Pre-Automatic Instructions

This is a copy of a letter from an unknown pioneer woman to her daughter telling how to wash clothes:


1. Build a fire in the backyard to heat a kettle of rain water.
2. Set tubs so smoke won't blow in eyes if wind is pert.
3. Shave 1 hole cake of lie sope in biling water.
4. Sart things, make 3 piles, 1 pile white, 1 pile cullard, 1 pile britches and rags.
5. Stir flour in cold water to smooth, then thin down with biling water.
6. Rub dirty spots on bord, then bile. Rub cullard but don't bile. Just rench and starch.
7. Spread tee towels on grass.
9. Hang old rags on fence.
10. Pour rench water in flower bed.
11. Scrub porch with sopy water.
12. Scrub privie seat and floor, with sopy water caught from porch scrub.
13. Turn tubs upside down.
14. Go put on a clean dress. Smooth hair with side combs. Brew up tea, set and rest a spell and count blessins.