Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-08-16

and was eventually given to the heather who may have worn it OF
by now. The eldest son was envied by his brothers because he a
ways had an opportunity to wear the garment first although hi
joy might have been somewhat lessened by the prevailing custor
of getting them very much too large to suit the case of a CROWN
boy.
Candy or other sweets were seldom bought except on Christ
mas or the Fourth of July. A few times in the year, if times wer
good enough, New Orleans molasses was furnished for a cand!
pull. Continuous pulling made the brown stuff white and some
times it survived long enough to get white, though more often i
was sticking in the teeth of the candy hungry youngsters long be
fore that.
Of course maple sugar could be had at any time, a barrel or 81
having been put by during the winter for the family use during
the year. 1t looked like brown sugar, or it looked like syrup or il
was in the form of three or four pound bars and no matter what
form it appeared in, the blamed stuff tasted just the same. How
we hated it, 1t was like quail. If one quail is good, thirty ougfn
to be better, but no one has ever eaten that number in thirty days
When Christmas time was at hand or company came, what a treat
the coffee A white sugar was.
In the evening most people used candles to work by, though
there were a few whale-oil or coaLoil lamps which were considered
to be especially dangerous and only the bravest dared handle them
Some people were rich enough to have candle moulds which turned
out from one to TIVE dozen candles at a time but the great majority
used dipped candles and it fell upon the small boy or girl of the
house to dip them. This job was dreaded for months before it ac-
tually happened and 1t was rumored that one day a certain boy bit
off a piece of his fathers farmer twist tobacco and swallowed it in
order to be too sick to dip candles.
First they measured and cut 100 candle wicks, then tied a loop
in one end of each. A board in which were set 100 pegs was then
fastened up on the wall and a large pan of hot talow set on a chair
in front. The wicks were hung on the pegs by the loops and we
were ready to go. Dip number one in the talow. Hang it up. Dip
number two in the tallow and hang it up, and so on through the
hundred. When you arrived at the end of the board each wick had
an infinitesimal coating of taHow and number one was cool enough
to begin all over again. How many times this had to be done we
don't know. 1t was like that song "Ninety-nine Blue Bottles Were
Hanging on the Walw 1t has no ending and woe betide the luck
less urchin who left his job before every candle passed snugly
through a hole in the board which served the purpose of gauge.
In the light of those candles boys and girls sat and knitted on
their winter stockings, wristlets, and mittens while one of their
number read from the Bible n a story. The mother was kept busy
turning heels and toes or supervising the unraveing when too
great a number of dropped stitches showed up. Occasionally they
sewed carpet rags and many a boy at school tried to hide the needle
marks on his left index finger in order that he might not be the
target for the jeers of the others who all had to do the same thing
but pretended not. When the rag s were all sewed and nicely
rolled into balls, the mother often hunted through the garnet and
returned with bundles of Yellow Dock root, Red Oak bark, Wild
Cherry, Blood root and Saffron and for days thereafter her hands
were an indescrbable combination of colors that came off only
with wear. The boys enjoyed this for often there were odds and
ends of bright coors which served to make wonderful war bonnets
for their play.
All through the winter the hardwood ashes were carefully
dumped into barrels which had to be kept tightly covered. All
winter long every particle of waste fat of any kind was dumped in
to the soap grease jar and when spring had come and everything
was bright, one day the order was issued, to-day we start to make
soap" The ash barrels were dragged forth and their contents
dumped into a tight hogshead that sat on a sloping platform in the
back yard. Underneath the edge of this platform was a small tank
or tub. Water was brought and poured upon the ashes. After a
long time it filtered through and was caught in the aforementioned
tub only to be turned back upon the ashes. Finally, when the
liquid had attained a rich coffee color a new laid egg was brought
and dropped into the I've. If it floated the I've was strong enough.
Somewhere about every place there was a huge iron kettle. In
to this was dumped the I've, soap-grease, ETC., and a big fire built
underneath. At the proper moment strips of sassafras bark were
thrown in to perfume the soap and when it was done we had a
couple Of barrels of soft soap and a hundred pounds of hard soap
The soft soap was great stuff. On Saturdays we had to scrub
the floors. Preliminary to this we dropped spots of soft soap
nxDund the floor especially where a person would step if he entered
he room hurriedly. Sometimes our hopes we're vain but, if any,
one stepped into that soft soap, the resultant gymnastics often
snding in a fall, amply repaid US for our pains. Usually one of us
performed for the other as we carelessly stepped back into the
h1p.
We used that soft soap in washing dishes and when we ar
n school some ~pestiferous uchins who had disguised the