composition of which the stick-maker probably
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 transfers decorate the
surface of the stick.

These every-day, steady-looking, thorough-
going, middle-class serviceable walking-sticks
form the mainstay and support of the
manufacture, like as willow-pattern plates and
twopenny cups and saucers are commercially
more important to the Staffordshire potteries
than Parian statuettes or dessert services.
But still the more ornate and aristocratic
sticks and canes give employment to a large
number of work-people: whalebone, tortoise-
shell, ram's horn, rhinoceros' horn, gutta
percha, shark-spine, narwhal-horn, ivory—
these are some only among many substances
employed for sticks. The mode of working
each kind does not differ materially from that
of manufacturing other articles from the same
materials; but there is a curious exception in
relation to tortoiseshell: the raspings and
parings of this substance are susceptible of
being conglomerated by heat and pressure,
and formed into elongated rods for sticks—a
capital mode of picking up crumbs, and making
them useful.

As to the ferules, crooks, handles, and
decorative appendages, who shall number
them? Gold, silver, sham-gold, sham-silver,
ivory, ebony, tortoiseshell, mother o' pearl,
agate, cornelian, jasper, jade, leather, hair,
silk, skin—all are employed. What offence
crooks have given, that they should be out of
favour, does not appear; but certain it is that
the rectangular handle is now in the ascendant:
it juts out in stern precision from the vertical
stem, and ignores Hogarth's theory of the
beauty of curved lines. It sometimes aspires
to stags' heads, and at others descends to
stags' feet; and not unfrequently it makes
a Jenny Lind-ish attempt at portraiture.

So large has this manufacture now become,
that the principal London maker is said to
sell annually about one hundred and fifty
thousand walking-sticks made of English
wood, and three hundred and sixty thousand
rattans and canes for making the more
expensive varieties. The polished ash sticks are
mostly made at Birmingham; where they are
sawn and turned by machine-lathes, previous
to the polishing. The importation of walking-
sticks from abroad is not very considerable,
as the English makers strive to meet all the
demand that may arise: this relates to the
finished sticks, and not to the raw material.

There is a nationality even in walking-
sticks. Germany makes better whalebone
sticks than England, and is also expert in
making elastic and tough sticks from the
almost impenetrable hide of the rhinoceros.
Austria excels in the sticks with carved ivory
handles; but England bears the palm for those
ornamented with silver wire, or gold and
silver chasing. Paris is said to have had, in
1847, no less than one hundred and sixty-five
manufacturers, and nine hundred and sixty-
two workpeople employed in making walking-
sticks and whips; but, as we cannot tell how
many have been added to these numbers from
other and similar trades, so are we likewise
without data to settle the numerical claims of
the walking-sticks. There were, however, four
thousand five hundred and fifty-six cwts. of
rattans, bamboos, and other canes imported
into France in 1850, and this seems to tell
significantly of a large walking-cane
manufacture in that country. The little Grand
Ducal (if anything so little can be grand) State
of Hesse excels all other countries in the
manufacture of pictorial walking-sticks. In
neatly transferring lithographic patterns to
sticks Hesse is unrivalled. They are sold
largely to England and America, and some of
them are exceedingly elegant; the patterns
are transferred from paper while the ink from
the printing, whether coloured or black, is
wet, and the stick is afterwards varnished.

But Hamburg seems to be the walking-
stick metropolis. Herr Meyer, of that city,
is the king of stick-makers. His star of
walking-sticks, radiating in all its splendour
in the Zollverein department of the Great
Exhibition, attracted many an admiring gaze.
Very little less than five hundred varieties
there made their appearance; from the ornate
and costly, down to the useful and cheap.
Being a free port for the reception of sticks
and canes from all parts of the world, and
hand-labour being cheaper there than in
London, Hamburg drives a large trade in this
department of industry.

Crochetty walking-sticks occasionally make
a noise in the world—walking-sticks which
contain a shop full of furniture (more or less)
in their bosoms. A Scottish physician has
lately constructed a walking-stick containing a
variety of medical instruments and medicines.
Another sagacious personage has enriched
society with a walking-stick containing a
compass, a mirror, a dressing-case, an inkstand,
a telescope, a thermometer, a set of drawing
instruments, stationery, and lucifers. A
third, thoughtful concerning the supply of
nature's wants, has made a walking-stick
which acts as a miniature larder and wine-
cellar; for it contains a long cylindrical
bottle, a wine-glass on similar elongated
principles, and a receptacle for biscuits or
compressed meat. Another has contrived to pack
away in his walking-stick a useful map of
London and a compass. A fifth (perhaps an
electro-biological gentleman) has made a
walking-stick with a complete galvanic battery
in its interior; "on holding the knob in the
hand, a shock is slightly felt, and by taking a
piece of silver or copper in each hand, and
touching the knob on each side, the shock is
greatly increased!"