Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1900-06-21


Now, with modern machinery, one
operative can spin 100000 knots in
the same time.
Carpets were a luxury in 1900.
There were few woolen carpets in
Philadelphia and New York; few
ingrains, and here and there Tur :
kish rug. But these were used for
state occasions. The rag carpet was
the glory of the housewife. A few
Administer carpets were made in
Philadelphia; but the century was
well begun before ingrains appeared.
Up to 1850 there was not power
loom for carpct-making in America.
Not cast-iron plow existed in
1900. The farmer used the sickle,
the scythe and the fail. Ills plow
was home made-of wood covered
with a thin sheet of iron. Seeds
were scattered by hand ; the hoe
was the cultivator. Grain was gath
cred by hand, thrcshed on the floor
during the winter, and crushed be-
meath stone pestle into flour, or
ground in the neighboring flour
mill. The mower, the reaper and
the sclf-bindcr we're unheard Of.
TO so to New York from Phia-
dclphia meant two days by the
swiftcst stage to-day it is done in
two hours. Toe, from New Eng
land to Oregon it took DIR. Atkins
eight months, even in 1917. To-day
one can 80 from New York to San
Francisco in one hundred and two
hours.
There was not a mile Of railroad
in 1900. The first line built was
the Baltimore and Ohio, in 1880. 1t
was fourteen miles long. Three
years later, when the South Caro-
lima Railway line Of 1876 miles was
finished, it was the largest railroad
in the world. To- day in the United
States alone there are 1890 miles
of railroad, or more than third of
the mileage of the entire world. In
1888 there were but rs passenger
locomotives in the United States !;
to-day there are 10000.
No steamboat existed in the world
hundred years ago. Sailing YES
sells crossed the Atlantic ocean and
took from two to three months for
the voyage. Bullct-proof pack
ct-boats, propelled bysails, horses
and poles, attended tomost Of
the commerce between river
towns. Passage from New Orleans
to Louisville cost Sl25. 1t was not
until 1907 that Robert Fulton built
his "Clcrmont," and the first steam
propelled boat in the world steamed
up the Hudson river.
The street car was unknown in
1900 The century was a third over
before the first horse car appeared
in New York city. The trolley car
came only twelve years ago. Now
we have 10000 miles of trolley roads
in America, running 10000 cars.
The newspaper had hardly started.
There were about one - lrcd and
fifty publications Of 4. Ands in the
United States. About onc-tcnth Of
them were newspapers and were
issued daily. Not one Of them sold
more than thousand copies a day.
To-day we have $4,000 different
periodicals Of all kinds.
There were o03 postoiliccs in
1900. To-day We have ,000~-thaL
is in America alone. 1t took Il letter
sixteen days to 90 from Philadelphia
to Lexington, kentucky; twenty
two days to Nashville, Tennessee.
The cheapest letter postage was
eight cents, and to send a letter
more than 100 miles cost shilling.
Three million letters were then sent
in year. At the present time the
post Office handles about 10000, 900
pieces Of mail in a single day.
The telegraph was unhcard Of.
Not until 1914 did Morse send his
first telegram. When the battle Of
Waterloo was fought, in 1855, un-
usual measures of haste were adopted
to get the news to London, where it
was received three days later. The
guns of Dcwcy's fleet were hardly
quiet before the result of the battle
was known in New York. To-day
we have one million miles of tclc-
graph wire in America, and seventy
million messages are sent over them
each year. There are 100000 miles
Of cable on ocean beds, but none Of
this was laid until the century was
siXty-siX years old.
This is how the people lived in
1900. Every community was isola-
ted from every other community.
New York was farther removed from
Philadelphia than Africa is now. 1t
was New Years day before Boston
knew what had happened in New
York on Christmas Day. There
were practically no convcnicnccs
people OF those early days knew
nothing whatever Of comforts. And