14 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



dinations were often disgraced by the drunkenness of partici- 

 pants. 



The craving for stimulants with its disastrous results on the 

 fortunes of individuals and on the general moral tone of the 

 community proceeded partly from the coarse and unvaried diet 

 of the farming population, and probably to a larger extent, from 

 a desire to relieve at least temporarily the dreary monotony of 

 village life. There are always two opposing views current 

 among the older generation concerning the relative virtues of 

 their early days as compared with the conditions which they 

 see about them in their declining years. Some look back to a 

 sort of Golden Age and view all the features of the past through 

 rose-colored spectacles. Others with a more optimistic frame of 

 mind are quite willing to admit that the passage of the years 

 has brought improvement along many lines and do not hesitate 

 to glory in the progress that has been achieved under their eyes 

 during a long life. 



There are probably elements of truth in both views, but as 

 far as the general features of social life are concerned and their 

 effect in stimulating or in depressing the individual, the latter 

 view seems to be more in accord with the facts as we know them. 



The Rev. Mr. Storrs, in reviewing a pastorate of fifty years 

 in the town of Braintree, Mass., said: "And when it is remem- 

 bered that fifty years ago, and for many after years, no post 

 office blessed the town, nor public conveyance for letters, papers, 

 or persons, was to be had, even semi-weekly, except through vil- 

 lages two miles distant ; that but for the occasional rumbling of 

 a butcher's cart, or a tradesman's wagon, the fall of the hammer 

 on the lap-stone, or the call of the plowman to his refractory 

 team, our streets had well nigh rivaled the graveyard in silence, 

 it can scarcely surprise one, that our knowledge of the outer 

 world was imperfect, nor that general intelligence and enterprise 

 was held at a discount ; and if powder, kettle drums, and conch- 

 shells, proclaimed the celebration of a wedding ; or if wine, and 

 spirits more dangerous than any from the vasty deep, were im- 

 bibed at funerals to quiet the nerves and move the lachrymals 

 of attendants ; or if rowdyism and fisticuffs triumphed over law 

 and order on town meeting, muster and election days, ... it was 

 but the legitimate overflow of combined ignorance and heaven- 



