Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-01-07

oak or elm shod with strips Of hool
iron. In still earlier times there "er'
no shoes at all, but the bare WOOD Was
polished until ii was as smootn a.
glass by friction on the snow. ins
sled was fastened with pegs.
The beams, cut away beneath to the
shape of flat arches, rested directIs
upon the runners, and the raves aho
floor directly upon the beams, SO tna'
the completed sled, no matter no"
small would have borne the weight OF
an elephants tread. To break II was
simply impossible; and. unpaihteo
th0nkh it was, it would outlast two OF
thre4 generations.
Grandpapa's skates were equaiS
primitive. Along in October his rather
or grandfather brought home pair OF
skate-irons hammered out and tenn
pered by the nearest blacksmith. Al
home some rainy day was devoted tf
whiting out wood tops to fit to them
and for fastenings buckskin thongs
were used. The simplest skate-irons
were turned up slightly at the TOE
others had elaborate spiral curves
finished off with little brass KNOBS
like those they used to put on cows
horns, only smaller.
OF course. grandpa's skates were bet
ter than ours. There was time u
or 80 years ago, when every boy was
crazy for pair of short. club skates
with "heel plates" and other modern
flxings, but you'll notice that crack
skaters like DonOhue and Eden are
now using long -runnered skates, WIFI
wooden tops a great deal ike grand
papa's; and patent club skates are OF
the bargain counter with the weak
kneed painted sleds.
There never was, and there never
will be, any other doll so nice as rag
doll. The French beauty. with wake!
cheeks, the elaborate affair that car
cry "Wah. wah. wah." when you
pinch it, is all very well when it is
new, but how does it look after SOAK
ing it in rain barrel? The rag DOL
is simply indestructible. The features
marked on it's fiat face in ink can be
renewed from time to time as they
fade, and the anatomy of the thing Is
tough. Most excellent little rag dolls
were made by small girls themselves
with the bony framework of a clothes
pin for skeleton.
Our ancestors learned lot from the
Indians-among other things that
there is nothing like leather to last
A buckskin doll was almost as much
better than a rag doll as the latter sur
passes in real merit the wax doll with
real put on and-off clothes. The buck
skin doll frequently had patch OF
real horsehair sewn cunningly into its
SCALP, and with its wild eyes and Kali
muk nose it was a thing sufficiently
grotesque to be passionately loved
A much greater proportion of the
people lived on or near the sea coast
and lived by seamen's arts, in early
days, than now. Dolls and toys from
China and India We're common enough
on the coast. whittier they had been
brought by seafaring men, but were
surprisingly scarce in the interior. The
toy known as cup-and ball was, how
ever, common throughout the country
Just after the war of 1872. a famous
painter had made a portrait of the baby
King of Rome. the hapless son of Ma
poleon |. and Marie of Austria, play
ing with cup-and-ball. The cup was
a scepter, the ball the world, symbol
izing the universal dominion the baby
was destined never to realize.
This portrait was sent to Napoleon
Just before the battle of Borodino, and
he set it on a camp chair outside his
tent. that the grizzled veterans of the
Grand Army might see it as they filed
tatA c
in full retreat from burning Moscow
There We're plenty of French sympa-
thizers in this country, however, and
the pretty incident before BorodinC
caused something of run of cup-and-
ball. The game, now almost wholly
forgotten, was simply to toss up the
ball and catch it in the cup as it came
down.
Girls in the old days never had skates
which was a pity. They played al
battledore and shuttlecock, with rae
quets like those used in tennis. only
driving back and forth ball
of cork. in the top of which We're glued
two small feathers, so that the bottom
or rounded end. was always presented
for the blow. Grace hoops" too, We're
highly recommended for young misses
of the quality as tending to develop
ease and grace of bearing. A stick was
held in each hand. and the player was
required to catch on these sticks the
hoop thrown by the other player. Grace
hoops are still used by grown men and
women on shipboard, but they are
at a standard, in a game more
quoits.
And, by the way, grandpapa and the
other boys who played with him always
used cast horseshoes in playing quoits.
just as they used a homemade sock
BALI in playing barn ball." long
BALI or two old cat" before baseball
was invented.
Children took life very seriously in
the old days, and filled the station in
life to which God had called them" as
unquestioningly as their elders. One
little girl who went from her Connecti-
cut home to boarding school in Bos-
ton took with her u silk gowns, but
soon petitioned for another of a new
fabric ''befitting her rank" OF course
every one knows that silk was cheaper
than print cloth when the latter was a