Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1858-01-15
How People Lived Only Generation Ago.


Very respectfully, your obedient servant
GARLAND HURT, Indian Agent
How People Lived Only a Generation Ago.
Mr. Goodrich peter Parley) in his Recollection of
Lifetime, thus depicts the life of his youth in New
England
Money was scarce, wages being about fifty cents
day. though these generally paid in meat vegeta-
bles and other articles of useseldom in money There
was not factory of any kind in the place There was
butcher, but he only went from house to house to
slaughter the cattle and swine of his neighbors. There
tanner but he only dressed other peoples skins
other peoples cloth. Even dyeing
blue portion of the WOOL so as to make insey woosey
for short gowns aprons, and blue mixed stockingsvita
necessities in these days-was domestic operation.-
During the autumn, dye tub in the chimney corner
thus placed to be cherished by the genial heat
familiar in all thrifty houses as the Bible or the
back log 1t covered with board, and cosy seat
in the wide mouthed fireplace especially of chill even,
ing. Our bread was of
rye tnged with Indian meal Wheat bread was reserv-
ed for the sacrament and company. X
All the vegetables came from the garden and farm
The fuel supplied by our own woods-sweetscent-
ed hickory swapping chestnut, odoriferous oak and
reeking, fzzling ash. X
These tapped in March, the sap being collected and
boiled down in the woods. This was wholly domestic
operation, and in which all the children rejoiced-
| Rum was largely consumed, but our
dstillers had scarcely begun. half pint Of it was
given, matter of course, to every day aborcr more
particularly in the summer time In all families, rich
and poor, it offered to male visitors an essential
| point of hospitality, good manners. Women
| beg pardon-ades, took their Schnapps then named
| Hopkins Elixir,'' which the most delicious and
seductive means of getting psy that has been invented
| Crying babies senced with hot toddy then es-
teemed an infaible remedy for wind on the stomach
Every man imhibed his morning DRAM and was esteemed
temperance There is story of preacher about those
days, who thus lectured his parish " [ say nothing
my beloved brethren, against taking little bitters be
fore breakfast and after breakfast especially if you are
used to it. What | contend against is, this drammng
/ dramming dronrn1i.ng at all hnnro of tho day.
We raised fax roted it, hacked it. dressed it
and spun it. The little wheel turned by the foot haG
its place, and as familiar as if it had been one Of
the family < The wool was also spur
in the family partially by my sisters, and partially by
Molly Gregory, daughter of neighbor, the towr
carpenter [ remember her well as she sung and spun
aloft in the attic. In those days, church singing was
one OF the tine arts-the only One indeed, which flour
ished in Ridgefed, except the music of the drum anc
fife The choir divided into four parts, ranged Oh
three sides of the meeting house gallery y
Twice year, that is, in the Spring and Autumn the
tailor came to the house and fabricated the semannua
stock OF clothes for the male memberships being cal
led whipping the cat. Mantua makers and milIiners
in their turn, to fit out the female members of the
family. There was similar process as to boots anC
Shoes
cat the period of my earliest recollection men of al
classes dressed in long, broad tailed coats with
huge pockets long waiscoats and breeches Hats hac
low crowns, with broad rims--sOme so wide as to bt
supported at the sides with cords The stockings of the
parson, and few Others of silk in summer anG
worsted in winter those of the people generally
wool, and OF blue and gray mixed Women dressed in
wide bonnetS-sometlmes OF straw and sometimes o.
| silk the gowns were of silk, muslin, gingham, &c.
generally close and short wasted the breast and houl
ders being covered by full muslin kerchef. Girls or
namented themselves with large white vandyke.
Tavern haunting, especially in winter wher
there was little to do common, with respecta
BILE farmers. Marriages ceebEted in the evening
at the house of the bride, with general gathering
the neighborhood and usually wound off by dancing
Everybody went as to public exhibition, without nvi
tatlon Funerals generally drew large professions which
proceeded to the grave Here the minister always made
an address suited to the occasion If there anything
remarkable in the history of the deceased it was turnet
to religious account in the next Sundays sermon Sing
ing meetings to practice church music were great re
sort Tor the young IN winter.
Balls at the taverns requented by the young tn
children of deacons and ministers attended though tn
parents did not The winter brought leghing skating
and the usual round of indoor sports
Spot ON THE SUN.-A correspondent of the Charles
ton Courier says:
A large spot has recently made its appearance on tn
surface OF the sun. Its ze and the rapdy of its form
aton render it remarkable During the course of obser
and Monday, the l4th it large enough to be see
by the unasssted eye protected of course by coore
screen 1t is 10000 miles in diameter of rather trian
guar figure along the borders of the penumbra, within
which are four or five large nubl and several smale
ones in the form of dots and lines The diameter of th
spot being Ue times that of the earth its surface
be more than sic times the whole surface of the EARTH
fifteen times greater than the habitabe portion of tn
gobe AS the spot is the western edge of the sur
it will be visible only three or four days longer the
r fafiO IF
again until about the year, if it remain permanen
t so long.
. HAIR-SPLITTING SovEREIGNTY.-Somebody has n
Gently said, says the New York Journal of Commere
that sovereignty is undivided and indivisible sui
stance of power and authority which cannot be part
toned OR delegated and the newspapers great and sma
are ringing all the changes upon just at this time
bearing with great weight upon the Kansas question:
The people of this country called the sovereig
people" and so they Yet all their laws and const
tutions have been made and must necessarily be mad
by delegated authority If unwise laws are made th
year, they be repealed the next by the same deleg
ted authority If an unwse constitution is made tf
r year by convention of the peoples delegates it may