Musical accompaniment: A Picture of Her Face by the great ragtime player Scott Joplin
This 1893 photograph by Alfred Stieglitz is called The Terminal.
Based on the horse-drawn bus headed to Harlem and all of the snow and steam, we can assume this is New York City in the winter.
Archive.org
It’s hard to believe that until about 125 years ago, this scene would be something any city dweller would know well. The sight of it would conjure up sensations and scents and many memories.
Imagine how different life would be if we still relied on horses for transportation. The advent of automobiles made a profound difference in the lives of humanity. We move today with what would seem to the people in this picture to be unimaginable speed. I imagine those busses weren’t heated either!
There are tradeoffs. The presence of animals probably made people more gentle and patient. The picture conveys the chaos so it probably was noisy but not in the same way we think of noise in environments like that today. I would probably hate to give up fast, heated transportation. But these pictures make me long for a simpler time.
old spirituals 
There were a multitude of animals involved in the life of most Americans in the 1900s. Most of them lived on a family farm that had horses, cows, pigs, chickens, goats, etc.
Modern America has replaced the menagerie of farm animals with the family pet dog(s) and/or cat(s) — though chickens are making somewhat of a comeback for their eggs.
Research has proven that children who live on a farm are less likely to suffer from severe allergies. That is because they are exposed to certain bacteria and a diverse environment on a farm that can positively influence their immune systems. Perhaps there might even be fewer people with autoimmune disorders.
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That’s interesting! I’ve read that kids who attend schools that don’t allow peanut products in the cafeteria (intending to shield children who have peanut allergies) are more likely to develop a severe allergy to peanuts because they don’t have normal exposure to them.
Animals tend to have a calming impact. I imagine that when they were a larger part of society, those places were happier and calmer for their presence
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I worked on a small farm in my early teens. I was around dozens of horses, including Shetland Ponies, and spent many hours bailing hay to feed them. That youthful exposure likely helped me with allergies but the effects of the physical demands and youthful exuberance and fearless acts are being paid for in adult years.
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Genuinely curious: Knowing what you know now, would you trade that time on the small farm?
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No, I would not. The experience contributed to who I am today, mentally, emotionally and physically. That was a time when young boys were outside all day working jobs like delivering newspapers, cutting grass, working at the local market AND playing baseball, football, etc. We learned to make our own way in the world.
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That’s what I thought you’d say! There’s wisdom in that answer.
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