Emmons County record. [volume] (Williamsport, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1884-current, 1910-02-24

etc We also hnd good many en-
tries ike these "One pint whisky
II e one half pint whisky s cents.
one quart whisky p cents. 1t
should be remembered that in those
day there was no federal tax on
whisky. and that the liquor. which
Was Very cheap, was sold at practic-
allv al Of the general stores.
FMS ancient record of the business
dealings Of a careful and methodical
officer Of the American Revolution
AIRY Wal shows beyond dispute that
those venerable people who frequent
l. refer 60 the good old days" have
forgotten Just what the condition
Of living WAS when they were young.
Those old days. as elderly people
look back To them. seem better than
the present because they were the
days Of their youth. health and
strength, and not because the fac
tors making for comfort and happi-
ness for society as a whole were bet
ter then than now. The fact is that
IN the old times the lack of modern
agricultural machinery and handy
appliances made the prices Of most
farm products and all but homespun
clothing as high as at present. but
the market was circumscribed, and
there was little profit to the farmer
IN raising produce that required so
much hard labor, slow progress and
lack of marketing opportunities.
Boys and girls of towns and villages
had little spending money and store
clothes We're a scarce article. Most
of the suits for men and women. as
well as those of boys and girls, were
cut and made at home. and they
lacked the neatness and If" of the
clothing of the present day
The scarcity of money per capita
made its purchasing power greater,
all other things being equal, than at
(present, but not sufficiently great
to offset the low wages. Even fifty
Years ago the ordinary hire for un-
skilled labor was fifty cents day,
and the ordinary run of mechanics
got a dollar or not much more in
most parts of the United States.
| The low wages and the compara-
ltlvcly high cost Of food and factory
made clothing made it impossible
| for heads of families, no matter how
careful their habits and how
frugal their method Of living. to
save anything for "a rainy day"
In the good old days" there were
very few houses that had a carpet
on every floor Many had carpet
only in that combination Of parlor
and family y-room known as 1.-The sit
ting room, and most rooms had no
floor covering but rag carpets
made by the local weaver who had
his abiding place in every neigh
borhoud. Even fifty years ago the
man of the small city. town or viii
lage who was fond Of reading would,
after a ten or twelve hour day Of
II nflts q la $p d
tallow candle which possessed about
as much Illuminating power as a
brace of lightning bugs, and which
the necessity of snuffing" every
| few minutes would distract from q
| proper mental assimilation of the
ideas conveyed by the book or news
| paper. Every household Of the
great common people had one or more
candle-molds, with cylinders vary
| ing in number, and III it was for
| that family whose housemother was
not an adept in the casting of the
| family torches; for, under the best
conditions, the talloW candle was a
ldelusion and a snare The use Of
stearin candles, except on Sunday
and holiday evenings, was an indis-
putable evidence of membership in
| the upper ten, ~ for these store
candles We're quite expensive. In
1.-The cities the people had gas, but
the cost of its manufacture with the
comparaiyclY crude appliances Of
those days made it beyond the reach
of the great mass of householders.
And the gaslight of the SOS was
not nearly as good for lighting pur-
poses as the gasoline or acetylene
Hight furnished bv isolated plants
i that any farmer in even moderate
| clrcumtances may now afford ia
install IN his home. The only lamp
was the lard-oil lamp, and when that
i got a-going at full blast thoughts Of
a slaug were uppermost
in one ]; mind, and it We're blessing
i that the family had eaten onions o,
garlic with their supper the even.
j ing mead was not dinner" in those
days that the smell might be
partially disguised. Even after the
discovery Of petroleum in Pennsyl J.
yania, in or about 1850. and the
possibility Of its being refined into
an article of commerce was estab.