The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1883-09-22
HOW WE LIVED FORTY YEARS AGO.


sNcteHtVc American.
To go back forty years, fully as use
ful contrast and as instructive com.
parison may be made as to bring the
early settler from England, Holland,
and France in opposition to their de-
scendants Of two hundred years later
In rS4s and for some period thence on.
ward, money, as currency, was scarce.
Possibly general business suffered for
want of the medium OF exchange
Money, in bills or coin, had value
that would be looked upon now as al
most worshipng Of n fetch. "One
dollar day" was ga good days pay"
and so it was considered even for fairly
skilliul labor. Several men, for instance,
were employed in squaring, by chalk
line and broad ax, the round timbers to
form the framing OF dam. Others
bored the holes for mortises and
chiseled them out. Others did the
''scribing," the saving, and dressing of
the lemons. Few OF them got over one
and quarter dollars per day "from
sunup to sundown." The man who
could "scribe," and who laid out the
job, got perhaps one dollar and fifty
cents. The machinist got from one
dollar and fifty to two dollars per day;
and he who got the two dollars was a
fortunate man and for that time he
was competent man. I.aborers had
fifty cents per day, and in haying time,
when several days ordinary work must
be crowded into twelve, fourteen, or
possibly sixteen hours, they got seventy
five cents. Special workmen, apt at
any jobs, one dollar.
Now this is a fair showing OF the value
OF labor forty years ago. What was the
relative value Of housing, fuel, food,
and clothing? Rents were low. A good
house for the times cost from S35 to
$40 per year. Fuel-wood-wa some
what less than it can be furnished, as
coal now, at any place remote from the
mines; say for an ordinary family six
cords of hickory, Ss4; now four tons
OF coal 1.-TWO fires about equal. Food
cost less forty years ago than now but
it was not the same food. Fresh meat
once, or at most twice, a week, and
rarclythat except in 'thc killing season."
fish caught at the stream or pond, or
hawked about at four cents a pound
dressed. Vegetables from the garden,
or from the market at twenty-five cents
bushel for potatoes and less prices for
turnips. Onions almost as dear as now,
and cabbages no cheaper. Clothing
can be bought cheaper now than it
could be forty years ago, and it is
cheaper in more than one sense. Per-
haps it would be better for the country
at large if better clothing at higher
prices should be the rule.
II is scarcely necessary TO add to show
we lived forty years ago" any statement
of how we live or how we might live
now. Ii isenough to the present Garner
of his bread by labor to know OF the
annoyances and lack Of opportunities
OF his predecessor. A glance over the
condition of forty years ago aud the
present condition will convince any un-
prejudiced mind that an improvement
has been made in the condition of our
workers, and tina, the worker of to-day
gets better return for his labor than
he did forty years ago. And this state
mcnt applies as nearly to the unskilled
worker rs to the adept mechanic. Only
that the advantage now, as ever before,
holds with the intelligent, skilled, ex-
pcricnced mechanic.