The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-06-27

put in a pen came the shucking sup-
per-loaf, biscuits, ham, pork. chick
en- PIE, pumpkin custards. sweet
CAKES, apple pie, grape pie, coffee.
sweet nilk butter milk, preserves. liz
snort a rich feast of every thing WELD
ia by the farm. 1t required a good di-
geslon TO manage such a feast at ten
or eleven O'Clock at night but the
nardy sons O fthe soil had a good d.
gestion. Or if anything We're wanting
u tramp Of four or five miles on a
poSSum or Don hunt lasted till one
or TWO O'Clock in the morning would
be sufficient to settle the heartiest
Snucklng supper that ever was spread
on the farmers tables in bountiful old
Rowan count
The tanner and the shoe max er. the
natter, the blacksmith and the weaver
pied their aVocations all over the
county. The wandering tinker came
around at intervals with his crucible
and his mouIds for spoons. plates
and dishes and melted and transform
ed into bright new articles the ole
broken pewter fragments that rcre
carefully preserved. How the young
sters would stare at him as he stir
red the molten pewter with his bare
finger. And how diligently the boys
hunted the rabbit, mink. muskrat. OF
~ 49," "CNOoh III OitStI Nttt I1ItII
skins to be taken to the halter at
Jumping Runon Cross Keys or Irutch
Second Creek to be made into q sleek
ana SfInlng beaver TO h. Worn as their
first fur hat insteal OF the cid
heavy hare wool hat" that was low
to be used only as an every day hat.
Every house had it's pair OF cards for
wool and cotton, its large and small
spinning wheel revo:vins rapidly an
der the pressure Of deft fingers or
strong and elastic foot while the
thread or yarn oy the cTt' and
hank hung on pegs on the walt. AS
the visitor approached the house as
soon as the morning chores We're
done up, he would hear the deep bass
rumbling of the large wheel or the
buzzing of the little flax wheel with
its hooked plyers whirling the thread
around till sufficiently twisted and
then letting the thread skillfully in on
the spool. Or perhaps he would hear
the creaking of the reel with its sharp
click as it told when a 'cut" was
reeled on from the spool. Or perhap s
he would see a pair of huge warping
bars, or winding blades slowly revolv-
ing as they measured off the chain or
fling Of the next six hundred Stare Of
plain white shifting or coperas cloth
or it may be Of linsey or perhaps
jeans. And then what efforts We're
put forth to secure the most brilliant
dyes and faster colors. The garden
contained a bed Of 'madder' whose
roots gave the brown or red dye. Wal
nut roots and bark or maple bark
with a little supplied the
tints Of black and purple or little log
wood gave a lustrous black. No aniline
dyes were known but roots. banks and
leaves lent their essential colors to
the fabrics spun and woven by fair
~, 9i6anS and haartV YpatrnnS Dha
Fourth of July in those days was Tie
grand holiday Of the year. An orator
was procured and the Declaration was
impreSSively read and the daring deeds
of the illustrious Of 1776 were com
memorated. 1t would be varied with
now and then a military parade with
screaming fife and rafting drum and
now and then q barbecue. Early in TIL
spring the good wives began to get
up the Fourth of July suits for their
husbands each priding herself on hav-
ing the most nicely dressed husband
on that gala day. Old silks were cut
up into shreds. picked to pieces and
earded with cotton to make a SILK
mixed coat. Vests with Turkey red
stripes cut bias and pointing like
chevrons to the bottom were in the
height Of fashion. Knee breeches with
long stockings tied with garters and
shoes with huge silver buckles had
not gone out of style in those lays
The material of the breaches was not
infrequently a soft plant yellow buck
skin very very "streachy' of a rainy
day. The wife of a distinguished cit
izen Of Salisbury in those days is said
to have excelled all the rest by rig
ging her husband out on a certain
Fourth Of July in a full suit of nan
keen cotton. carded. spun. woven and
made in her own house. Another tex
tile fabric in these days was flax The
flax patch with it's delicate blue bios
SONS was a pleasing spectacle. And
the flax was skillfully pulled. the
seed threshed out and in due time
laid out to rot. When the stem was
sufficiently rotten the ponderous
strokes of the huge flax breaker could
be heard and the swish of the scutch-