The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1883-04-22

malls carried over long distances. The COM
plant now sometimes made touching the in
terest evinced In postal cards by rural Post
masters was then we'll founded and universal.
| It was notorious that letters and packages
were almost always opened and their con-
tents scrutinlzed by the postboys; nor did
this outrage upon the public cease until long
after the war for independence ended when
the bulk and number OF letters had 80 much
increased that carriers no longer found time
| to carefully peruse the notes they bore.
Low as was the state OF literature on this
side OF tho Atlantic a century ago. Mr.. Mo
MASTER demonstrates that the condition OF
the fine arts was lower still. There did not
then exist within the United States single
piece OF architecture which. tried even by
the standard Of that day, could be called re-
spectacle With the exception OF legen-
Diary collection Of pictures said to have been
placed In barn OF Perth Amboy. New Jer-
| soy, and to have been dispersed by tho mill
tia during the Revolutionary war, no ex-
tensive repository Of works OF pictorial or
plastic art was formed anywhere in this
country before the nineteenth century OF
the three American painters who had achieved
some distinction - WEST, CopLEy and
OIUAhI-uOI Ouc WbS III htuoliCu
when peace was announced PINE had just
come over, bringing with him the first plas-
tor cast of the Venus do Medici " ever seen
In the United States, but the nudity Of the
statue gave such offence to the women Of
Philadelphia that PINE was forced to exhibit
1t to his friends In private. Almost quar-
ter OF century later, when some fifty casts
of famous statues belonging to the Louvre
Gallery were shown at the exposition Of the
Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts the man
ayers were compelled to set apart ono day
In each week for women, and on such days to
keep the naked figures carefully covered up
There was, however, one art, that OF acting,
which was not wholly neglected. In the
small cities OF the Southern States, and es-
pecially In Baltimore, actors were made well
come; but, although play or two OF SHERI-
DAMS and as many OF SHAKEsPEAREs were
occasionally performed, no pieces called
forth such applause rs Love In Village"
and Miss in her Teens Tho price of ad-
mission to the boxes was commonly dollar,
to the pit five shillings, and to the gallery nine
pence. 1t was customary to send servants
to occupy places as soon us the doors were
opened. but the curtain rose promptly ut n
quarter after six o'clock, and then all SER
wants were expected to leave. Even in Balti-
more n large part of the community looked
askancc upon such spectaclcs, and in many
parts of the country they were vigorously
prescribed In Massachusetts the theatre
was held in adherence, and the sharp laws
against it were not relaxed in Boston until
some ten years after tho peace. In 1855 a
fierce controversy ragged in New York and
Philadelphia about the propriety OF licensing
tho stage. Earnest moralists denounced the
playhouse Us fatal solvent OF republican SIM
plicity and purity, and Legislators anxiously
debated whether tradesmen and artisans
could with safety to the commonwealth DO
exposed to It's corrupting influence. There
are no more interesting touches In the
picture drawn by Mr.. MCMAsTER Of Ameri-
can society as it was a hundred years
ago, than those which portray the situ-
alton Of tho poor; OF tho not yet enfran-
chised workingmen whom tho guardians Of
public morals were so sedulous to shield from
the corruption OF the stage. There Is no
doubt that the houses OF Woodworking peo-
pie were meaner that their food was coarser,
and their clothing OF commoner stuff, and
that, despite the depreciation that has taken
place In the value OF money, their wages
were lower by one-half than they arc now.
Although tho hire OF workmen had doubled
in the ten years preceding 1884 yet at the date
named a man who performed unskillcd labor
received but two York shillings for a whole
days toll. 1t was only by the strctest
economy that mechanic kept his children
from starvation and himself from Jail. Wheat
cost more than eight shillings q bushel, a
mound of salt pprk taOpnnno md IN ucizo nj
bread fourpence. He rarely tasted fresh
meat rs often as once week, and he paid for
1t u much higher price than does his poster
ity. What stove was he did not know. and
coal he had never seen. Over fragments OF
boxes and barrels picked up in the street and
kindled with sparks struck from flint, his
wife cooked up rude meal and served 1t in
pewter dishes His outfit OF clothing consist
cd OF pair Of leathern brooches. checked
shirt, red flannel jacket, a rusty felt hat
shoes OF meats skin, and leathern apron.
None OF the changes brought about In the
century just concluded has done 80 much Ia
promote the we'll being OF tho poor as the
abolition OF imprisonment for debt. Mr.
MCMAsTER shows us that in 1888 no offence
known to the law brought 80 many to the
jails and prisons as the crime OF debt; and II
is manifest that tho class most likely to
incur Indebtedness would be tho most de.
fenceless-the great body Of artisans and
laborers who depended on their daily earn.
ings for their daily bread. In 1888 the
laborer who fell from scaffold. or the me-
chanic who was Frustrated by fever, was
sure to DO seized by tho Sheriff the moment
he recovered, and to BIO hurried off to Jail fol
the bill OF a few dollars which had been rur
up during his illness at tho hucksters or the
tavern 1t Is indeed by recalling facts like
these that We are best assisted to measure
the beneticent extent OF our social progress
since the bells rang and the bonfires blazed
a hundred years ago.
The Scott Liquor Law in Ohio.
The SCOTT liquor law. just passed by the
Legislature OF Ohio provides for the collec