Thursday, November 8, 2007

100 years ago this week

Ok - so it must've been a slow(!) news week:

Nov 8 1907
These are extremely quiet days for the police. Four days have elapsed without an arrest being made or any other difficulty of any consequence reported. The city jail was cleared of prisoners last Saturday and there has been no one in since then.

Nov 9 1907
There are a good many farmers in the city this afternoon and the merchants are all doing a good business.

Nov 11 1907
A little man not more than five feet six inches tall, wearing a blue flannel shirt, a duck coat, cotton pants and high-top boots, was the object of considerable interest in Salina yesterday. The man was Frans Emanuel Kivekas and he was on his way to San Francisco by foot, and when he reaches there by Jan 1, as he expects to do, he will have completed a journey around the world on foot, and will as the result of a bet receive $5000 and a 160-acre farm.

Now when I first started reading the story from the 11th I thought perhaps Huey, Dewey or Louie had come to Salina. But the story is much more interesting than that! I wonder if he made it? Or if it was all for nothing and he died penniless and alone. If he did make it, he was rich. I have no idea what you compare $5000 in 1907 to in 2007, but if anyone does know... share! A google search for Frans Kivekas returns a lot of foreign pages :(

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here are several answers to your question.

I think the best way to look at 5k in 1907 is the price of a new Ford Model T in 1908, $850. If my math is correct, and it's probably not, that makes 5000 dollars in 1907 equal approximately to 114,000 dollars today.

Unfortunately, circumambulation's first officially verified hero was Dave Kunst in 1974. Facing bandits? Play dead.

SillyCass said...

:) good job Dr.!!! Thanks for the advice - unfortunately I think that will only work on Afgani bandits.