottled appearance to the stick. Sometimes, but more frequently on the Continent than in England, lithographic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":664,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-184","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/184\/revisions\/738"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1853archive.com\/wp_annotation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}