Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-24
BY John Clagett Proctor.

girl" is true expression indeed, anc
to this we might also add with equal
uuthfulneSs, that prices have changed as
well. Though salaries have advanced
from time to time to meet the added cost
of living, yet we do feel that our money
does not 60 as far today as in years gone
by Naturally we do yearn for the return
Of the good old days of the Marsh Mar
ket, when for little money We could
bring home a basket filled with the nee
essaries of life. instead of what seems
now to be just the reverse,
But, of course, mother had her day,
too, and her mothers mother had her S
also, as Shakespeare might have said,
and page or two from their books of
experiences should certainly dissipate
any dissatisfaction on our part. Today
we complain of the scarcity of butter,
but If we turn back the calendar to 1864,
which was toward the close of the Civil
War, We will find this luxury selling at
Tennallytown-the vicinity now general
ly called Friendship-for go cents a
pound. However, the price of this COM
modify in the Marsh Market in 1871
more properly the Center Market. which
stood where is now the National Archives
was only from 20 to 25 cents pound
Undoubtedly it was generally much
higher, from 1861 to 1865, than the price
here given, and many Of us can still
recall when butterine and oleomargarine
were popular substitutes for butter in
the late Dos and COS, and which could be
oh nc Il
AS to coffee, since this delicious bev-
erage had to be brought to the States in
vessels that had to run the blockade
which existed during the War Between
the States, its price during that period
was in some places practically prohibi-
tive, and especially was this true in some
of the Southern States. Indeed, in Nico-
lay and Hays Life of Abraham Lin
coin" it says that the women of Ala
bama used as a substitute for making
this drink parched yans or the seeds of
the okra plant.
Lessons in Privation.
1t is probably true that the women of
the North underwent their full share of
hardships as did the women of the
South, and had to deny themselves of
many things they had been accustomed
to, and they did so bravely. But the
South suffered most, and no one can
deny the courage and resourcefulness Of
its fair daughters, of which it has been
said:
''The ladies of Alabama early in the
contest learned their needed lesson of
privation and self-denial. Their in
genuity, stimulated by the blockade, dis
played itself in a thousand clever de-
vices They learned to make their own
clothes from the products of the soil,
with absolutely no intervention OF the
manufacturer, they spun, carded and
wove their cloth from the cotton or wool
OF their own plantation; every herb Of
the forest furnished them a dyestuff;
they made buttons of dry gourds or per-
sinmon seeds; elegant fans were devised
from the feathers of geese and peacocks;
when kid and calfskin became unobtain-
able they made shoes of swineskin. Many
a Southern belle presented herself at
church with innocent pride in raiment
in which every detail was the work Of
her own hands; or entertained her visi-
tors with cup Of tea made Of the dry
leaves of the holly or the blackberry ." =
sweetened with sugar of delicious flavor
obtained by boiling the juice Of the
watermelon. When coal Oil failed they
lighted their tea tables with candles of
tallow or beeswax, bleached in the shade
of the trees as white as sperm; or with
burning globes of the sweet gum tree
floating in bowls of lard"
Indeed, in the writer's early life, brown
sugar was the grade generally used in
this city, and only people of means used
white sugar. Brown sugar was also the
grade generally used throughout the
North during the Civil War period, and
this sold for about twice what sugar sells
for today.
And as to fabrics according to Jenny
Tree Rives. ordinary cotton cloth cost
40 cents a yard during the COS.
: still earlier writer who gives us an
insight into prices was D. B. Warden, an
France, who visited Washington in 1911,
and wrote his "Chorographical Descrip-
ton of the District" in 1916. 1t is
rather comprehensive work, and includes
the prices of many articles still in use.
Prices to Compare.
Mules, he says, were then selling at
Bladensburg for from $40 to 500, and
horses from $40 to $50, and good saddle
horses could be hired from a livery
stable for $3.50 a day. Wheat was $3.50
o barrel.
Cows were then bringing from S12 to
$40. and that, at an exhibition in 1902,
a prize steer weighing 2,700 pounds, was
sold at Sl2 a hundredweight to
butcher" Hogs were sold for SIS to SO a
t1undredweight. Canvasback ducks
brought cents apiece.
Wood, which was the first source of
fuel through the entire country, cost 81
a cord for hickory, during the years
from 1925 to 1929, and from S. to 81 q
cord in severe weather. However, by
1881. anthracite coal was coming to
washington, and taking the place of
kind of coal brought from Richmond
by water
The first load of anthracite coal, ac-
cording to w. B. Bryan, arrived at Brad
Iey's coal wharf next to the Long Bridge,
In June, 1881, and since the public was
not familiar with its use, it was accom-
nanied with a detailed account Of how
IN use it. Cumberland coal followed
some years later, by way of the Chesa-
peake 81 Ohio Canal, but not until 1850
when the canal was opened through to