The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1899-07-19
ENGLISH HARVEST TIME.
OUAINT OLD CUSTOM THAT Is
BECOMING OBSOLETE.
when the Sheayes of the Golden Corn
Have Been Gathered in All
Participate in the
Festivities.

FoStIVII 1eSs
VtMachlnery, model farms and the
spread of education, which has tenueu
to make farm laborers' children Intent
on 'bettering' themselves, nave deaiC
q serious blow to the old-fashioned les
tivities which few years ago marked
the end of the harvest.
Then, when the sheaves OF goldeh
corn had been safely garnered and the
"last load home" was the occasion Tor
mild al fresco merrymaking, the farm
or his wife and daughters, with every
man. woman and child on the farm
looked eagerly forward to. the harvest
supper and dance which should mara
the farmers gratitude for the goou
things a bright harvest had promised
Little by little this old custom mas
died out. and one finds but few places
in England nowadays where master
and man give themselves up TO pleas'
ure for one night in the year, at ieasC'
together.
Such gatherings, however, exist yet'
and Daily Mail representative mas
lust been guest at Que. In the
most picturesque portion of Sur
rev. on the estate of anorth-coun-
try peer, which stretches for miles
amid rolling hillocks, glorious WOOD
already the plough is turning great
ridges of warm, hard soil, the tenants
and laborers we're in a keen state OF
excitement on the day preceding thelr
annual harvest supper. Wondrous
tales of the viands the cook was pre-
naring cup in the big house" made
ones mouth water, and burly laborers
smiled even more expansively than is
won't of their kind as they told of the
heor and 'bacco 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 plaoards bearing somewhat ful'
some eulogies of the virtues of the lord
of the manor and his family, was rang
ed with long tables literally grooming
under the weight of the Viands. Great
Joints of the finest beef, hams, fowls,
pies-and such pies!-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 parts
as walters.
A son of the house was at the head
of the centre table, and the others were
presided over by the steward, bailltf,
local ecclesi astical dignitaries and
other men of weight and standing in
the little community, while the seats
were filled with apple-cheeked lasses
and sturdy men and bowed and wrlnk-
led "granfers." How they did eatl
Pie followed beef, and beef gave way to
chicken and ham, and then huge plum
buildings melted like snowflakes In the
sun before this onslaught. There was
little talking, the rattle of steel
against china and the cllLk of glasses
were all we heard until the wreck only
of the array of viands remained, and
great unanimous sigh of contentmenG
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 orchestral pi-
anO. a cornet and a fiddle--Was erected
and then basketsful Of scraped candles
were trooden into the floor to prepare
for dancing.
When ali was ready the guests began
to arrive-the rector with his daugh-
tiers: local worthless in morning dress
and pumps; their female relatives,
decked in dainty dinner bIouses, which
lent touch of color and festivlty TO
the scene, and the village maidens,
whose finery ran to little more than a
new ribbon on the church-g going frocks
or Il knot of flowers In their hair. One
Young man was decked in a painfully
new dress suit. cut in a model of per-
haps forty years antiquity, aud he
looked exceedingly proud Of his isola-
ton.
The dances were curious enough; the
young lady visitors had managed to
coax a few watZes into the pro-