KNOTT'S ISLAND IN THE LONG AGO; STUFFS FOR DYEING AND DYE-TUBS; LYE STANDS; WOMEN'S WORK ABOUT THE SAME AS IN THE PAST. NEW FASHIONS INTRODUCED; THE BROADCLOTH COATS; THE EFFECT OF TOM JONES'S PREACHING; MANUFACTURED GOODS INTRODUCED, EFFECTS.

In the foregoing chapters I have told of the gunning and fishing industries and of the other work of the men; the getting of cloth from cotton, wool and flax by the women; the women also wove beautiful counterpanes and comfortable blankets for the beds.

I will add that when I was a lad a lye-stand could be found in every outward chimney corner, with a dye tub near-by; a log of log-wood in every family; piles of maple and oak bark and wall-nut hulls for dying purposes, and a pound of coperas to help the process on.

The women's work at this time was about the same as in the past days. They still spun and wove; and were very particular in preparing a nice homespun winter suit for the husband and grown son, each vying with the other in producing the cloth. Ezekiel Beasley was the tailor that usually made these Sunday suits; and when made to fit well the wife could fully enjoy her meeting-house trips with her husband on Sundays. The men would allow no innovations on the previous fashions and the big-leg trousers prevailed, especially, the home linen ones in Summer.

With an eye to the past I can sit now and see one of these old-timers coming down the road to church on Sunday, with a pair of these big-legged, home-linen pants on; when ironed the wrong way, as they frequently were, the resembled a schooner coming bows-on with a full-set sail on either side. When the new fashions came along of wearing pants with a single vertical opening in front, as they have now, these old fellows made bitter protests and could not be induced to change the flap let-falls for this vulgar innovation; none, they said, but a Britisher or a Downeaster would introduce such a fashion. They continued till death to wear trousers with the single side-flap; and a few of the older onescontinued to wear double let-falls that looked like a large door with a window in the center.

Tom Jones, in creating his reformation had pointed out, in vivid colors, the place where the drunkard and the wicked must go after death; this had caused deep thinking among the bad element of the Island and a halt was very perceptible; so wives who had drunken husbands did not have to contend with so much boisterous conduct; nor did the wife and children have to resort so frequently to the fields and pine thickets as a hiding place, whence they had been wont to hear the smashing of dishes and the upsetting of tables and chairs by their liquor-steeped husbands.

As time wore on foreign manufactured goods became more plentiful; people began to purchase for the boys Kentucky Jeans for Sundays, and "shall-you-go-naked-or-will-you-wear-that" for every day wear; there were calico and other fabrics for the girls; so carding and spinning grew less.

These manufactured goods were mostly from Downeast; for there were little wanted from England, except the blue broadcloth coat. To wear one of these coats was considered patriotic and heroic, for didn't General Washington wear one in the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars and also in civil life? Further more, didn't our grandpapas and great grand-papas bring these coats with them in coming over to this country from England? These coats were held in great reveration; they were passed down but little the worse for wear, from generation to generation. Some of these coats were brought from England to this country for sale; others were made from this lest-forever-cloth, in this country, especially for officers in the military service. I should not wonder a coat of this cloth could be found in Currituck to-day, in some old chest long stowed away in garret, for who would dare help out rag carpets.

The foregoing was Knott's Island in the long-ago. What is it now?

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