Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1855-09-26
FULL NINETY YEARS AGO.

Laws-arme !! what is this world @ counting
to? Things has changed SO much since |
was young! Ninety years ago, when l was
a blooming young gal, we had such nice
times to what young folks do nowadays:
why it seemed to me then that this world was
all Joy and happiness, but now all my Joy
and happiness has vanished and gone forev-
er. Then there waSent so much ~humbugery,
atfectation and foolism in the world, we all had
to work for our living; we had to Spin our
clothes, and when we got a new blue-striped
cotton frock on we felt jest as good as folks
dc now with their silks and satin on, and
great sight better, l think. Then we gals
had bonnets that would cover our faces, but
now the gals have little bitty things stuck on
the backs of their heads that they call bon
nets; but they don't look like bonnets to me,
for always thought that a bonnet was q
covering for the head, and they don't cover
their heads at all. | guess the.next thing
they will have a niger carrying their bon
nets behind them in walters. And, gracious
me, they are so extrayagant; why when I
E was young it didn't take but five yards to
6 make a frock, and now the gals take ten or
fifteen, and now they think that its a dis
Z grace to be caught at the spinning wheel, the
: wash tub, or in the kitchen helping their
mamas get dinner. Now the gals cant do
nothing but loll about on silken sofas, sleep
and read novels. Now they must 60 to big
schools, learn drawing and painting, music
on the Piano, &C.; for my part l think a Pr
d ano is a poor excuse for music whyit sounds
more like an old cow bell than any thing [
can compare it to. l think a Dulcimore
sounds a great sight sweeter.
Now if they have a sweet heart, he must
have on a standing collar a sawln his ears,
a satin jacket, high heel boots and a broad
cloth coat, or he is nobody at all. Every
20 body must be in the fashion. But when ]
was a young gal the beaus dressed so nice tc
~ what they do now they wore copperas
breeches and nice striped home made jackets
lie then the boys were not SO fckleand foolish
1T if they loved a gal they come right out will
it in plain English, as SAL I love you y
They didn't go through with this foolish
and nonsense, such as quoting verses from
Shah espeare, Byron, Milton, Tom Moore an
a great many others that its no use to men
lis ton, as the beaus do now a days.
ar Now the country is filled with these littl
Hpstarts of lawyers and doctors; for my par
'S | think they had better be at home, if the
n? got any, helping their daddy's split rails, fo
m if the people would do right wouldn't be an
mt use for lawyers, and as for these quacks {
doctors, I think folks are a sight better o
without them than with them, for I believ
ioo IuoJ NH moI0 LIuH fGuoy cure, any HOW
Ill When | was young we gals went to schoc
and learned to read and write, and that wa
r sufficient but that wont do now they mu'
Oh go to a boarding school and study all thes
ms large things and get so many fool notion
nd stuck in their heads. They study Astron
erv my and they say this mighty world we Ii,
in is round, and that it turns round on i
axes but they can't beat no such stuff in
md me. want to know why its axes don't we;
nd out, and why water don't pour out of tt
nd mill pond and rivers, when as they say it
flying at the rate of 68,000 miles an hour
The fact is folks are getting too smart of lat
:, a any how. Why didn't we hear of such thin
md when we was young? Because the philos
pliers and astronomers in them days did
intend to deceive the people they mere
intended laying down facts as they real
ngs were.
and And, the gracious me, they have so maj
,,or curious inventions that / dom see any U
of; folks used to get along SO much bett
before these great inventions were mad
7 1T when it took three months to cross the 4
fair lantic ocean, and now the trip can be ma