…When the woman presses from above
shavings will fall from the mangle
but the trousers will be smooth
it will mangle every rag…
Today, a “mangle” is a place
Today, the name “mangle” is simply a term for the place where this device is installed. In Polish literature, there are well-known poems about this device, which was most often used in Polish manors before the Easter period.
…They are already mangling the “mangled items”
old underwear and curtains
and aprons and jabots
everyone quickly to work…
Bedding wound onto a roller
For mangling to occur, for example with bedding, it had to be wound onto the mangle’s roller and then intensely pressed as it was rolled between two flat surfaces within the mangle.
Two large rollers
Two large rollers were installed in the mangle, roughly several dozen centimeters long. They rarely exceeded a meter in length, but such cases did occur. One of them was manually driven, and the other was pressed against the first by turning a crank. And this fact was also widely written about in our literature.
…Press hard, woman, in the mangle
white linen like a sail
blast with steam and heat
let trembling hands work
old underpants will be new
flannel pantaloons
when a clean man puts them on
women’s mouths will drop…
What the work on the mangle involved
The mangle’s operation also involved inserting a piece of fabric intended for mangling between the two rollers and regularly rotating the cylinder. This action caused the mangled material to move, which ironed it out.
…turn the mangle briskly, woman
first to the left, then to the right
first eat enough bacon
so your hands have strength…
The bad reputation of “mangle girls”
The “mangle girls,” meaning women working in the mangle, did not generally enjoy a good reputation in society, because they saw men’s underwear very early in their lives, and they usually laughed at how these garments were sewn. No one ever wanted to marry such a girl from the mangle; instead, they most often became single mothers raising children early on. But they were the most liked in the society they lived and moved in, because they could laugh at the proverbial slightest thing.
…When a maiden mangles underpants
a hole in the front will spread
so the maiden waits for
what will soon come out of that hole
but God created man
for his underpants to be sewn with a hole
he is reluctant to marry
but chases after women…
