The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1939-02-28
8555F#a, as 22 81

Hard Tines7 No, They
Were Kings
Never Worried About
Fuel or Food
No Swing" Nor Rag" Nor
Broken Arms on Ski Ways
But What a Race OF Men
They Turned Outl
JUDGED by present standards.
Isaac ingalls, Stevens who WAS
TO become a figure IN the de-
velopment of the state Of Nash,
ington and his contemporaries, had
= tough time By the standards of
the period IN which they grew up
II was anything but that.
True. there WAS hard work
and prisation. hut those New
England settlers were kings,
because they Owned the land.
They were free, independent
citizens.
No matter what happened any
where else. there always was
comfortable shelter made Of ma
terials cleared from the land There
was abundance Of food. produced
on the land. Garments were made
from the wool Of sheep which
thrived on the stony New England
acres. Shoes were made from the
hides of beef cattle raised on the
farm
They never shut the drafts
Of the furnace and huddled
around one radiator because
the budget wouldn't stand An
other load Of fuel until next
payday. Growing wood was as
much part Of the New Eng
land farm routine as raising
potatoes or corn. They did not
have automatic electric refrig-
orators but In the winter they
cut ice from the streams and
lakes to put up for the sum
mer or provided refrigeration
by building a stone shelter
over a spring or stream.
1t was strongly religious at
mosphere IN which the future gov .
ernor of Washington grew up. His
father was member of the Uni
tarion church. He strictly observ-
ed the Sabbath and required the .
same Of his family. He was an
anti-savery leader in his commun-
ity. a staunch advocate of educa-
ton.
The family. of course, lacked the
means of entertainment that We
enjoy today. On the other hand
their minds were not filled with
false conceptions of life by such
stuff as Hollywood sometimes in
flicts on this generation.
Their music WAS for the
most part confined to the
tunes in the psalter. To offset
that they did not have to suf-
fer as we do today by hearing
beautiful music aborted into
rag" or Swing devoid of
tune or harmony.
Those hardy, thrifty New Eng
land settlers among whom the
governor was raised
were deficient in means of amuse-
ment measured by present STAN
dsrds. They lackef the opportun-
ity to spend the rent money on
phony prize fights or betting on
races in which the efforts of hon
est horses are controlled by dis
honest men.
They excelled In such win
ter sports. AS skating and
coasting. but were denied the
thrills of skiing. The compen-
sation was that they had few
er broken arms and legs over
the week end. (See last weeks
report of fractures with one
eye put out for good measure.)
The early New England set
tiers were denied privileges pro-
vided in the great mass of publi-
cations and press agent bulletins
Of this modern age. Consequently
their knowledge of world events
was somewhat circumscribed but
they seemed 10 get along.
In the case OF the Stevens fam
lily. the father of Washington
future governor subscribed for the
New York Tribune because it gave
the most news in what was con-
sidered the most unbiased manner.
He also subscribed for Garrison's ..