The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-12-27
When Victoria Was You're
SOME OF THE CHANGES IN ENGLAND DURING Lifetime OF
ONE MAN.

Mr.. Gilbey was born too late to have
any personal recollection of tina FORE
runrer Of the motor cycle. the dandy.
horse" 1t had no pedals: the driver.
sitting In the saddle. propelled hts ma
chine along by kicking tho ground
MIR. Gilbey. remembers, though he
never rode in one; 1t was noisy. dirty
and Jolly. The evolution Of tho bicy-
Gle lie has watched from the early
"velocipede" days to these days. He's
enthusiastic about It; also about the
motor car. He were a rash prophet"
says Mr.. Gilbey. who attempted to
will undergo In the near future"
London streets. when Mr.. Gilbey
first knew them. were pretty rough.
In the city they were paved with stone
setts. In the west end with macadam.
1T u have been in the early six
ties" he says. that. when I wished to
bring a very small Shetland pony home
along Cheapside lest he should break
his legs in the numerous holes among
the stones; the difficulty was ovcrcoms
bN. taking him through the city In u
cab"
Friction matches were known in
Mr.. Gilbcy's boyhood. but nearly
everybody In England still stuck to
&AAN I'VE ooAs u IaIlk lletlIIlcll VI
those early Victorian days went out
shooting with flint lock guns--"nint
making was a large industry in Nor
folk" They wrote their letters with
quill pens. carefully folding them up
and closing them with waters or seal
ing a The envelope and the per-
torated sheet Of postage stamps had
saw his first street letter box when
he returned from the Crimea. He re-
members the coming OF the daguerre-
otype. and then Of the photograph.
There was n curious use of the
photograph which prevailed for a
time and seems to have been forgot
ten" he ays II mean the fashion
printing the owners photograph on
his or her visiting cards. This craze
which had a certain convenience,
perhaps-came in some time after the
Crimean war. but 1t did not last very
long o was ii Very generally fol-
lowed"
He saw tho beginnings of vaccina-
ton in England; as he recalls the pit
ted faces that swarmed in London
streets when he was a boy and the
terror in which all people-and es-
pecially The mothers OF young daugh-
ne wonders at the anti
vaccinationists. He remembers the
stir made BY the discovery OF anes.
thesia. The first experiments with cold
storage interested him. He witnessed
the advent Of the modern bath room.
He rccollects that Professor Tyndall
used an electric light at a royal in
stltute lecture in the fifties. A few
years before that, he heard that scmc-
body had made a speaking tele-
graph" He wishes thai Edison had
been born sooner: what would we
not give to hear from a --amophone
n of the great speeches of Gladstone
or Bright?" Posterity scores there,
as elsewhere.
Still. Mr.. Gilbey is pretty we'll con-
tent with his own times and expert.
ences. Professor Wallace, a few
years ago. wrote a book called The
Wonderful Century, and never was
book title better chosen" he says
Those of us who saw the last coaches
and have lived to see the motor car.
the dirigible balloon and the aero.
plane. who saw the earliest public
telegraph wire and have lived to the
day of wireless telegraphy. may find
some satisfaction in the thought that
we have seen such an era as no prcyi-
Gus generation saw. and such as can
hardly be rivalled by eras to come"