Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1895 — In Days of Tallow Dips. [ARTICLE]

In Days of Tallow Dips.

In these days of cheap and universal illumination we almost forget the humble tallow dips of our grandmothers, and the way they were made. Candle making was the great household event o i the late autumn or early winter, as soap making was of the spring.Oareful andlaborious preparations were made for this labor. The small wooden rods that had been laid up above the great beams of the kitchen or thrust under the garret eaves since the previous year were brought down stairs to the scene of the candle dippings and cotton wicks that had previously been cut, and sometimes soaked in saltpetre were placed three or four inches apart the entire length of each rod. Usually eight or ten wicks were fastened to a rod. Sometimes “cattails,” or flags, were used instead of wooden rods. Then long poles were placed in a cool room supported on two straigtt backed chairs, and across these poles the bewicked rods were hung like the rounds of a ladder. This work was all done on the day previous to that appointed for the candle dipping, and on the following morning all in the household were astir before dawn.