River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-02-28
FORTY YEARS AGO.
Things that People Did Then They
Do Not Do Now.

DO Not Do Now.
Milford in San Francisco Chronicle.
Family cooking was better then than
1t the present. Our mothers and grand
mothers took hand" in it. Bread was
made ~ home. Coffee was freshly ground
svery morning for broadcast. The grind
ng of the family coffee-mill was famil-
ar sound of the early morning, long ere
the children woke up. Foreign help had
ess sway in the kitchen than now, and
European hands did not make a botch
IF such purely American dishes as
pumpkin pie, Goldfish cakes, pork and
beans, corn bread, buckwheat cakes and
suceotash,
People then did not live as long, nor
was the average health as good as 1t Is
lo-day; they ate more meat, more grease,
more hot bread, more heavy dishes,
drank more at meals and aiterward
sheWed more tobacco.
Dyspeptics and consumptiyes were
more common; disease and premature
death were deyoutly laid at the Deity &
door and alluded TO as "dispensations OF
Providence"
Tombssones had longer epitaphs and
more yerDosity engraved upon them.
At funerals the undertaken cried with
The mourners, the flow of tears being
proportionate to the expense OF the
funeral
Collins were very plain, and burial
baskets unknown.
Young folks in couples counted ii q
privilege to sit up nights with the corpse
before burial, and in many cases it was a
Eelcome recreation.
New Orleans molasses, very black
and thin, was the common 'sweetening'
Tor 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 Indians
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 country
by the Santa Fe traders.
The country retail trade was better
than now People then could not Sc
easily by rail run up TO the city and
spend their largest cash aceumulatlonS
for the more expensive stuifs.
Country dry goods stores renewed
their stock from the city twice year
The arrival of new goods" created quite
/ hutter. 1t filled the store for two OF
three days-until all the women in the
village had seen the new styles.
Eggs were a shilling dozen, anc
butter was considered high at Is pence
per pound.
There was "York currency" being
| light shillings to the dollar, and New
England currency, six shilling to The
dollar.
Business letters were more vol
anlinous and formal than now, and writ
zen in precise, round hand.
Isolated rural settlements contained q
greater proportion of lunaties, paraly
| lies and victims of st. Yitus' dance thar
they do to-day.
The railroad had not strung places to
gethef, and there We're fewer hospitals
| Tor special diseases, hence most OF these
eases were kept at home.
| The diet was more surcharged with
grease. The winter breakfast at thou
sands of tables consisted of salted han
and hot cakes.
Dinner was simply a hasty lunch q
noon. Little importance was attaches
70 the necessity for good digestion or
period of rest after eating.
| The same heavy diet prevailed II
many families, without change, wlnte
and summer. Hence on the first ap
proach of the warmth of spring came
spring fever" and biliousness. Fol
this the doctors ofthe period gave stroni
eathartics, possibly a ''blue-msss pilP
Dr. dose of "caiomel."
The regular profession then used mer
eury in q manner which would now b.
deemed reckless. The patient was Civ
en- regular purgation and directed t
hdiet" for . few days. Children wer
strongly dosed with castor oil and rhu
bard salts and SIENNA on the least provo
cation.
1t was a strong age for medicine, and al
age of strong medicine. Under suci
treatment the strong managed to recoy
er, the weak died, and the medium elias
physically fingered on and suffered.
Lightening-Tods made their way int
use with difficulty. The ultra devou
actually opposed them on the gronn'
that they were an insult to Deity an'
that ii was an interference with th'
works and will of Providence.
Negro minstrelsy was just cropping
out in the trave ing circus. There Were
generally but two performers, who as
suned male and female characters
The popular melody was Jump, Jin
Crow"