The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-08
BY EDWIN G. MARTIN.

Company
Winter, when it fell at Osceola, fel
with amplitude. If you stood on the
upper bridge-a high, open bridge-yol
saw the canal stretching far up and
down, level trench of snow, its white
ness emphasized here and there by 8
patch of brown earth showing from
some underwash in the banks. South
ward, at the center of the town, a file
OF low-decked boats lay soldered to
their wharves by snow-covered ice. In
the near fields to the north the white
ridges, pil1ed with last years corn
stalks, suggested to boys and dogs
rich possibilities in rabbits. The ike
possibilities, though in lesser degree
were suggested by the nearer common
thickly bestrewn as its white surface
was with black-fianked logs, lying
there each under its long, narrow nap
kin of snow until the iron-toothed
gourmand, whom one could hear
wheeling at his feast from over on the
river bank, should be ready TO have
them served to him, and the rows OF
foot tracks, juvenile and canine, run
ming all about, limited of efforts to
realize on some such possibilities here.
a wider, whittier common on the east,
with the clumDS of white houses,
smoking chimneyS and black cowSheds
on its edge, and the steel blue sky
dropping down beyond, was very
picture of the season. Over a large
mill pond on the west glided the skat-
ers, boys and girls, who had them
selves, with shovel and broom, by hard,
hot labor, in brief hours after school,
cleared of snow the scant ways they
traVersed. In one corner of this mill
pond on the morrow, if the morrow
CHANGED to be a Sunday, in pool re-
lieved of ice for the occasion and
hedged about by a throng of specta-
tors they would baptize the latest con-
Verts of the winter revivals-
Hither and thither, about and all
through the town, wound the deep
trodden foot paths, so narrow that
when two people met one must need
step out into the full depth of the
snow, for no provision of ordinance or
custom exacted of householders any
contribution in this sort 10 the public
convenience, and except in small
patches at gateways and before the
doors of stores, the snow was left lying
until sun and travel dissolved it. And
since in Osceola, the rubber boot was
as yet unknown and the rubber shoe
was disdained of men as a wear be-
meath their manhood, one rarely failed
to find, in the houses and the stores.
a man sitting with his feet f1attened
against the hot stove, sizzling off the
snow caps from his boot heels.
In milder seasons the prevailing form
of social entertainment was evening
teas, but now there was apt TO be a
round of rather stately dinner parties.
The ladies came in carefully treasured
black silk gowns of the richest and
stiffest material, with wide collars of
white lace, and lace-edged white lawn
under sleeves. The men wore coats of
black broadclOth, no less carefully kept
and no less excellent in quality; and
high, stiff collars, swathed in black
silk or satin neckerchiefs. The dinner,
cooked mainly by the hostess's own
hand. was served in two courses. but
out of its abundance might easily have
furnished forth y or 10. of the dainti-
ness which courses acquire when they
are made a particular point Of. Turkey
and oysters, four or five vegetables, a
like number Of cooked fruits, pickles
SOUR and pickles sweet, coffee and hot
rolls, with a dessert of tive kinds of
pie, q rich preserve served in cream,
and a cake that was the chef d'oeuvre
of the feast-these were the least that
decency would allow; and the guest
was expected, rot to elect between
them, but 20 eat somewhat of all.
The company came to table for these
dinners with a certain hesitation and
awkwardness, and for a little while af-
ter they were seated conversation
rather Jagged. First. there fell a sharp,
expectant silence until the minister, if
present, as he usually was, had in
Voked a blessing. Then, as the host
took carving-knife and fork in hand
and rose from his chair with a certain
confidence, every eye and all attention
fixed intently on him, and remained
so fixed while with single sturdy stab
hi 10
the knob of the breastbone of the tur
key and with his keen knife deity I'M
jointed wings and legs, cut away the
white breast meat in thin. wide slices,
and by a bold stroke through the bones
and tissue of either flank and nice,
quick turn on the handle of the fork,
triumphantly cleared away the breast
bone and exposed to appetizlng view
steaming. odoriferous mound of gray
stuffing With this the company drew
an audible breath and settled back
comforta bly, in their seats, as when
lnid-air acrobat concludes his feat
without breaking his neck; and shortly
the talk began to show something like
f1uency. But until the carving was well
achieved. beyond a staple compliment
or two to the carver-usually tipped
with Jest TO save If from any suspicion
of sentiment or fulsomeneSs-and per-
haps a query to the hostess regarding
her method of dressing and cooking
turkeys. little or nothing was said.
It was almost q violence on custom,
INSTRUMENTATION subsequently,
under this aspect surmises of a prompt
ing scarcely less than fiendish or provi-
dential-when at a dinner given by
Mrs. Hamlin Wampler, Mrs. Luther
Gears began. in the very height of the
carving, TO tell quite story of the loss
of a. spoon. She told it in a plaintiff,
marveling tone; how, after dinner
given by herself ten days before, to
substantially the present company,
when she came to collect her silver
with a view to washing and putting it
away with her own hand Gas her care
full custom was), she found a spoon
rnissing-one Of her holly-sprig spoons.
Nobody attended much for Wampler
was really doing a very neat job. None
of the men of the circle were bad
carvers. and they would have deemed
il a. shame beyond words to have been;
but WamDler had rather the deftest
and surest hand of them all. In rivalry
with him Mrs Gears was but begging
performer. At the conclusion Of her
recital two or three ladies murmured
perfunctory that was too bad, and
DIR. Dudley, asked in his blunt way.
What is the hollysprig spoon?" But
ne gave no outward sign of listening
TO Mrs. Gears explanation that holly
sp-ig was the design, and that the
loss was especially grievous because 1t
occasioned the first break in a set
given her at her marriage by her
mother. who had brought it at an early
day out from New Jersey, sewn up for