OPINION — “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two,” one insurance company says in its TV commercials. If a special man who lived long ago could hear that boast, he could easily reply, “Hold my beer.”
Because one solitary life stretched from the French Revolution to the eve of the 20th century, from the time when Madame Guillotine was lopping off heads in Paris to the first days of people riding in automobiles. During that lifetime, the Industrial Revolution dawned with a vengeance, empires rose and fell, and electricity began creeping into everyday life, never to leave it.
One man saw it all firsthand, as it happened. And he not only witnessed history — he even made it himself.
