Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/29

 for he would probably see nothing of the kind in Boston. No one in those days was spoken of as an Irishman, a Frenchman, a Norwegian, or an Italian, but simply as  "a foreigner." Almost every one who wore whiskers wore a pair, one on each side of the face, or a full beard  all around. The mustache, imperial, and goatee are foreign importations. A young Boston dandy who wanted to appear outlandish raised a mustache. When next he visited a country village, a good farmer’s wife  laid her hands carefully on his clothes to see if they  were homespun. Finding that they were not, she asked him if he was a "furriner." He told her that he was no foreigner, but a Boston boy. "What on airth do you wear that bunch of hair on your upper lip for?" inquired the good woman.

In those days we burned whale oil in our lamps, and built fires in good old-fashioned open fireplaces. There were no stoves or coal oil. We made our own matches, and struck fire with flint and steel in the old- fashioned tinder-box. A familiar byword was, "A smoking chimney, a scolding wife, and green wood to  burn." Most men wore leather straps to keep their trousers down, and leather stocks to keep their dickies  up. The women used to wear moccasin hoods and calashes. Almost every man wore boots, up to the time of the Rebellion; now nearly all wear shoes. In the good old days gone by, when people paid their grocery  bills a glass of black strap was given to the old man, a  couple of nutmegs to the old lady, and a stick of peppermint candy was added for the baby.