The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1907-05-03
THE GOOD OLD
DAYS

Serest the farmers--2nd everybody
else-who believe "lhe good old
days" were the besl
Had you lived in the fourteenth
century you could have bought
horses at IS cents each and oxen at
SI.25. In the days of Henry III.
$50 would have equipped a farm
with three draughl horses, half a
dozen oxen, 20 COWS and 200 sheep,
leaving balance of So toward the
payment of rent which was about IS
a year. In England pasture and
arabic lands were ridiculously cheap
"a cents an acreSfor the former
and - cents an acre for the latter
being considered fair annual rcn.
tai, Two cents or its equivalent
would buy pair of chickens in
these blessed days of old. For the
value of nickel one could acquire
goose fl for Christmas dinner OF
two ducks that would make fine
roast. A penny would purchase
dozen strictly fresh eggs, and wheat
so sometimes fell as low as 40 cents
quarter or eight bushels. This per-
iod seems to have been the par
advice of topers, as the brewer was
compelled by law to sell for ceats
three gallons of beer, the equiva
lent Of forty eight glasses. Ii WI |
give cur modern labor unlous the
cold shivers to read that three cents
day was considered good wages
for an ordinary laborer. Cur farm
ers will probably heave sigh OF
sympathy when they learn even at
harvest time 4 cents was the highest
amount expected. Young couples
about to marry bad no such terrors
before their eyes as confronts them
in this era of prosperity. House
keeping might be entered upon by
the most timorous In those "good
Old days House rent was so low
that the lord mayor of London paid
only So 50 year to his landlord.
The chancellor OF the British ex.
checuer, the man who does the work
Of our secretary of the treasury, had
an annual salary of SIo2. When a
father sent his son to university a
cents day was looked upon as a
nargin for such luxunes as wine at
s to II cents gallon. A salary of
S24 year was considered munifi-
cent King Edward VI gave his
daughter an allowance of 81 80
week, with an additional S247. 90 a
year for the maintenance of her
: ght servants. 1he bed that king
then slept on would now be stunned
0y the humblest farmer in the land.
There is not renter in the West
that would not be considered rich
by comparison. Remember, TOO,
that they had no railroads in those
days, or decent roads of any kind.
A trip of few hundred miles was a
momentous undertaking, and a man
setting out from London to Edin.
Ourgh made his will with little hopes
Of getting back. OF course, there
we're no interurbans, or street cars,
or even canals, and wheeled vehicles
were entirely out of the reach of any
but the aristocracy.
But it is not necessary TO 60 back
to the fourteenth century or to En-
gland to find out what was meant by
''the good old times" Come along
down to the nineteenth century and
to our own country ani see how
people lived much less than a hur-
dred years ago. Many men now
living can remember when one had
TO work for one bushel of wheat.
Fifty cents IN trade was what one
got for beginning at daylight and
grubbing or splitting rails until the
sinking sun reminded him to quit
his arduous task. Farm produce.
when salable all was absolutely low. .
There were no markets, only the
consumption and
there being little OF no money.
avarvthfro uror k.~e--