Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-09-28
OID SPINNING WHEELS.
OUR GRANDMOTHERS' METHOD OF
 PREPARING WOOL FOR LOOMS.

oOn onrNNOmO FGfs0 WE rtOO UT
 PREPARING WOOL FOR LOOMS.
 Minute Description of Che Little old 1Ia-
 chine Which Has Been an Inspiration
 to Poets and Composers-"Thiaes AinI
 Jest ss They Used to Be-"
 Spinning-that is. home spinning-has Ius as much gone out of fashion in the New England and eastern states as sul phur matches, and for just the same >eason-there is no need of either now
 hat something better has taken their
 ,lace. There are. however, plenty of good wives who once on a time were learned practitioners in the domestic arts of spinning and dyeing, and it is from the lips of one of these that gath "red the following information, which should imagine would be of interest to your western hearers:
 ''The first thing. you see." said this good lady, ''is to pick tEe wool No. taint eithe--," she said. interrupting Ter ,elf: "the first thing is to wash and sheaz he sheep. but as that's done now just as it always was, don't need tell you any. thing about it. When the wool was ihcared and washed we used to take it and pull it all apart, getting out all the iangles and burrs and dirt that was left. When it was all picked it had to be creased. and to do this we put plate with lard on it in front of us and hear if the picked wool to the left side. We Her rubbed bit of lard on both palms, ook Up fleck of wool and worked ii
 etween our hands until every bit wae :rcased. When there was enough wool ,reased the old man or one of the farm lands would take it right away to the -arding mills"
 When the wool came back from the
 ariers it was in bundles about two feet 0ny. and made up number of tight ,reSsed rolls the size of my little finger, ach roll jest the length of the bundle ake the bundle, give it shake, pick ort , roll and then begin spinning. don't inow as ever you've seen wheel. but ef .on ain't ther's mine in the setting room. md p'raps I can best explain how we worked it eff you'll come in there."
 4 stout wooden horse with a sloping lody formed the base of the machine. It either end was inserted an upright, he one at the higher end stationary and supporting the wheel: that at the lower nd movable and holding the head" he vacant space between the two being ,ised to hold the rolls just spoken of. The wheel was fully four feet in diameter. Of oak, with rounded spokes springing from a solid hub. and joining a Tyre two inches wide, in which was sunk groove to receive the driving band. This stout cord - passed round Q sharply grooved barrel in the "head" of two inches in diameter, and gave to it, of course, an exceed ingly rapid revolution, which was still further added to by a second groOved wheel of four inches in diameter set oD ;he same axis as the barrel driven by the main wheel The band over the second wheel encircled a still smaller one from which the spindle sprang The spindle was of iron, three inches long and with q half thread at the end; the bearings were of plaited corn husks, and the whole was attached to a tapering wooden peg fitting into a socket drilled into the second or movable upright By wooden screen at its base the upright was worked back to give the driving band its proper tension. It will be easily understood. trust, that a single turn of the big wheel would set the spindle revolving at such a rate that it would actually hum, and it was to the humming of such wheels that the old housewives of lang syne spun the thread from which stockings, carpets, coverlets and blankets were afterwards made by their tireless hands.
 "Lemme sec, said my delightful old informant, ''if can't find speck of wool somewhere so as can show you jest how we worked" Then she went out on the search and soon came back with what she called ''heck." -.e
 "'Taint good wool" she said, "but ] guess twill do."
 Setting the wheel in motion with q light touch of her right hand, she helG the end of the wool to the spindle with The left. It caught at once, and walking quickly backward and slightly from the wheel, but always keeping within it's rasy reach, twisted thread seemrd to grow out from between her prs ,ticed finger and thumb, even throughout and inc enough, if not to sew at least to darr with. When the thread grey long the pinner rapidly advanced toward the 'pindle, carrying her hand near the fuGCl, d illOllOl ltlsiI LlSluiilit WOuHu uE he thread around 1.-the spindle. So he operation was repeated, until in a fery few minutes the wool was ex- causted.
 My fingers ain't quite what they lsed to be-" said the old lady, but 1 as- Hred her-as was the fact-that had never seen any one spin better thread. The oldy lady smiled and went on:
 When this spindle is full, you see, it ias to be wound off. and that is done oD s:ae reel over yonder."
 The reel thus pointed out was simple arrangement of two cross pieces of wood set so as to make four revolving arms, and furnished at every end with a long peg.
 "The reel" said my informant, lis placed beside the spinning wheel jest under the spendle here, the band is khrown off, and by turning the reel the thread is wound of from the spendle. From the reel it was made up into skeins and laid away for use. We've still got the old loom out in the carriage house tbat my mother used to weave on. and l got so far on with it as to be able to lay HIt a blanket. Then the mills were built at the falls and the loom was laid away. We still used the wheel, however, for spinning thread for knitting with, and fust rate thread it was, too."-Cor. San Francisco Chronicle.
 The Blarney Stone.
 4 popular tradition attributes to the k ctn fln <,f -sT,ry