Many citizens, particularly tradesmen, met every evening for the purpose of drinking beer, at houses kept for that purpose. Instances of drunkenness were rare at such places. The company generally parted at ten o'clock, and retired in an orderly manner to their habitations. Morning drams, consisting of cordials of different kinds, were common, both in taverns and private houses, but they were confined chiefly to the lower class of people.
From this general use of distilled and fermented liquors, drunkenness was a common vice in all the different ranks of society.
The dresses of the men, in the years alluded to, were composed of cloth in winter, and of thin woollen or silk stuffs in summer. Wigs composed the covering of the head, after middle life, and cocked hats were universally worn, except by the men who belonged to the society of friends.
The dresses of the women, in the years before mentioned, consisted chiefly of silks and calicoes. Stays were universal, and hoops were generally worn by the ladies in genteel life. Long cloth or camblet cloaks were common, in cold weather, among all classes of women.
The principal custom under this head, which influenced health and life, was that which obliged women, after lying-in, “to sit up for company;” that is, to dress themselves, every afternoon on the second week after their confinement, and to sit for four or five hours, exposed to the impure air of a crowded room, and sometimes to long and loud conversations.
Porches were nearly universal appendages to houses, and it was common for all the branches of a family to expose themselves upon them, to the evening air. Stoves were not in use, at that time, in any places of public worship.
Funerals were attended by a large concourse of citizens, who were thereby often exposed to great heat and cold, and sometimes to standing, while the funeral obsequies were performed, in a wet or damp church-yard.
The human mind, in this period of the history of our city, was in a colonized state, and the passions acted but feebly and partially upon literary and political subjects.
We come now to mention the diseases which prevailed in our city between the years 1760 and 1766.
The cholera morbus was a frequent disease in the summer months.