The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-13
Letters to The Editsr
syvIpalns and UnwinaIns..

eWindanf and Unwtuding"
 !. Your Phil wahts to know if any one living ever saw or held his arms stretched out for his wife or mother to wind or unwind a hank Of thread on or on. Yes, have seen It. I have also seen the old reel used for wind- Ing the thread; have seen the thread spun on the old sninning wheel and the hand looms that wove 1t into cloth; nave seen the cloth woven out of 1t made Into dresses and worn by our wives and sweethearts and during the war they looked as pretty. sweet and w,nsome as they do now. arrayed in I have seen boys work on the farm and thought 1t honorable; and I have seen them take a turn of corn to the ground into meal and thought 1t fine fun to meet other boys there and have good time. have seen girls, too. who thought 1t no disgrace to help their mothers in household work. and who even learned to cook and make their own clothes. then go into the parlor in the evening and entertain rStar a w.n ta qSie on ins p'an n | literary subjects-the merits of Scott, Bulwer and Thackeray as novelists or Moore, Byron and Campbell as poets. | novel.
 have known school teachers to hold the schooi house open eight to ten hours a day and felt 1t their duty to teach, instruct and explain the lessons to. their. pupils. I have known schools where the pupils were taught to spell and read correctly and without the pads, tablets and the modern parapher- I have seen the village tailor sit on | his table, crosslegged. with his goose beside him (Some people would say those days every village had it's tailor as it did "the village blacksmith" | I have seen rosemary, sage and thyme raised in the indispensable garden, and l not ashamed of 1t or afraid of prose- | cution (the water and sage and spir- its were on the sideboard in the
 I have seen droves of hogs and flocks of geese and turkeys driven from Ten- nessee far south of this and sold to | farmers ar cents a pound gross. also
 fro an and sSd for cents per pound I have seen farmers raise their hogs. cure their meat and convert Into sweet, juicy hams and sages This was before boys of 12 years smoked cigarettes and thought | they were grown, aand before girls wore dresses with skirts above the knees. a la ballet This was before ne groes and babies wore glasses. and ne- groes read newspapers (often upside down), and before negroes went crazy l anu udQ COnSuiuQIlOns
 This was before suicide became fash. :. ionable and before so many took into their stomachs patent nostrums for imaginary diseases and eked out mis- erable life
 This was before parents sent their children to the doctor or the convenient druggist for the finger or toe ache, and before nourishment for sick people was nnanufactured in a chemical labor atory instead of the kitchen at home. | This was before baseball and foot ball became, national and irrational games to send scores of young man. hood to premature and unwept graves; this was before there were germs In the food we eat, microbes in the water we drink and bacilli Cor some other | cillt) in the air we breathe-gerr1s to the right, germs to the left. germs in | front.
 This was before labor days with idle ness and dissipation. and before labor strikes with its. attendant murder. ar- 1 son and dynamite.
 This was before reckless automobiles | run over and killed unwary, pedestri ans. and exploded from gasoline or run over amendments and killed driver and passengers.
 This was before the rabbits overrun Australia. and before early closing l overrun Glasgow. and prohibition over- run New Decatur with drunkenness.
 This was before we had Roosevelt for President. and before he. sent a fleet of five continents and the natives of the '1sIes of the sea-" to convince the sceptical that the United States was a "world power q thought they knew that more than fifty years sgo:1
 came a world power in journalism
 Selma. Eia.. Sept. 1s. 1908.