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Walking-Sticks
Walking-Sticks are different for each of its owners. It depends
on ones needs or for what utility it is chosen. In modern times, the most common use is to facilitate mobility.
The most common is a standard 33-37 inch shephards hook style cane. Short walking canes that nestle in the palm are
also popular and provide modest stability while walking. These canes are easily customized to express individual style.
Some prefer taller hiking style staffs but few are seen away from pathways and hiking trails. Backpackers and serious
hikers prefer the longer staffs for added stability while crossing streambeds and negociating uneven terrain
One important fact I read somewhere is that Walking-Sticks make the
perfect companion. They don't eat and they don't bite while offering the comfort of a close by companion.
Its owner can choose its size, color and its style and it won't require getting up at night to be "let out".
Style is, and has been, a major factor in selection a walking companion.
Walking-Sticks, in the past, have been symbols of status for gentlemen and ladies alike. Highly finished rare woods
were selected to set one apart from the common. Jewels and precious metals were added for those who had the means and
the inclination to truly stand apart.
So, whether a Walking-Stick (cane) is used as a mobility aide or as
a status symbol or just for that personal touch, each can be crafted to reflect the taste, style and personality of its owner
Dick
Walking-Sticks From the London Globe The New York Times Published June 18, 1880 Walking-sticks
for ladies, so we are told by an oracle of fashion, are coming into favor again. Thus dies the whirligig of time bring round
his revenge for a discarded custom. The Empress Eugenie made carrying of canes fashionable for her sex during the gay
days of the second Empire. But back in another century we find the women as appreciative of the walking-stick as ever
was "Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded cane," Ladies advanced in life walked with a staff between five and six feet in height, taper and slender
in substance, turned over at the upper end in the manner of a shepherd's crook and "twisted throughout the whole
extent," Sometimes these wands were formed of a pale-green glass but oftener of wood, ivory, or whalebone.
A writer of 1762 speaking of the most fashionable sticks of this period, says: "Do not some of us strut about
with walking-sticks as long as hickory poles, or else with a yard of varnished cane scraped taper and bound at one end with
a waxed thread, and the other tipped with a neat ivory head as big as a silver penny?" It is indeed, as an appurtenance
of fashion more than as an appendage of personal utility that we regard the walking-stick of modern times, though in all ages
man has made the sons of the forest contribute to his support under wariness and old age.
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