The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-03-28
FORTY YEARS AGO.


Family cooking was better 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 morn
ing, long ere the children were up.
People then did not live 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
afterward chewed more tobacco.
Tombstones had larger epitaphs and more
verbosity engraved upon them.
At funerals the undertaken cried with the
mourners, the flow of tears being proportion
ate to the expense of the funeral
Collins were very plain, and burial caskets
unknown.
Young folks in couples counted it privl-
lege to sit up nights with the corpse before
burial and in many cases it was welcome
occupation.
New Orleans molasses, very black and thin,
was the common sweetening" for buck
wheat cakes Refined molasses was compar-
atively scarce.
The bank bills were of State banks, and
the farther west their locality the shaker
were they Illinois and Indiana bills would
barely pass in New York city.
Much of the silver currency-sixpences
shillings and dollars-was of Mexican coin
age, brought to this country 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 Accommodations for the more expensive
stuffs.
Country dry-goods stores renewed their
stock from the city twice year. The arrival
CT g new goods " created quite futter. 1t
all the women in the village had seen the new
styles.
Eggs were shilling dozen, and butter
was considered high at eighteen cents pound.
There was :" York currency" being eight
shillings to the dollar, and New England cur
rency, six shllllngs to the dollar.
Business letters were more voluminous and
formal than now, and written in precise,
round hand.
Lightning rods made their way into use
with difficulty. The ultra-devout actually OPP
posed them on the ground that they were an
insult to Deity, and that it was an interference
with the works and will of Providence
Negro minstrelsy was just cropping out in
the travelling circus. There were generally
but two performers who assumed male and
female characters. The popular melody was,
"Jump, Jim Crow"
The diet was more surcharged with grease.
The winter breakfast at thousands of tables
consisted of sailed ham and hot cakes
Dinner was simply hasty lunch at noon.
Little Importance was attached to the neces-
sity for good digestion or a period of rest after
eating.
The same heavy diet prevailed in many fam
lilies, without change, winter and summer.
Hence on the first approach of the warmth of
spring came "spring fever" and biliousness.
For this the doctors of the period gave strong
cathartics, possibly blue mass pill p" or a
dose of "calomel"
The regular profession then used mercury
in manner which would now 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.