The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-09
A LEAF FROM THE PAST.
when a New Straw Hat was a Nov,

When a New Straw Hat Was a Novel and Treasured Possession. | In the early part of the last century there were fewer factories in this coun- try than now, and many things were made by hand which to-day are the work of machinery. This was especially true of the braid for straw hats. Rye straw was commonly used. although wheat was also in demand. But the rye straw had longer stems and was more easily handled.
 In driving along country roads. in Massachusetts particularly, late in the summer one would see great bundles of the straw hanging on the fences to dry. When the sun and wind had done their share of the work. it was placed in casks where sulphur was burning until It was bleaehed to a pale yellow. Then it was split into narrow widths suitable for braiding.
 The daughters of farmers did not have many pennies of their own in those days, and all were eager to earn money by braiding straw. Every little while men would pass through the villages, calling from house to house and buying the straw braid. They paid two cents yard for it.
 District schoor' was in session only six months of the year-the rest of the time the children helped their mothers with the housework. When that was done they took up their braids for amusement and occupation. So much a day every girl expected to do as her daily stint" She would carry it down | by the brook or up in the apple tree when the summer days were long; or during the stormy hours of winter she would go with it to the old attic where the swing hung from the cobwebbed rafters. But all the time her fingers must work busily, lest the men should call for the braids and find them un- finished.
 The factories where the straw was sewed were in the large towns. The simplest hats were of the braids alone More elaborate ones had fancy cord, also of plaited straw, sewed on the edge of the braid. This cord was made by the old ladies. Grandmothers and great aunts whose eyes were too dim to sew would take their balls of straw with them on neighborhood calls. While they chatted together, their hands would be weaving the yellow strands in and out fashioning the dainty cord
 The price paid for the cord was only half a cent yard, but this was better than nothing to those danes of T by- gone generation.
 A poor country girl would begin to think of her hat from the time of seed- sowing. All summer she would watch the bilIowy grain. When it was gath cred and only the empty stalks were left, she would tie them into bundles and hang them in some sheltered nook to dry. Bleaching, splitting and braid ling-these she did herself.
 When the braids were finished and sent to the factory, how impatiently she waited. Perhaps grandma contributed some of the cord she had made last winter that the new hat might be more beautiful. At last the hat came home land then what tryings on there were before the old gilt-framed mirror in the
 parlor How lovingly its owner handled lit as she placed 1t this way or that on her curly head Oh. new straw hat was indeed a thing well worth having in those days of the long ago.--Adele H. Baldwin in St. Nicholas.