Hi, Here is another E.B.L. article that might be of interest. Anyone know the origin of the verb "to Alabamy"? The Cynthiana Democrat, Thursday, May 29, 1919, Page 11, Cols. 3-4: PRICES ---------- In 1865 Compared to Those of the Present Day. ---------- E.B.L. Writes Interestingly. ---------- Editor Democrat: In looking over an old account book of the firm of J.H. Shawhan & Co., Cynthiana, opened out June 5, 1865, I jotted down some items and prices which may be of interest in comparnson [sic; read comparison] to present day prices: Coal oil was $1.000 per gallon; candles 25c per pound for cheap grade and were largely used, one tallow candle furnishing light where now people will be satisfied with only the strongest lights obtainable. Incidentally, it may be remarked if the people who complain so much of the high cost of living and low wages, would practice the same economies in food and dress as they did in those days, and they lived well and enjoyed life fully as much as the people of the present day, there would be little cause for complaint or discontent. An entry indicates that J.B. Curle, father, I think, of W.R. and J.J. Curle, did some clerking at $2.00 per day. Now a boy of 12 or 14 asks from $2.50 to $4.00 for a short days’ work “setting” tobacco. And this reminds me that during the war days of 62-3 I worked early and late for 30 and 40 cents a day, walking sometimes 2 or 3 miles to the field, doing a man’s work with the hoe covering, hilling up and “bushwhacking” corn, and occasionally engineering old Dobbin and the shovel plow along the hill-sides of some of the farms adjacent to the good little city of Oddville. Accumulating the princely sum of $2.00 and feeling as big as a Vanderbiltian financier, I walked into town one morning, barefoot at that, and bought the first pair of shoes with my own earnings, from Uncle Tom English, the honest old hibernian shoe maker of Pike street. Of course they were brogans. Boots were the fashionable footwear for male bipeds in those days, with the occasional exception of a feminish sort of a man who covered his corns with shoes or “pumps.” But excuse this digression. Other prices were: Rio coffee, 35 and 40c; better grades, 50 and 60c a pound; green tea, $2.40 to $3; brown sugar, 22 c; “coffee” sugar, 25c, and pulverized 22c. Customers seem to have preferred the brown. Syrup, $2.25; molasses, $1.60 to $2.00 per gallon; eggs, 17c; hominy, 5c; meal 90c; bacon, home cured, 10 to 30c; beef, 21c, turpentine, $5 per gallon. Later on the price reduced; salt 60c per bushel; matches 45c a box; nails 10c; canned goods, navy beans, dried and evaporated fruits, now staples, were then something of the future. Housewives generally dried their own fruits, mainly sun-dried apples and peaches; saved shelled beans and “put up” canned peaches, blackberries, etc., for table use. Nothing could be more delicious than the peaches and cream served for desert with old-time pound cakes. Brogans were charged at $3 a pair. Boots from $4 to $15. Brown cotton 37-1/2c, white, 35c per yard. Paper collars, 40 and 45c a box of 10c. But few linen collars then worn. Some individual sales were, Joseph Scott, suit of clothes, $98.50; James Logan, a suit for $94; Capt. L. Furnish, L.B.’s father, coat and pants, $63; David Veach, coat, $45, pants, $18; George W. Williams, always a good dresser, paid $115 for a suit. Frank M. Curle $2.50 for a pair of “silk” suspenders; J.J. Good paid $45 for a coat and $15 for a pair of pants. J. Heb. Craigmyle, just setting out, was satisfied with a $6.50 linen coat for warm weather, $4 shoes and 75c socks for his go-to-meeting-sparking trips. Lark Garnett, still youthful and debonnaire, also was a patron who indulged in fine raiment. He’s still a candidate. Judge Marcus L. Broadwell, fine looking and a well-dresser, bought as much as $1.25 worth of Mason’s blacking at a time--usual price, 10 to 12-1/2c per box. C.G. Land was a good customer in groceries, buying sugar, coffee, etc., in quantity. A barrel of “choice” sugar was charged to a customer at $44.20. A barrel of whiskey invoiced at $127.89. Suits of burial clothes went from $29 to $96. In one case the shoes, charged at $2, were “to be returned.” Guess they were intended as temporary coverings and not for burial purposes. Fennell Brothers, then recent comers from the Old Dominion, were also patrons. John Craddock was charged 50 cents for cigars. Could it have been Col. J.G.? Some one penciled notes on the “Topics of the Time” on a page after the firm had ceased business, which indicate preparation for a speech, perhaps in a debating society. Mentioning the questions as “Prohibition,” “Woman’s Rights,” “The Tariff”--still unsettled like the poor, “always with us.” His lack of sufficient familiarity with the first four to discuss them, he orates on the tariff thusly: “Although the tariff suestion [sic; read question] is very old it excites as much interest as it did in its earlier existence. One of the causes of the great interest taken in the subject is that it affects the people directly. The manufacturer who grows rich through it is in favor of a tariff and gives all his influence and energy toward sustaining it. On the other hand the majority of the wisest men, especially men of an agricultural district, are opposed to it. Our State has the honor of sending to Congress the leader of the tariff reform party, Hon. John G. Carlisle. As for the Irish question, I am not ready to express an opinion, but if all Irishmen are like one who soon after landing was asked what ticket he would vote replied: ‘Have yez a givernment in America?’ On being told we had he said, “Then I’ll vote forninst the givernment.’” Here he Alabamied, and so must this scrap. Too long already, but one thing more: The firm advertised and did a growing business in their time, groceries and men’s wear. An entry shows they paid A.J. Morey $47 for advertising at one time and on dissolution of the partnership of Joseph H. & H.W. Shawhan, paid $5 for a brief notice of the fact in the “News.” Entries also indicate that a certain young man, “Billie Adams,” was connected with the Cynthiana News in some way. Anyway, a hat purchased by him was charged to A.J. Perhaps ‘twas an election bet, as Billie always was a winner. E.B.L.