Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1890-01-04
THE DONATION PARTY.
Surprising the Clergyman In the
Rural Districts.
Pork szusages and PincushioDs for .
Dyspeptic Dominie-But the Boys
and Girls Had u Coed Time
All the same.

The season opened with regular old
fashioned donation where the people be-
stow generous gifts OF garden sass"
and maple sugar, frosted cake and saus-
ages to the minister who has the worst
kind of indigestion from long surfeiting
on such delicacies, and where the sisters
take pieced quilts and pincushions to
the minister's wife who hasn't had a new
dress since war time. The deacon bitches
up the team as soon as milkin' IL over
and loads broadside OF pork and a
bushel of potatoes and all the children
in the farm wagon, while his wife
chambers unassisted up on the high seat
and makes herself comfortable with the
baby and pumpkin pie in her lap, and
away they come humping and bouncing
through the crisp. frosty air, getting up
smart appetites for the supper
the good sisters will prepare, and
the sturdy, red checked country
lads pick up their sweethearts and
all their sweetheart's friends, TO the
number OF half q score apiece, and
hasten TO the merrymaking. How sur
prised the pale minister is when they all
walk In, though half dozen sisters have
talked TO him mysteriously Of its being
their usual custom TO give their pastor q
surprise after harvestin', and the master
OF ceremonies, little gnarled old cob
| Ger of the crab-apple species. had in
timated to the minister '.that he might
be wanted to hum that eyenin'." How
the pink-cheeked lasses flutter into the
square chamber" to take OFF their
| wrappings and to shake out their bright
i dresses and tie their soft tresses with
snoods of blue and crimson, and the
weary farmers wives tramp laboriously
up after them TO take off their bonnets
and smooth down their hair against
their tired faces. They haven't had a
good time since they can remember, and
haven't stopped working for two con-
secutive days, except when the chill
dren came, since they were married.
Some OF them have heavy babies on
their shoulders, and they all have
worked all day and will work all the
evening 70 get the supper ready. The
''men folks" come later they seldom go
with their wivesl, and stay in the
kitchen talking about the weather and
the crops.
"Oh, dear" says a vivacious little vii.
lage woman in a garnet silk dress, with
plush band down the side, ''thers
those men are all together again. You'd
think every last one of them had parted
frSm his wife. Even at a party, II you
don't watch 'em every minute, they all
get In one room and the women in the
other" The minister's wife looks as II
she had been brought up on salt pork
and johnny cake, and had never had any
thing really new made FOR her or with
enough cloth in Ii since she was married.
Her thin, scanty hair Is combed up high
and twisted into tight little knot, and
her hard, rough hands are folded oyei
her skinny little overdress in awkward
and unaccustomed idleness, but the min
: ister's broadcloth Is as sleek and his lin
! en- as snowy as hands can make 1t. Sh,
} Is nervous, worried and restless; he /,
complacent, dignified and calm, because
. he knows that she viii arrange every
} thing all properly; and so she does afte
, little. In the tiny parlor whore on'
dismal kerosene lamp shines dimly npol
. the solemn scene and tintypes OF depart
: ed friends look severely down from theii
1 frames upon any attempt at converse
, tion. the mothers In Israel and tho WON
{ en- with the smallest babies sit in silen
i row about the room and the minister
: wife stays here, too, though she wonlS
) like To go out in the other room wher'
Z the young married women hav
; managed to entice two men and ar
] making merry at their expense. In tn
/ doorway sits the Chancellor of the Ex
I eheqner, with the 'ris'bands OF his blu
= gingham shirt despoilipg the dignity o
the white bosom and collar donhed 10
the occasion, laboriously writing with
D blunt little peseil in worn-out mem
9 orandum book the contribution of tn
. company. There was Deacon Smith
{ who brought ''shugar, appels. vinniga
8 and picl<eis to the amount of 81, an
q Elder Brown, who donated lone chor
6 of wood and some pun kins, all to tn
value OF 3 land the minister was SUI