Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1906-10-24
FORTY YEARS. :. AGO.
MEN LIVED p WITHOUT MUCH NOW
DEEMED INDISPENSABLE.
Telephone Is Only One Of Many Con-
trivances Which Have Added
to the Comfort and Profit
Of the World.

J
the man of middle age, yet the re-
Prospect of the last As years will point
to many of the most remarkable, and
as now considered, indispensable, in
ventions and devices of civilized life,
says the Philadelphia Record. These,
the middle-aged man, as boy, did
not even dream of. Going back to
the time when the man now Is was
i've, we will find that he and all the
rest OF mankind lived very satisfac-
torlly without telephones. Scarcely
house of any considerable size would
now be deemed habitable without one.
When communication with a distant
point was needed quickly the tele-
graph was brought into requisition.
II great haste was not requisite, let
ter suficed.
The expedition with which business
is now transacted was obviously i'm
possible without the telephone, al
though other inventions, then equally
unknown, contribute much to the hur-
~ OF to-day. The electric light, like
most other electrical inventions, was
as distant as the telephone; though
gas and oil, principally the former,
made what was considered satisfac-
tory Illumination. Great construction
works could not, however, be carried
on by night with gas, while now, by
arc light, they may. In that day the
miner toiled underground by the dim
Pickering illumination of candle.
At. present large mines are strung
with incandescent electric lights and
kept practically as light as are sur
face establishments by night.
Forty years ago, speed of 80 miles
by rail was deemed wonderful, and
continuous trips of more than 200
miles were rare. Changes of cars
were frequent on long distance jour-
neys, and as the segments of road
were in those days controlled by diff
ferent companies, there was much
transferring of passengers and bag
gage, and buying of new tickets. Din
ing cars were unknown, and wayside
lunch counters, with their familiar
gongs and summary ';all aboard" ter
limitations to unsatisfactory and ab-
breviated repasts, were the rule.
The postage rate on domestic let
tiers was then three cents, and foreign
postage was charged to Canada and
Mexico; while every negotiable docu-
ment, deed, check, bond or legal in
strument bore an internal revenue
stamp. Bankers, brokers, stationers,
druggists and even saloon keepers
kept a supply of revenue stamps on
sale, and merchants had them in
sheets ready to be affixed to receipts
If even for the most trifling amounts.
Every bank and merchant, and prac-
tically every storekeeper then SUBJ,
scribed to some publication which
gave weekly list Of new counterfeit
bank notes; and these publications,
owing to the then imperfect methods
Of engraving and registration, were:
usually many pages in extent.
Songs of the war, printed on single,
sheets of music, were strung along,
park fences, and sold at a penny
apiece, the dealer being generally a
wounded soldier of the civil war, in
capacitated for work. Small change
was mostly of paper in denominations
Of three, five, ten, Is and so cents.
For a time a 15-cent bill was circu-''
lated, but it was soon withdrawn.
Nickel three-cent pieces, as substi-
tutes for silver three-cent pieces, were
also in circulation, though the silver
threo-cent piece, or "scally," was not
rare. Plugged silver pieces, when
there were any silver pieces, usually
i've or ten cent pieces, were the rule
rather than the exception, though the
holes and lead filling seemed in no,
way to interfere with their circulat-
Ing capacity.