The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-02-21
TW0.SCORE YEARS AGO.
Some Things People Did Then that The
Do Not Do Now.
Sa,, Francisco Chronicle.

1
San Fancisco Chronicle.
Family cooking was better than .
present. Our mothers and grand.moth
srs "took hand" in it. Bread was mad
at home. Coffee was freshly groun
every morning for breakfast. The grind
ing of the family cofee.mill wss famil
lar sound of the early morning, long or
the children were up. Foreign help ha'
less sway in the kitchen than now, AM
European bands did not make botch o
such purely American dishes as pumpkin
pie, Goldfish cakes, pork and beans, corl
bread, buckwheat cakes and succotash.
People then did not live As long, no
was the average health ~ good as it i
to-day they ate more meat, more grease
more hot bread, more heavy dishes, dranl
more at meals and afterward chewec
more tobacco.
Dyspeptics and consumptives wer'
more common disease and premature
death were devoutly laid at the Deity
door and alluded to as "dispensations o
Providence"
Tombstones had larger epitaphs ant
more verbosity engraved upon them.
At funerals the undertaken cried witt
the mourners, the flow of tears being
proportionsts to the expense OF the fu
neral.
Cofins were very plain, and buria
csskets unknown.
Young folks in couples counted it ,
privilege to sit up nights with the corpse
before burial, and in many cases it MAS 8
welcome recreation.
New Orleans molasses, very black and
thin, was the common "sneetening" fol
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 Indiana
bills would barely paas in New York
city:
Much of the silver currency--sixpences,
shillings and dollars-uai 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 run by rail to the city and spend
their largest cash accumulations for the
moro expensive stuffs.
Country dry goods stores renewed their
stock from the city twice year. The
arrival of "new goods" created quite a
fntter. It filled the store for two or
three days-until all the women in the
village had seen the new styles.
Eggs were shilling dozen, and but
ter was considered high at eighteen pence
per pound.
There vas "York currency" being
eight shillings to tho dollar, and New
England currency, six Shillings to the
dollar.
Business letters vera more voluminous
and formal than now, and written in a
precise, round hand.
Isolated rural settlements contained a
greater proportion of lunatics and vic
Tins of St. Vitus' dance than they do
to-day.
The railroad had not strung places to.
geaher and there were fewer hospitals for
special diseases, hence most Of these
cases were kept at home.
The diet was more :lrcharged with
grease. The winter breakfast at thou.
sands of tables consisted of salted ham
and hot cakes.
Dinner was simply hasty lunch at
noon. Little Importance was attached to
the necessity of good digestion or
period of rest after eating.
The same heavy diet prevailed in many
families, 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 cathar-
tics, possibly "blue- mass pill" or dose
of "calomel."
The regular profession then used mer-
curry 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 fhubarb and
salts and SIENNA on the least provocation.
1t mas q strong age for medicine, and
an ago of strong medicine. Under such
treatment the strong managed to recover,
the weak died, and the medium class
physically fingered on and suffered.
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 it Was an interference with the
works and will Of Providence.
Negro minstrslsy was just cropping
out in the travelling circus. There were
generally but two performers, who as
sumod male and female characters. The
popular melody was "Jump Jim Crow"