The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-04-25
SOAP, SOAP, SOAP.
Soap that Our GrandMothers
Used to Make.
THE FARMERS WIFE NOT IN IT NOW
A Soap Factory Is a Regular Museum Of
Peculiar 0dors-Mixed, Hardened,
and Cut by Rule.

Only few decades ago every farm
er's wife was her own soap-maker.
As soon as the weather was thorou ghly
settled" in the spring she informed the
hands" that her soft-soap was run
MIN emptins" and that new supply
would have to be made at once. So
some handy man who could be spared
from the blowing was set to work on
, the leach.
First, he built an inclined plane of
boards close by the ashhouse door and
then he placed ON top of it great
sugar hogshead, the bottom of which
had been perforated with small holes.
Straw-a heaping armful-was thrown
in and tramped down and then COW
cred with a wheelbarrow load Of lime.
Next the wood ashes were shoveled
in from the ash-house They had been
accommodating all winter long from the
wood stoves and fireplaces in the farm
house. and were always bright and
fresh.
When the leach was heaping full
the little basin-like cavity was followed
out on top, and the boys carried water
all day long and kept it bubbling full.
By the next morning little dark
brown lye had begun to trickle down
the boards into iron kettles, which
had been set out to catch it. When
the news came that "shes' a-runnin"
the farmers wife and her girls
swarmed out in their sun. bonnets to
begin the work.
The boys had already set up the big
soap caldron ON circle of stones, and
when it was part full of lye they
kindled roaring fire under it. Then
the help" brought out the tallow
scraps and grease. which they had been
saving up all winter in barrels and
crooks, and it was dumped into the
kettle. AS it dissolved in the hot I've
the farmers wife stirred it occasionally
with broom stick. The next night
the fire was banked and the contents of
the caldron dubbed away until morn
ing. When it began to grow thick the
farmers wife brought out saucer and
spoon and tested the soap from time
to time to see if it would "jelly." 1t
was always with vast pride and salts
faction that she pointed out to her girls
the amber color and the silky luster
of the seething contents of the caldron,
offering them great deal of advice in
anticipation of the time when they
should have soap plant of their own.
ITS science" she would say, as she
stirred the ''testin" in the saucer, IAN
the only teacher is experience. Books
is wise, but they can't tell how much
scraps to mix with how much I've to
make this kind o. soft SOAP"
When it was done the boys raked
out the fire and the soap was allowed
to cool and settle over night. The next
morning it was carried down cellar in
pals with silky threads of the soap
fiuttering out behind. After emptying
the bones and indissolvable pieces of
gristle out Of the caldron it was
charged with another supply of tallow
and lye.
That was the way soap was made on
the farm, and the industry, has not
been entirely driven out by the appear
ance of the cheap, new soaps which
everywhere food the mraket. Indeed,
many of the old-fashioned folk will not
give up their own soft SOAP
"Seein' I made it," they say, II
know what's in it,
But all the farmers wives in the
country, if they made soap from morn
ing until night and all the year round,
could not equal the product of the fac
tories in Chicago alone. If the amount
of soap which city turns out is any
proof of its godliness, Chicago must be
tie most virtuous city in America.
Millions of pounds of every imaginative
variety of soap slide from the shipping
chutes of its manufactures every year,
and considerable part of it goes to
brighten homes thousands of miles
away. The whole process is marvel
ously exact, the constituents being all
mixed by chemical formula, boiled
by rule. hardened by rule and cut and
packed by rule. A soap factory is a
regular museum of peculiar odors.
Indeed, so varied and so distinct are
they that a blindfolded workman might
easily make his way about the build.
ing and know exactly where he was all
the time. The first odor in the process
is heavy and damp, suggesting tallow
and oil that have been shut up in a
pantry over night. 1t is in the dimly-
lighted basement Of the building.
where endless piles of barrels and hogs
heads are corded up from floor to cell
ing in every direction. At one corner
there is a chute through which the
soap-stock comes down from the cars.
There are great. greasy tierces of tai
low AMI stearine from the stock-yards.
From most of it the oleomargarine oil
has been removed and the remaining
parts of the tallow come in big,
broken white cakes. Up to few
months ago great deal Of soap-stock
came to Chicago all the way from Aus
tralia in spite Of the fact that the great
est cattle-slaughtering establishments
in the world are only few miles from
the factories. For the finer varieties
OF soap there are barrels of cocoanut oil
from Ceylon and Colombo, costing
about 81 cents pound, palm. kernel
oil from Madagascar and South Africa,
and palm.oil from Lagos. In all. there