Gay nineties live again.

Old Dobbin starts out for the rush hour  in the good old days of horse cars. This is the way they hurried to the office,  and two-horsepower speed was considered the last word in progress. A marvel of  its day, as was the motion picture. A rare piece of the earliest motion picture  news photography. Steam locomotives hauled New York's elevated trains. Housewives  in second-story dwellings enjoyed all the advantages of a steam bath.  Grand lace curtains and things. From the looks of this scene at  42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, the automobile has come to  stay. And the derby, too. Here's one of the busiest corners in  the world. The mad rush of a metropolis. Horatio Alger newsboys shouting their wares.  Horse cars streaking down the street. And do you believe those comedy cops appeared only  in early Hollywood? Here's the real thing. Bertha, the sewing machine girl, hard at work.  But the day is over and Bertha and her sisters leave all decked out in the latest style.  Gay '90s fashions for the poor working girl. The pride of the well-dressed woman and man appearing in the season's new  fashions on Old Fifth Avenue. Here are those police again herding the  first subway crowd the day New York's subway opened. It's all a hustle and a bustle.  Imagine those dresses in a rush hour today. Now it's to the field of sports in the  good old '90s. A bit of strenuous exercise. Sport clothes have their points as well as their  stripes. It's a he-man's game, as one can readily see. Score is love all. Why doesn't she take that  hat off? What action? What speed? What stamina? Better look in the mirror  before laughing at these hats. Crowds greet the greatest of modern  actresses, the divine Sarah, on one of her American tours. A rare picture indeed  of the great tragedienne's classic features. It is given to few people to cause as  much merriment as America's lovable comedian John Bunny. One twist  of his face and a nation roared. Besides inventing the telephone, the Scottish-American scientist was devoted  to research and experiment to aid the deaf. Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders  triumphantly returned from San Juan Hill and the Spanish-American War,  a truly remarkable early movie. They hadn't started the use of ticker tape  and confetti for heroes in those days, but probably Teddy would not have  liked it. There's T.R. himself. In '99, he became New York's governor. And again, the Rough Riders are with him. A  great leader, a strenuous American. Benefactor of the world. Madame  Curie, discoverer of radium, Nobel Prize winner and first woman  elected to the French Academy. The Wizard of Menlo Park, America's  greatest inventive genius. The beginning of a great public  career. Friends gather around Professor Woodrow Wilson, as  do the well-dressed cameramen. He's receiving election returns in his  race for the New Jersey governorship. Chicago's Michigan Boulevard teemed  with activity near the turn of the century. Motorcars compete with horse-drawn  vehicles for the right of way. Tandems like these rushed many a passenger in  station buses along LaSalle Street. And Market Street in San Francisco seemed to have  everything, too, except traffic regulations. With these newfangled automobiles careening in every  direction, a man's life isn't safe. Streetcars are surely accommodating. Right side, left side,  they stop anywhere for a fair lady passenger. The Golden Gate City is up to  date, too, with its ferry bus. Nothing can ever take the place of this old-time  thrill. Fire horses rushing to position at the sound of the bell, straining at the bits in their  mad dash through the streets. A noble animal specialized and devoted in his task. Now gone  forever in the saving of men's life and property. Neptune's fair daughters gossiping before the dip in the deep. Or are they just  modeling these new bathing suits? Here they come down the line. My,  she has originality or something, greatest bevy of blushing beauties ever to  face a judge's stand. Was there ever such a conglomerate aggregation of variegated costumes?  Such an array of champion glamour. What supreme confidence? What poise? What grace? Everyone a  winner in her own opinion. All the dash of it, the youthful spirit, the utter bravado. Like  fairy queens with parasols for magic wands. How winsomely they smile. How proudly they model  their own ideas of what a bathing costume should be. How coyly they strive to charm the  deciding judges. May the best girl win. Then next year maybe she can  ride Lady Godiva's white horse. They did it then as they are doing  it now. Only they had more hair to do then. There's nothing so new  about the up-off-the-face hairdo. As for fashion models, we'll back up the girls of yesteryear against those of  today. Plume coiffures and all. Now, now we're really seeing something. We never  witnessed a better team in the schottische. No, that isn't the schottische. It's  the polka. No, it's the waltz. No, it's the two-step. Well, take your choice.  Anyway, we call that real teamwork. Things certainly were on the up and up at Coney  Island. Papa twinkles his toes on the tightrope. And then Mama, with equal nerve  and grit, amazes the gaping crowd with a few demonstrations of how  she leads a balanced existence. It's a heavy responsibility for the  tightrope. Anyway, the crowd likes it. Sweet apple blossom time and a gliding ride  back home. Smooth sailing these spring days with the birds chirping. Everything  vibrant with life. The leisurely way of yesterday is over. A new order has  taken its place. Another era starts.