The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1922-03-10
HOW PEOPLE LIVED WHEN THE
COUNTRY WAS YOUNG

of the past century has been so great
! that in comparison the people of a
hundred years ago were savages.
Most of the comforts of the present
i times were unknown. The life of the
average man was hard, comfortIess.
full of toll and poverty-stricken Jobs
turkey hadn't thing on him.
1t is hard to. make it seem true that
President Washington never saw a
railroad, or a steamboat, or tele-
graph line, or photograph, or a type
writer, or a steel pen or sewing ma
chine, or rubber band or shoe, or a
| piano, or stem winding watch, or a
| cyclopedia, or dictionary, or a chro-
mo, Or comic page in newspaper,
or a steel engraving, or a friction
match, or a postage stamp, or heat
ing stove or furnace, or gas light or
an electric light, or a fire engine, or
thousand other things common to ev-
eryone today; that he lived before
there was an iron or steel bridge,
that he forded rivers around Washing
ton and Philadelphia on horseback,
that he had 7x9 glass in his windows,
and never owned Brussels or Will
ton or Administer carpet, even while
president. Clothing and shoes were
homemade, grain was cut with
sickle, and many of the present fruits
and vegetables were unknown. There
was not power loom in America
until 1914, and wool carding was done
by hand, and the cotton industry was
to come.
Furthermore, Washington, if born
over again today, and appearing in
our streets, would be looked upon as
a rare show, whether in Washington,
New York, Philadelphia, Chicago or
Jacksonville. The boys would con-
~i1er him as more than a hayseed
and it is probable that, in spite of his
natural dignity, he would be upset
by tie novelty OF the sight that would
meet his gaze, and be bewildered by
: ? Whistles and bells of locomotives,
he RAJ tie and din OF trolly lines, and
= trying to dodge bicycles and auto
mobiles, a15 -ccking up at airplanes
When Washington became president
all the chief towns were on the sea-
coast or tide water rivers. For fifty
years following the beginning of the
revolution the site of Chicago was
fiat, unbroken prairie, without white
inhabitant. When the revolution had
closed Cincinnati was log fort, with
a few huts; Pittsburg was known as
Duquesne; Detroit was little French
settlement surrounded with high
stocEade; New Orleans existed, and
St. Louis was small trading post.
Florida was foreign territory. Be
yond the Mississippi was the Great
American Desert" Mobile and Pen
saco.a and Natchez and Vincennes con-
sisted of a few huts gathered about
old french forts.
The nineteenth century had passed
Tits teens before Jacksonville and
Tampa were known. Atlanta was yet
to be. San Francisco did not receive
its present name until nearly half the
years of the nineteenth century had
been told. There was not city nor
town worthy of the name in the Eng
lish colonies west of the Allegheny
mountains a hundred years ago. Along
the Atlantic coast we find Portsmouth,
Boston, Providence, New Haven, New
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Alex
andria, Williamsburg, Charleston, Sa-
vannah, st. Augustine and others of
less note. But the largest of these
were mere collections of few hun
dred houses ranged along streets
none of which were severed and few
of which were paved or lighted. At
the corners and on both sides of the
way, in some of the larger places, STEP
ping stones were placed about a foot
3
apart that pedestrians might be kept
out of the mire, and these steps on a
rainy day caused frequent conflicts be.
tween citizens anxious to keep their
feet out of the mud. Every principal
house in the cities had its gutter, pro-
jecting far beyond the roof and send
ing torrent of water down into the
street. The windows were filed with
diminutive panes of glass, generally
not more than four inches square.
There were no street railways, nor
parks and no public statues or monu-
ments TO commemorate men Or events.
The Waterman went his rounds at
night with rattle and lantern, called
out the hours and the state of the
weather. and stopped and demanded
the name of every person found walk
ing the streets after o'clock. Houses
were not numbered and few of the
streets were named.