Part 3

As to my Diet, having been taught to eat of any thing that was provided for me, and having always a good Appetite, I am never anxious about my food, and I do not recollect any thing, that is commonly eaten, that does not agree with my Stomach, except fresh roasted Pork, which tho' very agreeable to my Palate, almost always disagrees with me; for which however I have a remedy, in the Spirit of Sal Amoniac. Eight or Ten drops of Aqua Ammonia pura in a wine glass of Water, gives me relief after Pork, and indeed after anything else which offends my stomach. As to the Quantity, I am no great Eater, and I find my appetite sooner satisfied now than formerly;--there is one peculiarity in my Diet which as it may perhaps have contributed to Health I would mention; I am fond of Fruit, and have this 30 or more years daily indulged in eating freely of those of the Season, as Strawberries, Currants, Peaches, Plums, Apples, &c., which in summer and winter I eat just before Dinner, and seldom at any other time, and indeed very seldom eat any thing whatever between meals.--My Breakfast I vary continually. Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, with toasted bread and butter, Milk with Bread toasted in hot weather, but never any meat in my Life--seldom the same Breakfast more than 2 or 3 days running. Bread of Flour makes a large portion of my Food, perhaps near 1-2. After Dinner I most commonly drink one glass of Wine--plain boiled rice I am fond of--it makes nearly 1-2 of my Dinner perhaps as often as every other Day--I rarely eat Pickles or any high seasoned Food--Vegetable food of one kind or other makes commonly 2-3 or 3-4 of my nourishment--the condiments I use are chiefly Mustard, Horse radish and Onions. As to Drinks, I seldom take any but at meal times and with my Pipe--in younger Life my most common draft was Cider, seldom Wine, seldom or never Beer or Ale or distilled Spirits--But for the last 40 or 50 years, my most usual drink has been a Mixture, a little singular indeed, but as for me it is still palateable and agreeable, I still prefer it--The Mixture is this, viz. Good West India Rum 2 Spoonfuls, Good Cider whether new or old 3 Spoonfuls, of Water 9 or 10 Spoonfuls--of this Mixture (which I suppose to be about the strength of common Cider) I drink about 1-2 a Pint with my Dinner and about the same Quantity with my Pipe after Dinner and my Pipe in the Evening, never exceeding a Pint the whole Day; and I desire nothing else except one glass of Wine immediately after Dinner the whole day. I generally take one Pipe after Dinner and another in the Evening, and hold a small piece of pigtail Tobacco in my mouth from Breakfast till near Dinner, and again in the Afternoon till tea; this has been my practice for 80 years--I use no Snuff--I drink tea about sunset and eat with it a small slice of Bread toasted with Butter--I never eat any thing more till Breakfast.

I have not often had any complaint from indigestion, but when I have, abstinence from Breakfast or Dinner, or both, has usually removed it; indeed I have several times thrown off serious Complaints by Abstinence.--As to Clothing, it is what my Friends call thin; I never wear Flannel next my Skin tho' often advised to it, and am less liable to take cold, as it is called, than most people--a good warm double breasted Waist-Coat and a Cloth coat answers me for winter, and as the season grows warmer I gradually conform my Covering to it. As to the Passions, Sir, I need not tell you that when indulged, they injure the Health; that a calm, quiet self-possession, and a moderation in our Expectations and Pursuits, contribute much to our Health, as well as our happiness, and that Anxiety is injurious to both.

I had a good Set of Teeth, but they failed me gradually, without Pain, so that by 80 I lost them all.

Thus, Sir, you have, blundering and imperfect as it is, an answer to your Requests, with my best wishes that it may be of any service to the Purpose for which it was made--But must rely upon it that Nothing I have written be made public in my Name.[B] Wishing you long Life and many happy Days,

I am Yours, &c. E.A. HOLYOKE.

P.S. I forgot to speak of my repose. When I began the practice of Physick, I was so often call'd up soon after retiring to Rest, that I found it most convenient to sit to a late Hour, and thus acquired a Habit of sitting up late, which necessarily occasioned my lying in bed to a late Hour in the Morning--till 7 o'cl'k in Summer and 8 in Winter. My Business was fatiguing and called for ample repose, and I have always taken care to have a full proportion of Sleep, which I suppose has contributed to my longevity.

_Recollections & Memorandums of Past Events._

The first thing that I entirely remember was the funeral of Aunt Oulton, which was on July 18, 1732.

The first Aurora Borealis I ever saw, the Northern or rather Northeast Sky appeared suffused by a dark blood-red colored vapour, without any variety of different colored rays. I have never since seen the like. This was about the year 1734. Northern lights were then a novelty, and excited great wonder and terror among the vulgar.

In 1737, Square Toed Shoes were going out of fashion; I believe few or none were worn after 1737. Buckles instead of Shoe Strings began to be used about the same time, but were not universal in the country towns till 1740 or 1742. Very broad brim'd Hats were worn as early as I remember. My father had a beaver whose Brims were at least 7 inches; which when he left off, I remember I used to wear in the Garden, or in a shower, by way of Umbrella. They were all cock'd triangularly. And pulling them off by way of salutation was invariably the Fashion by all who had any Breeding.

Boots were never worn except on horseback, or snowy or rainy weather. They frequently had large broad Tops that reach'd full half way up the Thigh. But Boots did not come into general use till the close of the revolutionary war.

Funerals were extravagantly expensive. Gold Rings to each of the Bearers, the Minister, the Physician, &c., were frequently given when the family could but ill afford it. White gloves in abundance, burnt wine to the company, &c., &c. This extravagance occasioned the enacting sumptuary laws, which though they check'd did not entirely suppress the complaints till the commencement of the revolutionary war.

In 1749, it was reported the train band list of the town of Marblehead was equal to that of the town of Salem. The difference is now very great. I suppose Salem has at least twice the number of Marblehead.

[1749.][C] The Houses (in Salem) were generally very ordinary. The first handsome house was built by Mr. Jno. Turner, then Col. Pickman, then Mr. J. Cabot, &c.

There was but one ropewalk, and that was on the neck, inside the gate. But one tavern of any note, and that was an old house at the corner now occupied by Stearns' brick store. The Houses for public worship were only the old (first) church--the eastern parish--the secession from the first church--the Friends' meeting house, and the Episcopal church.

The number of Inhabitants was estimated at between 5 and 6000.

The Commerce of this town was chiefly with Spain and Portugal and the West Indies, especially with St. Eustatia. The Cod fishery was carried on with success and advantage. The Schooners were employed on the fishing banks in the summer, and in the autumn were laden with Fish, Rum, Molasses, and the produce of the country, and sent to Virginia and Maryland, and there spent the winter retailing their cargoes, and in return brought Corn and Wheat and Tobacco. This Virginia voyage was seldom very profitable, but as it served to keep the crews together, it was continued till more advantageous employment offered.

There were a few Chaises kept by gentlemen for their own use, but it was no easy matter to hire one to go a journey.

_Salem Observer._

[A] This seems to have been a slip of the pen; the following is his own calculation, made in 1823, and which from his great degree of exaggeration falls short of half the actual amount. "If from my age of 20 to 80 years I have walked 5 miles a day, which is a moderate calculation, I must have gone in that 60 years,

109,500 miles. And in the first 20 & last 15 years, 38,325

In 95 years probably, Total, 147,825

[B] This prohibition could only have regard to the period of his life time and was occasioned by that extreme modesty which always rendered it painful to the Doctor to be held up to the public notice.

[C] These remarks refer to the period of Dr. Holyoke's residence in Salem, preceding the revolution.

Dr. Holyoke during his whole life, it is said, was never fifty miles distant from the spot where he was born. He was the first person to receive the degree of M.D. from Harvard College; was the first president of the Massachusetts Medical Society; and he made in the course of his life three hundred and twenty-four thousand professional visits.

ANTIQUITY OF NURSERY RHYMES.--Many of these productions have a very curious history, if it could only be traced. Some of them probably owe their origin to names distinguished in our literature; as Oliver Goldsmith, for instance, is believed in his earlier days to have written such compositions. Dr. E.F. Rimbault gives us the following particulars as to some well-known favorites: "Sing a Song of Sixpence," is as old as the sixteenth century. "Three Blind Mice" is found in a music-book dated 1609. "The Frog and the Mouse" was licensed in 1580. "Three Children Sliding on the Ice" dates from 1633. "London Bridge is Broken Down" is of unfathomed antiquity. "Girls and Boys come out to play" is certainly old as the reign of Charles II.; as is also "Lucy Locket lost her Pocket," to the tune of which the American song of "Yankee Doodle" was written. "Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, where have you been?" is of the age of Queen Bess. "Little Jack Horner" is older than the seventeenth century. "The Old Woman Tossed in a Blanket" is of the reign of James II., to which monarch it is supposed to allude.

_Salem Gazette._

* * * * *

Some British opinions of Benedict Arnold.

"The good whigs of America," says a late paper, "may be assured, that the infamous BENEDICT ARNOLD'S mansion is the very next to TYBURN,--a well chosen habitation for such an abandoned traitor: A step or two conveys him to that fatal spot, where the most guilty of all the miserable beings who have ever suffered, was perfectly innocent compared with him.--He lives despised by the nobility and gentry, and execrated by the people at large--countenanced by none excepting their Britannic and Satanic Majesties, and such of their adherents, respectively, who are looking for promotion under their royal masters."

By a gentleman from the southward we learn that it is expected Congress will fix their permanent residence at Philadelphia.

_Salem Gazette,_ Feb. 26, 1784.

* * * * *

NEW-YORK, November 16.

By very recent accounts from St. John, Nova-Scotia, we are informed that _Benedict Arnold_, having attempted to JOCKY some of the inhabitants out of their property, but being detected, and the people being much exasperated, offered to deliver him up to the Americans for ten dollars; but alas! before the bargain was firmly agreed on, he made his escape to Halifax, and there got protection from the populace.

We are informed that Benedict Arnold lately sailed from New-Brunswick for London. It is said that his residence in America, even among the provincial Loyalists, was rather uncomfortable; he therefore wisely preferred being enveloped in the atmosphere of London to residing on a continent which had been the theatre of his traitorous acts, and consequently the occasion of more frequent reflections on the infamy of his crimes.

_Massachusetts Gazette,_ November, 1786.

* * * * *

Receipt for apple-pudding, in 1788, with the apple and the pudding left out.

_For the_ HERALD _of_ FREEDOM.

HOW TO MAKE AN APPLE PUDDING.

_Being a curious, elaborate and sublime_ DISSERTATION, _never before published._

By _YANKEE DOODLE, Esquire._

(_In Continuation._)

CHAPTER.--HOW AND ABOUT NAMES.

_Nugæque canoræ._ Hor.

I LOOK upon it as the greatest happiness of my life, that fortune has given me _a name_ that corresponds with my nature and constitution. Patriotism is the strongest passion; and I glory in being a _Yankee_.--A _Yankee_ is any man born in New-England--and New-England contains the three northern States, and a certain _little, pestiferous, pseudo Island_. My countrymen generally have the credit of being a good-natured, psalm-singing, religious kind of men, very honest, but plaguy hard in their dealings--insomuch that a _Carolinian_ or a _Georgian_ frequently swear that the very _Satan_ himself could never get to windward of them.

This puts me in mind of a story.--A certain Boston sea Captain, of a sloop of 60 tons burthen, coming with a cargo of New-England rum, shoes, cheese, potatoes, and other valuable commodities, into _Broadway_, which you must know is a very _narrow_ passage in the _Appomatax_, a branch of _James River_ in _Virginia_.--Before I proceed I must acquaint the serious reader--and who is there but must be serious in reading the solemn truths I am about to declare--that every _iota_ of what I shall delineate in in these sacred depositories of facts, is TRUTH.----I am now about to elucidate the psalm-singing, religious character of _Yankees_, by a TRUE STORY, _never before published_.----When our Boston sea Captain, therefore, came into Broadway, a Virginian comes a-board of him--and as he goes down into the cabbin, had to stoop a little, because the cabbin was low--for, as I said before, the sloop was 60 tons, although our religious sea-captain _entered_ but 40 tons at the Naval-Office: Howsomever he had a reserve of conscience, for the Naval-Officer charged him for _light money_, when there was not one light-house in all the ancient dominion.--But this is nothing to my story.

_N.B._ I mean to give the good-natured reader a whole chapter on _the art of_ STORY-TELLING.

Well, as I was saying, the Virginian being obliged to stoop--the _stooping_ caused his head to be bowed down; and looking down, he saw a _book_ lying upon the starboard locker.--Well, says he, and what the d----l--but I think it expedient to omit the _Virginian_ oath; for this man, not being a moral man, swore consumedly, and did not know a _bible_ by sight, but only by _hearsay_.--And Captain, cried the _Virginian_, will you sell this bible of yours: I hear it's a mighty clever book for children.--And why not for grown people? cried the Captain, taking up the _book_. Why, quoth the _Virginian_, because I mean my three boys, who are from 11 to 14 years old, shall be good _scholards at their larning_--they can all say their letters already, and the youngest can spell.--The Boston sea Captain opening the bible found these words: "_Search the scriptures_;" and without saying any thing himself, pointed out the passage to the _Virginian_.--Pugh! said the _Virginian_, and walked upon deck.--Now, to explain this mystery, you must know the Yankee sea Captain shewed him the passage to denote that he would sooner sell his soul to the d----l, than his bible to a _Virginian_;--and the _Virginian_ said pugh! and walked upon deck, because he could not read.

* * * * *

LONGEVITY. Since we published the examples of longevity, collected by the editor of the Medical Adviser, we have seen another list, which is _supposed_ to comprise all, which can be found from the year 66 to 1799. The number of those who lived from _one hundred_ and _seventy_ to _one hundred_ and _eighty-five_ years is 3; from _one hundred_ and _sixty_ to _one hundred_ and _seventy_, 2; from _one hundred_ and _fifty_ to _one hundred_ and _sixty_, 3; from _one hundred_ and _forty_ to _one hundred_ and _fifty_, 7; from _one hundred_ and _thirty_ to _one hundred_ and _forty_, 26; from _one hundred_ and _twenty_ to _one hundred_ and _thirty_, 84; from _one hundred_ and _ten_ to _one hundred_ and _twenty_, 277; from _one hundred_ to _one hundred_ and _ten_, 1310. Total of those who survived a century, _Seventeen hundred and twelve_.----This writer could not have included in his list the examples of longevity which Russia furnished, for we frequently find in the bills of mortality of this country for a single year, twice the number of centenarians. We have before us the table of deaths for 1813, which gives the following remarkable ages. One 165;--three 135;--one 130;--fifteen 125;--thirty-three from 115 to 120;--fifty-three from 110 to 115;--one hundred and twenty-seven from 100 to 105;--fourteen hundred from 95 to 100;--two thousand eight hundred and forty-nine from 90 to 95;--four thousand four hundred and fifty-one from 85 to 90. Whole number of deaths 971,338.

_Salem Observer,_ Oct. 29, 1825.

* * * * *

Boston shop-signs in 1789.

To read the signs in this town is a delicate, sentimental repast.--I hope _Bostonians_ will never complain of want of amusement, while there is one sign standing. If I had time, I would certainly consult _Milton_, to see how he has _arranged_ matters in his description of _chaos_.--I doubt not I could there get a _hint_ for two whole chapters. I had as lief take a walk through Cornhill, as to go to the new-invented moral lectures.

_Herald of Freedom._

* * * * *

A CURIOUS WOMAN.

We have often heard it said that men are curious, and we can well believe it; but now we find it recorded that there has been at least _one_ curious woman. Read the following extract from the "Salem Gazette" of 1795:--

Married at Andover, Mr. Aaron Osgood to the _curious_ Miss Ester Wardwell.

* * * * *

"AWFULLY GOOD."

In our opinion the oft-repeated words "awfully good," "jolly fine," and similar expressions, which sound so "charmingly sweet" from the lips of interesting young ladies, are quite cast into the shade by language used in the following extract from the Portsmouth, N.H., "Oracle of the Day," Nov. 24, 1798:--

MARRIED]--In this town, on Sunday evening last, by the Rev. Dr. Haven, MARK SIMES, Esq. Deputy Post-Master, &c. to the elegantly pretty and amiably delicate Miss MARY-ANN BLUNT, youngest daughter of the late Capt. John Blunt, of Little-Harbour.

_Genius of Hymen; Power of fondest Love! In showers of bliss descend from worlds above,_ _On_ Beauty's _rose, and_ Virtue's _manlier form,_ _And shield, ah! shield them both, from time's tempestuous storm_!

* * * * *

A FEW years since, a young gentleman at the University in _Cambridge_ asked of a Collegian the loan of his _W_irgil. The inelegant pronunciation of the word _Virgil_ was burlesqued by the young Collegian in the following story, with which his invention readily supplied him:--_Lately_ (says he) _I set out on a woyage to Wersailles, with one Captain Winal, in a British wessel called the Wiper; but we soon met with a wiolent storm, which drove us into a port in Wirginia; where one Capt. Waughn, a wery wicious man, inwited us aboard his wessel, and gave us some weal and wenison, with some winegar, which made me wery sick; so I did womit like wengeance;_ (and added, reaching out the book) _You may have my Wirgil, and welcome_. This humor had the desired effect; the young gentleman saw the absurdity of doing such w_iolence_ to the letter V, and has ever since spoke like other people.

_Salem Gazette,_ April 26, 1791.

* * * * *

What Mr. Welby, an English gentleman, saw when he was in the United States in 1821. A very flattering picture of the West.

More Travellers' Stories.

_From the National Gazette._

A new book of Travels in America has been recently issued in London which rivals the volumes of our old friends Weld, Ashe, Fearon, &c. It is entitled "A Visit to North America and the English Settlements in Illinois, with a winter residence in Philadelphia; solely to ascertain the actual prosperity of the Emigrating Agriculturist, Mechanic, and Commercial Speculator"--by Adlard Welby, _Esquire_, of South Rauceby, Lincolnshire. This esquire has said enough, should he be believed, to settle ultimately the point of the truth or falsehood of Godwin's notable doctrine, that we owe the increase of our numbers chiefly to emigration. No sane European would venture among us after having read Mr. Welby's book. He discovered that, in Philadelphia, living was _very dear_, comfort _very uncommon_, and good manners still more rare. Throughout his journey he found in the taverns "a system of impertinence, rudeness, rascality, and filth, rendered more intolerable by an antipathy to the English, in the brutal manifestation of which most of the Colonel, Doctor, and Squire, keepers of the taverns, were pleased to indulge." When he asked an hostler to call him early in the morning, he was answered that--he might call himself and be d----d. In the Western country he found no symptoms of hospitality--witnessed only idleness and licentiousness, and experienced every where brutal rudeness and unbounded extortion. The western people usually combine in cheating all travellers, and sometimes "_rifle_," that is _shoot_ residents among them who do not choose to descend to their own level. In Illinois "a party proposed to each other _coolly_ to go and shoot neighbour *****, who had behaved ill to them sundry times; it was agreed upon; they went to his field, found the old man at plough, and, with unerring aim, laid him dead." And Mr. Welby adds that the country would be desirable to live in, did not the folks _shoot_ each other thus, and were they not half savages. The _shooting_ case reminds us of a traveller's story which we heard at a dinner table abroad. A gentleman and esquire of strict veracity, like Mr. Welby, related, in order to shew how common was the calamity of the _coup de soleil_, or stroke of the sun, in the Island of JAVA, that sitting once in the house of an opulent merchant of Batavia, drinking a _cool_ glass of Madeira after dinner, with the merchant's wife in the room, the lady was, in the twinkling of an eye, _reduced to a heap of ashes_ by a _coup de soleil_; when the husband observed to his guest, "don't be alarmed--we are accustomed to this;" then rang the bell with great composure, and on the appearance of the servant, _coolly_ said--"Boy--sweep your mistress out, and _bring us clean glasses._"