The time when Americans were moral...seriousness of a person shows their sincerity. Smile is most likely fake, nowdays, its a mask people wear.
Actually, you are wrong, Draq, again. Do us all a favor and do some research before you start bullshitting.
People smiled back then. Probably more than we do now. They did goofy things. They farted. Burped. They played in the dirt. Rolled on the ground with their children. Chatted in church. Gossiped. Laughed. Cried. Backstabbed. Goofed-off and got into trouble at about the same rate we do today.
In the era of old photography (before the "snap shot" camera) the time it took to expose a photo was between 20 seconds (for an excellent quality shot) and a minute (for a low quality shot). The chemical reaction was extremely slow. Because of this, any movement during the shooting would blur the photo excessively, so the photographer instructed the family to sit and hold themselves (and faces) in a manner that they could maintain for a long period of time. Smiling, in a genuine way, is difficult beyond a few seconds, and after about ten seconds becomes almost unbearably tiresome. Therefore, people adopted a frame of expression that was easy to hold.
Thus: the austere looks in photos. Only in your twisted, bizzarro world, does smiling in a photo somehow equate to low morality.
~String
PS: the USA was FAR more immoral back in the 1800's than it is now. Women were beaten freely, there was child labor where they died and were maimed on a daily basis, there was slavery, immigrants (especially non-wasps) were expendable, prostitution in large and small cities was far more prevalent than today. Even the murder rate in places like NYC and San Francisco far exceeds todays numbers. The list goes on and on. You might want to open a book and look at what the 1800's were like before you make assumptions.