St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1895-01-26
ENLlvENINa THE GAME.
An Entertaining Woman Makes Things
Agreeable at the Cnrl Table. -.

An Entertaining Woman Makes Things
Agreeable at the Card Table.
while in one of the larger cities
short time ago paid visit to a sofne-
| what curious furniture store" said one
of the ladies at the euchre table. She
knew perfectly well that it is nota
good plan to talk when Splaying euehre
or any other game that requires little
thought and calm reflection, but after
| she had started there was no stopping
her.
The store" she continued, after ask
ing what card was trumps, was espe-
ciaily devoted to the sale of Colonial
furniture, and ] was wonderfully SUR
prised to find ont that the demand for
the quantity shaped articles was large.
70, Is. IL my turn to play? What's
trumps2 Let me seeI guess I'll play
thaty
The furniture was nicely made and
handsomely finished, but it seemed
strange to see whole store crowded
with curious straight backed rockers
with an extra piece running down the
back and fitting into an extension of
the seat; or big comfortable settees
upon which half a dozen people might
find room to bestow themselves; or
mammoth bureaus and high-post bed
steads with canopy tops. (My deal
Why, ] dealt the lastSime. No? Well,
then, hand me the cards.)
II could scarcely realize that we were
in modern store, and when the pro-
prietor invited us into the real antique
room whats trumpse), into the real
antique room, / began to think that i
must have been transferred to the time
of my great-grandmother. He ex-
planned that the furniture displayed
here was made by hand, and treated to-
q battering process that gave it the APP
pearance of age and wear, He said
they sold 1t for just exactly what it was,
but that he had no doubt that many
customers palmed it off on their visi-
tors as furniture that had been handed
down to them from colonial times. (Ex-
cuse me, did clubs lead? I thought it
was d heart1 Some OF them. he said,
requested that their purchase be care
fully covered up when delivered at
their residences q pass)-and others
even went SO far as to have the arti-
cles boxed and delivered by an express
company. So far as the manufacture
of the articles in this room was con-
cerned. the deception was complete.
They looked as though they had grown
old and stained by century's constant
use. The rockers of the chairs were
worn thin in the center, and it was not
difficult to imagine that they had been
used to rock the babies of every genera
tiun from the days of witehcraft to the
era of the trolley ear. In some cases
the arms of the chairs bore the marks
OF jackknives welded by naughty boys
in the days of Roger Williams. Even
the rungs of the chairs bore the marks
ssssssss
made century ago. lDid take that
trick? Thank you.)
These real, an tique goods sold tor
big prices. 1t cost money, we were
told, to whittle, shave, hew and carve
these old patterns. 1t could not be
done by machinery, which makes its
work much too perfect, but had to be
made by implements almost as crude as
were those used by the people of hum
dred years ago. Then. when COM
pletsd, the article had to be treated to
the aging process-all of which re-
quired time and attention. But then
as the dealer said people who wanted
that kind of furniture could afford to
pay little extra for ii. y
just then the other side took the last
trick and won the game. Utica (N. "
0Icarvns.