The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-03-02
OLD NEW ENGLAND. =
THE FIRST SETTLERS WE'RE HUMAN,
LIKE THEIR DESCENDANTS.

It is not altogether an easy thing for us
TO realize that the generations who have
been before us in life have been just such
men and women as we ourselves are, diff
fofing in their surroundings, their knowl-
edge and their habits, butNpossessing all
the elements of good and Sil, Of weak
ness and strength, which goao make up
human nature today. Despite the persist
ent idol breaking Of the times, the most OF
us almost unconsciously continue to set
our heroes upon pedcstals and apart, and
if it secretly gratilies us, because it en-
hances our own self respect, 1t also shocks
us to he told now and again how wholly
mortal they were-that George Washing
ton was not so preternaturally good as the
cherry tree incident would imply; that the
heroes of Bunker Hill and Valley Forge
were often foggcd for their misdemeanors,
and that even the godly founders of New
England were early forced to make laws
for the punishment of just such otfenses
as pervade our society today. NE even a
careful process Of selection could oar out
ness, and we find Governor Bradford sad
ly expressing his fear that "satsno hath
more power in these heather lands, as
some have thought, than in more Chris
tian nations, especially over Gods sery'
ants in them"
Many a night of jollity is needful for
the full ripening of the habitual drunk
ard. And indeed, though serious, purpose
full people, thinking more of divine wrath
than of earthly joy, the Puritans were not
without their pleasures. Their gatherings
were by no means all religious. There was,
for example, no element of the religious
in the early Thanksgiving days, Of which
they became so fond that they sometimes
had two year Good, healthful animal
enjoyments filled those days. We think
better of the Puri;Sls for it; we are glad
to know that they must have been mighty
men at the trencher; we can even forgive
them for the human quality it reveals
that they were most potent in potting,'
They brought with them from England
their beer drinking habits, and pitiful are
their complaints on first coming here
against their enforced abstinence. Some
of them afterward narrated their expert
ences, as if they were well worth the tell
ing. 1t was mot accounted a strange
thing in those days to drink water, !"
wrote one, and good Parson Higginson Of
Salem rather boasted that whereas his
stomach formerly endured only "such
drink as was both strong and stale he
was then able to say, Il can and ofttimes
IL
But this unhappy necessity did not long
continue. The Puritans very soon began
to brew and to distill, and New England
rum early won its widespread fame. The
name of their stimulants was legion, and
their consumption on festival occasions
chief of which were the funeral and the
minister Ordinatiuu-was enormous. Flip
glasses are preserved which hold over a
gallon. The puuchbowl was passed from
mouth to mouth before every dinner, and
beer or some other strogs drink preceded
breakfast and accompanied every meal
and was partaken of as freely by the chill
dren as by their elders. 1t is recorded that
a miss of s, sent to Boston to be educated,
left the home of her grandmother in high
= dudgeOn because she was not given wine
with each meal, And her parents approx.
ed her conduct on the ground that they
wanted her brought up like n lady"
But though drinking was so general
there was surprisingly little drunkenness
IN Puritan days. Cotton Mather complain
ed that every other house in Boston was
an alehouse but New England through
out the seventeenth century was sober and
law abiding. The tavern keepers-always
men of social and political Importance, as
the precedence lists Of Harvard and
Yale reveal-were constrained to see to it
that no man drank more than n quart Of
beer out Of mealtimes; that there was no
singing or dancing or gambling on their
premises, nor any smoking Of tobacco.
The minister, the magistrate, the deacons
and the constabes had an unpleasant hab-
it Of publicly chiding the oyerboisterous,
or those who tarried too long with the
wine and the tithiugman would force
himself upon the company Of the stranger
in the inn and sternly cOuntermand his
order for drink if it seemed TO him excess
i've. There were, too, fires and imprison-
ment, the stocks, the pillory, the drunk
lard g clock-a barrel with holes for head
and arms-or the bilboes for the intoXi-
Gated, and for the incorrigble, disfran-
chisement and the shameful badge por-
trayed by Mr.. Volk.
We laugh at the sumptuary laws Of
earlier times-the regulations for bakers
and feather bed makers and almost every
other tradesman and every laborer. Some
Of them are ludicrOus enough, but it is not
certain that in small and isolated commu-
mites, in new country at least, they
were not in the main well suited to the oc,
casion, however it may have been in more
populous England, whence they were
brought. Even the penalty Of fine, impris-
onment or the whipping post, which await.
ed the youth who persisted in courting a
maid without the formal consent Of her
parents, amusing though it seems today,
may not have been unbcncfcial in so prim-
tive a society. The New England settlers
were bothered with few theories Of gov
eminent The foundations Of the republic
were laid broad and deep, but they were
concerned mostly with their daily life and
those about them, and they tried to pre-
vent wickedness and to punish it in the
way which seemed most simple and most
direct and should best serve as n warning
20 others.
1t is well to bear in mind, however, since
n contrary notion has obtained credence
that, as compared with Europe in Their
time, they were far from cruel in theil
punishments ave only in cases Of offensC
against religion. One of the hardest les
sons we ourselves have to learn is toler
ance Of belief Two centuries ago the ne
cessity was never dreamed f. Men who
showed contempt for the ''word preached u
were placarded and publicly pillored
those who disputed were Gagged in the
market place and there preached to; thos,
who could not be sienced were driven into
exile. But of actual bloodthirstiness, o
the tortures which make the criminal his
tory of Europe SO terrible, New England
knows little. Men were hanged-alas
they were burned too-but not for triiles
and their taking off was made public
D. 4 Z