The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1883-04-28
Only a Little While Ago.

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.
Bows who went to boarding-school
thirty miles from home had q stage
ride of five or six hours to endure or to
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
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 a 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 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, a letter in an envelope
inclosing a dollar bill would have cost
| seventy-five cents postage
Hence, very large sheets of letter
paper were used, especially by affec-
! tionate 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 impatientyou who did not in those
days read any writing with perfect
facility.
1t was a high art then to fold a letter
nicely. Years elapsed before a boy
could tuck in the outside lap without
any bulge at the ends, and make a neat,
compact well-shaped packet. Some
clumsv-fngered fellows never could get
the knack of it. To all such the envelope
was, indeed, a precious boon.
1t was considered a frightful vulgarity
sixty years ago to seal letter with any
thing but sealing-wax. This was very
awkward article in q Southern or East
Indian mailbag, as at high tempera-
ture it melted and stuck the letters to-
gether. The operation of sealing, too,
was one that batt1ed the SchOOl-bOy and
often burned his fingers. 1t had to be
done, however, even after the post-oflicC
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 theI
than now. In 1924, the daily stage fC1
the city of Washington left New Yorl
at three in the morning, and a mar
went round the town at two to call W
the passengers; 50 that when the stage
came for them, it might not be KEEP
waiting Uery long. If all went well, tn,
passengers reached Washington the mex
morning soon after sunrise.
Those were the times when college
students were fined ten dollars for goin!
to the theater, and it was reckoned un
becoming in a clergyman to have cop,
of Shakespeare in his house.
AT that remote period, before the Fri
Canal was finished, what was the larges
inland town of the United States?
was Lancaster in Pennsylvania, with
population of something less than fou
thousand Youths Companion.