The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1900-12-22
PASSING OF COUNTRY CUSTOMS.

A contemporary in the western
part of the State, in half lamenting
the passing of country ways, says !:
What was considered one of the win
ter table necessities of Pennsylvania
apple butter-is now being prepar-
ed to twenty-five years ago. The old
custom was to pare the apples the day
before. Sometimes the neighbors
were given verbal invitations to be
present the night before, and young
men and maidens, fathers and moth
ers, had a regular country-style good
time pairing apples and drinking cider.
The next day the fragrant aroma of
bubbling apple butter was waited
over many a backyard fence as the
individual who stirred the kettle wept
almost continuously from the wood
smoke in his eyes. Stirring apple
butter. is no fun, but it was one of the
occasions of farm life that Gould not
be dispensed with. 1t is true that
the ancient romance of many a coun-
try custom besides apple butter max
ing is passing away.
This is the age of machinery and
lessening of human labor The coun-
try moves faster than it did fifty years
ago, and has less leisure. The out
door fire is no more, and night frolics,
with the boys and girls enjoying in.
nocent merriment, are things of the
past. We encase boilers in cemented
brick work for the kitchen, and stir
apple butter by machinery, or do not
make it at all.
The same contemporary, alluding
to another ancient country custom,
says: Corn husking on the barn
floor at night was one OF the pleasures
of country life for young people, and
as the corn husking machines are in
troduced this one source of amuse-
ment for farmer lads and lassies is be-
coming more and more thing of the
past. The red ear What pleas
ure it foretold! The old custom was
that a young man and young lady
would husk together, and the feet
ing hours of the night passed ever so
swiftly in conversation and husking.
During the night several hundreds of
bushels of the golden grain would be
freed from its outer covering of husks.
Occasionally a bright red ear would
be found, and this, when in the hands
of young man, entitled him Gas the
custom was) to a kiss from the girl
he labored with. Even if he did not
choose to take it, it had the effect of
uneasiness among the young damsels
and created great amount of merri-
ment and anxiety. Supper was serv-
ed late in the night, after the work
was done, and games and dancing
were then sometimes indulged in if
time would permit. In our day we
have machine to husk Our corn.
Now, these changes are of more
than passing interest, because they
must effect the social life of the coun-
try. When each farmer is self-cen-
tered, he finds himselfle dependent,
and in consequence there is less of
that mutual help and commingling of
former days. This isolation of kind
has its effects on the young boys and
girls. AS the old-time customs and
pleasures of the rural homes decay or
pass away, as the artificial takes the
place of the ancient real and hearty,
the young folks leave for the city.
They want life and companionship,
which the changed habits of the coun-
try no longer afford as in the older
days. The singing school, the de-
batting society, the quilting bee, the
apple butter boiling, the corn husk-
ing, the butchering frolic, the surprise
party and a dozen of other old-time
country customs are recollections, and
so the young folks grow up among
farm machines, which talk not or
sympathize. In way it looks very
much as if the desire of young country
people to come to the city has its
cause in the fact that the merry Gus
toms of the fathers have passed away
and rural companionship has been les
sened. .-Exchamge.
nREss AS WELL AS YOU CAN