The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1894-07-28
COLONIAL LIFE IN AMERICA.

COLONIAL LIFE IN AMERICA.
roor Men Now Better on Than the Rich
Were In Those Days.
In his lecture recently on Domestic
and Social Life Before the Revolution"
DIR. Eggleston said that the present
generation looked upon the old colonial
folk as quite superior to the people OF
to-day in many respects. They had the
reputation of being larger, Drawer and
more courtly men, and purer, more
chaste, and more beautiful women.
They had many virtues, those old col
onists, but, with them all, the world
has grown better, more refined, more
full of genuine courtesy than in their
day. The men are as brave and strong,
the women as chaste and beautiful.
History records, said the lecturer, the
great deeds of the great men OF the
colonies and the revol ution, but not the
ordinary social life of the period. That
Is only to be learned from many sources
never collected together.
"Man is an historical BRUTE" said Mr..
Eggleston, land must follow his ances-
tors. The colonists invented little,
their utensils, furniture, houses, cook
ing, ETC., being limitations or adapta-
tions of those of the English or the In
dian. Necessity is not the mother OF
invention, but of imitation and adapta-
ton. The man impelled by necessity
has no time to invent, therefore he imi-
tates. The houses of the early colo
nists were mostly of bark, in imitation
of those of the Indian. At one time, OF
the thirty houses in New York twenty
nine were of bark Surely, if anything
was American the log cabin was-but
no, Tacitus describes the Germans as
living in log cabins.
ssNew England was progressive, and
yet its people gathered their wood for
fuel during the winter before the snow
fell, whereas, on sleds, they could have
done it with far more ease, and it was
not until about the year 1890 that sleds
began to be used in New England. The
old-fashioned Maryland-v Virginia house,
with parlor on one side, dining room
on the other, and the wide hall running
through the house from end to end be
tween them, many of them still stand
ing, was but an imitation of the ole
double log house-'two pens and Z
passage'-o of the earlier colonists. Tht
furniture of the older colonists of the
richer class came mostly from England
and now there are enough old cradles
in New England that came over in thu
Mayhower to fill many such ships. But
the furniture of the poorer classes wa'
hewn out of wood, made into rud'
benches, stools, tables, etc. Carpets
being extremely rare in those days
every thrifty housewife had her parlo
floor nicely sanded, in which figure
were drawn for decoration.
ssThe rich colonists ate from gold ant
silver plates, the middle class fror
pewter, the lower classes from woodel
trenchers, and frequently the food wa
brought in on nothing but fat woodel
blocks. Not until the revolution wa
porcelain used to any extent Fork
were not used at all in America unit
after the first half of the seventeenth
century Coffee and tea were not use
in America among the earlier colonistl
Milk was not to be found in winter, be
cause no care was taken of the cattl,
and the women and children dram
cider, birch and root beer, and the like
Everything of corn came from tn
Indians-the planting in hills, the pu
ting of fish in each hill for fertilizer
the cooking of it. The words succ'
fash, pone, and hominy are all India
words. The 'hoc-cake' was baked b
the Indians on hot rocks, by the co
onist on a hot hoe, hence its nam
Everything was highly favored. Oh
cago Tribune.