The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1911-02-09


were no tin cans. Neither We're there
any cars TO bring fresh fruits and
} Ncsetables-like strawberries and
tomatoes and lettuce-from the south
and from California. In fact, there
We're then no such places in the
United States as Florida and Texas
and California. They were all of them
Wa re places or foreign lands. They
belonged to England and Spain and
France and Mexico.
Oranges, bananas, pineapple, grape
fruit, olives, Malaga grapes and 9th
er tropical fru is which are so famil-
ir TO all Of us, were lever seen in
the markets of 1910. Boys and girls
of that day only heard about them
from travellers or read them in books.
Dinners were cooked in fireplaces.
There We're no ranges. There were
no gas stoves; no oil stoves; no coal
stoves; 10 cook stoves of any kind.
Housewives had no baking powder, no
yeast cakes, no ~self-raising flour, no
9ranuldted sugar, no %tlavorinS eX-
tracts, no ground spices, no cocoa, no
pOttCd meats, no catsup, 10 prepared
breakfast foods, no soda crackers, 10
macaroni. All the coffee had to be
roasted and ground at home. House
keepers then had very few of the con
veniences that they have today. They
had no running water in the house or
stationary wash tubs or clotehs wiring
crs or washing machines or wire
clothes lines. Neither had lney re-
frigorltors or ice cream freezers or
egg heaters or waffle irons or mea
grinders or carpet sweepers or anon
ia or borax or gasoline or moth balls
or fly paper or fly screens. And they
had no matches, and they had no cleo
trio lights or gas lights and no kero-
sene.
There We're no sewing machines in
1910. All clothes were made by hand.
There were no ready-made things Of
any kind; not even shoes or hats.
Nearly every family spu.! its own wool
and flax and made it, own thread and
yarn and cloth. The clothes for the
boys and girls and the men and WON
en- we're made at home. So, also, We're
the carpets, the candles, the soap, the
mattresses and the chairs and tables.
There were no furniture factories; no
rcady-made desks or bookcases or bed
sjcads or anything else. Such things
as were not made at home We're made
to order b. the shoemaker or the
halter or the tailor or the cabinet
maker. Clothing stores, shoe stores,
hat stores, furniture stores We're I'M
heard of.
In 1910 nobody wore rubbers. That
was because there were no rubbers.
There were no rubber goods of any
kind-oyerahoes, w~aterproofG, rain
coats, rubber balls, pencil erasers,
hot water bags, or anything of that
sort. There was no garden hose; no
fire hose. There we're no water mains;
there We're no fire engines. When a
house caught fire, me- put it out, if
they could, by throwing buckets of
water on the flames.
Fireplaces were the only mean Of
keeping w9rm. There We're no fur
naces; no coal stoves. Here and there
a wet.lthy family owned a wood burn
ing stove, but that was a rare lux
heating were ~un6reamed of. So also,
were kitchen ranges and hot water
boilers. Thore were no hot water boil
ers. There were no bath rooms; there
as no plumbir. and the towns had no
sewers. And not only ad they no
sewers, but they also had not street
cars. Even horse cars were unknown.
All city travel was done on foot or
by means Of horses and carriages.
AnQ II any ole NeilluTeu out DIT hlSHJ
he carried his own light with nina
lantern with a candle in it; for there
were no street lamps. Electricity and
gas and coal oil had not yet come
into use. The moon was the best
light a town could have at night.
OF co. rise there were no airships
or automobiles or motor cycles in
1910 Neither we're 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 tine as an experiment.
All travel was done on horseback
or by stage coach, and those who
crossed the ocean did it as Column
bus did-in a sailing vessel, 1t "a
a thr. G days journey from Philadel-