The Opelousas courier., 1884-05-10
TWO-sCORE YEARS AGO.
Sosne Thimgs People Did Then TnaH
They Do Not DO Now.

$500 =
Family cooking was better than at
present. Our mothers and grand
mothers took a hand" in it. Bread
was made at home. Coffee was fresh
ly ground every morning for breakfast.
The grinding of the family coffee-mlll
was a familiar sound of the early
morning, long ere the children were
up. Foreign help had less sway In ths
kitchen than now, and European hands
did not make a botch Of such purely
American dishes as pumpkin pie, cod
fish cakes, pork and beans, corn bread
buckWheat cakes and %succotash.
People then did not live so 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 consumptives were
more common; disease and premature
death were devoutly laid at the Deity's
door and alluded to a. 'dispensations
of Providence"
Tombstones had larger epitaphs and
more verbosity engraved upon them.
|. At funerals the undertaken cried
with mourners, the flow of tears being
proportionate to the expense of the flu
neral.
Coffins were very plain, the 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 "sweeten-
ing" for buckwheat cakes. Refined mo
lasses 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 doliars-was of
Mexican coinage, brought to this coun-
try by the Sante 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 aeeumulations
for the more expensive stufs.
Country dry goods stores renewed
their stock from the city twice a year.
The arrival of "new goods created
quite a f1utter. 1t filled the store for
Two or three days-untl all the women
in the village had seen the new styles.
Eggs were a shilling dozen, and
butter was considered high at eighteen
pence per pound.
There was "York currency" being
eight shillings to the dollar, and New
England currency, six ahillings to the
dollar.
Business letters were more volumi-
nou and formal than now, and writ
ten in a precise, round hand.
Isolated rural settlements contained
a greater proportion of lunatics. par
alytics and victims of st. Vitus' dance
than they do to-day.
The railroad had not strung places
together and there were fewer hosu-
ta,,s 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 a hasty lunch as
noon. Little Importance was attached
to the necessity for good digestion or a
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
spring fever and biliousness. For
this the doctors of the period gave
strong cathartics. possibly a s'blue-mass
pill" or a dose of ecalomea."
The regular profession then used
mercury in a manner which would
now be deemed reckless. The patient
was given a regular purgation and di-
rected to 'diet' for a few days. Chill
dren were strongly dozed with castor
oil and rhubarb and salts and SIENNA on
the least p~rovocation.
It was a strong age for medicine
and an age of strong medicine. Under
such treatment the strong managed to
recover, the weak died, and the medium
class physically, fingered on and suf-
fered.
Lightning rods made their way into,
use with difficulty. The ultra devout
actually opposed them on the ground
that they were an insult to Deity, and
that 1t was an interference with the
works and will of Providence.
Negro minstrelsy was just dropping
o,,& 50 @hn 4rox,aIIrc cna,,r TAo.a