The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-10-23

OIL us, were never seen IN Tile markets OF
1910. Boys and girls of that day only
heard about them from travellers or read
of them in books.
Dinners were cooked in fireplaces. There
we're no ranges. There were no gas
stoves; no oil stoves; no coal stoves no
cook stoves of any kind. Housewives had
no baking powder, no yeast cakes, no
self-raising flour, no granulated sugar; no
iavoring extracts, no ground spices, no
cocoa, no potted meats, no catsup, no pre-
pared breakfast foods no soda crackers,
no macaroni. All the coffee had to be
roasted and ground at home. Housekeep-'
ers then had very few of the conveniences
that they have today. They had no run
ming water in the house or, stationary
washtubs or clothes wringers or washing
machines or wire clothes lines. Neither
had they refrigerators or Ice cream freez-
ers or egg heaters or waffle irons or
meat grinders or carpet sweepers or am
monia or borax or gasoline or moth balls
or fly paper or fly screens. And they had
no Matches and they had no electric
lights or gas light, and no kerosene
There were no sewing machines In 1870
All clothes were made by hand. There
were no ready-nade things of any kind
not even shoes or hats. Nearly every
family spun its own wool and flax and
made its own thread and yarn and cloth
The clothes for the boys and girls and
the men and women were made at home
So. alas, were the carpets, the candles
the soap the mattresses, and the chairs
and tables. There were no furniture
factories; no readymade desks or book
cases or bedsteads or anything else, Such
things as were not made at home were
made to order by the Shoemaker or the
or he fol ~ fbo no,
Clothing stores, shoe stores, hat stores,
furniture stores were unheard of.
In 1910 nobody wore rubbers. That was
because there were no rubbers. There
were no rubber goods of any kind--over-
shoes, waterproofs, raincoats, rubber
balls, pencil erasers. hot water bags, or
anything of that sort. There was no gar
den hose; no fire hose. There were no
water mains; there were no fire engines.
When house caught fire men put 1t out.
If they could, by throwing buckets of
water on the flames.
Fireplaces were the only means of keep
ing a house warm. There were no fur
naces; no coal stoves. Here and there
q wealthy family owned woodworking
stove. Sut that was rare luxury. Steam
heating and hot water heating were un-
dreamed Of. So, alas, were kitchen ranges
and hot water boilers. There We're no
bathrooms; there was no plumbing, and
the towns had no sewers. And not only
had they no sewers. but they also had no
street cars. Even horse cars were un-
known. All city travel was done on foot
or by means of horses and carriages. And
II any one ventured out at night he car
ried his own light with him-a lantern
with a candle In, it,; for there wer4 no
street lamps. Electricity and gas and
coal oil had not yet come into use. The
moon was the best light town could
have at night.
OF course there were no airships or
or motor cycles In 1910.
Neither were there any bicycles, nor
any trolley cars, and there weren't even
any railroads. The locomotive had not
yet been invented, and the Steamboat |
was being tried for the first time as an |
experiment.
Al travel was done on horseback or
by stage coach, and those who crossed
the ocSn did It as Columbus in !
sailing vessel 1t was three days Jour- |
ney from Philadelphia to Washington.
Now you can make the trip in three |
hours. 1t took nearly a week for let
ter to go from New York to Boston-as |
long q time as it now requires to send a |
letter to San Francisco or to London. |
and the cost was six times as great, !
There were on postage stamps. The per- |
son who received a letter paid for 1t in
cash according to the distance 1t had |
come. And there were no envelopes and |
no letter boxes. Letters were simply |
folded and the corners held together
with sealing wax, and the address was |
written on the outside of the letter.
AS there were no railroads. news trav-
eled only as fast as a horse could run or
a ship could sail. There were no wires
to carry messages, forithere was no tel
egraph and there was no telephone. Con-
sequently there were not many newspa-
mars. and s,sch nAtvs nf the world M