Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-03-23
A GREAT CHANGE.
Dresses that Cost but One Dollar, Worn to
Meeting" Sunday.

Dresses that Cost but One Dollar, Worn to
Meeting" Sunday.
OLD.FAsHIONED WAY OF TRAVEL.
ING TO BOSTON.
This is an expensive age. Our rich
est men began with mere nothing but
their brains and hands, and with lit
tie education. Chester w. Chaplin.
cne of the richest men in Massschu-
sets. when he was twenty one years
old let himself out to work twelve to
fourteen hours a day for $12 month.
farming and teaming from the arm
ory to the boat ON the Connecticut
river; but he laid his money up.
Now you would insult a young strip
ling of eighteen years to offer him
such wages. He was the tax-collector
in 1922 for the town of Springfield.
His fees were $50 for collecting S.
OOO-the whole taxes for that town.
He pays more taxes now than the
whole town did then. It cost more
time and travel to collect them, then
than now. The people were so scat
tering and they were 80 afraid of a
tax-collector he said, some would run
and hide up stairs or down cellar
when they saw him coming. and in
some instances he hunted them up in
their hiding places after their family
said they want therew After find.
ing the delinquent he would get a
part OF the tax money and go again
for the rest or pay it himself. He
has paid in this way hundreds Of dol
lars, finding it easier to earn the
money than to collect it. Money was
scarce and worth something then.
l recollect in 1925 or '26, in our town
meeting, the proposition was to raise
for the coming year $4,000 for the
town of Springfield; Oliver B. Nor
ris arose and objected by saying:
what are we coming to? It is aston
ishing that pride and ambition, or
fashion should demand such q tax"
But they overruled the old man, and
he lived to see pride, fashion, and am
bition rise much higher. A great
change surely.
The fashion of those days I recol-
lect When my mother was going to
get new dress, or gown, as it was
called then, the woman that was en-
gagged to come to the house to cut and
make it told her she was so tall and
large she must get six yards for it.
Five yards was the common pattern,
and 81 cents for cutting and making
and dinner found. What change
from that day to this! The cloth cost
81 and the making SO cents, and the
dress was worn to meeting. Tho
fashion and pay of the preachers has
changed. The first Methodist preach
er in our town got 500 for one years
salary, and if he had a present Of a
pair of socks he must report it. The
second preacher had q wife and three
children, and $35 was added for each
child. Bishop Hadding in our time
got less than $75 year. Also Priest
Clough and Lorenzo Dow less than
either. Our old Methodist preachers
worked for living and for God, in
stead OF for reputation and salary.
! was thinking about the fashion in
domestic affairs, say music, fifty five
years ago. Governor Trash and I
met at Monson for Thanksgiving,
with the family where he got his wife,
at old Uncle Saul Squires's, uncle
to us both. Their house music was,
for treble, the fax 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 away at
the old loom, all working to make
their music profitable and healthy.
The fashion of those days was to
have good healthy family OF from
eight to ten children, all learnt to
work for a living. What q change!
Instead of good, healthy family
now. all up in the morning early to
work, we see from one to three little
pimping children, with a sickly
mother, not able to take care of two
as easily as our mothers would ten,
fifty years ago, without q hired girl.
The children now must be in fashion
lie in bed until eight or nine in the
morning, no appetite, little vitality.
They play on some kind Of instru-
ment, and 60 to school to be crowded
with more kinds oflessons than our old
school teachers ever knew. But this is
the fashion and pretended improve
ment of the age. Perhaps this genera
ton does not look ut these things as I
do. but I think that health, economy,
and morality are notimproved by get
ting high wages or fashionable edu-
cation. This generation viii spend
what its fathers have earned. Gener-
ally it is watching the pulse of the
man who has 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 gen
Grafton are spendthrifts.
Another great change is IN the mode
OF travelling. Fifty years ago we had
to go through the country by stages:
at the fast speed OF seven miles an
hour. This was much faster than the
common farmers travelled. It was con-
sidered great treat to take the stage
at old Jeremy WARMERS tavern
start at four o'clock in the morning
and get to Boston at nine in the even
ing, if the going was good. When
the fare was reduced to S., two of us
worked two weeks to get money
enough to pay cur fare to Boston,
eighty eight miles. The young men
in these days earn enough in one day
to pay their fare, and 90 in three
hours instead Of seventeen. Our con-
ductors get for driving their team
through to Boston $3 or 81, and the
old stage-drivers got $12 month.
This was Chester w. Chapin's stand.
ard price in those days. Connecticut
River steamboats,, started by Blanch-
ard, fifty five years ago, cut down the
fare to Hartford to 81, which enabled
us all to 60 to Hartford and back in