The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1883-11-22

DOlu CCdSCd.
There was not then so marked di-
viding line as now between the ''store
and the "shop." To be a thorough
gentleman of leisure was hardly respect
able. The law of the time was that all
men should be in some kind of business.
Adams and Harnden were commence
ing the express business, and they were
their own messengers and their entire
daily freight was slowed in a couple OF
carpet-bags.
Family cooking was better than at
present Our mothers and grandmoth-
ers took hand" in it. Bread was
made at home Coffee was freshly
ground every morning for breakfast.
The grinding of the family cotfee-mill
was a familiar sound of the early morn,
long ere the children were up. Foreign
help had less sway in the kitchen than
now, and European hands did not make
a botch of such purely American dishes
as pumpkin pie, Goldfish cakes, pork and
beans. corn bread, buLkwheat cakes,
and succotash.
People then did not live as long, nor
was the average health as good as it Is
to-day; they ate more meat, more
oftdSH, IlOIc HOI bICdb. ANdNf
dishes, drank more coffee at meals and
afterward chewed more tobacco.
Dyspeptics and consumptives were
more common: disease and premature
,.eath were devoutly laid at the Deity 5
toor and alluded to as ''dispensations
f Providence"
Tombstones had longer epitaphs and
more verbosity engraved upon them.
At funerals the undertaken cried with
the mourners, the flow of tears being
proportionate to the expense of the fu-
neral.
Coffins were very plain, and burial
caskets unknown.
Young folks in couples counted 1t
privilege to sit up nights with the corpse
before burial, and in many cases it was
for them welcome recreation.
New Orleans molasses, very black
and thin, was the common ''sweetening'
for buckwheat cakes. Refined molasses
was comparatively scarce.
The bank bills were of state banks,
and the farther west their locality the
shaker were they. Illinois and Indi-
ana bills would barely pass in New York
city.
Much of the silver currency-six-
pences, shillings and dollars--was of
Mexican coinage, brought to this coun-
try by the Santa Fe traders.
The country retail trade was better
than now. People then could not so
easily by rail run up to the city and
spend their largest cash accumulations
for the more expensive stuf1s.
Country Hry CrppHS stores renewed
their stock from the city twice year.
The arrival of 'newgoods'' from New
York created quite a tiutter. 1t filled
the store for two or three days-until
all the women in the village had seen
the new styles.
Eggs were shilling dozen, and
butter was considered high at Is pence
per pound.
There was york currency" being
eight shillings to the dollar, and New
England currency, six shillings to the
dollar.
Business letters were more volumin
Gus and formal than now, and written
in precise, round hand.
The yearly almanac contained prophe-
cies for each month in the year The
phrase, expect much rain about this
time" would extend along the column
of dates for ten days. These predictions
were based on the .'hit and miss" prin-
ciple, and one hit would atone in the
public mind for half a dozen misses.
Who made them was ever mystery.
The almanac was hung up in the
chimney corner, and as the months
glided on it grew yellow with age and
smoke.
Isolated rural settlements contained
a greater proportion of lunatics, par
alytics and victims of St. Vitus' dance
than they do to-day.
The railway had not strung places to-
gether and there were fewer hospitals
for special diseases. hence most of these
cases were kept at home.
The comparative isolation of the time
and the slowness, cumbrousness and ex-
pense of travel prevented the more gen
eral social intermingling of to-day.
Families resident in one locality had
intermarried for generations. This re-
suited in a certain physical degeneracy,
which may have come more from the
union of exhausted stocks than of mere
relationships. Consumption was more
common.
Some of the habits of the time were
very trying to the weak. They slept
more in cold and damp rooms; de-
mand in winter for a heated bedroom
was considered a mark of effeminacy.
Little Importance was attached to the
admission of sunlight to sleeping rooms.
People left warm fireplaces and dis
robed in the atmosphere of an ice house.
Il Il
under similar conditions.
The diet was more surcharged with
grease. The winter breakfast at thou
sands of tables consisted of salted ham
and hot cakes.
Dinner was simply hasty lunch at
noon. Little Importance was attached
to the necessity for good digestion, or q
period of rest after eating.
The same heavy diet prevailed in
many families, without change, winter
and summer. Hence on approach CT
the first warmth of spring came ''spring
fever" and biliousness. For this the
doctors of the period gave strong ca
thartics, possibly ''blue-mass pill' or
a dose of ''calomel.
The regular profession then used
III Il IuduICi WHICH NOuIu HOW
be deemed reckless. The patient was
given regular purgation and directed
to ''diet" for few days. Children
were strongly dosed with castor oil and
rhubarb, and salts and SIENNA, on the
least provocation.
1t was a strong age for medicine, and
an age of strong medicine. Under such
treatment the strong managed to re-
cover, the weak died. and the medium
class physically fingered on and suf
fered.
Care for the body was deprecated
even from the pulpi-s. 1t was frequent
" alluded to as a ''poor, perishing"
affair. soon TO be flood for worms" and
the inference seemed to be that any ex-
ira pains for the preservation of bodily
health was so much taken from the
scare of the soul.
Old age came on sooner than to-day.
There were more senile old men and
women mumbling in chimney corners,
membranes to the household