The Goderich Signal-Star, 1987-12-22, Page 7PAGE 6B—GODERICH SIGNAL STAR, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1987
�eason's
Greetings
From management
and staff
K E H L AUTO
SUPPLIERS OTIVB
• STRATFARD • MITCHELL• 00DERICH
In Goderlch:
218 HURON RD -
524 -2141
1
Savor The Season
...As you enjoy this
most festive time! It's been our
sincere pleasure to serve you.
From the
Management & Staff of
GODERICH
RESTAURANT.
STEAKHOUSE & TAVERN
42 West St. 524-929P
Q Next Stop
Christmas!
Old fashioned wishes'
for friendship and
fun this Yuletide.
We're so very glad to
know and serve you.
*sem&/
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4001
Balm goad 704a4
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A look at America's sled and sleigh days
BY MARY CAROLYN MCKEE
0 f the hundreds of Currier and Ives prints portraying
American life a century or so ago, the most popular
of all were, and are, the winter scenes. These
snowscapes, although somewhat sentimentalized,
presented an authentic record of winter living, and many of
them featured the vehicles that were then the common means
of transport for nearly everyone: sleds and sleighs. Back
when the "gasoline buggy" was far in the future and the
snowl`hobile not even a dream, many people looked forward
to hitching up these carriers for local travel over the snow.
Winter travel on runners was much faster and easier in
many parts of the country than travel on wheels in the sum-
mer when roads were deeply rutted and, when rains were
heavy, turned into rivers of mud. On farms, large sleds, were
used to haul blocks of ice from ponds, logs from the woods,
and feed for the stock. With their floors covered with straw or
blankets, the sleds carried families to market, to church ser-
vices, and on neighborhood visits. Lighter and often quite
elegant sleighs were used for party -going or simply for the fun`
of racing along snow-covered roads.
According to early accounts, the forerunner of these ver-
satile winter vehicles was a crude ground sled or "drag" in-
vented by the American Indians. It consisted of two poles
connected with another pole or a platform of sticks.
Sometimes a hide basket was lashed to these crosspieces. On
these simple sleds the Indians hauled firewood, animals killed
in the hunt, and even tents. Since they were usually quite nar-
row, they could be pulled along the forest trails by hand using
thongs, or the thongs could be hitched to a dog or horse.
Early American farm sleds were almost as primitive. Two
pieces of wood were shaped into runners and fastened
together with slats. Later, wooden or metal runners were at-
tached to box -like wagon beds.
The first sleighs, like most of the carriages and coaches in
colonial days, were heavy and cumbersome until an enter-
prising young man from Connecticut revolutionized sleigh
styles in the early nineteenth century. James Brewster, a
descendant of Elder Brewster of Mayflower fames, was ap-
prenticed to a Massachusetts carriage builder for a number of
years. In 1809 he had set out for New York City by stagecoach
to seek another position. When the coach broke down in New
Haven, Connecticut, and the passengers had to wait for
repairs, Brewster walked about town and chanced to meet the
owner of the town's first carriage company. When the builder
offered him a job, he accepted it and forgot about New York.
Within a year he had launched his own carriage and sleigh
business in New Haven. Brewster sleighs were marvels of
grace and style as they skimmed lightly over the snow. There
were models with one and two seats. More elaborate sleighs
provided a seat for the coachman, and there were small
"pony sleighs" to delight children. There were even "push
sleighs" to be occupied by warmly dressed ladies and propell-
ed from behind ver the ice of ponds and lakes by their
escorts on skates.
Sleighs and sleigh bells were natural companions, for sleigh
bells were to sleighs as horns are to automobiles. On winter
evenings they prevented collisions, warned pedestrians, and
filled the winter air with their cheerful sounds. Sleigh bells
becamebu business in East Hampton, Connectiuct, where
William Barton starte making them about 1808. At one time
there were at least thirty bell companies in town and East
Hampton became popularly knwn as "Jingletown." The bells
came in a variety of sizes and patterns and were either single -
or double -throated. The single -throated type had one slit to let
out the sound; the double -throated variety had two slits cut-
ting across each other at right angles. There were some twen-
ty sizes of common sleigh bells, ranging from seven -eighths
of an inch in diameter to more than three inches. 'rney were
strung together and sold by the pound, or riveted to the neck -
or body -straps of a horse. Bells with the sweetest tone were
cast from "bell metal", a combination of tin and copper.
Other less expensive versions were simply stamped out of
steel or brass.
There was always something wonderfully exhilirating about
the ring of sleigh bells across a winter landscape. Edgar
Allan Poe expressed this in the first stanza of The Bells:
Here the sledges with the bells –
Silver bells.
What a world of merriment their
melody foretells.
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle
In the icy air of night
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight ...
Some years after Poe's poem appeared, J.S. Pierpont, a
minister from Litchfield, Connectict}t, paid tribute to the joys
of sleighing. He wrote for a Sunday School entertainment one
of the most popular winter songs ever written. His Jingle
Bells catches the high spirit of sleigh riders who glide over the
snow on a winter evening:
Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh,
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way;
Bells on bobtail ring,
Making spirits bright;
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.
That the jingle of the bells was reassuring after a storm is
pointed our in John Greenleaf Whittier's Snowbound. In the
morning following the great snowfall, all was silent until the
shut-ins "heard once more the sleigh bells' sound," and knew
that soon life would be back to normal.
Sleighing was all the rage in America from about 1830 to
almost the end of the century, and it gave the streets of cities
such as New York and Boston the look of a gala winter
festival. Stable owners welcomed weather that would bring a
rush of business – horses were groomed, sleighs made ready,
and harness polished when the air "smelled like snow."
Daring young drivers often raced their sleighs in areas of
suburban Boston. Occasionally there were smash-ups due to
the heady combinations of fast,horses and speedy sleighs, but
the popular sport thrived. Two huge sleighs, "Cleopatra's
Barge" and the "Mammoth Mayflower," cruised the streets
of the Massachusetts capital after a big snowfall. Both
resembled ships mounted upon runners and were drawn by
several teams of strong horses. They often carried cargoes of
more than twenty passengers around the city or out into the
country.
It should be noted that not quite everyone considered
sleighing a delightful pastime. Harriet Martineau, a British
writer who visited America in the late 1830s and wrote
Retrospect of Western Travel was a dissenter. She described
the sport: "Set your chair on a springboard out on the porch;
put your feet in a pail full of powdered ice; have somebody
jingle a bell in one ear and somebody blow into the other with
a bellows, and you will have an exact idea of sleighing."
However, Charles Dickens, who visited America in 1867 (his
second journey), had an entirely different reaction. He chanc-
ed to be in New York City during a snowstorm that was
severe enough to stop train service for a time. In a letter to
one of his daughters, Dickens described the city streets as
bordered with high walls of sparkling ice and, ever delighted
with a dramatic situation, wrote, "I turned out in rather
gorgeous sleigh yesterday with any quality of buffalo robes
and made an imposing appearance."
The use of sleds and sleighs continued through the 1890s but
slowly waned after the tuwn of the century. As late as 1902
the Sears and Roebuck catalog featured a "cutter" depart-
ment with illustrations of two one-horse vehicles priced at
$16.90 and122.50. A two -seated "Russian" bob sleighs was of-
fered for $46.90.
Today one occasionally sees horse-drawn sleighs gliding
along the side roads in New England, the Pennsylvania Dutch
country, and the Middle West. The delight of antiques collec-
tors, they add a nostalgic Currier & Ives touch to the
snowscape.
One of this writer's earliest winter recollections was wat-
ching a cutter dash down a Missouri lane. With bells a -jingle,
it drew up with a burst of speed before our gate. My uncle
and aunt and their two boys threw aside the fur robe and step-
ped out.
What a thrilling arrival that was! And what an exciting
memory!
%•0 0 0 -9.0'0.0, •0 0:0:A': :0:020:: .21. :0 4. :0:02
BY EUGENE FIELD'
The gingham dog and the calico
cat
Side by side on the table sat.
'Twas half -past twelve, and
(what do you think!)
Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink!
The old Dutch clock and the Chinese
plate
Appeared to know as sure as fate
There was going to be a terrible spat.
(I wasn't there: I simply state
What was told to me by the Chinese
plate!)
The gingham dog went, "Bow -wow -
wow!"
ROYAL CANADIAN
LEGION
BRANCH 109
Alvin Blackwell: President
We Wish All Our
Members, The Town
Council and Citizens
of Goderich A
Very Merry Christmas
and Happiness in
the Coming Year!
A Special Thanks
To All My Executive
And The Ladies
Auxiliary who have
supported me during
the year.
Alvin Blackwell
The Duel
And the calico cat replied, "Mee -ow ! "
The air was littered, an hour or so,
With bits of gingham and calico,
While the old Dutch clock in the
chimney place
Up with its hands before its face,
For it always dreaded a family row!
(Now mind: I'm only telling you
What the old Dutch clock declares is
line!)
The Chinese' plate looked very blue,
And wailed, "Oh dear! What shall I
do!"
But the gingham doe and the calico cat
Wallowed this way and tumbled that.
Employing every tooth and claw
In the awfullest way you ever saw ...
And, oh! how the gingham and calico
flew!
(Don't fancy I exaggerate ...
I got my news from the Chinese plate!)
Next morning, where the two had sat
They found no trace of dog or cat;
And some folks think unto this day
That burglars stole the pair away!
But the truth about the cat and pup
Is this: They ate each other up!
Now, what doyou really think of that!
(The old Dutch clock, it told me so,
And that is how I came to know.)
Qood tidings are
coming your way from
the bottom of
our hearts on this special
day, and with our wishes go
Ho f Meyer Piumbin
Goderich
& Heating