The Aberdeen Democrat. (Aberdeen, South Dakota) 1???-1909, 1903-02-27
WHEN HEAT WAS A LUXURY.
Warmth an the House Once Ree0rdea
In That Light Rather Than
q Necessity.

Warmth an the House Once Regarded
In That Light Rsther Than
q NecesaEty.
The stringency Of the coal situation
carries many lessons, but it is diff
cult for the present generation to
profit by any Of them that cannot
be interpreted by present standards
of living. a venerable citizen OF
Springfield, in the Republican of that
city, makes interesting comparisons
of what are nov regarded as neces-
stiles with the conditions that made
the people of the SOS and 4O's not
only contented but even grateful.
Then furnaces were almost unknown,
even among the prosperous. TIE
halls of houses were stone cold, even
in Boston and. New York. Families
in winter had q fire in n room.
school rooms were miserably cold,
and relays of children, with chilblains
on their feet and colds in their heads,
discomfort" Perhaps David Harum
expressed the boys life in the coun-
try in as apt a way as it has even
been put: "The only seasons I can
remember was two; them Of chill
blain and stun bruises"
But" says this correspondent, 1--WE
were a fine, hardy race. The families
in our beautiful valley averaged six
Or eight children each; sometimes ten
or twelve in one family, like the fine
Clary family of this town, whers
eleven of the twelve grew to, adult
age and long life with q splendid
vigor. But 1 think we never were
warm long ut n time in the winter
in the 3O's and 40's." t.
In those days people went to bed
in unheated rooms, where the tenn
p%erature was so low that no water
could be left in a pitcher during the
night lest it should freeze and
"burst" its receptacle. Instead there
was a tin pail with astgourd in it.
which served theedouble purpose of
breaking the ice and-dipping out the
water for lavatory purposes. The
moral which he draws from these
"reminiscences is that comfort and
abundance are good. The present
distress is real and terrible. But it is
perhaps as we'll to be sometimes re-
minded of the lives of our immediate
ancestors, of how the comparative
newness of the country made our
luxuries u~nattainable to them-made
them a hard working, economical peo-
pie, easily satisfied and helpful to
each other; and to consider whether.
if necessary, we cannot do without
many of the present comforts"
He might have carried his compari-
sons OF contrasts still further. III
those days whose conditions made
the survival of the fittest" a stock
to be proud of, whoever heard Of "no
session signals" at the public schools.
Healthy boys and girls would have
been laughed to scorn had they
shrunk from buffeting the heaviest
storms or declined to endure the Sc
%verest cold in climbing the steps of
knowledge. Now the portals are
closed sometimes when there is little
more than q Scotch mist to obscure
the great source of heat and light.
Still, it is hardly to be expected
that such retrospections will con-
vince the present generation that the
old way was the better one The dis
: cipline was severe, and no doubt con-
siderable suffering was caused by it,
though the people of that day stole
ally accepted it as a matter OF
!. course. 1t is not good philosophy
, from a latter day viewpoint to accept
suffering voluntarily, however good
. religion it might have been in q for
, mer day. The more comfortable con-
ditions of the present have justified
: themselves in raising very apprecia-
bly, the average of life. Indifference
to hardship is generally c%oincident
with a lower standard Of charity and
/ humanity. There r 10 better men
, and women now, perhaps, than there
!, were in the old days, but there is q
more elevated social spirit, which is
beneiting humanity in ways that
would have been thought unnecessary
. "in the brave days of old"