The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-06-25

7 have read. Of such I mention two
or three. What person, who has ever
read the Book of Books, can behc!d a
distaf without quickly turning tc the
thirty-frst-the last chapter of the
Book of Proverbs and feeling the heart
throb with the emotion of Honor to
Woman, as he reads the following
verses:
10. y-'.o can find virtuous woman? for
her price is above rubies.
I3. She seeketh wool and flax and worketh
willingly with her hands.
l9. She layeth her hand to the spindle, and
her hands hold the distaff.
"a. She maketh fine linen and selleth it;
and deliyereth grdles unto the merchants.
2S. Her children arise up and call her
blessed: her husband also, and he praiseth
ner
What reader. that has been startled
by the fearfulness of Faust, can look at
a distaf and an old-fashioned spin
ning-wheel, without meeting vision
of the unhappy Margarite and hearing
her pensive song:
Meme Ruhe ist hin,
Mein herr ist schwer,
Ich fndsSie nimmer
Und nimmermehr.
In English
My peace is gone,
My heart is sore,
l find it never
And nevermore.
When I watched my grandmother
at work with this spinning-wheel, al
ready at that time going out of use,
was impressed, young as [ was. with
the quietude attached to the occupa-
ton. She was seated on low bench,
andWith her foot she moved treadle
that communicated motion to the
wheel similarly to what is now done
with a sewing machine. A band
formed of twisted thread passed over
the wheel and around the spindle to
which quite a rapid movement was
given. With the thumb and fore-hn-
ger of one hand she pulled down a
small quantity of flax from the distatf,
and by the aid of the other hand gave
it the form of rough roll which, caught
by the twister, was quickly flushed
into a smooth thread and wound upon
the spool or quill. The noise produced
by the revolving twister, and the hum
ming of the wheel made up a continu-
Gus, monotonous buzzing sound which,
combined with the bending over Of the
body and downward gazing of the eyes,
was highly favorable for meditation.
Thus for hours the spinning would
continue, with nothing to interrupt 1t
excepting, now and then, the quill or
spool would get loose On the spindle or
the band would jump out ofits groove,
when, as was the case with Priscilla in
the Courtship of Miles Standlsh.
the spindle
Uttered an angry snarl and the thread
snapped short in her fingers
and my grandmother would have to
pause and readjust things.
Wool was spun into thread by means
of the distaff and small wheel almost
as easily as flax. Woolen clothes, dyed
mostly black or gray, were as common
in winter as faXen were IN summer.
Some of the bed coverlets were woven
with much skill and great beauty. l
have no authority to consult Gust now
| in order to ascertain the date when Co
lumbia became market-town. 1t was
certainly point of scarcely any lmpor-
tance, ifit had any existence at all, up
| to the last year of the Revolutionary
war. The farmers and the few mer-
chants Zone O.: two) of Dutch Fork did
nearly all their trading at CRANKY,
from an indefinite period about the
middle of the eighteenth century,
when Orangeburg and CRANKY were
merely advanced posts for trading with
the Indians, down to the beginning OF
the present nineteenth century. The
woolen coveriets for beds had already
within reach Of my earliest inquiries
and recollections been, through the
| barter of tobacco, aided by supplement
tary blankets procured from CRANKY
and more and more frequently from
Charleston. The luxuries Of sugar and
coffee came into Dutch Fork contem-
poraneousIy with myself. Seventy
wears ago I was regaled with my first
sip of coffee, and I have now, in 1891, q
! lively remembrance Of the fact that
this decoction, nowadays so black in
it's strength, was, in 1921, so pale in its
feebleness, that it could not bear the
admiXture Of milk. Rice was another
luxury; as was likewise kind o. sweet
wine, called Malaga. 1t was that wine
so bouutifully used during the first
third of this century at wedding feasts
for preparing the Sangaree with which
the jolly Germans, on these occasions
washed down through their throats
the many spoonfuls ofrice-pudding.
The cotton cards, by which the Hn1
separated from the seed was prepared
into rolls to be spun into thread, must
have been invented since the introduc'
ton of Whitney's gin, and previously
to that of the large spinning-wheel
Certain it IS, the women of the Dutch
Fork at their first acquaintance with
the lint of cotton spun it into thread