Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 113, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1910 — REMINISCENCE OF THE GRIST MILL AND THE MILL BOY OF THE OLD DAYS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

REMINISCENCE OF THE GRIST MILL AND THE MILL BOY OF THE OLD DAYS.

HERE are but few men in the country that have reached the half-century mile stone on the highway from the cradle to the grave but have memories lingering around the old grist ■mmm* mill of their boyhood days, writes L. O. Emmerson in the Princeton (Ind.) Clarion-News. In their mind’s eye they see its steep roof and hear its “chew-chew”— and think that is just what the bldanill w*if doing wifa the corn and wheat that was pouring into its insatiable old grist mill with "wool carding” painted in big letters along its jtfde which might be read with ease a halfmile away, with closer inspecti(H( showing in smaller letters this sign near the entrance door, which all were expected to read: "Custom days Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Toll one-sixth for corn, one-eighth for wheat. First come, first served.” Here all the gossip of the country was exchanged for its kind. Here knives were swapped, either by inspection or'unsight or unseen? Horse swapping was also of common occurrence. On those “custom days” from early morn to dewey eve the crowd was coming and going, swapping and bantering. Did it happen to be a campaign year, politics was discussed by all except the miller, who was supposed to favor all sides and have nothing to say, and it was regarded as a breach of good breeding,to attempt to draw him into discussion. The milling was most often done by the boys of the family, ranging in age from 10 to 17 years. If anyone should inquire about the size of any certain boy, and was told that., he was big enough to go to mill, they would consider the answer satisfactory. When the family ineal barrel showed signs of exhaustion, a bag of corn would be selected the evening before some particular custom day, and at night after all the chores were done and the family was all indoors, 3 bed quilt would be spread out upon the floor and the corn poured thereon. Then the family would gather around and shell the corn upon the quilt, while the cobs would be thrown aside for use in the kitchen stove. Then the quilt would be gathered up, causing the corn to collect in the center, when it would be scooped into the’ bag and set aside till morning. Bright and early the next day it would be placed across the back of a horse with a boy mounted astride, and he would strike out for the nearest mill. Sometimes he would have to go five or six miles. The sign, “First' come, first served,” was strictly adhered to. Often he would be among the last to arrive and many times he would have to stay till dark for his grist, and then ride the lonely way home through woods and swamps in the darkBut all this was nothing to the day he had spent with the other mill boys, wrestling, jumping, playing ball and marbles, swapping knives and exchanging gossip for gossip, which he knew would be called for and listened to by all when he got home. A good supper would be waiting for him when he arrived at home at last, for of dinner he had had none. Mills quit grinding custom grists more than twenty years ago. In the old grist mill times when a boy came he was met by the miller at the platform in front of the mill door. The miller there took charge of the bag of grain, which he placed in a row of other bags, each in the order of its arrival. And when the last grain of any grist had disappeared down the hopper the miller would shout "Rake away!” This was the signal to the mill boy whose grist had been ground, and he must quickly rake all the meal in the meal box- to the end and not allow it to get mixed with the next grist, just poured into'the hopper. It was curious that people always supposed that the meal they got was ground from the same corn that they brought to the mill, when in fact it took several bushels of corn to fill the mill before any would run out. But they were satisfied and that was enough. Mills now buy your wheat and corn outright and sell you their meal and flour. The exchange is made at once, and you do not have to await your turn. No more do the mill boys congregate about the place. Going to mill has lost its charm; it is a lost art. We who have served our time must accept the customs and say farewell to the old grist mill, which, like ourselves, has seen its day.