The Press., 1888-03-08

LAST YEARS A1MANACs The South bridge Journal man has been looking over back numbers of the "old Farmers Alma. nac" owned by Wm. Wight of Fiskdale He saws The earliest date of any oi rhese Is 1779 and the one of most recent date is for 1926. The title page of the nun Der for 1778 begins thus: An Astronomlcal Dairy or Almauack for the Year of Chris tian Era 1778.' Further along down the page It states that the year Is the Second of American Independence which began Tn l776.' The author of the almauac was Nathaniel Low, aud it was printed by U. Gill, in Court street aud T. ahd J. Fleet, iu COruhlll, Boston, On the secoud page the author commences an Address to the People, on the Subject of Monopoly and Extortior.' This address occupies two and oue-half pages. It bears date of Oct. IA, 1774 It was the same old story of the 'rlcu growing richer and the poor poorer. Thus the cry against monopoly Is no new thing as the address cJnclusively shows
 The weather predictions, or judgment of the weather, as the author states 1t, are of an amusing character. The predictions for the month of June sprinkled down the page will serve as an illustration of the whole. They are as follows: Thunder, wind aud rain. Cloudy, warm. Perhaps rain. Dry weather, prrhaps thunder. Fair weather. The planets promise but little rain this monh.' The following adver- tisement is on the last page of the alm mac: Cash gwen for old lInnen rags at. the Bible aud Heart in CnrnhllI, B ston.' Aunther of these almanac1 Is for the year l779, by the same author. It contains list of Roads to the principal towns on the con- yfth th.. Ng those who keep houses of entertainment. R ,ad No. of the list Is one leading to NnrwIch aud New London by way of Wor- ceSter. In 1779 there were two hotels in Oxford. Que of these was kept by ou- Campbell the other by Mr. B lows. DuG- and Woodstt ok were also stopplug plrces The Dudley hoteI was probably in what is now Webster. LandlUrd Carter presided at this hotel, while MT. Clark mixed drinks at Woodstock. The leveuth of the list of the highways is the Road to the Mineral Spring. Que naturally iufrrs by this that the Mineral spring at Stafford was of far grea CT lmpOrtaLc one hundred ur more years ago thau 1t Is today. Iu 1799 there were two hotels in Brookfield, tue same number iu Brimheld, aud $ aff 'rd had three. The names of the Brooktield landlords were Walcott and Olds ; of those in Brlmfeld, Warrener aud Fisk in Staf- ford, Colburn and Theles, while MT. Or cutt kept the hotel at the spring. The Western post road to Hartford and New Haven pa, sed through Leicester, Spencer, Brooktield, Western (now Warren) and Palmer. Leicester had two t,verns which were kept by S. al ieaut and Bond, respect lvely Brookfield, two, by Waite and Rice, respectively Western, que, by Cut er, ,and Palmer, one, by Scott. Iu another account of road to Albany We, tind tavern iu Broukfeld, kept by one Butler, thus mak
 ing five tuverns in that town iu 1779 No mention is made in this almanac of the turnpike through Charlton, Sturbridge and thence on to Hartford The remaiuder of
 hese aImauacs are for the years 1871, '83, '86, 87, 's8; 1790, '92, '93, '94, '95, '96, '97,
 98 1900, 'O1, 02, 'O6, aud from 1918 10 1926 inc usive. There Is in these old al- manacs mine of entertaining matter, aud when We think that with one of these our forefatht IS, who never saw watch, could, on fair days, tell the time of day with a finer exactness than we can with our time pieces, our interest in them becomes still greater,