The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-08-29

- mean. There were many
lkx of them in Hawley, and
Shanty HILL" now known
by the more classic name of Marble
Hill, can very appropriately be called
the home of the brick oven. The
writer used to hear them referred
to as Dutch ovens" They were
thus called, probably, because in
those days those who came from
foreign lands to Wayne county were
from the countries of England, Ire
land, Germany and Holland, and, out
among the yankees" everybody who
didn't " talk United States" was
Dutch"
The Pennsylvania Coal Company's
gravity railroad ran right through
"Shanty HILL" and as one rode into
town he could see the brick ovens,
one for each home, standing ad-
jacent to each one-storied place OF
residence. Firewood was plentiful
in those days, and the ovens were
heated by building great fires in
them of slabs and worn out and dis
carded hemlock sills and beech RIB
bon" used in the construction of the
railroad before Enron was used.
Few people recollect how the road
was built when the car wheels rolled
over strap iron" Instead of ties
the cross pieces were called caps"
In either end of these 'caps' there
were deep notches to hold the inch
hemlock slls in place. On top of
the hemlock sills beech strips about
IL by inches were laid. A fiat iron
rail with holes drilled at regular in
tervals of space was laid on the
tr;r hat
bons.' Holes were bored through
ribbons" into the sill, and counter
sunk spikes were driven deep
through the holes into the sill, thus
holding the combination in shape.
On frosty morning it was an in
teresting sight on baking days to see
these ovens as the flames belched up
ward from their low chimneys, and
the Goals glowed and snapped in the
oven itself. These fires were kept
going until the oven was thoroughly
heated, then the fire and Goals were
all carefully removed, the top was
covered to hold the heat from escap-
ing, and the loaves of bread, the
blackberry and huckleberry pies
were placed in the hot cavern. When
these were done, and removed, a
huge pan of beans that had previous
ly been boiled until tender, with
hunks of tender pork, (the alter
nate layer of fat and layer of lean
kind), were sunk deep in the beans
so that only the surface, (Which had
been slashed with sharp knife SO
that it resembled a checker board)
was in evidence, was placed in the
oven, and there it remained Cor
hours until the oven had cooled.
OF course along with the buckle
berry pies there were cups of yellow
custard, and other little things that
only those old time cooks knew how
to compound. All of these good
things came from those old brick
ovens. 1t was all done with a sim
pie twist of the wrist" There was
no tinkering with dampers and 9th
er contrivances that are part OF
the modern stove or range. And il
was of such baked goods as these
that the people rave when they talk
of the good things that mother
used to make"
But there isn't a brick oven left
in Hawley. Shanty Hill has be-
come Marble Hill. You can search
it from end to end, and all the in
formation you will be able to get viii
be that just about here" or right
over yonder," is where the ole
brick oven I've heard father anC
mother talk about used to stand"
The fuel problem has driven out
the brick ovens and the open fire
places. The tendency nowadays il
to get the most service out of the
smallest quantity of fuel. And, un
doubtedly, the modern stove one o.
these days will follow in the wake
of the brick oven, and we shall bake
our bread and boil our coffee by
electricity or by solar heat. AS tC
baked beans, all the kind people ge
nowadays are the much vaunted
but miserable apologies, the kinds
that are daubed up with tomatoes
and come in cans, and are baked whC
knows where or how? and try Il
palm themselves off on us as tn,
genuine article.
Alas! and alack! The write,
would be delighted to see even {
photograph of an old brick oven
but even that, probably, is not forth
coming
Now, all of this may sound yer!
strange to any of my readers wht
nave lne uySpepSlu' IlSIS 10 uOplui
there are none such. To the hungr!
man all that has been written will
be thoroughly understood, and' al
such will say that's sol" when
quote Lytton in conclusion:
''We may live without poetry, musi
and art;
We may live without conscience, an,
live without heart;
We may live without friends; w
may live without books;
But civilized man cannot live with
out cooks.
He may live without books,-wha
is knowledge but grieving2
He may live without hope,-what
hope but deceiving?