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THE
COUNTRY STORE—THE WAYSIDE
BLACKSMITH—THE
COUNTRY PEDDLAR—THE
ITINERANT SHOEMAKER—THE
COUNTRY SQUIRE —TRAMPS
THE country
store. was in many respects a
departmental
store on a small scale, for a
well-equipped store contained a little of
everything. On one side were to be seen
shelves well filled with groceries,
crockery-ware, and a
few patent medicines, such as blood purifiers,
painkillers
and liniments; on the other side, a well assorted
stock
of dry goods, including prints, woollens, muslins,
calico,
cottons, etc. At the back, a lot of hardware,
comprising
nails, paints, oils, putty, glass, and garden tools,
as well
as an assortment of boots and shoes—from the tiny
copper-toe to the farmer's big cowhide. In the
hack
room, at the rear end of the store, were to be found barrels of sugar and
New Orleans molasses, crates of eggs,
and tubs of butter and lard. With this
miscellaneous
mixture—tea, coffee, dry goods, codfish, and boots
and
shoes—the odor of the country store was truly a composite one, and trying
to the olfactory organs of the
visitor. The country merchant was usually a man in good circumstances, for
he was obliged in most cases to give a year's credit, the farmers paying
their bills in the fall of the year, after the "threshing" or the
"killing"; their only source of revenue at any other time being from
butter and eggs, which their wives took to the country store, usually once
a week, and exchanged for store goods. Perhaps there was no more popular
place of meeting than the country store. After the day's work was over, it
was customary for many of the men in the neighborhood, especially the
farmers' hired men, who had no other place of amusement to go to, to
gather here. Even if they did not have occasion to buy anything, they
would drop in for a few minutes to while away the time; hare a chat, see
someone they wished, hear politics discussed, and generally learn all the
latest news. The society of the country store had a peculiar fascination
for many of them, for there generally happened to be some one there who
was gifted with the faculty of cracking jokes, telling funny yarns, or
interesting stories; besides it was a comfortable place, especially on the
long winter evenings, when they would gather around the big box stove,
lounge on the counters, sit on the boxes and barrels, puff away at their
pipes, chew tobacco, and chaff one another to their heart's content. I am
sorry to say many of them were as uncouth as their habits, and language
was often used that was neither polite nor edifying; still this can be
said to their credit, they generally managed to show a respectful air if a
lady or clergyman entered. Occasionally there would be heard a loud "whoa
:" at the door; soon after which some big, burly farmer might be seen
entering, with a long riding whip in his hand, pants tucked into his
boots, and long coat reaching to his heels. While he asked for a pound of
tea or a plug of tobacco, some rustic from behind the stove would call
out, "Good morning, Sam! How are the roads up your way?" and sundry other
questions pertaining to the neighborhood.
Usually the post-office was
located in the country store, and this brought a still greater diversity
of people together. They would flock in about the time the mail was
expected to arrive, wait patiently until it was distributed, and then file
out one by one. in the early days, before the temperance movement began,
whiskey being cheap, it was common for country stores, who also sold it,
to keep a barrel of it, with a faucet attached, and a glass for the free
use of customers.
The Wayside Blacksmith.
The wayside blacksmith was a
useful personage in the olden time, his services frequently being called
into requisition, for besides having to shoe the horses and to make the
iron part of the rude farm implements, he made nails for the carpenter's
use, made and repaired the logging chains, made the garden and other
tools, such as hoes, rakes, spades, axes, hammers, etc., and did sundry
other odd jobs for the farmers. Travellers frequently sought him out to
have a lost shoe replaced on their horses or to have breakages to their
vehicles mended. His shop was located at some prominent point, usually the
county crossroads. Here would collect on rainy days the farmers to get
their odd jobs done. Meeting so many people from near and far, he was
usually well posted on the news of the surrounding country and district,
and the farmers knew if they wanted to find out what was going on in the
country roundabout they were pretty likely to find it out in the shop of
this son of Vulcan. On the soot-begrimed walls of his place of business
were posted bills announcing an auction sale, a bailiff's sale, or a
notice of some breechy steer that was lost, strayed or stolen.
The Country Peddlar.
The peddlar, with a pack on his
back, was a frequent visitor to the backwoods settlements in the early
days. His display of goods was the only sight many of the children got of
the stock of a store. Their imagination led them to believe that he was a
very rich man to own such a valuable lot of goods, and really it was
surprising what a vast number of articles he could get into his pack. When
he displayed his goods he would cover the table and chairs around him with
his stock. There were needles and pins, horn combs, hooks and eyes, spools
of thread, buttons, handkerchiefs, ribbons and tapes, as well as a few
toys and picture books. The children would look on this display with
wondering eyes and would beg their good mother to buy something for them.
Usually something was wanted, after which this itinerant merchant would
gather his stock of sundries together and pass on to another house.
The Itinerant Shoemaker.
In the early days the families
were usually large, it being a common thing to find fourteen or fifteen
children in one family. The reader can imagine what it would cost to
clothe such a family according to modern methods. In those early days,
however, people were trained to be economical-.---in fact, they were
obliged to carefully exercise that virtue. To be sure leather was cheaper
then than it is now, and shoes were made to wear longer. To save expense,
it was customary to buy a hide, or get a hide of leather tanned and engage
a shoemaker to come to the house to mend and make up shoes for the entire
family. In fact, there were what might be called itinerant shoemakers, who
made it their business to go round among the people periodically, usually
in the fall of the year, and do this kind of work. Some few of the farmers
tanned their own leather and made their own shoes and those of their
children. Many of them could not afford to provide more than one pair of
shoes in a year for each member of their family. It was customary in the
rural districts for the children to go barefooted from early in the spring
till late in the fall, and occasionally men might be found who did the
same. Amongst the early German settlers one hundred years ago wooden shoes
or clogs were worn more or less. Specimens of these shoes are to be found
now among the people, kept as curiosities.
The Country Squire.
The magistrate, or justice of the
peace, upon whom it devolved to settle disputes among the people in the
country districts was usually called "squire" and was known by that title
for miles around. He was quite an important personage in the community in
the olden time. It was quite a common sight to find the yard in front of
his house filled with people attending a trial. If he found that the case
to be tried was of too serious a nature for him to pass judgment upon, he
would have the case remanded to a higher tribunal. At these rustic
magistrate courts were to be found all sorts and conditions of men. As
might well be surmised, it required considerable judgment and tact to deal
with so many conflicting cases and classes, especially with the foreign
element, many of whom understood the English language very imperfectly. In
the early days the squire was also the conveyancer and the petty lawyer of
the neighborhood. He drew up the wills, deeds, etc., for the people. Many
of them also went to him to be married, when a minister authorized to
marry did not live convenient in the neighborhood. For many years the
magistrates of the district met every three months at the "quarter
sessions," and with one of their number as chairman performed the judicial
work of the district. At the quarter sessions they granted the privilege
of marrying, kept the peace of the district and sometimes even had a jury
for trying cases.
Tramps.
The modern nuisance, the
professional tramp, said to be the outcome of the American civil war,
presumably by the soldiers thrown out of employment looking for work, and
the hard times succeeding, was unknown in the early days of settlement.
There was then work enough for all. and therefore no necessity for going
far from home to obtain it. There were very few beggars and consequently
no need for county poor houses; the people who were sometimes compelled to
beg being cripples and old people of both sexes, who had no homes and were
unable to work. There were very few of these, and they were nearly always
strangers. Occasionally men with sticks over their backs and bundles on
the end, might be seen going along the road, but they were usually people
on a journey (for many people travelled on foot in those days, there being
no railways and few public conveyances), or perhaps they might be
foreigners recently landed in the country looking for work among the
farmers. During haying and harvest time men from the new settlements could
be seen going by on foot to the older settled parts of the province to
work, and in that way earn money to maintain their families until they
could raise sufficient on their own uncleared farms to keep them.
Occasionally there might be found persons who made their living by
begging. It is said there was a man in Waterloo county years ago who
begged enough to buy a farm. The people in the early days, being more
hospitable and unsuspecting, may have been more easily imposed upon than
the people are now, for if a stranger came to their houses in the evening
lie was given a night's lodging and breakfast, for which they would not
think of taking money, even if the guest were able to pay. To be sure
there were not the vagabonds in the shape of tinkers and umbrella menders
then as now.
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