The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1948-07-29
HORSE AND
BUGGY DAYS
by
Ida 10 Martin

pecially if you happen to be a mem
Der of family who never throw any
thing away, but store every trlnket
away in the Attic" Ours holds
quite a collection, that begins with
a spinning wheel from the Golden
Days." includes all the usual house
hold oddities and necessities, and
from more recent times, our butter
fly mounts from High-school days.
Personality, l am glad that some
people do keep all these things.
One time l discovered an old Nc
Guffy Reader, very well worn, the
paper being brown and very brittle.
I never used any of these books in
school myself, but / can remember
older folks talking about them, and
today they are quite rare and much
sought after by collectors of odd
books. l believe it was about the
year 1890 that Henry Ford had the
entire set of McGuffy's books re-
printed so that anyone who had ever
used them could get a set of these
famous old readers.
l remember especially my grand
father reciting poem from Nc
Guffy's Third Reader entitled 1--WE
are Seven" The last time l heard
him recite that poem was when he
was around 80 years old. There are
sixteen verses of four lines each in
this poem, and he knew it from
start to finish without any hesitation.
/ also ran across some odd shaped
things and l had not the slightest
idea of what they were. Mother eX-
planned that they were tallow candle
molds, and she remembered when
they made candles with them at her
home. Rendered beef tallow was
used for making the candles. The
mold consists of six or eight tubes,
each shaped like a candle. A spec
ial, heavy string that became the
wick, was placed in the tube and
held down the center, while the
melted tallow was poured around it.
These finished candles were of course
used to light the homes, the stand
by in the way of light for many
generations l wouldn't mind max
ing some of them for the fun of it.,
but when it comes down to fine points
(and fine print I'm sure glad we
have something more substantial to
use today.
We must not forget the romantic
side of the almost forgotten Candle
light" When entertaining "Beaux,"
how welcome must have been the
soft glow of candle compared with
the brilliant glare of an electric
light! And we are all familiar with
the peaceful, hallowing effect of
soft candlelight in Worship Serv-
ices, especially around Christmas and
Easter And then too, we must not
forget the reliability" of the
candle; it can not be darkened by
some reckless automobile driver,
miles away, hitting pole. It is a
pretty good idea to keep few of
them around the house to dispel the
darkness on such occasions.
l recall another little item of the
past, when lights could not be lit by
wall switches. This is the old time
paper "tapers." 1t took lots of mat
ches to light up the candles and
lamps and the lanterns necessary
for work around the barns. But
since there was almost always a
fire going in the kitchen range, the
old fiat-top wood or coal stove, a
simple match-Saver was devised. A
long strip of paper was cut, just a
few inches in width l can remem-
Der my father rolling these strips
of paper, starting very tightly at one
end, rolling the strip spirally into a
long thin taper and bending the fin
ishing end to keep it from unrolling.
The thin end of these tapers were
thrust into the fire of the stove and
used to light all other kinds of lights,
the end was then snuffed out, allow
ing the taper to be used many times.
/ also found in our attic an old
'fat'' lamp. These were little lamps
made of pewter, or other types of
early sheet metal, very primitive in
appearance. There was a small
opening for wick and one for pour
ing in the fat. The wick carried the
fat to the upper end where it burn
ed, leaving the wick to be used for
long time, in contrast to the way
wick burns along with the tallow
in a candle. Of course when oils,
such as kerosene, became available,
the coal-oil lamp replaced these old
fat lamps.
The old spinning wheel, familiar
sight in every antique shop, is one
Of the choice relics of the past. The