Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-02-02

from the inner DARK OF the sHppery
elm, the pounding Of corn in wooden
mortars. the setting Of fish wires, heat
ing water by dropping 1t on hot stones,
the manufacture Of maple sugar from
sap, the pounding of ash wood to make
splints for baskets, ETC. The earliest
lights in common use were pieces of
resinous pitch pine, thoroughly dried,
and when lighted, placed in the corner
of the fireplace, where the smoke could |
be drawn up the spacious chimney.
Then came tallow candles, or tallow |
dips, followed by the whale-Oil lamp.
The Pilgrims had hoes made of wood.
Turtle shells, ingeniously affixed to
sticks and sharp stones, held by withes,
acted a conspicuous part in the cultiva-
tion of the soil. The method of plant
ing Indian corn, four or five grains in a
hill and rows three or four feet apart,
with beans running up the stalk and
pumpkin vines in the intervening
spaces, were all borrowed, as we are
told, from the aborigines. William
Penn, it is said, found the savages eat
ing baked beans as white people do
now in Boston. In all the New Eng
land settlements one common article OF
food was bean porridge. Baked pump
kin was another article Of food. In Sc
lecting pumpkin for cooking the col
onists picked out one thoroughly ripe,
with a hard she'll. A hole five or six
inches in diameter was cut in the stem
end, the piece taken out being kept
whole, the seeds and all the soft,
stringy substance were scraped out,
leaving nothing but the solid matter.
Thus prepared, it was filed with new
milk, then covered with the piece
which had been cut out, and put into a
well-heated oven, where it was permit
ted to remain six or eight hours and
was usually allowed to cool in the oven.
It was then eaten with milk. Turnips
and parsnips wero the most common
vegetables in the earliest times, potatoes
not becoming common until after the
middle of the last century. OF the ed
ible grains, wheat was not much used,
EXCEPT in well-to-do families. The
bread everywhere used was the famous
RYE and Indian. Indian puddings
were in great use. Calkins, in his his
tory of Norwich, Conn, relates fabu-
! lous story; The inhabitants of that
place fell into strife which could boil
the largest Indian pudding. One day,
:, as the story goes, one of the. enormous
puddings. on being cut open, rolled
over and killed two men sitting on eacf
side of the table. After that law was
passed that no boiled Indian pudding
!, should be made containing more thar
: three pecks of meal.
a DIR. Dorchester spoke of other foot
Il dishes, and then, touching on drinks
h said that punch was one of the mos
: common prior to the middle of the las
:, century. 1t was made and drank il
: bowls, the same bowl being passe'
Il around to all the company. "Blacl
] strap" or rum sweetened with molas
j ses, coming into use in the early part o
h the last century, became very common
IS before its close Rum was first mad
e in New England about 100, and fror
=, 1850 to 1925 drunkenness held high car
ts nival among all classes, not excepting
n statesmen, clergymen and deacons
Large quantities of cider were drunk
- Apple trees were introduced into Mas
~ sachusetts by Governor Winthrop, t
"a whom, in consideration of this service
"A Governors Island, in Boston HarboI
a. was given, and it was long covered wit
of apple trees.
of The germ of some of the early Ne
III England institutions and customs
is found in the earliest recorded histor
s. of the Anglo-Saxons, in their primevi
= German home. We find there the prin
ir tive idea of the town. When the Ii
ID gions of Rome attempted to conque
he the Anglo-Saxons, they found til
IS. tribes bound together by a league the
lie had nowhere else encountered-th
s- league of the tuns. Each village was
IN tun, independent, managing its own a
v. fairs, each household having the rigl
e. of suffrage on all questions affecting tt
rd welfare of the tun. Every village hf
a its moot or Westinghouse, where IL
#. inhabitants met to discuss all question
ed in tun meeting. Each tun managed /
in own affairs, and each united with
d. neighboring tun to repulse invader
fhio IlnnT0l
he The town moot, signifying debate, ga'
Is. character to the buildings used fl
or mooting, and the mooting-house
lis course of time was called a meetin
,at house. The first settlers at Plymout
in Rock were a tun-the beginningof
no State, republic-and the town NEE
,or ings held in New England meetin
er- houses became potent factors in the n
Die tion. Noting some of the. queer recor
Dr. of town meetings, the speaker referr'
in to ga vote authorizing a committee
l-2 purchase a pitch pipe for the use of q
ts choristers." For many years, said b
,as this was the only instrument used
10 connection with singing. A bowl
r a rum ito raise the meeting-house" W
another town charge.
he It was in those days the custom
,rv build churches without means
of warming them, custom which, it
out said, still prevails in Holland, Switzi
ers land and other places in Europe. In
yht climate so rigorous as New England
ese ligious observances in winter m,
ap- have been hideously unattractive. o.
Die certain Sunday, when Boston Hart
ew was frozen over, Judge Sewall record