At the beginning of that interval a type-machine was a curiosity.

The person who owned one was a curiosity, too.

But now it is the other way about: the person who DOESN'T own one is a curiosity.

I saw a type-machine for the first time in--what year?
I suppose it was 1873--because Nasby was with me at the time, and it was in Boston.

We must have been lecturing, or we could not have been in Boston, I take it.