Mesquite High School - Mesquite O Yearbook (Mesquite, TX)

Page 16 text:

Right: There were no handy, throw-away Bic pens in l776. Quill pens, cut by hand with a penknife from goose quills, were used. Colonists reported that in the cold northern winters the ink some- times froze on their pens as they wrote within a few feet of the fire. Below: Superstition took the place of scientific knowledge in the colonies. Many people believed that if a long hair from a horse's tail were left in water, it would turn into a snake. It was long held that some birds grew on trees and wintered at the bottom of ponds. 42' l -43-, LQt s.....,..-5 Right: Usually only colonists of the upper ' classes could play musical instruments.

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o the other When the first successful colonial newspaper the Below When you see a typical school book of 1776, our history News Letter came out in 1704 it took two men with a and literature books don't look so bad after all. Religion and eti- press ten hours to turn out 600 copies quette were the main subjects of colonial books. CDBLO, 1 i as it is in ive our u S-: And Hormeoox OF HGHTEENTH CENTURY 4444 Lefl: Early forms of tennis, handball and golf were played in the colonies. Golf, called kolf, was played with little leather balls stuffed with feathers. A man who played golf, said Benjamin Rush, would live ten years the longer.

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Education above the elementary was not often open to girls in the Below: When the men marched off to the Revolutionary War, the women went to work. The colonial ladies became barbers, scientists, publishers. merchants, butch- ers, and blacksmiths. . l i n N' tj' 'QM 1 4.5311 ni' f J J 'f i A . . Nt.. ' lI4Lgv3Q5i1 ' .j, t.f'51,QLW Nflf1'ffl,?l?'.'slsf ESP-lei 'llllllk' il-' viif' 'f ' T' ffl -4 i Y in V .ll .ff ' t A ' i ' -. F 1: l- ' ' ' ...Lvl ' li x ,li -5. 1 .,'t wk? ' V - ,r vrnvvvk I Q 1 If 9 gf? ' Elm - I Q' Below: Election day in 1776 was a friendly occasion. Although it was against the law for candidates to offer voters any money, meat, present, gift, reward, or entertain- ment. the usual ways of getting votes were with large amounts of barbecued beef and pork. served with punch and gin- ger cakes. Left: Colonists in New York got most of their water from public pumps. But New York pump water was so bad. that horses of out- of-town strangers refused to drink it.