The Prescott daily news., 1910-04-08
DID TAVERN CHARGES
Cost of Living at a Turnpike Inn Near New York in 1846.
LOW PRICES THE RULE THEN

19 Cents, and a Wedding Breakfast
 For Six, With Twelve Quarts of Oats
 on the Side, Cost Just $1.69.
 i Guarded as carefully as any of the guests jewels that lie beside 1t in the big safe of great and glittering Broadway hotel in New York city and 1 treasured by the proprietor more than its weight in gold is an old cashbook ihe entries run from March to De cember, 1916. They record in quaint descriptive phrases the comings and goings of the travellers who stopped at wayside inn on a turnpike road less than 100 miles from New York. This tavern was kept by the Broadway ho- tel proprietor's grandfather The build ing of the railroad, the passing of the stagecoach and the changes of more than half Il century have obliterated this once famous old inn at South Dur ham, and nvw all that remains of it is this ancient book, which served not only as a record of cash received, but took the place of the modern hotel register.
 The prices charged by this innkeep- CT of long ago are as far removed from those exacted today as this an cient hostelry is from the gorgeous summer hotels of the countryside where it once stood. The regular price 1 for dinner was 19 cents, but even this appears to have been ''cut" to fire Quent travellers. For instance, there is an entry of Candy peddler from Al bany, two meals and lodging, 3l cents." Almost every entry is brief description of the individual traveller and what he got-for example, Free kle faced, eagle nosed boy, hay, sup per, lodging and grease, S1 cents." This boy was probably driving a horse and wagon, which would account for the hay and grease. Another man who was described as fellow with tired colt" got hay. lodging and breakfast tor A cents.
 Every few days there came along, according to this ancient register, a "Connecticut man." He invariably spent just 6 cents for food, and that was for pie On two occasions there is an additional charge for 'greasing wagon. 6 cents" There were no the atrical companies touring this turn ] pike road half a century ago. but phrenologist appears and vanishes, it being recorded that for "hay. quarts of oats, lodging and breakfast" he gave up 56 cents Once in awhile real spendthrift would come along. | like the gent with three ladies and two children" They had six dinners i For these. the hay for the horses, the meals for he dog" and the "segar | for the man SIPS was charged. There was a wedding breakfast at this | quaint tavern toe. It is set down ss wedding, Radcliff's sister. 6 dinners lo quarts of oats, $1.69."
 People went vest by wagon in those days from the thickly settled east to seek their fortunes. Some did not find what they expected and came back again. One such group, an "em- igrant family returning east-seven of them"-spent $2 at the inn. "Three cents worth of candy" is a frequent | iObdDis tAS SahNy pSNo.Si from Albany" paid for his food and lodging in sweets. There are but two entries of anything stronger than lem onade. and those are for beer-four quarts for 9 cents. Oysters wers cheap, too, for six plates of them in creased the contents of the tavers keepers money box by just b cents. ola turnpike road whose passage is record ed in this age yellowed volume is "Old Particular" Doubtless he was some cranky old codger who kicked about everything and whose goings the inn keeper sped as much as possible. Then there was the "Whistling Man." tie