River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1899-08-24
ENGLISH HARVEST HOME.
Quaint hut Enjoyable Old Custom
That Is Too Rapidly Becoming
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Machinery, model farms and the
spread of education, which has tended
TO make farm laborers' children intent
on ''bettering" themselves, have dealt
serious blow to the old-fashioned fes-
tivities which a few years ago marked
the end of the harvest.
Then, when the sheaves 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 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 a guest at one. In the most
picturesque portion of Surrey, on the
estate of a north-country peer, which
stretches for miles amid rolling
hiIlocls, glorious 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 yiands 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
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 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-
A. II oh nj
weight and standing in the little com
munity, while the seats were filed
with apple-cheeked lasses and sturdy
men and bowed and wrinkled gram
fers." How they did eati Pie followed
beef, and beef gave way to chicken and
ham, and then huge plum buildings
melted like snowflakes in the sun be-
| fore this onslaught. There was little
talking, the rattle of steel against china
and the clinS of glasses were all we
heard until the wreck only Of the ar
ray of viands remained, and a great,
unanimous sigh of contentment wen
up to the rafters. Then another horA
was devoted to speech and song, and
the serious business of the evening was
over. Tables were cleared like magic,
a dais for the orchestral piano,
cornet and a 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-
| tiers; local worthless, in morning dress
and pumps; their female relatives,
decbed in dainty dinner blouses, which
| lent a touch of color and festivity to
the scene, and village maidens, whose
finery ran to little more than a new rib
bon on churchgoing frocks, or knot
of flowers in their hair. One young
man was decked in painfully new
dress suit, cut in model of perhaps 40
years antiquity, and he looked exceed
| ingly proud of his isolation.
The dances were curious enough; the
young lady visitors had managed to
coax a 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 picturesquepess.
| They were generally modelled on 'Sir
Roger" and were danced with vigor
| that was commendable, the couples
1 from each end of the line-ladies one
/ side, men the other-down the center,
back again, courtesying and jogging
merrily for an interval which would
| suffice for three ordinary dances.
| While the young ones danced the
| elders sat and gossiped, and the men
| folk absorbed beer and tobacco in gil
gantic quantities in 20 adjoining room,
to the accompaniment Of doleful and in
| terminable songs generally sung with
the least possible regard to tune. But
they enjoyed themselves. as did every
one. Enjoyment was the keynote of
| the whole affair, bright eyes and smil-
| ing lips testified to the happiness of
men and maidens, and it was with sigh
of regret that they at last stood to sing
God Save the Queen and then melt
ed slowly away into the shadows cast
by the silver men shining brightly in
the hazy lights that told of the APP
proach of dawn.--London Mail.