Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1857-10-29

and her ladies, sitting On the floor, playing {
game something like what is now called for
feits. Personal clean!inss was generally neg
ected, and taking bath thing to be noted
down. ARRAYS in the street were frequent
and men often killed in consequence. Music
| and dancing were usual at evening parties
and it seems common thing to have stayed
| up, at such entertainments, till one or two
O'Clock in the morning Three or four persons
| OF both sexes would frequ nifty hire q coach,
go out for an afternoons ride, sup ats tavern,
visit the theatre, and then adjourn to that resi-
dence OF one OF them, where, sending for fiji
dlers they would dance till midn ght Some
times the sport would end by ladies and gentle
men tiinging cushions at each other. Men and
women, if intimate, kissed each, other when
they met. The Pur;tans and sQuSkers lived, Of
course differently. In May, ladies of every
rank were accustomed to rise at day break
and 60 out into the fields to gather May dew,
the belief being general that it beautfed the
the coml'l xion Masquerades werc popular
species OF amusement. Gold fishes were a
novelty, just introduced as parlor ornaments
In general the age was Il more brutal one
than this Bear gardens, where bears We're
bated 10y dogs, We're popular resort. Pc
pys records batting his servant girl, as if it
was a common mode of punishment. Traitors
were executed with cruel and horrible rites.
Marriage was even more a matter of bar
gain and sale, than at present Parties openly
Chartered, as in France, to this day for wife
for son; or husband for a daug hter When
rich citizen died, his wife, almost before his
burial, was beseiged with suors, lords and
co4rtiers being as ready, then as now, to trade
off rank Tor money. Weddings were ceebrat-
ed with lie ,rty, but coarse festivities, such as
throwing the stocking and other obsolete Gus
toms. The evening usually concluded by the
guests visiting the nuptial chamber and kiss
ing the bride in bed. Funerals were more GER
emoious even than now. Pepys describes his
elder brothers. The guests were humid
dred and fifty, though he says, he had bid but
hundred and twenty. "Their SERVICE" he
records, Was SIX biscuits apiece, and what
IT, = pleased Of burnt cIaret My cousin Joy
Norton kept the wine, and cakes above and
did give ont to them that served, who had
white gloves given them" The men sat by
themselves IN some rooms, and the women by
themselves in others. Rings were given, at
funerals, to the relatives, and friends ard ser.
wants at Pepys' own funeral hundred and
thirty rings were distributed varying in val
ue from FIVE to ten dollars each.
Taste and knowledge were very inferior,
generally, to What they are Eow. Pepys' wife
had been educated at a convent in France, yet
did not know arithmetic !; ard Of PepyS nu-
meroas correspond hts hardly one sIelt correct
". 1t is we'll known that Paradise Lost
which came out about this time, was cons;d-
cred, even by the critics of the day, as a pro-
sy if not silly affair At the Royal Society,
of which Pcrys was q member, there Was d
lecture on respiration, but without throwing
any light on it: " 1t is not known or concluded
on" says puzzled Pepys, how the action was
managed by nature; or for what use it is 2"
The fixed stars were mystery also to the sci
cntfc men Of the age. "Spong and ," Pepys
says; in writing of an astronomer; had sever
al fine discourses upon the globes, particularly
why the fixed stars do not rise and set at the
same time all the year round, which he could
not demonstrate, nor | either" Medicine was
almost quackery Pcpys wore about him a
hares foot to prevent cole and though the
first experiment failed, he did not lose faith in
it, but attributed its want OF suct ess to his
having cut off the joint. The plague, which
ragged so frightfnly in 1905, found the physi-
ci MS wholly ignorant what to do.
The cost of living, two hundred years ago,
cannot be correctly ascrtancd. d"y Iabor-
r, or mechanic, earned about a shilling day.
At present, tic former earns twice as much,
c,vn in England, and the latter four five and
eight times as much All dress fubr;cs ali
uxu"ies all descr, ltions OF furniture, were cost
!ier then than now but meat and ale were
cheaper; while bread was nearly the sam"
price as at present Lord Sandwich, Prpys
patrcn, hired spacious mansion, surrounded
by gardens, in the suburbs Of Londcn, for
what would now be ecu v;.lent to twenty-five
hundred dollars d year. Pepys seems to have
generally spe.lt what would amount to three
lonsand per annum bat he lived eXpenslveiy
and better than the majority OF the mdd G
class and when he set up a coach he spent
more.
The immortality of the age was proverba
1t affected public as we'll as private life. The
servants Of the crown, high and low, not only
took bribes but would do nothing without
them. Pepys acquired his estate prIucl ally
by brides and by jobbing. His salary was
but three hundred and fifty pounds yearly yet
n some years, he made three thousand pounds ;
but be never seemed to think he id anything
criminal and he appears also really to have
conscience, which few other public employees
had.
But enough. Two hundred years hence, as
some private diary Of 1851 comes to light, as
doubtless there will, our customs, manners, and
perhaps even morals, will seem as curious to
our descendants as those Of our ancestors HOW
appear to us.
BRIGHAM YouSe-He he's many small chill
dren liv ng, and one of his wives is schoolmis
r,ess to the whole. His two large houses arc
well furnished. and his daughters play on thu
piano and melodeon. He is great lover o
frnit, and warm patron of the horticulture
Getty of Utah. Brigham's time is complete