The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-09-02
ENGLISH HARVEST HOME,
A QUAINT nut Enjoyable Old Cusfom
That Is TOO Rapidly Becomins
Obsolete.

on 'DetteflDB tHeulsSifcs, Hu'S 1850
a serious blow to the oid-fashioned fes-
tivities which few years ago marked
the end of the harvest.
Then, when the sheayes Of golden
corn had been safely garnered and the
''last load home" was the occasion for
mild al fresco merrymaking, the farm
er, his wife and daughters, with every
man, woman and child on the farm
looked eagerly forward to the harvest
supper and dance which should mark
the farmers gratitude for the good
things a bright harvest had promised.
Little by little this old custom has
died out, and one finds but few
places in England nowadays where
master and man give themselves up to
pleasure for one night in the year, at
least, together.
Such gatherings, however, exist yet,
and Daily Mail representative has
just been guest at one. In the most
picturesque portion of Surrey, on the
estate of north-country peer, which
stretches for miles amid rolling
hillocks, glorions woodlands and stub
BILE fields, where already the plow is
turning great ridges of warm, hard
soil, the tenants and laborers were in
keen state Of excitement on the day
preceding their annual harvest supper.
Wondrous tales of the viands the cook
was preparing ''up in the big house
made ones mouth water, and burly la
borers smiled even more expansively
than is the won't of their kind as they
told Of the beer and 'baccy which was
free to all corners.
The scene in the village institute on
the night of this annual dissipation
was quaint enough. The long room,
decked with wealth of green boughs
and placards bearing somewhat full
some eulogies of the virtues of the lord
of the manor and his family, was
ranged with long tables literally
groaning under the weight of the
viands. Great joints of the finest beef,
hams, fowls, pies-and such piesl-lay
amid banks of flowers and ferns. A
dozen or more ruddy-faced villagers,
with hair oiled down until it seemed
to have been painted on their heads,
their Sunday clothes covered with
spotless white aprons, stood ready to
act their part as walters. A son OF the
house was at the head of the center
table, and the others were presided over
by the steward, bailiff, local ecclesias-
tical dignitaries, and other men Of
weight and standing in the little COM
.nunity, while the seats were filled
with apple-cheeked lasses and sturdy
men and bowed and wrinkled gran
fers." How they did eatl Pie followed
beef, and beef gave way to chicken and
ham, and then huge plum puddings
melted like snowfiakes in the sun be-
fore this onslaught. There was little
talking, the rattle of steel against china
and the clink of glasses were all we
heard until the wreck only OF the ar
ray of viands remained, and q great,
unanimous sigh of contentment went
up to the rafters. Then another hour
was devoted to speech and song, and
the serious business of the evening was
over. Tables were cleared like magic,
dais for the orchestra--a piano,
cornet and fiddle-was erected, and
then basketfuls OF scraped candles
were trodden into the floor to prepare
for dancing.
When all was ready the guests began
to arrive-the rector with his daugh-
ters; local worthless, in morning dress
and pumps; their female relatives,
decked in dainty dinner blouses, which
lent touch of color and festivity TO
| the scene, and village maidens, whose
finery ran to little more than new rib
bon on churchgoing frocks, or q knot
of flowers in their hair. One young
man was decked in painfully new
dress suit, cut in a model of perhaps 40
years antiquity, and be looked exceed
| ingly proud of his isolation.
The dances were curious enough; the
| young lady visitors had managed to
coax few waltzes into the programme,
but square and country dances pre-
dominated These last, with names
such as would strike wonder into the
heart Of fashionable young man, were
not without their picturesqueness.
They werS generally modelled on ''Sir
Roger" and were danced with vigor
that was commendable, the couples
from each end of the line ladies one
side, men the other-down the center,
back again, courtesying and jigging
merrily for an interval which would
suffice for three ordinary dances.
While the young ones danced the