The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-02-12
THEN AND NOW.
now Condition Have Changed within &C
Years or So,

exchanges. The contrast is striking be-
tween the present and few decades
agone:
How funny the rising generation OF
young men would feel if they should be
dropped back into the early thirties and
do what their fellows of that day did.
In 1880 there were only two kinds of
coal in practical use. That is, charcoal
and sea coal, the latter imported; very
little of it comparatively was used, wood
being the common fuel. Getting in the
winters wood in the fall was no small
matter. Logs four feet long, sawed once
and piled up, filled the woodshed and
were split into stable sticks when used.
Wood fires were the order, and with
their back-logs, fore-sticks and brands,
blazing up finely, made the sitting very
cheerful. All the stores in that day had
stoves of various patterns and kinds. l
remember a few years before 1880, when
a little boy, my uncle took me with him
down to State street to see them burn
what he called stones. 1t was a pot of
anthracite coal; it was burning briskly
not far from where the old pump was
situated. can see it now in my mem
DRY, and the crowd of lockers on to wit
ness the experiment. Who supposed
then it would ever come into general
use-hundreds of millions of tons pro-
duced annually-and completely take the
place of wood as fuel?
In 1880 friction matches were unknown
or just coming into notice; at the homes
and in the stores the fires were all
lighted by sparks in finder box, which
were common everywhere. 1t was a
small round tin box, three or four inches
in diameter; some rags burned to tin
der was kept in that box with a smother
ing plate on top of it; flint and small
bar of steel were kept in the box: when
a light was wanted the flint was struck
against the steel and the spark iguited
the finder and then match was lighted
by it. Not the friction matches of to-
day, they are later institution, the
matches of those days were round bun
dies of small sticks, each bundle about
four inches long and one and one-half
inches in diameter, with each end dipped
into birthstone; poor old women used to
make and sell these matches; the price
was generally two cents bunch.
Oil lamps of various patterns and sizes
were used for lights. Gas and kerosene
were unknown; whale oil was generally
used winter strained and summer-strain-
ed. The filling and cleaning of those in
the stores was the work every morning
of the youngest apprentice. The boy in
retail store opened the store early every
morning, made his wood fire in the stove,
starting it with his Undertook and
matches, as mentioned above, and then
swept out his store and busted every
where, and many an old and retired mer-
chant now living at his ease will remcm-
Der when he began his mercantile life in
this way. There were no railroads then;
travelling was done by stages. About
1885, old things began to pass away, rail-
roads began to be constructed,g gas began
to do the lighting, and has come Into
general use. The postOffice was small
affair. The postage on letters was ten
cents to Providence, eighteen and three
fourth cents to New York, and twenty
five cents for further distance. On two
pieces of paper, however small, the post
age was double, letters were folded in
peculiar way, and envelopes, now so com
mon, were unknown. In 1910, Harnden,
Adams and DinsmOre started, with their
gripsacks, carrying packages to New
York, charging twenty-five cents pack
age, which was the beginning of the
enormous express business. In 1915, E.
2. Bancroft started an opposition to the
postotfice carrying letters to New York
for five cents, and State street generally
him, for it was cheaper than
eighteen and three-fOurths cents. Uncle
Sans price, but such competition led to
the reduction of postage to the two-cent
stamp, and made us a country of letter
writers. In 1912, Morse's telegraph was
brought into use, and now we have the |
worlds news everywhere, every day. In |
1880. when we got Europen news it was
usually thirty days old, shortened some |
when steamships came into use. Now |
the stock quotations of New York and |
London are known in each place the
same day. need not say anything about |
the telephone and electric lights, or cleo |
tricity i'll its practical shape, for they are |
the latest corners. | suppose there have |
been more improvements in the way of |
doing things in the last fifty OF sixty |
years than in the previous 600, and in a |
few years | presume our present high |
estate, compared with the, past, will be |
put in the shade, for, as Prof.
Tyndall says, every discovery casts a light |
beyond its special bounds. wonder how |
jhe boys of 1890, when they left their |
schools to enter mercantile life, would |
nave felt il their lot was the same as their |
was in 1880.
l suppose we were just as happy in
1880 as we are in 1891, with our privileges.
cannot say with Groy, "Where ignor-
lnce is bliss It's folly to be wise" but in
,ur ignorance in 1880 we we're happy;yet
20 go back there now, with knowledge
If 1891, that would be misery"
Thousands had sunk on the ground
the weary to sleep and the
to die" but every intelligent
'ealer knows that this occurred before |
he great discovery of Salvation OIL"
SHE WAS SORRY FOR HER.
"You have got new beau, EthelP"
Eyes, and he's perfect treasure"
''Indeed?'
Eyes; he neither drinks, smokes nor
'hews. and, what is more, he never loved
girl till he saw me, mormon kissed
me, either"
''Pm sorry for him."
"Whyp
"Pm sorry to think that young man
Who neither smokes, chews nor drinks
hOuld be such a liar"
DYSPEPSIA.
CAsSKIIL. N. Y. June IL 1893.