Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1907-03-26

Looking over my sisters scrap DOOk,
which have done many times in the
last forty years, I find her selections are
pasted in the dsybook of merchant
who was in business in Poland In 1928.
Doubtless the traders name and perhaps
all the names of those who dealt with
him are cut in marble and granite now.
There may be living in that town those
who bear the same names and through
whose veins and arteries the same blood
flows. I note a few of the names and
the prices paid for few of the articles
they purchased. New England rum and
gin show up quite regularly.
Mark Hill paid 60 for a scythe-which
means six shillings and ninepence or
SLIP 1-2.
Henry Jackson paid $3.50 for barrel
of -four.
James Hackett gave rs for pound OF
/; butter, q IL cents suppose,)
Edmund Chase % cents for pound Of
coffee.
Wentworth Lane, 8 pints oil, 3S cents.
Moses Craft, gallons mclasses, Sl.00,
1-2 gallons New England rum, $1.75.
Capt. j. Waterman, 2 1-2 yards calico,
~ cents.
Ebenezer Variel, ! bushel salt, S1.00.
Joseph Freeman, 9 IL yards fine
sheeting, S1.30.
Davis Variel paid IL for stew pot
To me they are both shrouded in dark
ness, for don't know what stew poi
, was and cannot swear to the price of the
pot in the coin of the realm. The days
of stew pots have vanished from the
earth. Alas! the waves Of oblivion have
swept over them.
VIM. Witham pays Is cents for a
pound of tea and dollar for 2 gallons
of rum. VIM. Martin pays 25 cents q
pound for his tobacco and $1.75 for 81
pounds OF fish.
Daniel Moody gives IA cents for
pound of sugar.
+ Jacob Aliens gin costs him Is cents 9
quart. Cheap enough.
1 pound of ssleratus took 20 cents ou
of BENZ. Marble.
Prices change with the changing years
They could beat us on rum, tobacco ant
Goldfish, but we can whip them blind or
saleratus, to say nothing of salt, sugar
and calico.
/, Yes, prices change, but human nature
never. 1t is the old, old story that has
been repeated through countless genera
tions since time began, buying and sell
ing, marrying and giving in marriage
living little aud dying good deal
living too fast and dying too young
We are not including in our count the
near neighbors of Methuselah but hi
more distant neighbors Of the present
day. Probably our ancestors were hust
lers for the almighty 90 cents also, but
the ways and the opportunities were
more limited. Human nature being
such as 1t is, they doubtless made goot
use of their limited chances.
"For We are the same that our fathers have been
We see the same sights that our fathers have
seen;
We drink the same stream and VIC view the SAM
And we run the same course that our fathers
| have run.
They loved, but the story we cannot unfold;
They scorned, but the heart Of the naughty Il
They sreved. bu. no wall from their slumbe
They joyed, but the tongue of their gladness Il
They died. ali, they died We things that ar
Who walk on the turf that lies over their brow.
And make In their dwellings transient abode
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrim
age road.
Yea, hope and dependency. pleasure and pain
We mingle together Ia sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, the song and thu
Still follow each other like surge upon SURGE"
| JOHN.