Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-11-10
FORTY YEARS AGO.
MEN LIVED WITHOUT MUCH NOW
DEEMED INDISPENSABLE
Telephone Is Only One of Many Con-
trivances Which Have Added
90 the Comfort and Profit
of the World.

Forty-fve years marks, we may say,
the man of middle age, yet the re-
Prospect of the last 40 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 a boy, did
not even dream of. Going back to
the time when the man now 45 was
five, we will find that he and all the
rest of mankind lived very satisfac-
torily without telephones. Scarcely
house Of any considerable size would
now be deemed habitable without one.
When communication with distant
point was needed quickly the tele-
graph was brought into requisition.
If great haste was not requisite, let
ter sufficed.
ThN 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-
ry 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 30 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 "a1l aboard" ter
limitations to unsatisfactory and abb
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 supply of revenue stamps on
sale, and merchants had them in
sheets ready to be affixed to receipts
if even for the most trifing amounts.
Every bank and merchant, and prac-
tically every storekeeper then sub
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 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, 25 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
three-cent piece, or "scally,' was not
rare. Plugged silver pieces, when
there were any silver pieces, usually
five 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.