Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1914-02-02
SOFT SOAP.

SOFT SOAP.
The grocer brought the soap to the
house. When the lady of the house
cent out her laundry she simply put
two bars Of soap in the basket with
the clothing, such being her arrange
ment with the '1aundress" It was easy
both as concerned what old folks used
to call "the weeks wash" and easier
as concerns the soap; for laundry soap
in bars might be termed a modern
invention little older than the tele-
phone and much younger than the
telegraph side of the quick commune
cation trust.
Still there be those. firm Of foot and
level OF eye tho showing some evil
dences Of age in wrinkles and by rea-
son Of gray temples and store teeth
who have packed water In their pro-
testing youth wherewith to arouse the
activities Of the ash leech which was
wont to stand in everybodys back yard.
An ash leech was part of the soap in
dustry as conducted at least once a
year. by every we'll regulated house
wife. Never saw an ash leech? Brought
up in some worthless town or the child
of shfless parents then for in the day
and the generation of ash leeches
everyone had a leech, everyone saved
soap grease. everyone made soap and
nobody had '1aundresses" and 1aun-
dry" Then we did the washing at
home every Monday morning. The
sun up and If Mrs. Johnson got ahead
Of us. why Mrs. J. got up early on
purpose and scamped breakfast And
all these washings were done with soft
soap manufactured on the premises.
An ash leech was a big inverted
Vmade Of boards and often big enough
to hold three wagon loads OF wood
ashes. 1t was simply a great hopper
wood that had blazed on the hearth. in
the chunk stove and the cook stove
was dumped each morning when we
took up the ashes" Some ashes were
ing ladies of that time had a fine taste
in ashes. Those rich in potash were
most favored. Certain soft wood ashes
were worthless but then nobody who
was anybody and owned a timber lot
burned soft wood any time unless thru
the hottest weather in the summer.
Into this hopper went all the ashes.
Into tub or barrel went all scraps of
grease, odds and ends of butchery in
the fall, accumulations of carefully
saved zines of hams and shoulders
and grease Of every degree. A soap
grease barrel was a gruesome sight. In
soap boiling time the unfortunate
youth selected for the task carried
many pals Of water to pour carefully
over the ashes in the leech. 1t had
to be distributed evenly over the top
surface and Just enough poured in to
start a drip at the lower end Of the
hopper where it came out burdened
with potash, amber colored plain
biting I've to find its way along the
channel Of the bottom boards to trickle
into an earthen crock placed to re-
ceive It. This sort of thing went on
until sufficient lye had been accumu-
lated. Then the big iron kettle came
out, the fire was built beneath it, I've
and soap grease were mingled in the
correct proportions and soap boiling
was fairly under way. The unfortu-
nate youth referred to stirred and
stirred the Shiny mess under orders
from feminine autocracy. And when
the end finally came there was a half
barrel or more Of brown, viscid soap,
sharp with I've. conqueror of dirt and
creator Of suds, most excellent for
white clothes" but a little hard on
colors. When washing was in progress
washboard was literally smeared with
the mixture and given a liberal sup
ply of elbow grease and things were
clean in those days when the Job was
ON0s AO Oh SohS AAA S1iC WI lSlodAOS VI
shirts, no cloudy sections on the linen
sheets, all was as pure as the "pearly
baldric of the skies" referred to in the
American Flag" poetry reading lesson
In the Fourth reader. The use of soft
soap was highly recommended and
sometimes commanded in cases where
hands had become "grimed" and their
youthful possessor seemed willing to
let them stay thus, cases where father
suggested skinning hands or feet ne
elected but where mother resorted to
soft soap as substitute. Clean7 You
could clean anything from wamus
to q trust magnate's record with soft
sosp. OF course there was toilet soap
in bars then. We used 20 get CASTLE
soap in chunks. The grocerynan kept
II in long slabs and sawed off a piece
about as big as a hunk OF butter in ex-
change for Decent paper shin
plaster" Sometimes it was necessary
to use ''boughten soap in washing