The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-03
NEW BOOK BY MRS. EARLE.
"Home Lie in colonial DAYS"

Among contemporary American
writer's upon subjects of historical or
archaeological import, none has
achieved a more enviable position or
is assured of a more cordial welcome
from the public than Mrs. Alice Morse
Earle, whose latest work entitled
Home Life in Colonial Days" has
just been published by the Macmillan
company. 1t is a large volume of
more than 450 pages, with fine illustra-
tons on nearly every page and CON
fined within covers Of yellow buckram,
cleVerly printed in a remarkably ex-
act imitation of an old-time sampler.
To read the new books Of Mrs. Earle
as they appear one after another, is
one of the pleasant tasks of the re-
viewer. 1t is, moreover, q pleasure that
their talented author IS by no means
niggardly in bestowing. The volumes
that have flowed from the tip Of her
pen must be approaching their teens
by now, one would say, recurring in
memory to the Fascinating pages
turned, the moods and manners OF ell
der days invoked, the curious facts
CLEANED, the obsolete Jsages illumiua-
ted and the happy hours passed under
her ciceronage.
Not to mention her other works, the
amount of patient research expended
be enormous. To run ever the head
ings of the illustrations is almost to
make an inventory of the domestic oc-
equations, implements and usages Of
the time. The list Of chapters Includes
homes of the colonists, the SERVING, of
meals, the kitchen fireside. indian
corn, meat and drink, lax culture and
spinning, wool culture and spinning,
with postscript on cotton; hand
weaving, girls occupations, dress of
the colonists, jack-knife industries.
travel, transportation, and Iaverns,
Sunday in the Colonies, colonial neigh
borliness and old-time flower gardens.
What q panorama of colonial life!
AS for the illustrations which accom-
pany the text as a wife her husband,
they are in every case from real ar
ticles and scenes"
Mrs. Earle herself in her ''foreword'
hints at the instant vigilance, the care
full search, the painstaking investiga
ton, which the book has cost her.
From the lofts of wood-sheds. under
attic caves in dairy cellars, out of old
trunks and sea chests, from moulder-
ing warehouses, have strangely shaped
bits and combinations OF wood stuff.
and metal been rescued and recogniz-
ed. There We're two constant OBJ
stacles in the patch; An article would
be found and a name given by old
time country IOlh, out no dictionary
contained the word, no printed hint OF
its use or purpose could be obtained.
though a Gentry ago it was in eyerv
household Again, some curiously
shaped utensil or tool might be display
ed and its use indicated, but it was
nameless, and it took long inquiry and
deduction-the faculty of taking a hint
to christen it..
Mrs. Earle does not add, as she
might justly that the ability to take
archaeological hints of this kind, is a
gift from Providence, as rare as 1t is
beautiful.
Finally, the vast amount of Informal
ton that Mrs. Earle has to impart is
handled with a dexterity, an ease and
grace Of diction, and an evident enthu-
siasm and love, that prevent it from
becoming what it probably would in
the hands of a less expert writer-a.
mere dictionary of names