The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-02-15
Forty Years Ago.

Prentice Milford writes of the times
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 grind
ing of the family coifee-mill was ia
miliar sound of the early morning, long
ere the children were up. Foreign help
had less sway in the kitchen than now,
and European hands did not make
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 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.
Dyspeptics and consumptIves were
more common; disease and premature
death were devoutly laid at the Deity's
door and alluded to as Interpretations of
Providence
Tombstones had longer epitaphs and
more verbosity engraved upon them
At funerals the undertakers cried with
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 it was
welcome recreation.
New Orleans molasses, very black and
thin. was the common d" sweetening for
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 pass in New York city.
Much of the silver currency-siXpenccs
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 so
easily by rail run up to the city and
spend their largest cash accumulations
for the more expensive stuffs.
Country drygoods stores renewed their
stock from the city twice year. The
arrival of "new goods " created quite
flutter. 1t filled the store for two or
three days-until all the women in the
village had seen the new styles.
Eggs were a shilling dozen, and but
ter was considered high at eighteen pence
per pound.
There was York currency" being
eight shillings to the dollar, and New
England currency, six shillings to the
dollar.
Business letters were more volumInous
and formal than now, and written in a
precise, round hand.
Isolated rural settlements contained a
greater proportion of lunatics, para
lytics and victims of st. Vitus' dance
than they do to-day.
The railroad had not strung places to-
gether and there were fewer hospitals
for special diseases, hence most of these
cases were kept ut 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 hasty lunch at
noon. Little importance was attached
to the necessity for good digestion or
period of rest after eating
The same heavy diet prevailed in many
families, without change, winter and
summer. Hence on approach of the first
warmth Of spring came "spring fever
and bliousness. For this the doctors of
the period gave strong cathartics, pos
sibly "blue-mass pill ~ or dose of
4" calomel.n
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 a few days. Children were
strongly dosed with castor oil and rhu-
barb and salts and SIENNA on the least
prOvocation.
1t was strong age TOR 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 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 minstrelsy was Just cropping
out in the travelling circus. There were
generally but two great performers, who
assumed male and female characters.
The popular melody was Jump, jim
Crow