Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1860-01-31

OLD FASHIONED CoMFoRTs.-The following
graphic picture of some Of the old fashioned
comforts of New England farmers is given by
the Exeter News Letter, and its truthfuness
will be recognized by thousands of New Eng
land hearts.
Our ancestors were frugal, selfdenying
people, Injured to hardship from the cradle =.
they were content TO be without almost all the
luxuries of life, but they enjoyed some of its
comforts to which many of us are strangers
old fashioned comforts, we may term them
and among these the old fire place, as it used
to be termed held no mean rank. How vivid
ly the picture OF one of those spacious kitchens
OF the olden times comes to our mind with its
plain furniture, and sanded floor innocent of
paint, but as white as the neatest of house
wives could make. In one corner stood the
old clock, its very face bearing an aspect of
good cheer and seeming to smile benignanty
upon miniature moon over its head, which
tradition said had at a remote period followed
the rising and setting of its great prototype in
thei heavens, though its days of active service
were long ago over.
But the crowning glory of that kitchen was
not its white sanded floor, nor the high desk
with its pigeon holes, and secret drawers which
no Yenturous youngster ever dared invade nor
yet, the old clock ticking so unsteady in one
corner, but it was the old fashioned fireplace
with its blazing embers, huge backlog and
iron fire,dogs, that shed glory over the whole
room, guided the plain and comely furniture
with Its bright light and rendered the place
tit type OF true New England homes sin we
olden times"
Never were there such apples as those which
swung round and round upon strings before
the bright fire of a winters evening,-neyer
such baked potatoes as those buried deep in
the ashes upon the hearth, never such corn
stalks as those which caught golden hue
from the blazing embers or turkeys like those
turned slowly upon spit filling the room
with savory odors so suggestive of dainty
repast.
Before the fire was the wooden settle, and
here the children were wont to sit in the long
evenings telling stories, cracking nuts, con-
ming their lessons for the morrow, or listening
in silence to the words of wisdom that fell
from the lips of their superiors and anon gaz-
ing in silence into the bright fire and coniurng
up all sorts of grotesque and fanciful images
from among the burning Goals. No tabled
genii with their magic lamps of entertainments
could build such gorgeous palaces, or create
such gems as the child could discern an id the
blazing embers of the old fashioned fireplace
And we must not neglect the chimney COR
ner, where sat our grandfather in his accus-
toned seat-lls hair silvered with the SHOWS
of many winters-a venerable man to whom
old age had come "frostily but kindly" and
whose last days were like those of an Indian
summer serene and beautiful till the stars ap-
peared in the heavens.
How pure was the air of the room in those
days! The huge fireplace, with its brisk
draught, carried off the impurities of the at
mosphere, and left the air pure, life-giving, and
healthtul. Now we crouch around hot cook
ing stoves, and think it strange that we feel
so stupid and drowsy of an evening, or we
huddle about alright stoves and wonder that
the air seems burnt and impure or we sit
down in chilly rooms heated by furnace, and
marvel that with all our costly furniture, soft
carpets, bright mirrors, and damask curtains,
they are such cherries places, so little like our
ideas of New England home.
Alas that with all the so-called improve
ments of our advanced civilization, the fire
should be permitted to out forever in our old
fashioned tiIe-places thus burying in the ashes
OF the past so many means of health, home
comfort, good cheer, and happiness.