Arizona weekly enterprise., 1889-01-26
OLD SPINNING WHEELS.
OUR GRANDMOTHERS' METHOD OF
 PREPARING WOOL FOR LOOMS.

PREPARING WOOL FOR LOOMS. Minute Description of the Little Old Ma
 chine Which Has Been Inspiration
 to Poets and Composers-''Things Amt
 Jest as They Used to Re-"
 Spinning-that is, home spinning-has just as much gone out of fashion in the New England and eastern states as sul- phur matches, and for just the same reason-thCre is no need of either now that something better has taken their place. 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 cred the following information, which I should imagine would be of interest to your western hearers:
 ''The first thing, you sce," said this good lady, lis to pick the wool No, 'taint either" she said, interrupting her self; the first thing is to wash and shear the 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 sheared and washed we used to take it and pull it all apart, getting out all the tangles and burrs and dirt that was left When it was all picked it had to be greased. and to do this we put plate with lard on it in front of us and heap of the picked wool to the left side We then rubbed bit of lard on both palms, took up ileck of wool and worked it between our hands until every bit was greased. When there was enough wool greased the old man or one of the farm hands would take it right away to the carding mills"
 "When the wool came back from the c2rders it was in bundles about two feet long, and made up a number of tight pressed rolls the size of my little finger, each roll jest the length of the bundle. When we want to use the wool we'd take the bundle, give it shake, pick out a roll and then begin spinning. l don't know as ever you've seen a wheel, but eff you aint ther's mine in the setting room, and praps 1 can best explain how we worked it ef you'll come in there."
 A stout wooden horse with a sloping body formed the base Of the machine At either end was inserted an upright, the one at the higher end stationary and supporting the wheel; that at the lower i end movable and holding the "head, !" l the vacant space between the two being used 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 a groove to receive the driving band. This s-a stout cord passed round a | .Go ho T | of two inches in diameter, and gave to it, of course, an exceed ingly rapid revolution, which was still further added to by second grooved wheel of four inches in diameter set on the same axis as the barrel driven by the main wheel. The band over the second wheel encircled still smaller one from which the spindle sprang. The spindle was of iron. three inches long and with 1 a 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 al it's 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 ! IILC IIlIb It AOuld tCtuull1 liuLll. dIlti II 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 afterward: made by their tireess hands.
 "Lemme see, said my delightful ole informant, if cant find a speck of woo somewhere so as can show you jest how we worked" Then she went out on tho search and soon came back with wha she called 'fieck."
 "'Taint good wool" she said, but guess twill do.'
 Setting the wheel in motion with |; light touch of her right hand, she hel, the end of the wool to the spindle witt the left. It caught at once, and walking quickly backward and slightly from tht wheel, but always keeping within it easy reach. a twisted thread seemed tt grow out from between her practiceC finger and thumb, even throughout an( fine enough, if not to sew at least to darl with. When the thread grew long tn spinner rapidly advanced toward tn spindle, carrying her hand near tn
 wheel, a motion that instantly wound ul the thread around it-the spindle. S the operation was repeated, until in very few minutes the wool was ex haustcd
 My fingers ain't quite what the. used to be" said the old lady, but l as sured her-as was the fact-that hat never seen any one spin better thread The oldy lady smiled and went on: When this spindle is full. you see.
 has to be wound off, and that is done O
 the reel over yOnder.
 The reel thus pointed out was simpl I arrangement of two cross pieces of woo
 set so as to make four revolving arms and furnished at every end with lon peg.
 | sThe reel" said my informant, ''i placed beside the spinning wheel jes
 under the spcndle here. the band
 thrown off. and by turning the reel th
 thread is wound off from the spendl, From the reel it was made up into sleiu and laid away for use. We've still gc the old loom out in the carriage hous
 that my mother used to weave on. and , got so far on with it as to be able to h
 out blanket. Then the mills were bui
 at the falls and the loom was laid away
 We still used the wheel, however, fc
 spinning thread for knitting with. an T fust rate thread it was, too. Cor. Sa l Francisco Chronicle.
 II The Blarney Stone.
 A popular tradition attributes to tt
 blaney stone the power of endOwin