Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-02-24
Wash DAY OF The WORLD
Blue Monday More or Less Common
Everywhere.
CUSTOMS OF THE TUB WIDELY DIFFER

In Some countrys the Wash is Com
munity Affair-Abyseinia Has a
Peculiar Annual Custom-Norweis-
ans and Germans Wait for Big Aceu.
mutation. -
Rub "a dub dub is the litany of the
tub, supplanted in part, by the anti
phony of washing machines in the mod
ern American home. In Italy and Sar-
,dinia you may greet your linen being
washed in public troughs along the
streets, and in Normandy your clothes
are dipped in flowing streams, placed
on rocks, and pounded with paddles
until you have visions Of your little
pearl buttons floating back to the
fnollusks whence they came" says
bulletin of the National Geographic
Society nom its Washington, d. c.
headquarters.
"The round little Dutch womans
wash-tub is to be found almost any
where you turn. Along the canals, al
the water troughs and boat landings
the roly poly, pink checked mother
washes the pink and blue cottons OF
her Adolf and Wilheimina in these
stationary dish-pans and wash-tubs OF
her
GBlue Monday" Once a Year.
"There is only one blue Monday
year in Abyssinia, and then the women
don't do the work. Both the women
and men wear robe of cotton
wrapped about them, the former over
a sort OF night 7gown and the latter
over loose knee trousers, On the Eve
of ST. John the men do the small fami-
ly wash for the year. They dig a hole
in the ground by the side of stream
and spread piece of leather over the
bottom of it. They put the clothes in,
sprinkle them with a powder made
from fruit resembling the Corinthian
grape. and fill the hole with water.
Then they tread back and forth upon
the clothes for an hour or so. working
up a white foam which the powder has
generated. The wet garments, which
are said to be as white as snow, are
rinsed in the flowing stream.
In some remote parts of Switzerland
wash day comes but twice year. The
Alpine peasant woman is too busy
working the crops and tending the
ecattle in the summer to do the wash
ling, and in the winter 1t Is too cold, so
~, ht.ll in tho cnrinpr and
fall. She takes her turn for several
asdaSs among the other women of the
saeighborh6od sat the community tub,
which is filed with water piped down
from glacier. Nearby big copper
kettles are sizzling over fires built on
the ground in order that she may, have
hot water'to help loosen the dirt which,
is most cases, is thoroughly ground In
to the garments. They do not. rub the
clothes sbut. after soapinge throw, them
against an inclined board. .t.1,<
Laundry a Semi-Annual Event.
''' 'In parts of. Germany the same sys-
tenn is practiced. Long lines of boats
may be seen coming down the streams
looking for a. suitable spot where the
semi yearly accumulation of soiled
clothes may be made wearable again.
There is usually at the top of the
houses of these people an aired loft in
which the clothes are stored pending
the coming OF wash day and where
lines are hung to dry them when the
deed has been done. g.;
Wash Day by the TUT Of Barrel.
Eat intervals along the. banks Of
rivers and streams in France one may
see the peasant woman washing their
clothes on stones, and beating them
with wooden paddles. In Paris along
the Seine there are the bateaux la
yoirs or large covered boats where the
washerwomen go to do their work. In
the city streets there are everywhere
the lawoirs publiques' which are pri-
vate establishments where, for small
sum housewives can use the tubs, the
hot water, the wringer, and the drying
room. A veritable army Of washer
women camps out along the River