The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1876-12-28

The Cons 'nants looked about them,
And kissed the Vowels, for, you see,
They couldn't do without them.
M MD, in 81. Mcnolas for December.
The CHRISTMAS PUTz AT BETHLE
HEM.-MY DEAR JACK: Will you pleas
let me tell the other girls, and thei
brothers, how to make something prett,
for Christmas?
In Bethlehem, Pa, where mother anC
l passed considerable time, there is {
large Moravisn settlement, and some O
their customs are very interesting, par
ticularly during the Christmas season
At that time the Moravians make what
they call Putz, not only for the amuse
ment of their children, but for all who
may come to. see it.
A Putt is miniature landscape, with
whatever figures you may like to put in
1t. Some of these scenes are made on q
grand scale; but smaller ones, equally
pretty, and not so difficult to manage,
are made at the foot of the Christmas
tree. The tree is placed on table, or,
better still, it is set in large dry-goods
box, and then boards are put across the
top of the box, as foundation for the
Putt.
If you wish to make one, girls, you
have only to go into the woods for your
materials. Pieces of rock, large and
email, moses, ferns, lichens, vines, and
whatever you may think pretty, will an
swer the purpose. The large rocks you
use for mountains, interspersed with
small branches of cedar and pine for
trees. A narrow piece of tin-foil, bent
into various shapes, will do for water
fall, across which cardboard bridge can
be laid. Lower down you can have a
looking-glass lake, or, better still, tin
pan, filled with water, on which arti-
fetal ducks, geese, fish, boats, etc., can
float. Conceal the edge of the glass or
pan with moss, and put gravel at the
bottom of your real lake, as well as gravel
walks around it.
With cardboard houses, and fences,
and miniature sheep, horses, ETC., you
can make very pretty scenes. Or you
caa represent the birth of the Christ
child, with small toy figures that come
expressly for such scenes. You will find
it easy to make pretty design for Christ
mas with very little material.
The Moravians at Bethlehem welcome
all visitors, whether strangers or not, who
choose to go into any of the houses to
examine the Putt; and it certainly is a.
very interesting sight.
am your sincere friend,
MAMIE n.
-Jdck-in-the- Pulpit.
YOUNG PEOPLES AMUsEMENTs IN
THE BoYHooD OF THE POET BRYANT
One of the entertainments of the boys of
my time was what were called the "rais-
ings," meaning the erection of the tim
Der frames of houses and barns, to which
the boards were to be afterward nailed.
Here the ministers made point of be-
ing present, and hither the able bodied
men of the neighborhood, the young
men especially, were summoned, and took
part in the WORK with great alacrity. 1t
was spectacle for us next to that of a
performer on tight-rope, 10 see the
young men walk steadily on the narrow
footing of the beams at great height
from the ground, or as they stood to
catch in their hands the wooden pins and
the braces flung to them from below.
They We'd with each other in the dex-
terity and daring with which they went
through with their work, and when the
skeleton of the building was put together,
some one among them generally capped
the climax of fearless activity by stand
ing on the ridge-pole with his head down.
ward and his heels in the air.
Another of the entertainments Of
rustic life in the region of which l am
speaking was the making of maple-sugar.
This was a favorite frolic of the boys.
The apparatus for the sugar camp was
of a much ruder kind than is now used.
The sap was brought in buckets from the
wounded trees and poured into a great
caldron which hung over hot fire from
stout horizontal pole supported at each
end by an upright stake planted in the
ground. Since that time they have built
in every maple grove sugar-house-a
little building in which the process of
making sugar is carried on with several
ingenious contrivances unknown at that
time, when everything was done in the
open air.
In autumn, the task of stripping the
uuSkS HULL tl1C Gals Va SOlh was
made the occasion of social meetings, in
which the boys took special part. A
farmer would appoint what was called
ga husking," to which he invited his
neighbors. The ears of maize in the husk,
sometimes along with part of the stalk,
were heaped on the barn floor. In the
evening lanterns were brought, and,
seated on piles of dry husks, the men
and boys stripped the ears of their cover
ing, and, breaking them from the stem
with a sudden Jerk, threw them into
baskets placed for the purpose. 1t was
often merry time; the gossip of the
neighborhood was talked over, stories
were told, tests went round, and at the
proper hour the assembly adjourned to
the dwelling-house and were treated to
pumpkin-pie and cider, which in that
season had not been so long from the
press as to have parted with its sweet
ness.
The cider-makiBg season in autumn
was, at the time of which am speaking,
somewhat correspondent to the vintage
in the wilma countries of Europe. Large
tracts of land in New England were over
shadowed by rows of apple-trees, and in
the month of May a journey through
that region was a journey through
wilderness of bloom. In the month of
October the whole population was busy
gathering apples under the trees, from
which they fell in heavy showers as the
branches we're shaken by the strong arms
of the farmers. The creak of the cider
mill, turned by horse moving in a
circle, was heard in every neighborhood
as one of the most common Of rural
sounds.
From time to time the winter even
ings, and occasionally a winter after
noon, brought the young people of the
parish together in attendance upon a
singing-school. Some person who pos
sessed more than common power of voice
and skill in modulatingi it, was employed
to teach psalmody. and the boys were
naturally attracted to his school as q
recreation. 1t often happened that the
teacher was an enthusiast in his voca.
tion, and thundered forth the airs set
down in the music-books with a fervor
that was contagious. A few of those who
attempted to learn psalmody were told
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