Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-11-14
THE MODERN STONE AGE.
.iaSy Implements Made 81 This Material
sun I-ed IN virginia.

.IaSy Implements Made 81 This Material
sun U-ed IN virginia.
Al over our country We find many in
tercStiug relics If the Indians. Stone
sprurh.@ls, arrnwheads, hammers, CHI
sells. knives, scrapers, etc. together with
pottery, some of burned or baked clay,
some cut from soft stone. as slate. s~teatite,
etc. Similar remnants of the sOscalled
stone age Of mankind are found in nearly
every portion Of the globe. and. besides
their interest rs curious surviyals Of a
bygone time. they aid us toward a dis
coyery Of the prehistoric man. 1t is
hardly of less intcrest, or of less historic
or scientific value, TO note how the stone
age still survives among US TO 10 little
extent.
Here in Virginia, for instance, many
people still scald their slaughtered hogs
in hogsheads or barrels, as our barbarian
%progenitors boiled their meat in skins. by
heating stones and putting them into the
water until il is hot enough for the pur-
pose. The stones ordinarily used in this
way are roundish, hard, and very heavy
black or brown modules, sometimes
called NEGRO heads" or iron stones,
although they are compressed lava, up
heaved in strata through crevices in the
rock crust of the earth at remote periods
Of geological time.
We sometimes encounter stones that
are followed out In the center, often TO a
socket, and these not infrequently are
treasured by their finders as an ancient
Indian stone for MASKING or grinding
corn, with the aid Of a stone pestle; yet
they are nothing more nor less, for the
most part, than discarded stones once
used by our rural brethren for their gates
to swing upon-many gates in all parts
of the commonwealth being still thus
pivoted.
Many q housewife in remote country
regions still has her stone weights, more
Or less rough, but honest; wherever the
old Kentucky rifle fingers there is likely
to be found still a set Of sOapstone bullet
molds; our log cabins yet have rough
stone and clay chimneys, where they are
not of mud and sticks; in many a humble
household a thin rock, not always
smooth, is the utensil for baking corn
bread; and the stone ''mash trap" il
familiar to all our country boys. The
stone pipe, believed b. many to have
gone out with the Indian, is made and
used today by many colorcd folks and 10y
10 few white folks. Whenever soap
stone, or s~teatitc, is found. not only the
stone pipe, but many other articles sup.
posed to he archaic, are still manufac,
tured aud put 10 service by the ingenious
and thrifty. In such localities stonl
pans, stone troughs for children, etc, are
still common. Some day they will b
dug up and attributed To the Indians, Of
even 10 their predecessors. A little in.
quiry and investigation would show
much more Of the stone age still here
than we have adverted TO.
1t is not rare to see stone sinkers in use
for lines and nets in fishing; the flint i
not yet superseded wholly by the match
there are clocks in the land yet run by
stone weights; stone novels, with dirt
roofs, are not unknown in our noun.
tains; the colored r%uflian, and sometimes
the white one, carries a stone in a stock.
ing, along with his razor, when on the
warpath many cider press and tobacco
press are still made effective by stone:
swung at the end Of their lever; and our
small boys are all In their stone age
whenever they can give their natures full
and free play.
We are not 30 far of from the stone
age man as some imagine; many Of the
implements and relics supposed 10 be
prehistoric. and doubtless so in many
cases, have their modern duplicates, and
in some instances are all In use among
us.-Cor. Petersburg Index-Appeal.