The Prescott daily news., 1910-03-16
OLD TAVERN CHARGES
Cost of Living at a Turnpike Ina
 Wear New York In 1846.
LOW PRICES THE RULE THEN
The Regular Tariff For a Dinner Was 18 Gents, and . Wedding Breakfast For Six, With Twelve Quarts of Oats on the Side, Cost Just $1.69.

Guarded as carefully as any of the guests jewels that lie beside it in the big safe of great and glittering Broadway hotel in New York city and treasured by the proprietor more than its weight in gold is an old cashbook. The entries run from March to De- cember, 1S46 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 stacecoach and the changes of more than half century have obliterated this once famous old inn at South Dur ham, and now 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 for q dinner was 19 cents, but even this appears to have been "cut'' to ire quent travellers. For instance, there is an entry of Candy peddler from AL bany, two meals and lodging, 31 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 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, 6 cents' There were no the atrical companies touring this turn pike road half 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 "geut with three ladies and two children" They had six dinners 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 too. 1t is set down as wedding. Radclifrs sister. 6 dinners l2 quarts of oats. $1.69."
 People went west" 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 g at the inn. Three cents worth of candy is a frequent entry. Probably the candy peddler 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 Q cents. Oysters were cheap, too, for six plates of them in- creased the contents of the tavern keepers money box by just 15 cents.
 Among the journeyers along this i 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." the "Stiff Arm Man." the "Dispeptic Man" Che had four quarts of teal and the Hen Man." who ate piece of pie and traded roosters with the hotel keeper Other travellers along the highway are thus described "Aboli- tion 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 bridge that April morning of the ride | of Paul Revere? The Grand Juror and His Wife tarried for a meal at the inn the same day as did the Dom inie's Wife and Child" On Nov. 8. so the careful chronicle says. the pro- prietor went to York;" where he re-
 mained six days. He must have had roaring, roistering time of 1t while