378 AMERICAN HOMES AND. GARDENS 
How 
To Make 
Bayberry-Dips 
By William T. Allen 
October, git 
i ENON GVEA NSD these two ‘bayberry-dips’ home to your 
little daughter,” said a lady in Pawtucket 
to me early last autumn, ‘‘and tell her to 
keep them till Christmas and to put them 
ina hanging holderon her Christmas tree.” 
‘“T saw an advertisement the other day 
in a magazine—‘old-fashioned bayberry- 
dips, pretty and fragrant’—what are they, anyhow?” 
“Why, grandmother made them many a time when | 
was a boy. But that was years ago, and many things famil- 
iar to the young folk at that time seem strange to the 
young folk of the present day. Bayberry-dips, or candles, 
most fragrant and delightful, seem to be completely for- 
gotten, as are certain flowers of our grandmothers’ gar- 
den. But 
the good old cus- 
toms and things are 
coming into use 
again. Bayberry- 
dips are the candles 
that grow on bushes. 
The berries are on 
the twigs, and the 
wax is on the ber- 
ries, until we take it 
from these dry 
‘“drupes’’ and use 
the material for the 
mild and beautiful 
light, and the de- 
lightful = fragrance 
of the smoke from 
the smoldering wick. 
Whenthese bayberry 
candles were in com- 
mon use, in the time 
long ago, it was a 
frequent custom of 
even the sedate and 
courteous young ladies of the company to run unexpectedly 
to the “light stand,” and with a laugh and a quick puff of the 
breath, to blow out the flame, so that their friends might 
enjoy the fragrant incense that curled to the ceiling in the 
smoke of the dying wick. Pretty young ladies, a pretty 
flame flickering at the tip of the candle, a ripple of laughter, 
a quick puff, a wave of perfume through the room—doesn't 
it suggest a beautiful picture ? 
Of the shrubs that bear these berries, Robert Beverly 
says, in his “History of Virginia’; “At the mouths of the 
some of 
Picking the sweet-scented bayberries in the 
rivers, and all along upon the sea, and near many of their 
creeks and swamps, the myrtle grows, bearing a berry of 
which they make a hard, brittle wax of a curious green 
color, which by refining becomes almost transparent. Of 
this they make candles, which are never greasy to the touch 
and do not melt with lying in the hottest weather; neither 
does the snuff of these ever offend the sense like that of a 
tallow candle, but instead of being disagreeable if an acci- 
dent putts out the candle, it yields a pleasant fragrance to 
all who are in the room, insomuch that nice people often 
put them out on purpose to have the incense of the expiring 
snuff.” 
What is more delightful in a room warmed by the logs 
of the old-time fireplace than to have it lighted by bayberry 
candles ?oaitawe 
could only manage 
the young people, 
and keep them quiet 
long enough for us 
older “young peo- 
ple” to look at the 
bayberry flame and 
to dream a little! 
But the extinguish- 
ing puff is easily 
made; the young are 
active and quick in 
their movements; 
the bayberry smoke 
is: delightful: ite 
blow out the candle 
is to be ‘regaled 
weit Wh sa» sp dhevars- 
ant odor. 
“Why can’t we 
young folk make 
some of these can- 
dles?” inquired one 
of the girls. 
“You can,’ she was informed. And we so greatly en- 
joyed the work and the play that I want to tell other 
young folk how we did it, and to give them some facts of 
interest in regard to the shrub that supplies the berries. 
The bayberry shrub, or bush, is found in abundance in 
the sandy soil along the Atlantic coast, from Nova Scotia 
to Florida, and also on the shores of Lake Erie. It usually 
attains a height of from three to eight feet, and it is re- 
ported to grow, at times, in favorite localities, as high as 
thirty-five feet. The small nuts are grayish in color and 
late fall after the frost has touched them 
