Evening star., 1932-04-10

Man always has been afflicted with
--HE question of being modern is one of
relativity, even though 1t has nothing
to do with Einstein. Man always has
been afflicted with a superiority COM
pick which makes him confident that
the werld was very crude and un-
AnAsasA before his time and that notfing in
taae fxbHre can bring about amy rndical im-
FrOxemeat.
CAssaw, Caeopatra. Queen Elizabesh Napoaeen
-aA shcaeht they had it.
Hhe nncient Romans believed they had
nclskeved the ultimate in modern luxmy and ex-
EaxAgance when they erected elaborate pslhlic
bNt1B tAfat became community ccrters af lcissre
aAA eMiertAinment. Long before that tne
kasarAeA u Egypt who oonscxtpted KRAefife
lahar as build great cities and mounments
thought he was the last word I'm modern enter-
prise.
To-day Photographic relics from GRe gay Dos"
provoke smiles of pity for that generRtinns eaA-
fashioned ways. Today's average modern citizen
is apt TO believe that almost every ene vino
doesn't live IN a penthouse at least occupies q
suite In an apartment hotel where electrical
mechanism performs all human service and
that all transportation is via airplane, limited
trains and high powered motor cars
Dut wait q ningte There are some rather
Arprising figures that compel revision Of this
tAea.
THESE figures, from the Biennial Census Of
Manufactures, published by the Department
sf Commerce combined with statements froni
some OF the leading manufacturers Of articles
pMrported 10 be obsolete, provide food for
amused rejection.
Fxst 10 dissipate the idea that an twentieth
century folk are speed hounds it is revealed
that not every one prefers motor cars to the
coed cid one-hoss shay.
Statistics for 1923 show that carriages and
buegies were in demand to the number of 1913:
farm wagons and horse drawn trucks, SO, ,088;
sleighs and sleds including bohsledS. 5.471;
salkies 614: two wheeled carts for horses, 207s.
and other light spring vehicles not classed as
buggieS, 4l6 with total value for the horse
drawn vehicle industry of $19, 9,422235.
Sach incidentals to this leisurely mode Of
transportation as cotton and leather fly nets.
whips, etc, amount annually to a value OF
9444.850. The village blacksmith stin swings
his sledge and blows his bellows. while he ad-
justs some 79536800 pounds of horse and mule
shoes.
It may be more than half century since the
incandescent lamp was invented. but each year
$45B ,019 worth of coal oil burning lamps are
made and sold, while 18 establishments supply
the demand for 1887, ,483 dozens Of new lamp
cflimneyS and 869247 dozen of lantern globes
A million electric lights may flash and blaze
on blatant Broadway, but only a few miles
away-in Jersey, Connecticut and along the
Hudson shores well as elsewhere in the
United States-feeble oil lamps cast their glow
into the silent night from hundreds of windows.
A ND not all the water used by Americans
flows from nickeled taps at the turn Of a
z
pumps are bought and put into service, includ-
ing 334 ,7o4 pitcher-spout pumps that are in
stalled In kitchens all over the country
One jump ahead of these, yet relics of the
past to this modern age. are windmill pumps
and towers, which stin in demand to the
number Of 12D, SGT a year.
Modern woman's emancipation has not yet
released her from much domestic drudgery
as weil-to-do city folk may think. Besides the
daily cleaning and refilling of millions of coal
oil lamps and the pumping of millions of
barrels of water for household use she is using
q goodly number Of hand-power washing ma
chimes and foot-power sewing machines
15i,T42 of the former and 453 $50 of the latter
1t Is revealed that less than IL per cent of the
American homes are equipped with electric
sewing machines.
Add to the laboring hours commanded by
these the operation of 1870 SAB hand-operated
cream separators-aS against the figure of 453
for poWer-operated ones-some 10000 hand
clothes wringers, washboards and fatirons-and
the hatirons must be heated on the stove.
Neither is all this heat supplied by gas, coal
oil and electricity. Coal and wood stoves and
ranges are sold to the number of 2,243,990
annually, Of which 853801 are kitchen stoves
Nor has the old-fashioned icebox vanished
yet Fully $91 ,23l 800 worth of these refrig-
orators are manufactured in one year, and
4o,2s7,o27 tons of ice are sold to fill them.