neb:

Fred99:

 

People on forums are far more likely to respond if they've got proof you're wrong, than they are to congratulate you by affirming when you're right.  This quirk of human nature is an undeniable fact.

 

Formalised in the dictum "The way to get information on the Internet isn't to post a question but to post the wrong answer".

It isn't a "dictum" because the "authority" credited with creating it calls it a "misquote that disproves itself by propagating through the internet".  

Anyway, my head hurts.

The objections to the device pictured being a cable being lifted/tensioned and instead some obscure way to pluck pumpkins, rocks, or whatever are wrong.  The wire is way too thin for any serious lifting, pumpkins can be lifted into a cart by hand.

The gentleman in fancy clothing clearly owns property,  The poles in the background parallel with the road are relevant because they indicate that power and/or telephone lines exist at the time and place where the photo was taken.  The 90 degree angle to the poles on the new cable being installed is because he's having electricity or a telephone installed to his house.  He's wealthy, evidence being that he's well dressed and that he was able to commission a photographer to document the great occasion of having a new-fangled utility commissioned, and wanted to share this news with friends and family, personal photo postcards were popular at the time.  His house is not in view because wealthy landowners built homesteads set well back from the road, lest common folks and other riff-raff got too close.  The horse was called Trigger.  Case closed.