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Metcalf & Luther - [Illustration of an eye, with an imp leaning on top of it with a bandage covering one eye, between the letters O and C]. O C $50,000.00 worth of house furnishing goods to be sold this Fall, regardless of cost! ...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Greenfield items
Greenfield - Miss Mary M. Scoby competes with the growers of large tomatoes. She had a single stem, bearing a cluster of 15 tomatoes, the smallest of which would fill a common saucer.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 30, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
"It is an ill wind that blows nobody any good". F.E. Field is giving people a chance to purchase the crockery saved in his store, damaged by fire and water, at their own prices.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 23, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
Saturday night’s fire - We had a narrow escape from a serious fire Sat. night, after an immunity of over 2 years. About 11 o’clock, Charles Burnham and James Keith discovered smoke billowing from the basement of F.E. Field’s crockery store in Union Block, belonging to the estate of the late R.R. Taylor. The alarm was given at once, and the fire department were soon upon the scene. So dense, however, was the smoke in the cellar of the store that it was impossible to make an entrance, but the water was applied as well as possible through the basement window and door. It was like fighting an enemy in the dark, and ere long the fire had worked its way up the partition between Field’s store and the central stairway; and following beneath the latter, crept along the base boards and up the walls on the second floor.
Streams from two hydrants - one directed inside the crockery store, and the other in the stairway (holes being cut with an axe through the plastering) - poured in a flood of water, which deluged the block from top to bottom. But so difficult was it to reach the flames, and so thick was the smoke, that it was nearly an hour before the fire was finally subdued. soon after the first alarm, Mrs. Smith, a sister of Mrs. S.F. Warner, who occupied 4 rooms on the second floor, and who is an invalid, was taken out by Dr. Deane and others, through a passageway into the American House, the smoke preventing egress in any other direction.
The origin of the fire is not yet apparent. It caught in a pile of straw taken from crockery crates; but Mr. Field says that about 8 in the eve. he went into the cellar and everything was all right. Whether the fire was ignited by an incendiary or by spontaneous combustion is matter for speculation [I’LL say!].
The damage is of course more from the water than the fire. But few articles were taken from the stores, and everything in the main building was saturated. More or less crockery was broken, but the firemen were disposed to be as careful as the circumstances would permit. Perhaps the most serious damage is in the stove and tin shop of M. R. Pierce & Co., who occupy the other side of the block. It was completely stocked with valuable stoves and iron ware, which will be badly rusted and rendered unusable.
Their work room, fortunately, is in a one story projection in the rear, and escaped the general deluge. Mrs. Smith’s goods and furniture were thoroughly smoked and wet, and we understand that she was not insured. A gold watch, which she had left behind in her flight, was taken out by Charles Smith, when the fire was at its height, who entered a window at the risk of suffocation. There is $4000 insurance on the building, placed equally in the Dorchester and Quincy companies.
F.E. Field has policies of $3000 divided between the Hanover, N.Y. and the American, Pa., and $1000 in the builders. M.R. Pierce & Co. were insured for $3000 in the Hanover and American. The rooms over M.R. Pierce & Co’s. store had just been rented to a Miss Thayer, a dressmaker. She had her carpets put down on Sat., and the firemen took them up without serious damage. She had no other goods on the premises.
It is difficult to estimate the amount of the loss. The insurance companies will doubtless repair or settle all damages. The firemen, under Chief Engineer Lyon, did their duty well, and the Glen water proved its value. Hand engines, with such a fire, would not have been equal to the task, and there is no telling where the conflagration would have stopped.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 19, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
Last Thurs. aft. Mrs. C.P. Forbes, who was in charge of her mother's house on High Street, left the hired girl ironing in the kitchen, and locking the front door, went out. During her absence a tramp entered through a window and ransacked several rooms. An old pipe was left on the carpet in the parlor. The only things missed were one or two small articles of plated ware. He had collected some other things to take away, but was apparently frightened off by the entrance of someone to the yard. No trace of the thief could afterward be found.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 19, 1875
Buckland
Speaking of antiquarian relics, we have in our possession an old arm chair, belonging formerly to our great grandmother, which must be nearly or quite 150 years old, also a pewter platter about 100 years old.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 5, 1875
Shelburne Falls
O.R. Maynard, Cashier, is daily adding to his collection of antiquities, and he is always glad to see those who have anything old and odd to sell or donate. A recent addition is a tea cup 150 years old, the identical one through which some of the tea which was thrown overboard into Boston harbor by the Revolutionary patriots, was put and secreted after it had been scraped out of the sand. These relics were obtained from Mr. Warriner King of King Corner, Hawley. He is about 87 years old and his sister is most 86. She is much spryer than many women of 60, and they are really the nicest old people in all the region round about.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 7, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
Fri. aft. a tramp sauntered around Noyes and Stratton's shop, and being "dry", as such fellows are sure to be, recognized an old, broken pitcher that contained something wet, and notwithstanding the damaged and nasty appearance of the vessel, caught it up and took a pool at the liquid, which was nothing milder than oil of vitriol [Sulfuric acid! See Wikipedia]. The fellow commenced to hawk and spit, and the workmen dispatched him to Howland & Lowell's for something to soothe his burning gizzard, but the chap never made his appearance at the drug shop, and what became of him, no one is able to find out; but fellows of his stripe have iron clad stomachs, and no serious damage to his internal arrangement was likely to result.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 31, 1875
Hampshire County items
Miss Myra Parsons, daughter of Lyman Parsons of Northampton, entertained about 25 young people dressed in old style costumes, in her father's home on Bridge Street, which is 140 years old. The table was set with dishes of ancient pattern, tallow candles were there, a lump of sugar was supported from the ceiling over the table, for the use of the tea drinkers. A bureau with dressers so high that a chair was necessary to open them, were among the attractions that pleased and impressed the happy company that 140 years had wrought many changes.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 31, 1875
Shelburne Falls
On Tues. June 8 will occur the annual sugar eat on Clark Hill. A large snow drift is doing its level best to be present at the exercises. The Shelburne Falls Band will furnish music. Some good speeches may be expected. Saucers and spoons are to be carried by each one attending.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 3, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
Levi Jones, who for many years was the proprietor of the Green River Foundry, left town last week for St. Louis, with his wife, to reside with a son-in-law who is extensively engaged in the pottery business.
Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Lawrence celebrated the 20th anniversary of their wedding Mon. eve., with a party of 75 friends. A fine china tea set was conspicuous among the presents.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, March 22, 1875
Levi Barnard
Levi Barnard, son of A.L. Barnard of Charlemont, has severed his connection with the store of Sherwood, Clock & Traphagen, Ithaca, N.Y., and is preparing to remove to Bellevue, Ohio, where he will start a grocery and crockery store. Upon leaving the store of Sherwood...the proprietors, clerks and other employees of the establishment, made Mr. Barnard a beautiful present, in token of their esteem. It is a very handsome steel engraving, entitled "In Memoriam", the artist's idea having been derived from Tennyson's poem of that name.
/ It represents a beautiful maiden talking to a huge oak. The picture is handsomely mounted in a French walnut and gilt frame. The presentation was made by Mr. Wilgus, the proprietor of the store, whom Mr. Barnard served as cashier and book-keeper for a period of 9 years. Preston Baker, of the late firm of Baker Brothers, has gone to Bellevue, Ohio with Mr. Barnard, his partner in the grocery and crockery business. Mr. Baker leaves a host of friends who wish him abundant success in his new field of labor. A.L. Barnard intends to join his son at some future day.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 22, 1875
Where they come from
Where they come from - by Olive Thorne [the pen name of http://www.harpers.org/NightMonkey.html Harriet Mann Miller ]. You’ll be shocked, I fear, when I tell you that your doll came out of a rag bag; her curls from the back of a goat, and her elegant china tea set out of a small hole. But what will you say when I tell you that your http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC3180.htm jelly is made out of old boots, and your delightful perfumery from horrid smelling coal tars. You don’t own all the made over things in the family, either.
Johnny’s new http://www.bharattextile.com/dictionary/66 beaver cloth overcoat was worn out on the back of a beggar, and perhaps even played the part of a scarecrow in some farmyard, before it went into the rag bag and began to come up in the world again; and the http://www.adrynight...20Physiology129.html "Table Gelatin" which everyone in the family likes to eat, once did duty as skin on the back of a rat. The pearl of your paper knife lined the shell house of a modest little creature at the bottom of the sea, while mamma’s shell comb was the comfortable roof over a Sea Tortoise.
Your guitar strings were indispensable to the internal comfort of some poor pussy or unfortunate sheep, and your piano would be but a dumb wooden box, without some of the same internal arrangements of a horse. Your nice hair brush first saw the light on the skin of a hog, and its pretty back of papier mache came out of the ragman’s bag. The crinoline that stiffens the bottoms of ladies’ dresses was used originally to switch the flies from the back of a horse, and the mattress on which you sleep so comfortably served the same use before it fell into the manufacturer’s hands.
Your dainty toilet soap - dear me, how can I tell you! - was made of dead cats and dogs, found in the streets, and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almond "bitter almonds" which so delightfully flavors your candy came from the horrible smelling coal tar, while the choicest are as deliciously flavored with -- putrid cheese. The scent hairs of that offensive creature, the skunk, furnish some desirable additions to the toilet table, used for removing freckles and tan, and the dreadful stuff left in drains is changed into a fashionable toilet article, and adorns the face of ladies. To be sure these disagreeable materials have some pretty rough handling before they come out in their new colors. The old boots, for instance. They do not step from the gutter into the jelly kettle by any means. They go through a long process of washing and soaking in lye and smoking with sulphur, and steaming and boiling, before they come out white and delicate, and fit for the table. T
he coal tar to grow into perfumery goes through the hands of chemists, who treat it with I don’t know what dreadful chemical processes, and the dead dogs and cats are boiled to extract the grease, purified, whitened and perfumed before we use them as a soap. The doll whose ancestors inhabited a rag man’s den endured unheard of operations of washing, soaking, bleaching, chopping, molding, and so forth, before she took her place in the nursery to amuse the little folks, and the clay from the mud hole was washed and patted and whitened and kneaded, and baked and glazed before it ventured to call itself china, and take its place on the tea table.
The horse tails that stiffen the dresses and stuff our mattresses are washed, and soaked, and boiled and baked before we use them, and the intestines which make the voice of guitar and piano went through long processes of scraping, soaking in lye, and washing, before they were drawn out into the fine, tough strings you are familiar with. The rat skin which we eat under the name of gelatin first flourished as the thumb of a kid glove, and after being worn out in that capacity went through ever so many purifying processes, somewhat as the old boots did, before it ended on our table.
Nearly all the things that we throw away in [?] or even in our drains - the most disgusting things you can think of - are valuable, and after going through the hands of skilled workmen, come out in new shapes and have new fields of usefulness. The feats of old fashioned fairies, who turned pumpkins into carriages, and shabby old gowns into elegant robes, do not compare with these wonders performed in our work shops by rough looking men in shirt sleeves and white aprons.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 22, 1875
Ayer's Cathartic Pills for all the purposes of a family physic. [Illustration of a mortar and pestle, with the word Ayer's written on the side of the bowl]. Curing...[everything under the sun]...
Ayer’s Cathartic Pills for all the purposes of a family physic. [Illustration of a mortar and pestle, with the word Ayer’s written on the side of the bowl]. Curing...[everything under the sun]...
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 22, 1875
East India correspondence
East India correspondence - 300 miles east of Bombay, Dec. 7, 1874, To the Gazette & Courier - Your paper of Oct. 12 has just reached me and it is doubly welcome in this far off region. I have been for some days past touring beyond the English territory in the Nizanto dominions. Several year ago a tract was given to a Hindoo who couldn't read; he gave it to a man who could read, and the latter was soon after converted. Yhrough his influences many have become interested in the truth; and to look after these sheep without a shepherd, I am now so far away from my home. I went first to Sholafuer by rail, 275 miles, and from thence I took a small tent in an ox cart and I myself ride on a pony. The cart and oxen are worth about $70, and the pony cost just $15. We go from 12 to 15 miles a day and we are now 80 miles from Sholafuer [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sholapur probably Solapur ]. I have not seen a single bridge on the way and we have crossed not less than 40 rivers and brooks. In the rainy season carts do not go over these roads, and even now, 6 weeks after the rains, many of the brooks are nearly impassable, the mud is so deep. One night the cart broke down in one of these mud holes and it was nearly 3 o'clock in the morning before we reached our halting place. For the most part there is a thick black soil in all this region, and it needs only water to make it vastly productive...Much wheat is sown in this region...I have not seen a white face since leaving Sholafuer and have hardly heard an English word. This time has been one of the most interesting I have ever made. The first Sabbath I held the communon with a little church 30 miles from here. There is no church building, and the service was held in front of the principal man's house; chairs are seldom seen in these villages - and we had neither chairs nor benches, but blankets and mats were spread upon the ground for us to sit upon. After the sermon, a clean cloth was spread upon one of the mats, and some common bread of the natives, on a brass platter, was placed before me on the cloth, and also a brass cup filled with the juice of some dried grapes prepared for the occasion...One item I must not omit. Since I started on this tour a lady missionary, Miss Matta Anderson from Shelburne has arrived at Bombay. She proceeds at once to Abmednugger [i.e. http://valmayukuk.tr...ombaycensus/id1.html Ahmednuggur ], where she will have charge of the girls school. We are very thankful for this accession to our missionary force, and we are sure Miss Anderson will find a very interesting and important sphere of labor... http://wesley.nnu.ed...801-0900/HDM0896.PDF C. Harding .
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 15, 1875
Golden wedding
Golden wedding - The relatives and friends of Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Harris met at their residence in West Halifax, Vt. Jan. 13, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their marriage. Although the day was stormy, there were 70 present. Mr. H. lives in the house in which his father and grandfather lived and died, it having been built 83 years. There were 4 sons present with their wives - all they have left of 7 children - and 7 grandchildren present, 6 absent. Among the attractions of the eve. were one large motto cake bearing the date of their marriage in beautiful raised letters on the frosting, Jan. 13, 1825, and 4 other motto cakes, representing the births of their surviving children, and a rosebud, signifying the birth and death of an infant child; also two full blown roses to emblemize two daughters who died, one nearly two years, and the other nearly one year ago. These emblems were gotten up and arranged for the occasion by Mrs. Arsena Thurber and Mrs. Chester Thurber and exhibited much taste and skill. Then there were exhibited some family relics. An old Bible 267 years old [from 1608!], which but few at the present day would be able to read readily, an old candlestick and a cider pitcher, both of which were used in their courting days, bringing back pleasant memories, and a china tea-set and other relics. Then Mrs. H. enlivened the entertainment by carding some wool as she used to do in her younger days, and by taking a johnny cake on a board before the fire in the old fireplace, of which there was a bounteous supply, and an interchange of pleasant good feeling seemed to reign. Rev. H. Fowler addressed the bride and bridegroom in a very appropriate manner for the occasion and gave a distinct elucidation of the emblems. Remarks were made by the bride and bridegroom, relative to the guests of 50 years ago, there being but one present of the 11 who are living of the 45 witnessing their marriage. There were numerous presents, a nice lounge and arm chair from their children, a silver case, a nice tobacco box and pipe, a castor, some greenbacks and many other articles. The eve. was highly enjoyed by all, and about 11 o’clock the entertainment closed by singing "When shall we meet again?" and prayer by the Pastor.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 15, 1875
The mound builders
The http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0834239.html mound builders - After the last mammoth was slain, it is very probable that many centuries passed before the http://www.harvestfi...Links/02/Chap10.html mound builders came to occupy the soil where these animals had been. The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Builders mound builders were a race of men who never saw the mammoth at play [or they would have] carved or painted his likeness, as they did those of the birds and beasts they knew...Unfortunately we do not know what they looked like, and as they wrote no books we do not know what language they spoke. All that we know of them is from the wonderful works of industry and skill that they left behind, and especially from certain great mounds of earth they built. It is from the great works that they derive their name. One of the most remarkable of these mounds is to be seen in Adams County, Ohio. It represents an immense snake a thousand feet long and 5 ft. thick, laying along a bluff that rises above a stream. There you can trace all the curves and outlines of the [?] and a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpent_Mound tail with a triple coil...Sometimes they are shaped like animals, sometimes like men...In other places there are many small mounds, arranged in a straight line, at distances nearly equal, and extending for many miles. These are supposed to have been used for sending signals from station to station across the country. Then in other places there are signal mounds, sometimes 60 ft. high, sometimes 90, with steps leading up to the top, which is flat, and sometimes includes from 1 to 5 acres of ground. These mounds are scattered all down the valley of the Mississippi, and along many of the tributary streams. There are thousands of them, large or small, within the single state of Ohio. They are not made of earth alone, for some of them show brick work and stone work here and there, though earth is always the chief material. Some of them have chambers within, and the remains of wooden walls, and sometimes charred wood is found on top, as if fires had been kindled there...In Central America there are similar mounds, except that those have on their tops the remians of stone temples and palaces. So it is supposed that the higher mounds of the Mississippi Valley may have been built for purposes of worship, and that although their summits are now bare, yet the charred wood may be the remains of sacrificial fires, or of wooden temples that were burned long ago. It is certain that these mound builders were in some ways well advanced in civilization. All their earth works show more or less of engineering skill. They vary greatly in shape; they show the square, the circle, the octagon, the ellipse, and sometimes all these figures are combined in one series of works. But the circle is always a true circle and the square a true square; and moreover there are many squares that measure exactly 1080 ft. on a side, and this shows that the mound builders had some definite standard of measurement. There have been found in these temples many tools and ornaments, made of copper, silver and valuable stones. There are axes, chisels, knives, bracelets and beads; there are pieces of thread and of cloth, and gracefully ornamented vases of pottery. The mound builders know how to model in clay a variety of objects, such as birds, quadrapeds and human faces. They practiced farming, though they had no domestic animals to help them. They had neither horses nor oxen nor carts, so that all the vast amount of earth required for these mounds must have been carried in baskets or skins; and this shows that their population must have been very numerous or they never could have attempted so much. They mined for copper near Lake Superior, where their deserted mines may still be seen. In one of these mines there is a mass of copper weighing nearly 6 tons, partly raised form the bottom, and supported on wooden legs, now nearly decayed. It was evidently being removed to the top of the mine, nearly 30 ft. above, and the stone and copper tools of the miners were found lying about, as if the men had just gone away. Now when did this race of ancient mound builders live? There is not a line of their writing left, so far as it is known; nor is any distinct tradition about them. But there is one sure proof that they lived very long ago. At the mouth of this very mine just described there are trees nearly 400 years old, growing on earth that was thrown out in digging the mines. Of course the mine is older than the trees. On a mound at Marietta, Ohio, there are trees 800 years old. The mounds must, of course, be as old as that, and nobody knows how much older. It is very probable that this mysterious race may have built these great works more than a thousand years ago. It is very natural to ask whether the mound builders were the ancestors of the present American Indians. It does not seem at all likely that they were, because the habits of the two races were so very different. Most Indian tribes show nothing of the skill and industry required for these great works. The only native tribes that seem to have a civilization of their own are a certain race called Pueblo Indians (meaning village Indians) in New Mexico. These tribes live in vast stone buildings, holding sometimes as many as 5000 people. These buildings are usually placed on the summit of hills, and have walls so high as only to be reached by ladders. The Pueblo Indians dress nicely, live in families, practice various arts, and are utterly different from the roving tribes farther north. But after all, the style of building of even the Pueblo Indians are wholly unlike anything we know of the mound builders; for the mound builders do not seem to have erected stone buildings, nor do the Pueblo Indians build lofty mounds. Perhaps this singular people will always remain a mystery. They may have come from Asia, or have been the descendents of Asiatics accidentally cast on the American shore. Within the last 100 years, no less than 15 Japanese vessels have been driven across the Pacific Ocean by storms and wrecked on the Pacific coast of North America, and this may have happened as easily a thousand years ago as a hundred. It is certain that some men among the mound builders had reached the sea in their travels, for on some of their carved pipes there are representations of the seal and of the manati, or sea cow - animals to which they could only have seen by traveling very far to the east or west, or else by descending the Mississippi River to its mouth. But we know neither whence they came nor whither they went. Very few human bones have been found among the mounds; and those found had almoost crumbled into dust. We only know that the mound builders came and built wonderful works, and then made way for another race, of whose origin we know almost as little (Young Folks' History of the United States).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 15, 1875
The Worcester Spy reports that a morning or two since, Mr. William Prentice of Grafton went out to feed his cattle, and found one of his cows with an ugly hole, apparently gnawed out of one of her li
The Worcester Spy reports that a morning or two since, Mr. William Prentice of Grafton went out to feed his cattle, and found one of his cows with an ugly hole, apparently gnawed out of one of her lips, the size of a tea-cup. Not being able to find any cause for this within or about his barn, he carefully bound up the wound and left the cattle for the night. The next morning, what was his surprise to find the cloths with which he had swathed up the wound eaten through and the original wound enlarged. He concluded that the animal must have been attacked by wharf rats. Mr. Prentice then procured poison, and the next morning found 4 huge rats dead or dying. The severe weather is driving these voracious animals from their accustomed haunts in search of food.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 8, 1875
(Greenfield) F.E. Field is bound to make things lively in the crockery trade and has reduced prices to ensure quick sale.
(Greenfield) F.E. Field is bound to make things lively in the crockery trade and has reduced prices to ensure quick sale.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 8, 1875
In the bottom drawer
In the bottom drawer - I saw wife pull out the bottom drawer of the old family bureau this evening, and went softly out, and wandered up and down, until I knew that she had shut it up and gone to her sewing. We have some things laid away in that drawer which the gold of kings could not buy, and yet they are relics which grieve us until both our hearts are sore. I haven’t dared look at them for a year, but I remember each article. There are two worn shoes, a little chip hat with part of the brim gone, some stockings, pants, a coat, 2 or 3 spools, bits of broken crockery, a whip and several toys. Wife - poor thing - goes to that drawer every day of her life and prays over it, and lets tears fall upon the precious articles, but I dare not go. Sometimes we speak of little Jack, but not often. It has been a long time, but somehow we can’t get over grieving. He was such a burst of sunshine into our lives that his going away has been like covering our very existence with a pall. Sometimes, when we sit all alone of an evening, I writing and she sewing, a child on the street will call out as our boy used to, and we will both start up with beating hearts and a wild hope, only to find the darkness more of a burden than ever. It is so still and quiet now. I look up at the window where his blue eyes used to sparkle at my coming, but he is not there. I listen for his pattering feet, his merry shout and ringing laugh, but there is no sound. There is no one to climb over my knees, no one to search my pockets and tease for presents, and I never find the chair turned over, the broom down, or ropes tied to the door knobs. I want some one to tease me for my knife, to ride on my shoulders, to lose my axe, to follow me to the gate when I go, and be there to meet me when I come to call good night, from the little bed now empty. And wife she misses him still more; there are now no little feet to wash, no prayers to say, no voice teasing for lumps of sugar or sobbing with the pain of a hurt toe, and she would give her own life, almost, to awake at midnight and look across to the crib and see our boy there as he used to be. So we preserve our relics, and when we are dead we hope that strangers will handle them tenderly, even if they shed no tears over them.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, February 1, 1875
Jewish passover
Jewish passover - the observance of this festival is prescribed in Exodus xxiii...It occurs in the Jewish month of Abib...They close their shops everywhere; dwellers in the country, where there are no Jewish communities, repair to the city and put up with their friends, or at Jewish inns until the week is over, travelers return to their homes, and in fine every stray orthodox lamb puts in an appearance. An unusual amount of friendliness and benevolence are prevalent and the enjoyment is general. But after all, these are not the distinguishing features of the Passover. All the festivities are more or less marked in this way; its real characteristic is its unleavened food, and the operation which this peculiar diet has upon Jewish tables. All leavened food and fermented drink are prohibited and everything containing any admixture of either, such matter being known by its Hebrew name, http://www.chabad.or...ometz.asp?aid=111191 chometz [i.e. http://www.uniquejewishgifts.com/holiday.asp?id=8 chametz ]. With respect to this the festival is observed with extraordinary strictness. By noon the day before the Passover sets in, every http://www.jewfaq.org/holidaya.htm house is completely cleaned . All table and kitchen utensils, dishes of every description, knives, forks, table covers, wine glasses - everything in fine that has even the remotest connection with the preparation or consumption of food or drink, besides, of course, all unconsumed groceries, are removed to the attic, or some other distant and unoccupied quarter of the house. In place of all this houseware, an equally complete array, which has never been used except for the unleavened food of this festival, is brought down from the attic, and arrayed for a week's brief service. Each little Israelitish lamb has probably its own private Passover mug, the gift, perhaps, of some friend or relative, and how the youngsters rejoice over their familiar favorites as they are taken from their year's confinement. While these dishes are used the greatest care is taken to prevent their contact with http://homecooking.a...weekly/aa040201a.htm chametz . Should such collision accidentally happen, the contaminated utensil, in thoroughly orthodox households, is sundered from the rest of the Passover ware, and thereafter is doomed to perpetual association with the plebeian crockery upstairs (the Galaxy for November).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 25, 1875
(Plainfield) Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Jo[?] of Plainfield celebrated their china wedding on the 15th. Over 100 of their friends visited them, had a good time, and left behind a set of china and several be
(Plainfield) Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Jo[?] of Plainfield celebrated their china wedding on the 15th. Over 100 of their friends visited them, had a good time, and left behind a set of china and several beautiful vases. Mrs. Levi Holden’s Sabbath School class of young ladies, with suitable escort, made their teacher a surprise visit on Wed. eve. They were cordially received, treated to hot maple sugar and other good things. Miss Julia Gurney in behalf of the class, presented Mrs. H. a beautiful chromo. It was a very pleasant social gathering.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, January 11, 1875
More Josh Billings
Hotels - by http://www.dailycelebrations.com/041205.htm Josh Billings . This seems tew be the whole thing and it is the whole thing in most cases. You will diskover the following deskription a mild one ov about 9 hotels, out ov 10 between the Atlantik and Pacifick Oshuns, akross the United States in a straight line. Your room is 13 foot 6 inches by 9 foot 7 inches parellogramly. It being court week (as usual) all the good rooms are employed by the lawyers and judges. Your room is on the uttermost floor. The carpet iz ingrain - ingrained with the dust ov http://sniff.numachi...LCRN;ttMUSSLCRN.html kerosene ile and ink spots ov four generashuns. There is two pegs in the room tew hitch coats onto; one ov them broken oph, and the other pulled out, and missing. The buro has three legs and one brick. The glass tew the buro swings on two pivots, which have lost their grip. There is one towel on the rack, thin, but wet. The soap is as tough tew wear as a whet stone. The soap is scented with cinamin ile, and varigated with spots. There iz three chairs, http://basketweaving...eat_weaving_site.htm kane setters ; one is a rocker, and all three are busted. There is a match box, empty. There is no kurtin to the windo, and there don’t want to be enny; yu kan’t see out, and who kan see in? The http://www.stairropes.com/bellropes.html bell rope iz cum oph about 6 inches this side of the ceiling. The bed iz a modern slat bottom with two mattresses, one cotton and one http://www.chicagohi...ody/Sheet/sheet2.htm husk , and both harder and about as thick as a http://ship25bsa.org...or/sea_biscuits.html sea biskitt . You enter the bed sideways, and kan feel every slat at once as easy as you could the ribs ov a gridiron. Your bed iz inhabited. You sleep sum, but role over a good deal. For breakfast you have a gong and rhy coffee too kold tew melt butter, fride potatoze which resemble the chips a two inch augur makes in its journey through an oak log. Bread solid; beefstake about as thick as a blister, and az tuff az a hound’s ear. Table covered with plates, and a few scared to death pickles on one ov them and 6 fly indorsed crackers on another. A pewterinktom castor with three bottles in it, one without any mustard and one with two inches ov drowned flies and vinegar in it. Servant gall, with hoops on, hangs round you earnestly, and wants tew know if you will take another cup ov coffee. Yu say "No mom, I thank you" and push back your chair. You haven’t eat enough to pay for pikking your teeth. I am about as self konsalted as it will do for any man tew be and not crack open, but I never yet konsaited that I could keep a hotel. I had rather be a highwayman than tew be sum landlords I hav visited with. There are hotels that are a joy upon earth, whare a man pays hiz bill as cheerful az he did the person who married him; where you kan’t find the landlord unless yu hunt in the kitchen; where servants glide around like angels ov mercy; where the beds fit a man’s back like the feathers of a goose, and where the vittles taste just az tho your wife or your mother had fried em. Theze kind of hotels ought to be built on wheels and travel around the kuntry. They are az phull ov real comfort az a Thanksgiving pudding; but alass, yes, alass! they are az unplenty az double-yolked eggs.
- Sun, Feb 21, 2010
