Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-11-06
women Fifty Years Ago.


The women OF to-day know little Of the
hard and continuous work which their
mothers and grandmothers did, especially
those Of them who were members Of a
farmers household. In those DAYS there
were no carpets on The floors, no modern
conveniences" in the house, no butchers
carts nor provision wagons to bring food
TO the door, and few agricultural imple-
ments on the farm. Every thing was then
done by manual labor, and the results
were so associated with hard work as to
bring little satisfaction to man or women.
A writer in the Germantown IeleraDb
thus d;scourses upon q farmers household
fifty years ago;
In the 6rst place, when soap was needed,
the leach tub must be set up some time
previous Y, and often the housewife had
to defer her plans until a convenient sea-
son for the men to find the time to do the
job. Then great quantity Of hot water
must be applied to the ashes to extract
the lye, and after waiting three or four
days for it to commence to run, the pro-
cess begins.
All the grease-pots which had accumu-
lated during the year were brought out,
the big iron kettle was hung on the crane.
and big hot fire started There was no
rule or recipe to go BY, only guess work
Put IN some grease and some lye, boil,
then add some more until the kettle is
nearly full; boil, then dip out a little to
cool, and learn what is needed. Perhaps
1t is more lye, or water, or may be grease,
and thus working over the fire all day
inhaling the perfumes of the boiling mass,
until at last the compound is thought to
be all right; but when, after standing
over night, it proved to be not of the
right thickness, then it must be boiled
over again the next day
Then came the clearing UP, which was
no small job. A sufficient quantity was
made TO last through the year, for, re-
member, no soap-peddler came around,
and there WIS no hard soap except little
sometimes for the toilet
Then there was another dreaded day,
when the butchering was done. No meat
carts 10 bring nice fresh meat to your
doors, but enough meat must be picked
and preserved in some form to last through
the year; sausages were made and hams
cured, part slowed away for the haying
season, when four or FIVE men were fed
FIVE times day ior as many weeks, for
In those days men we're up at five o'clock
In the morning to whet the scythe, be-
fore the dew was off the grass.
Cooking in those days meant hard work.
Every Saturday, and often twice week,
the big brick ovea was heated and filed
with beans, Indian pudding, four or FIVE
loaves Of brown bread, two OF three kinds
Of pies, and pot of apple.sauce with
bread crust over the top, called "pan-
doTdy," and very good eating it was
All the other cooking was done at an
open fireplace; an iron teakettle, pot for
potatoes and larger one for boiled din
ners, hung on crane; e spider to fry the
pork and sausage, a heavy iron bake-pan
to set over the Goals, TO bake biscuit, with
lid 10 cover it; g large iron shovel TO
haul ont the Goals, and some one to stand
ever the Goals to attend to the cooking.
The wife and mother spent most of her
time cooking when she was not washing,
ironing, and mending for the family No
hired girls TO help as long as one could
keep oil the bed. Once or twice a year
a woman came to help make the gar
ments Tor the family, and help get the
children ready for school YOUTHS Com
pGRioR