1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
97 
Pioneer Days iti Western New 
York. 
Seventy years ago the daughters of 
the early settlers held the distaff, twisted 
the spindle, and sent the shuttle flying, 
while the Indigo dye-pot in the corner 
and madder from the apothecary’s help¬ 
ed to clothe the young girls in red, white 
and blue, plaids or stripes. This was 
sufficiently brilliant to puff up the wear¬ 
er with pride, but it was not so far re¬ 
moved from the source of the raw ma¬ 
terial that she needed to be told “the 
poor sheep had worn this very clothing 
not long before.” Patriotism might have 
suggested that red, white and blue were 
the colors of the country’s flag; I doubt 
whether the little wearer knew what this 
flag looked like. Pictures? Yes, we had 
a few; Time with his scythe in the New 
England Primer, cutting down all, both 
great and small, and a little later Web¬ 
ster’s Spelling Book furnished us two 
memorable ones; “The Milkmaid,” carry¬ 
ing a pail of milk on her head, and a 
man throwing tufts of grass at a small 
boy, who was stealing his apples, while 
the thief serenely sitting on a bough 
was grinning out his sense of the humor 
of the situation, ^sop’s Fables fur¬ 
nished us with a rude kind of picture, 
representations of animals and events, 
but everything was in black and white. 
In the thirties newspapers had not 
reached us, though New England and 
Pennsylvania country places were 
sparsely supplied with them. Uncle 
Sam’s mail system—I cannot call it mail 
facilities—was one of the curiosities of 
the period. Rural delivery? Why yes, 
I suppose it was the beginning of things 
in that line. A letter received was a 
marvelous thing; postage might be pre¬ 
paid, or it might not, and the sum of 
money put Into the Government Treas¬ 
ury for it varied according to the dis¬ 
tance It had been carried; perhaps It 
was never more than 25 cents. No little 
missives, such as Invitations, congratu¬ 
lations and letters of condolence, which 
to-day fly like leaves of the forest, ever 
passed through the mails for any short 
distances, but neighbors were kind and 
fetched and carried when they were go¬ 
ing to and from “the corners.” This 
distinctive name was often given to the 
place where two roads met and crossed 
each other, making four corners; here 
not infrequently was the chosen center 
for the rural store and post office, the 
gossipy resort and favorite lounging 
place of what we considered the thrift¬ 
less farmers of the neighborhood. Our 
library, which was probably as good as 
any in that region, was made up of “The 
Book”; to this volume were added Ban¬ 
yan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Baxter’s 
Saints’ Rest and Doddridge’s Rise and 
Progress; these last, which were prob¬ 
ably heirlooms, were bound in natural- 
colored calf stretched over clumsy 
pasteboard, and had in their type the 
old-fashioned “s” which obliged us 
youngsters in reading them to look up 
several times, and often to go over the 
whole word to decide whether it was f 
or s. The New England Primer and 
The Shorter Catechism were found on 
the shelves for the children. 
The children, too, had their share of 
what was characteristic of the period. 
They went to school of course, for not 
to know how to read, write and cipher 
would have been a burning disgrace, and 
this education was sometimes literally 
burned into them; the ferule, which the 
master always carried in his hand, as a 
symbol of his power, left many a smart 
and even scar on the memory of the 
boys of that early day. The most mem¬ 
orable thing of those times was the in¬ 
genuity of the teacher in the modes of 
punishment used by him as helps in 
teaching. One of these we used to call 
“sitting on nothing.” If anyone wishes 
to try this let him lean his back the 
MOTHERS.—Be sure to use“Mrs.Wins¬ 
low’s Soothing Syrup” for your children 
while Teething. It is the Best.— Adv. 
whole length of the spinal column 
against a door, then sliding down, low 
enough to sit on a hassock; let some 
friendly hand remove the hassock, while 
the victim keeps his sitting posture un¬ 
changed for 15 or 20 minutes, and you 
have the mode of torture which helped 
to make your fathers so brave. But the 
extreme penalty was what we called 
“hanging”; this was not frequently re¬ 
sorted to. With a cord, each end of 
which had been tied to a thumb, the boy 
was so hung to a peg that his toes bare¬ 
ly touched the floor; a boy having had 
more than his share of this special kind 
of punishment, when rallied by his com¬ 
rades about it, replied with grim humor: 
“O! It is nothing to be hung after you 
get used to It” Children were made to 
"toe the mark” and on one outstretched 
hand to hold steadily for a flxed time a 
load of books, or to stand by a hot stove 
until their clothing smelled of the fire; 
or to stretch themselves from one crack 
in the schoolroom floor to another, after 
the manner of the game of leapfrog; 
this was surely fine primary training 
for admission to our Military Academy 
at West Point. All this was done In the 
district schools In western New York 
during the thirties, and some of the 
barbarous practices lingered Into the 
forties. A schoolmaster was famous ac¬ 
cording as he had the power and skill 
to lay the rod heavily on the backs of 
the “Winter boys”; these same big boys 
had bent their backs to the burden dur¬ 
ing the long, hot Summer, accommodat¬ 
ing them to the hoe, the plow and the 
flail; Winter surely was the time to 
have a little fun, and they did not And 
the rudimentary studies very exciting. 
In the forties orchards had grown in¬ 
to bearing, and the parIng-bee became a 
favorite amusement with the young peo¬ 
ple. This served a practical purpose, 
for here the youth could study the 
habits of the girls of his set, their apti¬ 
tudes for the real work of life, and here 
he often decided who should be his life 
companion. Sometimes, trying to peep 
behind the heavy curtain which hid the 
future, a girl would take an apple par¬ 
ing (It must be whole, without a flaw 
from stem to eye, or the charm would 
be broken), and standing up would 
whirl It three or four times around her 
bead, then drop it suddenly on the floor, 
when it was expected to shape Itself Into 
the Initial letter of the swain whom she 
was to take “for better or worse.” 
A department store is spoken of now¬ 
adays as a modern invention. The name 
may be new but the thing is old. Let 
me describe a baby one which belongs 
to the thirties. The owner of this one- 
department department store, who was 
an original thinker (otherwise called 
queer), was known as a thrifty man: he 
had*no doubt adopted Dr. Franklin’s 
maxim: “A penny saved is a penny 
gained,” which is the key that surely 
unlocks the door to great accumulations. 
The accumulations, which in this case 
lay piled together on every side from 
floor to ceiling, represented every de¬ 
partment from dry goods to groceries, 
woodenware, notions, hardware, etc., so 
that a man said to a friend who was 
with him in the store one day: “I do 
not believe you can ask for anything 
that Mr. - cannot furnish here.” By 
way of a tester the customer called for 
an article which could not be found in 
the famous A. T. Stewart establishment 
If you use Grain-0 in place of 
coffee you will enjoy it just as 
much for it tastes the same; yet, it 
is like a food to the system, dis¬ 
tributing the full substance of the 
pure grain with every drop. 
TRY IT TO-DAY. 
At grocers everywhere; 15c. and 25c. per package. 
In New York, nor in that of his suc¬ 
cessor, John Wanamaker. When he 
said: “Have you a goose yoke, Mr. 
-?” the proprietor stooped down and 
brought out the rare article from under 
his counter! 
An Irishman in our country at this 
time was a rarity. Dolly Madison, in 
the White House at Washington, wrote 
a few years earlier: “Heavy forest trees 
are everywhere around us, but hired 
laborers are so few that we cannot get 
wood enough to keep us warm.” The 
Irishman was the first or at least one 
of the earliest to respond to this demand 
for laborers, and good, sturdy help he 
was; his rollicking fun and witticisms 
lightened many a load In this workaday 
world. 'The Africans, it is true, were 
here, but they had not come of their 
own free will, impelled by Inherent 
vigor and love of independence; this 
people would ill have suited New Eng¬ 
land rush and robustness, which must 
have looked upon them much as Miss 
Ophelia did in Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 
The Presidential election of 1840 
stirred this section as nothing had done 
before. Mass meetings and parades, 
catch-words and songs were ushered in 
with loud hurrahs which helped to seat 
in the Presidential chair “Tippecanoe and 
Tyler too” (for they were both of them 
Presidents), and to defeat Van Buren, 
of whom we used to sing: “Van, Van is 
a used-up man.” This same Van we 
came later to know as a man of un¬ 
ruffled good temper and most affabre 
manners. After Henry Clay had used 
his strongest invectives against him in 
his public speeches In the Senate, Van 
would in his blandest manner take a 
seat beside his opponent, saying: “I am 
not so bad after all, Harry; take a pinch 
of snuff.” Whether the silver-tongued 
orator took the proffered treat from the 
extended snuff box deponent salth not. 
PHILADELPHIA. 
A Generation Ago 
coffee could only be 
bought in bulk. The 
20th century way is the 
LION COFFEE 
way—sealed pack¬ 
ages, always clean, 
fresh and retaining 
its rich flavor. 
SKUNKE’. 
and al I other Raw Pura; also Cattle and Horae Hides 
shipped to at willbring tho Former oodTrepper 10 to 60% 
more then I Isold nthome. WowuteTer; Farmer, Trader, 
Trapper and Bnjer la the U.B. and Canada to ship Us Baw 
Furs and Hides to ns. Highest market prices and pmmpt 
cash retarasgnaranteed. Wrltefer oar price list, skipping 
tags, Same Laws, etc. ANDERSCH BROS., 
Ofpt. 59 Main St., Minneapolis, Minn. 
I don’t make 
all the lamp 
chimneys; no 
trouble with 
mine. 
Macbeth. 
My name on every one. 
If you’ll send your address. I’ll send you 
tlie Index to Lamps and their Chimneys, to 
tell you what number to get for your lamp. 
Macbeth, Pittsburgh. 
,'S 
\ 
DIETZ 
Gold Blast Lanterns 
feed on the fresh, pure air to make their 
clear, strong, steady, white Uprhtand they 
never blow out in the wind. That is what 
cold blast means and the principle la 
worked out to perfection in the 
Dietz Blizzard Lantern. 
It’s the lantern for absolute safety and to 
Ki ve (treat service In a hundred household 
duties. Globe is raii^, lowered and locked 
by convenient side l^er. You never re¬ 
move It to trim, nil, liprht or extintrulsh. 
One flllinK runs it 19 hours. See that you 
(tetalHETZ whenyou (to to buy. The 
name is on every one. It you don’t see it 
don’t take the lantern. If your dealer 
won’t send for it write to us. Write any¬ 
how for our froo Untom catalog sad make your own choico. 
R.vE. DIETZ COMPANY, 
87 Laight St., New York. 
Established 1810. 
OL Per Annum 
on Your Savings 
GUARANTEED 
riEPOSITS may bo made or withdrawn at any 
^ time and bear carain(;g for every day Invested. 
Payable quarterly by check. Our operations are 
confined to strictly high-grade, gilt-edged real- 
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and regularly inspected by and under absolute 
supervision of State Banking Department. 
Write at once for full particulars and indorsements 
of prominent clergymen and profctaUMial men. 
Paid In Capital Assets Surplus 
»1,000,000 #1,000,000 *185,000 
Industrial Savings and Loan Go., 
1134 Uroatlway, New York. 
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