Sharp County record., 1881-08-04
Some New England Sketches.

Most of these people have parlor, or
what they call their "front room" 1t
is furnished when the house is built, or
a new wife comes home, and is used on
Thanksgiving days, funerals, weddings,
and in some families perhaps with a
little more freedom. The children are
taught to regard it as too sacred for
them to understanding they are oc-
casionally allowed to gaze upon in adj
miration from its door, or while the
careful mother is examining the carpet
for moths, or adjusting its covering of
newspapers, put over it to prevent its
fading. Upon the mantels are the heir
looms of the family, and shells gath
cred on the seashore during occasional
visits there-while over it sometimes
hangs the sword of the grandfather or
other relatives, worn in past wars.
1t would be hard to find a mattress of
any kind in town. Its people have
heard of them, but regard them as
"makeShifts," which stern necessity
has made indispensable, because they
have not kept fowl, and don't know the
luxury of lirst-claSs featherbed. Many
an old housekeeper here has her
down" featherbed. 1t is made from
the choicest feathers of the goose, and
takes a generation to fill in little yearly
additions, and is the choicest gift of the
mother to her favorite daughter. Many
family breach has been caused by the
mothers having more daughters than
choice featherbeds. Only distinguished
visitors or relatives are honored to the
extent of being allowed to sleep upon
them. In my boyhood days, during my
visits to my grandmother, was thus
honored. 1t was nice in January, but
on hot summer night Turkish bath
was not a circumstance to trying to
sleep upon my grandmother feather
bed. Another heirloom are the old
brass handirons," as they term them,
in the fireplaceS, upon which the wood
fire is kept. If very old and very large
they are the especial pride of the house
wife, and are kept Furnished, and when
not in use are often kept covered with
colored tisSue-paper, fancifully cut and
arranged on them. Brass candlesticks
of immense size are also considered
very nice. Immense clocks, often seven
feet in height, reaching from the floor
to the ceiling, are in almostevery house,
and it is not uncommon to find them
more than a century old and still good
timekeepers. As the down-beds de-
scend to the girls, the clocks, by old GUS
tom, sacredly kept descend to the boys.
No physician ever settled permanent
ly in this town. 1t is tradition that
one attempted it in former generation,
but left in disgust after remaining a
fortnight without patient. They drive
to the next town for medical aid when
it is absolutely necessary. The same
physician practices there that did forty
years ago. He has the confidence of
the people to such an extent that a large
percentage of the boys are named for
him, and many of the girls are named
for his wife. He doctors largely with
roots and herbs, and bleeds in almost
every disease where castor-oil will not
meet the case, and still "stuffS a cold
and starves fever" and gives
'sweats' where there is the least ex-
cuse. He rides in gig and carries
saddle -bags-both made in former
generation. .....
The same physician that administers
medicine to the people extracts their
teeth. He has only one instrument. He
uses it for all teeth. 1t is the same one
probably that his father used before
him. 1t is the terror of men, women
and children throughout the entire vi
cinity. His most persuasive words are
used in inducing patients to allow its
introduction into their mouths, and a
shrek that penetrates the entire neigh
borhood follows its withdrawal. The
patient is fortunate if portions of the
Jaw do not come out when the tooth
does. The doctor informed me that
these new-fanged instruments were
pretty enough to look at, but did not
amount to much for actual use, for
teeth had to come out by main force
after all. These people consider filling
teeth a device to get their money.
They believe in using them as long as
they answer their purpose, and then
pull them out and get along without
them. Cor. Chicago Tribune.