Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-06-10
Carpet.Shaking.


IT is one Of the chief articles Of that
mysterious household religion held by
all earnest housewives that tsall the car
fall." To men this is not only foolish
ness, but frequent and literal stum-
bling block. Take the ssspare-room''
carpet for example. The man of the
house remembers that it was shaken last
fall, and that since that time the spare
room has been used only four times.
tsOf course, you're not going to take up
the spare room carpetp" she invariably
replies, t'Of course, I am,' and in
quires if he sswants to live in a perfect
pig-pen." AS rule, no man of Anglo
Saxon origin does wish to inhabit either
perfect or an imperfect pig-pen, but
it is seldom that the male mind can
trace any necessary connection between
living in a pig pen and dispensing with
the rite of shaking the spare-room car
pet. Protests against carpet-shaking
are, however, useless. Where q woman
has once adopted the belief that all car
pets must be taken up every spring and
fall, she will remain firm in the faith in
spite of all persuasions. When the
spring time comes, gentle Annie, or
Maria, as the case may be, takes her
tack-hammer and china saucer to hold
the tacks, and then falling on her knees,
performs the solemn ceremony of taking
up the carpets with an unwavering faith
in it's efficacy which is both beautiful
and pathetic.
The work of shaking carpets is by
universal consent monopolized by col
ored men, and, together with preaching
and whitewashing, constitutes one of
the three leading colored industries.
There is no doubt that, like the devout
housewife, the colored man looks upon
carpet-shaking in the light of a religious
ceremony. This alone explains the
solemn and reverential manner in which
he does his work. He avoids with the
utmost care all unseemly violence. He
handles the carpet with manifest awe.
Often he pauses and may be seen, with
the edge of the carpet in his grasp, gaz-
ing on vacancy in rapt meditation.
When he has finished shaking, he hangs
the carpet over the fence or a convenient
clothesline and gently taps it with
stick. This part of the ceremony is
called cheating the carpet" but the
colored man evidently regards it as
purely symbolic operation. He would
not hurt the carpet for the world, and
were he to beat his wife or small boy in
the timid, revcrential way in which he
beats a carpet, his reputation as an en-
ergetic and faithful husband and father
would be forever gone. The shaking
and beating being ended, the colored
man folds up the carpet, carries it into
the house, collects four or five dollars
for his services, and goes his way, while
the housewife resumes her tack-hammer,
puts down the carpet, and subsequently
boasts to her husband, with a touch of
self-righteousness, that her knees are
black and blue, and that she don't be-
ieve she will be able to walk for week.
In spite of all this trouble and labor,
the last state of that carpet is little bet
ter than the first. It still yields its dust
to the demand of the broom. It is still
suspected of harboring moths, and its
outward appearance is in no way inn
proved. Most housewives have secret
and gnawing consciousness that carpet
shaking produces no material result,
however much it may benefit the soul.
There are few women who would not
eagerly welcome any invention
whereby the unsatisfactory carpet-shak-
ing colored man should be superseded
by really efficient carpet-shaking ma
chinery. Such an alleged invention
was recently brought to the knowledge
of Mrs. Peters, of Westboro, N. H.,
and was hailed by that excellent woman
with great enthusiasm.
The agent who sold Mrs. Peters the
Columbian Carpet-shaking Machine ex-
planned to her the way in which it
worked. The machine consisted of a
large wires gauge cylinder, in which a
carpet could be placed, and which was
revolved at a high speed by clock-work.
Within the cylinder was collection of
fails and brushes, which, when put in
motion by its revolution, thoroughly
beat and swept the carpet. The agent
asserted that his machine would thor
oughly remove all dust and extraneous
substances from the texture of the car
pet, would destroy moths and other
deleterious insects, and would impart a
beautiful gloss to the surface Of any
carpet, rug, or blanket, that might be
submitted to its action.'' When he had
tested its effect upon the parlor carpet,
Mrs. Peters was so charmed that she
bought the machine on the spot, and as
soon as the agent had gone she took up
the dining-room carpet, and put it in
the cylinder.
For some reason the machine could
not be made to work, and Mrs. Peters,
thinking that there must be something
wrong, took out the carpet and crept
into the cylinder in order to see if any
of the fails or brushes were out of or
der. Suddenly, and without the least
warning, the diabolical machine began
to work. The cylinder revolved with
tremendous rapidly, and the fails and
brushes did their whole duty. The ma
chine could not be stopped until the
clock-work had run down, and the agent
had warranted it to run for twenty min
utes. During that time the machine
was busily occupied in removing all
dust and extraneous substances from
the texture of Mrs. Peters, in destroying
all moths and other deleterious insects,
and in imparting a beautiful gloss to
Mrs Peters's surface. In fact, it did