Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1886-03-01
HOW WE LIVED FORTY
YEARS AGO.

To go back forty years. fully as
useful contrast aud as instructive a
comparison may he made as to bring
back the early settler from England,
Holland md France in opposition to
their descendants of two hundred
years later In 1843 and for some
period thence onward, money, as
currency, was scarce. Possibly gen.
eral business suffered for want of the
medium of exchange. Money, in
bills or coin, had value that would
be looked upon now as almost a
worshiping of fetch. Zone dol
lar day" was ''a good days pay"
and so it was considered even for fairly
skillful labor. Several men, for in
stance. were employed in squaring,
by chalk line and broad AK. the
round timbers to form the framing
of dam. Others bored the holes
for mortises and chlseled them out.
Others did the ''scribbing," the saw
ing and dressing Of the lemons. Few
of them got over one and a quarter
dollars per day from s'sun-up to sun
down" The man who could
"scribe," and who laid ont the job,
got perhaps one dollar and fifty
cents. The machinist got from one
dollar and fifty to two dollars day;
and he who got the two dollars was
a fortunate man; and for that time
he was competent man. Laborers
had fifty cents per day, and in hay
ing time, when several days ordina-
ry work must be crowded into twelve
or fourteen, or possibly into sixteen
hours, they got seventy-fve. Spec
ial workmen. apt at any jobs, one
dollar.
Now this is fair showing of the
value of labor forty years ago. What
was the relative value of housing.
fuel, food and clothing? Rents were
low. A good house for the times
cost from S25 to $40 per year. Fuel
-wood-was somewhat less than if
can be furnished, as coal now, at
any place remote from the mines:
say for an ordinary family six cords
of hickory, S24; now four tons of
coal (two fires. about equal. Food
cost less forty years ago than now;
but it was not the same food. Fresh
meat once. or at most, twice week,
and rarely that except in ''the killing
season - fish caught at the stream or
pond ,oT hawked about at four cents a
pound dressed. Vegetables from
the garden, or from the market at
twenty-five cents bushel for pota-
toes and less price for turnips. On
iv,1e- ssi i.,IvSt s-~ao..r .o,,, osua Uttts-
bages no cheaper. Clothing can he
bought cheaper now than it could be
forty years ago, and 1t is cheaper IN
more than one sense. Perhaps it
would be better for the country at
large if better clothing at higher
prices should be the rule.
1t is scarcely necessary to add to
show we lived forty years ago" any
statement of how we live or how we
might live now. 1t is enough to the
present Garner of his bread by labor
to know of the annoyances and lack
of opportunities of his. predecessor.
A glance over the condition will con
vince any unprejudiced mind that All
improvement has been made in the
condition Of our workers. and that
the worker of to-day gets better
return for his labor than he did forty
years ago. And this statement ap-
plies as nearly to the unskilled work
er as the adept mechanic. Only that
the advantage now. as ever before,
holds with the intelligent, skilled,
experienced mechanic. = Scientific
american.