The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-02-18

n nut1ic 1sOnsuco hsu$to8 Vo sH0 Ceo
~ Of . Dead Industry OF Bohemia.
There's what broke up my home
and made me come over to Amer
ica."
The speaker was an employe in a
large soap factory on the West side.
He was pointing to some drums OF
imported soda as he spoke.
Il was born in Bohemia, among
the mountains, in q little village.
Our chief industry was making lye,
and sometimes soap. think half
Of the people made their living that
way my family did. When I was
. little boy l was sent out every day
with my brother and other little
boys to gather leaves and twigs.
The best were those of the fir, but
we took everything. We'd build big
bon6res in dry weather, and the mo-
ment the ashes and embers were
cold we'd throw them into bins un-
der low sheds. Below these sheds
we're what you'd call leach tubs.
Some of these were old barrels saw
ed in half some, and they belonged
to the poorer folks, were heavy will
low baskets. One / remember was
square, built out of bricks, with
door on the side. We used to Fill
the tube with ashes, and pour as
much water on them as they'd hold.
When it ran through, it would run
into a small bucket. This was what
used to be lye. 1t was too weak to
sell or to use to make soap, and so
we'd boil it down. Sometimes we'd
sell it when it was boiled down very
strong, but generally we let it boil
till it was dry. What was left was
good potash, and that we'd sell to a
rich man in the village, who'd send
loads of it away to foreign countries
If the potash was gray we got a good
price for it, but ifit was red or brown
we got less money and also got
good thrashing from our parents.
Down the road was my fathers
cousin, who was the best soapmaker
in the barony. He made soft soap
from our potash and hard soap from
potash and common salt. He had a
pretty daughter-she's my wife now,
and when she was Is she was as
good soap boiler as her father. 1
was about IL when times began to
grow quite hard. The village mer-
chant didn't buy as much potash or
soap, and what he did buy he paid
less for. And then the men who'd
start out in the spring with wagon
to peddle the-same wares found
things Just az bad everywhere. We
thought it came from the wars that
were going on, and that good old
prices would come back before long.
When got to be 20 l was my wife's
beau. and the old folks agreed that
we should marry two years after
and keep up the family trades in
the old places. Well, we married,
but not there, and I've never been
there since.
"You see it came about like this. |
/ went down to the village one day |
with q load of potash and soap, and
called as usual on the merchant. |
For the first time he refused to buy
the latter, and offered so small a
price for the former that / began to
laugh. But when he took out of a
box some foreign soap and offered
it to me at half the price l wanted,
and explained to me how the French !
and English were making soda and
potash in big factories out of rocks
that cost almost nothing, 1 saw my |
business was ruined. The news ran
through the village, and everybody |
was very blue. l was particularly |
blue when I thought of Gretchen.
Many tried to fight it out but they
nearly starved. Most of us wander
ed away to other countries, and |
came over to America. where I've
been ever since. And little over
year after I landed l sent for my
sweetheart. and she came over and
Ne were married. "-Ne,C York Sun.