The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-05-05
When Our Grandfathers We're Boys.

Our youthful readers can scarcely
form an idea of the world as their grand
fathers saw it, in the days when John
Quincy Adams was President.
Boys who went to boarding-school
thirty miles from home had a stage
ride of five or six hours to endure or to
enioy-according to the weather-for
boys were apt to perch on the outside
seats. In muddy seasons, the five or
six hours would stretch out to ten, with
a possible alienation of dinner at the
Halfway House.
If they were homesick, or wanted a
box of good things for solace, they
paused before writing letter to reflect
that their "Honored Parents" would
have to pay twenty-five cents postage
on the epistle Now, honored parents
who paid so much for a letter expected
it to contain good deal of matter, cor
rectly spelled, on a large and clean
sheet of paper.
Envelopes were not then used, be-
cause they would have made the letters
double" which doubled the postage.
Each and every inclosure was charged
one rate. Thus, letter in an envelope
inclosing dollar bill would have cost
seventy-five cents postage.
Hence, very large sheets of letter
paper were used, especially by atfec-
Tomato mothers when writing to their
sons at school. Often, when the tender
soul had filled four immense pages with
family news and good advice to ''my
dearest boy" she would still have
something more to say, and then she
would cross her writing to save an extra
postage. This crossing was a sore trial
to impatient youth, who did not in those
days read any writing with perfect
facility.
1t was high art then to fold letter
nicely. Years elapsed before a boy
could tuck in the outside lap without
any bulge at the ends, and make neat,
compact, well-shaped packet Some
clumsy-fingered fellows never could get
the knack of it. To all such the envelope
was, indeed, precious boon.
1t was considered a frightful vulgaIity
sixty years ago to seal letter with any
thing but sealing-wax. This was very
awkward article in a Southern or East
Indian mailbag, as at a high tempera-
ture it melted and stuck the letters to-
gether, The operation of sealing, too,
was one that baffled the school-boy and
often burned his fingers. 1t had to be
done, however, even after the post-office
chiefs had given public notice of the in
convenience to which it subjected them.
1t was only the envelope that ended the
wax nuisance.
Everything was more difficult then
than now. In 1924, the daily stage for
the city of Washington left New York
at three in the morning, and a man
went round the town at two to call up
the passengers; so that when the stage
came for them, it might not be kept
waiting Uery long. If all went well, the
passengers reached Washington the next
morning soon after sunrise.
Those were the times when college
students were fined ten dollars for going
to the theater, and it was reckoned I'M
becoming in clergyman to have copy
of Shakespeare in his house.
At that remote period, before the Erie
Canal was finished, what was the largest
inland town of the United States? 1t
was Lancaster in Pennsylvania, with a
population of something less than four
thousand!-Kouth's Companion.