Volume Ii Part 19 (2/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Large paper bill.]
New Hamps.h.i.+re Bill of Forty s.h.i.+llings in 1742.
To counteract this and other vices, which were justly viewed as largely the results of ignorance, philanthropic people were at this period establis.h.i.+ng Sunday-schools, following the example of Robert Raikes, who began the movement at Gloucester, England, in 1781. They had been already introduced in New England, but were now making their way in Philadelphia and elsewhere. The first Methodist bishop, Asbury, zealously furthered them. They had, to begin with, no distinctive religious character, and churches even looked upon them with disfavor; but their numbers increased and their value became more apparent until the inst.i.tution was adopted by all denominations.
Before 1800 the new United States coinage, with nearly the same pieces as now, had begun to circulate, but had had little success at that date in driving out the old foreign coins of colonial times. Especially were there still seen Spanish dollars, halves, quarters, fifths or pistareens, and eighths--the last being the Spanish ”real,” ”ryall,” or ”royall,” worth twelve and a half cents--and sixteenths or half-reals, worth six and one-quarter cents each. Many of these pieces were sadly worn, pa.s.sing at their face value only when the legend could be made out. Sometimes they were heated to aid in this. Many were so worn that a pistareen would bring only a Yankee s.h.i.+lling, sixteen and two-thirds cents; the half-pistareen, only eight cents; the real, ten; the half-real, five.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Square coin.]
Ma.s.sachusetts Twopence of 1722.
The denominations of the colonial money of account were also still in daily use, and, indeed, might be heard so late as the Civil War. The ”real,” twelve and one-half cents, was in New York a s.h.i.+lling, being one-twentieth of the pound once prevalent in the New York colony. In New England it was a ”nine-pence,” const.i.tuting nearly nine-twelfths, or nine of the twelve pence of an old New England s.h.i.+lling of sixteen and two-thirds cents. Twenty such s.h.i.+llings had been required for the New England pound, which was so much more valuable than the pound of the New York colony. But neither one or any colonial pound was the equivalent of the pound sterling.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin.]
Pine Tree Twopence.
”IN MASATHVSET” ”NEW ENGLAND” ”1662”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin.]
Pine Tree Threepence.
”MASATHVSET” ”NEW ENGLAND” ”1652” ”III”
In the middle colonies, including Pennsylvania, the pound had possessed still a different value, the Spanish dollar, in which the Continental Congress kept its accounts, there equalling ninety pence. This is why those accounts stand in dollars and ninetieths, a notation so puzzling to many. A ”real” would here be about one-eleventh of ninety pence, hence called the ”eleven-penny-piece,” shortened into ”levy.” Dividing a levy by two would give five (and a fraction); hence the term ”five-penny-piece,” ”fippenny,” or ”fip,” for the half-real or six and one-quarter cent piece. There are doubtless yet people in Virginia and Maryland who never say ”twenty-five cents,” but instead, ”two levies and a fip.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin.]
Pine Tree Sixpence.
”IN MASATHVSET” ”ANO NEW ENGLAND” ”1652” ”VI”
General intelligence had improved, partly from the greater number, better quality, and quicker and fuller distribution of newspapers.
Correspondents were numerous. Intelligent persons visiting at a distance from home were wont to write long letters to their local newspapers, containing all the items of interest which they could sc.r.a.pe together.
Papers sprung up at every considerable hamlet. Even the Ohio Valley did not lack. Perhaps four and a half million copies a year were issued in the whole country by 1800. They were admitted now--not so, however, under the original postal law--as a regular part of the mails, and thus found their way to nearly all homes. The news which they brought was often old news, of course, post riders requiring twenty-nine and one-half hours between Philadelphia and either New York or Baltimore; but they were read with none the less avidity. Its first mail reached Buffalo in 1803, on horseback. Mail went thither bi-weekly till 1806, then weekly. Postal rates were high, ranging for letters from six cents for thirty miles to twenty-five for four hundred and fifty miles or over. So late as 1796 New York City received mails from North and from South, and sent mails in both directions, only twice weekly between November 1st and May 1st, and but thrice weekly the rest of the year. In 1794 the great cities enjoyed carriers, who got two cents for each letter delivered. In 1785 there were two dailies, The Pennsylvania Packet and The New York Advertiser, but, as yet, no Sunday paper appeared, nor any scientific, religious, or ill.u.s.trated journal, nor any devoted to literature or trade. The New York Medical Repository began in 1797, the first scientific periodical in America. In 1801 seventeen dailies existed. Paper was scarce and high, so that appeals were published in most of the news sheets imploring people to save their rags.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Coin.]
Pine Tree s.h.i.+lling.
”IN MASATHVSET” ”ANO NEW ENGLAND” ”1652” ”XII”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Two part mosaic; above, postman on a horse; below, a moving train grabbing a mailpouch from a post.]
Postal Progress, 1776-1876.
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