"THE GOOD OLD DAYS."

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12634, 23 October 1905, Page 2

"THE GOOD OLD DAYS."

There is a good deal that is interesting in the " Daily Chronicle's" extensive correspondence on the subject of the decay of home life, 'but nothing more co than the letter of an old man who has risen from being an agricultural la'bourcir to better ■things. Of course this correspondence is full of piteous wails about the degeneration of this age as compared with the " good old days." This correspondent shows what the home of tho agricultural labourer was like in the "' good old days" of last century. When he was a boy he got up at halfpast four, walked three miles to work, breakfasted at six on bread and butter and an onion, worked till twelve, had lunch on -more bread and butter and another onion, worked till half-past hVe, walked home tired out, and had a supper of hot potatoes and turnips. Sometimes he was so tired that he fell asleep directly he sat down to cupper. For six days in the week home-life meant eating and sleeping, and nothing else. On Sunday the family donned tiieir best (often the left-off clothes of some kind farmer), and went to church. "We were forbidden to look to the right of us or to the left of us, or to the rear of us—'©yes front' was the watchword. When <we met the farmer, the squire, or the parson, the boys had to take off their 'hats and almost creep into the bank, hedge, or ditch, to give way for the great one to pass, whereas the girls 'had to bend themselves in half in inakdng their lowjly obeisance." They came home to a dinner of potatoes, turnips, ■and bread (there was no meat exo&pt on rare occasions). The young folks went to Sunday school after dinner, or to play if they weire lucky; had an evening meal of bread and butter, and very weak tea, read the Bible aloud for a time 'by the light of a candle, and ■went off <to bed at half-past six, to begin another week "of real family life" on /the Monday morning. His father, with seven children to keep 'before they were able to earn anything, got at most 10s a week, nearly all of which went in bread. The seven children all slept in one room. The writer himself started work at the age of five at a wage of 3d a day, but by his desire fm* education and his energy placed himself in an infinitely better position than his father occupied. " Home life! What, Mr Editor, could, home left be with such conditions t<o live in? Home life was simply a" hell-upon-earth, and your pessimistic correspondents deplore the decay of home life, and want us to go ■back to tihe good old times." He declares that this own ihiotme is as happy as possible, and his healthy optimism is quite refreshing to come across.