[Footnote: Prize essay written for the International Forestry Exhibition, Edinburgh.]
The importance of the discovery of a hard, compact, and even grained wood, having all the characteristics of boxwood, and for which it would form an efficient substitute, cannot be overestimated; and if such a discovery should be one of the results of the present Forestry Exhibition, one of its aims will have been fulfilled.
For several years past the gradual diminution in the supplies of boxwood, and the deterioration in its quality, have occupied the attention of hardwood merchants, of engravers, and of scientific men.
Of merchants, because of the difficulties in obtaining supplies to meet the ever increasing demand; of engravers, because of the higher prices asked for the wood, and the difficulty of securing wood of good size and firm texture, so that the artistic excellence of the engraving might be maintained; and of the man of science, who was specially interested in the preservation of the indigenous boxwood forests, and in the utilization of other woods, natives, it might be, of far distant countries, whose adaptation would open not only a new source of revenue, but would also be the means of relieving the strain upon existing boxwood forests.
While by far the most important use of boxwood is for engraving purposes, it must be borne in mind that the wood is also applied to numerous other uses, such, for instance, as weaving shuttles, for mathematical instruments, turnery purposes, carving, and for various ornamental articles, as well as for inlaying in cabinet work. The question, therefore, of finding suitable substitutes for boxwood divides itself into two branches, first, directly for engraving purposes, and, secondly, to supply its place for the other uses to which it is now put. This, to a certain extent, might set free some of the boxwood so used, and leave it available for the higher purposes of art. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that much of the wood used for general purposes is unsuited for engraving, and can only therefore be used by the turner or cabinet maker. Nevertheless, the application of woods other than box for purposes for which that wood is now used would tend to lessen the demand for box, and thus might have an effect in lowering the price.
So far back as 1875 a real uneasiness began to be felt as to the future supplies of box. In theGardeners' Chroniclefor September 25, of that year, page 398, it is said that the boxwood forests of Mingrelia in the Caucasian range were almost exhausted. Old forests, long abandoned, were even then explored in search of trees that might have escaped the notice of former proprietors, and wood that was rejected by them was, in 1875, eagerly purchased at high prices for England. The export of wood was at that time prohibited from Abhasia and all the government forests in the Caucasus. A report, dated at about the same period from Trebizond, points out that the Porte had prohibited the cutting of boxwood in the crown forests. (Gardeners' Chronicle, Aug. 19, 1876, p. 239.) Later on, the British Consul at Tiflis says: "Bona fideCaucasian boxwood may be said to be commercially non-existent, almost every marketable tree having been exported." (Gardeners' Chronicle, Dec. 6, 1879, p. 726.)
The characters of boxwood are so marked and so distinct from those of most other woods that some extracts from a report of Messrs. J. Gardner & Sons, of London and Liverpool, addressed to the Inspector-General of Forests in India, bearing on this subject, will not be without value; indeed, its more general circulation than its reprint in Mr. J.S. Gamble's "Manual of Indian Timbers" will, it is hoped, be the means of directing attention to this very important matter, and by pointing out the characters that make boxwood so valuable, may be the means of directing observation to the detection of similar characters in other woods. Messrs. Gardner say:
"The most suitable texture of wood will be found growing upon the sides of mountains. If grown in the plains the growth is usually too quick, and consequently the grain is too coarse, the wood of best texture being of slow growth, and very fine in the grain.
"It should be cut down in the winter, and, if possible, stored at once in airy wooden sheds well protected from sun and rain, and not to have too much air through the sides of the sheds, more especially for the wood under four inches diameter.
"The boxwood also must not be piled upon the ground, but be well skidded under, so as to be kept quite free from the effects of any damp from the soil.
"After the trees are cut down, the longer they are exposed the more danger is there afterward of the wood splitting more than is absolutely necessary during the necessary seasoning before shipment to this country.
"If shipped green, there is great danger of the wood sweating and becoming mildewed during transit, which causes the wood afterward to dry light and of a defective color, and in fact rendering it of little value for commercial purposes.
"There is no occasion to strip the bark off or to put cowdung or anything else upon the ends of the pieces to prevent their splitting.
"Boxwood is the nearest approach to ivory of any wood known, and will, therefore, probably gradually increase in value, as it, as well as ivory, becomes scarcer. It is now used very considerably in manufacturing concerns, but on account of its gradual advance in price during the past few years, cheaper woods are in some instances being substituted.
"Small wood under four inches is used principally by flax spinners for rollers, and by turners for various purposes, rollers for rink skates, etc., etc., and if free from splits, is of equal value with the larger wood. It is imported here as small as one a half inches in diameter, but the most useful sizes are from 2½ to 3½ inches, and would therefore, we suppose, be from fifteen to thirty or forty years in growing, while larger wood would require fifty years and upward at least, perhaps we ought to say one hundred years and upward. It is used principally for shuttles, for weaving silk, linen, and cotton, and also for rule making and wood engraving.Punch, The Illustrated London News, The Graphic, and all the first class pictorial papers use large quantities of boxwood."
In 1880, Messrs. Churchill and Sim reported favorably on some consignments of Indian boxwood, concluding with the remarks that if the wood could be regularly placed on the market at a moderate figure, there was no reason why a trade should not be developed in it. Notwithstanding these prospects, which seemed promising in 1877 and 1880, little or nothing has been accually done up to the present time in bringing Indian boxwood into general use, in consequence, as Mr. Gamble shows, of the cost of transit through India. The necessity, therefore, of the discovery of some wood akin to box is even more important now than ever it was.
First among the substitutes that have been proposed to replace boxwood may be mentioned an invention of Mr. Edward Badoureau, referred to in theGardeners' Chronicle, March 23, 1878, p. 374, under the title of artificial boxwood. It is stated to consist of some soft wood which has been subject to heavy pressure. It is stated that some English engravers have given their opinion on this prepared wood as follows:
It has not the power of resistance of boxwood, so that it would be imposible to make use of it, except in the shape of an electro obtained from it, as it is too soft to sustain the pressure of a machine, and would be easily worn out. In reply to these opinions, Mr. Badoureau wrote: "My wood resists the wear and tear of the press as well as boxwood, and I can show engravings of English and French artists which have been obtained direct from the wood, and are as perfect as they are possible to be; several of them have been drawn by Mr. Gustave Dore."
Mr. Badoureau further says that "while as an engraver he has so high an opinion of the qualities of compressed wood as a substitute for boxwood, as the inventor of the new process he considered that it possesses numerous advantages both for artistic and industrial purposes." In short, he says, "My wood is to other wood what steel is to iron."
The following woods are those which have, from time to time, been proposed or experimented upon as substitutes for boxwood, for engraving purposes. They are arranged according to their scientific classification in the natural orders to which they belong:
1.Pittosporum undulatum. Vent.--A tree growing in favorable situations to a height of forty or even sixty feet, and is a native of New South Wales and Victoria. It furnishes a light, even grained wood, which attracted some attention at the International Exhibition in 1862; blocks were prepared from it, and submitted to Prof. De la Motte, of King's College, who reported as follows:
"I consider this wood well adapted to certain kinds of wood engraving. It is not equal to Turkey box, but it is superior to that generally used for posters, and I have no doubt that it would answer for the rollers of mangles and wringing machines." Mr. W.G. Smith, in a report in theGardeners' Chroniclefor July 26, 1873, p. 1017, on some foreign woods which I submitted to him for trial, says that the wood ofPittosporum undulatumis suitable only for bold outlines; compared with box, it is soft and tough, and requires more force to cut than box. The toughness of the wood causes the tools to drag back, so that great care is required in cutting to prevent the lines clipping. The average diameter of the wood is from 18 to 30 inches.
2.Pittosporum bicolor, Hook.--A closely allied species, sometimes forty feet high, native of New South Wales and Tasmania. This wood is stated to be decidedly superior to the last named.
3.Bursaria spinosa, Cav.--A tree about forty feet high, native of North, South, and West Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, in which island it is known as boxwood. It has been reported upon as being equal to common or inferior box, and with further trials might be found suitable for common subjects; it has the disadvantage, however, of blunting the edges and points of the tools.
4.Swietenia mahagoni, L. (mahogany).--A large timber tree of Honduras, Cuba, Central America, and Mexico. It is one of the most valuable of furniture woods, but for engraving purposes it is but of little value, nevertheless it has been used for large, coarse subjects. Spanish mahogany is the kind which has been so used.
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Ilex opaca, L. (North American holly).--It is a widely diffused tree, the wood of which is said to closely resemble English holly, being white in color, and hard, with a fine grain, so that it is used for a great number of purposes by turners, engineers, cabinet makers, and philosophical instrument makers. For engraving purposes it is not equal to the dog-wood of America (Cornus florida); it yields, however, more readily to the graver's tools.
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6.Elæodendron australe, Vent.--A tree twenty to twenty-five feet high, native of Queensland and New South Wales. The wood is used in the colony for turning and cabinet work, and Mr. W.G. Smith reports that for engraving purposes it seems suitable only for rough work, as diagrams, posters, etc.
7.Euonymus sieboldianus, Blume.--A Chinese tree, where the wood, which is known as pai'cha, is used for carving and engraving. Attention was first drawn to this wood by Mr. Jean von Volxem, in theGardeners' Chroniclefor April 20, 1878. In the Kew Report for 1878, p. 41, the following extract of a letter from Mr. W.M. Cooper, Her Majesty's Consul at Ningpo, is given: "The wood in universal use for book blocks, wood engravings, seals, etc., is that of the pear tree, of which large quantities are grown in Shantung, and Shan-se, especially. Pai'cha is sometimes used as an indifferent substitute. Pai'cha is a very fine white wood of fine fiber, without apparent grains, and cuts easily; is well suited for carved frames, cabinets, caskets, etc., for which large quantities are manufactured here for export. The tree itself resembles somewhat theStillingia, but has a rougher bark, larger and thinner leaves, which are serrated at the edge, more delicate twigs, and is deciduous." In 1879, a block of this wood was received at the Kew Museum, from Mr. Cooper, a specimen of which was submitted to Mr. Robson J. Scott, of Whitefriars Street, to whom I am much indebted for reports on various occasions, and upon this wood Mr. Scott reported as follows: "The most striking quality I have observed in this wood is its capacity for retaining water, and the facility with which it surrenders it. This section (one prepared and sent to the Kew Museum), which represents one-tenth of the original piece, weighed 3 lb. 4½ ounces. At the end of twenty one days it had lost 1 lb. 6¾ ounces in an unheated chamber. At the end of another fourteen days, in a much elevated temperature, it only lost ¼ ounce. In its present state of reduced bulk its weight is 1 lb. 10 ounces. It is not at all likely to supersede box, but it may be fit for coarser work than that for which box is necessary." Later on, namely in the Kew Report for 1880, p. 51, Mr. R.D. Keene, an engraver, to whom Mr. Scott submitted specimens of the wood for trial, writes: "I like the wood very much, and prefer it to box in some instances; it is freer to work, and consequently quicker, and its being uniform in color and quality is a great advantage; we often have great difficulty in box in having to work from a hard piece into a soft. I think it a very useful wood, especially for solid bold work. I question if you could get so extreme a fine black line as on box, but am sure there would be a large demand for it at a moderate price." Referring to this letter, Mr. Scott remarks that the writer does not intend it to be understood that pai'cha is qualified to supersede box, but for inferior subjects for which coarse brittle box is used. Mr. Scott further says that of the woods he has tried he prefers pear and hawthorn to pai'cha.
8.Acer saccharinum, L. (sugar or bird's eye maple).--A North American tree, forming extensive forests in Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The wood is well known as a cabinet or furniture wood. It has been tried for engraving, but it does not seem to have attracted much notice. Mr. Scott says it is sufficiently good, so far as the grain is concerned. From this it would seem not to promise favorably.
9.Brya ebenus, Δ. DC.--A small tree of Jamaica, where the wood is known as green ebony, and is used for making various small articles. It is imported into this country under the name of cocus wood, and is used with us for making flutes and other wind instruments. Mr. Worthington Smith considers that the wood equals bad box for engraving purposes.
10.Pyrus communis, L. (common pear).--A tree averaging from 20 to 40 feet high. Found in a wild state, and very extensively cultivated as a fruit tree. The wood is of a light brown color, and somewhat resembles limewood in grain. It is, however, harder and tougher. It is considered a good wood for carving, because it can be cut with or across the grain with equal facility. It stands well when well seasoned, and is used for engraved blocks for calico printers, paper stainers, and for various other purposes. Pear-wood has been tried for engraving purposes, but with no great success. Mr. Scott's opinion of its relative value is referred to under pai'cha wood(Euonymus sieboldianus).
11.Amelanchier canadensis. L. (shade tree or service tree of America).--A shrub or small tree found throughout Canada, Newfoundland, and Virginia. Of this wood, Porcher says, in his "Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests": "Upon examining with a sharp instrument the specimens of various southern woods deposited in the museum of the Elliott Society, ... I was struck with the singular weight, density, and fineness of this wood. I think I can confidently recommend it as one of the best to be experimented upon by the wood engraver."
12.Cratoegus oxyacantha, L. (hawthorn).--A well-known shrub or small tree in forests and hedges in this country. The wood is very dense and close grained. Of this wood, Mr. Scott reports that it is by far the best wood after box that he has had the opportunity of testing.
13.Eugenia procera, Poir.--A tree 20 to 30 feet high, native of Jamaica, Antigua, Martinique, and Santa Cruz. A badly seasoned sample of this wood was submitted to Mr. R.H. Keene, who reported that "it is suited for bold, solid newspaper work."
14.Cornus florida, L. (North American dogwood).--A deciduous tree, about 30 feet high, common in the woods in various parts of North America. The wood is hard, heavy, and very fine grained. It is used in America for making the handles of light tools, as mallets, plane stocks, harrow teeth, cogwheels, etc. It has also been used in America for engraving.
In a letter from Prof. Sargent, Director of the Arnold Arboretum, Brookline, Massachusetts, quoted in the Kew Report for 1882, p. 35, he says: "I have been now, for a long time, examining our native woods in the hope of finding something to take the place of boxwood for engraving, but so far I am sorry to say with no very brilliant success. The best work here is entirely done from boxwood, and someCornus floridais used for less expensive engraving. This wood answers fairly well for coarse work, but it is a difficult wood to manage, splitting, or rather 'checking,' very badly in drying." This, however, he states in a later letter, "can be overcome by sawing the logs through the center as soon as cut. It can be obtained in large quantities." Mr. R.H. Keene, the engraver before referred to, reports that the wood is very rough, and suitable for bold work.
15.Rhododendron maximum, L. (mountain laurel of North America).--Of this wood it is stated in Porcher's "Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests," p. 419, that upon the authority of a well-known engraver at Nashville, Tennessee, the wood is equaled only by the best boxwood. This species ofRhododendron"abounds on every mountain from Mason and Dixon's line to North Georgia that has a rocky branch." Specimens of this wood submitted to Mr. Scott were so badly selected and seasoned that it was almost impossible to give it a trial. In consideration of its hardness and apparent good qualities, further experiments should be made with it.
16.Rhododendron californicum.--Likewise a North American species, the wood of which is similar to the last named. Specimens were sent to Kew by Professor Sargent for report in 1882, but were so badly seasoned that no satisfactory opinion could be obtained regarding it.
17.Kalmia latifolia, L. (calico bush or ivy bush of North America).--The wood is hard and dense, and is much used in America for mechanical purposes. It has been recommended as a substitute for boxwood for engraving, and trials should, therefore, be made with it.
18.Monotoca elliptica, R. Br.--A tall shrub or tree 20 or 30 feet high, native of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania. The wood has been experimented upon in this country, and though to all appearances it is an excellent wood, yet Mr. Worthington Smith reported upon it as having a bad surface, and readily breaking away so that the cuts require much retouching after engraving.
19.Diospyros texana.--A North American tree, of the wood of which Professor Sargent speaks favorably. "It is, however," he says, "in Texas, at least, rather small, scarcely six inches in diameter, and not very common. In northern Mexico it is said to grow much larger, and could probably be obtained with some trouble in sufficient quantities to become an article of commerce." Of this wood Mr. Scott says: "It is sufficiently good as regards the grain, but the specimen sent for trial was much too small for practical purposes." Mr. R.H. Keene, the engraver, says it "is nearly equal to the best box."
20.Diospyros virginiana, L. (the persimmon of America).--A good-sized tree, widely diffused, and common in some districts. The wood is of a very dark color, hard, and of a fairly close grain. It has been used in America for engraving, but so far as I am aware has not been tried in this country. It has, however, been lately introduced for making shuttles.
21.Dyospyros ebenum, Koenig (ebony).--A wood so well known as to need no description. It has been tried for engraving by Mr. Worthington Smith, who considers it nearly as good as box.
22.Hunteria zeylanica, Gard.--A small tree, common in the warmer parts of Ceylon. This is a very hard and compact wood, and is used for engraving purposes in Ceylon, where it is said, by residents, to come nearer to box than any other wood known. On this wood Mr. Worthington Smith gave a very favorable opinion, but it is doubtful whether it would ever be brought from Ceylon in sufficient quantities to meet a demand.
23.Tecoma pentaphylla, Dl.--A moderate-sized tree, native of the West Indies and Brazil. The wood is compact, very fine, and even grained, and much resembles box in general appearance. Blocks for engraving have been prepared from it by Mr. R.J. Scott, who reported upon it as follows: "It is the only likely successor to box that I have yet seen, but it is not embraced as a deliverer should be, but its time may not be far off."
24.Carpinus betulus, L. (hornbeam).--A tree from 20 to 70 feet high, with a trunk sometimes 10 feet in girth, indigenous in the southern counties of England. The wood is very tough, heavy, and close grained. It is largely used in France for handles for agricultural and mining implements, and of late years has been much used in this country for lasts. The wood of large growth is apt to became shaky, and it is consequently not used as a building wood. It is said to have been used as a substitute for box in engraving, but with what success does not appear.
25.Ostrya virginica, Willd (ironwood, or American hornbeam).--A moderate-sized tree, widely spread over North America. The wood is light-colored, and extremely hard and heavy; hence the name of ironwood. It is used in America by turners, as well as for mill cogs, etc., and has been suggested as a substitute for boxwood for engraving, though no actual trials, so far as I am aware, have been made with it.
Besides the foregoing list of woods, there are others that have been occasionally used for posters and the coarser kinds of engraving, such, for instance, as lime, sycamore, yew, beech, and even pine; and in America,Vaccinium arboreumandAzalea nudiflora. Of these, however, but little is known as to their value.
It will be noticed that in those woods that have passed through the engraver's hands, some which promised best, so far as their texture or grain is concerned, have been tried upon very imperfect or badly seasoned samples.
The subject is one of so much importance, as was pointed out at the commencement of this paper, that a thoroughly organized series of experiments should be undertaken upon carefully seasoned and properly prepared woods, not only of those mentioned in the preceding list, but also of any others that may suggest themselves, as being suitable, It must, moreover, always be borne in mind that the questions of price, and the considerations of supply and demand, must, to a great extent, regulate the adaptation of any particular wood.
With regard to those woods referred to as being tried by Mr. Worthington Smith, he remarks in his report that any of them would be useful for some classes of work, if they could be imported, prepared, and sold for a farthing, or less than a halfpenny, per square inch.
Specimens of all the woods here enumerated are contained in the Kew Museum.
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Not long since we gave a figure from a drawing by Mr. Grallieni, which, looked at from a distance, seemed to be a death's head, but which, when examined more closely, was seen to represent two children caressing a dog. Since then we have had occasion to publish some landscapes of Kircher and his imitators, which, looked at sideways, exhibited human profiles. This sort of amusement has exercised the skill of artists of all times, and engravings, and even paintings, of double aspect are very numerous. Chance has recently put into our hands a very curious work of this kind, which is due to a skillful artist named Gaillot. It is an album of quite ancient lithographs, which was published at Berlin by Senefelder. The author, under the title of "Arts and Trades," has drawn some very amusing faces that are formed through the tools and objects used in the profession represented. We reproduce a few specimens of these essentially original compositions of Gaillot. The green grocer is formed of a melon for the head, of an artichoke and its stem for the forehead and nose, of a pannier for the bust, etc. The hunter is made up of a gun, of a powder horn, and of a hunting horn, etc.; and so on for the other professions. This is an amusing exercise in drawing that we have thought worthy of reproducing. Any one who is skillful with his pencil might exercise himself in imagining other compositions of the same kind.--La Nature.
COMPOSITE PORTRAITS.--OCCUPATIONS.1. Green-grocer. 2. Hunter. 3. Artist. 4. Cobbler. 5. Chemist 6. Cooper.
[Footnote: Read before the Worcester Free Industrial Institute, June 25, 1885.]
I cannot think of a theme more fit for this hour and place than handy-craft. I begin by saying "handy-craft," for that is the form of the word now in vogue, that which we are wonted to see in print and hear in speech; but I like rather the old form, "hand-craft," which was used by our sires so long ago as the Anglo-Saxon days. Both words mean the same thing, the power of the hand to seize, hold, shape, match, carve, paint, dig, bake, make, or weave. Neither form is in fashion, as we know very well, for people choose nowadays such Latin words as "technical ability," "manual labor," "industrial pursuits," "dexterity," "professional artisanship," "manufacture," "decorative art," and "technological occupations," not one of which is half as good as the plain, old, strong term "hand-craft."
An aid to hand-craft is rede-craft--the power to read, to reason, and to think; or, as it is said in the book of Common Prayer, "to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." By rede craft we find out what other men have done; we get our book learning, we are made heirs to thoughts that breathe and words that burn, we enter into the life, the acts, the arts, the loves, the lore of the wise, the witty, the cunning, and the worthy of all ages and all places; we learn, as says the peasant poet of Scotland,
"The song whose thunderous chimeEternal echoes render--The mournful Tuscan's haunted rhyme,And Milton's starry splendor!"
I do not pit rede-craft against hand-craft. Quite otherwise, I call them not foes (as some would), but friends. They are brothers, partners, consorts, who can work together, as right hand and left hand, as science and art, as theory and practice. Rede-craft may call for books and hand-craft for tools, but it is by the help of both books and tools that mankind moves on. Indeed, we shall not err wide of the mark if we say that a book is a tool, for it is the instrument which we make use of in certain cases when we wish to find out what other men have thought and done. Perhaps you will not be as ready to admit that a tool is a book. But take for example the plow. Compare the form in use to-day on a first-rate farm with that which is pictured on ancient stones long hid in Egypt--ages old. See how the idea of the plow has grown, and bear in mind that its graceful curves, it fitness for a special soil, or for a special crop, its labor-saving shape, came not by chance, but by thought. Indeed, a plow is made up from the thoughts and toils of generations of plowmen. Look at a Collins ax; it is also the record of man's thought. Lay it side by side with the hatchet of Uncas or Miantonomoh, or with an ax of the age of bronze, and think how many minds have worked on the head and on the helve, how much skill has been spent in getting the metal, in making it hard, in shaping the edge, in fixing the weight, in forming the handle. From simple tools, turn to complex; to the printing press, the sewing machine, the locomotive, the telegraph, the ocean steamer; all are full of ideas. All are the offspring of hand-craft and rede craft, of skill and thought, of practice put on record, of science and art.
Now, the welfare of each one of us, the welfare of our land, the welfare of our race, rests on this union. You may almost take the measure of a man's brain, if you can find out what he sees with his eyes and what he does with hands; you may judge of a country, or of a city, if you know what it makes.
I do not know that we need ask which is best, hand-craft or rede-craft. Certainly "the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee." At times, hand-craft becomes rede-craft, for when the eye is blind the hand takes its place, and the finger learns to read, running over the printed page to find out what is written, as quickly as the eye.
In these days, there are too many who look down on hand-craft. They think only of the tasks of a drudge or a char-boy. They do not know the pleasure there is in working, and especially in making. They have never learned to guide the fingers by the brain. They like to hear, or see, or own, or eat, what others have made, but they do not like to put their own hands to work. If you doubt what I say, put a notice in the paper asking for a clerk, and you will have a, hundred answers for every one that will come when you ask for a workman. So it comes to pass that young men grow up whose hands have not been trained to any kind of skill; they wish, therefore, to be buyers and sellers, traders, dealers, and so the market is overstocked with clerks, book-keepers, salesmen, and small shop-keepers, while it is understocked in all the higher walks of hand-craft. Some men can only get on by force of arms, lifting, pounding, heaving, or by power of sitting at counter or a desk and "clerking it."
Machinery works against hand-craft. In many branches of labor, the hand now has but little to do, and that little is always the same, so that labor becomes tiresome and the workman dull. Machines can be made to cut statuary, to weave beautiful tapestry, to fashion needles, to grind out music, to make long calculations; alas! the machine has also been brought into politics. Of course, a land cannot thrive without machinery; it is that mechanical giant, the steam engine, which carries the corn, the cotton, and the sugar from our rich valleys to the hungry of other lands, and brings back to us the product of their looms. Nevertheless, he who lives by the machine alone lives but half a life; while he who uses his hand to contrive and to adorn drives dullness from his path. A true artist and a true artisan are one. Hand-craft, the power to shape, to curve, to beautify, to create, gives pleasure and dignity to labor.
In other times and in other lands, hand-craft has had more honor than it has had with us. Let me give some examples. Not long ago, I went to one of the shrines of education, the Sorbonne in Paris. Two paintings adorn the chapel walls, not of saints or martyrs, nor of apostles or prophets, perhaps I should say of both saints and prophets,LaborandHumilitas, Industry and Modesty.
The touch of Phidias was his own, and so inimitable that a few months ago, an American, scanning, with his practiced eye, the galleries of the Louvre, recognized a fragment of the work of Phidias, long separated from the Parthenon frieze which Lord Elgin sent to London. The sculptor's touch could not be mistaken. It was as truly his own as his signature, his autograph. Ruskin, in a lecture on the relation of Art to Morals, calls attention to a note which Durer made on some drawings sent him by Raphael: "These figures Raphael drew and sent to Albert Durer in Nurnberg, to show him his hand, 'sein hand zu weisen."' Ruskin compares this phrase with other contests of hand-craft, Apelles and Protogenes showing their skill by drawing a line; Giotto in striking a circle.
In the household of the Kings of Prussia, there is a custom, if not a law, that every boy shall learn a trade. I believe this is a fact, though I have no certain proof of it. The Emperor Wilhelm is said to be a glazier, the Crown Prince a compositor, and on the Emperor's birthday not long ago his majesty received an engraving by Prince Henry and a, book bound by Prince Waldemar, two younger sons of the Crown Prince. Let me refer to sacred writ; the prophet Isaiah, telling of the golden days which are to come, when the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in the land, nor the voice of crying, when the child shall die an hundred years old, and men shall eat of the fruit of the vineyards they have planted, adds this striking promise, as the culm of all hope, that the elect of the Lord shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
Now, in view of what has been said, my first point is this: We who have to deal with the young, we all who love our fellow-men, we all who desire that our times, our city, our country, should be thrifty, happy, and content, must each in his place and way give high honor to labor. We, especially, who are teachers and parents, should see to it that the young get "hand-craft" while they are getting "rede-craft." How can this be done?
Mothers begin right in the nursery, teaching little fingers to play before the tongue can lisp a sentence. Alas! this natural training has often been stopped at school. Hitherto, until quite lately, in schools both low and high, rede-craft has had the place of honor, hand-craft has had no chance. But a change is coming. In the highest of all schools, universities, for example, work rooms, labor places, "laboratories," are now thought to be as useful as book rooms, reading rooms, libraries.
What mean those buildings which you have seen spring up within a few years past in all the college greens of New England? They are libraries and laboratories. They show that rede-craft and hand-craft are alike held in honor, and that a liberal education means skill in getting and skill in using knowledge; that knowledge comes from searching books and searching nature; that the brain and the hand are in close league. So too, in the lowest school, as far as possible from the university, the kindergarten has won its place and the blocks, and straws, and bands, the chalk, the clay, the scissors, are in use to make young fingers deft. Between the highest and the lowest schools there is a like call for hand-craft. Seeing this need, the authorities in our public schools have begun to project special schools for such training, and are looking for guidance far and near. At this intermediate stage, for boy and girls who are between the age of the kindergarten and the age of the college or the shop, for youth between eight and sixteen, there is much to be done; people are hardly aware how much is needed to secure fit training for the rising generation.
It seems sometimes as if one of the most needed forms of hand-craft would become a lost art, even good handwriting. We cannot give much credit to schools if they send out many who are skilled in algebra, or in Latin, but who cannot write a page of English so that it can be read without effort.
Drawing is another kind of hand-craft, quite too much neglected. I think it should be laid down as a law of the road to knowledge, that everybody must learn to draw as well as to write. The pencil maybe mastered just as readily as the pen. It is a simpler tool. The child draws before he writes, and savages begin their language with pictures; but, we wiseacres of this age of books let our young folks drop their slate pencils and their Fabers, and practice with their Gillotts and their Esterbrooks. Let us say, in every school and in every house, the child must not only learn to read and write, he must learn to draw. We cannot afford to let our young folks grow up without this power. A new French book is just now much talked about, with this droll title, "The Life of a Wise Man, by an Ignoramus." It is the story of the great Pasteur, whose discoveries in respect to life have made him world renowned. I turned to the book, eager to find out the key to such success, and I found the old story--"the child was father of the man." This philosopher, whose eye is so skilled in observing nature, and whose hand is so apt in experiments, is the boy grown up whose pictures were so good that the villagers thought him at thirteen an artist of rank.
Girls should learn the first lesson of hand-craft with the needle; boys may (and they will always prize the knowledge), but girls must. It is wise that our schools are going back to old fashioned ways, and saying that girls must be taught to sew.
Boys should practice their hands upon the knife. John Bull used to laugh at Brother Jonathan for whittling, and Mr. Punch always drew the Yankee with a blade in his fingers; but they found out long ago in Great Britain that whittling in this land led to something, a Boston notion, a wooden clock, a yacht America, a labor-saving machine, a cargo of wooden-ware, a shop full of knick-knacks, an age of inventions. Boys need not be kept back to the hand-craft of the knife. For in-doors there are the type case and printing press, the paint box, the tool box, the lathe; and for out doors, the trowel, the spade, the grafting knife. It matters not how many of the minor arts the youth acquires. The more the merrier. Let each one gain the most he can in all such ways; for arts like these bring no harm in their train; quite otherwise, they lure good fortune to their company.
Play, as well as work, may bring out hand-craft. The gun, the bat, the rein, the rod, the oar, all manly sports, are good training for the hand. Walking insures fresh air, but it does not train the body or mind like games and sports which are played out of doors. A man of great fame as an explorer and as a student of nature (he who discovered, in the West, bones of horses with two, three, and four toes, and who found the remains of birds with teeth) once told me that his success was largely due to the sports of his youth. His boyish love of fishing gave him his manly skill in exploration.
I speak as if hand-craft was to be learned by sport. So it may. It may also be learned by labor. Day by day for weeks I have been watching from my study window a stately inn rise from the cellar just across the road. A bricklayer has been there employed whose touch is like the stroke of an artist. He handled each brick as if it were porcelain, balanced it carefully in his hand, measured with his eye just the amount of mortar which it needed, and dropped the block into its bed, without staining its edge, without varying from the plumb line, by a stroke of hand-craft as true as the sculptor's. Toil gave him skill.
The second point I make is this: If you really value hand-craft, buy that which shows hand-craft, encourage those who are engaged in hand-craft, help on with your voice and with your pocket, those who bring taste and skill and art into the works of their hand. If your means are so small that you only buy what you need for your daily wants, you cannot have much choice, you must buy that which is cheapest; but hardly any one within the sound of my voice is so restricted as that; almost if not quite every one buys something every year for his pleasure, a curtain, a rug, a wall paper, a chair, or a table not certainly needed, a vase, a clock, a, mantel ornament, a piece of jewelry, a portrait, an etching, a picture. Now whenever you make such a purchase, to please your taste, to make your parlor or your chamber more attractive, choose that which shows good handiwork. Such a choice will last. You will not tire of it as you will of that which has but a commonplace form or pattern.
I come now to a third point. That which has just been said applies chiefly to things whose price is fixed by beauty. But handicraft gives us many works not pleasing to the eye, yet of the highest skill--a Jacquard loom, a Corliss engine, a Hoe printing press, a Winchester rifle, an Edison dynamo, a Bell telephone. Ruskin may scout the work of machinery, and up to a certain point may take us with him. Let us allow that works of art marked by the artist's own touch--the gates of Paradise by Ghiberti, a shield by Cellini, a statue by Michael Angelo, are better than all reproductions and imitations, better than plaster casts by Eichler, electrotypes by Barbedienne, or chromos by Prang. But even Ruskin cannot suppress the fact that machinery brings to every thrifty cottage in New England comforts and adornments which, in the days of Queen Bess, were not known outside of the palace. Be mindful, then, that handicraft makes machines which are wonders of productive force--weaving tissues such as Penelope never saw, of woolen, cotton, linen, and silk, to carpet our floors, cover our tables, cushion our chairs, and clothe our bodies; machines of which Vulcan never dreamed, to point a needle, bore a rifle, cut a watch wheel, or rule a series of lines, measuring forty thousand to an inch, with sureness which the unaided hand can never equal. Machinery is a triumph of handicraft as truly as sculpture and architecture. The fingers which can plan and build a steamship or a suspension bridge, which can make the Quinebaug and the Blackstone turn spindles by the hundred thousand, which can turn a rag heap into spotless paper, and make myriads of useful and artful articles from rough metal, are fingers which this age alone has evolved. The craft which makes useful things cheap can make cheap things beautiful. The Japanese will teach us how to form and finish, if we do not first teach them how to slight and sham.
A fourth point is this. If hand-craft is of such worth, boys and girls must be trained in it. This, I am well aware is no new thought. Forty years ago schools of applied science were added to Harvard and Yale colleges; twenty years ago Congress gave enough land-scrip to aid in founding at least one such school in every state; men of wealth, like many whom you have known and whom you honor, have given large sums for like ends. Now the people at large are waking up. They see their needs; they have the means to supply what they want. Is there the will? Know they the way? Far and near the cry is heard for a different training from that now given in the public schools. Many are trying to find it. Almost every large town has its experiment--and many smaller places have theirs. Nobody seems to know just what is best. Even the words which express the want are vague. Bright and thoughtful people differ as to what might, can, and should be done. A society has been formed in New York to bring together the needed data. The Slater trustees, charged with the care of a large fund for the training of freedmen, have said that manual training must be given in all the schools they aid. The town of Toledo in Ohio opened, some time since, a school of practical training for boys, which worked so well that another has lately been opened for girls. St. Louis is doing famously. Philadelphia has several experiments in progress. Baltimore has made a start. In New York there are many noteworthy movements--half a dozen at least full of life and hope. Boston was never behindhand in knowledge, and in the new education is very alert, the efforts of a single lady deserving praise of high degree. These are but signs of the times.
Some things may be set down as fixed; for example, most of those who have thought on this theme will agree on the points I am about to name, though they may or may not like the names which I venture to propose:
1. Kindergarten work should be taught in the nurseries and infant schools of rich and poor.
2. Drawing should be taught in schools of every grade, till the hand uses the pencil as readily as the pen.
3. Every girl at school if not at home should learn to sew.
4. Every boy should learn the use of tools, the gardener's or the carpenter's, or both.
5. Well planned exercises, fitted to strengthen the various bodily organs, arms, fingers, wrists, lungs, etc., are good. Driving, swimming, rowing, and other manly sports should be favored.
What precedes is at the basis of good work.
In addition:
6. With good teachers, quite young children may learn the minor decorative arts, carving, leather stamping, brass beating and the like, as is shown in the Leland classes of Philadelphia.
7. In towns, boys who begin to earn a living when they enter their teens may be taught in evening schools to practice the craft of carpentry, bricklaying, plastering, plumbing, gas fitting, etc., as is shown successfully in the Auchmuty schools of New York. Trade schools they are called; schools of practice for workmen would be a better name.
8. Boys who can carry their studies through the later teens may learn, while at the high school or technical school or college, to work in wood and metals with precision, as I have lately seen in the College of the City of New York, at Cornell University, and elsewhere-colleges or high schools with work-shops and practice classes. If they can take the time to fit themselves to be foremen and leaders in machine shops and factories, they may be trained in theoretical and practical mechanics, as in the Worcester Industrial Institute and in a score of other places; but the youth must have talent as well as time to win the race in these hard paths. These are schools for foremen, or, if we may use a foreign word like Kindergarten, they are Meisterschaft schools.
9. Youths who wish to enter the highest departments of engineering must follow advanced courses of mathematics and physics, and must learn to apply this knowledge. The better colleges and universities afford abundant opportunities for such training, but their scientific laboratories are fitted only for those who love long study as well as hard. These are schools for engineers.
10. Girls are most likely to excel in the lighter arts--to design (for furniture or fabrics), to embroider, to carve, to engrave, to etch, to model, to paint. Here also success depends largely upon that which was inborn, though girls of moderate talent in art, by patience, may become skilled in many kinds of art work. Schools for this instruction are schools of art (elementary, decorative, professional, etc.).
If there be those in this hall who think that hand-craft is adverse to rede-craft, let me ask them to study the lives of men of mark. Isaac Newton began his life as a farm-boy who carried truck to a market town; Spinoza, the philosopher of Amsterdam, ground lenses for his livelihood; Watt, the inventor of the steam engine, was mechanic to the University of Glasgow; Porson, the great professor of Greek, was trained as a weaver; George Washington was a land surveyor; Benjamin Franklin a printer.
Before I close let me draw a lesson from the history of our land. Some of you doubtless bear in mind that before the late war men used to say, "Cotton is king;" and why so? Because the trades which hung on this crop were so many and so strong that they ruled all others. The rise or fall of a penny in the price of cotton at Liverpool affected planters in the South, spinners in the North, seamen on the ocean, bankers and money-changers everywhere. Now wheat and petroleum share the sovereignty; but then cotton was king. Who enthroned this harmless plant? Two masters of hand-craft, one of whom was born a few miles east of this place in Westborough; the other was a native of England who spent most of his days a few miles south of this city. Within five years--not quite a century ago--these two men were putting in forms which could be seen, ideas which brought our countrymen large measures of both weal and woe. In 1790, Samuel Slater, once an apprentice to Strutt and Arkwright, built the mill at Pawtucket which taught Americans the art of cotton-spinning; and before 1795, Eli Whitney had invented the gin which easily cleansed the cotton boll of its seeds, and so made marketable the great crop we have spoken of. Many men have made more noise in the world than Slater and Whitney; few if any can be named whose peaceable hand-craft has done so much to give this country its front place in the markets of the globe.
Let me come nearer home, and as I take my seat let me name a son of this very town who loved hand-craft and rede-craft, and worthily aided both--Isaiah Thomas, the patriot printer, editor, and publisher, historian of the printer's craft in this land, and founder of the far famed antiquarian library, eldest in that group of institutions which gave to Worcester its rank in the world of letters, as its many products give it standing in the world of industry and art.
Mindful of three such worthies, it is not strange that Salisbury, Washburn, Boylston, and many more have built up this high school of handicraft; it will be no wonder if others like minded build on the foundations which have been so fitly laid.
[Footnote: Read lately before the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society]
The author called attention to the absence of research in this direction, and how man, endowed to overcome every physical disability which encompassed him on land, was powerless to live on the wide ocean, although it is teeming with life.
The water for experiment was taken from the English Channel, about fifty miles southwest of the Eddystone Lighthouse, and it was found to correspond closely with the analysis of the Atlantic published by Roscoe, viz.: Total solids 35.976, of which the total chlorides, are 32.730, representing 19.868 of chlorine.
The waters of the Irish Sea and the English Channel nearer to the German Ocean, from their neighborhood to great rivers, are weaker than the above.
Schweitzer's analysis of the waters of the English Channel, near Brighton, was taken as representing the composition of the sea, and is here given: