The Customs Of 1794
Mar 6th, 2009 Posted in General | no comment »You know how we like to read those lists that say things like in 1960, a loaf of bread cost 20 cents?
Here’s an interesting one I found in The Engineers Journal, the same edition where I previously found the Joseph Bert Smiley poem, St. Peter at the Gate:
A Century Ago.
QUEER THINGS WE DID AND DID NOT IN 1794
- Imprisonment for debt was a common practice.
- There was not a public library in the United States.
- Almost all the furniture was imported from England.
- There were no maps, charts or globes in the school rooms.
- An old copper mine in Connecticut was used as a prison.
- Every gentleman wore a cue and powdered his hair in 1794.
- There was only one hat factory, and that made cocked hats.
- Crockery plates were objected to because they dulled the knives.
- No large river in the United States had been spanned by a bridge.
- A horseman who galloped on a city street was fined four shillings.
- A day laborer considered himself well paid with two shillings a day.
- Virginia contained a fifth of the whole population of the country.
- Books were very expensive. ” The Lives of the Poets ” cost $15.
- A man who jeered at the preacher or criticised the sermon was fined.
- Dry goods were designated as ” men’s stuffs ” or ” women’s stuffs.”
- Stoves were unknown ; all cooking was done before an open fire-place.
- Six days were required for a journey between New York and Boston.
- Two stage coaches bore all the travel between New York and Boston.
