The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1914-02-06
CARROLL COUNTY WOMEN TAKEN
HIN.
A Modern Miracle and What Came Of

One of the Baltimore Sun reporters
got hold of some of the troubles
Of our credulous Carroll county
housewives and, as a result, the fol
lowing cleverly written article ap-
peared under "F'rocks and Frills' in
Tuesday mornings Sun:
Borne upon the wind or carried by
such grapevine telegraph as enabled
Mosby and his guerrilla cavalry to
learn, during the Civil War, many
things concealed from their Northern
foes, come rumors Of Q great feminist
movement in Carroll county-a wo-
mans uprising so wrathful of mood
as to make the excited meetings of
London suffragists seem a. mere af-
ternoon teas Of peaceful butterflies
compared to the agitated and angry
movement of swarming bees. The
hill-country women OF Carroll county
are mad through and through, and
when they come up" if they ever do,
either collectively or singly, with the
object of their wrath, he will wish
they had given him the absent treat
ment at the farthest possible di-
lance.
Those familiar with Carroll county
recall 1t as a pastoral region, where
men still follow the friendly custom
Of going from farm to farm, on the
first day of the year, to wish one an
other good luck, and the women are
no less solicitous concerning each
others welfare; hence, when anything
like this happens their wrath IS as
THE madness OF Philip" and com
munal rather than individual.
ha hn fu
missioner of Carroll failed to include
the writings OF the late D. Henry, or
the chronicles Of Get Rich Quick
Wallingford," in the reading courses
OF the public schools Or perhaps the
woman's clubs Of the county-if any
clubs there be-were unmindful of the
wisdom contained in these annals of
the subtle mind. But anyway the
trouble all came about quite recently
through the appearance in their midst
OF a stranger who posed al a benefac-
tor OF Womankind.
He came, he explained, from the
coal and wood regions, and his mis-
sion was to deliver woman from that
immemorial evil-the frequent black
ing of stoves. In distant regions of
coal and coke, he said, modern -rir-
acle had been discovered-oil oozing
from rock-bound sources; black oil,
the nature of which no chemist yet
knew. But this, at least, the intro
Queer did know. The mixture black
ened stoves so that for six weeks the
most-used plates would shine al jet,
the less-used plates retain their lustre
for six months, while the purely
ornamental portions of the stove once
bIackened would remain indefinitely
glorified.
The oil was put up in cans $1.00 a
can, because the mixture was just be
ing introduced 1t would be two long
years before the agent, serving as a
labor-saving angel, would reappear in
their midst, and upon his second adj
vent the same size cans could not be
purchased for less than $1.50 a can.
Tt was a glorious opportunity for
women possessing stoves to be thus
let in on the ground floor of a domes-
tic-science cinch, and women in shoals
hurried to exchange silver dollars or
equally honest bank rolls for this
wonder of the age. One enthusiastic
housewife invested in three cans on
the spot, and received discount of
so cents upon SO large purchase.
Then, one by one, In Carroll county,
stoves were encouraged to become
stone-cold, and one after another
housewives set themselves to the task
of polishing stoves to the queens
taste. And later the stoves were re-
lighted-and under the glow of the
first unit of healthier blackness dis
appeared as paint before potash. Al
SO with burning sulphur were as the
odors of a bank of violets in early
spring. And final and worst disaster,
after the backing applied had burned
off swiftly and malodorously, the sur
face of the stove refused absolutely
to take any Of the old reliable black
ing with which they were wont to
shine in dusky glory.
And that il the reason of the
wrathful feminist movement in Car
roll county today, and that is why all
sorts of innocent canvassers of re
liable goods are suffering a regular
freeze-out among the housewives Of
the Carroll hills.