The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-03-20
1Ihe Gnnd Old Times -


generation which is now taking the
place of its fathers imagines that
times are hard and that reform is
needed, a few comparisons of the past,
when was a boy, with the present
nay tend to show that our condition
mas been improved instead of growing
worse.
In '52 was fifteen year sold and liv-
ed near Ottumwa, Iowa, with my moth
er's family. Log houses were the
rule and if you wanted a more pre-
tentious residence than your neIgh-
Dor the logs out of which it was con-
structed were hewn. A fireplace was
built in one end in which pole was
fastened cross-wise on which to hang
pots and kettles for doing the cooking.
Stoves of any kind were an uncom-
mon luxury; baking was done at
these same fire-places by means of
"Dutch ovens" utensil with cover
on which to heap the Goals. For
light by day one window was thought
sufficient and at night if for any pur-
pose a light was needed tallow candles
which had been made at home We're
made to answer, and even they could
not at all times be afforded and re-
course was often had to the bark of
the shell-bark hickory by gathering
a supply in the woods and throwing
it little by little on the fire in the
fireplace. AS but few books and
rarely any newspapers had any place
in those early homes there was but
seant need of sitting up at night to
read or study.
All had to work, young and old,
male and female. Our fathers and the
boys had to make rails and haul them
and wood during the winter months,
make fences, pillow, plant and tend
the crops i'm the summer, and all this
work had to be done by the hardest
of labor; the haulinSand blowing was
done by OK teams, a horse team being
something few had the means to COM
mand. The women folks spun and
wove every article of wearing apparel
for the entire household; and if, as
often happened, the men folks were
thronged with their work they would
labor in the fields, dropping corn, rak-
ing hay or loading grain, picking up
potatoes and in fact doing almost any
thing that was to be done on farm
in those days. No one ever heard of
an organ or piano; if by any chance
a dulcimer or a melodeon came into a
neighborhood, the property of some
more wealthy neighbor, it was a nine
days wonder and but little use was
ever made of it, as time could not be
spared from toll to exc music from it.
Now our children are ready to rail at
their hard luck if they cannot be sup
piled with organ or piano, and with
time and money to learn to play them.
In those days the farmer was satisfied
to do his work with the most primitive
of tools. He plowed his corn with OK
ell hitched to single-shovel pillow or
a diamond" pillow, and went three
times in row; he cut his harvest
with cradle and raked and bound
his grain by hand; he went to town
a-foot or rode in all oX-wagon, and the
women remained at home except
about once or twice year, when they
went TO pick out some calico for n nice
dress. All went to church or other
gatherings in their home-spun or cal
leo, and when the weather was pleas
ant pride did not prevent them from
going bare-footed and with straw hats
and sun-bonnets.
Wages were low. Two, four or six
dollars per month was considered fair
wages for boys from Is to 20 years old.
Farm produce was lower than it has
ever been since. Corn sold in 1855 in
the neighborhood of Ottumwa and
Eddyville, Iowa, for II cents per
bushel; flour, 500 per hundred;
dressed hogs, h auled to market, Sl.SO
per cwt.; We: trling calves S. to s.
per head; caIico, 10 to Is cents per
yard; muslin, % cents per yard; mo-
lasses, 60 &c nts per gallon; brown
sugar, D cents per pound; boots, s.
to s. per pair; in fact, everything
that a farmer had TO buy was higher
than it is now, and everything he had
to sell was lower. These things i'm
pressed themselves Oh the mind of
the writer for the reason that he was
the oldest of family of five children
of a Widowed mother, and more or less
responsibility rested on him for its
maintenan What boy of 16 years
would thi nix now of working a whole
month fer one hundred pounds of
flour? Money was out of the question;
if you 6 ot work at any price you had
to take your pay in such stuff as your
employ er had to spare, or look for an
other job.
Talk about hard times! Why, the
peopl q of that day would have thought
something was wrong if they could
have accom- plished as much work in
u given time, and had as much leisure
OH their ha nds as is now the case;
there was No time for sitting ON goods
boxes and ding the country. They
had to WORK all the time, early and