Let those people who lament the decay of religious observances read the following quotation from the “Salem Gazette” of 1830.  Those who can recollect how it was at that date must see that notwithstanding a perhaps much smaller attendance now upon public worship, there is every reason to believe that, at least as far as the native population is concerned, Sunday is really more quiet than it was then.  After reading this article we shall perhaps be prepared to say that “tythingmen” may have been needed just after the Revolution.

THE TIMES WE LIVE IN.  The dreadful tragedy performed in this town last April, and the subsequent arrests, developments, confessions, trials, &c., by keeping the thoughts and conversation of the community continually directed to that enormity, have led to the general but very erroneous notion, that there must have been a great deterioration of the public morals.—­If the words of the aged are to be received as true, the very reverse is the fact.  The revolutionary war left the whole country as well depraved in morals as exhausted in resources.  This was particularly the case with such towns as Salem, which had been largely exposed to the irresistibly corrupting influence of privateering.

At that time, when the population of Salem was not half so great as it is at present, more riot, debauchery, and vice, obtruded themselves upon the sight in a week, than could now be discovered by diligent search in a month.  The corruption of manners was so general, that almost none escaped from its contaminating influence.  Mechanics and other laboring men would leave their business in the day, and their families in the evening, to spend their time, dancing and drinking, in the dens of pollution which then abounded in “Naugus-Hole” and “Button-Hole.”  Merchants, professional men, &c. passed a great part of their time in taverns, drinking and gambling.  Quarrelling and fighting there were not uncommon, and well-worn packs of cards were always lying about the bar-room tables, (though seldom long unemployed,) ready for the use of visitors,—­the common game on these occasions being All-Fours, and the common stake a bowl of punch or a mug of flip.  Pastimes like the above named, were current in every class of society.  When the regular hours of drinking approached, the workmen left their labour to play at cards, the loser “treating the shop’s crew.”  In a large establishment a boy would be kept running with his jug nearly the whole time, the contents being freely shared amongst master, journeymen, boys, and numerous visitors.

At this time, and long afterward, infamous houses were kept open day and night, in the quarters of the town named in the preceding paragraph.  The fiddles were kept in constant motion, and if any thought of stopping them they did not dare to attempt it.  The most flagrant disorders and outrages were continually occurring, so that a timid man would go far out of his way to avoid passing