Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-10-16
A STORY OF OLD TIMES IN IOWA.


notice. 1t is Iowa history of an earlier
day, the tradition that most of u!
hear from our fathers and grand
fathers. The first pages of the bool
are a graphic picture Of life before the
war in Burlington, Iowa. whence Fl
Company was recruited and went or
its first three months service to take
part in the Lyon Campaign" in Mis-
souri,.
Wares boyhood at Burlington was
in the days of the rivers prime, of the
stage coaches, of great luxurious river
period that to the man of 40 today is
seemingly as remote as the middle
ages AS he grew toward manhood
ut was amid the augmentation and
conflict of the anti-slavery agitation.
His story of the conditions, political,
industrial and economic, that obtained
in the new state when it counted q
population less than Polk county has
today, when it was without railroads,
without honest money, when the
.Banditti of the Prairies" flourished
and whisky was Is cents gallon and
common as spring water, is fireside
tale of a country and people unknown
to the latter generation. Some ex-
4 N.,Ax -, l. H~Jlr
Whisky In those days was exceed
ingly common. 1t was manufactured
at many places and occupied the same
relation to other business that the
manufacture of cider does now, and
the then price of whisky conceded
with the present price of cider. Some
large stores kept it free for their GUS
toners. I remember large retail
store in which they kept a barrel of it
with a movable head and a tin cup
hanging from a chain. People went in
there and would dip up a cupful and
drink it and go on talking the same
us if it We're lemonade.
New whisky which was clear like
water sold for fifteen or twenty cents
a gallon. 1t was found, as near as l
can now remember, about everywhere.
But there had grown up against 1t con-
siderable sentiment in favor Of re-
stricting it's use, and I remember tenn
perance meetings, but there We're few
restrictions possible. Everybody could
make it; everybody could get it, and
everybody could drink it. Beer came
in much later, and it's use was very
much limited at first. Beer did not
seem to suit public taste. In those days
the great moral crusade was against
ing-intemperance was second
airy.
The above is recommended to the no.
fice of those who are denying the adj
vancement of Iowa in the matter Of
liquor regulation.
Nearly everybody used tobacco AS |
now judge, it appears to me that nine
men out of every ten cheWed tobacco.
Cigars were long and coarsely made.
There was no tax; not much skill in
the manufacture, and good cigars, as
taste then ran, could be had for a cent
apiece. The only man who did not use
tobacco that 1 can recollect, was our
Congregational preacher.
The money of the country was in
private banks. The banking business
was profitable because there was so
much made in Exchange 1t was very
difficult to convey money from west of
the Mississippi to New York or Bos-
ton. My father was engaged In busi-
ness, and when his trading point
changed from st. Louis to Boston, it
was very difficult for him to get the
right kind of money to take to Bos-
ton. Different kinds of money were
subject to different kinds of discount |
There were perhaps five hundred banks
that emitted currency, and the, money
was worth from ten cents a dollar to
par, and the skill of the banker con-
sisted in his being able, first, to tell a
WHICH was about as
as the genuine money; and. /
second, to tell what, upon any particu-
ar day, the currency of any certain
bank was worth. So, in buying a bill
If goods, if the purchaser handed my
'ather a bill which he was not familiar
With, he Immediately sent out and
asked the bank what it is was worth.
md if the bank said it was worth
.ighty-five cents on the dollar, it went
It that figure, and every week my ia
her received printed folio publica-
ion, a large one, called 1.-THE Counter
cit Detector," in which the salient
POINTS Of each counterfeit upon each