The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-09-14
GIANT STRIDES OF INVENTION
Forty-Five Years Ago There Were No
Telephones or Automobiles, u

Forty-hve years marks, we may say,
the man OF middle age. yet the retro
spect OF the last forty-hve years Will
| point TO many of the most remarkable
and as now considered, Indispensable in
ventions and devices of civilized life
These, the middle aged man. as a boy did
not even dream Of Going back TO the
time when the man, now 40, was 5, we
will find that he and all the rest of man
kind lived very satisfactorily without
| telephones Scarcely house OF any
| considerable size would now be deemed
habitable without one. When communi-
cation with a distant point was needed
quickly the telegraph was brought Into
requisition. III great haste was not rcqui-
site, a letter sufnced
The expedition with which business Is
now transacted was obviously impossible
without the telephone, although other in
ventions. then equally unknown contrib
ute much to the hurry OF today, The
electric light, like most other electrical
inventions. was as distant as the tele-
phone, though gas and oil, principally
the former, made what was considered
satisfactory illumination. Great construc-
tion works could not, however, he carried
on at night with gas while now: by arc
light they may. In that day the miner
toiled underground by the dim nickering
illumination OF candle. At present.
large mines are strung with incandescent
electric lights and kept practically as
light as are surface establishments by
night.
Forty years ago speed OF thirty miles
by rail- was deemed wonderful and con-
tlnuous trips of more than 200 miles were
rare. Changes OF cars were frequent on
long distance journeys, and as the seq
ments of road were In those days con
trolled by different companies, there was
much transferring OF passengers and bag
gage. and buying OF new tickets. Dining
cars were unknown, and wayside lunch
counters. with their familiar gongs and
summary "All aboard" termnatlons to
unsatisfactory and abbreviated repasts,
were the rule.
The postage rate on domestic letters
was then 3 cents, and foreign postage was
charged TO Canada and Mexico, while
every negotiable document, deed check,
bond or legal instrument, bore an in
ternal revenue stamp. Bankers. brokers.
statloners, druggists, and even saloon
keepers kept supply Of revenue stamps
on sale. and merchants had them in
sheets ready to be affixed TO receipts IL
even for the most triHing amounts
Every bank and merchant and prac-
tlcally every storckeeper then subscribed
TO some publication which gave a weekly
list OF new counterfeit bank notes. and
these publications, owing TO the then i'm
perfect methods Of engraving and regis
tration. were usually many pages in ex-
tent.
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 wounded soldier
Of the Civil war. incapocitated for work.
Small change was mostly of paper in de-
nominations OF 3. 5, 10, % and so cents.
For a time a l5-cent bill was circulated.
but II was soon Withdrawn. Nickel g.
cent pieces, as substitutes for silver 81
cent pieces, were also In circulation.
though the silver Scent piece, or
"scally." was not rare. Plugged silver
pieces usually or 10-cent pieces, were
the rule, rather than the exception,
though the holes and lead filling Seemed
In no way TO interfere with their cir
culatng capacity. f-r