USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 31
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In the olden time, it was the fashion in some parts of the country, to serve a dish of chocolate, which had just then come inte use, in a curious style. The height of the fashion was, to put into the kettle of chocolate several links of sausages, and, after boiling all 22
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together, to serve the guests with a bowl of chocolate and a sausage, which was cut up, and then the mess eaten with a spoon. When tea was first introduced into Salem, the usual mode of serving it up was, to boil the tea in an iron kettle, and after straining the liquor off, the boiled herb was put into a dish, and buttered. This was eaten, while the liquid decoction was drank, without sugar or milk to wash down the greens. But this is nothing to be compared to the exquisite breakfast, which was in common vogue among the people of Salem some eighty or ninety years since. The sour household brewed beer, was put on in the great brass kettle, and simmered over the fire with the crusts of the brown bread crummed in; and occasionally dulcified with a little molasses. This was served up hot to the family, under the name of Whistle-belly-ven- geance. Surely, the modern mode of taking tea, in French porce- lain gilt cups, with patent loaf sugar, and cream, stirred with a silver spoon, is more delicate, refined and elegant.
But among all the changes to which we have ultimately arrived through the mutations of seventy years the difference between the mode of dress among the apprentices of that remote period, and the present mode among the same class, seems to be well worthy of notice. A modern apprentice must have his suit of fine broadcloth, manufactured in the best looms of Europe, his hat of the finest fur, and the latest fashion ; his overcoat of the best and most ap- proved stuff, with capes enough for another, or at least to clothe a whole family of children; his boots of the best cut and style, polished with Day and Martin; his stock of the most approved patent stiffened stuff, with the exact tie in front, and his unmention- ables brought up tight about him, with the patent double roller gum- elastic suspenders ; and nothing less than a lepine gold watch with safety chain, hung round his neck, will give him the finishing touch and qualify his person for the admiration of the gazing belles, equally well dressed and ornamented to match him. Now what a contrast does this afford to the dress of the apprentice of seventy years since. Only figure to yourselves, readers, a young man of eighteen years of age, of good proportions, handsome face, and bloom- ing with beauty, dressed in a pair of deerskin breeches coming hardly down to his knees, which, before they could be allowed to come into the presence of the ladies, at meeting, on the Sabbath, were regularly blacked up on the preceding Saturday night, at the dye kettle of Deacon Holman, in order to give them a clean and fresh appearance for the Sunday. Imagine his legs covered up to the knees with a pair of blue woollen yarn stockings, his feet encased with a thick and substantial pair of shoes well greased, and ornamented with a pair of small brass buckles, a present from his master for his good beha- viour. Imagine that he wore a speckled shirt all the week, and a white one on Sunday, which was always carefully taken off as soon as he returned from meeting, folded up, and laid by for the next
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Sabbath. Imagine, that the leather breeches, after several years' wear, got greasy as they grew old, and were only flexible so long as they were on and kept warm by the superflux of youthful heat.
Imagine, that in the morning of a cold day in January, when the snow which had blown into the bed chamber through the broken pane, or through the crevices of an old garret, had filled the breeches with snow, and stiffened them up almost into horn-ima- gine, we say, this young apprentice shaking out the snow, and pulling them on. It makes us shudder to think of it, and to commis- erate the poor hapless wight who had to warm them into flexibility by some of that superabundant heat which had been acquired by lying warm in a straw bed, covered up by a good substantial woollen rug, before he could move his legs down stairs to kindle a fire for his master. What a contrast between the dress of an apprentice now and a fellow-sufferer seventy years since !
The vicinity of Philadelphia to New Jersey has had the effect to contribute a great deal of Jersey population to the city, and a good race of citizens they make. They may be considered as a people much formed from the best of Yankee blood. All along the sea- board the first settlers there, as their names show, came from New England in colonial times, especially when the cedar swamps were full, and afforded abundance of posts, boards, and shingles for mer- chandise and shipment. In the Revolution, the governor (Reed) was from Jersey, so too, the Attorney General Sargent, so also the Commissary General Boudinot. Not long since, all the officers of the mayor's court-the mayor, recorder, prosecuting officers, and even the crier, were Jersey born, and now, even the " Annalist of Philadelphia,"-(Parvis componera magna,-to compare little with great,) though of Philadelphia origin, happened to be born in Bur- lington county ; and these facts may tend to excuse, if apology be necessary, for this tribute of respect to the land of "the Jersey blues,"-of whom my own father was one, and his forefathers before him, from the time of the landing day, at Salem. The reader must pardon the last egotism for the sake of the prominent intention-the commendation of the " Jersey blues." Water street and Front street, used to be well filled, with business men from Jersey.
I sometimes cannot refrain from picturing to myself the light canoes of the Indians, as at no remote period they lay rocking beneath the shelter of that very bluff where are now moored a fleet of deeply laden barges, [such as we now see along the Delaware, Schuyl- kill, and Susquehanna rivers.] Indeed, these ideas constantly force themselves upon the mind, as one wanders over the changeful face of this singular land, where the print of the moccason is so soon followed by the tread of the engineer and his attendants, and the light trail of the red men is effaced by the road of iron; hardly have the echoes ceased to repeat through the woods," the Indian's hunter cry, before it is followed by the angry rush of the steam engine, urged forward ! still forward ! by the restless pursuer of the
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fated race. Each State, north, south, and west, is eagerly thrusting forth her iron arms to knit in a closer embrace her neighbours." Thus " the star of empire is onward west !"
I cannot but feel some gratification in seeing some of my concep tions and feelings so truly expressed to my hands in a late number of the Daily Chronicle of Philadelphia-saying, to those who enter- tam a feeling of affection for antiquities, and who look with an eye of veneration upon every thing stamped with the impress of time, " the present rage of improvement must convey any thing but feelings of a pleasurable or enviable cast. The dwellings of our fore- fathers-the relics of ancient architecture, meet with no more respect at our hands than if they were old rubbish, fit only to be carried off to the commons. This proves us to be a perverted people, so far as it goes. Nay, this may be said to be the cause of our per- version, in as much as by the obliteration of all that appertained to the days of our fathers' greatness, we have at the same time dis- posed of the very remembrance of their virtues too. In a little while and we shall hardly be left an atom to remind us of the hearts and days of " old lang syne !"
In comparing the sober business of former times, it must be seen as quite different from that of the overdone efforts of the present day. I had said, under the article of medical facts, that dyspepsia, was then scarcely known ; the cause since, is to be found greatly, in the overworking of men's minds by the distracting cares of ways and means of living in luxury. "In nine cases out of ten, in that dis- order, it is the brain that is the primary cause. Give that delicate organ some rest. Leave your business behind you when you go to your home. Do not sit down to dinner with your brows knit and your mind absorbed in casting up interest accounts. Never abridge the usual hours of sleep. Take more or less of exercise in the open air every day. Allow yourself some innocent recreation. Eat moderately, slowly, and of just what you please. Above all, banish all thoughts of the subject, from the mind. Live temperately and agreeably. Do not make haste to be rich, [a fruitful germ of dys- pepsia in itself !] cultivate the social affections, banish gloomy and desponding thoughts." These hints may prevent the disease-but if the victim is already seized, he must give his stomach less to do, and above all, his brain less to do. Regimen of any kind will be useless, so long as the brain is left in an over excitement. Let that have rest and the stomach will perform its functions. But if a man passes fourteen or fifteen hours a day in a study or a counting-room, the stomach will inevitably become paralyzed,-so that even a bis- cuit a day would distress it! The fashion of the day is to live luxuriously-to show out in fashionable viands and wines. The same class of persons, overwork the brain to provide the ways and means of such display They are kept constantly on the rack of excitement, are constantly worrying and fretting about their busi- ness. and denying themselves needful rest, and equally needfu'
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relaxation ! Thus the overstrained brain weakens the overloaded stomach, the latter fails, and dyspepsia is the consequence! A fine motto in contrast to the foregoing is, or should be, the golden rule of " never killing ones self to keep ones self !"
When the writer was a lad, the class of frail women only showed themselves along the wharves. They looked like their profession, shameless and vulgar. They were so conspicuous in their dress and manner as to be hailed and jeered by most of the seamen from the vessels. They were generally in companies of two or three. They never went abroad in the streets of the city generally. A genteeler looking class of women, such as now imitate first rate ladies, and walk the streets any where, were I think quite unseen and unknown. There were some no doubt : but they lived retired in by-places. I believe that they first ventured abroad and made their displays when the theatre (that "school of morals!") became a place of resort. After that, they increased with the luxuries of the times. It was certainly true, that gentlemen who were known to keep such society, were named and avoided in good female society. This subject-sufficiently unpleasant in itself, is not mentioned here, from unconsciousness of its indelicacy of bearing, but for the sake of the moral, which may be inferred from facts as they are.
The badness of the roads near the city as they were in former days, before turnpikes, and more improvements were made upon them, is now very little considered or known, I give some facts-
Jonathan Tyson, a farmer of 68 years of age, of Abington, saw, at 16 years of age, much of the difficulty of going to the city : a dreadful mire of blackish mud rested near the present Rising Sun village, where is now the long row of frame buildings. He saw there the team of Mr. Nickum, of Chestnut hill, stalled; and in endeavouring to draw out the forehorse with an iron chain to his head, it slipped and tore off the lower jaw, and the horse died on the spot. There was a very bad piece of road nearer to the city, along the front of the Norris estate. It was frequent to see there horses struggling in mire to their knees. Mr. Tyson has seen thirteen lime wagons at a time stopped on the York road, near Logan's hill, to give one another assistance to draw through the mire; and the drivers could be seen with their trowsers rolled up, and joining team to team to draw out; at other times they set up a stake in the mid dle of the road to warn off wagons from the quicksand pits. Some- times they took down fences, and made new roads through the fields. Now good turnpikes efface all such difficulties upon the main roads. When they first came into use, all farmers commended them and used them ; but, in time, they forgot their benefactors, and have tried to shun them-leaving the stockholders to get but half an income. Had no turnpikes been made, roads would have become as claypits, by the continual increase of population and use.
I have always felt an objection to the prevailing air of sameness VOL. I .- 2 H 22*
A
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in Philadelphia. We seem to regulate every thing in the way of building by " an act of uniformity." I could wish that we had something more picturesque. How different are we from the fanciful taste of the Hollanders: for instance-in their city of Saardam every house is separated by its own garden, and every house is of different style of architecture. Such a place must be like wandering in a perpetual museunı.
The first Philadelphia Directory, a small octavo volume, of the year 1785, is now become a curiosity in itself. It was done by Francis White, a broker, who also advertised an intelligence office, in Chestnut street near Third street. Such an office meant a different thing from now-he meant to give information in buying and selling scrips and brokerage. In the same year, the eccentric Captain John Macpherson also made a city directory of an opposition kind of character-only his subscribers had their occupations given. Some persons, who gave huffish answers, had them so recorded : such as, "no name"-" what you please"-" none of your busi- ness," &c. In White's Directory, there being then no numbers to the houses, names are generally given thus, viz .: " Alibone, Wm., captain, Front (between) Callowhill and Vine streets." The word " between" being the nearest designation, unless on " corners" of streets. In looking over this directory, we are often struck with the fact of names of eminence or reputation, then, or now, who lived in places not now respectable. Thus, Dr. A. Chovet has his anatomical theatre in Water street near Arch street ; Doctor Benjamin Vanleer is in Water street between Race and Vine streets; P. S. Dupon- ceau, Esq., lawyer, is in Front street opposite the Coffee house, at High street ; Jacob Bankson, lawyer, is in Lombard street near Second street, and Myers Fisher, Jno. D. Coxe and S. Sitgreaves, are lawyers in Front street ; Gen. Thomas Mifflin (governor) is in Vine street, between Second and Front streets; Captain Charles Biddle, vice president of the council, is in Front street, between Callowhill street and Pool's Bridge; Wm. Masters, Esq., magistrate, Front street, next door to Callowhill street ; the Probate of Wills office, by George Campbell, was at the corner of Key's alley and Second street; the Prothonotary's office, by Edward Burd, Esq., was in Third street near Arch street; the Admiralty office, by Francis Hopkinson, Esq., was in Race street, between Fourth and Fifth streets and the Register's office, by James Read, Esq., was at the corner of Front and Vine streets; the Sheriff's office, by Joseph Cowperthwaite, Esq., was in Front street, between Vine and Cal- lowhill streets ; the Health office, by Jno. Jones, Esq., was in Water street below Spruce street ; the Custom house and Naval office were in Front street, corner of Black Horse alley. We see in this direc- tory such a man as our great steamboat inventor, thus-" Robert Fulton, miniature painter, corner of Second and Walnut streets." A name is given, (Jacob Lawerswyler,) as " Collector of cash and notes for the American bank." Hogan published a directory in
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1796 upon a new plan. Clement Biddle also published one, while he was marshal.
When we consider the abundance and amount of cotton goods and calicoes, and of woollens and cloths, now manufactured in our country-malgre all the early struggles and losses -- it affords some interest now to set down the fact, little known, that cotton goods were tried to be made here even in colonial times. I find in the Complete Magazine, printed in England, for August, 1764, this special notice of these efforts, to wit: "Some beautiful samples of the cotton manufactures, now carried on at Philadelphia, have been lately imported, and greatly admired." To this we may add the fact, that General Washington, when he first appeared as Presi- dent at New York, and took his public oath of office before the people there assembled, was wholly clothed in beautiful cloth of American fabric.
Mr. Cornelius now makes the most elegant mantel and hanging 34ps : his manner of succeeding in that, and in silver plating, is a very curious history, and would deserve to be well told at length. How very plain were the best candlesticks in my early years! Dr. Setton's drug store first showed argand lamps about the year 1795. Several successive attempts were made to import and sell Italian alabaster mantel ornaments-such as vases and urns: one after another broke, and so their articles were distributed cheap, and dif- fused the taste for such display. They generally kept store but for about a year. In the same way the first large pictures with gilded frames were all wondered at, but not bought, until they broke up, and distributed them at low prices! There are many curious facts concerning the first efforts to introduce the arts-especially in form- ing drugs, paints and dyes, &c., at our chemical laboratories.
The outlots of the city have most surprisingly increased in value- and especially since 1800. I saw a lease of Thomas and Richard Penn, of the year 1737, to M. Hellier, of the whole square from High street to Chestnut street, and from Tenth to Eleventh streets, Delaware side, which was then leased for twenty-one years, at the price of 40s. sterling per annum ! in consideration of his fencing and planting it with English grass. Low as it was, the same M. Hel- lier sells out his title and interest in the ground, in 1740, to Richard Nixon and Wm. Smith, for the remainder of his term, for only £5- a sum possibly nearly consumed in fencing and tilling it! Consider now the value of the same ground ! If sundry of the scriveners, as I have before suggested, would be so considerate as to make memo- randa of the original prices given for city lots in colonial times, as told in old deeds passing under their notice, how very greatly they would surprise the present generation by their contrast
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CHANGES IN THE PRICES OF DIET .- NOTICES OF THE FORMER FISH MARKET, &c
" For the money quite a heap."
WE cannot fail to be surprised at the former abundance (as indi- cated in the cheapness of prices) of many articles formerly, which are now scarce and dear.
Sheepshead, now so high priced, used to be plentiful in the Jersey market. They came from Egg harbour. The price was the same whether big or little, say 1s. 6d. apiece-some weighed six to seven pounds each. The rule was, that he who came first took the biggest. Unreasonable as this seemed, the practice long prevailed. At last the sellers attempted to introduce the sale by weight. They fixed the price at 4d. per lb. (now they are at 1s. 10d .! ) but the purchasers stood aloof, and none would buy ! Then they returned to 1s. 6d. apiece again. However, sometime after, they succeeded to sell at 4d. to 6d. per lb., and so continued for years. These things were told to me by Mr. Davenport Marrot, an old gentleman, when 80 years of age. Mr. John Warder too, of nearly the same age, related much the same facts, saying, that when he was a boy all their sea fish were brought over land from Egg harbour and landed at the Old Ferry, (then the first and only one) where a small bell was rung from the top of the house, which was sufficient to inform the chief part of the town that the fish were come. There, he said, sheepshead were always sold at 18d. apiece, without any regard to size ; but the first comers getting always the best.
This selling of sea fish, it is to be observed, occurred only in cool or cold weather, because when there were no ice houses, there was, of course, no way of preserving them during their necessary trans- portation across the Jerseys. In those days we, of course, saw no sea fish or lobsters, as now, in summer ;- but their lack was well supplied, by an abundance of fine rock and perch, caught with hook and line, in the Delaware. The fishing then was far more suc cessful than now; there were more fish, and fewer people to con- sume them. Increase of shipping and steamers have, probably, con- tributed to scare them away from their former haunts.
Wild pigeons were once innumerable. Mr. Thomas Bradford, when aged 84, remembers when they were caught in nets, and brought in cart loads to the city market. He said he had heard his forefathers say they once saw a flock fly over the city so as to obscure the sun for two or three hours, and many were killed from the tops of the
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houses. They were, therefore, plentiful enough in general to sell at from 6d. to 12d. per dozen.
The same informer stated his recollections of the earliest market prices thus, viz .; Butter at 6d. to 9d .; fowls 1s .; ducks 15d .; geese 1s .; 10d .; eggs 4d. per dozen ; beef at 3d. to 6d. per lb .; greens, sallads, &c., were as much for a penny as is now given for a 6d. Shad used to be retailed at 3d. to 4d., and herrings at 1s. 6d. a hundred.
Colonel A. J. Morris, when 90 years of age, has told me of his re- collection of shad being sold, in several seasons of his early days, at 10s. a hundred !
The occasional prices, published in the ancient Gazettes, state prices as follows, to wit :-
1719-Flour per cwt. 9s. 6d. to 10s .; tobacco 14s. cwt .; Musco- vado sugar 40 to 45s. per cwt .; pork 45s. per barrel; beef 30s .; rum 3s. 9d. per gallon ; molasses ls. 6d .; wheat 3s. d. to 3s. 5d. per bushel ; corn 1s. 6d., and bohea tea-mark it, wha« a luxury-at 24s. per lb. !
1721-" Flower" 8s. 6d. to 9s .; turpentine 8s .; rice 17s .; fine salt 2s. 6d .; bohea tea at 30s. ! pitch 12s .; tar 8s.
1748-The time of war, prices are high, say, wheat, at 6s. 4d. to 7s .; flour 20s .; beef 43s., and pork 60s.
In 1755, hay is named at 50s. a ton, and now it is occasionally at 20 dollars !
1757-Flour is 12s. 6d .; wheat 3s. 6d .; corn 1s. 9d .; heef 40s .; pork 60 to 67s .; pipe staves £7; barrel staves 67s .; West India rum 2s. 11d .; New England rum 2s 7d .; Pennsylvania rum 2s. 7d .; molasses 2s. 6d .; hemp 5s .; pitch 11s .; tar 10s .; flaxseed 4s. 3d ; and, last of all, bohea is down from 30s. to only 7s. !
In 1760, I notice the fact, that several thousand barrels of flour were purchased in London for the American provinces at 8s. 6d. per cwt .- mark that !
In 1763, I perceive prices of sundry game, &c., incidentally stated to wit : a quail 13d. ; a heath-hen 1s. 3d .; a teal 6d. ; a wild goose 2s. ; a brandt Is. 3d. ; a snipe 1d. ; a duck 1s .; a cock turkey 4s. ; a hen turkey 2s. 6d.
1774-Flour 18s. 6d. ; wheat 7s. 9d .; Indian corn 2s. 8d. ; pipe staves £10; barrel staves 70s. ; West India rum 3s. 1d. ; pitch 16s .; tar 13s .; turpentine 18s .; rice 17s .; Lisbon salt. 15d. ; hemp 5d. ; cotton 16d. ; bar iron £26; pig iron £8 10s .; pork £4 5s .; beef £2 15s.
The pebble stones used in paving the city, when first paved, cost but 4s. 6d. per cartload, delivered from the shallops.
Price of Flour-Comparative Table .- We subjoin a highly interesting table giving a comparative view of the price of flour in this city for the first three months in the year, from 1796 to 1837. For this document, our acknowledgments are due to the kindness of a mercantile friend, by whom it was carefully and accurately pre- pared from authentic data. It possesses peculiar interest at the pre-
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sent moment, showing as it does, the great and rapid fluctuations of the market, and stating the fact that, at periods when labour did not obtain more than half the price it now commands, flour has sold at much higher prices than those which are now complained of. In: 1796, for instance, it sold as high as $15 a barrel.
PRICES OF FLOUR FOR THE THREE FIRST MONTHS OF THE YEAR, FROM 1796, TO 1837, INCLUSIVE.
Years.
January.
February.
March.
1796
$12 00
13 50
15 00
1797
10 00
10 00
10 00
1798
8 50
8 50
8 50
1799
9 50
9 50
9 25
1800
11 50
11 25
11 50
1801
7 00
7 00
7 00
1803
6 50
6 50
6 50
1804
7 50
7 50
00
1805
11 00
12 25
13 00
1806
7 50
7 50
00
1807
7 50
7 50
50
1808 (Embargo)
6 00
5 75
5 50
1809
do.
5 50
7 00
7 00
5
In July and
1810
August, this
7 75
8 00
8 25
(year $11 : 12
1811
11 00
10 50
10 50
1812 (War)
10 50
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