The Daily Gazette

How we Lived Before the Revolution.

The costumes of the day were rich and showy. The judges wore in Massachusetts scarlet robes with facings and cuffs of black velvet, and powdered wigs adorned with black silk bags. Their robes in summer were of black silk. In 1774 the sheriff of York, now in Maine, came out to meet the court, coming on a circuit with six of his deputies, all with gold laced gentlemen monopolize brave apparel. The overseers of Harvard College in 1754 had to forbid the students to wear gold and silver lace or brocade. Laced and embroidered garments of velvet and flowered silk were commonly found in gentlemen's wardrobes, and there was one solid man of Boston, a thrifty merchant who went about his business in green or purple gold. Wigs gave place to queues when it was seen that the officers of Braddock's army did not wear the former. Artisans wore leather aprons, and serving maids were known by short gowns of domestic stuff would they have thought of the satin and silk which Bridget deems her prerogative? The ladies, according to Copley, preferred red satin and pearls to any other toilet. Red, indeed, seems to have been a favorite color with them. for the authorities of Philadelphia, in order to drive red cloaks out of use (for what reason we don't know), took the novel but effective method of dressing a woman in one to go to the gallows. The authorities of the Quaker City seem, indeed, to have thought it quite their duty to correct the fashions, for on another occasion they sought to make the "tower" head-dress ridiculous by setting it on a very tall man's head and marching him through the street to the sound of a drum. Here is a hint for the dress reformer. Low necked dresses were an abomination in Boston as long ago as 1691. It is no wonder the public has at last got used to them.

Food was cheap. In 1740 meat in Boston retailed at two pence a pound, and a twelve pound cod be bought for the same. Salmon weighing two pounds sold for a shilling. Chocolate was more used than coffee. Teetotalism had not been invented. Cider was three shillings a barrel and universally drank at meals in Massachusetts. Flip and toddy were sinful drinks also much in vogue with our abandoned ancestors. Madeira was the favorite wine all over the country, and rum punch found favor without distinction of party. The students of Harvard were allowed "in a sober manner to entertain one another and strangers with it," the corporation having decided rum punch "as it now commonly made no intoxicating liquor." Now-a-days Massachusetts courts decide lager beer to be intoxicating. Can it be that our heads are so much weaker than our fathers'? There are plenty of chances to wet one's whistle in those days. One house in every ten in Philadelphia sold drink. in 1774. So the grand jury found. --GALAXY