Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1873-12-27
Grocers' and Butchers' Bills Forty Years

body or anything. We don't think that thing
| could be done again successfully.
Grocers' and Butchers Bills Forty Years
Ago.
In looking over some of my old bills the
other day, contracted of grocers and others
for family supplies forty years ago, more or
| less, | could but notice as matter of Curl
osity, the difference between the cost of living
| then and now. With your permission l will
| transcribe some of the necessary articles of
support, with the market prices then current
| in the retail trade Of Augusta. But before
presenting the list, allow me to say that on
| recurring to those ancient transactions, a
spirit of sadness came over me as / noticed
how nearly every one of our business men,
engaged in trade, and with whom l was in
daily intercourse, have tasted the bitter cup
of death and passed beyond all the interests
of time and the world. But two of them are
| now living, viz: Deacon John Means and
Benz. Davis, Esq. To me it is wonder that
I, feeble in health as I always was, should
| have eutlived nearly all my associates of for.
| mer days, to behold new generation busily
occupying their places.
The first bill that meets my eye is for goods
in 1882, mostly at wholesale prices, by
"White & Williams, (Gen. Greenlief White,
and Hon. Edward Williams, both of whom
| are dead;) viz; clear pork per Dbl. SIG mess
beef, $40 per Dbl. Turks Island salt, 374 cts.
per bushel salt fish per quintal, So 90; Java
coffee per bag, IL cts. Ilb Souchong tea,
SO cts. ID; New Orleans molasses, per Dbl.
40 cts. per gallon w. 1. do. 80 cts Porto
Rico sugar, S. per hundred pound; fresh
salmon taken in the river behind their store,
10 cts. per ID. The next bill is at more re-
| tail prices; it is that of cartridge 6 Allen"
d., H.,
dead.) This was in 1885, Butter 124 cts. per
Id; eggs 10 cts. per dozen; dry apples 5 cts.
per lb molasses, 37t cts. per gallon; sugar
10 cts. per ID; coffee IL cts per lb raisens,
l21 cts. per lb Souchong tea, 33 cts. per lb
flour Sc per Dbl.
J. 2. Dillingham; 1885, (dead.) Lamp oil
81 l24 per gallon; tea 374 cts. per ID.
coffee l25; molasses, 371 cts. per gallon;
| sugar, 10 cts. per 10; cassia, % cts. per ID;
pepper, % cts; candles l2a cts. per Id; N. Z.
Rum, so cts per gallon; Holland gin, Sl.5O
per gallon; rice, 5 cts. per Id; young Tyson
tea 10 cts. per Id; ginger, l6 cts. per ID.
Moses Stafford, 1882 Mr.. S. built, owned
and occupied as store, the brick edifice now
owned and occupied by the Kennebec Journal
office. Bacon, cts. per Id; butter 12a cts.
per lb; coffee IA cts; molasses, 374 cts. per
gallon; -four Sc per Dbl; vinegar, 20 cts. per
gallon; tea SO cts. per ID; tobacco, % cts per
ID; eggs, Ia cts. per dozen; Cog. Brandy,
$500 per gallon; black berries, Cd cts. per
quart; strawberries cts. per quart; in the
matter of meats, we were daily visited by the
market cart of Thomas Lancaster from Winth
rop, (dead.) His bill is for 1882; beef best
cuts and cts. per ID; common do. cts;
We alb and cents; lamb, 5 to cts; calls
head and pluck % cts; pork steak, cts;
spareribs, 6 cts; beef sides sold for about 81
per 100 lb; chickens 6 cts. per Id. geese %
cts. each. 1t appears, too, by his bill that we
sold him two good cows for Sl4 each (such as
would now bring 500 and one calf four
weeks old, $500. For hay, we had our barn
filed from the Mason (now Mulliken) farm,
for Sc per ton, potatoes, % cts. per bushel;
eating apples SO cts cooking do. 20 cts; cider
81 per bbl hard wood, $3.50 per cord;
hemlock $50; house rents, good accom-
modations,) could be had for $40 to $50 per
annum; hired girls in families received so
cts. to IS cts. per week, 81 was an extraordi-
nary pay. Common day laborers earned
sometimes 10 cts. sometimes 81 per day,
working from sun to sun; good ioiners de-
manded Sl.23 to Sl.50 per day. Taxes were
proportionally low; 'taxation without rep
resentation," was burden so oppressive that
our fathers abjured the authority of all Brit
ish laws, and fought the crown seven years
for independence. Ought we not now to con-
graduate ourselves, having accomplished the
boon of taxation rih representation, taxes
are no longer a burden to be complained of
by any patriotic citizen? Are not imported
groceries such as coffee, tea, sugar. molasses,
Sc, produced now cheaply in Brazil,
Java, China, the West Indies &C., as they
were forty years ago? How is it then. that in
oar markets the consumers have to pay for
their family supplies more than double the
cost of those days? Where does the excess
go? DREux.