Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-05-18
Our Times and Old Times.
A REVIEW OF THE DAYS OF SIXTY YEARS
AGO.


AGO.
When NV mother was going to get
new dress, or gown as it was called then,
sixty years ago, the woman that was en-
gagged to come to the house and cut and
make it told her she was so tall and large
she must get six yards for it. Five yards
was common pattern, and fifty cents for
cutting and making and a dinner found.
What IA change from that day to this The
cloth cost one dollar and the making fifty
cents. and the dress W $ worn to me ,ting.
The fashion and pIy of the preachers has
changed. The first Meth ldist pre- Icher in
our town got 800 for one years salary,
and if he had n present of pair of socks
he must report it. The second preacher
had wife and got $50. The third
preacher had a wife and three children,
and $50 was added for each child. Bishop
Hedding in our time got less than S75 Il
year Also Priest Clough and Lorenzo
Dow less than either. Our old Methodist
preachers worked for living and for God
instead of a reputation and for Il salary.
was thinking about the fashions in do
mestic affairs, say music, lifty.tiye years
ago. Governor Trask and | met at Mon
son for Thanksgiving with the family
where he got his wife-;tt old Uncle Saul
Squires', uncle to us both. Their house
music was, for treble the flax spinning
wheel, played or run by one of the girls
for the tenor, the large spinning wheel
played by another girl; for bass, the old
lady whacking awav ut the old loom, all
working to make their music profitable
and healthy. The fashion of those days
was to have a good, healthy family of
from eight to ten children all learnt to
work for living What change ! In
stead of good healthy family now. all up
in the morning early to work. we see from
one to three little pmping children, with
Il sickly mother not able to take care of
two as easily rs our mothers would ten,
fifty years ago, without hired girl. The
children now must be in flShOn-lie in
bed until eight or nine in the morning, no
appetite, little vitality They play on
some kind of an instrument, and 90 to
school to be crowded with more kinds of
lessons than our old school teachers ever
knew. But this is the fashion and pre-
tended Improvement of this age.
Perhaps this generation does not see
these things as | do, but | think that
health, economy and morality are not
improved by getting high wages or fash
ionable education. This generation will
spend what its fathers have earned. Gen
orally it is watching the pulse OF the man
who has the property longing for the time
to come when it will come in possession of
what it has not earned. 1t is known fact
that the rising generation are spendthrifts
In my travels in different states | see many
old Woodworking men come to want in their
An Irishman, ridicued for starting off
on horseback with only one spur, replied
very justly: IF get one side of the
horse moving I'll trust the other side"
old age by their children, to whom they
have given up their property. who produce
nothing, but consume what Others have
produced. Old men, keep the key of your
corn crib in your own hands while you
live What would this educated genera
ton do for living if they We're thrown
back upon their own economy rs their own
fathers were sixty years ago? or where
many now live in new sections of the
country by tilIing the land-the work God
desired man to do | think the time is
near when many of the loose, loafing and
tramping class will fail back to tilling the
land or starve-or steal, which is getting
so fashionable in many places. What a
great change in this respect in sixty years
About one-half the population has to sup
port the other half by tilling the land, for
there is no intrinsic value except what
comes by digging in the earth.-SprIng-
| field Republican.