Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-08-20

was thriving trade. Every house had it
pair of bellows, and in every we'll furnish
ed mansion there was pair hung BY the
side of every fireplace. Ipswich, in Mass
achnsetts, acquired . notoriety all over
New England for the elegant and substan-
tial articles of the kind it produced. But
as stoves and CRATES took the place Of open
fire iplaces, and coal was substituted for
wood, the demand fer bellows diminised
until the business as q separate trade quite
died out.
The same is true of flint cutting. Flints
were once necessary, not only for fire.
arms, but for tinder-box and was as neces-
sary for every house as gridiron or a
skillet. Everyone who looks to childhood
of forty odd years ago, must remember the
cold winter mornings when the persistent
crack of the flint against the steel sent up
from the kitchen an odor of ,igniting tin
der and sulphur which pervaded the, house.
| have no more idea what became of the
flint producers than the old man of sorrow.
ing memories who, three or four times a
week, called at our door with birthstone
matches for at cent the half dozen
punches. Both have been as completely
banished from England and New England
as have the red Indians and the Druids.
Then, again, are gone the pin makers,
who, though they have been in their graves
this quarter Of century, still figure in
lectures and essays to illustrate the advan-
tages of division of labor. Instead of a
pin taking dozen men to cut, grind, point,
head, polish and what not, as it used to
do, pins are now made by neat little ma
chimes at the rate of three hundred a min
ute, of which machines single child at
tends to half dozen.
Nail making at the forge is another lost
industry. Time was, and that in this
nineteenth century, when every nail was
made on the anvil. Now, from one hun
bred to one thousand nails a minute are
made by machinery. The mailer who
works at the forge has but bad chance Of
competing with such antagonists and he
would have no chance at all were it not
that his nails are ten fold tougher than
the former. As it is, the poor men follow
an all but hopeless vocation, and are con.
demned to live in continued hand grips
with poverty.
In the days of Presidents Madison and
Monroe, and even later, straw bonnet
making was practised 10 every middle
class house where there we're growing
famil ies,as straw plating formed the staple
of domestic leisure work. At my grand
mothers around the huge kitchen fire
place, Caesar, born slave, who sat on ar
oak bench directly under the gaping
chimney, and we boys. who crowded upor
the settle, used to pass the evenings split
ting straws while lasses we're plating
them. Then bonnets we're bonnets, with a
margin Of foot or two to spare, and pre-
sentlng sort of conical shell shaped re-
cess, in which dimpling smiles and witching
curls nestled in comfort. The work has
vanished and never will re-appear, unles.
the whirligig of fashion should glide again
into the forsaken track.
CHARMS OF THE ISLE OF JERsEY.-O
all the gems of the ocean, of all the pic.
turesque spots that the earth has to offer
at least in its we'll settled quarters, il
seems to me that none can compare with
this beautiful island and its dozen old
stone churches, dating from the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, clad with suct
Ivy as is nowhere else to be found, ant
nestled among such trees aud thatchet
cottages as even the best pictures of Eng
land can hardly match. With its con.
stantly varying glimpses of the sea, with
its thousands of charming villa residences
stretching over nearly the whole territory
the seekers for rural beauty and an area
dian simplicity Of scenery must here find
their best examples A Jersey road is
marvel to behold. They are, of course
by no means all alike, but there are mile
and miles such as [ describe-narrow, of
ten too narrow for vehicles to pass eacl
other except at the turn outs foored lik
bellevue avenue in Newport. with tn
rounded macadam, glittered with neatly
laid cooble stones, and fenced with earthe
wall SO high that they seem cut int
the earth except where the frequent
glimpses through gates show the field
beyond; a solid mat of ivy commencin
at the edge of the gutter and covering tn
! wall as with a blanket, and running to tn
7 tops of the tall trees, the walls supper
3 until it meets in their interlocked branche
overhead A Jersey road, even in rain
1 day in November, has more suggestiv
beauty than any other | have seen.
these roads were simply uninterrupte
lines of communication between differer
D points, they would still be beautifi
r enough; but they are lined on both side
q by farms so small that one is rarely out {
5 sight OF the neatly thatched farm buile
t ings and the curious, half-tropics
1 vegetation to be found in every dooryare
s La the matched houses. even the mos
modern ones, there is look of tn
e century old responsibility and comfor
/; which is especially in keeping with th
d whole character of the scenery; and, how
e ever beautiful and attractive the Jerse
s COW may be as we see her in the lawns
e our richer neighbors, she Can have n
# setting to equal the guarded old orchar
y behind the stacks and straw-covered shec
e which we see through the gaps in thes
ivy clad roadside fences. an
i Home.
= SOCIAL Without friend
e what is a man? A solitary oak upon
!, sterile rock, symmetrical, indeed, in i
| forr, ooutif,,liu ap1 avou;sifaly fin; oh a.