The Jackson County Democrat Thursday, July 20, 1939 C.J. BURRIS, Master Craftsmen, Plies Interesting Trade in Green Building on Second. Turns out everything from wonderfully-toned Violins to Broken Irish Noses in Cabinet Shop Here; All Training Came from Long Practice. (by Sue Hetherington)               Down on Second St, beyond the bridge is a big green frame building with a sign hanging out which says: "C.J. Burris, Cabinet Shop." But that doesn't tell the half of it. Neither does the appearance of the interior of the shop @ first glance betray much of the story contained in it. There are piles of lumber, tools lying on the tables, a band saw, & here & there an odd bulky shape with papers or cloth thrown over it. The walls have an occasional calendar picture, & a couple of old looking clocks.               But this is the shop of a master craftsman, of which many towns larger than Newport cannot boast. C.J. BURRIS, owner of the shop, never received training or instruction in cabinet making or the handling of tools, but he has a gifted touch to take a piece of shapeless wood & make of it anything from a violin to a bedroom suite.             Burris was born in 1892 in Perry Co., AR. Even as a boy in school he always had a pocket knife & a piece of wood in his hands to delight the other kids with a wooden chain or a miniature stump with an axe stuck in it. As a young man he started doing concrete construction work, & followed the work all over the state & into some of the adjoining ones, TN, MO & IL. For the past 20 years, however working with wood has been his hobby & a side line business, & about 6 yrs. ago he decided to devote himself entirely to that line.             BURRIS has lived in Jackson Co. off & on during his life. He has been here this time since 1930, & seems to have settled down. Several yrs ago his shop was in the Episcopal parsonage but it was moved from there to the present place. He had married Claudia MOORE in 1915 & now all their children are here too. Leonard & Claud work @ the Dr. Pepper Bottling factory. The 3rd son Alonzo is named for his grandfather who was a well known minister of the Christian Church in many AR towns. The 2 little daughters, Margaret & Winnie may be seen nearly anytime playing on the front porch or back of the shop where their father & his helper Savage TEEPLE, are working over the lathe or band saw.             BURRIS has worked on river boats too. He pumped all the gravel for the old seawall for S. HEINEMANN. It was 2 yrs. ago when he broke his leg working with an engine on the river, & he has worked on land ever since.             He still makes boats, however. He says he has constructed all kinds of river craft from canoes to barges capable of carrying 100 tons. Just a few weeks ago he compleated a speed boat for Noble & Eugene JARVIS.           Anyone who has an opportunity to see a man plowing with oxen thinks it is an unusual sight, but BURRIS has often done that, as well as having made many wooden oxen yokes.             When he was still doing construction work, he began to make violins. He has never started one with the purpose of selling it; the new violin is always one he has planned on making for himself. But before it is completed someone comes along & wants to buy it. His violins have the back & neck of maple, & a spruce front. Often they are made entirely of Jackson county materials, as is the case with most of his work, & they have ranged in price from $15 to $50.           It is said that BURRIS can play anything with strings on it. He says that he is "not a violinist, just a fiddler." He used to play -or fiddle- for dances up on Bergen Lake. Being acquainted with both the making & the playing of the instruments, he knows that the finish of a violin can add a lot to its appearance & value. Four or five coats of varnish in succession must be applied & then sanded almost off, before the finishing touches can be put on.           Perhaps the "master's touch" shows most in the work that requires hand carving. For instance there is the huge old armchair @ the Hafner Furniture Co. store on Front St. The chair came from Ireland, & it is known to be @ least 105 yrs. old. It is decorated with all sorts of curliques & with hand carved faces. But one of the faces had it's nose knocked off & BURRIS was asked to make another. He is willing to bet that you can't tell just by looking which nose is the one he made.           He is skilled @ making drawer pulls to match & replace those on your old dresser, no matter how odd shaped or intricately carved they are. Or he can make a platform rocking chair to go perfectly with your antique bedroom suite. He made the grill on one side of the bank to match that on the other side; his Dutch mill hand carved for Miss Eva GRAHAM's garden decorations helped her win first prize about 5 yrs. ago. The Star Clothing Company's window display made by BURRIS won first prize in the Cotton Carnival, & the Newport public library still has the large book he made of wood with which they won first prize in a Rice & Cotton Carnival parade. In fact, he has never seen any of his work take so low as second place.           Many Newport homes have articles that he made. Mrs. Lockwood BURKETT has a solid walnut bedstead, such as no longer can be bought @ furniture stores; & Miss Elizabeth WATSON, now Mrs. O.H. SCHARNBERG, took her BURRIS made chest of drawers with her when she went to New York City 3 yrs. ago. Mrs. Kaneaster HODGES had a nursery bed made with shelves & a radio stand built into the headpiece; & Mrs. Lucy B. HUGULEY& Mrs. W.A. BILLINGSLEY are proud of their well designed kitchen tables. Several families in town have whole dining room suites which he made.           At present he is working on a cedar chest of his own design. It combines 3 woods, cedar for the necessary & familiar aroma, walnut for its superior qualities & grain pattern & Bois D'Arc or Osage orange for its natural golden color as a decorative touch.           It is not hard for C.J. BURRIS to find enough to keep him busy. He has orders from as far as 40-50 miles away, & whenever he walks down the street he never gets more than 2 or 3 blocks from the shop when someone spots him & tells him about the job they want done. Whatever it is, if it is something of wood he can do it.