Imagine
living the rest of your life without your car.
Hold
on, breathe! I didn’t say “without your
cell phone,” I only mentioned “car.”
In
1903 most people weren’t even thinking “car,” let alone “cell phone.” Most
people walked to where they wanted to go, most of the time.
Here’s
a slightly blotchy video of downtown Boston more than 100 years ago, with a
couple streetcars, lots of horse-drawn vehicles and stunning throngs of people
on the move on the sidewalks. Look at how much clothing they’re wearing. Look
at the blobs of horse hockey on the street.
The
cameraman passes the Jordan Marsh store, and travels on
Boylston Street to Copley Square and the Boston Public Library.
Even
without cars, look at the traffic!
Notice
there aren’t any parking spaces. I guess nobody ever parked really, the
streetcars and carriages just stopped long enough to let passengers get on or
off.
It’s
estimated there were 21.5 million horses and mules in the United States in
1900, about 1 horse/mule for every three people. (Today, about 6.9 million
horses for 323 million people, a horse/people ratio of about 1:47).
 |
| Boston firemen and their nags in 1900 |
Of
course, this silent film doesn’t convey any sense of the smell on city streets.
Imagine what 14,000 horses in 1903 Boston could do to the fragrance of the
downtown. About 33 horses can produce a ton of horse stuff daily, so think
about 425 tons of manure dropping to the streets of Boston every day. Carting
the horse manure out of town was a big business.
Horses
were a big business in many ways. In 1900 in Boston, there were 105 carriage
dealers, 99 harness makers, 51 hay dealers, 30 wheelwrights, 238 horseshoers
and 192 livery, boarding and sales stables.
Copyright
© Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.
