Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1876-07-06


That faithful companion of our
grandmothers, the old-time spinning
wheel, was long ago consigned to OBJ
livion. In some dark garnet or remote
farm house the dust has gathered up
on it's venerable frame, and the spiders
have woven their frail webs about its
silent wheel. But by sudden freak
of fashion it has lately been restored
to favor, and become cherished orna-
meDt OF the parlor. How long this
ancient treasure will be numbered
among our penateS no one can tell but
its very presence speaks more eloquent
ly OF the past than all our Centennial
orators or printed records. Anything
that has survived the wear and tear of
100 years may lay claim to respectable
antiquity; but the spindle and distaff
are as old as the Egyptian monuments.
To be sure, the spindle was not mount
ed in a frame till comparatively re-
cent date, for the spinning-wheel is
said to have been invented in Nurem-
berg in 1870. But the ''spinsters' of
merry England knew nothing about
the wheel till the time Of Henry the
Eighth, though it had then long been
used by the Hindoos in making their
far-famed m,lslins, those "webs Of
woven wind" Yet in the early ages
of the world, $50 spin, you jade, go
spin was a familiar sound to both
Princess and peasant. Did not young
Telemachus bid his royal mamma re-
turn to her spindle and loom instead Of
meddling with public affairs?
And the selectmen of New England.
in Puritan times, thought it their
bounden duty to see that every girl in
the village did proper amount of
spinning and weaving. England at
tempt to repress American manufact-
ures-the Earl of Chatham declaring
that ''the colonists had no right to
manufacture as much as a horseshoe
nail set the spinning-wheels whirl-
ing day and night all over the land
The society organized in New England
in 1865 to repudiate foreign cloths was
wonderfully popular. 70 insure an
abundance of wool, its patriotic
members agreed to eat no mutton, and
to purchase no meat Of any butcher
who should commit the crime of kill
ing sheep. The women formed them
selves into similar associations, prom
ising to card, spin and weave their own
clothing; and well did they keep their
VOWS. Many of them even went into
the fields to pull flax, and scutched and
hacked it themselves.
In the early inventories of furniture
there is no allusiOn to forks, but there
were plenty Of napkins and this little
fact points significantly to the skill
and industry of the housewives of old.
History records that certain matron
of the Revolution left at her death
enough homespun cloth in the shape of
curtains, quilts and garments of Ill
sorts and patterns to stock a village
store. This person was a worthy con-
temporary of Mrs. Washington; for the
latter, according to her biographers,
kept sixteen spinning-wheels in con-
slant operation in her house. Two
homemade cotton gowns striped with
silk which were worn by the first
President S wife We're justly regarded
Us triumphs of skill, the silk stripes
having been made from Rawlings of
brown silk stockings and old crimson
damaSk chairs. Even Washington
himself is said to have been arrayed in
a complete suit of homespun when he
arrived in New York to take the Presi-
Dental chair. Indeed we are assured
| that the leading men of that era were
proud of appearing in public in home
spun coats and trousers; and that
when women presented their husbands
with clothing woven and made up by
their own fair hands, "men had solid
pleasures now unknown
1t was the fashion in the Colonies to
have great spinning bees, or +" wool
breakings.' Here all the damSelS in
! the neighborhood collected to card and
/ spin till night. when the young men
1 Joined them, and the gathering ended
with a dance. Pianos We're unknown:
| but the music of ancient industry"
to quote New England histor-
ian, the sound of the spinning
wheel, whirling at the rate of
fifty miles IN hour. the loud beat
ings of the loom and dashing of the
churn. quelled all discord in the family.
1t is said the Grecian women had a
habit of spinning with the distaff aS
they walked: and certain elderly
women in New England were wont to
/ take their knitting-work with them
when they walked abroad. We fear
/ these industrious creatures had no eve
/ for the wonders of the way-side. and
/ that the click of the needles drowned
I the voice of nature. But then. as an
/ old writer quantity remarks, Indus
/ try was a habit of female life. and it
required resolution sometimes To bring
( it into subsection He tells MS. too.
I that young women. instead of talking
( over their eonquestS then boosted of
! the mumher of hanks of thread they