The Red Cloud chief., 1901-02-01
A HUNDRED YEARS AGO
FAMILIAR THINGS UNKNOWN At
LAST csNTuRY'S BEGINNING.

There Was No Raiiroad. Steamboat, Eiec-
tric Light. Telegraph. Telephone, Pho
noyrarh. sewing Machine. Cotton ain
Photograph. bicycle OF Ansosthctic.
One hundred years ago Thomas .Ief.
fcrson was President Of the United
states and AARON Burr was Vice. Pres
idCnt. There were sixteen States, Yer
mont, Kentucky aud Tennessee in ad
ditiOn to the original thirteen. The
country'S population was = ,:i0S, iS3:
Virginia had SSO,2D people. Pcunsyl.
vanla, ~ .!561: New York. JSg,05I:
North Carolina, i7S, 1903. and Massachu-
sets, i22,Si5. The population of New
York City was o ,iSD; that Of Brook
lyn, not yet Incorporated, was less
than 1000. indiana was then the from
tier, with Htiil inhabitants. 4 man
who had seen the turbid flood OF the
Mississippi was u curiosity. The
Union Of Great Britain and Ireland
was consummated 100 years ago. 10.
naparte was still FIRST Consul. Wei.
1ington had not become famous, and
Nelson vas the British hero, with five
years to live before Trafalgar. Scott
was yet to write 'Waverlcy.' Words.
worth had just written some Of the
Lyrical Ballads bu was an obscure
poet. Coleridge. his friend, had com.
posed the Ancient Mariner" but had
no fame. Byron and Shelley were mr.
chins AZ school, aud Keats was In
short dresses. IT was not until seven
years later that FultOn's steamboat
was tried, aud ii vas nineteen years
before the first steamship crossed the
Atlantic. Holding communication with
Europe only by slow sailing vessels,
the United States were too isolated to
he concerned about interference. IL
was not until 1893 that the Monroe
Doctrine was proclaimed.
Travel in the United States n hun
drcd years ago was by stage coach
and ship. sail boat or row boat. The
largest sailing vessel had n tonnage OF
800. and required weeks to make the
Atlantic passage. Steamships of
10000 tons cross today in about five
days. Dur railroad mileage would
now girdle the earth twenty times.
The farmers of \ were Just begin.
ming to use cast.iron plows in place of
wooden ones, and they knew nothing
about fertilizers. Many years were "a
elapse before the invention of the
reaper and the self.binding harvester.
In fact. agriculture was painfully Ia
bOrious, the forest was slowly cleared
with the axe, and the house built by
the settler was n rude hut of logs,
where he lived with no comforts and
did not dream of luxurics. The news
OF the world hat came to Inn In his
solitude was months AMI sometimes
years old, but IN that respect the
dweller of the town was not much bet
ter of. To-day the farmer has n rural
mail delivery which connects him with
the most distant parts Of the globe.
and he reads "A daily paper containing
news OF Europe which Is only n few
hours old. Familiar things that did
not exist at the beginning of the nine
teenth century best illustrate our de-
velopment; the railroad train. the
steamboat, the electric light. the tele-
granh. tine sewing machine. the cotton
gin, photography, the kinetOscope, the
bicycle, a~naestheiics, the elevator
the list could be extended Ia the
length OF a catalogue, for hardly any
convenience or utility used in the
house, the office. the warehouse and
the factory to-day was known to the
people who tOilcd and lived 100 years
ago.
One hundred years ago a man could
not TAXI n ride on n steamboat.
lie could not go from Washington
to New York IN a few hours.
He had never seen an electric light
or dreamed Of IN electric car.
He could not send a telegram.
He couldn't talk through the tele.
phone. and he had never heard Of the
hello girl.
He could not ride q bicycle.
He could not call IN a stenOgraphcr
and dictate a letter.
He had never received a typewriter
communication.
lie had never heard OF the germ
theory or worried Over bacilli and bac.
terra.
He never looked pleasant before a
photographer or had his picture taken.
He V heard a phonograph talk
or saw a kaleidoscope turn out a prize
fight.
lie never saw through a Wcbster's
Unabridged Dictionary with the aid OF
II Rocntgen ray.
He had never taken n ride in an ele.
vatOr.
lie had never imagined such n thing
as II typesetting machine or a type,
writer.
He had never used anything but n
wooden plow.
He had never seen his wife using n
sewing machine.
He had never struck a match.
He couldn't take an anaesthetic and
have his leg cut off without feeling n