Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-04-25
The Little Red Flower-Pots.

ways appear in the fall rows and rows of
little red flower pots, and all through the |
winter they fairly blaze out with scarlet |
geraniums and verbenss.
The fact Is Of no consequence to any body |
else besides the Wiggius-except that IL is
great treat to go by there when the snow
is on the ground and look up at that glori- |
GUS bit OF summer let into the landscape
only going in to see the flowers and talk
about them was what set the children wild
TO go up to the pottery.
"Wherever did you get so many of those
cunning, dear little pots 2" asked Bell.
al got them straight from the pottery"
said Mrs. Wiggin; "the common, unglazed
ones, those cheap, little, breakable things,
are the ones for plants. And you did not
know? Never were up there2 Why, III
go with you myself. And I'll give you all
the slips for all the pots your mother will let
you buy. Aud we'll go now. There never
will be better time. Trot home and ask
your mother, Benny, and get some mohey.
And, Bell, put your hat on"
Aud they went.
There was row Of buildings on one side
and both ends of great yard, aud over the
first door was sign saying, No admit
tance;" but Mrs. Wiggin was one Of that
Cldcb VIM huu Oni1 w OBOh oVbohV1
when bolts would draw back and doors
swing open wide, and Ben and Bell were
made free to the whole establishment
from the clay-pits behind the works TO the
decorative art room.
1t was really puzzle even for older heads
TO zee what there was about that particular
clay that it should be better for the purpose
than any other. Out there it seemed but
common piece Of waste land, cluttered with
bricks and old iron and pieces of timber,
only the soil had drab tinge and was soft,
and free from stones. 1t was the right sort,
however, and that was reason enough. for
building the pottery there; and there was
nothing to be done but go out and shovel 1t
up, dry it, mix it with water, and then
make things of it.
In shed were tanks where 1t was stirred
and pushed back and forth, Just as man
prepares mortar, or as children work at the
stuff for mud pies, which was done to sepa
rate any gravel there might be in it, and it
looked like drab mush. Afterwards it was
ground in pug-mill," and this was some
thing like an old-fashioned cider.mill.
The next room was dipgy with the dust
OF the dry clay, and the splsshes and dabs
of the wet. From floor to ceiling it was all
one gray and drab, specked and spotted and
spattered with the little pellets which had
flown off when the potter's wheel was re.
volving. Even the windows were darkened
with the great blotches Of moist clay.
Bell, with genuine womanly instinct
held up her killed skirts, which could not
by any possibility have come 10 contact
with the floor until at least twelve inches
had been added to their length and Ben
walked on tip toe.
at is the clsyeyest place." said she; and,
at is worse than grist-mill," said he.
And just to see the faces of those men
There were three of them, and their own
mothers would not have known them, for
they were specked, and spotted, and splashed,
and spattered, even more than the room.
One of them was going through an athletic
performance, which for pure strength in
lifting and tossing was rs good as the exer-
cises at gymnasium. He said he was pre-
pairing the clay to make forty-saven pound
Hower-pot. And when Mrs. Wigein ex
claimed that that must be an immense one,
he told her they made hundred.pound potts.
as she could see when she went into the
sample-room.
He had on a bench a solid lump of wet
clay of the weight first named, and he would
knead it while as a woman does dough,
| tutu WIFI plcCc Vi WIG utlu III DOtu
he would clip it in two parts, toss one above
his head and bring it down with slap on
the other, then heave the whole lump up
and it would fall with a thud. All this
kneading and cutting and tossing was to in
corporate it thoroughly, he said, that it
might be smooth and even in texture and
not liable to dry in streaks.
The children told him they could stay all
day and "see him do it," and then he offered
to make big flower pot while they were
there. So they went over where the wheels
were. There were three in front of the
windows, and the other two men were busy
as they could be making seven-inch potts."
| and as fast as one was done it was lifted up
| with pair Of wooden clamps and set on a
board, and as soon as the board was full
| two men came in and carried it off TO the
baking room. There were great many of
these clamps, of different sizes to fit the potts.
in a rack on the wall.
He dumped his forty-seven pound lump
| down on the little wheel and set it to whirl-
ing, put his thumb inside the clay, and in an
instant it began to open, rise, roll up and
over, and expand like india rubber, wab
bling about little, there was such load OF
it. He used wooden spat or paddle, and
a small edged instrument like the blade Of
a chopping-knife, with hole in it through
which he thrust his thumb, and so shaped
and smoothed, while the wheel flew round
till there stood a tall, large .hower-pot, all
right but the rim and the handles. The first
he fashioned with the implement he called
the "potter's rib" and the handles he
nodded in his fingers, as one would molasses
candy wet them in the tank of water by the
side of the wheel, then fitted and wiped
them over with sponge. Then with the
indispensable piece of wire he separated
the pot from the wheel and took it off be-
tween the clamps.
After this they watched the making of
the seven-inch pots, which Mrs. Wiggin said
"looked just as easy |" and one of the men
said she might have all she would make I;
that many ladies who came there thought
just as she did, and tried it. He said he
had been at work at the business eighteen
years, and it took him three months to learn
how to make flower pot, though while he
was learning that he found out how to do
great many other things in the same line.
She took pat OF clay of the right size
and went TO work; but the result was an
awkward looking, one-sided, queer caricsture
of fower.pot, which reeled and pitched,
and finally collapsed, and sank in shape
Here the children could keep silence no
longer, but cried out, What does make it
come into shape, and what makes it stay
right ? How do you do it ?"
"Well, that is what we have to learn" he
answered, sit is partly the motion the
wheel throws it, and the hand helps form
it. That is all. can keep 1t plain, or
work it into grooves, or nip it into seal
lops."
How fast he turned them off and whipped
the wire under, and then set them aside
ready for the baking That was done in
room where were several great beehive
shaped furnaces with freplsces at the bot
tom, and monstrous ovens in which bak-
ing Of bean-pots was then going on, which
would take from twentyfour to thirty,six
hours before they were done.
A man can "throw" twenty dozen OF
those in day, and from the time one is be-
gun till it is finished, glazing and all, it
takes about ten days. The glaze which