Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-10-14
4 STRIP or RAG CARPET.

ASTRlP or RAG CARPET.
Where Is the old fashioned rag car
net that our boyhood knew? Inc
striped particolored and speckled con-
plomerate of all the worn out cloth
,ny of the neiphborhood, bound, beaten
and twisted into floor cloth that COW
cred the floors of parlors, chambers
and diring rooms in those old days
when we were young and poor ana
happy.
What man Of middle age does NOT
remember the rag bees" of those old
DAYS, when the women OF the neigh
borhood gathered as to quilting ana
| the talk was of warp and WeaVers'
with a spice Of gossip, not always un-
kind, relating to such neighbors as
staid away from inclination, necessity
or lack Of invitation? II there is
man Of forty-five who has never had
an irresistible impulse to sequester TO
his private purposes one OF those DID,
round balls Of sewed rags, his mother
never made rag carpet. Those VINO
hypothecated carpet rags never es-
caped punishment. Those round balls
that rolled SO smooth and true over
the barn floor were the apple OF the
maternal eye, and. the penalty OF their
misuse was dire. condign and quick
to come.
There was caste in rag carpets. Some
were common, mixed affairs, the
canaille OF carpetry. They hid In the
bedrooms and did mental service on
kitchen floors, in Railways and outside
the doors, to defend the parlor aris-
tocracy OF stripes and cOlOred warps
from the contamination OF muddy
shoes. 1t was I'm the dim religious
light and musty air Of the closed ana
shaded parlor that the rag carpet rear
ed 1T highest glories. There 1t shone
in borders and stripings and sung the
skill of the weaver to all who entered.
seldom walked upon and then with
clean and reverent feet. 1t came up
regularly at house cleaning time, and
hung over the straining cord clothes
line to occupy the energies OF the boy
who had to play ball or go fishing
There was not even dust in it's folds,
hut 1t had to be hammered with an
apple tree switch, examined by the
Joint commission on house-c cleaning,
and inevitably rehammered while
mayhap the shouts slide, slide!" and
the crack of the bat against the bail
came distinctly up wind from the
neiahboring pasture. You hated the
rag carpet then, but with a reverenlial
and subdued hatred if it CHANGED to be-
long to the parlor. Parlor carpets were
sacred in those days. Your boyish
mind reverted to the home parlor when
at Sunday school you first learned OF
the ark Of the covenant.
or course we do better nowadays.
The heather Turk and Persian have
taught us the beauty and utility o. the
rug. Our old carpets are fashioned
into floor coverings worthy of Daghes-
Ian and Cashmere. The younger gen.
Grafton of women have learned that
sewing rags for carpets is a loss of en-
ergy without adequate return AMI then,
most of them have never learned to
sew. But what the spinning wheel is
to the octogenerian the rag carpet is
to those of middle age. We can sit
down and visit with it. 1t is alive
with "reminiscences Of youth. There
are shreds of early hopes and ambt-
lions woven in 1t and memories mora
constant than it's colors set with out
ternut bark and cobalt. It is the back
ground upon which the panoramic
pictures of old days are thrown as
you remember the figures fitted across
the sheet at the magic lantern show in
the school house. There is one scene
of country fireside on winter eve
ming The dishes are done, the room
SET u TlSulS dlu MIDWAY USIWSe1li liiS
fire and the table mild-faced middle
aged woman, with kind and weary
eyes, sits in an old fashioned rocking
chair Her lap is full of shredded rags
which her nimble needle joins into
long strips. From time to time the
needle stops and the deft fingers wind
the heightened strip firmly ane evenly
upon the growing ball. 1t was SO she
sat and thus she swiftly wound when
you held the skeins of yarn on hands
stretched wide apart. You remember
how she gently ch;de6 when your awk-
ward thumbs tangled the skein? And
in another chair-al arm chair without
rockers-sat the grave man with the
tired face, busy with his newspaper.
And you, sitting in your place locked
into the fire and saw prophecy of the
future that may have beer. true then
but isn't now.
The fire is out The faces that 1t
lit with its reflection shine no more
on earth The chairs are empty If the
old carpet is still there we can no
longer see 1t.
No danger of consumption If you use
~.,1r md Tor To hot