The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-10-09
ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
The People of the United States at the
Close of the Revolutionary War-Strikins
Contrasts With the Present.

Close ofthe Revolutionary War-Strikins
Contrasts With the Present.
The second volume OF John Bach
McMaster's "History of the people OF
the United States from the Revolu-
ton to the Civil War" is even more
interesting than the first volume. No
such vivid presentation OF the life of
our ancestors at the beginning of this
century has ever before been made or
even attempted.
Heis never weary of contrasting the
past and the present of American life,
and many are the striking comparisons
which he is enabled to make in thepro-
gress of his work. Here is an example
which is particularly interesting: son
the resignation of Samuel Osgood in
1901 the Office OF postmaster-general
was bestowed on Timothy Pickering.
So insignificant was the place and so
light the duties that officer was to
perform that Washington did not
think him worthy of a cabinet seat.
Yet there is now no other department.
of government in which the people take
Nv i','y oi hNCiCS Us III UllStl oNtE
which the postmaster-genera presides.
The number OF men that ARE whether
the Indians get their blankets and
their ratlons on the frontier, whether
one company or two are stationed at
Fort Dodge, whether there is fleet of
gunboats in the Mediterranean sea
is extremely small. But the sun never
sets without millions upon millions OF
our citizens intrusting to themails let
tiers and postal-cards, money-orders
and packages, in the safe and speedy
delivery of which they are deeply con-
cerned. The growth OF the p~ostotlice
in the last ninety years isindeed amaz-
ing. In 1892 there were 264 post
Offices in the country, now there are
10000. The yearly revenue which
they yielded then was S25,0 900; nowit
is far above $45, OOO, 900. More time
was then consumed in carrying letters
ninety miles than now sufiices to carry
them 1000. The postage required to
send q letter from New York to Sa-
vannah was precisely eighteen times as
much as will now send one far beyond
the Rocky mountains, into regions of
which our ancestors hadneverheard."
This passage is a very good example
OF Mr.. McMaster's style. 1t will be
seen at a glance that all the informa-
ton might have been given with one
half the number OF words. Wecan al-
so see how the contrast has been
heightened by rhetorical devices, but
the passage attracts our attention, it
interests us, we read it, and we proba-
bly, remember it, when if put in amore
condensed and statistical form it
would leave no impression.
Mr.. McMaster has a good deal to
say at different times about the diff
cuitles oftravel and communications
the early years Of the republic. This
INTERPRETATIONS with foreigngovern-
ments peculiarly difficult. At the
time the British treaty OF 1894 was
under discussion Monroe was minister
at Paris. The proposed treaty was
naturally most distasteful to the
French government and Monroe was
informed that s'themoment thetreaty
was approved, that moment the di-
rectory considered the alliance with
America at an end. The next day he
dispatched the news to the secretary
OF state. The letter was still upon
the sea when Washington proclaimed
the treaty thesupremelaw OF theland,
and sent a copy to the house." Tray
ell at home was done by the stage
coach. This was little better than a
huge covered box mounted on springs.
1t had neither glass windowsnordoors
nor steps nor closed sides. The roof
was upheld by eight posts which rose
from the body of the vehicle, and the
| bolr ~ l,,,oa4 l,.-l =, T..
this uncomfortable conveyance a man
might travel some four or five miles
an hour. With the exception Of some
parts OF New England, the waysidc
accommodation which the trav-
eler found was miserably bad.
Strangers were put together in the
same room and the same bed.
The bed clothes We're changed not for
new arrivals but at stated times. All
sorts OF extortions were practiced up
or travellers. The genealogist who
studies the history of American fami-
lies has frequent occasion to note the
compactness OF those families up to
about fifty years ago. For many gen
%eratlons the members of afamlly. with
very few exceptions. will be found to
have lived and died in about the same
place, spreading somewhat in theman-
ner OF a thrifty plant which slowly in
creases its area rather than that of an
animal which roamed freely about.
Many of these families which are the
most widely scattered lived. previous
to the introduction of therailroad, to-
gether in the sameportion of the same
state. We have given us many facts
OF interest concerning theearly history
of the steamboat. Fulton's Hudson
river success was by no means theirst
occasion upon which American waters
We're navigated by steam.propelled
vessels. The idea hadbeen working in
the minds of a few men for a number
of years. As early as 1887 a rudeplan
of q steamboat had been presented to
the constitutional convention. In
1889 a boat was constructed which
Travelled a mile in seven minutes and
a half. A few months later a steam
boat began to run regularly as a ferry
in Philadelphia.
Agriculture, at the beginning of the
century, was a simple matter. .'Agri-
culture as we now knowitcanscarcely
be said to have existed. The pillow was
little used. The hoe was the nipple
ment of husbandry. Made at the
plantation smithy, the blade was i'll
formed and clumsy; the handle was a
sapling with the bark left on" In Vir-
ginia horses were driven overthegrain
in the open field to thresh it, and it
was ground with a rude pestle and
mortar. For a hundred years the
farms, of precisely the same size, had
been kept in the same families and
cultivated with the same kind of i'm
PIGMENTS in the samew way. Year after
year the same crops were raised in the
same succession. When q patch of
land became exhausted it was suffered
fo lie fo1lou