The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-02-15
II YEARS AGO.
Things that People Did Then They
Do Not DO Now.
Milford in San Francisco Chronicle.

milford in San Francisco Chronicle.
Family cooking was better then than
at the present. Our mothers and grand
mothers "took a hand" in it. Bread was
made at home. Coffee was freshly ground
every morning for broadcast. The grind
ing of the family coiIee-mill was a tamil-
lar sound of the early morning, long ere
the children woke up. Foreign help bad
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, buCkwheat cakes and
suCcotash,
People then did not live as long, nor
was the average health as good as 1t Is
to-day; they ate more meat, more grease,
more hot bread, more heavy dishes,
drank more ut meals and atterWard
chewed more tobacco.
Dyspeptics and consumptives were
more common: disease and premature
death were devoutiy laid at the Delty's
door and alluded to as Interpretations OF
Providence"
Tombstones had longer epitaphs and
more verbosity engraved upon them.
At funerals the undertaken cried win
the mourners, the flow of tears being
proportionate to the expense Of the
funeral.
Collins 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 1t was a
welcome recreation.
New Orleans molasses, very black
and thin, wasthe common "sweetenlng"
for buckwhGat cakes. Refined molasS9s
was comparatively 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 cur~rencv-six-
pences, sbi!lings 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 so
easily by rail run up to the city and
spend their largest cash acCumulations
for the more expensive stutfs.
Country dry goods stores renewed
their stock from the CITY twice a year.
The arrival of new goods" created quite
b lutter. 1t filed the store for two or
three d%ays-until all the women in the
village had seen the new styles.
Eggs were a shilling q dozen, and
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
luminous and formal tan now, ard writ
ten In q precise, round hand.
Isolated rural settlements contained a
greater proportion of lunatics, paraly-
tics and victims Of st. Vitus dance than
they do to-day.
The railroad had not strung places to-
gether, and there were fewer hospital5
for special diseases, hence most of these
cases were kept at home.
The diet was more surcharged with
grease. The winter breakfast at thou
sands of tables consisted of sailed ham
and hot cakes.
Dinner was simply q hasty lunch at
noon. Little Importance was attached
10 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 the first APP
proach of the warmth of spring came
s~sspring fever and biliousness. For
this the doctors ofthe period gave strong
cathartics, possibly q ''blue-mass pill
or i dose of ''caiomeL."
The regular profession then used mer-
curry in O manne which would now be
deemed reckless. The patient was Civ
en- q regular ~purgation and directed to
s'dietD for o few days. Children were
strongly d0sed with castor oil and rhu-
bard salts and SIENNA on the least provo
cation.
Ii was q strongage for medicine and an
age of strong medicine. Under such
treatment the strong managed to recov-
eT, the weak died, and the medium class
physically fingered on and suffered.
Lightening-rods made their way into
use with difficulty. The ultra devout
actually opposed them on the ground
that they were an insult to gSsity, and
that 1T was an interference with the
works and will of Providence.
Negro minstrelsy was just cropping
out in the trave ing circus. There were
generally but two performers, who as
sumed male and female characters.
The popular melody was Jump, jim
Crow"