The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-02
(New York SUM

ing man who lives in that old section
or New York called Greenwich Village,
there's one of those ancient artesian
wells. fitted with a pump. that's re-
Gently been condemned by the board of
health. Presently the pump will be
taken away, and the well covered over,
and that old corner mark, that prop
ably still lives wildly in the youth
tul memories of many widely scattered
men and women, will be no more. With
the departure of that ancient pump a
lot of that corners suggestivenesS will
pass for me too. l was born and
brought up something more than a
thousand miles from that pump; but l
hardly ever catch sight of it in walk
ing by. especially on fine. mellow
mornings when I'm trudging to my Of
flee, that the pump doesn't fetch up
before me the picture of another well
around which many of my pleasantest
youthful memories cluster This well
was in the yard of the home in the lit
tie western town in which 1 was
raised.
1T was a deep we'll of mason work,
housed by a pagoda-like structure with
peaked roof and with its three sides
of dim green lattice work. A very old
and gnarled peach tree. growing at the
rear of the old well house, spread its
it. In the spring the roof of the well
house used to be covered with the fall
len pinkish white blossoms from this
aged peach tree, and at night, when I
was a tyke, l used late in summer TO
hear the huge peaches falling in the
night breeze from the tree to the roof
of the we'll house with padded little
thumps that caused me to imagine, as
[ remember, that some brownie or
-, II III
house had slipped and fallen.
THE we'll was one of those old fash
toned affairs in which two buckets at
taChed to the ends of a chain were
used. On a sweltering day coming in
from some predatory excursion i'm the
deep woods after birds nests or some
thing of that sort, the first thing we
youngsters would do would be to hop
to the we'll and draw a bucket of wa
ter and tipping the bottom of the
bucket up on the edge of the top
board drink our fill from its messy
rim l can close my eyes any time
and hear again the curious, mildly
complaining creak of that bucket chain
as it slid over the pulley. When l
was quite little shaver / was forbid
den to draw water from the well, for
the job required no little strength and
a mite of a youngster was in cOnsid-
cradle danger of being yanked off his
feet by the chain and pulled into the
we'll But when the old folks weren't
around / used surreptitiously to draw
buckets of water from the well to
prove my strength to my own satisfac-
ton. and 1 recall how immensely proud
I was when the time gradually drew
around when 1 was allowed to draw
water from the well without any
sneaking. This feeling of elation didn't
last long, by the way. for when the
time came that 1 could draw water
without any, danger of going into the
we'll they were after me all the time TO
draw the water needed to run the
house. When the washing was to be
done on Monday mornings I was dele
gated to bring up the water. for eX-
ample, to fill three or four large wood
en- tubs arranged around the summer
kitchen.
at was a common occurrence for
one or other of the we'll buckets to be
lost in the well. usually through the
fooling of one or the other of the
youngsters. I'd be pulling up bucket
of water. for instance, without any no
ton that there was anybody but me
anywhere near the WE'LL and I'd have
the bucket almost pulled to the top and
| ready to haul it over the edge of the
top board when one of my brothers,
barefooted, would suddenly dart UP be-
hind me and tickle me in the Stats with
both his sets of fingers, and in my
wriggling surprise. of course, I'd let
go of the chain. and down to the bot
tom of the well the full bucket of wa
ter d drop, kerplunk. and then the
empty bucket would come a--hurtiing
up, humping the stone sides i'm its as
cent, and when it got to the top and
hit the pulley wheel. why. of course,
one of the chain links would give. and
down to the bottom of the well the
empty bucket would rattle. Many a
singing walloping I got for letting a
well bucket get away from me in that
or some other fool boy way.
ct was part Of the regular game of
life TO fish for a submerged well buck
ct every little while. We kept, as ev-
erybody else with wells did, three
pronged graphing hook, just for such
emergencies.
I'm those days nobody with a well in
the yard ever thought of taking ice.
Perishable articles were kept cool and
in condition by being let down into the
we'll We always had a big crock of
butter hanging in the well. My mother,
I recall. would never trust any of us
skylarking kids to raise or lower the
butter crock. She'd attend to that her
self and save any possible calamitOus
consequences.
and gentlemen, the watermelons
we used to let down in that old well
to chill 'em for the night feast-um!
don't talk! Only one of the buckets
could be used. of course, while the
watermelon was undergoing its chill