Book Board Chat

I occasionally enjoy reading old books to get a true idea of what life was like many years ago. In a story written in 1876 a man is talking about the many changes that had taken place in the previous 100 years since the American revolution. Now they had the telegraph to send messages to family members that lived many, many miles apart. (The telephone had not yet been invented.) Trains could carry people from one side of the country to the other in only a few days not the months that using horses or oxen would take. And, people could have photographs taken to send to far off relatives back in Europe so they could see what their American cousins looked like. Mind you, few people had cameras so the photos would have to be taken in a photo studio.

That was all the changes that had taken place. He could have mentioned the changes in armament going from muzzle loading firearms to cartridge weapons. Still, that seems not like many changes. Compare that to our last 100 years - light bulbs, radio, TV, computers, airplanes, automobiles, etc. Lots and lots of changes.