The Opelousas courier., 1889-05-04
LIFE A CENTURY AGO.
p~iscou1forts Our Ancestors Had to
Endure.
without stoves oil Coal, Gas, Matches or
ear~ cts. Their Trials Were Heavy in
Severe Winter Weather-ATodern
Comforts and C~onvenicnces.

The people of to-day, with all the
comforts and conveniences which sur
round them, with almost wonderful
means TO meet every emergency, do
not realize the contingencies of climate
and weather which their ancestors, a
hundred years ago, were annually
called upon to meet. and, we may say,
10 suffer and endure. Home-life in
New England q hundred years ago, to
say the least of it, as compared with
the present time, was q wonderful ex-
perience. At that time, and even for
some years later, the people were with
cat stoves and knew nothing of the use
Of coal. The Franklin fireplace, approx
imating toward the stove, for the use of
wood, a invented by pr. Franklin in
ahe year 1745. He had given much att
tention to the subject of warming
rooms and apartments, and this lion
fireplace was thought to be n great
Improvement upon the ordinary brick
fireplace. Count Rumford also made
some improvements in the matter, and
in It'll DR.. Franklin, then in London,
completed and used q design for burn
ing bituminous coal and consum-
ing the smoke. Some years later
Count Rumford made some val
liable Improvements and sug-
gestions in the matter Of cooking
stoves, and in q few years cooking
stoves in great variety came into gen.
eral use. In thousands of cases, at the
present time, the numerous cooking
stoves of years ago have given place
TO the cooking range for kitchen use.
in which all kinds of cooking is done
with great facility and convenience
with the use of coal. For warming pur-
poses. day and night alike, the stove,
however enlarged and improved. TO-
gives place very extensively to the
furnace in the cellar, by which all the
rooms in the house are kept warm and
comfortable by a continuous coal fire.
These are things of invaluable use
and benefit, relieving winter of its
trials and discomforts, to which the
people of a hundred years ago we're so
severely exposed. In addition to all
these, in thousands of cases is the
cities and larger towns of the common
wealth, the use of double windows has
been adopted to keep out the cold air
and make the dwelling-houses still
more comfortable in very cold weather.
So that, in point of fact, excepting in
the interior towns, brick ireplaces
and wood fuel are but little used in the
cities and populous towns.
As q general thing, at the time of
which we speak, only n room in the
house was kept farm during the day.
time, and this was in many cases the
Kitchen. where the cooking was done.
In case Of sickness a fire might occa-
sionally be made in a sleeping-room;
but otherwise the sleeping-roems we're
0f the temperature of the atmosphere,
and In winter weather often below
zero. OF this, it is said, ''the men and
women ahundred years ago undressed
and went to their beds in a tempera-
ture colder than that of our barns and
Woodsheds. and they never COM
planned. This was the case less than
nifty years ago, when it was a common
thing TO have the water in the bed
room freeze every night. and the occu-
pants we're obliged to dress themselves
each morning in a freezing tempera-
ture during the winter.
In the matter of lighting rooms.
apartments. public houses, etc. tallow
candles succeeded pine knots, until
lamps and whale oil were introduced
these last within the remembrance
Of the present generation, and candles
Of superior make are still very largely
used, together with kerosene oil lamps
W great variety. Gas from coal APP
pears to have been first discovered and
used by MIR. William Murdoch. fore
maj Of Bolt 6 Watt, engineers OF Biz
mingham, England. about the year
1870. He may be said to have discov-
cred the eombustible. and, when his
days work was over, devoted him.
sell to experiments on the nature
and use of coal gas. Among other
Things he contrived a lantern with 9
bladder filed with gas attached to 1t.
which he used to light himself about
me streets and lanes st night, very
much to the amazement Of the people,
W see b lamp without a wick. The
hrst shop lighted with grs in London
vas that of Mr.. Ackerman in the
strand In 1910, and it is said that a
iady ct rank was so delighted with sne
nrllliancy of the lamp on the counter
mat she asked TO be allowed to take u
nome lin her carriage. The Lyceum
1hsater in London was lighted WIFI
gas IN 1861, and In 1918 Westminster
bridge was lighted with coal gas for
me first time. and the next year some
q the streets were lighted with gas
Come Of the gases used at this time
END earlier were made OF wood. u
shls country tallow candies and on
continued To be used much later. ~
many asses until 1850 or go. The mrs
attenpss to introduce coal gas into INT
United States were made in 1915 O
Ab2l MT Baltimore, and were said g