The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-11-10

most part upon the farm. Such neces-
stiles as iron, steel, salt, tea, spices,
New England rum and cloth for the
occasional best gown were produce
ed by barter for the ordinary prod
ucts of the farm, and for pearl ash
and potash, which sold for four to
five dollars per hundred weight. One
scarcely realizes how exclusively trade
was barter in those early days with
out turning the pages of the newspa-
pers of the period.
One merchant says in typical ad-
vertisement: II will sell groceries
for good clear salts of lye, ashes,
beef cattle, butter, cheese Cor even
good bank bills.)"
Wants to Buy Potatoes,
Another says: "The subscriber
wishes to purchase a few thousand
bushels of potatoes, for which he will
give in exchange quart of gin per
bushel, or twenty-five cents in En-
glish goods"
Even the editor encourages business
with this summer item. Good butter
will be received at this office in pay
ment for newspapers, books, advertis-
ments, etc." and in December he an
nounces: cold newsi Those who
have agreed to pay bark at this Of
fee for papers are notified that the
first snow has come" while in the
spring the poor man, surfeited with
produce, says: Potatoes for sale. En-
quire of the printer"
Put after all, barter had its advan-
L. 10. 4 n,
rency which is well illustrated by the
following notice issued by an early
Vermont merchant: Vermont bills
and specie taken at par, Boston and
other outlandish bills at a discount
as the parties can agree"
Chopped and Burned.
And so men chopped and burned
and ploughed and harvested; the
women spun and knit, and wove; and
the boys and girls bore their full share
in the general life of hardship.
OF the professions it may be said
that pettifoggers, using the word in
it's old and honorable sense, flourish
ed, and all neighborly disputes were
litigated. The musty corners of an
ancient town clerks office will yield
Olu WIlJS dllliOSJ NY tut buohtl, bCul
ing testimony to heated quarrels be-
fore thelocal justice and his jury In
deed, no change in country life is
more marked than the great decrease
in petty litigation after the middle OF
the last century; but a glance at the
fee bills of the period leads one to
surmise that the legal luminaries
found refuge from penury only in the
length of the docket For example:
in 1912, the fixed fee of an attorney
for drawing a writ and declaration
upon a promissory note was seven
teen cents. while the sheriff's fee for
serving process by reading was six
cents. an
The Country Doctors.
much the same position were the
country doctors, who farmed as well
as physicked, often leaving plough in
furrow and riding many weary miles
to minister with a woman's tender
ness to some poor sufferer. And then
even as now he had to meet the COM
petition of the proprietary medicine
Haunting it's claims flamboyantly
throughout the land. Does not the
following from an early Vermont
newspaper have familiar sound?
CDR. Kittredge's true and Genuine
Bone Ointment The above medicine
has from long experience been found
! to be a safe, Statutory and efficacious
( remedy in fractured and dislocated
bones, sprains, bruises, stiffness oil
the joints, contractions of tendons
piles salt rheum, inflammations,
burns. etc"
No Political Organization.
/ For five years after it's settlement
our township had no political organ
1 ization, but in March, 1894, the first
settler, who held a commission as JUS
tice of the peace, called the first towr
meeting to consider the following ar.
ticles of business:
|. To choose a Moderator.
2. To choose a Town Clerk,
/ 3. To choose Selectmen and Other
town officers.
/ 4. To see if the town will suffGl
their swine to run at large.
5. To act on any other business
they shall think proper to be done
Under the last article the voters
chose a committee to Lay out meet
ing house, spoat and other iubli'
yard"
Thus did the church tread upon thu
heels of the State.
Another early piece of business was
to provide for leasing out the public
lands which, in accordance with TN
charter of the town, had been ae
apart for the support Of churches
colleges and schools, and you are al
acquainted with the quaint habendun
of these leases: ITO have and to holt
unto him, the said A. b., his heirs
executors and administrators, iron
the first day of January, 1903, so lon'
as wood shall grow or water run.
Early Public Works.
OF public works the earliest form
of course, was highways, which wer'
surveyed and laid out at the earlies
opportunity We, not unnaturally
think of them as well established
landmarks, but when one finds al
official survey a century old "beginn
ing near the south corner of Thomas
Green's Cornfield," he wonders how
our modern highway commissions
establishes the boundaries of an an
cient way. The construction of roads
of course made bridges necessary
and it is of interest to note that IL
this work the master builder coul'
command a wage of one dollar day
while ordinary workmen received Of
cents and boarded themselves, ant
this at time when corn and whea
were taken in payment of taxes at 81
cents SO cents per bushel respective