Little Paul Perkins--Master Paul his uncle called him--did not feel
happy. But for the fact that he was a guest at his uncle's home he might
have made an unpleasant exhibition of his unhappiness; but he was a
well-bred city boy, of which fact he was somewhat proud, and so his
impatience was vented in snapping off the teeth of his pocket-combs, as
he sat by the window and looked out into the rain.
It was the rain which caused his discontent. Only the day before his
father, going from New York to Boston on business, had left Paul at his
uncle's, some distance from the "Hub," to await his return. It being the
lad's first visit, Mr. Sanford had arranged a very full programme for the
next day, including a trip in the woods, fishing, a picnic, and in fact
quite enough to cover an ordinary week of leisure. Over and over it had
been discussed, the hours for each feature apportioned, and through the
night Paul had lived the programme over in his half-waking dreams.
[Illustration: MASTER PAUL DID NOT FEEL HAPPY.]
And now that the eventful morning had come, it brought a drizzling,
disagreeable storm, so that Mr. Sanford, as he met his nephew, was
constrained to admit that he did not know what they should find to supply
the place of the spoiled programme.
"And my little nephew is so disappointed that he has ruined his pretty
comb, into the bargain," said the uncle.
"I was--was trying to see what it was made of," Paul stammered, thrusting
the handful of teeth into his coat pocket. "I don't see how combs are
made. Could you make one, uncle?"
"I never made one," Mr. Sanford replied, "but I have seen very many made.
There is a comb-shop not more than a half-mile away, and it is quite a
curiosity to see how they make the great horns, rough and ugly as they
are, into all sorts of dainty combs and knicknacks."
"What kind of horns, uncle?"
"Horns from all parts of the country, Paul. This shop alone uses nearly a
million horns a year, and they come in car-loads from Canada, from the
great West, from Texas, from South America, and from the cattle-yards
about Boston and other Eastern cities."
"You don't mean the horns of common cattle?"
"Yes, Paul; all kinds of horns are used, though some are much tougher and
better than others. The cattle raised in the Eastern, Middle and Western
States furnish the best horns, and there is the curious difference that
the horns of six cows are worth no more than those of a single ox. Many
millions of horn combs are made every year in Massachusetts; perhaps more
than in all the rest of the country. If you like we will go down after
breakfast and have a look at the comb-makers."
Paul was pleased with the idea, though he would much rather have passed
the day as at first proposed. He was not at all sorry that he had broken
up his comb, and even went so far as to cut up the back with his knife,
wondering all the while how the smooth, flat, semi-transparent comb had
been produced from a rough, round, opaque horn.
By and by a mail stage came rattling along, without any passengers, and
Mr. Sanford took his nephew aboard. They stopped before a low, straggling
pile of buildings, located upon both sides of a sluggish looking race-way
which supplied the water power, covered passage-ways connecting different
portions of the works.
"Presently, just over this knoll," said his uncle, "you will see a big
pile of horns, as they are unloaded from the cars."
[Illustration: MY LADY'S TOILET.]
They moved around the knoll, and there lay a monstrous pile of horns
thrown indiscriminately together.
"Really there are not so many as we should think," said Mr. Sanford, as
Paul expressed his astonishment. "That is only a small portion of the
stock of this shop. I will show you a good many more."
He led the way to a group of semi-detached buildings in rear of the
principal works, and there Paul saw great bins of horns, the different
sizes and varieties carefully assorted, the total number so vast that the
immense pile in the open yard began to look small in contrast.
At one of the bins a boy was loading a wheelbarrow, and when he pushed
his load along a plank track through one of the passage-ways Mr. Sanford
and his nephew followed. As the passage opened into another building, the
barrow was reversed and its load deposited in a receptacle a few feet
lower.
In this room only a single man was employed, and the peculiar character
of his work at once attracted the attention of Paul. In a small frame
before him was suspended a very savage-looking circular saw, running at a
high rate of speed. The operator caught one of the great horns by its
tip, gave it a turn through the air before his eyes, seized it in both
hands and applied it to the saw. With a sharp hiss the keen teeth severed
the solid tip from the body of the horn, and another movement trimmed
away the thin, imperfect parts about the base. The latter fell into a
pile of refuse at the foot of the frame, the tip was cast into a box with
others; the horn, if large, was divided into two or more sections, a
longitudinal slit sawn in one side, and the sections thrown into a box.
[Illustration: THE NEW CIRCLE COMB]
"This man," said Mr. Sanford, "receives large pay and many privileges, on
account of the danger and unpleasant nature of his task. He has worked at
this saw for about forty years, and in that time has handled, according
to his record, some twenty-five millions of horns, or over two thousand
for every working day. He has scarcely a whole finger or thumb upon
either hand--many of them are entirely gone; but most of these were lost
during his apprenticeship. The least carelessness was rewarded by the
loss of a finger, for the saw cannot be protected with guards, as in
lumber-cutting."
Paul watched the skilful man with the closest interest, shuddering to see
how near his hands passed and repassed to the merciless saw-teeth as he
sent a ceaseless shower of parts of horns rattling into their respective
boxes. Before he left the spot Paul took a pencil and made an estimate.
"Why, uncle," he said, "to cut so many as that, he must saw over three
horns every minute for ten hours a day. I wouldn't think he could handle
them so fast."
Then, as he saw how rapidly one horn after another was finished, he drew
forth his little watch and found that the rugged old sawyer finished a
horn every ten seconds with perfect ease.
"Would you like to learn this trade?" the old fellow asked. He held up
his hands with the stumps of fingers and thumbs outspread; but Paul only
laughed and followed his uncle.
They watched a boy wheeling a barrow-load of the horns as they came from
the saw, and beheld them placed in enormous revolving cylinders, through
which a stream of water was running, where they remained until pretty
thoroughly washed. Being removed from these, they were plunged into
boilers ranged along one side of the building, filled with hot water.
"Here they are heated," said Mr. Sanford, "to clear them from any
adhering matter that the cold water does not remove, and partially
softened, ready for the next operation."
[Illustration: ANCIENT OR MODERN--WHICH?]
From the hot water the horns were changed to a series of similar caldrons
at the other side of the room, filled with boiling oil. Paul noticed that
when the workmen lifted the horns from these vats their appearance was
greatly changed, being much less opaque, and considerably plastic,
opening readily at the longitudinal cut made by the saw. As the horns
were taken from the oil they were flattened by unrolling, and placed
between strong iron clamps which were firmly screwed together, and put
upon long tables in regular order.
"Now I begin to see how it is done," Paul said, though he was thinking
all the time of questions that he would ask his uncle when there were no
workmen by to overhear.
"The oil softens the horn," said Mr. Sanford, "and by placing it in this
firm pressure and allowing it to remain till it becomes fixed, the whole
structure is so much changed that it never rolls again. Some combs, you
will notice, are of a whitish, opaque color, like the natural horn, while
others have a smooth appearance, are of amber color, and almost
transparent. The former are pressed between cold irons and placed in cold
water, while the others are hot-pressed, it being 'cooked' in a few
minutes. These plates of horn may be colored; and there are a great many
'tortoise-shell' combs and other goods sold which are only horn with a
bit of color sprinkled upon it.
"The solid tips of the horns, and all the pieces that are worth anything
cut off in making the combs, are made up into horn jewelry, chains,
cigar-holders, knife-handles, buttons, and toys of various kinds. These
trinkets are generally colored more or less, and many a fashionable
belle, I suppose, would be surprised to know the amount of money paid for
odd bits of horn under higher sounding names. But the horn is tough and
serviceable, at any rate, and that is more than can be said of many of
the cheats we meet with in life."
The next room, in contrast with all they had passed through previously,
was neat and had no repulsive odors. Here the sheets of horn as they came
from the presses were first cut by delicate circular saws into blanks of
the exact size for the kind of combs to be made, after which they were
run through a planer, which gave them the proper thickness.
"What do you mean by 'blanks'?" Paul asked, as his uncle used the term.
"You can look in the dictionary to find its exact meaning," was the
answer. "But you will see what it is in practice at this machine."
[Illustration: "IN SOME REMOTE CORNER OF SPAIN."]
They stepped to another part of the room; and here Paul saw the "blanks"
placed in the cutting-machine standing over a hot furnace, where, after
being softened by the heat, they were slowly moved along, while a pair of
thin chisels danced up and down, cutting through the centre of the blank
at each stroke. When it had passed completely through, an assistant took
the perforated blank and pulled it carefully apart, showing two combs,
with the teeth interlaced. After separation they were again placed
together to harden under pressure, when the final operations consisted of
bevelling the teeth on wheels covered with sand-paper, rounding the
backs, rounding and pointing the teeth; after which came the polishing,
papering and putting in boxes.
"I suppose they go all over the country," said Paul as he glanced into
the shipping-room.
"Much further than that," was the reply. "We never know how far they go;
for the wholesale dealers, to whom the combs are shipped from the
manufactory, send them into all the odd corners of the earth. Every
little dealer must sell combs, and in the very nature of the business
they frequently pass through a great many hands before reaching the user,
so at the last price is many times what the makers received for them. I
suppose it often happens that horns which have been sent thousands of
miles to work up are returned to the very regions from which they came,
in some other form, increased very many fold in value by their long
journey. Or a horn may come from the remoter parts of South America to be
wrought here in Massachusetts, and then be shipped from point to point
till it reaches some remote corner of Africa, Spain, or Siberia, as an
article of barter. And even different parts of the same horn may be at
the same moment decking the person of a New York dandy and unsnarling the
tangled locks of a Russian Tchuktch."
While Paul was watching the deft fingers of the girls who filled the
boxes and affixed the labels, his uncle stepped through a door
communicating with the office, and soon returned with three elegant
pocket-combs.
"One of these," he said, "represents a horn which came from _pampas_ of
Buenos Ayres; this one, in the original, dashed over the boundless plains
of Texas; and here is another, toughened by the hot, short summers and
long, bitter winters of Canada. Take them with you in memory of this
cheerless rainy day."
Paul could not help a little sigh as he thought again of the pleasures he
had enjoyed in anticipation; but still he answered bravely, "Thank you;
never mind the rain, dear uncle. All the New York boys go off in the
woods when they get away from home; but not many of them ever heard how
combs are made, and I don't suppose a quarter of them even know what they
are made of. I can tell them a thing or two when I get home."