The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-05-12

nIA EEAlEE 1AA lAlE AEaL Al4r ~fAEdAA6 ftI-N roasted by hanging them in the throat of the great chimney and machines were contrived so that the hot air would keep the meat turning as 1t cooked. Great care was taken that the fire wasn't lost, for if lost, coals must be brought from neighbor's fire or a spark struck from flint or steel-the latter a troublesome undertaking.
 Opening into the living room was large and generally unfinished summer kitchen, with it's back pantry located in the lean-to or in the long woodshed, and into this room generally came the water supply, either furnished from a well with long sweep or from neighbor- ing spring through wooden logs bored for that purpose. The front rooms in the house were seldom used except upon state occasions. Sometimes a family would occupy one of the front rooms of their house as a sitting room, but such common use was looked upon as an ex- travagance, and was disapproved of by the general community. The front rooms of the second story were spotless- ly clean and neatly furnished. The high post bedsteads carried ticks of oat straw or husks, surmounted by live geese feather beds selected by the housewife with the greatest care from their numerous fiocks.
 The furnishings were often a portion of the dowry of the bride, and usually the handiwork of the mistress of the house. The elegance and neatness of the room indicated the accomplishment of the mistress in the arts and crafts of the day. The fine linen, the soft woolen and the beautiful woven spread were the work of her own hand, and her pride and satisfaction in the result were well and nobly earned.
 From the lean-to kitchen stretched the long .woodshed and the shop beyond. The open fireplaces demanded great quantities of wood. It was the winters work to get up supply for the ensu- ing year; great log piles of eight-foot lengths were drawn to the yard, and during the spring days cut into conven- tent lengths for use. These lay in the pile all summer to dry, and in the fall were slowed in the woodshed. Forty mords was not an unusual supply. In the shop was fixed up workbench, sup piled with the few tools then within the means of the owner. These he used to repair the tools and utensils necessary to carry on the. work of the farm. Overhead were stored choice bits of lumber, natural crooks for sled and era dle fingers, walnut butts. which he in tended to work up in axe helves during the long winter evenings before the kitchen fire, a few pairs of ox-bows se- curely tied to keep them from spread ing, yoke for the steers, a few gam brels, cant-hook. sleigh pole and the thousand and one things which will gather in such place. The eold iron box" was a curiosity shop of itself. Rusty screws, crooked wrought-iron nails, broken hinges, old bolts. with and white chalk. broken chalk line, Q worn-out file, cast-off horse-shoes, and seemingly every other conceivable thing which was never wanted.
 The great barn was frequently located at an angle of forty-five degrees with the house and shed, so, it was said, to give warm place for the barnyard. It was built of heavy timbers and covered with wide pine boards, the edge of each ichamfered, so that the board would lap over the one below it, and all were held in place by wrotigft-iron nails driven 1 into the oak studding of the frame. On one side of the thrashing floor of the barn were the stables for the horses and cattle. and upon the other the great haymow. On the scaffold over the sta- bles the horse hay" was garnered, and upon the little scaffold" over the far end of the barn floor were ncely piled the bound sheaves of wheat rye or bar ley, the butts all placed outward so as to hinder the entrance of mice. Over the great beams were scaffolds made of round poles and pieces of waste lumber, generally, in such condition as to make a first-class man trap. On this scafford was heaped the crop of oats all await ling the thrashing by the hand fiail, tho use of which generally began about Thanksgiving time. Who, raised on the farm, does not remember the miseries of the boy who moved away the hay, about the time the mowhole was filled and pitching over the great beams be- gan. The hot hole of Calcutta was no comparison to it.
 l Only one set of these old farm build ings still remains in Greenfield. What has recently been known as the Will liam Smead place, on Irish Plain, in the north meadows, still retains it's ancient Appearance. The house was probably built by Jonathan Smead about TAO, and remained in the Smead family until January 1, 1900 when William Smead sold the homestead of his great-great- grandfather to George A. Gum. Seve- ral houses were built in the meadows about 172S to TAO; among others the Daniel Nash house, which stood few rods southerly of the present residence of Jonathan E. Nash. The lands still remain in the family name. This house was taken down some time in the flf- ties, and I have a brick taken from it's chimney which is two inches thick, eight and one-half inches long and sev- en inches wide.
 People have often expressed surprise that the settlers in the early days were able to build such costly residences In those times no other investment of sur plus funds than real estate existed, ex- cept to people along the coast, who might invest in ships and the records show that it was quite common for set tiers to mortgage their real estate to persons living in the places from whence they came, so that money for