The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-12-28
HOid-FaShiOned."

uiSCdlucu, VI IL IIdI NC lHlcHucu W 1Htll
cate that he is sound conservative, op
posed to all vicious novelties, man oil
gracious manners, an honest and high
minded man. | can recall many people
who, in their dress and manners anC
style of conversation seemed to connect
one with q former age, but such person:
are getting scarcer every day. The or.
namental wig and braided cue and tas-
seled boots, the low bow and graceful
wave of the hand in entering a room,
the stately speech that carefully avoids
any approach to slang, and never omits
a title and frames its periods with judi
eious care-of all this the rising genera
ton know but little. In these times old
and young dress alike and have much
the same manners; the average length OF
life has increased, but it is not always
easy to tell who they are that have
passed the grand climacteric.
- But if old-fashioned people are out of
date, old-fashioned things were never in
such demand-chairs, tables, secreta-
rles, bullets, bellows, shovels, tongs,
and-irons, cranes, smoke-jacks, cups,
salicers, platterS, tea-pots, door knockers
you must visit an auctioneer's shop if
you wish to complete the catalogue.
An old "Bay Psalm Book" is counted
cheap at $4,000. A picture, painted a
few hundred years ago, and which never
had much merit in its best estate, now
that the coloring is pretty nearly gone
and the outlines are almost obliterated,
is sought after by connoisseurs with
earnest avidity. EVERYTHING is followed
by age. The kitchen of an ancient mon
astery, where joints We're roasted centu-
ries ago; the carpenter shop, whera ioia-
er's work was done in ages LONG rome
by; the deserted old church in which orr
fathers once worshiped; the mouldv and
rickety carriage, with all its faded splen-
dor, that used to rattle proudly through
the streets. but has now been idle for
many a year; the cradle in which our
ancestors were rocked: the yellow and
tattered heap of letters found by acct
dent in the garnet; the file of papers Civ
ing the freshest news of century AGO
almost anything will be made sacred
by the hand of time.
1t is hard to realize that the day will
come when zoe shall be regarded as the
ola-fashioned people, and our habits and
modes of thought as the old-fashioned
ways. VIII the theories of life that we
cherish, and of which we are so proud,
ever come to be spoken of as fantastic
and unphilosophical and absurd? VIII
the great points about which we dispute,
and which separate US into. sects and
parties, be RENTED hereafter to the
region of 1.-THE unknown and unknow-
able" VIII our codes of civil law and
the processes of our courts be looked
upon as semi barbarous and unworthy
of civilized people? Will our present
modes of travel be regarded as clumsy
and slow? and our telegraphs and tele-
phones as rude and very imperfect in
ventions? Will the tools and imple-
ments and machines that are now in use
be set aside for something more conve-
nient and effective? One thing is GER
tain-if the world lasts long enough. we
must after while take our place '.in the
dark backward and abysm of time,'' and
the mould gather over us and our doinos.
as it has over that which has gone before
us.
Some old-fashioned things are liable
to be revived, while there are Others
which, when they have once been
abolished, are buried forever. | do not
believe that the barbarities of olden
days, the ruthless crueltes which dis
tlnguished the past, the inhiction of pain
simply for the sake of the pain, the in
ventlon of elaborate instruments of tor
t,lre, subJecting men to the rack in order
to elicit evidence; burning them at the
stake. because of their religious opinions;
the numbering of women and children in
War-l do not believe that in any Chris
tan or civilized land those atrocities will
ever be repeated again-certainlv thew
will never be defended.
1t is very difficult to predict what NAV
happen in the domain of speculative be-
llefs; for, at intervals, ethical and theo-
logical and philosophical dogmas are
resuscltated and put upon their feet
which we had supposed had gone under
ground, to be seen no more. Some
people have hankering after things
entirely irrespective of their merit.
merely because they are old. 1t seems
to give them feeling of superiority that
they do not fall in with the current
thought of the age in which they are so
unfortunate as to live. 1t is as il a man
We're to dress himself up in his grand
fathers clothes, and imagine that this
would make him august and venerable,
Here and there we stumble upon an
author who affects to write in the old
style. using obsolete words
and phrases and antique forms of ex-
preston, making his sentences vervlono
and complicated-swinging along with
what he supposes to bea sort of Miltonic
when, in fact, he is only dull |
and prosy and unreliable. How would
an old-fashioned sermon, with dozen
leading heads, and several dozen minor
divisions. and score or two of inferen
ees and two or three long practical ap
plications at the close, be received by a
sunday congregation to-day? How |
would physician succeed who should
practice in the old heroic style, and
ad iatfnitan? How would
farmer prosper who should cultivate
us LAND and gather in his crops after the
ashton of hundred years ago? How
would mechanic get on in the world
Who ahjured all the tools that have been
invented during the last half centurv2
IrNr- Il