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On the date

Friday, September 4, 1908

From the day

Perspective: The Anxious Local · Tactile

My word, the nerves in this city are frayed thin as the new cellophane wrap I saw at the market. I wiped the grease from my heavy wool waistcoat and stared at the station sign; seeing **$0.10** for a gallon of gas makes my stomach turn, especially with rumors of Mr. Wright nearly smashing his flying machine into a shed. I fumbled with the stiff, linen-finish cards of my Rook deck, trying to ignore the terrifying speed of forty miles an hour. If men are meant to circle the sky like hawks, I fear our quiet world will soon be nothing but noise and expensive fumes.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

WRIGHT AEROPLANE FLIES AT CAPITAL; Inventor, Nervous, with a New Machine, Circles Field at 40 Miles an Hour. NEARLY HAD SMASH-UP To Avoid Collision with Balloon Shed, the Aviator Made Sudden Landing.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

Shine On, Harvest Moon

Nora Bayes & Jack Norworth

The must-have

Rook (Card Game)

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

bullyfit as a fiddleblockhead

Aristocrat

capitalmy wordbally

Working Class

gadzooksblimeychump

Catchphrases of 1908

  • Take me out to the ball game

Tech Check

Ford Model T (Assembly Line), Geiger Counter & Cellophane.

Cost of Living (1900)

Loaf of Bread

$0.05

Gallon of Gas

$0.10

Average Home

$3,200

New Car

$1,000

Time Elapsed

43,008 days ago

(117 years, 303 days)