Town and Country mm
S lite 2000 Tears Ago |4 ikS^P^
' I'j
FOR THE LOSS OF' «
Two PiCiS
1 was the same old life, in many
ways, that we live to-day.
"I sec great changes going on iviry
day of me life, but I see no change iviry i
fifty years."
Right you are, Mr. Doolev, and you
could have added in all truthfulness that,
in many basic respects, 'twas the same
old life in city, town, village and coun
try two thousand years ago as is lived
to-day right here in new America.
Of course, there was no iron horse
thundering over the earth two thousand
years ago. Travelers by foot and horse
had not yet been scared half out of their
wits by the tooting automobile. A
red schoolhouse did not sit in
valley. The convenience of rural free
delivery was still to he invented; so, also,
the reaper, tire telephone, the threshing
machine, the telegraph. But "man's a
man for a' that," has been from the be
ginning, will doubtless be so to the end,
and hence, just as the life we live is
similar in many ways to that of two
thousand years ago, so it will bear num
erous striking resemblances to the life
led by our descendants in 3906 A. D.
Cunieform writings, which have been
recovered from ancient Babylon and
other long-buried cities, prove beyond
the shadow of doubt the similarity be
tween city life of to-day and of yester
!ny. Papyri and other personal and
public documents recently recovered
from Egyptian sand, in and about the
site of ancient Oxyrhynchus, a Grseco-
Roman colony, one hundred and forty
miles south of Cairo, that had long been
in a flourishing condition when Joseph
lied with Mary and the child Jesus into
Egypt, furnish equally indisputable
proofs of similarities of town and coun
try life then and now.
There are the private letters of Lucius
Bellenus Gemellus, for example.
Gemellus, it seems, after he was hon
orably discharged from his legion—
Egypt was then under Roman rule—took
to farming for a livelihood. But, like
many men of to-day, he made his home
in town, whence he ran his various
farms by written instructions and per
sonal visits.
"I blame you greatly for the loss of
two pigs owing to the fatigue of the
journey, when you had ten animals fit
for work," he wrote in Greek, which was
the vernacular of the colony, to a
nephew, evidently in direct charge of one
of the farms. "Ileraclides, the donkey
driver, shifted the blame from himself,
savii;:; that you had told him to drive the
pigs on foot."
Poor nephew, by name Epagathus! He
doubtless felt very badly on receipt of
that letter, but had he nut so instructed
the Egyptian donkey driver with the
Greek name the world of to-day would
probably be ignorant of the fact that
pigs were carried, as well as driven to
market, two thousand years ago.
In another letter to Epagathus, Gemel
lus voices his irritation over the slow
ness with which the farm work is pro
gressing:
"Please carry forward the digging of
the olive yards and their plowing up
and hoeing, and plow up and hoe the
fallows, and urge the driver to do his
proper work every day. Ip to to-day
you have not harvested the field at Ap
iiN but have neglected it, and so far
have only harvested half. \V herefore, 1
blame you."
The trick of thinning out an orchard
or a piece of woodland was well under
stood.
"You will oblige me," writes Gemel
lus, "by sending Pindarus to me at the
town; for Hermonax has asked me to
let him take him to Kerkesucha to look
to his olive yard (orchard), as it is over
grown ; and he wishes to cut down some
trees so that those which are to be cut
down may be cut skilfully."
"Morning," says Farmer Smith to his
neighbor Jones; "1 wonder if you'd let
John come over and give me a lift on
"PICTORIAL.COLOR AND MAGAZINE SECTION"
The Cameron County Press.
KMI'OHH M, PA., SEPTEMIIEK 6, , 9 „6.
the load of wheat I want to take to town
to-day."
Gemellus was a great believer in ma
nure as a fertilizer. In one letter he
admonished his nephew to keep
to the manure heap, and in another he
gives these directions:
'"Send the animals to carry manure at
the vegetable ground (truck garden) at
Psinaclis, and the manure carts, for Pa
sis is crying out that we must not allow
it to be dissolved bv the water; and let
them fetch his hay.'"
11K. t one had to watch sharp to keep
from being "stuck" in a deal, still an
other of Gemellus' epistolary efforts
make plain:
"Aunes, the donkey driver, has
bought a rotten bundle of hay at IJ
drachma;, a little bundle and rotten hay,
the whole of it decayed—no better than
dung."
Gemellus had a married daughter, Ge
mclla. She had a son whom the grand
father affectionately termed "the little
one." He took great pleasure in plan
ning a birthday party for the child and
another for his daughter, ordering fowl,
suckling pigs, olives, and other delicacies
to be sent in from his farms, lie had a
sharp tongue and did not hesitate to use
it when he felt inclined. "Don't tall;
nonsense about the threshing," and
"what you write me about not neglecting
the building, you have said more than
enough," he wrote his son, in charge oi
a farm. Fortunately, however, for his
twentieth century reputation, his softer
side is revealed in his birthday party
plans, his observance of religious festi
vals, and his taking "the little one" to
the city for a few days of wondrous
sight-seeing.
Several of the papyri show that it was
the common practice for one farmer to
loan seed to another less fortunate than
he.
"I, Petheus, son of Patron, acknowl
edge the direct receipt from Acusilaus,
on of Th eon, of two and a half art abac
s
of vegetable seed, new, pure, and una
dulterated, and of six and a half artabie
of barley; and 1 will repay the whole
;:i the month of Pauni of the present
hirtyui 'lith year of Csesar at Pelusium,
measured with a quarter measure. Am!
if 1 do not repay I will forfeit for each
artaba of vegetable seed ten artabre, and
for the barley "
The rest of the receipt (or is it a
promissory note?) is missing; nor is it
known whether or not Petheus, son of
Patron, was able to repay the loan r.t the
nd of the stipulated four months and
.liiw escaped the heavy penalty named
for failure so to do.
Once in awhile there was an owner
of a farm who had no difficulty in keep
ing the same tenant year in and year
out:
"Didyntt, also called Matrona, daugh
ter of Asclepiades, to Heron, son of Sa
tabous, cultivator, greeting. I have re
ceived from you the rent for the twenty
second year of tny plot which you cul
tivate, two and a quarter artabre, the
tax of an artnba and the naubion being
jryn.ble by you, Heron."
Perhaps the town drunkard has ex
isted ever since there was a town and
intoxicants. At any rate, he was a
staple character around Oxyrhynohus
two thousand years ago, and his favorite
method of getting money wherewith to
secure the one thing his heart craved
for most was to clip coins. Here is the
letter of one town drunkard to a crony
in his cups:
"Endasmon to Longinus, greeting: I
entreat you, sir, to hasten to me and
bring, if you please, the crystal (instru
ment) and we can clip the cash. If you
will, you will be able to strain me some
good Mareotic wine, when you coine,
with the proceeds.''
In all probability the letter was writ
ten in some grog shop of the day.
The highway robber also plied his
trade whenever he got a chance:
"To Megalonymus, strategus (inspec
tor) of the divisions of Themistes and
Polemo iu the Arsinoite nome (district),
from Pasion, son of Heraclides, and
Onesimus, son of Ammonius, both pig
merchants of the metropolis. Yesterday,
as we were returning from the village
of Theadelphia, about dawn we have
attacked halfway between Polydencia
and Theadelphia by robbers, who bound
us and assaulted us with many blows,
and wounded Pasion, and robbed us of
a pig and carried off Pasion's tunic.
Wherefore, we entreat you to register
it, in order that when the culprits are
discovered we may bring charges against
them on these counts."
Is it your impression that the guaran
tee is a modern business device? Then
Ist it be corrected at once!
"Mystharion, son of Heron, aged
about forty years, having a scar on the
little finger of the left hand, agrees that
he has sold to Satabous, son of Pekusis,
aged about thirty years, having a scar
on the little finger of the left hand, a
female mouse-colored donkey, shedding
its first teeth, just as it is irrevocably,
and that Mystharion has received from
Satabous the price agreed upon between
them, fifty-six drachmas of silver, di
rectly from hand to hand out of his
house, and that he will guarantee the
sale with every guarantee."
Would not any man of to-day, simi
larly situated as Pisais was two thou
sand years ago, pen a letter after the
fashion of this one, which he evidently
sent to a resident of a neighboring town:
"Pisais to Heracleus, greeting: When
ever you from necessity want to borrow
anything from me, I at once give it to
you: and now please give to Cleon the
three staters which Seleucus told you
to give me, even if you have to pawn
your cloak; for I have settled accounts
with his father, but he has allowed me
to remain in arrears, and now I want
to get a receipt. Seleucus has evaded
paying the money by saying that you
have made an arrangement with him to
pay instead. Now, therefore, please
consider that you are lending the money
to me, and don't keep Cleon waiting, but
go and meet him. On no account fail
to do this."
Here is a townsman's invitation to a
friend that reads, except for the proper
names and the word centurion, as if it
were written to-day:
"Isidorus invites you to dine with him
on the occasion of his daughter's wed
ding, at the house of Titus the centur
ion, at nine o'clock."
The form of making a business pro
posal by letter has changed scarcely at
all, except as regards the style of ad
dress and greeting.
"To Achilles, also called Sarapammon,
through his guardian Sarapion, from
Apollonius, son of Apollinous, son of
Soterichus, from the Goose-farm quarter.
I wish to lease from you for four years,
from the thirtieth of the present morth
Mesore, of the oil presses owned by you
at the village of Dionysias, one oil press
in the Harpocration quarter, fitted with
a wheel and containing two machines
rind a cauldroc, with all the appertain
ing upper rooms, and I will pay each
year in all one metretes six choes of
strained olive oil, and likewise one me
trites six choes of raphanous oil, pro
viding every year at the harvest six coty
lre of ranhanous oil," etc., after the pres
ent fashion of expressing the terms
minutely.
I-inally, the Oxyrhvnchus colony and
countryside, white and black alike, were
not unacquainted with the spoiled child.
Here is the letter of a Greek youngster,
who certainly deserved a great many
more spankings than his less petted
playmates undoubtedly got from time to
time:
"Theon, to his father Theon, greeting:
It was a fine thing of you not to take
me with you to the city. If you won't
take me with you to Alexandria I won't
write you a letter or speak to you or
say good-by to you; and if you goto
Alexandria I won't take your hand or
ever greet you again. That is what will
happen if you won't take me. Mother
said to Archelaus: 'lt quite upsets him
to be left behind.' It was good of .you
to send me presents on the I2th, the
day you sailed. Send me a lyre, I im
plore you. If you don't, I won't eat, I
won't drink. There now."
Yes, Mr. Doolej though we have
many things that these ancients wot not
of, though we of city, and town and coun
try-side are vastly superior in many ways
to the men and women of city and town
•md country-side two thousand years
ngo, still we are the sons and daugh
ters of our fathers and mothers, and you
once more revealed your shrewd phiios
>phy when you said :
"I see great changes going on every
day of my life, but I see no change every
ifty jears."