Reminiscences / by George Henry Fox.

  • George Henry Fox
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reminiscences / by George Henry Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    scalp, the latter possessing the special virtue, as many believed, of making a bald head look like a bear skin. The use of perfumery at that time was far more common than now. Not only the dude but nearly every man was apt to sprinkle a few drops of “Eau de Cologne” on his handkerchief in dressing and many ladies continually carried about with them a most penetrating, not to say offensive, odor of musk or patchouli. Transportation facilities have improved in a notable degree within my recollection. As a boy in Schenectady I remember seeing one packet boat on the Erie canal although this mode of travel, like the old-fashioned stage coach, was al¬ most obsolete at that time. The railway trains before the era of air brakes always started with a jerk which would nearly throw the passengers off their seats and the old-fashioned brakes ap¬ plied at each stop caused a similar disturbance of equilibrium. The road bed was rough, the rails often loose and the song which the train sang as it made its ten miles an hour sounded in my boyish ears like “ranka-janka-ranka-janka.” My older brothers used to tell about a horse which was used at the depot in Ballston. It was hitched in front of the locomotive to start the train. In New ^ ork city I remember the stages with the oval oil paintings on the door panels. They used to start from Wall and Fulton Sts, run
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