A few facts I learned while writing House of Seven

Researching for House of Seven, my new humorous novel that will be released in July 2017, I have learned some things. I always do. When I write a novel, I check everything and still write some anachronisms. Here are some lessons I learned from my beta readers:

Soot vs smut--which is it? The reader believed that smut was an incorrect word. Actually soot and smut are synonyms when referring to the black residue from fire.

Fly vs placket--I thought the words fly and placket meant the same when referring to the opening of a man's pants, but I discovered that a man's trousers can have a placket but it is usually called a fly.
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Bolo ties--One of the characters in House of Seven wore a bolo tie, but I had to change it. Bolo ties first appeared in the 1930's.

Distressing clothes--The little boy in House of Seven wanted to distress his clothes, but this idea is a modern concept. He didn't.

I heard that children were sent in the mail in the early 1900's. I checked this story in Snopes
Here's the story:

"In 1913 it was legal to mail children. With stamps attached to their clothing, children rode trains to their destinations, accompanied by letter carriers. One newspaper reported it cost fifty-three cents for parents to mail their daughter to her grandparents for a family visit. As news stories and photos popped up around the country, it didn’t take long to get a law on the books making it illegal to send children through the mail."

It happens that House of Seven takes place in 1913..