Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/264

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY.

��wonderful color of London brown ; and, to young men coming of age, who had been in- dentured boys, the beautiful "freedom suit" was valued higher than the horse, saddle and bridle. Previous to this, the suit was often home-spun jeans, or home-fulled cloth in the rough, dyed a dark yellow or a snuffy brown ; cf)at, pants and vest cut and made by the hand- iest woman in the vicinit3\ The wamus ,was the common garb of the pioneer ; in color red, blue, brown, yellow or plaid, and not unfre- (pientl}', plain white flannel, made in a hui'ry, at the sudden approach of cold weather, and worn temporarily, which meant only until the time came in which the over-busy wife or mother could concoct a simple dye and give it a solid color. Long before this period of full- ing-mills, the ingenuity of the pioneer and his thrifty wife had devised a novel method of thickening the texture of flamiel so as to make it suitable for men's winter wear. It may not have l)een a practice everywhere. The web of goods was stretched out and held loosel}^ at each end, while men with bare feet and rolled- up trousers sat in rows on each side of it. Then the women poured strong hot soapsuds on the web while the men kicked it with all the vigor possible, making the white foam of the suds fly all over their persons. It proved a very good substitute, and caused an immense sight of fun and laughter. This was alwaj's done in the evening, was a "bee" the same as a husking bee or a chopping bee ; and, if the work was done b}^ the beaux, the belles poured on the hot suds and shared in the fun and wit- nessed the agility of the contestants, and after- ward refreshed themselves by a dance on the wet puncheon floov. This way of fulling cloth was called a " kicking bee, ' and was a feature of those times of privation and exigency. The stiff new linen shirts, trousers and sheets could hardh' Ije ironed into smoothness in those days, when no family owned more than one flat- iron, and there was not much time to be given

��to unnecessary work. Garments were gener- ally drawn back and forth, Ijriskl^', over the top of a chair-back, to take out the big wrinkles and give them a tolerable degree of softness, while plain wear, such as bed and table linen, and petticoats and aprons, were folded down as smoothly as possible on a chair, and the woman who spun at the little wheel sat upon them a day or two. A new tow-linen shirt could be compared to nothing else than a ver^^ guilty conscience by the man who wore it. The shives sticking in the linen pricked into the flesh continually, and were a source of great annoyance.

In every neighborhood there were a few families who had brought with them the super- stitions of their forefathers, and the result was that some poor man or woman was reputed to be a witch. Not much proof was required. If a woman had very l)lack eyes, or stepped stealthily, or spoke in a low tone of voice, and the gossips said she was in league with the prince of the black art, it did not take long to fasten the reputation upon her, and the ignorant looked with awe and fear upon the poor hunted, watched creature. And so they greased their broom handles, and laid dead snakes head fore- most in the paths, and hung horse-shoes over the cabin doors,, and were careful to spit in the fire, and not look over their left shoulders when they passed the abode of the doomed one. But sometimes her wrath fell upon them, and the oxen would lie down in the furrow, and no power could move them, not even hot coals, nor boiling soap, when poured upon them. One time, when the family of a poor man rose in the earl}' morning, one of them lay still, and slept heavily and breathed noisily. On examination it was discovered that he had been witch-rid- den; his sides were black and blue from the kicking heels that had urged him on to his best paces, and the corners of his mouth were torn from cruel bits guided by jerking hands. Peo- ple who were objects of the witch's spite found

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