McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1883-11-29

Sspit-balls'' were fattened on the walls.
The big boys chewed tobacco, and the
marks of missiles of this character
might also be seen prominent on the
ceiling. The odor of country school
in full blast seemed compounded of ink
and unwashed juveniles. There was
no system of graduation textbooks, save
at the will of the teacher, and school,
book publishers had not learned the art
of making fortunes through an innum-
cradle series of readers and writing
books. One duty of the master was to
make or mend the quill pens for the
whole school, work of no small pro-
portions.
School was dismissed with an up
roar. 1t was like the bursting of a
huge bomb filed with boys. They
scrambled over desks and benches
without order or discipline. Half an
hour after the weary master had logged
the three boys, except after school," he
emerged from the scene of educational
torture, went to his boarding house,
and received what nourishment he could
| from the thin o'clock tea of the Pc
Rod.
In the country q steam engine was q
great curiosity. The rural mind most
wondered at the readiness with which
it was stopped, deeming that such q
concentration of power must require
many minutes to run down.
Country graveyards were often I'M
fenced, neglected, and uncared for.
Cattle ran freely in them, knocked
over, and shattered the tombstones.
The grounds were overgrown with
weeds and wild shrubbery. Flowers
and other tokens of remembrance COM
mon to-day were seldom seen in them.
The burying ground was then a place
Stunned and feared. The grave filled
up, relatives and friends hurried away,
and might never visit the place again
until the next burial.
1t was an age less gentle and humane
in its tendencies than ours. More faith
ers dashed their sons numerically for
small offenses. No Bergh had been de-
veloped. There was little restriction
on cruelty to ANIMALS in any locality.
There was no more honesty than to-day
possibly less. People drove hard and
sharp bargains with each other. Prov
idence was often made responsible for
the spirit of covetousness, greed, and
undue accumulation. The phrase ran
that ssit was our duty to care for the
goods committed to our trusl." This
was broad door for the entrance and
excuse of q multitude of sins. Inhu-
manity and neglect often prevailed at
the town poor-houses. There was no
s'reporter" to ferret out such abuses.
No press to expose them. Chapters on
chapters of such misery are never to be
written or known. Such facts died out
and were buried in pauper graves. The
town poor-houses were sometimes
farmed out for the year to the lowest
bidder, who did not, asi a rule, repre-
sent the culture of the community.
Even to the man now living, who was
of mature age in 1912, sudden transl- /
ton, were it possible, to the habits,
manners, customs, and general system
of the life of that period would be full |
of surprise and wonder. It is impossi-
bic to estimate the true character and
extent of such changes, when such
transition from the life of the past to
that of the present has been slow and
gradual. As generations merge into
each other, so imperceptibly the old
habits disappear. The new take their
places, and the smaller peculiarities
common to the period are soon forgot
ten.
Some people are always regretting
the ''good old times" and wishing they
were back. Possibly, if those times
were back, the grumbler would wish
them still further back. The passion
for the old, whether it be the old of
hundred years ago or five hundred, may
be largely a glamor and fiction begot-
ten in the brains of novel writers.
Railroads may be prosaic, but how
would the thousand people desiring to
leave San Francisco tomorrow morn
inc like to be crammed into stage
coaches, travelling ten miles per hour,
Or put on board sailing crafts in lieu of
steamers and drift up the Sacramento
two miles an hour, while the mosgui-
Toes held high carnival over them?
What secluded place California would
be without steam navigation, and sepa-
rated at least four months from New
York.
How would we fancy going back to
,he barbarous old surgery of a hundred
years ago, when IN a sea fight they cut
off a mans leg without an aesthetics,
Ind dipped the stump in hot tar to
check the bleeding? ~. ...e
Judging from the fragments handed
Town, old times, even very recent old
lines, must have been prett;- rough.
The gentlemen seem to have been very
much inclined TO bully, aud used the
swords they wore to enforce their bull
wing. Their estimation of womanhood
itself in fine speeches. Be-
7ond this they were brutes. The me-
,hanic of one hundred years ago did
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