Artificial Wood

American ingenuity, incessantly active and inexhaustibly fertile, has added to the long list of Transatlantic inventions the fabrication of artificial wood from straw - a process now being carried out remuneratively in the State of Illinois. ïhis new description of timber is stated to be extraordinarily hard andcloseof grain, totake a high polish, and to be susceptible of utilization in every branch of the carpenter's craft. It resembles fine walnut-wood or mahogany, and eau scarcely be distinguished, when polished, from the flnest natural produci of the forest. The method of its fabrication would appearto be as follows The straw is flrstsymmetrically packe in layers, which are then subjected t powerful hydraulic pressure, havinf been soaked in a certain chemica preparation, which softens them an causes them to cohere. This prepara tion has the effect also of making th artificial wood at once waterproof an ditïicult to ignite. By regulating tl miniber of layers of straw, blocks o planks of this substance can be produced to order of any size or thicknes required. Ilighly-finished carvings i the new material have already bee exhibited in more than one of th Western cities. Fond parent to his son: "Yes, Sa Francisco is the place to get on in Look at James; he started without penny, and has lately failed for $100 000. Of course, that's an extreme case. I don't expect you to do as well as that. Still with honesty and industry, I see no reason why you sliould nut, in a few years, l'ail for $60,000.- San Francisco Golden Era.