The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1908-10-16
LEST WE FORGET.
GIlmpses at the PaSt-Happen-
lngs In HOnesdaIe's Early
Days.
THIRD ARTICLE,

to Susquehanna in this State and thence
on to Binghamton and the west, Scran-
ton x Pratt had the contract for furnish
ing the iron, alarge proportion of which
was carted from Honesdale to Big
Eddy, (Narowsburg), Cochecton, Equi-
nunk, and other points. Hundreds of
tons were SO hauled, John A. Patmor
being the local agent to contract with
the owners of teams for its transporta-
ton. Good prices in cash were paid for
the work, and the job added not little
To the prosperity of the town, and the
villages through which the loads were
hauled. The job occupied most of the
winter Of lS47-S.
In the early tanncry days cash was
generally paid for bark and slaughter
hides" while calf, kip, and deer skins
and horse hides were usually traded
out ut the tannery stores. |. =. Foster
X Sons did n very large and profitable
business on this basis.
In another column will be found an
advertisement of the Secor Typewriter,
invented by j. b. Secor, formerly q
resident of this place. The machines
are built i'll Derby, Conn, by the Secor
typewriter Co., who have one of the
finest plants OF its kind in the world, and
| nf which Mr. Sonnr 10 uo,,orol ,,o,,ou,,,
}. p. Secor, father of the inventor,
himself man of great skill and inge-
nuiity, came to Honesdale and started a
factory in the building formerly occu-
pied by DR.. w. f. Denton, for the manu-
facture and repair of guns. 1t was in
;he days ofhunting and turkey and target
shooting, and the rifles and shotguns
turned out by Mr.. Secor attained very
enviablc reputation among sportsmen
and marksmen. 1t is quite likely that
}. b. Secor's inventive faculty received
It's first stimulus in his fathers shop.
The first soda fountain set up in
!Ionesdae was brought here by A. j..
vans and located in his saloon, which
~ called "'rhe Wayne County Retreat" "
u the basement of the Foster Brothers
store, known as "Brick Store No. L.
VI the corner Of Main and Ninth streets.
{ was built after the manner of the been
lucrts then in common use, Il goose
eek on a marble slab at one end of tho
puntnr constituting all of the fountain
\ sight-quitc different affair from the
narbIc and onyx and silver and plate
lass mirror creations of to-day. Ice,
Tcam, small beer and lemonade haG
)een the dainty refreshments previously
served, and when on May Day, 1916,
the first glass of soda was drawn, it was
l matter of town talk
The original idea of connecting the
'wo hcmispheres by telegraph was by
way of Behring's strait, the Milwaukee
|iSconsian thus specializing on such an
achievement as early as February, 1S4S:
a suggestion has recently been made
that eventually the whole world will be
connected by the telegraph. London
and Paris and st. Petersburg can be
united with New York, by carrying the
line to the Pacific coast, and running il
thence along the coast to Behrings-the
narrow strait which separates Asia from
Amerca-crossing over Siberia and Rus
sia to Moscow, Warsaw, Vienna, Berlin,
Frankfort and Paris, and thence to Lon
don. This is gigantic undertaking.
At present it may seem impracticable
as did the Erie canal thirty years ago.
Its length cannot be less than 12,OOC
miles. Five thousand miles of tele-
graph will soon be in operation in the
United States. Where the lines will be
extended within the next twenty years,
and how much of the globe will be en-
braced within the magnetic chain the
imagination can scarcely conceive. "
Ten years later Europe and America
were indeed connected by telegraph,
but not over the practically overland
route as suggested. The fiftieth anniver-
sary of the sending of the first cable
message across the Atlantic ocean was
celebrated on Monday, August 18th, last
the original event having occurred Aug.
ust H. 1858. Four years previously Cy.
rus W. Field enlisted Peter Cooper
David Dudley Field, Marshall o. Rob
crts, Moses Taylor and Chandler White
in the enterprise of laying the cable, al
though the only submarine wires tested
up to that date lay between Governors
Island and Castle Garden. There were
great doings in Honesdale when the first
message arrived from Queen Victoria il
response to one from President Buchan
an-band playing, procession, bon
fires, etc. 1t required several years
however, to bring the system to perfec,
ton, There are now thirteen separate
cables connecting the United States with