St. Landry democrat., 1888-11-17
THE MODERN STONE AGE.
Many implements Made of This Materia
Still UseI In Virginia.

Many Implements Made of This Materta1
Still Used In Virginia.
All over our country we find many in
teresting relics Of the Indians. Stone
spearheads, arrowheads, hammers. CHI
sells. knives, scrapers. etc. together with
pottery, some of burned or baked clay,
some cut from soft stone. as slate. steatlte,
etc. Similar remnants of the osscalled
stone age of mankind are found in nearly
every portion of the globe. and. besides
their interest as curious survival5 OF
bygone time. they aid us toward dl5-
covery Of the prehistoric man. 1t Is
hardly Of less interest. or Of less historic
or scientific value, to note how the stone
age still survives among lis to no little
extent.
Here in Virginia, for instance. many
people still scail their slaughtered hogs
in hogsleads or barrels. as oar barbarian
progenitors bc.icd their E!eaC Ill skins. by
heating stones and putting them into the
water until it is hot enough for the pur-
pose. The stones ordinarily used III this
way are roundish. hard, end very heavy
black or brown nodules, sometimes
called negro heads or iron stones,
although they are compressed lava. up
Leaved in strata through creviccs Ii, the
rock crust of the Garth at remote PERIODS
Of geological time.
We sometimes encounter stones that
are followed out in the center, often to
socket. and these not intrequen:l.: are
treasured by their finders as an ancient
Indian stone for MASKING or grinding
corn. with the aid Of e stone pcstlc; 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 rpon-many gates in all ra.ts
of the commonwealth icing still thus
pivoted.
Many housewife In remote country
regions still has her stone weights, more
or less rough, but honest: wherever Tive
old Kentucky rifle fingers there is likely
to he 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 manya humble
household a thin rock, not always
smooth, is the utensil for baking corn
bread: and the stone ''mash trap Is
familiar to all our country boys. The
stone pipe, believed By many to have
gone out with the Indian, Is made and
used tolay by many colored foll,3 ami by
no few white folks, Whenever soap
stone. or steatite, is found, not only the
posed to be archaic. are still nlanufac-
tured and put to service by the Ingenious
and thrifty. In such localities stone
pans, stone trouGhs for children, ETC.. arc
still common. Some uay they will Ike
dug up and attributed to the Indians, &r
even to their predecessors. ! Little in
q,,iry and investigation wcul'l show
much more of the stone age SUI here
than we have adyeried to.
1t Is not rare to see stone siukers III Use
for lines and nets in fishing; the flint is
not yet superseded wholly by the match;
there are clocks il the land yet run by
stone weights; stone novels, with dirt
roofs, are not unknown i'll our noUn-
tains; the colorei ruf.ian, and sometimes
the White one, carries I; stone in stock
ing, along with his razor. wien on the
warpath; many cider press and tobacco
press are still made effective by stones
swung at the end of their lever; ana our
small boys are Ill in their stone age
whenever they can give their natures full
and free play.
We are not so far OFF from, the stone
age man as some imagine; many Of the
implements and relics supposed to he
prehistoric, and doubtless SO il many
cases, have tl.eir modern duplicates. and
in some instances are al in use among
us.-Cor. Petersburg in,lez-Appeal.