Similar Enthusiasm Seldom Seen Nowadays, Says Observer
\nPolitical Tactics Are Recalled<\/h4>\n

by Egbert T. Bush, Stockton, N.J.
\nHunterdon County Democrat, November 3, 1932<\/em><\/p>\n

Mr. Bush stated at one time that he did not chose the headlines for his articles\u201a\u00c4\u00eethat was left to the editors of the Hunterdon Democrat. So, although he does discuss those July 4th<\/span>\u00ac\u2020toasts, there is much more in this article.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A number of old newspapers, kindly loaned me by F.V.D. Fisher of Stockton,^{1<\/a><\/sup> furnish subjects not for amusement only, but also for comparison and serious reflection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n}

One of them has been preserved for more than 150 years, to carry us back through all the intervening struggles and triumphs of the country, into \u201a\u00c4\u00fathe days that tried men\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s souls.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe New Jersey Gazette, Published by Isaac Collins,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 bearing date of July 12, 1780, has this advertisement: \u201a\u00c4\u00faOne Hundred Dollars Reward. Strayed away on the 29^{th<\/sup> Day of May last, a middle sized Red Cow with a white face, has very small horns and black spot over each eye. Whoever takes up said cow and delivers her to Mrs. Doughty, in Trenton, shall have the above reward and expenses.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 One can almost see Mrs. Doughty in her distress over the probable loss of her precious cow, offering $100 of her little savings in hope of recovering what must have been of still greater value to her. It looks like putting a high estimation upon an ordinary cow. But she does not say it shall be in coin, and it is hard to estimate what $100 in the currency of those parlous times may have been worth.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n}

Note:\u00ac\u2020 Inflation caused by the worthlessness of Continental paper money was at its peak in 1780.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here is another and still more astonishing offer: \u201a\u00c4\u00faFive Hundred Dollars Reward. Whereas the store of the subscriber was attempted to be set on fire last night by some villain or villains, by putting a lighted match under the bottom of the back door, Whoever detects the incendiary or incendiaries, or gives me information thereof, so that he or they be convicted of the fact, shall receive the above reward. July 11, 1780. Anthony Maraquier.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 From this we infer that people then made greater effort to detect and punish crime than we are making now or have been making for a long time. If a \u201a\u00c4\u00falighted match put under the back door,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 with no actual damage following, could call forth the offer of such reward, what would have been likely to follow conviction of actual destruction of the building? It takes much more than the finding of a suspicious-looking match to gain attention now, not to mention the offer of substantial reward.<\/p>\n

Drink Patriotic Toasts With Guests<\/strong><\/p>\n

An interesting news Item says: \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe 4^{th<\/sup> instant being the anniversary of American independence, the same was announced in the town by a discharge of thirteen pieces of cannon at twelve o\u201a\u00c4\u00f4clock. A number of Gentlemen of the town repaired to the Thirteen – Stars, where a handsome dinner was provided; after which the following toasts were drunk;\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Then follows the enumeration of just thirteen toasts, all timely and patriotic, as the number implies. The item closes with this statement: \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe whole was conducted with a cheerfulness, good order and decency, which should ever characterize the Freemen of America.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 The point for serious reflection is, Does such conduct always characterize the meetings of the Freemen of America to this day? The \u201a\u00c4\u00faThirteen Stars\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 was evidently the leading tavern of the day, and its name indicates the patriotic enthusiasm of its proprietor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n}

You can learn about the Thirteen Stars Tavern by visiting Wikipedia\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s article on The French Arms Tavern in Trenton<\/a>, also known as Blazing Star Tavern, City Tavern and City Hotel.\u00ac\u2020The tavern had the name \u201a\u00c4\u00faThirteen Stars\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 from April 1, 1780 to February 1781. From this we can conclude that the celebration of the Fourth of July had to take place in Trenton in 1780, only four years after the Declaration of Independence was written.<\/p>\n

There are other advertisements that set us to comparing old times and old chattels with those familiar to us: \u201a\u00c4\u00faFour Hundred Dollars Reward. Made his escape on Monday the 3^{rd<\/sup> Instant from the subscriber, a Negro Man that can scarcely speak a word of English, about 5 feet 7 inches high, who was confined in Trenton goal and advertised to be sold on Thursday the 27th\u00ac\u2020of July instant\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 &c.\u00ac\u2020 Amwell, July 5, 1780.\u00ac\u2020 Joshua Corshon, Sheriff.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Poor Negro! He was evidently a new arrival from Africa, with no knowledge of where he was or how far from his kindred. Yet freedom, even in an unknown land whose people he could not understand, and in spite of all its perils, was preferable to captivity. The thought of his desperate flight for liberty, and of the inhumanity which had brought it about, makes one feel that some progress has been made after all. \u201a\u00c4\u00faTo be Sold. A strong, handsome Negro Woman, Nineteen years old, with beautiful female child six months old, both very healthy; the wench has been used to cook for a genteel family, can sew, and do every kind of housework; has had smallpox and measles, is very neat and sober. * * * The lowest price is One Hundred Pounds York currency or Its equivalent, Enquire of Printer.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9<\/p>\n}

Empty Puzzlers Popular With Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201a\u00c4\u00faThe True American, Published at Trenton, N. J., by William Prall,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 dated July 8, 1826, has the following rather silly problem among its many good things:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This William Prall was William Livingston Prall (1788-1848), once the storekeeper at Prallsville, and the son of John Prall, Jr. After Prall and his partner, Jacob Lambert, went bankrupt in 1820, Prall moved to Trenton where he was Clerk of the NJ Assembly in 1821, and probably the first State Librarian. By 1826, he was editor and publisher of The True American newspaper. That didn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t last long\u201a\u00c4\u00eehe was living in New York City by 1829 where he continued to work in the publishing business.<\/p>\n

\u201a\u00c4\u00faOne Cloverdale\u00ac\u2020submits this problem: If a man six feet high travels round the earth, how much greater will be the circumference described by the top of his head, than by his feet?\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Certainly no exact answer could be obtained. The nearest approximation possible\u201a\u00c4\u00eewhich may have been sufficient to satisfy the requirement of the questioners if not the mathematical fact\u201a\u00c4\u00eemight be obtained by assuming a positive circumference for the earth at a given longitude, and assuming such circumference to be a perfect circle, unaffected by hills or dales, mountains or oceans. But with such assumption, the problem becomes so simple that any eighth-grade pupil should be able to solve it by wasting a great many figures and no great mentality. This would probably have been overlooked, had it not forcibly recalled some of the \u201a\u00c4\u00fapuzzlers\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 that were showered upon me in my early days as a teacher. Somehow the wise ones for miles around thought it would be fun to stump that young \u201a\u00c4\u00faSwamper.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Some of these problems were indeed puzzlers, though few of them were of any other use. I was foolish enough to spend hours over some of them, but just lucky enough to get answers that satisfied me and the propounders. At least, none ever ventured to send back a rejection\u201a\u00c4\u00eeperhaps because each feared that I might actually know while he was somewhat doubtful about his own knowledge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bush is referring to himself as \u201a\u00c4\u00fathat young \u201a\u00c4\u00f2Swamper,\u201a\u00c4\u00f4\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 by which he meant that he was, as a young man, a resident of the Great Swamp, or as known today, the Croton Plateau. That may sound a lot better, but it\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s still a swamp. \u00ac\u2020And now, here come the toasts:<\/p>\n

A report of a meeting of the \u201a\u00c4\u00faSociety of Cincinnati\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 names the following toasts: \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe President, Senate and House of Representatives.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Imagine a large and influential society drinking to that toast now! Or to this one: \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe Secretaries of the four great Departments of Government.\u201a\u00c4\u00f4\u201a\u00c4\u00f4 The following might get a respectful response even now: \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe memory of General Washington, the pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night;\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 and, \u201a\u00c4\u00faOur fair country women, the mothers and daughters of freemen.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Perhaps the last one might meet some hecklers. How about this?\u201a\u00c4\u00ee \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe State of New Jersey: Small in territorial dimensions but gigantic in patriotism and public virtue.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Some non-conformist would be likely to quote: \u201a\u00c4\u00faLo, what a falling off was there, my countrymen!\u201a\u00c4\u00f9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Remember that Mr. Bush was writing during Prohibition, when life in America was far more violent and disruptive than it had been in the late 18th\u00ac\u2020century.<\/p>\n

An item in the same issue tells of the death of \u201a\u00c4\u00faThomas Jefferson\u00ac\u2020on the 4^{th<\/sup> of July.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 After eulogizing his services to his country, it continues: \u201a\u00c4\u00faSince writing the above, intelligence has reached us of the death of Hon. John Adams, former President of the United States, who died on the 4th<\/sup> of July about 6 6clock in the evening.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 That two men, each so active, in the affairs of the country, political opponents but personal friends, should die on the same anniversary of their country\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s independence, has often been remarked as a strange coincidence. If memory serves aright, we used to read that the last words of Adams were these: \u201a\u00c4\u00faJefferson still lives.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Certainly, these were given as the last words of one about the other.<\/p>\n}

Mulberry Experiments Recalled<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the issue of \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe New Jersey State Gazette,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 dated February 5, 1836, we find an advertisement of Italian mulberry trees for sale in large or small quantities, making this appeal: \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe trees are thrifty and from three to four feet in height and are insured to grow. The prices are very moderate and persons wishing one thousand shall have them delivered to any point in New Jersey, any less number will be delivered at Camden, Burlington, Columbus, Bordentown and Trenton. Even for but one package of a dozen trees will be supplied several hundred silk worm eggs, a pamphlet giving all necessary direction for managing the silk worm, reeling silk, &c.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 For some time before and after that date, the farmers of New Jersey were deeply interested in trying to produce raw silk\u00ac\u2020at home instead of importing it at great expense. They were led to believe that, with proper food\u201a\u00c4\u00eethe right kind of mulberry leaves\u201a\u00c4\u00eethe enterprise would prove successful. Hence the importation or home production of those \u201a\u00c4\u00faItalian mulberry trees.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 But our climate proved unsuitable to the Asiatic strangers, and the enterprise had to be abandoned. No doubt the promoters made the enterprise pay handsomely, as did the promoters of the \u201a\u00c4\u00fawine plant\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 a generation later. But the farmers, as usual in such cases, \u201a\u00c4\u00fapaid the fiddler.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 I remember that in our dooryard grew what was called a \u201a\u00c4\u00fapaper\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 mulberry tree.2<\/a><\/sup>\u00ac\u2020Why \u201a\u00c4\u00fapaper,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 I do not know. It bore no berries. This tree gave rise to talk about the \u201a\u00c4\u00fatime when we used to plant mulberry trees for feeding silk worms. Whether our tree was or was not of the silkworm kind, it was cut down as a nuisance about 75 years ago, and was the only one of the kind that I have ever seen.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People Told of Worthless Literature<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another advertisement in the same paper is headed, \u201a\u00c4\u00faPeter Simple Novels.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 The price is to be thirty-seven and a half cents. The publisher, Louis A. Godey, Philadelphia, says: \u201a\u00c4\u00faThe constantly increasing demand for the novels of Captain Marryatt\u00ac\u2020has induced the subscriber to commence the publication of his entire writings.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Then he lists them as follows: \u201a\u00c4\u00faFrank Mildmay, Newton Foster, King\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s Own, Peter Simple, Jacob Faithful, Pacha of Many Tales, Japhet in Search of a Father, Naval and Military Sketches.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 The title \u201a\u00c4\u00faPeter Simple\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 appears to be dominant, giving name to the whole line of works, as apparently it well might do. Who ever heard of this author or of any of his works? But such is fame\u201a\u00c4\u00eeglittering today; tomorrow, where? How many are likely a hundred years hence, to know anything about the flashy, popular authors of this generation, or about any of their productions? A few may survive. But one may possibly be pardoned for hoping\u201a\u00c4\u00eebecause of consideration for the readers of those distant days\u201a\u00c4\u00eethat the number will be small.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I was very amused to read this assessment of Marryat\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s work. Bush is referring to Capt. Frederick Marryat (1792-1848), who composed “A Diary in America with Remarks on its Institutions” in three volumes, published in 1839. For students of life in early 19th-century America, it is an interesting, if somewhat disparaging view of Americans in the 1830s. You can read about Marryat on Wikipedia<\/a>.\u00ac\u2020And you can read volume one which focuses on the eastern seaboard here<\/a>, although it has little to say about New Jersey. Do a search for \u201a\u00c4\u00faJersey\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 and you should get Chapter Six, at the Paterson Falls. Chapter 8 describes how Americans (specifically New Yorkers) celebrated the Fourth of July in the 1830s.<\/p>\n

In the issue of The New Jersey State Gazette dated July 5, 1844, we find an advertisement of \u201a\u00c4\u00faAaron Carman\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s\u00ac\u2020Self-Sharpening Plough,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 with testimonials from farmers. These appear to be all that could be desired by the seller. But the plow had evidently not been tested among such \u201a\u00c4\u00fablue jinglers\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 as hurt my toes in boyhood. On one occasion, which often comes to mind after a lapse of 70 years, the long, sharp nose of the Bowne Plow that I was using, struck a fast jingler and snapped off to the length of scarcely more than an inch. As a matter of discipline in cautious driving, I had to plow about six acres of stony sod ground with that stub of a nose \u201a\u00c4\u00faas you fixed it.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 The punishment was simple, but of no effect because the accident was unavoidable, the stone being a perfect \u201a\u00c4\u00fablind.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 There was no perceptible sharpening, however. I had never heard of that wonderful \u201a\u00c4\u00faself-sharpening plough\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 until now, and am doubtful about its success.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201a\u00c4\u00faBlue Jingler\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 is an old term applied to the argillite stone that is found everywhere on the Croton Plateau. It is a hard, impervious, but very brittle rock, usually blue, but also comes in gray and dull orange. The stuff is a challenge to garden on, but it was probably much worse to plow it on foot with a horse.\u00ac\u2020I was surprised that he wasn\u201a\u00c4\u00f4t using a Deats plow, the very popular farming tool designed and marketed by Hiram Deats. But the internet came through again, providing a copy of the patent (No. 259<\/a>) that Samuel Hartpence and John D. Bowne of Kingwood took out in 1837 for their new plow design.<\/p>\n

Tactics of Old Political Campaigners<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a reminder that proper amenities in Presidential campaigns were not strictly observed in those days, the following may be of interest: \u201a\u00c4\u00faHenry Clay\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 (then a candidate for President) \u201a\u00c4\u00fais a Drunkard and a Profligate. Go ask any Person who has been at Washington while Henry Clay\u00ac\u2020was a Member of Congress, and he will tell you that, night after night, Henry Clay has reeled home to his lodgings, almost dead drunk. Daniel Webster\u00ac\u2020and Henry Clay sat night after night over the brandy bottle, until they both became so intoxicated as not to be able to sit erect, and have wallowed on the floor together like beasts.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 This diatribe was copied from an opposition paper. Of course the copying editor got even as well as he could, summing up as follows: \u201a\u00c4\u00faThis is a specimen of the fiendish personal abuse to which the Loco Focoes\u00ac\u2020are driven in their desperation.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 Of course, we do not do things so bluntly in this \u201a\u00c4\u00faenlightened age.\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 But he who listens to the bitter politicians of any party, and has both the ability and the inclination to measure them and their insidious attacks, will find them appealing to the same ignoble traits in human nature\u201a\u00c4\u00eepassion and prejudice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ever the wise observer, our Mr. Bush. It would be refreshing to have him around today to comment on our political situation.<\/p>\n

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