The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1873-09-26

Butter NJ elsewhere on the continent,
IL unsalled, and to preserve II forcook-
ing purposes II IL cooked down over u
slow fire until, as they express II,
"Whcn you lool, into the pot, you can
see yourself as IN II looking gloss' A
few hnndflls Of meal are thrown Into
IL while II IL cooking, "to lnkc thcsollr
out and clear it, M they express II.
II IL then poured into wooden tubs,
and when cold Is Of bright yellow
color and solid, and IL called Grind
scmnlz,n or beef fat. Lard Is called
"schweIn schmnlZ," that Is, swine
fat, and both of these articles
enter largely into their culinary opera
tons. Their stoves are made of brick
aud plastcred some have an iron top
with one or two holes for kettles, 9th
ers are 80 constructed that the fire Is
built on top Of them and the long leg
ged skillets are placed directly over
the fire, and the smoke which ascends
is utilized IN drying the meat which is
hung up in the mur,y vault overhead
Their farming like their cooking Is
rather primitive In fact the whole
construction of society IL II little bit
aboriginal in style. The women seem
to do Il large proportion Of the labor,
working side by side with the men IN
the field, foddering the stock, milking
three times day, carrying such cnor-
nous loads Of hny on their backs that
they look like walking hay'staclls, be-
sides doing the house work and taking
care of the children.
In cutting grain they use Il hand
scythe little larger and much dullcr
than our hand grass scythc, and hack
the grain of close to the ground. Their
acythcs are not gound, hut brought to
IN odge under the hammer, and as
often rs it becomes imposslb to make
il work by the use of their milestone,
which Is not much better than piece
of slate stone, they again draw out the
edge under the hammer, and this
thlnp, thump, thump you may hear
mingling with your morning dreams.
Before beginning to cut they make, in
Dangling way, Il double band ana
lay 1t down before them, They press
the cut grain over against the standing
grain and cut q space about two and Il
half by ten feet, and then rolling the
grain with the left hand, while walking
backwards, they at the same time cut
under it with the right hand, rolling
and cutting until they have shcaf
about half MS large MS our American
farmers make them, when they lay it
upon tho band and hlnl II nj 0npe.
When shown how 10 take n handful
from gavel so rs to have II
clean, and long enough to bend two
of their sheaves together, thus proving
that double band was useless, and
took too much time, they admitted the
superiority OF the work over thei' own,
but then why should they change
their customs? Their great grand
fathers, most worthy men, always did
this way, and their grain turned out
well. For shocking the grain, II pole
about eight feet long, by two inches in
diameter, is driven into the ground,
and each sheaf transliXed thereon.
Hay is also stacked around pole, this
being Il ncedml prccaution against the
strong winds which sometimes prevail.
For bringing the crop down the steep
fields to the barn, slods, or Il comblna-
ton of sled and wagon are employed.
Oxen are largely used in farming, AS
they can climb in places where horses
would be useless And then they move
fast enough to suit these slow moving
people, eight of whom, we are assured
by good authority, cut AS much grain
in u day as two good farm hands at
home would do with a cradle and a
rake.
The dress of the men is generally
breeches of soft leather finished from
the knees down with stiff leather; II
white shirt; green suspcnders; an
apron Of leather or blue drilling, and
u hat that was once green, around
which is II broad green band. The
holiday attire is such hat in shape,
but newer, and therefore brighter and
with an upright feather; usually gray
coat faced with green, and often green
stockings that come to the knees. The
women sometimes wear dark straw
hats, but handkerchief is their usual
hcad-dress. The older women wear
on Sundays black silk handkerchief
on the head; n black cloth basque; n
black silk apron, and blue or green
skirt, while the younger women wear
white linen, long-sleevcd and high
necked shirts, with colored corset
over; blue cotton skirt, and n bright
colored handkerchief on the head. As
| said, the construction of society Is
aboriginal, and the prevalent ideas of
virtue differ from our own.
For unmarried women to have chill
dren is considered no shame, in fact,
one good Frau assures me that they
think it a shame il they don't have
children, and us n wedding is some
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