Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1889-05-04
Ancient Furniture.

Fifty years ago the world was ready
and anxious to throw away all old
fashioned things, and adopt new styles.
The heavy mahogany furniture.
which had been the pride OF our grand
mothers, was pronounced too clumsy
and pondeFous for beauty or comfort;
and the carved old four-posters, with
their canopy tops, and the spider-leg-
ged tables, and the tall chests of
drawers. which we're capable of hold
ing all the "bedding" required by
family of ordinary size, were sent to
the auction-room. and their places sup
piled by French bedsteads, marble
topped tables, and modern bureaus
with glasses on the top.
The old tall clocks. that licked with
slow deliberation, and did NOT seem TO
hurry ones life away like the Con-
necticut inventions-the old heirloom
with its solemn white face. and the
round, big eyed disk above II, which
represented the moon IN It's various
phases-was sent up in the attic. and
condemned to dust and silence, and
cobwebs; and the small. square abomi-
nations, with mirror in front, which
made you all nose one way Of looking
in it, and no nose at all in another way
of looking in it. took its place and tick
ed away at lightning speed, and gave
you the idea that day was not much
longer than an hour used to be when
measured off by that old clock.
Now everything has undergone
change.
The young woman Of fashion, just set
ting out with house of her own. viii
ransack every secondhand dealers
stock, and pay his own price for old
fashioned things.
Ancient furniture will command
large price anywhere.
The old worm-eaten chairs will be-
4 polished, and rubbed down, and gilded,
and upholstered in costly silks and
| pushes, and the admiring visitor win
be told: This chair belongs 10 my
great grandmother. and value it SO
highly because it has been In the family
so long"
II is the height Of responsibility. now
adays, TO have had great grandmoth-
er.
\ We meet the old-fashioned things of
fifty or hundred years ago In numer-
GUS guises. The spinning-wheeis are
put in the front halls, the old wash
stands are dressed up in plush curtains
and brass rods, the iron candiesticks
are festive in gay-colored bows of rib
! bon, the skillets are painted In flowers
, and landscapes, the grimy old bellows
} hang beside screens that cost hundreds
, OF dollars, and are not particle shame
D faced 10 such company.
And looking over the collection OF a
friend who is enthusiastic in such mat
j tiers, it occurred TO us that now is the
time for us Of the present age to dc
0 something for posterity. A hundred
: years hence the articles which are
seen in everyday use viii, doubtless,
!, be Just as much of a curiosity to The
d people of the world. as the things of q
s hundred years ago are TO US OF to-day
8 So let us begin saving up cur coliec-
d ton for our posterity. Almost any
8 thing will be available.
Bedsteads, chairs. sofas. mirrors
e kettles, tin pans, coalhods. nutmeg
h graters, old hats, gridirons, tomato
II cans, wedding cake, lard peifs. poems
le on spring, pictures 81 presidential
lie candidates, patent medicine bottles
. bustles, old boots, and any other choic'
n thing that you may think Of
is For if the people in the coming ag'
are as greedy after old things as ar
= these of the present times, al viii b
grist that comes TO their min. "-NeS
York Weekly