The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1884-08-09
TWO SCORE YEARS AGO.
Some of the Customs of Our Fathers
-Yariona Changes.

Various Changes.
The San Francisco Chronicle notes
some of the changes that have occurred
paragraphs Family cooking was bet
ter than at present. Our mothers and
grandmothers took hand in it.
Bread was made at home. Coffee was
freshly ground every morning for
breakfast. The grinding of the family
| coffee mill was familiar sound Of the
early orning, long ere the children
were up. Foreign help had less sway
| in the kitchen than now, and European
hands did not ma botch of such
purely American dishes as pumpkin
pie, Goldfish cakes, pork and beans, corn
bread, buckwheat 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
grease, more hot bread, more heavy
dishes, drank more at meals and after
ward chewed more tobacco.
Dyspeptics and consumptiyes were
more common; disease and premature
death we're devoutly laid at the Deity's
door and alluded to as "dispensations
of Providence"
Tombstones had larger epitaphs and
more yerbosity engraved upon them.
at funerals the undertakers cried
with the mourners Il the flow of tears
being proportionate to the expense of
the neral.
Coins were very plain and burial
| caskets unknown.
Young folks in couples counted it a
privilege to sit up nights with the
corpse before burial, and in many cases
it was a welcome recreation.
New Orleans molasses, very black
and thin, was the common "sweeting"
for buckwheat cakes. Refined molasses
was comparatively scarce.
The bank bills were of state banks,
and the further west their locality the
shaker were they. Illinois and lndi-
ana bills would barely pass in New
York city.
Much of the silver currency six
pences, shillings and dollars-was OF
Mexican coinage, bought to this country
by the Santa Fe traders.
Tie country retail trade was better
than now. People then could not SC
easily by rail run up to the city and
| SpCuu luO4I CbSu
for the more expensive stuffs.
The country dry goods stores renewed
their stock from the city twice year.
Tho arrival of "new COOS" created
quite fiutter. 1t filled the store for
two or three days, until all the women
in the village lad seen the new styles
Eggs were shilling dozen and but
ter " as cons dered high at Is pence pei
pound
There was "York currency" being
shillinGs to the dollar, and New Eng
land currency, 6 shillings to the dollar
business letters we've more volumin
GUS ard formal than now, and w-itte1
in n precise, round hand
Isolated rural settlements contained
greater proportion of lunatics
paraytics and victims of St. Vitus
dan G, than they do tc-lay.
The railroad had not strung places
together, and there were fewer hospi
tails for special diseases, hence most o.
their cases were kept at home.
The diet was more surcharged with
grease. The winter breakfasts at thou
sands OF tables consisted of salted han
and hot cakes.
Dinner was simply hasty lunch al
noon. Little Importance was attached
to the nece s ty for good digestion or 6
period of rest after eating.
The same heavy diet prevailed il
many fam lies, without change, winter
and summer. Hence on the first ap
proach of the warmth of spring came
"srsing fever" and biliousness. Fol
this the doctors of the reriol CAV,
strong cathartics, possib' y "bluemas
pill" or dos e of "calomel"
The regular profession then uset
mercury in manner which would nov
be deemed reckless. The patient wa
given regular purgation and directed
to "diet" for few days. Children
were strongly dosed with castor oil, ant
rhubarb, and salts and senna on th
least provocation.
It was strong age for medicine ant
an age of strong medicine. Under sucl
treatment the strong managed to re
cover, the weak died, and the medium
class physically fingered on ard sui
fered.
Lightning rods made their way int
use with diff Guilty. The ultra devou
actually opposed them on the groun
that they were an insult to the Deity
and that it was an interference wit
the works and will of Pro idence
Negro minstrelsy was just croppin
out III the travelling circus. There wer
generally two performers, who assume
; male and female characters. The poI
ular melody was Jump, Jim Cro"."
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