St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-07
GOOD OLD FAMILY WAYS.
Oliver Optic fries lis Hand at LooE-
ing Backward.
CUSTOMS OF The PAST.
e Chat of The Days Of Wood Fires.
Smoke Jacks and finder
Boxes.

one WHO mas llNGU iDn3 enough 10 UO
So, in looking back fifty or sixty years.
is greatly astonished at the marvellous
changes in the manner Of doing things
in everyday lite. Sixty years ago in
Boston anthracite c0al was not in con-
mon use, If 1t was in use at all. In GER
tain sections of the city there were wood
stands, where people from the country,
coming into town with load of wood,
waited for customers. The best OF
hickory brought IS a cord, which is
about the price of the best wood ut the
present day, though that of inferior
quality was sold at lower rate. Such
a thing as cook stove was hardly
known, and all the cooking was done
with wood in an open fireplace. Biscuit
and l0ayeS were baked i'll bake-kettle,
which had cover with rim around it,
so that Goals or hot ashes could be put
on it. In hotels and large private
houses meats and poultry We're roasted
before the fire. 4 ''SmOke- jack was
used in the f0rmer.and it did its work a
great deal better than any oven can do
it. Roast beef and roast turkey at the
present time are miSnomerS, as rule.
for they are really baked.
Ny young friends. and very likely
many of my older ones. do not know
what sm0ile-iack is, and | have not
seen one for forty years, though posi-
bly, they are still in use in some large
hotels. Its construction is very simple.
In the lue of the kitchen chimney
tlange wheel, something like the pro-
peller of steamer. is placed so that it
will turn readily. When smart fire is
made the hot air rushes up the fiue and
turns the wheel. 1t may have been
supposed that the smoke turned it at a
time when young people did not study
physics in the day school and this may
have been the origin of the name. The
axle Of the wheel projected out through
the chimney wall into the room, about
six feet above the hearth. On the end
of the axle was drum with four grooves
in It over which chain could be
passed. Long Spits with grooved
wheel at one end were provided, over
which the chain, eight or nine feet
long. fastened together so as to form an
"endless chain," passed. An iron
stand. TO which four holders were at
tached, held up the other end of the
spit. Another stand was placed near
the grO0yed wheel 10y which the dis
lance from the FIRE could be regulated.
The fire WAS made in CRATE not more
than six or eight inches deep, but from
one to two feet high. From one to four
spits were used as needed. and the jack
was so geared that the splits turned very
slowly all the time. Pars were placed
under the spits, from which the cooks
did the basting, Roasting is better
done with this apparatus THAN it can be
done i'll ali oven, for the reason that the
continued fnrninp nf tho cT1ifc Hnnc
permit the juice of the meats to run
out, as when they are at rest.
Passing by certain shop in the Latin
quarter of Paris, used to stop to look
In at the window, for at the back OF it
there was a great fire, before which
were several spitS on which chickens
were roasting. The windows alwaSs
had on display for sale plenty of cold
roast chickens, and they were cooked in
the old-fashiOned way. The French
seem to believe in the method of former
days,fOr | saw an ingenious continuance
for roasting in window in the Avenue
de POpera. ltwes Spit on which was
imaginary fire. The bird was kept
turning all the time by an apparatus
composed of springs, which had to be
wound up like clock. But the curious
part of it was the appliance for baSting
the chicken. Over the spit was small
trough with minute holes in the bottom,
through which the basting dropped very
slowly. The trough beneath the spit
was inclined so that the liquid ran down
TO one end. where it was taken up by
couple of revolving scoops and emptied
into the trough above the roast. 1t was
an admirable device, and could not fail
to do its work well as long as the ma
chinery was kept in working order.
The first decided improvement on the
iron bake kettle that I remember was
the tin "baker," as 1t was called. 1t
was on the plan of ''tin Kitchen"
which was also largely in use in the old
time. in which the spit was occasionally
turned by crane at the end. The
baker was set before the fire with the
biscuit or loaf in it. The cover was in
clined down from the fire, so that it
would reflect the heat upon the bread.
This and the tin kitchen did their work
very well as long as open fires were
available. bnt of course at much greater
expense for fuel. The cook stove has
nearly superseded all these appliances.
though the old ladies of sixty Years ago
fought against it for time as sense
less Innovation: but they learned to
use Ii and like 1t in the end. At first
wood was generally used in it. bnt
when hard coal came into gem
eral use it was the fuel generally
used in cooking. This coal had hard
struggle TO obtain footing in houses in
those days. Ny father hired new man
from the country and told him TO make
fire in the morning in the CRATE. When
we got mp there was no fire. The man
had "givPn it up." He cnnld make n
fire. he said. as we'll as anybody out of
awning that would burn, but he cOuld
not do it with stones.
Gas was in use at this time. bnt used
60 be amused at the comments of peOpIe
from the country upon the lights in the
office nf the hotel where was brought
IN. They all wanted to know what it
was that burned. 1t was air or i'm the
form Of air hut they would not believe
II and evidently thought there must he
some deviltrv ahOut it. The man that
''blew ont the gas" was even more com
mon then than now.
] can remember when I was a boy of
beng actually alarmed. or at least start
led. when | saw man rub little stick
against the side of the house. obtain a
light and ignite his cigar from If. tt
looked like specimen of the black art.
Now what should we do without
matches that we buy at cent or two a
bunch? We nsed 10 rake M the fire
nights and keep he'd of Goals to start
the fire in the morping. If we lost the
fire we had 10 use flint and steel and
hammer away at it until we senta spark
Into the finder Even then there was
an outfit that cOuid he bought for a
qnarier at the apothecary's called phos-
phorus matches. 1t consisted of a
round box. six inches long and an inch
in diameter. In the top were the
matches, and in the bottom was a small
vial into which thew had to he thrust to
procure the light. Before the present
sort of matches were in being they came
in ohlong boxes. each containing a
doubled niece of sandpaper unon which
TO light them. OLIVER Optic.