The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-12-12
A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY, (NO. g.

tween a generation of people who
have gone to their long resting
place, and the present generation,
| am enabled to limited extent,
to bring up some things identified
with the past generation, but also
whose usefulness perished with that
generation.
The average home of rural life
was indeed very similar throughout
the community. Nearly all articles
of wearing apparel were home made
and home spun. 1t was nothing
new to see two or three spinning
wheels humming in nearly every
family. But, please remember |
speak of time some sixty or more
years ago. At this time not all
families had a stove. The hearth
and fire place, and chimney stack
Ga huge pile of stones) were COM
mon in every home. The cooking
was done in the fire place in pots
hung from a crane or pole fixed i'll
the chimney. Bear in mind at this
time there were no matches. The
chimney place was probably six or
eight feet in width and i'll which
could be rolled a large log, gener-
ally called "the back log" against
which the fire was built tor cook
ing comfort ard often for light.
TO keep the fire over night, the
family, before retiring covered up
the fire with ashes. But often the
fire went out, even i'll mid winter,
when the weather was extremely
cold. Now what could be done in
such dilemma. Either go to a
neighbor and borrow fire, or strike
fire with flint and steel. But this
really was the best alternative, but
was very often very tedious and re-
quired the patience of Job. Often
a person would most freeze before
succeeding in starting a fire. The
sparks from the stricken flint were
always expected to communicate
the fire to punk, decayed maple
wood BY the way, the habitual
smoker always carried his flint and
steel with the punk i'll his pocket
aud when he desired to smoke, he
could not strike match for there
were none, and hence the steel and
flint communicated the fire with
the punk and then he was obliged
TO blow the breath most out of HIM
self to get sufficient fire to Ell Joy q
smoke.
AS there were no ranges, or
cooking stoves in those days, the
people had their bake ovens out of
doors, and built out of stones and
mud. Very few people in our
day remember anything about these
things, or perhaps never heard tel
of them. In speaking of the home
manufacture of wearing apparel, I
have not spoken of the material en-
tered into the various fabrics Of
home manufacture, Every farmer
and probably every family was OBJ
liged to SOW a patch of half an acre
or more of flax, on which all de-
pended for their summer suits,
when once cured and ready for use.
The quality of fax was said to be
good when the fiber coat was heavy
on the stem. 1t usually grew about
three feet tall, the bloom was blue,
and when in full bloom it looked
like blue field. The balls devel-
oped before ripening, and when the
seed was ripe, the balls were light
brown and the fax was ready to
pull, or harvest. Flax for domestic
use was always pulled up by the
roots. 1t was long and tedious
process, the fax was subjected to
before it was ready to be hatcheled,
or combed. I manufactured the
stuff and know all about the pro-
cesses. Before the fiber coat could
be separated from the stem, after
boiling or threshing the flax, it
was thinly spread upon the grass
and exposed to rain and sun in or
der to rot the stem, or woody sub
stance, for mouth or two, after
which it is ready for the flax-break
and swingle blade. After this it
was drawn through coarse hetch-
el when the coarse tow was comb
ed from it. Then it went through
fine hetchel when the fine tow
was combed from it. Thus it was
reduced to three grades of yarn to
be spun from it. After the last
hetcheling the fax had deep CLOS
sy appearance and the finest thread
was spun from it. I have not space
to follow the process or different
stages of its operations before it
was put to final use. When a girl, !
my mother learned the weaving