News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-22
LOVE AND Potash.
A Little Romance Ringing on thu Story of
Dead Industry of Bohemia.

"There's what broke up my home and
made me come over to America"
The speaker vas an employee in a
large soap factory on the west side. He
was pointing to some drums Of imported
soda as he spoke.
II was bern in Bohemia, among the
mountains, in a little village. Our chief
industry was making lye, and some
times soap. think half of the people
made their living that way; my family
did. When / was little boy was sent
out every day with my brother and
other little bows to gather leaves and
twigs. The best were those of the fir,
but we took everything. We'd build
big bonfires in dry weather, and the
moment the ashes and embers were cold
we'd throw them into bins under low
sheds. Below :hese sheds were what
you Call leacT tubs. some Of ttsaen
were old barrels Sawed III half some,
and they belonged 10 the poorer folks,
were heavy willow baskets. One [ re-
member was square, built out Of bricks,
with door on the side. We used to fill
the tubs with ashes, and pour as much
water on them Us they'd hold. When it
ran through it would run into small
bucket. This was what used 10 be I've.
1t was too weak to sell or to use to make
soap. and So WE'D boil it down. Some
times we'd sell it when it was boiled
down very strong, but generally we let
it boil till it was dry. What was lett
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. Ii
the potash was gray we got a good price
for it, but if it was red or brown we got
less money and also got good thrash
ing from our parents.
Down the road was my fathers
cousin, who was the best soap maker in
the barony. He made soft soap from
our potash and common salt. He had a
pretty ughter-she's my wife now,
and when she was fifteen she was as
good soap boiler as her father. l was
about seventeen when times began to
grow quite hard. The village merchant
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
spling with a wagon to peddle the same
wares found things just as bad every
where. We thought 1t came from the
wars that were going OF, and that good
old prices would come back before long.
When l got to be twenty [ 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. I
went down to the village one day with a
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 price for the former
that I began to laugh. But when he
took out of box some foreign soap and
offered it to me at half the price 1 want
ed, and explained 10 me how the French
and English were making soda and pot
ash in big factories out Of rocks that
cost almost nothing, saw that my. bus
mess was ruined. The news | ran
through the village, and everybody was
verv blue. " f51'sst1ct1i6sriy ti-frIe
when 1 thought Ii Gretchen. Many
tried to fight it out, but they Il Early
starved. Most of us wandered away to
other countries, and [ came over to
America, where I've been ever since.
And a little over year after l landed [
sent over for my sweetheart, and she
came over and we were married.