Framingham State University - Dial Yearbook (Framingham, MA)

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27 and by having the open space in the long board, the light could shine both ways. I noticed how spotless the lamps were. Tin cups, white crockery and steel knives and forks made up the table service. While making my investigation atthe mill, the midday meal was served. During the shut down of the machinery I had a good chance to look around. VVhen the men returned my com- panions and I accepted an urgent invitation to dine. This was the menu: Boiled beef, boiled potatoes, wheat bread, graham bread, butter, apple sauce, doughnuts, ginger cookies, cake, lemon pie, tea and coffee. Really I began to think I was on a picnic. After this we returned to the mill. I found the work in this like the one I have previously described, but I want to tell you about the sleeping house. This was twenty-feet by thirtyfeet. The entrance was in the north end. A window was on each side of the room, near the door. Another was in the center of the south wall. Near the north end of the apartment was a large box stove. At the right of the door was a cupboard. Three beds were built against the west wall. These were like a box four feet by six feet by two feet, except that the ends were prolonged upward about four feet. In this receptable were placed a straw bed and several blankets. This completed the place of repose. Individuals sometimes fur- nished something for a pillow. Along the front of these berths was placed a board reminding one of a shelf. This was to sit on. Above these beds and on the extended ends of which I have spoken, were built three other beds like the ones below. In the southeast corner were two other tiers of four berths each, like the first except, that they ran parallel with the end of the room. A sink and several shelves at the left of the entrance completed the fur- nishings. ' Harmonicas, singing, clog dancing, story telling and the daily paper helped to pass away the long evening hours. Drinking and card playing were absolutely forbidden. On Saturdays the mill closed at half past four and then was the time that a great many of the men did their washing. This was a feature highly entertaining to the passersby. The cordiality and kindness of these men was felt throughout the neighborhood. p Another of my recent excursions of investigation was to a finishing mill. This is where lumber is sent to be made into furniture, boxes, or house finishing, as baseboards, chair railings, banisters and mouldings.

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26 drifted down the current to lumber dealers, saw mills, or paper mills. Men were often seen out on the logs prying them apart when they got lodged. When big drives were sent they were gauged and directed by means of booms, that is a lone of logs the ends of which are fastened together. In this way bridge abut- ments, rocks, certain mills, and shallow water were shut off. Vermont has a great many portable mills. I know of a man who has six or eight of these. One was put up in the immedi- ate neighborhood of my home last winter. Of course I improved my first opportunity to visit it. I found the settlement to be quite a village in itself. All it lacked was a church and a post office. There were live buildings, mess house, sleeping house, store, blacksmith shop and a barn. About forty Scotch Canadians, were in the camp. Two men, cook and cookee, prepared the meals. The mess house was of great interest to me because everything was neat and orderly. It was a one-room building about twenty by forty feet. In the middle of the north end were two large cooking stoves, while there was a door at each end, one opening into a store room, the other out of doors. In the northeast corner was an entrance to the cook's sleeping apartment. This was- single boarded but covered within and without with red building paper. A small sheet iron stove made it very warm and cozy. The furniture consisted of three chairs, two stands, and a bed made of rough boards. Two or three rugs adorned the rough board floor. Two small windows furnished plenty of light. Now we will return to the eating apartment. Four windows furnished the light here showing an unpainted and much stained but thoroughly swept floor. In the northwest corner was a sink, while along the rest of that side was a wide shelf under which were attached drawers. Some of these con- tained. dishes and others food. The other side of the room had a row of barrels, holding flour, sugar, and potatoes. Large boxes of tea, spices, etc., were also visible. Two tables ran parallel to the length of the room. These were unpainted boards covered with white oilcloth. This top rested on boards that were nailed together in the form of the letter X. These served as legs. Long unpainted benches took the place of chairs. One end of a board, four inches by two and one-half feet, was nailed to a beam over each end of each table. On the lower end of this was nailed a board five inches square, a strip three inches wide and one foot long was cut out of the lower end of the perpendicular board. This, as a whole served as a lamp bracket

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28 These are some of the kinds of wood used in finishing a house or for furniture. For mouldings, oak, black walnut, North Caro- lina pine, chestnut, sycamore and white wood, baseboards, bass wood, chair railings, quartered oak and Georgia pineg flooring, pine and maple, mahogany, rosewood, cherry, chestnut, birch, maple, black walnut and sumac are used to make the highest grade furniture. WVhen I looked at the big planing machine and another machine which sandpapered the boards, I hastened away as soon as possible for fear I should loose my fondness for that line of work in sloyd. They also had some remarkable machines which would make several cuts and grooves at once. The room for the drying of the lumber was quite interesting with its big steam pipes over the floor and about the walls. Cleats were over them and the boards were piled in the manner I have previously described. The room could be shut up and then the drying process was quite rapid. After receiving a great deal of much repeated information, and several specimens of wood, I began to recognize some of the wood without its bark. I wish more people might become aware of the grandeur of the trees, the contrast of their bark and the beautiful grain some of them have. Too many of us have only a dim idea of the gen- eral shape of different trees and their leaves. E. F. S. ge 5526 Brushes T was my turn to sweep the floor, and this Monday, I didn't want to do it. I never liked sweeping the floor, in fact as I have rather strong likes and dislikes, I hated it. But there was no way out of it. I had to sweep, and as grumbling out loud isn't allowed in our house, I grumbled inwardly. I swept the floor, and I had the dust in a little pile, ready to pick up with the dustpan and brush. I took the brush up in my hand, and was looking down at it, when the thought occurred to me, Well, I wonder how that little brush was made, and what it was before it became a brush? The brush was rather old, and the bristles were loose, so I pulled out a few, and discovered that the bristles were bound in a bundle, a sticky substance placed on the end of