The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-04-05
The GOOD OLD TIMES.
some Reflections Or Them by
the American Farmsl

Dollars We're Scarce and Hard To
Got.
Had you lived in the fourteenth
century says The American Farmer
you could have bought draught
horses at 72cenus eacn and oxen at
Sl.25. In the days of Henry II $50
would have equipped a farm with
three draught horses, half a dozen
oxen, twenty cows and two hundred
sheep, leaving a balance of So to-
ward the payment of rent, which
was about SIS a year. In England pas
ture and arabic lands were ridulous-
ly cheap, 2 cents an acre for the for
MGR and IL cents an acre for the lat
ter being considered a fair annual
rental.
Two cents or it's equivalent would
buy a pair of chickens in these bles-
sed days of old. For the value of a
nickel n could acquire a goose fit
Tor a Christmas dinner or two ducks
that would make a fine roast. A
penny would purchase adozen strict
~ fresh eggs, and wheat sometimes
fell as low as 40 cents a quarter, or
eight bushels.
his period seems to have been
the paradise of topers, as the brew
er was compelled by law to sell for
2 cents three gallons Of beer, the
equivalent Of torty-eight glasses.
1t will give our modern labor unions
the cold shivcrs to read that 3 cents
a (lDN \unc nnnciIn,nl ,r\D O.o
for an ordinary labores. Our far
mers will probably heave a sigh of
sympathy when they learn that
even at harvest time d cents was the
highest amount expected.
Young couples about to marry
had no such terrors before their eyes
as confront them in this era of pros
pcrity. Housekeeping might safely
be entered upon by the most tilnor-
Gus in those good old days"
House rent was so low that the Lord
Mayor of London paid only $3.50
a year to his lanlord.
The Chancellor Of the British ex-
chcquer, the man who does the work
of u Secretary Of the Treasury,
had an annual salary of 1912, When
| q lIliN ECilt IIIo SOIl W a
4 cents a day looked upon as a com,
Portable allowance, with a margin
for such Injuries as wine at 8 to Il
cents a gallon.
A salary Of S24 a year was consid-
cred muniiiccnt, King Edward VI
gave his daughter an allowance Of
81 .S0a week with an additional $246.-
So a year for the maintenance Of her
eight servants. The bed that a king
then slept on would now be stunned
by the huinbiest farmer in the land.
mere Is no a renter IN the West
that would not be cOsidered rich by
comparison.
Remember, too. that they had no
railroads in those days or decent
roadso of any kind, A trip of q few
hundred mics was a momentous I'M
d~crtakin, and a man setting out from
London to Edinburg made his will
with little hope of getting back. OF
course, there were no intercurbcns,
or street cars or even canals, and
wheeled vehicles were entirely out
Of Tie reach Of any but the aristoc-
racy.
But it snot necessary to 20 back
to the fourteenth century or to Eng
land TO find out what was meant by
the good old times" Come along
down to the nineteenth century and
to Il own country and see how
people lived much less than a nun
urcd years ago. Many men low
living remember when one had to
work all day at the hardest kind of
| trnrl Inl, nINn l,,Cl,ni ~ ,,ll,,t
Fifty cents in trade was what one
got for beginning at daylight and
grubbing or splitting rails until Che
sinking sun reminded him to quit
his arduous task. Farm produce,
when salable at all, absurdly low.
There were no markets, only the
ncighborhood consumption, and,
there being little or no money, ev-
crything was barter. Eggs went
a-bcG2lng at a cent or two q dozen,
poultry was but little better, stock
Of all kinds at the very lowest ebb
and no farmer could hope to make,
profit off any Of his produce.
Merely a living, as the result of
Gays devoted to toll and nights de-
vold OF case, was the best that could
be anticipated by millions of pioneer
farmers in the good old days.
some sentiment still fingers about
those times, we recall with interest
many CT the 70 nrntic and tragic in
cidcnts, but we hardly think any of
our farmer readers would care to
be transported back, exccptin fancy
to the period which did not fully end
until the last century was more than
half over.
"Thc good old times arc well
enough for the poets, the writer's of
historical novels and the ancient
danes who crown in the corners of
the blessed days Of ,linsy-woolscy
dresses, Jeans suits, corduroy roads
and cabin doors. AS for ourselves
we prefer the present, despite its
graft and greed, its s~clGshncss and
its sordidnesS, for at least it has re-
placed pcnury with plenty, depriva-
ton OF all kinds with innumcral
comforts, and has changed agricul-
culture from + g~rOveling calling to
the noblcst and most prosperous of
the professions.
4 - Dfn bun,l;nfs nr