The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-02-05
Written for n Progressive Farmerl
THE WORLDS PROGRESS in THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
N.-Dress; Home Life; Getting the News.
Robert Burns .

son to believe it was not till the cen
fury was half over; of course we
will not count the trip the gentle
man would have to travel to escort
his wife home, supposing she lived
in another county or State. Every
age, as we'll as every neighborhood,
has its Owl peculiar styles and Gus
toms, in marriage, as we'll as in other
things. Ordinarily there was but
little time wasted, as the people in
the early years of the Republic con
sidered it, but they treated marriage
mOr as a pleasant business, to link
in with their everyday work. I have
often heard it said that Major John
Davidson, n of the signers of the
Mecklenburg Declaration of indie
pendence, ironed a set of wagon
wheels the day he was married.
That was the epoch Of big families
1T was not uncommon to have from
eight to sixteen olive plants around
their tables. The people in that day,
as a general rule, were large land
holders, and of course lived some
distance from each other, which
madeit difficult to have good schools,
and the same with churches.
Whiskey in the olden times seems
to have been one of the necessary
groceries," and in fact the only
grocery" that was known, or called
for. Sixty years ago there was no
such thing as a grocery store sugar
and coffee and mOlasses and cheese,
and such things we're kept in d dry
good store. In fact, nearly all dry
goods houses sold spirits. The price
was twenty five or thirty seven and
Il halt cents Il gallon, for a pure arti-
Gle 1t would not put IL man crazy,
or make him commit such crimes as
are now of frequent occurrence. AL
most every important farmer dis
titled his own fruit and for his neigh
bOrs who were not 80 we'll off. Brandy
was set out on every side board,
when guests were announced and
ministers vel not offended, when
offered Il ''tOddy" in thefamilvc circle.
But IN the last half of the century.
public opinion has caused it to be
put away from the private side
board, and it IS no longer considered
the proper thing to have stimulants
at social parties, or even treat gen
tlemen in your house.
In the year 1900 newspapers had
scarcely started, or at any rate were
not subscribed for except by the
rich, and only read by scholarly
persons consequently their circula-
ton was limited. There were not
more than one hundred and fifty pub
locations of all kinds in the United
States, and about one-tenth of these
we're newspapers, and we're issued
daily not one of them sold more
than n thousand copies per dav.
Strange what a century has effected
In this epoch of the worlds history.
But fifty years ago a journey to San
Francisco, round by the Horn to 90
by sail vessel, took six months to-
day we go in less than six DAYS.
across the country by railroad.
Some fifty years ago, a negro, asked
how far 1t was to a certain town, re.
piled: "That depen's on how o is
gWine; eff you is gwine on hossback.
it'll take you all day if you takes a
stage coach, it'll be half a day, but
II you get in one of dem smoke
Wagons, you is dur now!"
In the olden times when shepherds
tented their locks on the hills and
plains OF Judea, there was no per
ceptible change in anything that per