Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1910-01-12
GLIMPsEs INTO THE PAST.
Another Series of "reminiscences in
the Waverly Independent by l..
Il. Caldwell.

altar In those days. 1t was my
fathers custom, each morning after
breakfast, to read a chapter from the
Bible, and then earnestly thank God
in a short prayer for our preserva-
ton through the night, and beseech
His gentle care and guiding hand in
the duties of the day. In the abb
sence of my father, my good mother
assumed these duties, and so our
altar fires never grew cold. My
people were Methodists and the min
listers of that church in the rural
section of New York state were
known as circuit-riders. The circuit
minister came to us but once in four
weeks. Our meetings were usually
held in the large log schoolhouse
which l described in former letter.
These meetings would last all day
with an intermission at noon Of one
hour. Now, while l have drifted
away from the religion of my par
ents, in a measure, the word Meth
odist and Methodist church, has al
ways a warm place in my heart.
Among my most valued treasures is
the old Bible of my parents, which
is mine by Inheritance 1t was pub
lished at Cooperstown, New York,
in 1929. and is a large, illustrated
polyglot book, nicely bound in calf,
and it is great wonder to me how
they could publish so nice an edition
in the little village of Cooperstown
on hand press in 1929.
Moving and reaping machines
4 L, - s@I-
write. Grain was cut with sickles,
also with a crude awkward cradle,
known as a crow wing; the ''moolie"
and grapevine cradles came in later
and replaced the crow wing. Flax
was pulled" bound in small bun
dies. the seed stripped off, and the
straw spread on the ground to bleach
and dry, ready for the break to re-
move the fibrous covering before it
went to the hetchel, Grain was
threshed on the barn floor with
fails which consisted of a wooden
staff or handle, at the end of which
a club about one-half the length
of the handle, was so hung by an
eel skin thong as to swing freely.
1t took some practice with this
device to avoid striking ones own
cocoanut in manipulating it. / have
seen three men with fails, all beat
ing the same sheaf, keeping stroke
with perfect time, not unlike the
circus men of the present day driv-
ing tent stakes. To separate the
grain from the chaff. the farmer
would open the large doors at either
side of the barn. and as the wind
circulated through, take his home
made wooden scoop shovel and hold
ing shovelful up AS far as he could
reach pour it out slowly. The grain
would drop to the floor and the wind
would carry the chaff out into the
barnyard. The same process had to
be repeated several times to get the
chaff and dirt all out. 1t was called
winnowing.
"Winnow well this thought, and you
shall find
IT'S light as chaff, that flows be-
fore the wind"
We had no canned goods in those
days, and very few things in pack
ages; most every article for sale
came IN bulk, Smoking tobacco was
put up in one, two, and half-pOund
packages. with light yellow paper;
plug chewing tobacco in small twist
cd plugs about seven inches long.
White sugar was put up in a cone
shaped loaf of about fifteen pounds
each and was covered first with white
paper and then with a very thick
purple paper. 1t was SO hard it had
to be broken with a Ratchet. This
was the only white sugar that ever
came to our hamlet.
Enough candles had to be dipped
in cold weather to last until cold
weather came again, as they could
not be dipped in warm weather
could give you the process Of dip
ping, as / often assisted at the i'm
mersion. A few years later candle
moulds came into general use. Whale
oil lamps were used quite generally,
especially in the large villages and
for street lights in the cities. / well
remember hearing people say they
wondered what could be found to
use in lamps when the whales were
all killed off. There was another
light used by very poor people,
which was a shallow dish about like
saucer, filled with grease with d
floating wick. This lamp had
name which, let us hope, is now
obsolete. Kerosene oil was not
known at that time, except in small
quantities that was found floating in
small ponds or pools and was known
as Seneca oil and was sold as medi-
cine.
We made barrel or more of soft
soap each spring, which was not only
used for washing clothes but our
hands and faces as well. The only
money ] knew anything about in
those days was the large copper cent,
one-half cent, the sixpence (six and
one-fourth cents), the shilling
twelve and one-half cents) and the
two shilling piece twenty-five
cents). ] know now that there was
gold and silver coin of larger de-
nominations, but they were of no in
terest to me as / never had any of
them. Also some very poor paper
money was in circulation. How much
We live and think in the past, after
leaving behind the three-score and
ten milestone.
when youth and strength to us be-
long
We have the wist to journey far
From where we learned the first love
song
And first beheld the evening star.
When manhood's fullness is achieved
We cease to care to wander on;
The glowing splendors we believed
The calling distance held, are