Seattle daily post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, W.T. [Wash.]) 1881-1888, 1885-11-26

Where Thanksxtstag Was Inveased-
Oid.Fashieaed Cheer.
Hartford Times


As Thanksgiving approaches. the
gsod housewife of today looks ahead
with cheerful serenity, relying with
confidence upon the improved sppli-
snces for warmth and cooking pur
poses, TO make the coming iestal day
one OF pleasure and enjoyment. Tie
housewife Of 100 years ago, and even
oi fifty years ago, looked forward to
the approach of Thanksgiving with
pleasure, 70 be sure, but not unmixed
with dread at tue magnitude of the
work 10 be performed To be sure.
her blooming and buxom daughters
could be relied upon to help her. and
on the principle that many hands
make light work" the day usually
passed with no drawbacks TO affect
the iull enjoyment of the occasion.
The big oven heated TO the proper
degree, was, Of course. a necessary
adjunct TO a successful dinner. Here
the pies-mince, apple, squash and
pumpkin-were baked. Here the
old-fashione Indian meal pudding.
sweet as sugar or molasses could
make II, and often as dark as the
ways ofs politician. was done to q
turn, the top crisp and brown; here,
too, was baked the omnipresent
chicken pie, with the orthodox open
ing in the centre 10 let out the fowl
gases, which. if confined, would ex
cite revolution in otherwise peace
ably-inclined stomachs. Then those
huge loaves of bread with the crust
sufficiently Drowned to make them
appear tempting were slid out upon
the table from the wide blade of
long iron-handled ''slice." Some
times meats, chickens and turkeys
were roasted within the walls of the
oven. but for lack Of basting conven-
fences. meats were usually roasted In
front of the fire. suspended by wire
fastened to the ceiling. Pigs could
be roasted in the oven we'll enough,
perhaps, but even these little quadru.
peds could be handled to better ad
vantage in front of the blazing logs.
On Thanksgiving Day ii was not an
uncommon thing to see the Sultan of
the turkey roost, properly dressed
and stuffed with sppetizing viands,
hanging in front of the fire, with a
dripping pan directly under him,
tianked by chickens on one side and
a roasting pig on the other, all with
their sides browning uader the influ-
ence of the heat Everand anon the
busting housewife cou be heard to
tell Johnny 10 turn theturkey. or to
Ellen TO give the chickens a whirl,
and to Billy to move the pig; while
the good lady herself would come
along with the basting spoon and
give them each gravy bath from the
dripping pans. The older people
have heard grandma tell all about
the good old times" aud while none
OF US care TO go back 10 those meth
DDS of cooking, which. are now con
sidered sOmew hat primitive. although |
in the recollections of our living
elders. we never close our ears 10 the |
stories of how the old folks used to |
get along without stoves, without |
coal, without matches.
An old gentleman-one OF our old |
est and most respected citizens-says
that the fires in the old ireplaces |
were perpetual, never going out
from one years end TO another |
By covering the live embers with |
ashes upon retiring. good fire was |
sure TO be found in the morning. To |
be sure, the tindeI-box was at hand, |
but was seldom called into use. In
The absence of the tinder,box, how
ever, in case the fire wentout, il was |
to HE away TO the nearest |
to borrow little fire
The school houses, also, had to be |
warmed by fireplaces and back-logs, |
and the "big boys" had to take turns |
in keeping the fires in trim About |
the first stoves seen in New England
were called ''shoemakers' stoves"
They were oblong square in shape,
being two or three times as long rs
they were broad or high. When they |
came to be used for heating church |
school-houses and public |
halls they were made long enough to
take in four-foot wood.
The improvements in stoves have
been as marked in this country as
those of almost any other invention,
Indeed, in New England homes the
stove was an unheard of luxury prior |
TO 1900 In fact, it was very little
known before 1880. Benjamin
was the first American who |
on the Improvement ia
stoves As early as l14j Franklin
made his experiments, aud succeeded
in making marked Improvements on
what was then known as the ''Hol.
land" sioye. TiTis stove was an iron
box, made Of five plates. and fas-
tened together BY screws, leaving
one side open. The open side was
set outside the room. the stove itself
projecting through the partition.
DIR. Franklin's invention. which, as
we have suggested, was great step
forward, was u rectangular box of
cast-iron plates, open 10 front except
near the top, with sliding shutter
by which the whole might be closed
entirely or in part. either for safety
or for increasing the draft. The
hearth protected 10 front asd was
cast with doubleledges to receive the
edges of the upright plates, and also
with q number of holes-one in the
front part with q regulating valve for
sir To the fire from al air
fue below, when the shutter was
down; one behind the first upright
plate in the beck for discharging the
air brought under the hearth from
without into q narrow rectangular
box, as long Is the width of q stove.
and as high, excepting the space for
the smoke due over its top; and
lastly, three holes near the extreme
back edge for the smoke. after it had
passed over the air box and descended
behind 1t TO enter the fiue leading into
The base of the chimney The sir
box a, Its sides was furnished with |
holes through which the heated air
VAS admitted into the room, and |
succession Of shelves. one above |
another, was provided in this box. |
reaching not qGite across. by which |
the circulation Of sir was extended.
and it Vas longer exposed TO the
heating surfaces before passing out
into the room. The back plate Of
the stoye heated by the descending