The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-03-14
old TAVERN CHARGES.
Cost of Living at Turnpike Inn
Near New York In 1886.
LOW PRICES THE RULE THEN

The Regular Tariff For a Dinner Wa.
10 Cents, and a Wedding Breakfast
For Six, With Twelve Quarts Of Oats
on the Side. Cost Just $1.ee.
Guarded as carefully as any of the
| guests jewels that lie beside it In the
big safe of great aud glittering
Broadway hotel in New York city and
treasured by the proprietor more thar
its weight in gold is an old caslbook
The >utries run from March to De
cember, 1916. They record in quaint
descriptive phrases the conings and
goings of the travellers who stopped al
waysde inn on a turnpike road less
than 100 miles frCm Kew York. This
tavern was kept by the Broadway no.
tel proprietor's grandfather The build
ing of the railroad the passing of the
stageeoach and the changes of more
than half Il century have oblitVrated
this once famous old inn 1T South Dur
ham, and now all that remains of it T.
this ancient book. which served not
only as Il record Of cash received. but
took the place Of the modern hG.2l
register
The prices charged by this innkeep
er OF long ago are MS far removed
from those exacted today as tbs an.
cient hosiery is floEl the gorgeous
| summer hotels of the c0uatryside
where it once stood. The regular price
|, for dinner was 10 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, 81
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, 81 cents. -
This boy was probably driving 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
for a cents.
Every few days there came along,
according to this ancient register, a
Connecticut man." He invariably
spent just cents for food, and that
was for pie On two occasions there
is an additional charge for "greasing
wagon, G cents" There were no the
atrical companies touring this turn
! pike road half Il century ago, but a
phrenologist appears and vanishes. il
being recorded that for hay, 6 quarts
of oats, lodging and breakfast he
/ gave up Sc cents. Once in awhile Il
real spendthrif would come along
like the gent With three ladies and
two children" They had six dinners
For these. the hay for the horses, the
meals for the dog" and the 'segar'
for the man SIPS was charged. There
was a wedding breakfast at this
quaint tavern too. 1t is set down as
wedding, Radcliff's sister. 6 dinners
| IL quarts of oats, $1.69."
People went west" by wagon il
those days from the thickly settled
east to seek their fortunes. Some die
not find what they expected and came
back again. One such group, an lem
| igrant family returning east-seven o.
them"-spent So at the inn. '"Thret
cents worth of candy" is a frequen
entry. Probably the candy peddlel
from Albany paid for his food ani
lodging in sweets. There are but. two
entries of anything stronger than lem
onade. and those are for beer-foul
quarts for 8 cents. Oysters were
oh CT nj Of n
creased the contents of the tavern
keepers money box by just Is cents
Among the journeyers along this
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. Their
there was the "Whistling Man." the
Stiff Arm Man." the "Dispeptic Man
Che had four quarts Of teal and the
Hen Man." who ate a piece of pie
and traded roosters with the hote
keeper. Other travellers along the
highway are thus described: Adolf
ton Man." Mean Fellow" "Gent
With Noble Horse" Lady With Cry
ing Baby" Hank Days Likeness
and "Cravat Peddler" fooD
Occasionally an old acquaintance
would pass by or some dignitary, for
it is set down that friend from
Lexington had hay and lodging one
day at the inn. Who knows but he
might have been son of one of the
''embattled farmers" who kept the
I bridge that April morning of the ride
of Paul Revere? The Grand Juror
and H.i Wife, tarried for meal at
the inn the same day as did the Dom
inie's Wife and Child" On Nov. 3, SO
the careful chronicle says. the pro-
prietor went to York" where he re-
manned six days. He must have had
roaring, roistering time of it while
in the metropolis. for the next entry
in his handwriting is somewhat shaky
and says, "Sundries while at York. &c
cants n-Naw York praSs