The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-12-07
"THE BOYS OF MY BOYHOOD."
A Poets "reminiscences Of his Youth MS
Told by william Cullen Bryant In est,
Nicholus.O

|
Told by william Cullen Bryant in est,
| Nicholas.,
One of the entertainments OF the boys
of my time was what were called the
=" raisings," meaning the erection of
the timber frames of houses or barns,
to which the boards were to be after
ward nailed. Here the minister made a
point of being present, and hither the
able bodied men Of the neighborhood,
the young men especially, were sum-
moned, and took part in the work with
great alacrity. 1t was spectacle for
us next to that of a performer on the
tight rope, to 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 dexterity
and daring with which they went
through with the work, and when the
skeleton of the building was put to-
gether, some one among them generally
capped the climax of fearless activity by
standing on the ridgepole with his head
downward and his heels in the air. At
that time, even the presence of the
minister WIS no restraint upon the flow
of milk punch and grog, which in some
cases was taken to excess. The practice
of calling the neighbors to these "rais-
ings" is now discontinued in the rural
neighborhoods; the carpenters provide
their own workmen for the business of
adjusting the timbers of the new build
ing to each other, and there is no con-
sumption of grog,
Another of the entertainments of rus
tic life in the region of which I am
speaking was the making of maple
| sugar. This was 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 a hot
| fire from stout horizontal pole sup
ported at each end by an upright stake
planted in the ground. Since that time
they have built in every maple grove O
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.
From my fathers door, in the latter
part of March ard the early part of
April, we could see perhaps dozen col
umns of smoke rising over the woods in
different places where the work was
going Oh. After the sap had been col
lected and boiled for three or four days,
the time came when tho thickening
liquid was made to pass into the form
of sugar. This was when the syrup had
become of such consistency that it
would "feather that is to say, when
a beechen twig, formed at the small end
into a little loop, dipped into the hot
syrup and blown upon by the breath,
sent into the air a light, feathery film.
The huge caldron was then lifted from
the fire, and its contents were either
dipped out and poured into molds or
stirred briskly till the syrup cooled and
took the form of ordinary brown sugar
in loose grains. This process was ex-
ceedingly interesting to the boys who
came to watch its different stages and to
try from time to time the syrup as it
tbickened.
In autumn, the task of stripping the
husks from the ears of Indian corn was
made the occasion of social meetings, in
which the boys took q special part. A
farmer would appoint what was called
ga husking," to which he invited his
reighbors. 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 Oh. piles of dry husks, the
men and boys stripped the ears of their
covering, and breaking them from the
stem with sudden jerk, threw them
into baskets placed for the purpose. 1t
was often merry timo; the gossip of
the neighborhood was talked over,
stories were told, jests went round, and
at the proper hour the assembly ad-
journed 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 sweetness.
Quite as cheerful were the "apple
parings," which on autumn evenings
brought together the young people of
both sexes in little circles. The fruit of
the orchards was pared and quartered
and the core extracted, and supply of
apples in this state provided for making
what was called "apple sauce" kind
of preserve of which every family laid in
a large quantity every year.
The cider making season in autumn
was, at the time of which 1 am speaking,
somewhat correspondent to the vintage
in the wine countries of Europe. Large
tracts of land in New England We're
overshadowed by rows of apple trees,
and in the month of May journey
through that region was 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 were shaken by
the strong arms of the farmers. The
creak of the cider mill, turned by
horse moving in circle, was heard in
every neighborhood as one of the most
common of rural sounds. The freshly
pressed juice of the apples was most
agreeable to boyish tastes, and the
whole process of gathering the fruit and
making the cider came in among the
more laborious rural occupations in a
way which diversified them pleasantly,
and which made it seem pastime. The
time that was given to making cider, and
the number of barrels made and stored
in the cellars of the farmhouses, would
now seem incredible. A hundred bar.
rels to single farm was no uncommon
proportion, and the quantity swallowed
by the men of that day, led to the habits
of intemperance which at length alarmed
the more thoughtful part of the COM
munity, and gave occasion to the forma-
tion of temperance societies and the in
PRODUCTION of better habits. -..