Free Old Books!

Do you know about the internet archive?  If you love libraries, this is a place you can get lost in!  It's a free resource with all kinds of old books, as well as music, audio, and video recordings.  I haven't looked at any of the other stuff, just the books, but there is some GREAT stuff in there!  You can read on-line, download to your kindle, or save as a pdf.

For instance:  Poultry Production by Lippincott, 1916.  Everything you wanted to know about how they raised poultry before bagged feed and antibiotics.

Here's another one:   Secrets of meat curing and sausage making; 1922.  Because everyone wants to know how to make sweet pickled spare ribs and braunschweiger liver sausage, right?

Or how 'bout some Weather lore by Richard Inwards; 1869.
"A year of snow, a year of plenty."

Here's something fun:   A manual of politeness, comprising the principles ofetiquette, and rules of behaviour in genteel society, for persons of both sexes; 1842.  This covers general deportment all the way to personal hygiene.

For your entertainment there's always Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads by Alan Lomax, 1938.  Here's one that I liked:

 The Cowman’s Prayer

Now, O Lord, please lend me thine ear,

The prayer of a cattleman to hear,

No doubt the prayer may seem strange, 

But I want you to bless our cattle range.

Bless the round-ups year by year,

And don’t forget the growing steer;

Water the lands with brooks and rills,

For my cattle that roam on a thousand hills.

Prairie fires, won’t you please stop?

Let thunder roll and water drop.

It frightens me to see the smoke;

Unless it’s stopped, I’ll go dead broke.

As you, O Lord, my herd behold,

It represents a sack of gold;

I think at least five cents a pound

Will be the price of beef the year around.

One thing more and then I’m through,

Instead of one calf, give my cows two.

I may pray different from other men

But I’ve had my say, and now, Amen.

I could go on and on: ghost towns, gardening, tall tales, folklore, cowboys, outlaws, farming, parlor games, fashion, wit and humor, dogs, poetry...  

Oh, and one more, a cookbook I just discovered that I think is a hoot:  Marion Harland's Complete Cookbook, 1906.  She incorporates life lessons along with cooking. 

What are you reading on these cold, dark Winter days?