Judge — December 17, 1881 — page 10: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

D!ID YOU EVER? Did You Ever Attend a Quiiting Party? THEY are not such important alfairs as th were when THE JUDGE was a boy, and you are obliged.to go further back from the large ters of trade and population in order to find one of them in its old-time glory. As a rule they do not interest boys and girls much; that is to say, 1 girls undert courting age, but for thos those who have been thi ing party ranks next toa In village: local newspaper, these the age and pugh the mill, a quilt. corn husking. hamlets whe > there is no | these natural at institution, it not almost substitutes for their real’ p " ity, for what. would the peop! news without them ? Have sou ever been to one of them? In a farming district, for instance, where the people scarcely live -vithin sound of each other, is where to find them still inf bloom, uunount toa do for The parson announces it trom the pulpit hing his afternoon sermon, that Mrs, Thompkins wi A quilting porty at her house next Wednesday ning, and the announcement p most 4 before pre afternoon and ev uc much pleasure as does the ne: vent of a cireus in And at the appointe wives and daughters be assemble in th pared quilt is in-place upon th to be set upon hy the hi bor in to arrive and to where the pre- best room ch: ypy Bat, after all, quiltin object of the gath come to sw i is not the particular The ladic deseant upon the we t r p news 01 sip tea and exchange re and other household purposes, al, Sister Jones, how du yu du?” asks Mrs. Smith, shaking hands with great cordi- | , for cordiality is one of the features of these gatherings. “Wal, I'm putty. well con: know how awfully I've been for so n rs; | just nigh unto death's door with this ere plaguey Jum! Oh, Sister Smith, 1 some- times don’t know what I should do if it warn’t for the blessed consola jon an’ dear | Parson Bunger’s sarmons on patience. Dear good man, arn't he? An’ there’s Jane, yu | know; she's bin courted nigh untu every | night, an’ it completely upsets her—don't have the spunk of a louse all the next day arter Hi's sot up with her the night afore, an’ so the work nearly all comes on me. It seems tu me sometimes thot I haven't got strength to tork Did you—of course you hearn all about Deacon Newton? No? not “bout his in’ out tu Frogtown tu see that red-h Wal, 1 decla knowd ‘bout t ———$—$— in’; but yu n of reli dled widder; no? Why, I thort everybody | at. Yes, he sneaked off there last Sunday night for the second time; an’ didn’t yu see her tu meetin’ last Sunday? Of course yu did, an’ didn’t: yu see him eastin’ | sheep's eyes at her all through the parson’s sarmon on ‘lovin’ yur neighbors? Wal, I ; I never lost sight of his conduct once, al- though it War a proper powerful sarmon tu; an’ they du say that the deacon’s on the point | Jane only THE JUDGE. of takin’ another wife, although it’s a mystery | tu me why he had tu go tu Frogtown for How's Mrs, Tucker? haven't seen her ta meet- in’ for in’ to my r ironin’ that 1 felt sorter uncazy “bout her; how's her cold? | Wal, I'm glad it’s better; colds is a dangerous | thing—often an” often thort as how my lun. | bago came from a cold—folks ¢ pful. What's the news?” hie is but a single sample. How would you like to be in.a room with twenty-five or thirty such news-gatherers, all talking at the same tim Finally they gather around the quilt and hegin to sew, their tongues going ten times to their needles once, excepting, perhaps, the young ladies, who keep more quiet as a gener. al thing, possibly because the arning | and unmarried, therefore unlicensed to talk quiteso freely ‘ow, Mrs. Pumper, what on arth be yu swuilin’ at?” asks Sister Green, and instantly all les stop, and ¢ ye upon the smiling sister, “Tvs something good, Tl warrant, with it; we want all the good ihings,” ne. a long time, an’ E was a erday wl we w tbe too ure nec 8 fastened ry Out suggests some one. “Twas only thinking about Zeb Hooker,” Mrs. Pumper replies, coyly. “Zeb Hooker! what about ask. + “Oh, nothing much. 1 cht to say anythin “Oh, ‘Tell us, what ‘bout Z “Wal, Ekalkerlate thar gal, not many miles f much interested if st mes. “Mandy Abbott,” said Mrs, Smith, at Mrs, Pury ingly, it was evident that she had something to tell in which all were of course interest “Well, I don’t mind tellin’ you. w heard, if you'll keep mum about it, for of him? pral don't about it,” suppose 1 a certain young s would fe pun her ‘ould hea it," suggests whe r laughed provol things on earth that I despise, it is a tale. bearer.” “Oh, of course; we'll never breathe a word.” “Do you all promise * “Certainly we all do,” was said in a chorus, while every needle was idle, and all eyes and ears bent upon Mrs. Pumper. * Well, he an’ Mandy's had a fallin’ out.” “Wha “Goodness me!" “*My stars and garters, you don’t “Heavens upon arth! what about dozen other exclamations and questions were fired off ina regular fusilade, “Well, she says she caught him ma es at Clarrissie Bate “No doubt on it; she's an awful flirt, an’ T’'ve seen her makin’ eyes tu several men, an’ atween us all, T guess if the truth was known, he'd flirt with a goodJookin’ married man just as quick as she would with a single one Mrs. Peg rarded her husband handsome, and therefore in danger. “The good-for-nothing ha: chorus, “Well, when he offered "Mandy his arm to see her home from meeting, last Sunday night, ,” said who re was the she just up and told him to go after Clarriss Bates, and notto speak to her again, Kate Hand stood right close by and heard her.” “What did he do?” “Didn't say aword, but skulked off; he felt so sheepish, I s'pose.” And then the to commenting upon it, interweaving it with y rsonal ¢ periences and the general gossip of the neighborhood, mak- ing the melange so interesting thatnight came. ‘on before the neglected quilt was thought of again. Ard by this time the husbands and lovers of the company began to arrive, togged in their Sunday best, for it is thein province to go there to supper and afterward & the ladies home; to them the best_ part of the business. This of course put away all further tho of quilting, for supper was nearly so the spare room was deserted and the whole company given over to chat, the older ones yl the: in heavy on crops ‘an’ sich,” ones ogling the girls and wish | whole aifa with s out into the darkness, to + younge Air Was Ove they mi ht get ©” them home, Homely and awkward, isn’t it? Well, yes, | to a town-bred person, perhaps, bu: in the ab- sence of much literature, theaters, balls, par nd the like, th ple man- © to extract whole jugsfull of happiness | from quilting parties cir Truc, there is but little quilting or sewing done, but every participant in them obtains enough food for ret | to last them and I week or mor supper | is nothin | petites which encompass it, | Yanke And after iti prepara. tion for home, ‘This is conducted chattily by the matrons, but the young people blush and look sheepish, just as though on the point « « the | tion and home comment ten their burdens ft Ling to their capacity rty and a jovial one. a he Frenchy about it, or the ap: Int both are and whole= ry h comes the doing somet! Now, Mrs. ‘Now, Mrs, Smith——" Jones, Pumper, Crocker, and a dozen others all speaking at the same time when on the point of going ought to be ashamed of. Jaway. “T shall expect you to pay me a visit soon.” * Do come up “Oh, 1 certainly will, and you must come over offen and see me,” and with more than | the aver punt of sincerity everybody in | vites the other to pay them a visit, and grad ually they depart with the final exchange of “ good-nights " all around, Josh pokes out his arm to Sally after they have got out into the darkness, and two pal- pitating hearts wander homeward, and | thinking of the son; age au From J Twas see 1 Dinah’s qui Nelly by ings party, ne, but he don’t feel hardly bold enough to ng it right out aloud, and so ends the quilting party as we find them in country towns and villages. IRELAND continues to be agi Kilkenny cats continued to do the did'nt they? 1. The mu thing, . comicbooks.com