374 Percy Wells Bidwell 



was of a different sort from that to which we are accustomed nowa- 

 days. It was not primarily, nor to as great a degree as at present, 

 due to economic pressure, or to maladjustments in the industrial 

 system. It was comparatively easy for any able-bodied person of 

 energetic disposition and temperate habits to earn a tolerable sub- 

 sistence. The paupers of that time included principally that class 

 of persons whom we now class as unemployable; the mentally or 

 physically incapable, the insane and the feeble-minded, the cripples, 

 the orphans and the aged. There were no insane asylums, orphanages, 

 homes for incurables or for old persons; consequently these unfortu- 

 nates, if no relatives were present who were able or willing to support 

 them, fell on the town for support. And besides these there were 

 those who had become enslaved to the current vice of drunkenness.^ 



The Vice of Intemperance — Its Causes. 



"The intemperance of the colonial period," says Charles Francis 

 Adams, "is a thing now difficult to realize; and it seems to have per- 

 vaded all classes from the clergy to the pauper."^ We have already 

 remarked the large consumption of cider in the farmers' families and 

 have commented upon the importance of the retail sale of stronger 

 liquors in the business of the country stores and taverns. Every 

 important occasion in home or church life, every rural festivity was 

 utilized as an opportunity for generous indulgence in intoxicants. 

 Neither the haying-season in early summer, nor the hog-killing season 

 at the end of autumn could be successfully managed without the aid 

 of liberal potations of ' ' black-strap ' ' and ' ' stone- wall. ' ' Husking bees, 

 house-raisings, training days, and even christenings, burials and ordi- 

 nations were often disgraced by the drunkenness of participants.^ 



' The Rev. Mr. Goodrich wrote of the town of Ridgefield: "The number of 

 poor who receive aid from the town do not excede 10 or 12 of which number 2 or 

 3 receive their whole support. ... we have no poor that are chargeable but 

 what become so by bodily imbecility." Statistical Account, p. 17. On this point 

 Tudor wrote: "There are few persons here, who can suffer absolute distress 

 from poverty. That which arises among the wealthier classes, from great reverses, 

 I am not considering; but an uncertainty about the common means of subsistence 

 can never happen in the country, except to the miserable drunkard, or the unfortun- 

 ate victim of some bodily or mental infirmity, who of course are supported by the 

 public when destitute of friends; the labouring man, with good health and good 

 habits, may always obtain the comforts of life, and increase his savings. " Letters 

 on the Eastern States, p. 407. 



^ Episodes, II. 785. 



^ See Adams, Episodes, II. pp. 783-794. The annual numbers of the Old 

 Farmer's Almanack are full of admonitions against drunkenness. See also 

 Harriott, Struggles through Life, II. 205-206. 



