Connecticut western news., 1913-10-09
Letters From the People
Then and Now Money and Speed.

bSh o''A t"N" 2 '"~'SF @FA ~H~~S' To the Editor of The News:
 Did you ever think how great the changes have been in the past half cen was born in 1S48. l remember very when I was ten years old, and money was not the only thing sought for as people were more quiet and home-loving in those days. In l849 the news came that people were getting gold by the bucket full in California then the great rush was on. The people were mad to get some of this new-found wealth. Father was one of these forty miners, but he did not get there soon enough to make his pile. We lived in New York state at the time, he went across the country with an old work team that he owned, leaving mother and one-year-old me to get along the best way we could, and that was not very good. l have often thought, in these late years, that he did not get there soon enough as he brought back neither wealth nor team. Perhaps if he had possessed an auto or a flying machine he might have made his pile, and things would have been more prosperous in our family. At this time everything moved slowly. It required five or six weeks to come from Europe to this country by the slow-going sail ships of that time, and now the trip can be made in the same number of days. A horse that could make mile In 5 minutes or 3:10 was a wonder then, but the owner of Dan Patch would consider it disgrace to have him stabbed with such horse now. Everything calls for speed and money now. When l was ten years old I could have bought our whole town with $I.000,000 and have capital left. Now I could not buy one block of it, no, or half interest in one of our sky scrapers, for everything must be big and costly to be of any account. A man that was worth $10,0O0 in the previous half century was considered wealthy, but would not cut much of a figure today. Money and speed is the requirement. now. If you do not possess good chunk of legal tender, your name is punk. Money is the substance we must acquire. It don't much matter how, if we can only keepou of the pen itentiary; and speed we must have. Let her out MT. Chauffeur, for l must get there or lose money on this deal. What you say tire is busted, and we are travelling fast now? What do l care? I have money enough to buy a rubber factory ana ruDDer pldnGaGlon in Brazil. What do care for an auto tire once in a while? Speed is what l want. What you say we have just run over dog, and you think you see a man on the highway a head? We'll, it is no place for man to be travelling on the road the roads are intended for autoists, and people that amount to something. Travellers ought to know enough to go cross lots, through the fields. We must get there on time, so let her out, say, and let her spin for all she is worth.
 Yes, money is the very substance we are after. It was speed that caused the railroad wreck in Stamford, Conn.,. and speed it was that caused the Titanic, with So many lives. to go down. Yes, and speed is decreasing the population of the country all the time, not only on the railroads, boats and highways, but i'll mines, mills, factories, etc. Every thing calls for speed these days. Get there, Eli, or you will lose your job, is the slogan of this money-making country. Chas. A. Harris. Two Harbors, Minn,