The first hobby was wood-carving, an affair so hazardous that the first day numbered about ten per cent. casualties. It demanded enormous delicacy. Boxes of all descriptions were on sale, on which were traced patterns of labyrinthic intricacy; one could cut photo frames, cigar boxes, paper cutters, and to accomplish this labour there were provided small knives of a razor-like sharpness, which under the influence of the least overweight of pressure flew off the box at an alarming angle, to bury themselves in the palm of the other hand. It required enormous patience, and to me appeared one of the most monotonous occupations. It took hours of work to complete the smallest job. This, of course, was not at all what the _Kantine Wallahs_ desired. They wanted a hobby which would require a lot of material and very little time. Wood-carving took much too long, and the profits arrived much too slowly, and so they accelerated the slump in wood-carving by the innovation of satin-tasso, which was in every way a far more noble craft. To begin with, it gave the personality of the artist a fuller freedom. In wood-carving individual preference was hopelessly bound down by the laws of pattern. As in the cast of certain modern painters who having once conceived a “stunt,” proceed to pour the most unlikely moods into one artistic mould, the individual was a slave to shapes. Against this, liberty was driven to revolt, and satin-tasso provided the necessary outlet. Even here, of course, there were, it is true, laws and patterns, but there was full scope for the peculiarities of taste. The satin-tasso box had on it simply the bare outline of a picture. This one cut round with a sharp knife, and then proceeded to colour in with special paints; and in the employment of these paints any extravagance was permitted. Mediæval costumes offered superb opportunities for splendour and pagan gold. Across a pearl-flecked sky emerald clouds could fade into a wash of scarlet. It was truly a noble craft, and the whole business only took a few hours, which was most advantageous both for the suppliers and the supplied. There is nothing that pleases the craftsman more than the sight of a finished article, and there is nothing that gives more pleasure to the tradesman than the swift return of gigantic profits, and both these wishes were granted. The _Kantine_ did a roaring trade in satin-tasso, and the portmanteaus of the artisan grew heavy with trophies and souvenirs.