Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-05-01
war.TIues In Georgia.


The days of my childhood were spent amid
stirring scenes and dtroublous times. Southern
ports we're blookaded by Federal gunboats
aud the frontiers beleagured by Northern ar
mics. Did you ever see a Georgia buttonY"
Those shirt buttons were queer-lookng things.
With their own hands our industrious moth
ers spun the thread, aud needles we're need
les in those days. Provided With needle
and thread they selected the site for the pro-
posed button and began sewing in and out
and round and round until, by simple oper-
alton, the button was made and sewed on
fast The button was made altogether Of
thread, and POSSESSED decided advantegs-it
never came of. 1t lasted just rs long rs tho
button hole. Home made tumblers were an
ingenious continuance. Around bottle, white
il il could be obtained, was selected, and
stout cord was wrapped once around it.
One person held one end of the cord, another
held the other, and moved the bottle, quite
rapidly, until the glass became hot when 1t
was plunged into cold water, which caused
the bottle to break in two quite smoothly.
Queer tumblers they were, with their sharp
edges; but they did splendid service. Out in
the interior one may still fiud An old. fashioned
spinning g-wheel Ah, mel How sweet was
the hum of the old wheel as the shadows crept
slowly eastward, and the swish, swish of
the cards kept time to the dreamy music.
And the old Georgia loom" with its queer
looking beams and well-worn treadles The
''click" of the shuttle and mufl ID bang of
the beam have lulled me to sleep many
time, az my dear old mother worked with en-
ergy to furnish ''copperas and checked" for
my little breeches. In the manufacture OF
hats there was a wide field for the exercise of
their inventive minds The tender shoots Of
the saw palmetto, plated in round, square or
"notchedy" strips we're most frequently
brought into requistion. But then there
we're cloth hats made of that same home spun
by cutting couical pieces of cloth, sometimes
of different colors, aud sewing them together,
the points meeting at the top of the crown
and the brim made separately. These funny
hats were worn by some of the last conscripts
and gave them the name of flop eared-mil-
ish." Shoemakers were exempt, and they
showed wonderful skill in the manufacture
of shoes. The hides we're tanned with red
oak bark and the shoes were made for use
and not for show. When anyone was so
fastidious as to desire black shoes the shoe
maker employed a solution of vinegar and
rusty nails to blacken the leather. Soap was
made from the ashes of oak and hickory
Negroes and boys were sent to the woods,
where they cut and piled great heaps of oak
and fred them, guarding the ashes carefully
from the rain until cool, when they were TAX
en- home, thrown into hopper, and leached
the lye used for foap making and for ''setting"
the dye in coloring the homemade cloth.
Going to Deadman's Bay and other points
for salt was a picnic for the boys They dug
pits in the sandy beach, boiled down the
brine which arose in them, and then returned
after having made a suficientquantily to sup
ply the neighborhood. But sometimes the
salt gave out and they hadn't time to go to
the coast, so they just scraped off the soil of
the dirt -hoored smoke houses and boiled that
down. True, it was rather dark, but it was
"salty." There was one thing we could new
er find a successful substitute for. That was
coffee. We tried corn, wheat rice, meal,
bran and other things. Okra seed made
the best imitation coffee but it was a poor
subttute. 1t is amusing to think of these
clumsy efforts and curious contrivances but
here is pathetic side Of the question. Cor.
VdLi0std Times.