of Menard and Mason Counties
By T.G. Onstott
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CHAPTER XLIII Page 397 This is an age of progress. If we should live a thousand years it would always be a pleasing thought that we did not live back of the eighteenth century. All of the great inventions have been ushered in within the recollection of our fathers and grandfathers. The boy of fifteen now considers his father an old crank, and knows more than his grandfather did at fifty. While some of the new changes may be unimportant, some may be like the crawfish advance backwards. Let us compare notes awhile. The time was when the preacher read his hymn in a loud impressive voice so that his hearers had the sentiment of the song in their hearts, and then would commence at the first verse and read two lines and the whole congregation would join in and sing, and they had time to get their breath while the hymn was lined. Now the preacher announces the page and calls the verses stanzas and sits down to rest while the choir mechanically grinds out the grist, and should some good old brother or sister be moved by the spirit to strike up "Come Thou Fount" or "Children of the Heavenly King" or "On Jordons Stormy Banks," without the aid of the music box a ripple of merriment would run through the house and the choir would be amazed. Time was when the gallant youth could march along in majestic dignity with some dimpled hand clasped in his awkward arm and who could sing "You're a strong Engined Boat; your speed isn't slow; So fair one be kind here is a Flat you must Tow." Time was when people were acquainted with their neighbors who lived in a circle of five miles, and with the whole family would make an all day's visit, and when the wife would exhibit her quilt patches and could tell where every piece come from. "This is some of grandmother's dress, this is some my sister from Ohio sent me," and then before the guests started home would get the seed box and divide and could tell by the string what was in each package. The canned fruit dispensator had not been ushered in and the fruit was all dried and apple butter was the standard with most of families. "Soft soap," when the moon was right, took the place of "Lenox" and "Ivory." There was not so much "Etty Cat." You did not have to eat with your fork or drink coffee with a spoon. Instead of style you had something to eat and your own way of eating it. Perhaps the new ways are the best, yet us old fellows always have a hankering after the old. Yet Adam never saw a World's Fair. Noah never saw a steamboat or railway. David never heard a brass band. Peter never telephoned. George Washington never rode on a street car. Abraham Lincoln never saw a bicycle. Our grandmother made her music on a spinning wheel. Her granddaughter plays on a "piany forte," and don't know how to darn a hole in the heel of her stocking.
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