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On the date

Friday, October 22, 1909

From the day

Perspective: The Street Photographer · Sight

The morning mist clings to the cobblestones, catching the amber glow of the gas lamps as newsboys wave the latest broadside about that skeletal German bride found in Islip. Men in stiff celluloid collars and heavy wool overcoats blur past my lens, their silhouettes sharp against the gray Brooklyn brick. I spot a group of clerks huddled on a stoop, ignoring the chill to trade cards in a frantic round of Rook; it’s a bully sight to see such color in their hands amidst the soot. Between the clicks of my shutter, I catch a shopgirl humming "Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet" while adjusting her plumed hat in a dark window pane.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

ISLIP MURDER VICTIM WAS GERMAN BRIDE; Fragments of Receipts Found with the Skeleton Shows She Was Frau Mueller. IDENTIFIED IN BERLIN SUBURB Her Husband, an Architect, Also Found to be Missing -- They Came Here in 1908.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet

Percy Wenrich

The must-have

Rook (Card Game)

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

bullyfit as a fiddleblockhead

Aristocrat

capitalmy wordbally

Working Class

gadzooksblimeychump

Catchphrases of 1909

  • Peary to the Pole

Tech Check

Toaster, Silencer for Guns & Instant Coffee.

Cost of Living (1900)

Loaf of Bread

$0.05

Gallon of Gas

$0.10

Average Home

$3,200

New Car

$1,000

Time Elapsed

42,595 days ago

(116 years, 255 days)