Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 November 1892 — A JACKKNIFE GENIUS. [ARTICLE]

A JACKKNIFE GENIUS.

Queer Things Carved Out of Solid Blocks of Wood. Almost twelve years ago' Alfred Armstrong, a resident of Lake Village, pave up all ordinary pursuits and began to devote his entire time and energies to the carving from solid blocks of wood with no other tool than an ordinary jackknife. From the fashioning of small toys he turned bis attention to carving likenesses of everything that presented itself fora nrodet, from solid blocks of wood,, carefully preserving every specimen of his handiwork, whelber good, bid or indifferent. Within the past five years his oldest son, who inherits his father’s peculiar inclination, developed such ingenuity and patience that lie. too. graduated from common labor, and united with his father with equally patient devotipu in his original craft. To-day they have a big tent full of curiosities and travel about the country ut the beaches and fairs exhibiting their museum of wooden wonders with financl 1 returns which are not nearly proportionate to the patience and toil vvhich their curiosities represent. Some are handsomely ornamental and all would find ready sale as toys, but to tbo o wner they are treasures beyond’ price, and he can not be induced to part with even the most insignificant, and. as ho continually keeps up his whittling, his stock of curiosities is. constantly increasing. No painter or sculptor was ever more wrapped up in his art or move enthusiastic over his productions than this old fellow, now about 65 vears of age, who has been in poverty all his life, -and-who doesn't appear ambitious to better his condition. - Among his curiosities are all sorts of puzzles cut out or put together in small-nec'ted bottles, in one is a man sawing wood, with saw and saw horse which close y fill tlie space of the bottle. In another is a yoke of cattle neatly carved, with a man standing beside them. In another is a ship, and in another a house. How these things got inside the bottles is an inexplicable puzzle to those who have looked over the old man’s collection, nni he does not give any light upon the matter. Besides these puzzles and his wooden menagerie are houses wlvch are almost big enough for dog kennels, and which might almost serve as methods of modern architecture, all of onepiece and carved from a solid block. ! There are also boxes and cases qom* posed of hundreds of different kinds of woods, firmly inlaid and finely finished. The most remarkable piece of This kind of work is a violin case made of 2,036 pieces of wood of 106 different kinds. Of his puzzles, perhaps the moat mysterious is a big snake inn le a glass jar, cut out in a coll which completely fills the inside. The neck of this jar is perhaps 1 inch in diameter, and a big wooden stopple is put down through and locked underneath with a wooden pin. One of his best carvings is a yoke of oxen hitched to a hayrack, in which rides a man. The whole thing is about 3 feet in length and half as high, and. like all his other works, was cut out of solid block, even to the rack and cart wheels.