The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1893-01-19
THE GOOD OLD DAYS."
DR.. EDWARD EcelESroM SHOWS THAT
TIMES HAVE IMPROVED.


Some incidents Described to Prove that
the World 10 Getting Better-An Enter
tanning Lecture Before the Public
School Teachers Association.
From the Baltimore SUM-
The opening of the lecture course of
the Public School Teachers Association
filled every available space iu Harris
Academy Concert Hall last night and
brought much greater demand for
tickets than thesupply could meet. This
suspicious beginning was furth r
strengthened by the interest of the lee
ture by DR.. Edward Eggleston, of New
York, who carried his hearers in fancy
back to the early colonial days, painting
word pictures that were full of instruc.
ton and entertainment. DIR. Eggleston
is widely known as the author of 1.-THE
Hoosier Schoolmaster, and he ranks
among the most popular of American
writer's. Notwithstanding his near APP
proach to three-score years aud ten helis
hale and hearty, tall, erect and full of
vigor.
"A remarkable thing with the English
people of the seventeenth century," he
said, was their lack of the practical
faculty and of any knowledge of coloni>
zation. We could plant colony in the
middle of Africa at this time with vast
ly less loss of life than the colonists here
planted on the shores of America. So
different were our ancestors from the
Americans of today that they were re-
markably deficient in inventiveness. AS
long as they could they did in this coun-
try what they had done in England.
Even the cellar-houses they built here
we're repetitions of the underground
houses existing in Midland England.
Man has been called historic animal
should rather call him historic brute,
considering the persistence with which
he adheres to old habits. The two but,
tons on the back of gentleman's coat
are relics of the day when sword belts
were worn. Even the ladies wear the
buttons now, though they have never
worn sword belts. In Montenegro the
houses are all built on sled runners be-
cause the ancestors of the people five
hundyed years ago used to move their
houses that way. The sled shape is the
survival, The Dutch settlers of Albany
built houses with water spouts running
out to the middle OF the street In Hol-
land there was a canal to carry off the
xuo tor 1,,it -, k1bonxr <l,oxx bad No oopol
in the street, but, neverless, drenched
whom it might concern with the over
water spouts. The New Eng
landers didn't learn to use sleds in
snowy country after they came. but got
their wood in in November, not know.
ing any way to bring it in over the snow.
It was only after bitter sufferings from
the winter attacks of the Indians that
they learned to mount their soldiers on
snow shoes. The double log house of
the Southern colonies gave a wide, cool
passage between. Later houses of other |
material were built in imitation of the
log house, and the ordinary Southern
house of the present day bears the mark
Of the log house."
After describing the various forms of
houses the lecturer spoke of the tables
ware in use. "There was silverware
among the richest people from the earli-
est period of the colonies, but the fine
ware was usually pewter. The common
people brought their meat on the table |
Ia wooden trenchers and ate off Of wood
On plates. Sometimes these trenchers or
plates were mere shapeless blocks of
wood. For the first fifty years there was
not fork in the colonies, and, for that
matter. scarcely a fork was known in
England. The practice of eating with
forks was regarded in England at that
time as foppery brought from Italy by
q few travelled Engl1shmen.. Neither
tea nor coffee was much known until
about 1900. The Introduction of tea oc>
great alarm among conserva-
tive people. 1t was thought to be an
affeminate drink, and only DR.. Franklin
perceived that it might check the exces-
sive drinking of strong liquors.. A CO.
onial historian of New York says: Our
people are of late sadly gone into tea
drinking The interruption of the use
Of tea at the Revolution probably ac-
counts for the prevalence of coffee as an
American beverage of the present time.
There were seventeen years during
which a patriotic American would not or
could not get tea, and England today
or
capita as we do.'
In speaking of the curious features of
old colonial days, DR.. Eggleston gave an
account of the system of
bond service. "De Foes niece" he said,
twas sold AS bond servant into Mary
land and afterward married the son of
her master. A large minority, if not a
of the ancestors of the older
American population came to this coun-
try in an unfree condition; that is tc say,
they we're sold off the ships into bondage
to pay their passage, nominally for four
years. Although the local historians, as
a rule, disregard it or else overlook it,
and although the people themselves do
AOC AAhC w NC WIN VI AuS ~ 10 q saw phoO
many of the leading families in this
country are descended directly from
bond servants, while very many of the
people of this country are in some way
descended from them. Most of the bond
servants were either beguiled by false
promises in England or directly kidnap-
ped. The first habeas corpus act ex-
pressly excepted such people from its
privileges. Naturally there were many
romantic occurrences growing out of this
system of bond service, and curious sto-
ries are told of husbands who sold their
wives into bond service, or of wives who,
firing of their lords and masters. per-
suaded them to set sail and sold them
into bondage. There is tradition in
Maryland local history that sea cap