Daily globe., 1883-10-29
FORTY YEARS AGO.
Fashions Of Our Fathers which have
Become Obsolete.
Customs and Devices OF the Days OF
Long AgO---Necessary Priva-
tioas of 1.-THE Good
Old TimeS.o

| Prentice Mulford in San Francisco Chronicle
Forty years ago the lecturer and lecture
course had not made their appearance. The
village debating society was of regular winter
occurrence, discussing (Which was the great
est man, George Washington or Christopher
! Columbus?" Or 'What invention had been
| the most useful to mankind, the art of print
! ing or the mariners compass:"
The land was free for all to shoot over
Breecll-loaders and ''shells'' or cartridges
were unthought of. Gunners cut their own
wads, poured the charge of powder into the
muzzIe, then handful of shot, adjusted the
| percussion cap and banged away. But if the
fowling-piece was not improved, the game OF
every description was far more plentiful.
Forty years ago deer were still native to the
! pice forests Of Long Island, and yearly
hunt for them was organized by the sporting
element of tie country.
The trunk Of the period was covered with
seaiskin, tho bristly hair downward, and
| studded with small brass nails. The baggage
smasher had barely been developed. Valises
were long and narrow Saddle bags were not
out of date
City hotels called the guests to mealsby the
gong or dinner bell. The landlord sat at the
head of the table and Carved the breakfast
stake. The guests dilled together at the same
hour. Dinner was served with great parade
and formality The walters removed the
covers from the chatting dishes at a
| given signal, bore them aloft out of
the room, then reappeared and carried
| off the dishes to be carved at side tables. The
| splendors OF the Astor house were almost
reverenially talked Of in country homes.
; Hordes of ragged girls and boys infested the
| hotel corridors o2ering tooth picks for sale.
| Without the donr older boys beset the coun-
| tryman, whisking under his nose copies Of
dubious books filed with colored prints.
| They carried their stock, wrapped in brown
paper, by the basketful. The sinful country
man, on buying, was often handed a copy so
tied up with twine and paper, supposed to be
| identical with the one displayed, which, when
finally opened in the privacy of his room,
| turned cut to be Ba1ter's ''Saint's Rest' or
some ether religious work purchased for a
| few cents at a secondhand book-stalL
The oyster saloon Of that time was fur
nished with ''stalls' and curtained recesses,
! affording parties more seclusion and quiet
than those of to-day 1t hung without g
| cloth-covered balloonshaped sign, painted
! red, inside Of which candle was stuck at
night.
| The bar Of the period was more dingy than
that Of the present. but the liquor was better.
! Brandy then was not obsolete. In the city
! drinks were cents ''befcre the screen" and
| 6 cents behind it. Six-cent drinks were
| deemed extravagant and SO were Scent
| cigars. Among Old and prosperous families
could be found more cut-glass decanteTs and
port or Madeira either in the closet or on the
sideboard than to-day. Hundreds of the
smaller agricultural villages forty years ago
maintained one or two 'staverns'' where row
there are none Tippling and intemperance
among our native population was far more
| general
The 'solid men" of the town belonged to
engine companies, and pumped faithfully at
| fires. A village fire often terminated in
subdued and respectable drunk Exhaustion
| justified unusual recourse to stimulants at
unaccustomed hours, and the rest followed.
! The village engine was always under repair
| after fire and always broke down at one.
| Houscholders were required by law to keep
| leathern buckets, to be used at fires They
| hung in the hallway and had the owners
name painted on them in white letters.
| The Temperance causen had just COM
| mencad. It's adherents were termed "Wash-
ingtonians." Washington gave his name to
good many things, good, bad and indiffer-
| ent-from the village tavern to the latest
| born tow-haired, snub-nosed urcbin.
England and the English were still unpop-
| ular in the rural districts Oid revolutionary
| soEi;ers added to the attractions of the Fourth
| of July platforms, and the orator OF the day
| always whipped the ''red-coatsr before he
| finished his Grafton. Soldiers Of the war of
| 1872 were relatively as plentiful as soldiers
| of the rebellion are to-day.
The liberty pole OF the period was sur
mounted by the ,Phrygian cap of liberty.
Boys were apprenticed or 'bound" to trades
at Is or 16 and served out their time till 81.
| Runaway apprentices were advertised in the
| papers and all persons forbidden to trust
| or harbor them" The notice was always
| preceded by stereotyped cutof the runaway
making Off. carrying his bundle of clothing
| on a stick over his shoulder. The same style
| of cut had answered for the runaway negro
slave of New York generation previous.
| A church organ was a grand affair and
! quite unknown in country churches Musi-
| cal instruments of any description made
| their way with difficulty into the choirs of
! certain denominations. A bass-viol was
! only tolerated IN our Presbyterian church.
| When old ''Truman Smith heard the first
| catgut scraped in the Methodist church he
stallled, solemn and indignant, down the
aisle in his long black cloak and was never
seen there again"
A steamboat was 2 ci!-osity in many of
| the small ports and be oIs. Crowds fiocked
| to see one arrived from New York, and the
| first rush OF steam from the escape-pipe sent
| every small boy scampering in fright up the
wharf and the grown people quased little
| internally.
Thousands had never seen a railroad or
| train of cars, and never were to see them
| Villagers living 100 miles from New Yori.
| could only reach the city by stage, the trip
| occupying from two TO three days.
| The letter postage to Illinois has been so
! and 40 cents, and 10 cents did not carry let
ter much over 100 miles.
| Photographing, then just entered on its
| career, was termed ''daguerreotyping." The
| impressions were not fixed on the metal plates
and people wishing to remove specll from
! the picture would sometimes remove the
! glass before it and brush of the head to their
dislpay.
! A house of six stories was deemed very
! lofty, and a 700-ton ship was a marvel of
| gigantic marine architecture. The panta-
| looms were known as ''b-eeches," and opened
IN FRONT bo1.i1ou+a1Iv altar Tho old St,-lo T,J,a