EASTON EXPRESS, Pennsylvania, Dec. 12, 1878  

* War of the Currents"
* Thomas "Edison Mania" 
* Dawn of the electric age

Most of a page 2 column is taken up with a detailed article headed: "Edison's Great Invention" "An Authoritative Explanation of His Wonderful Electric Light--Why the Secret Has Been so Carefully Guarded".
The front page has: "Polygamy" "A Reminiscence--Brigham Young and Brother William's Wife".
Four pages, minor edge-tears in the spine margin. very nice condition.

Background: The December 12, 1878, edition of the Easton Express serves as a rare primary source capturing a moment of intense technological suspense and social friction in American history. At this specific time, the world was gripped by "Edison-mania," yet the "authoritative explanation" of the electric light mentioned in the column was actually part of a sophisticated public relations veil; Edison had successfully tanked gas stocks with his proclamations of success, but in reality, he was still months away from discovering the carbonized thread filament that would make the bulb commercially viable. This "carefully guarded secret" was a blend of genuine patent protection and a desperate stall for time in the Menlo Park laboratory. Simultaneously, the front-page coverage of Brigham Young and the practice of polygamy highlights the Victorian era’s moral preoccupation with the Utah Territory, coming just as the U.S. government was escalating legal efforts to dismantle the social structures of the LDS Church. Together, these stories represent the "Gilded Age" in its purest form: a society standing on the precipice of a modern, electrified future while remains deeply embroiled in the religious and social conflicts of the frontier past.