Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1874-09-25

Judge Joseph c. Guild (old Joe Guild, as
| he is familiariy called at home,) is n native
of Houston County, Tenn. Lately he re-
turned there after an absence of more than
half Il century, and made public speech,
from which the following extracts are
taken
SOCIAL CUSTOMS.
When | left, sixty yearshgo, industry and
economy were the landmarks of virtue, con-
tentment, and happiness. The women and
girls clothed the family, cooked the meals,
and did the various work, all contented and
happy, Voluntarily laboring to secure COM
petency for the household. Families in
those days were not enervated and ruined by
luxuries-what is called high living and
fashion. They were clothed at home by
their honest labor, the boys in their Jeans
and copperas cotton, and the girls in their
beautiful stripes of cotton and linscy.
Dresses were made to fit their persons and
develop their natural and beautiful forms.
One cannot tell now which is the girl and
which is the dress. | have looked about
over this large assembly to see if could not
find one Of those beautiful striped dresses
setting off the rosy mountain plnks of the
present day bu. the ancient customs have
! disappeared since | have been gone. In
| that day but few mothers and daughters
| ever had a calico dress, to say nothing of the
silks, cashmeres, muSlins, grapes and pop
/ lins Of the present day. In those days we
had our sugar camps, made our own sugar :;
coffee was bought at our commercial cities
and only used on Sundays. Milk, the best
and most healthy beverage in the world,
was daily used, and the rose bloomed and
/ plaved upon every girls cheek. There was
no calomel doctors bill to pay. We had
meeting-houses in those days, made of logs
and clapboards. We called itgoing to meet
ing The elegant phrase now is to attend
| church, and 20 in buggies and carriages.
| We walked from three TO five miles in going
to meeting, playing with the girls all the
way | have seen not further than five
miles from this place from fifty to one hun
dred ladies walking bare-footed to meeting,
/ carving their shoes and stockings in their
hands, and on arriving sitting down along
the branch, washing their beautiful feet,
putting on their stockings and shoes, pre-
paratory to going in. There is charm in
a pretty foot In those days our women did
not deiorm their persons with artificial
works about the head in the form cf rats,
chignons. and waterfalls. There was no
rouge beslattering the rosy check, destroy
Ing its natural beauty; nor were their beau
tiful forms destroyed by the hoop or hustle ;
there was no one taken in by artificial, false
appearances. In those days our beautiful
women had long, natural back hair, some
auburn. some red. with different shades of
color They wore it plated, forming a beau
tiful crescent upon the head, and when the
stream of eloquence copiously flowed over
the large large assembly, when all the fires
were lit up, | have heard this plated hair
pop like the crack Of a wagonwhip. Girls
and BOYS did not in those days wear shoes
until they arrived at the age Of twelve.
The boys helped tend the crop in the sum
mer. and went to the old Penhyroyal school
with the girls in the winter. la old times
we had the fayorite reel called Mrs. Ne
Cloud" When the word was given Hands
all round, set-to and face your partners.
giving to all full space to display their actiy-
itv and cvmnastic skill in the various steps
Of ancient times, have seen several sets at
the same time, both boys and girls. cutting
the single and double pigeon wing, which
caused a thrill 'of excitement and emotion
equal to the brilliant flights Of an eloquent
speaker.
RATTLEsNASE STORY.
II it viii not fatigue you, ladies, | viii
tell vou snake scene Of the olden times.
\ neighbor, with wife and one child, built
his cabin on fiat rock among the cliffs.
The rock furnished him with substaptial
floor, imperyious to floods. but not to snakes.
Upon this rock Peter built his cabin; his
-c- ,,-o-, I-f1+ i- tho ,antra ,f tho
house the chiinney-stack of rocks and mud
rrotruded through the roof and carried off
the smoke. The fires being kept during the
winter upon this floor. carly in the spring
thawed the snakes. He and his wife and
child occupied their only bed in 4 corner,
elevated some two feet from the rock. just
before day he was awakened BY the crawling
Of snakes over the bed, and their kissing all
over the house. he soon became satisfied
that his cabin was infested with snakes. 1t
was dangerous to attempt to walk across the
rock floor to the door, as he could not avoid
being enyeloped bv snakes, 50 he whispered
to his wife to cover up her head and that OF
the child with the bed-clothes, and hold
them down, and remain 50 until his return,
a. he was going to escape through the roof
Of the house and bring her reliet by morn
ins. lie thus escaped and alarmed the
nei-hbors, who assembled at the break of
day with guns and ropes. They examined
the situation, and found that the floor and
bed were covered with snakes. They got to
the roof, made an opening, let down ropes
| that had running nooseS, and after great
care and difficulty they were placed under
the arms Of his wife, and she, holding to her
child. they were safely drawn up, and thus
saved from destruction. The rattlesnakes
herd together and lie dormant under the
rocks and cliffs, and this rock happened to
| be their winter headquarters, and being
thawed by the fire that night, they took up
their line Of march. There were upwards
of a hundred snakes slain that morning, and
! found among the embers of the burned cabin.
| do not know how it is now, but | know
that sixty years ago this was an awful snake
coantry But | suppose that the snake,
ike the bear, the panther, wolf, and Indian,
has retired before the approach OF civiliza-
ton, and is now but seldom seen.
THREE LEArs FOR LIFE.-One of the most
thrilling adventures (the most thrilling in
itself. and probably fatal in its results
which has ever been experienced in this
land Of mineral-hole man-traps, occurred on
| Sunday about one mile west of Asbury
chapel. On Sunday morning james kins-
| ley, a youth Of sixteen years, visiting ms
uncle Joseph, about a mile west OF the
chapel about mentioned, rode the horse off
to water, leaving the house about eight