How They Make the Common Sewing Needle

1909

We are so accustomed to seeing the little steel sewing needle in everyday use that we accept its presence as a matter of course, quite as if it grew on a tree like an apple.

It is true that needles have always been used but not always in their present form. In times when skins of animals were worn for clothing the needle was made of fishbone, bone or ivory, without an eye and of goodly size and strength, in order to pierce the skins easily.

Since the latter part of the fourteenth century steel needles have been made. Various are the kinds and sizes which are now required for everyday use by a world of people for sewing by hand, by machine, for packing, upholstery and leather work, wonderful needles for surgical purposes and many others.

The material used in the manufacture of the needle consists of one steel wire, which is supplied in coils. These coils are cut with powerful shears into lengths each sufficient for two needles.

Several thousand of those lengths are placed together in a bundle, heated to red heat and then quickly straightened by pressure and rolling.

These straightened lengths are then pointed at both ends on a revolving grindstone. A grinder will point as many as one hundred thousand needles in a day, while machinery invented for the same purpose will point three times as many as a skilled workman.

Next comes the eying of the needles. You will remember that each length of wire referred to is sufficient for two needles. At the centre of each length, therefore, is stamped the grooved and rounded impression of two needle heads, end to end, and then perforated by steel punches.

Through the double eye holes thus formed (of, say, one hundred needles at a time) is threaded fine wire, giving an appearance of a two edged comb. The needles are held rigid and then broken apart with comparative ease between the eyeholes.

The needles are next hardened and tempered by being subjected to red heat, plunged into an oil bath, reheated again and gradually cooled.

After this they must be scoured and polished by friction combined with softsoap, oil and emery powder. Washing, drying and more polishing follow – in fact, there seems to be no end to the polishing and finishing processes – but when the work is finally completed the needles are as near perfection as modern machinery and human skill can make them.

Sand Castles (poetry)

1909

Sand Castles

By Elizabeth Ruggles

At midnight when the moon is bright,
And everybody out of sight,
The beach is filled with little folk,
Who think it a tremendous joke
To occupy the forts so grand
The children fashioned out of sand.
The snails are set on guard, for fear
Some mortal might approach too near.
And then the revelry begins:—
The fishes spread their shining fins,
And, standing upright, glide along
To join the merry-making throng.
The music from the Cricket Band—
By far the best in Fairy Land—
Accompanies the sprightly dance.
And moonbeams, shimmering, enhance
The beauty of the creatures fair,
Who gaily, madly revel there.
But hush! a sound of heavy feet,
And noiselessly, with motions fleet,
The merry dancers disappear,
For Mr. Boogy Man is near.
With one great stride he soon destroys
The scene of many earthly joys,
And when the children come next day,
They'll find their forts all swept away.
But gorgeous new ones soon they'll make
For all the little fairies' sake.

–The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Sept. 18, 1909, p. 24.

Dwarf Darnell Flim-Flams Little Blind Girl

Atlanta, 1902

MONROE DARNELL, MIDGET, FLIM-FLAMS BLIND GIRL

The climax of eccentricities in flim-flamming was reached yesterday, when a little dwarf was caught trying to flim-flam a blind girl out of 10 cents.

Monroe Darnell, the well-known midget, was the flim-flammer, and his victim was a little blind girl who stands at the street corners patiently waiting for good-hearted people to drop money into a tin cup which she holds in her hand.

Darnell tried to swipe a 10-cent piece which he saw in the cup, and in its stead placed a copper.

The police are constantly meeting up with flim-flam games and new ones are always coming to light. It takes novelty to make a flim-flam go, and the crooks are ever trying to invent some new scheme by which they can get hold of coin without working for it. But it took Dwarf Darnell to present the most unique flim-flam that has come before the police in many a day.

Yesterday the little blind girl was standing at the corner of Decatur and Ivy streets. Some one had dropped a 10-cent silver coin into her tin cup. Across the street Monroe Darnell, who is himself no slouch when it comes to begging money, was standing, and when he saw a coin fall into the blind girl's cup he strolled over her way and peered into the receptacle. Having ascertained that the coin was a dime, he took a 1-cent piece from his pocket, and squinting his eyes around to see if he was unobserved, he quickly swiped the dime from the cup and left the copper in its place. He might have swiped the dime and left nothing in its place, but his leaving the copper showed that his conscience was not entirely dead.

He was not unobserved, however, for a citizen saw the flim-flam and reported the matter to an officer. Darnell was caught with the dime in his hand. He admitted having exchanged a copper for it, but stoutly maintained that he did not mean to steal it.

"Now, look here," said he in his squeaky voice, "yer all knows how I like a joke. All the boys will tell yer that poor little Monroe is always full of his fun. I just meant to play a joke on the blind girl, seeing as how she couldn't see. Then I meant to teach her a lesson about being too careless with her money. I was just going to say to her: 'Baby mine, I have slipped away your dime and put a copper in its place. You mustn't leave your money in your cup so long. You must take it out as fast as you hear it drop, or some fine day a sure enough rogue will swipe your money, and he won't be as honest as poor little Monroe.' You see, I make my money by the same sort of hard licks as the blind girl, and I want her to learn how to take better care of the stuff."

The dwarf was made to restore the dime, and he generously let her also have his copper. If he had not been caught, however, the flim-flam would have been a very serious joke to the little blind girl.

–The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Nov. 23, 1902, p. 5.

The Fourteen Mistakes of Life

1888

Somebody has condensed the mistakes of life, and arrived at the conclusion that there are fourteen of them. Most people would say, if they told the truth, that there was no limit to the mistakes of life; that they were like the drops in the ocean or the sands on the shore in number; but it is well to be accurate.

Here, then, are fourteen great mistakes:

It is a great mistake to set up our own standard of right and wrong, and judge people accordingly;

to measure the enjoyment of others by our own;

to expect uniformity of opinion in this world;

to look for judgment and experience in youth;

to endeavor to mold all dispositions alike;

not to yield to immaterial trifles;

to look for perfection in our actions;

to worry ourselves and others with what can not be remedied;

not to alleviate all that needs alleviation as far as lies in one's power;

not to make allowances for the infirmities of others;

to consider every thing impossible that we cannot perform;

to believe only what our finite minds can grasp;

to expect to be able to understand every thing.

The greatest of mistakes is to live for time alone, which any moment may launch into eternity. –from Wives and Daughters.

The Prison Blood Hounds – Prowling, Howling, Dreadful

New Jersey, 1889

The Prison Blood Hounds

How They Prowl Around at Night, Undisturbed by Visitors

Acting as assistants to the night watchman at the State's Prison are three huge blood hounds, who nightly are turned loose in the prison yard. The vicious glare of their eyes and gleam of their teeth have created a reign of terror among the prisoners, and doubtless the presence of three canine watchmen has prevented any plotting among the prisoners. For the thought that, although they may elude the ever-vigilant wall guards, yet these faithful retainers of the prison-keeper aided by their keen scent and possessed of such vicious dispositions may at any moment pounce upon the would-be jail-breaker is certainly enough to deter even the boldest from attempting escape. But not only the prisoners are forbidden in the yard after dark by the presence of these animals, but the officials of the prison are also under the ban, and can only enter the prison yard at the risk of being torn to pieces. One of these canines, Sultain by name, died recently but the other two still do effective duty.

They have acquired the habit of howling, and often disturb the stillness of the night with their bloodcurdling yelps, striking terror to the hearts of the lonely prisoners in their cells, whose ears are pierced by their unearthly growling.

With these dogs acting as guards, none of the prisoners are willing to undergo the risk incurred in taking French leave.

–Trenton Times, Trenton, NJ, July 1, 1889, p. 3.

Books — The Best Friends

1920

THE BEST FRIENDS
by Sidney Dark, in John O'London's Weekly

When once the love of books has come into a man's life he can never be lonely, he can never be bored, he can never lose his interest in life, he can never be quite unhappy. Books are the friends that never fail, and the men and women that only live in books are the best and the most real friends of all.

The happy life is not spent altogether in the world of streets and shops and offices. A large part of it must be lived in the world of imagination. And living with the imaginings of great writers, we, too, learn to dream and the happiest homes in the world are the castles in the air that we build for ourselves. They are, indeed, the only homes the foundations of which are unshakable rocks.

Drink-Crazed He Used Hatchet To Demolish Home; Police Got Him

Cedar Rapids, IA, 1920

If a high-powered explosive shell had entered the apartment of John Edgington at Second avenue and eighth street, today it could not have done more damage than Edgington did himself while apparently laboring under the impression that he was Carrie Nation. Seizing a hatchet, Edgington broke up anything and everything he could lay his hands on. With one blow he completely demolished a china closet; he chopped holes in a dresser, broke a big mirror in his room, smashed dishes and created general havoc.

Armed with the axe as he was and almost crazed from the effects of protracted drinking, he also threw a considerable scare into his wife and persons living in the neighborhood. When Policeman Mikota and Butler arrived at the rooming house Edgington was still engaged in his work of destruction, but accompanied the police quietly enough to the police station. There he again became violent and repeatedly dashed his head against the door of his cell. His cries could be heard all over the building and his actions were so wild that another man who was in the cell with him begged to be taken out and placed in another cell.

Edgington is said to have been drinking steadily since July 4 last. His condition would not permit of his arraignment in police court this morning but he will, it is expected, appear before Judge Clark tomorrow.

–The Evening Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA, Aug. 13, 1920, p. 3.

"Left Clothes on Ship by Mistake," Says Paris Actress Noted for Legs

1920
Click picture for nice big copy

American Legs Shapely

French Girl With Million Dollar Limbs Won't Compete With American Women

NEW YORK, March 3. — The French girl with the "million dollar legs" won't bet a cent on 'em against American competition.

Mlle. Andre Spinelli, who walked into the European hall of fame on "the most shapely limbs in the world," looked down from the balcony on a scantily clad Zeigfeld chorus girl going through rehearsal steps and said:

"No, I will not say I have ze best."

And the conversation turned to legs.

Whereupon the noted little French danseuse freed herself of some personal secrets.

"On ze other side it es ze whole shape," with a sweeping gesture from the shoulders down.

"Ze Americans also zink ze leg is only from here to here," pointing from a dainty bare ankle to a dimpled knee that peeped out below a flaming pair of wildly combined colors in crepe de chine junior breeches.

"But on ze other side zey call it ze leg from here down" marking the start at the hip where a brief white "hug-me-tight" sweater reached its farthest.

"Most of my clothes got on ze Adriatic by mistake and aren't here yet," she added and no one questioned it.

"Ze papers say I have ze most beautiful legs in ze world. Well, I do not know. I will let ze Americans judge for themselves. I never say I have ze best but I do say I have ze fine shape. So have all ze American girls I have seen. Oh, oui, oui.

"I do not like ze talk about ze legs. Ze people will zink zat's all I have, I have ze whole shape. And I sing and I act. I like to do ze comedy and I am going to do it.

"What are ze ideal limbs? I could not say. I am not ze man. Look, what you say?"

The reporter didn't say.

Perrine's Comet Misses the Earth

1896

CHANGED ITS COURSE.

The Comet Concluded Not To Hit the Earth.

The fine accuracy with which your modern astronomers can calculate the movements of the heavenly bodies as they whirl onward through space has been excellently illustrated in the case of Perrine's comet.

This nebulous hobo was due to hit the earth today, according to the calculations of some of the leading sky-gazers, and the Scimitar, with its usual enterprise, had made all arrangements to get out a special edition as soon as the impact transpired, containing interviews with some of the prominent citizens of the visiting orb and some estimates about how they stood on the money question. But up to the hour of going to press the concussion has failed to concuss, and The Scimitar is in receipt of heliographic advices from this wandering pilgrim in infinite space that the visit has been postponed, but that it will surely be made as soon as the national democratic committee shall have adopted a free silver platform.

It appears that the comet approached within 27,000,000 miles of the earth and then, tucking its tail between its legs, made a sneak. The comet was discovered by Professor Perrine, of Lick Observatory, on February 13th, but its identity could not be fixed with certainty, as no one appears to have mislaid a comet lately. Without knowing its identity, the astronomers were at a loss as to its habits or condition in life. Professor Leuschren, of California, did some ciphering and concluded that the stranger was an irresponsible gob of atoms, moving toward the earth at a rate of 1,700,000 miles per day and evidently purposing to give this planet a dig in the ribs or an upper-cut on the proboscis. But it now appears that ten days before its discovery the comet had passed perihelion, and a few days after that event made a turn in its orbit and started in a parabolic orbit on its road back into impenetrable and illimitable space. It was at no time nearer to the earth than 27,000,000 miles, and as its tail is always stretched out away from the sun, once it had turned on its orbit it could not touch the earth. There is little danger from the tail of a comet, but one having a nucleus would very likely make an end of things earthly. The chances, however, of any comet striking the earth are always infinitely small.

The danger is also past of the comet falling into the sun, a possibility that had been more than hinted at by some astronomers. This would be a real catastrophe, for all learned astronomers acknowledge that if a comet fell into the sun it would produce such an increase of solar heat people on earth would all be broiled or frizzled or fried up. With this danger staring the world in the face, it seems that if the matter were left to popular vote the people on the earth would elect to have the comet hit the earth and take the attending chances, rather then have it fall into the sun and burn everything up.

Other astronomers who wish, evidently, to reassure the public, claim that in 1861 a comet several times larger than the one now in question hit the earth while traveling at the rate of 10,000,000,000 miles a day and nobody knew it. How they discovered it so many years after they refuse to make plain. But if these astronomers are telling the truth, it places the other astronomers who say that a comet only hits once in fifteen hundred million years in an awkward position. Clearly either one set of astronomers or the other is making a terrible blunder.

Few people have a clear idea as to what a comet really is and for their benefit the opinion of Professor Young is set forth as follows: "A comet is nothing but a 'sand bank,' that is, a swarm of solid particles of unknown size and widely separated, say pinheads several hundred feet apart, each particle carrying with it an envelope of gas largely hydrocarbon, in which gaslight is produced, either by electrical discharges between the particles or by some other light, the evolving action due to the sun's influence. This hypothesis derives its chief plausibility from the modern discovery of the close relationship between meteors and comets."

Another astronomer on the subject of the make-up of the comets says

"It is not a solid body like the earth. It is made up of minute bodies. We might compare it with a dust-cloud. While in size it compares with the earth, there is no comparison with the solidity of the two. So far as we have been able to learn there are no large particles of matter in the comet. They are made up of atoms of dust of iron, nickel or some other metal. Our atmosphere is practically impervious to such a body. Seventy or eighty miles above the earth, where the atmosphere is so rare that the vacuum is almost as good as that of a Crookes tube, there is still enough resistance to disintegrate and destroy a body like a comet traveling with the swiftness with which a comet travels. The particles would become indefinitely fine, no larger than the ultimate atoms of matter. They would ultimately reach the earth." – From The Memphis Scimitar.

–The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, March 16, 1896, page 9.

Two Despondent Men Attempt Suicide: Laudanum, Morphine, Noose

Atlanta, 1896

BOTH WANTED DEATH

Two Despondent Men Attempt Suicide in Two Ways.

LAUDANUM, MORPHINE, NOOSE

One in a Wagon Yard, the Other in a Shed.

WILL SIMPSON TOOK DRUG POISON

He Was Found with a large Quantity of Drugs In His Stomach, but Was Saved.

The suicide mania was abroad in the city yesterday. Two citizens were seized with the desire to end their existence. Both tried the usual methods of suicides.

One of the desperate men attempted to hang himself in a deserted shed. He was found and cut down just in time to save his life. His neck bears the imprint of the improvised noose, and it also has a decided crick in it.

The other unfortunate decided on the laudanum and morphine route to the other world and he swallowed enough poison to kill several men. He was found in a wagon yard and hauled to the hospital just as the poisonous drugs were taking effect. Before the doctors could pump out the man he was nearer to death than is usual in cases when would-be suicides are saved. His was given up as a hopeless case, but at the last moment the man was saved. He is very sick now.

The poison patient was picked up by some farmers in Morris's wagon yard, on Decatur street, adjoining the police station. He had taken an ounce of laudanum and three grains of morphine in his desperate effort to kill himself. The discoverers of the man called in the police and it was found that the sick man, Will Simpson, a bartender, who works for J. G. Sprayberry, on Decatur street, was in a very bad way. He was getting worse rapidly, and but for the prompt action in sending for the ambulance and hauling the man to the hospital he would have died in the yard.

Simpson lay between life and death at the hospital nearly all day. The physicians and surgeons in charge devoted several hours applying the restoratives in such cases, and after hard work they were rewarded by seeing the sick man begin to revive. He improved slowly, and late in the afternoon was on the road to recovery. Last night the physicians said that he would recover. Officers Shepard, Walton and Abbott took charge of the man when he was found, and they sent him to the hospital. He declined to tell why he had swallowed the drugs. When told that he might die he said that he had nothing to say beforehand.

Hanging In a Shed.

The would be suicide who attempted to hang himself is not known. His name was not taken at the Grady hospital. It is not the custom of the officials there to take the names of patients who attempt to kill themselves. The man is a negro. He was found in an old shed on a lot on Liberty street, near the old barracks in the western part of the city. He tied a cloth about his neck for a rope and jumped off into space with the other end of the noose fastened to a rafter above. When cut down the darky was breathing hard and was in a dangerous fix, but he was brought round all right.

—The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, March 16, 1896, page 9.

Police Chief Puts Ban on Ogling Women

1910

Ft. Wayne Chief of Police Orders Arrest of All Offenders

FT. WAYNE, Ind. -- Chief of Police W. F. Borgman has issued a stringent order against ogling women and audibly commenting on them on the streets by young idlers of the city. Borgman declares that this practice has reached alarming proportions. The police are to arrest all offenders.

—Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Jan. 8, 1910, p. 9.


1936

Anti-Ogling Ordinance Goes Goo-Goo

LOS ANGELES, March 18. -- It sounds simple enough, to come up with an anti-ogling ordinance to shield the women of this city from the ogling eyes of men, but one such proposed law collapsed tonight due to a technicality.

The ordinance as proposed would have made it a crime for "two or more men or boys 14 years of age or over to ogle women in public places," but it was revealed to have no provision for protecting men and boys from women who also might ogle.

A legal opinion from City Attorney Ray Chesebro declared the law to be "rank discrimination," and added that it would be hard to enforce, and there would be "the virtual impossibility of getting a jury of men who have not themselves ogled at one time or another."

The city council dropped the law. It had been designed as the cornerstone of a set of municipal "blue laws," offered by Councilman G. Vernon Bennett, in an effort to make Los Angeles "a fit place to live in."

The language defining legal ogling went like this: "To view with amorous or inviting glance." The city attorney's opinion said that an anti-ogling law would not be illegal in itself, were it not discriminatory. "Ogling is ogling. If it is reprehensible for men and boys, it is also reprehensible for the female. There should be no sex in an anti-ogling law."

Other difficulties were noted. The city attorney's opinion raised the question, "Who is to judge when ogling is indecent? A policeman who does not himself ogle, may make arrests readily. One who ogles may be more tolerant." There was also this practical difficulty in enforcement: What if a man gets a bug in his eye? If he ogling or simply digging out the bug?

Despite this setback, Councilman Bennett intends to carry on his campaign to render Los Angeles more moral.

—Written 2007 from original article of 1936.

In an African Market Place

1884

An African market, with so many commodities to sell and so many eager sellers and loungers, is a most animated scene. The din of voices may be heard afar off, and when you enter the great open square, where, under the shade of great trees, perhaps a thousand people are disposed in little chaffering groups around their heaps of wares, it is worse than the parrot-house at the Zoological Gardens.

The women are the keenest traders; they haggle and scream and expostulate, and chuckle aside over their bargains, while the hulking men lounge about in good-humored uselessness, or squat in rows stolidly smoking. Although the strife of tongue is great, few real quarrels occur. There is in most cases a chief of the market, perhaps an old Fetish man, who regulates all disputes, and who so heavily fines both litigants that all are chary of provoking his arbitration.

This babel lasts but one day, and then for the rest of the "week" or "fortnight" the market place is void and desolate; only the old wicker baskets, banana skins, corn-shucks, feathers and egg-shells remain to witness to the great assemblage which has taken place. Of such a kind is the great market near Isaugila, and there are similar gatherings at Manyanga, Lutete, and in proximity to most of Mr. Stanley's stations. — Johnson's Congo River.


A Zulu belle is like the proverbial prophet. She has not much on'er in her own country. — Chicago Sun.


1926:

If the amount of tea drunk in England in one year were held in one teapot it would require a vessel as high as the cross on St. Paul's Cathedral, and in proportions of a teapot that high. Four trains could race abreast through its spout.

Curl Your Mustache

1884

At a late hour last evening a young man left a chair in a fashionable uptown barber shop with a handkerchief to his mouth.

"Cut him?" asked the next customer.

"No. He's got his mustache in curlers."

"Eh?"

The barber produced two bits of rubber tubing an inch long and quarter of an inch thick. In one end was a hole with a small rubber ring through it. In the other end was a slit.

"We roll the wet mustache around this tube, and, after making one turn around all with the ring, slip it into the slit. That holds the hair in the curled position until morning, when he takes off the curler. The hair will stay in shape for a day or two. If applied often enough it makes a permanent curl. We charge 25 cents for a pair of curlers and 6 cents for applying them — latest thing for mustaches. — The New York Sun.

An Anemone's Live Morsel

1884

In one of the apartments of the San Francisco Aquarium, the interior being plainly visible through the plate-glass front, are a number of sea anemones, or sea sunflowers, about three or four inches in diameter, clinging to pieces of rock, and among them several young halibut.

Near the front, in plain view of the writer the other day, was a halibut about five or six inches long in a natural horizontal position, with his nose just touching the center or mouth of the anemone, apparently feeding. Looking closer it was observed that the anemone was in motion, and in a short space it was doubtful whether the fish or anemone was the eater. Presently the ineffectual struggle of the fish to loose himself denoted his capture. It seemed that the finny marauder had pushed his nose against the innocent-looking mouth of the plant in pursuit of food and was caught. The face of the anemone, which had previously been flat and circular, like its namesake, the sunflower, became concave and closed up and around the head of the fish, elongating itself for the purpose, and in about five minutes the head was covered entirely to the gills. While closing the plant raised the fish to a vertical position. Soon the head was covered to the gills; its respiration almost stopped.

At this juncture the writer's pity for the fish prevailed over his curiosity and he released the prisoner. In two minutes more it would have passed, or at least so much of it as would have answered the purpose, into food for the anemone. — The San Francisco Call.

Movie Theater Orchestras Developing Taste for Classical Music

1926

GOOD MUSIC IS MORE POPULAR

MOVIE THEATER ORCHESTRAS HAVE TENDED TO DEVELOP TASTE FOR BETTER CLASS OF MUSIC

Chicago. — Disguised as hand maiden of the cinema, classical music is becoming popular.

Popular, "that is, compared with the classical taste in this country ten years ago. In Chicago, the change is perceptible in all the larger picture houses. One company for instance, which operates six of the largest houses, has announced it has already spent more for music this year than for pictures.

Boon For Good Music

Adolphe Dumont, former Chicago grand opera conductor now directing music in one of the theatres, evaluated this changing public taste as a boon not only for good music but also for good musicians. His own orchestra, he said, has just been increased to more than fifty pieces.

"More grand opera music is played in the large motion picture houses each day," he said, "than played by grand opera orchestras in week. We play grand opera four times a day, week days, and five times Sunday. The grand opera orchestras and Symphony orchestras hardly ever play a program more than three times a week.

Opera Interprets Emotions

"A public demand for more and better music has been recognized. Eight years of patient work, interpreting the emotions of the movies, as only grand opera music can do, created the demand.

"Day after day, showing sometimes slapstick comedy to the tune of the Ride of the Valkyries; love scenes to strains from Tristran and Isolde and Charlie Chaplin's antics to Debussy's 'Girl of the Flaxen Hair,' the moving picture orchestras have given audiences a taste for classical music that many of them would have formerly disavowed. Great music consequently has found a new significance, and importance. It gives motion pictures dramatic intensity."

—Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, Aug. 12, 1926, p. 12.

Quips – A Dentist Whipped For Kissing A Patient

1926

TOM SIMS SAYS—

You can travel better with a wooden leg than with a wooden head.

The world gets right along now. In Columbia University, 51 law seniors flunked.

A man is trying to go around the world in 35 days, but if he succeeds it won't get him anywhere.

In Exeter, N. H., a dentist was whipped for kissing a patient, perhaps after telling her it wouldn't hurt a bit.

Our busiest citizen is one trying to make a living without working.

Strong language usually comes from a weak mind.

Camouflage stockings are the latest, but they won't become popular.

Here's a fine symbol for a 1928 political party: Camel in a canoe.

There's quite a bit of static in handling our radio industry.

—Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, Aug. 12, 1926, p. 6.

Deceased is a "Graded" Body in This Cemetery

August 1926

Folkstone, England — Folkstone's new cemetery is to have first, second and third class graves.

The question whether the graves should be graded has been agitating residents here for months, and the controversy was finally settled by the town council which adopted a resolution in favor of the grading system.



Miners' Dogs Have Day

London — Miner's dogs had a "day out" at the fashionable and exclusive Ranelagh club to which they were brought by their owners to compete for the Sporting Chronicle Lonsdale trophy for "whippets."

Fashionable Mayfair dames rubbed shoulders with miners' wives and West End aristocrats hobnobbed with miners during the excitement of the racing. The Duchess of Newcastle acted as judge.



Dog Wrecks Car

London. — When his pet dog leaped into his lap, K. B. Harris lost control of his automobile. It ran into a ditch and turned a somersault. The man was unhurt, but the dog suffered serious injuries.

Breaks From Jail; His 180th Escape

1920

Notorious Roy Dickerson Is Again At Large

Alleged Ring Leader of Gang Which Looted Bank at Girard, Ala., Defies Prison Bars

LOS ANGELES, Cal. — Roy Dickerson, charged with aiding in the robbery of a bank at Girard, Ala., made what is said to have been his 180th escape from jail here, when he used a crude key on his cell lock in the city prison, climbed up a ventilator shaft and fled.

Dickerson's wife, who is in jail here, said her husband formerly was a vaudeville performer, making a specialty of freeing himself from handcuffs and other restraints. She told the police he had escaped 180 times and that he never had been imprisoned successfully longer than two months.

Dickerson's cell mate was found asleep after the escape. He told the guards he had not heard Dickerson's movements.

Had Escaped From Atlanta Pen

Dickerson was the alleged leader of a band of bandits who were involved in the looting of the Phoenix-Girard bank of Girard, Ala., and obtaining about $30,000 in cash. He had previously made his escape from the Fulton County penitentiary, in Atlanta, Ga., along with three other inmates.

The gang, after making the raid on the Girard bank, it is claimed, scattered and met in St. Louis for a division of the spoils. Subsequently detective shadowing the bandits arrested Dickerson here, who, with his wife, was living in a twenty-four-apartment house that they had purchased.

They were going under the name of Mr. and Mrs. George W. Lynch.

The sum of $10,000, supposed to have been a part of the bank robbery loot, was recovered by the detectives. They had an equity of $8,000 in the apartment house.

Charge Wife Aided in Escape

Detectives declare that Dickerson had been in the penitentiary several times before in Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas, and that he had made his escape each time through the aid of his wife. When Dickerson escaped from the penitentiary in Atlanta his wife was living in a hotel in that city.

After the meeting of the bandits in St. Louis the various members of the band were shadowed and the apprehension of many of them was effected. Seven of the gang were taken at different parts of the United States.

Dickerson's wife was seen in St. Louis by detectives and the pair were traced to this city. Waiting for an opportunity to take the pair and get the money at the same time, they continued shadowing Mrs. Dickerson and they were taken about two weeks ago in their apartment house here.

Gamblers Trim Rich Indian

1920

"Little Feather" Is Arrested as Vagrant After His Plucking

LINCOLN, Neb. — "Little Feather," a member of the Osage Indian tribe of Oklahoma, whose royalties from oil lands he claims are $1,000 a month, was arrested here as a vagrant.

The Indian says he left his home with plenty of funds to see a little of the world, but fell in with white gamblers who got his money, and when he reached Lincoln he was penniless.

The police were convinced of the truth of his story and he was discharged when means were supplied to send him home.


Origin of "Horse Chestnut"

It is said that the name horse chestnut was derived from the fact that when the leaves of the tree fall there is a scar left on the twig in the shape of a horseshoe that bears marks resembling the nail of a shoe.


First Paper From Wood

It is just fifty years since the method of grinding wood as raw material for paper was introduced in the United States.

"Annie Laurie's" Kin to Wed Englishman

1920

Friends Pray for Happier Romance Than Famous Song Tells

LONDON, England. — Mrs. Emma Curtler-Ferguson, a direct descendant of "Annie Laurie," is to marry this spring. Her husband to be is Maj. Vivian Eyr, late of the royal air forces. Her family home is Craigdarroch, Dumfrieshine, and her friends are hoping she will have a happier romance than the bonnie Annie who married Alick Ferguson of Craighdarroch, after jilting a lover who actually did "lie down and die."


Melted Gold Coins, Get Jail Sentences

Six Englishmen Heavy Losers in Illegal Transactions

LONDON, England. — Six months' imprisonment was the sentence pronounced upon the six men who have been on trial charged with melting gold coin.

The gold they had in their possession, amounting to more than 110,000 sovereigns, was ordered forfeited. Included in the group are Harry Lewis, a barrister, and Shure & Chamberlaid, diamond merchants.

It was brought out in the trial that the accused withdrew from the Bank of England during 1919 gold weighing eighteen hundredweight. During December alone, it was charged, they disposed of bar gold worth 9,400 pounds sterling.

Tries to End Life When She Loses $6

1920

Factory Girl Takes Poison Because She Couldn't Pay Debt

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Six dollars may not seem like a lot of money to some folks, but to Beulah Ryan, a factory girl, it was a big sum. It represented exactly the amount she had borrowed from her step-father and which she had promised to pay back this week. And she had worked half a week for it.

Beulah was happy when she left the manufacturing company, and on the street car on the way to her home she hummed a little song. Now and then she peeped into her purse to see that the six paper dollars were secure.

Arriving home, she again looked into her purse. The $6 were gone.

Half an hour later the red-eyed girl retraced her steps to the spot where she had left the street car. But the money was not to be found.

Beulah stopped in a drugstore on her way back home. In her room she took the poison she had purchased there. But the doctors arrived in time and Beulah will recover.

Housemaid Stabbed by Enraged Suitor

1920

Assault Follows Her Refusal to Attend Movie Show

BOSTON, Mass. — Agnes Logan, 24, a maid in the home of A. Glouchester Armstrong, Back Bay resident, was taken to the City Hospital suffering from multiple stab wounds which it is alleged she received when she was set upon by a male escort who became enraged when she refused to attend a moving picture show with him.

The girl, who is not fatally wounded, says she left the Armstrong home through the servants' entrance, which is on a public alleyway in the rear of the house. She met a man who wanted her to go to the "movies," but she refused to go.

It is claimed the man then drew a small penknife from his pocket and stabbed the girl in the neck, narrowing missing the jugular vein, and also stabbed her in the abdomen. Miss Logan tried to fight off her assailant and in the mix-up which followed he stabbed her several times in the hands. He then escaped through the alleyway.

Beware High Heels, Says a Woman, 95

1920

She Tells Her Sex How to Win Health and Long Life

KANE, Pa. — Low-neck dresses and high-heeled shoes will be avoided by girls who want health and long life, if they take the advice of Mrs. Catherine Sellin of Kane, who has just observed her 95th birthday. Mrs. Sellin came to Kane in 1869 and has not been outside the town's limits since then. She is clear of mind, vigorous of health, and keeps abreast of current news.

"To attain a long life and good health a girl must observe very simple rules," in my opinion," said Mrs. Sellin. "She should eat slowly, breathe deeply, get lots of sleep, never expose her throat in cold weather by wearing these modern low-necked dresses and she should not wear very high-heeled shoes.

"Exercise is important and of all exercises there is none better than digging in the soil. The best thing in the world for a woman's health is to put on loose overalls and work around in the garden. I don't see how girls manage to work at all in some of the strange things they wear nowadays. In the winter, housework is exercise enough."

Half Pound Baby Gets Along Nicely

1920

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Mr. and Mrs. Louis Ouisett are proud of being the parents of the littlest baby in New York. She is Jeanne Ouisett, and when she and her twin brother, Louis, were born Feb. 24 she weighed just under half a pound. Louis was bigger, tipping the scale at three-quarters of a pound, but he lacked the vitality of his sister and died a few hours after birth.

At the Bellevue Hospital the doctor and nurses believe the baby will live.



N.Y. Beds Too Short to Fit Tallest Yank

Brooklyn Pal Finally Leads Him to a "Rigged-Up" Couch

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Being the tallest man of the A. E. F. is something to be proud of, but it has its disadvantages when one goes looking for a place to sleep in this city.

Robert Redington of Pittston, Pa., former sergeant major in the 311th Artillery band, 79th Division, who is 6 feet 7, made the discovery on a recent night.

He finally appealed to Secretary James F. Drum at the K. of C. employment hut in Longacre square, who took Redington to his home in Brooklyn and managed to rig up a bed so his feet didn't stick out over the footboard.

"Trial" Marriage Jails Ex-Soldier

1920

PHOENIX, Ariz. — A trial marriage contract, entered into in England by a soldier and artist's model, resulted in the conviction in Federal Court of Henry O'Brien, former British soldier, on the charge of bringing to the United States Vera Mort, for immoral purposes. The jury recommended leniency.

The girl testified she met O'Brien in London, and that he had asked her to marry him. "I said I would give him six months' trial," she said. "I promised to marry him if I liked him well enough at the end of that time."



Seven I.W.W.'s Are Convicted

Ten Were Charged With Slaying Soldier on Armistice Day

MONTESANO, Wash. — Seven of the ten Industrial Workers of the World charged with the murder of Warren O. Grimm, one of four soldiers shot during an armistice day parade at Centralia, Wash., were found guilty of second degree murder. Three others were found not guilty.

Loren Roberts, one of the trio, was acquitted on the ground of insanity.

The defendants found guilty of second degree murder were Britt Smith, Ray Becker, James McInerney, Bert Bland, Eugene Barrett, John Lamb and O. C. Bland.

Don't Want Hubby, Say Million English Maids

1920

Surplus English Women Not Hunting Mates.

Scorn Suggestion That Official Action Be Taken to Relieve Shortage of Men.

LONDON, England. — A statement by Dr. R. Murray Leslie that England has 1,000,000 "too many" women and that something ought to be done about it, has aroused angry and resentful comment among the prominent feminists. They say that the modern woman, with her diversified interests, is not a husband hunter.

Radical views on the subject were expressed by Miss Norah Marsh, editor of National Health and an authority on eugenics. She contends that a new social and moral code is growing up which will solve the question.

Encourage Parenthood

"The important thing to consider is whether, with 1,000,000 unmarried women, England can maintain her population at its natural state of increase," said she. "We want parenthood encouraged only among the fit. A large number of these surplus women, from a physical and mental standpoint, would make admirable mothers.

"We are now in a state of transition and our whole moral code is under review. It may be that the day will come when a new social code will help us solve the problem of these surplus women."

"For forty years feminists have declared that marriage ought not to be the whole end of existence for women," said Miss Underwood, secretary of the Women's Federation League. "Now, in view of women's wider interests, they look upon marriage only as a minor incident in their lives.

"It is not the want of opportunity for marriage which makes a woman discontented, but her unequal economic position compared with that of men. When she secures equality with men professionally and industrially and in every other direction, you will not have any discontented women. A well developed woman needs activity, not protection."

Back to the Land

It is contended that war improved the type of woman in the British Isles, and many persons interested in the matter are opposing emigration of British girls.

Among them is the Marchioness of Townshend, who said:

"A far better way than emigration would be to attract the girls to the countryside, where they would not all be herded together in towns. They could live better lives."

Dr. Leslie has suggested that the morals of the modern girls are lower than those of their grandmothers. This charge brought a vigorous response from Mrs. Pember Reeves, well known author, who said:

"I do not believe that girls today are any worse than their grandmothers were. To ship them wholesale to the colonies would be absurd. Better drown the girls if they are such a menace and such a nuisance."

"Archie on Skids," Was Non-Coded Reply of U.S.

1920

This Time Uncle Sam Didn't Want to Use Cable Code.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 18. — The only instance during post-armistice days when an American mission in Europe dispensed with the code and sent a message "straight" to the State Department, came to light here a day or two ago.

It was during the trying days in Hungary when it appeared probable that a member of the Hapsburg family would regain the throne.

Several American Army officers were so impressed by the popular sentiment in favor of Archduke Joseph that they sent a message to the State Department in code asking whether the United States would recognize the archduke. An urgent cable was sent back in code, which read: "No, no, no."

A day passed, then another. Finally, the State Department received a message which was not in code. It read:

"Archie on the skids."

And joy reigned in the department where it was realized the cable sans code was a mystery to any one but a Yankee.

West Virginia's Vote Cheers Suffrage Head

1920

"The Struggle Is Over," Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt Declares.

NEW YORK, N.Y., March 18. — "Suffrage is won. The words are simple, but they thrill as few words do or can." This was the encouraging conclusion of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, in a statement issued here on receipt of news that the West Virginia Senate had ratified the Federal suffrage amendment by a vote of 15 to 14. With West Virginia won and the Washington and Delaware legislatures meeting soon in special session, the opinion expressed at headquarters was that "the struggle is over."

"People who have followed the course of woman suffrage from the outside with indifference or small understanding of what has been at stake," said Mrs. Catt, "will have no comprehension of the real message which the West Virginia victory carries to women. To us it means that the nation is won, that the seventy-five year struggle is over, that the women of America are enfranchised women.

"And now whatever comes out of granting the suffrage to women, it is safe to predict that it will never be responsible for any offering to the general welfare except those things which have been well considered and intelligently endorsed."

If They Prohibit Booze in Movies, No More Drunken Bullies to Fight

1919

WILL THE DRY WAVE AFFECT THE MOVIES

Here's Henry Lehrman's Humorous Account of Substituting Tea for Booze

The recent intimation that the depiction of intoxicating liquors and their effect on the consumers thereof will in future be taboo in motion pictures has brought consternation to the hearts of producers, who have already begun to wonder what will happen when the reels are really removed from the films. Henry Lehrman, the noted comedy producer, having duly sworn, deposes and says:

If wet goods must disappear from film comedy, bald-headed theatre patrons may find comfort in the fact that dry goods are following in the same pathway.

Many a film actor will sprain his ankle within the next few months, when he strides up to a coffee counter and reaches for the rail.

It is a sad thing to realize that the kick in comedies must now be registered entirely with the feet.

Picture the hero, disappointed in love, rushing off to a tea room and making a beast of himself on Lipton's Best.

How can he save the heroine from the drunken bully, if there are no drunken bullies?

We will now be confronted with the spectacle of the weak but willing hero going west to fight off an inherited craving for orange phosphate, and clapping on a gas mask every time he approaches a fruit stand.

If a ship captain can't take a schooner over the bar, will they even prevent his making port in a storm? Can we show a horse's neck or a bier? How about the old parlor wood-box, if there happens to be a stick in it?

We are ruined! They're going to take the punch out of the pictures!

—Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 10, 1919, section 4, p. 5.

It's Time To Go Out On A Picnic

1919

Want to Have a Regular Picnic?
(By Ruth Baird.)

Do you know what fun it is to go picnicking? Take your family out to the woods the first pleasant evening and becoming acquainted with our glorious out-of-doors. They will tell you it is great fun and you, yourself, forgetting the hot routine task of preparing supper and washing dishes, will decide that after all, summer is a time to enjoy yourself.

There are picnics — and picnics, of course. You could spend all day preparing the lunch and then at the picnic small Billy might say, "My lemonade is warm and the creamed potatoes are going through my paper plate. What shall I do?"

Or tragedy of tragedies, your husband might confess that he was too rheumatic to sit on grassy hummocks or picturesque rocks.

Simple Dishes, But Mighty Good.

A little forethought, however, will guard against such possible objections. A menu like this would not require a day for its preparation and brings no problem of creamed sauce on paper plates.

Meat Loaf, Potato Chips, Pickles, Vegetable Salad, Bread and Butter Sandwiches, Fruit Cookies, Lemonade.

If you desire a simpler supper, sandwiches, cookies, and fruit, with perhaps hard boiled or stuffed eggs, are always good.

An elaborate equipment is not necessary but if picnics become a family habit, one of the many kinds of convenient picnic outfits on the market would add much to the joys of picnicking. All that would be necessary for our picnic could be found about the house; a basket or carton, cups, paper plates and napkins, a little silver as possible, paraffin paper for wrapping the sandwiches and cookies, a carrier for the lemonade or coffee, and a tablecloth or some clean fresh wrapping paper to use in its place. A thermos bottle is excellent for carrying the drink, be it hot or cold, but it is not essential. Lemonade can be chilled by ice carried from home or it may be made fresh at the picnic if pure spring water is close at hand.

Cool Weather Even Better.

If the weather should turn cool and we should decide to change our menu to include eggs or a meat to be cooked over the fire, and coffee, one of the chief charms would be the coffee brewing over a camp fire in your "second best" coffee pot or kettle.

How to Make French Fries - From 1918 Mazola Ad

1918

French Fried Potatoes

Pare Potatoes and cut lengthwise into eighths. Soak in cold water 1 or 2 hours. Dry between 2 towels. Fry in Mazola. Drain on brown paper and sprinkle with salt.

—and you don't know how appetizing French Fried Potatoes can be until you have tried this Mazola recipe.

Crisp, golden brown "French Fries" are an adjunct to almost any meal. And since housewives began using Mazola, they are served more than ever.

—Bridgeport Telegram, Bridgeport, CT, Nov. 29, 1918, p. 4.

Likes Jail So Much, Now a Career in Law Enforcement

New Jersey, 1917

LIKES JAIL SO MUCH HE'S GOING TO STAY

Hackensack, N. J. — Ten months ago George Wilkins of Englewood started a term in the Bergen county jail for embezzlement of funds from the Englewood Golf club.

During the ten months George has achieved things, to wit: Won admiration by songs, helped tabulate election votes, conducted Christmas reception, captivated reformers by his "sweet manners." Widespread was George's fame and plots were hatched to wean him away from Sheriff Caurter, but George liked his surroundings so much he refused to leave. And now that his term is up he is going to remain where he is — as the sheriff's confidential clerk.

—New Oxford Item, New Oxford, PA, Aug. 23, 1917.


Making 'Em Bite.

A street car passenger stooped to pick up something from the floor.
"Who has lost a dime?" he asked.
At once half a dozen passengers began fumbling in their pockets, until one of them held out his hand and declared that he had dropped the coin.
"Does it bear the date — 1860?" inquired the finder.
"Yes, certainly."
"Is one side rather worn?"
"Just so."
"Here you are, then," said the finder and handed him a trousers button."


In the Rear.

Stella—Was Jack wounded at the front, then?
Maud—No; he came home on leave and sat on a wasp's nest.

Mars First Aid to Cupid; Parents Split Them...For A Time

Ohio, 1917

Mars First Aid to Cupid

Couple Parted by Parents Are Reunited in Marriage When Man Becomes Officer.

Gates Mills, OH. — The whole world loves a fighter — not a lover. That's the way the adage goes now. Second Lieut. Charles S. Bailey of the Ohio Field artillery and Addie Schmunk, eighteen, daughter of Robert J. Schmunk, motorcar magnate, have found it out.

Two years ago the young folks, very much in love with each other, defied stern parents and were married in the office of a justice of the peace. The parents, however, were not to be outdone. They had the marriage annulled and broke a couple of hearts for the time being.

But since that time Bailey has been graduated from Ohio university and has been made an officer in the artillery and he's going away to France, and that changes things. They have been married again. The first affair was rather lonely and only two witnesses besides the contracting parties were present. The second event was one of the social events of the season in this little city.

—New Oxford Item, New Oxford, PA, Aug. 23, 1917.


The Bride and the Cynic

"Yes," said the bride of a week. "Jack tells me everything he knows, and I tell him everything I know."
"Indeed!" rejoined her ex-rival, who had been left at the post. "The silence when you are together must be oppressive."

The World Owes You a Living; Hustle and Collect It

1917

Flashlights

About all that jealousy asks to make trouble is a chance.

Fair as women are, even they are no excuse for the so-called ladies' man.

No matter how much a man may neglect his wife it always makes him mad to discover that some other man is slightly interested in her.

This world may owe you a living, but if you don't care-enough for it to hustle round and collect it, the world isn't going to do any worrying.

Luck doesn't play nearly so big a part in the other fellow's success as you imagine.


Little Things Worth Knowing

The best marksmen are generally those with blue or gray eyes.

German silver is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. There is no silver in it.

There are fifteen technical colleges in Queensland, with 8,000 students in attendance.

Under perfect conditions watercress may be made to flower and seed within eight days of planting.

The Solitary Breakfast – 1917 and 2007

1917

At first blush breakfast seems a sociable meal; at that hour a man is best satisfied, or least discontented, with himself, and in a mood to make the most of the world. Human vitality at its maximum, mere existence lugs exhilaration along with it; good humor mantles everything. But there is an uncertainty in company even when you may choose it; for temperament is never to be wholly trusted (artists are dangerous people to meet at breakfast), and there are a thousand happenings — troubled sleep, early awakening, mosquitoes, a surmised mouse, no hot water, buttoned boots, putting studs in a shirt — that may occur between going to bed at night and coming down to breakfast in the morning, and ill-adjusted feelings in even one member of the company may dampen the spirits of all. Company is no doubt the better state, and brings out the full capacities for pleasure that lie in breakfast, but a solitary breakfast is safer; solitary pleasantness is more tempered, but it is more certain. — Henry Dwight Sedgwick in Yale Review.

2007 (me)

There's always some 'feeling out' in the morning, which only takes a few seconds, to see if the company you keep has gotten up on the wrong side of the bed. By the time you actually get to breakfast, though, you definitely know. Anyway, who has time for breakfast, and who really cares to have company doing it? Out in public, seeing the various ones having their breakfast, it's like any other time. Among the billed cap set, I don't notice any distinguishing between a quiet few bites and the same old uproar of any other time. When I get up my eyes are somewhat sleep-shot, but some of these others, you'd never know they needed it.

As for the "surmised mouse," I suppose that means something. Which would be this, he hears some noise, real low level noise, chewing on a box maybe, or scampering, and surmises it's a mouse in the house. I tell you, if I surmised there were a mouse nearby, my surmising would soon become complete knowledge, and the mouse would be hunted down and extracted from the premises as soon as I had the energy to do so, which would necessarily be at that same precise moment.

Bees Make Home in His House, OK with Him

1917

Store Honey Unmolested For Three Years In Doctor's Residence.

St. Louis.—A swarm of bees has lived and made honey for three years in the brick wall at the home of Dr. Allen Wilson, Wagoner place. Dr. Wilson has never interfered with the bees, and they have never harmed him, nor has he ever eaten any of the honey.

The bees' improvised hive is a cavity in the wall about halfway to the top of the two story house on the kitchen side. The entrance is a small hole apparently left by the bricklayer when placing the bricks around the anchor of an iron wall brace.

Dr. Wilson said be had investigated and found that the cavity now extends into the wall about a foot, apparently having been hollowed out by the bees themselves. The swarm is not a very large one, and Dr. Wilson thinks it has not produced more honey than it needed. He does not expect to try to move the bees.

—New Oxford Item, New Oxford, PA, Aug. 23, 1917, p. 1.

John Burroughs' Simple Life: Mind Your Own Business

1917

"Keep Cheerful and Mind Your Own Business," Is the Message of John Burroughs

John Burroughs, famous American naturalist and writer, and leading disciple of the simple life, is eighty years old. He has lived with nature since boyhood, and knows the birds, the squirrels and the butterflies, the woods, the fields and the mountain streams. He was the friend of Lincoln, of Emerson, of Holmes, of Whittier and of Walt Whitman. His recollections of these great friends are sufficient companions for John Burroughs in his woodland cabin. "I am very happy in my work, and I hope to write a book each year for many more years," he says. He is at his best, despite his age, and leads an active life in the open. His message to the world is: "Keep cheerful and mind your own business."

Mr. Burroughs taught school in his youth, became a bank examiner, and had a promising career before him in financial affairs, when he discarded ambition for wealth to lead the simple life. His first book was his "Notes on Walt Whitman," published in 1867. During the past half-century he has written constantly, and has contributed much to the nature library. He married Ursula North in 1857, and in the winter time he now makes his home with his daughter and grandchildren at West Park, N. Y.

Jack Rabbits In Southwest Deserts Never Known to Drink

1917

A very curious feature of animal life in the deserts of the Southwest is that rabbits, quail, squirrels, deer, antelope, the mountain sheep and many kinds of reptiles and insects live at great distances from visible water. The jack rabbit is especially notable in this respect; and, moreover, it flourishes in regions without a particle of green food in sight for miles and miles.

Westerners assert that the jack rabbit may be found, happy and fat, spending the day under a scrap of bush that makes little more shade than a fishnet. His skin is as porous as a piece of buckskin, and the heat is sufficient to evaporate every drop of blood in his body, yet he seems to get on very nicely.

Californians aver that no one has even seen a jack rabbit drink. Those who have camped for days in the deserts in vicinities where the only water for miles around was to be found, and with rabbits everywhere, declare that never does one of the little fellows come to the springs to drink. Men have even gone so far as to examine the margins of waterholes in those districts, with never a track of the rabbit disclosed beyond where the grass grew.

Flashlights and Humorous Observations

1917

Nobody ever made a real success of the other fellow's business.

It's human nature to go to some swell cafe to study human nature, where everything except what is real human nature can be found.

A virtue that is boasted of is usually a very new possession.

A man can live down a vicious past, but a fellow is a fool to handicap himself to that extent.

No man is strong enough to carry a grudge and do justice to himself, too.

Being a good fellow downtown is all right enough in its way, but save a little of your good nature for use when you get home.

A woman never understands why a lot of other women's husbands can make fortunes out of stocks and mines and real estate and her husband can't even get a raise in salary.

Little things trouble us and little things console us.

Only a fool will pay twice for the same experience.

When a man becomes thoroughly contented he has outlived his usefulness.

It is easier for the borrowed umbrella to keep lent than it is for the average man.

The hardest thing in this world for a dead game sport to do is not to tell you about it.

Many a fool, after putting his foot in it, isn't satisfied until he gets there with both feet.

Marriageable couples are fond of star gazing because they are properly equipped for it.

When a candidate places himself in the hands of his friends they massage his pocketbook freely.

Now and then you will find that the shyest girl gets tangled up in the boldest love affair.

If women were unable to see the fine clothes other women wear they would have fewer wrinkles.

When you pick up a pretty girl's handkerchief it is permissible to wonder how she came to drop it.

When a married man walks into a public place looking mad enough to bite a nail in two, and growls to those who speak to him, old maids who happen to be present shake hands with themselves. They have nothing like that coming home noon and evenings.

How Wealthy Woman Is Trying to Evade Witch's Hoodoo

Washington, D.C., 1905

HOUSE WITHIN A HOUSE.

How a Wealthy Woman Will Evade Witch's Hoodoo.

Washington Star: A palace built literally around a superstition is Washington's newest marvel, and one may safely say that nothing to match it has ever been seen anywhere. Baronial castles, as well as edifices of other kinds, often gain resident spooks or acquire curses as incidents of their history, but it has not been the fashion hitherto to provide in the architect's plans against such troubles, and the notion of embodying a hoodoo killer in the very fabric of a mansion is wholly novel.

The owner of this remarkable house, which as yet is not quite half finished, is Mrs. R. H. Townsend of Philadelphia. Before her marriage she was Mary Scott, a daughter of the late Col. "Tom" Scott, of Pennsylvania railroad fame. Her wealth runs into the millions, and the mansion aforesaid will cost her about $400,000. It will be nearly twice the size of the famous Leiter house, on Dupont circle, being 125 feet in width and 123 feet in depth. Mrs. Townsend is building it, she says, for her youngest daughter, now 17 years of age, and almost ready to enter society. It will be the scene, doubtless, of some of the most gorgeous entertainments ever given at the national capital.

Now, once upon a time — a very proper way to begin such a story as this — Mrs. Townsend interviewed a witch. It was a remarkably clever witch, and, in revealing the future to her lady patron, she predicted a number of events since realized with astonishing accuracy in Mrs. Townsend's life. It was a very bright and cheerful picture she drew, on the whole one may command a good deal of brightness and cheerfulness if one possesses millions of dollars — but there was one unpleasant prognostication. This was that if Mrs. Townsend ever occupied a dwelling which had never been lived in before she would die within six months after moving in.

This prophecy struck Mrs. Townsend as grewsome, to say the least, and up to now she has carefully avoided all risk of incurring the penalty suggested. Though anxious for some time past to move her residence to Washington and build a home here, she has been restrained from the accomplishment of this desire by the witch's ominous vaticination. She had thought of buying a house, but could find none that was large enough or adequate in other respects for her purposes. At length, however, she hit upon an ingenious method of evading the hoodoo and getting what she wanted at the same time. She decided to purchase the old Hillyer mansion on Massachusetts avenue, and to construct a palace around it. This she is doing in such a manner that while occupying the new mansion, she will actually live in the old Hillyer house, the skeleton of which is retained as a middle portion of the revamped structure. Her bedroom, her dressingroom and bathroom and her boudoir will be in the ancient dwelling, the original floor joists and framework, as well as the roof, being kept intact.

Thus the hoodoo will be defeated, inasmuch as the construction on which the builders are now engaged comes under the head of "alterations," technically speaking, and Mrs. Townsend may consider herself safe against the fulfillment of the conditional threat recorded against her in the book of fate.

—Daily Iowa State Press, Iowa City, IA, Nov. 3, 1899, p. 2.

German Couple Meet on American Train, Married 6 Days Later

Reno, 1905

CUPID PRESENT ON THE TRAINS

Young People Enroute from New York Meet, Fall in Love and Are Married in Reno

A marriage the result of a six days' acquaintance was performed by Judge Nash in the Justice Court on Second street yesterday morning, when he spoke the words that made Max Freebert, a young German recently of New York, and Miss Sarah Vogel, late of Germany, man and wife. The wedding was a quiet affair, the only person present, besides the judge and contracting parties, being Deputy Constable Groton, who acted as a witness, but even if the ceremony was plain and was performed in a dingy office instead of a gayly decorated church, it is safe to say that two happier people never took the marriage vow.

The groom in speaking of the wedding, afterwards said:

"I have only known my bride six days, but she is the best little woman I ever knew, and the only one I love in all the world. She has no relatives and neither have I, and that is the reason we were married so soon. She had just come from Germany and was going to San Francisco when I met her. We were traveling across the continent on the same train and noticing that she was lonesome I got an acquaintance and learned that she had known my old mother and father, who died just a few months ago. We talked of the old times and she told me that her parents had died only a short time ago and that she was on her way to San Francisco to seek work. I was in the same fix and, well, we just got married; that's all."

Mr. and Mrs. Freebert intend to reside in this city and have rented a neat little cottage on the north side. The groom is a tailor by trade and intends to open a shop in Reno within the next few weeks.

—Daily Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV, Feb. 1, 1905, p. 5.

Box Car Tourist (Tramp, Hobo) Selling Stolen Plunder

Reno, 1905

TRAMP SELLS STOLEN PLUNDER IN RENO

A gentleman of the road, or rather a box car tourist, giving his name as Frank Kilzer, arrived in Reno yesterday and began selling shirts and other clothing at different residences in the city. He offered his goods at a very low price and consequently suspicion was aroused. The matter was reported to the police and the man was arrested just after completing a sale of some shirts.

He was taken to the police station and put through the "third degree" and in a short time confessed to stealing all the goods from a box car on the Southern Pacific road. He claimed, however, that he had been assisted in the work by two other hoboes and that they had taken most of the plunder. He is now in jail pending a further investigation into his crime.

—Daily Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV, Feb. 1, 1905, p. 4.

'Squaw Enters Happy Hunting Grounds' (Suicide), Worthless Husband

Reno, 1905

A YOUNG SQUAW TAKES HER LIFE

HATTIE JONES GOES TO THE HAPPY HUNTING GROUNDS BECAUSE OF HER WORTHLESS HUSBAND

Hattie Jones, a young Indian squaw, has gone to the happy hunting grounds and her erstwhile faithless husband, who has the more pronounced ideas of the Mormon church, will have the opportunity to woo his new found love.

Hattie's heart was broken because her husband played fast and loose with other squaws of the lodge, and because of this she took her own life.

It is a rare occurrence for an Indian to commit suicide. The death of the woman was reported to the police yesterday morning and after an investigation by the officers it was found that she had taken a quantity of wild parsnips the night before and this was the cause of her death.

Hattie was happy until a few weeks ago when the first papoose came and then her man took to caring for another squaw and made life miserable for Hattie.

The Chief of Police acted the big chief to the departed squaw and tried to fix up the domestic infelicity and get things running smoothly in the family affairs, but as soon as her husband, John Jones, would get out of sight of the police station, he would hurry to the side of another comely squaw by the name of Hattie Moore, and then Hattie's troubles would begin all over again.

On Thursday night Hattie's rival called at the Jones' tepee and gave the former a severe beating. This was resented by Hattie, who immediately drew a knife and proceeded to cut up the Moore squaw, when the latter and a number of friends who were along fled.

Hattie was arrested at the time of the cutting, but as soon as the facts in the case were made known to the officers, she was released.

The husband and his paramour were placed in jail yesterday but as no evidence of crime has been found, it is probable they will not be prosecuted.

—Daily Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV, Feb. 26, 1905, p. 1.

Comment: The article is so cold and callous, so unbelievable that they thought making Indian jokes would be a good way to handle a matter like this.

Vagrant Ordered Out of Town, Stays Anyway, Now In Jail

Reno, 1905

Lincoln Hayes Likes Judge Nash's Court

Lincoln Hayes, who came before Judge Nash on the charge of vagrancy last Saturday was given a floater at that time of six hours to leave the city. After thanking the judge very kindly and promising to go on to his rich relatives he left the court.

As the judge seemed kind and easy to Hayes he didn't hurry off to any other metropolis. He thought he liked the town and concluded to camp.

On Sunday Hayes got loaded and wandered into the Palace saloon, at which place he tried to re-arrange the furniture to suit himself. An officer was called and Hayes was placed in jail to answer a charge of disturbing the peace. When he came to trial yesterday morning before Judge Nash, however, the judge disregarded the latter charge and gave him thirty days on the former charge of vagrancy.

—Daily Nevada State Journal, Reno, NV, Feb. 28, 1905, p. 3.

Man Deserts Wife: "I've Stood All I'm Going To"

Webster City, IA, 1903

SENDS WIFE A PARTING NOTE

Declares He "Has Stood All He Is Going To:" — Webster City Man Deserts Family.

Webster City, March 18.—After writing his wife a note bidding her and her child goodbye and telling her that they would never see him again, I. E. Ingerston, a tinner, residing in rooms in the Syndicate block, suddenly disappeared and no word has been heard from him since. Ingerston is a young man who has been employed in the F. R. Mason & Son hardware establishment as tinner for some time. He is industrious and has always borne a good reputation. He was married about three years ago to Miss Levenia White of this city. They have one child about two years of age. Last Saturday night Ingerston severed his connection with the F. R. Mason & Son store. He was away from home all day Sunday but his wife had no intimation of his intentions. This morning the postmaster brought Mrs. Ingerston a letter which read:

"I've stood all I am going to. You'll never hear from me again. Take the furniture and do what you please with it — sell it, I don't care. "IKE."

Nothing was missing from the house but a few clothes. Mrs. Ingerston has no idea where her husband went, nor does she knew whether he will return. Mr. Ingerston has many friends in this city who think that he would not have taken this step without some reason.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, IA, March 19, 1903, p. 2.

Hypnotist Team Mystifying, Amusing Audiences

Davenport, IA, 1903

THE FLINTS ARE MYSTIFYING AND PLEASING MANY

Their Performances At the Burtis Convulse Audiences With Laughter

Although the fight against hypnotism is at its height among the learned professors of the country, Prof. and Mrs. Herbert L. Flint are not so busily engaged in defending hypnotism as they are in presenting to the public some of the most laughable comedy performances by aid of hypnotic suggestions. There is nothing suggestive or degrading in their entertainments. Everything is on a high moral plane, and under the influence of Mrs. Herbert L. Flint, a bewitching, winsome woman, clad in the prettiest of gowns, which are themselves worthy of going to see, the subjects on the stage are carried from one amusing situation to another, each bringing out point after point of their natural humor until the youngest and oldest in the audience descend to one common plane of tearful laughter. The only thing that has marred the pleasure of Davenport audiences, who have seen the Flints this week, is their sympathy for Mrs. Flint, who is suffering from a badly wrenched ankle, an accident which befell her on her arrival in this city.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, IA, March 18, 1903, p. 7.

New Stanza Written for "My Country 'Tis of Thee"

1889

An Additional Stanza Added to the Hymn By the Author.

CHICAGO, April 29. — The Daily News to-morrow will publish for the first time, an additional stanza to the hymn "My Country 'Tis of Thee." The author of the hymn, Rev. S. F. Smith, has written the new stanza for the Daily News in honor of the national anniversary celebrated to-morrow. He calls it the "Centenary Stanza," and hopes to have it sung before it is a day old at a number of the churches and mass meetings here to-morrow. The lines are as follows:

"Our joyful hosts to-day
Their grateful tribute pay
Happy and free —
After our toils and fears,
After our blood and tears —
Strong with our hundred years —
O Lord, to Thee."

—The Pittsburgh Post, Pittsburgh, PA, April 30, 1889, p. 1.

Note: April 30, 1889 was the 100th anniversary of George Washington's inauguration.

Duellists With Short Names Have Better Success

1889

Duellists With Short Names.
[Atlanta Constitution.]

A short man is said to be quicker on trigger than a tall man, and a man with a short name is said to come out best in a duel. Colonel Cash, the South Carolina duellist, used to say that in every regular duel fought in the United States the man with the fewest syllables in his surname always killed his antagonist. He mentioned the cases of Burr and Hamilton, Barton and Decatur and others, and said that it had been true ever since David killed Goliath. A few months later Colonel Cash added to the record by killing Shannon in a duel.

—The Pittsburgh Post, Pittsburgh, PA, April 20, 1889, page 5.

A Poem of Spring – "A Maiden Song"

1889

A MAIDEN SONG.

She ties her strings of lighted hair,
And o'er her comely forehead bare
She nimbly draws a wimple;
With lissome speed athwart the mead
She sings through cheeks that simple:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

Her buoyant arm a basket swings;
The boyish winds her kirtle toss,
And rimple o'er her tresses' floss;
With sidling ear she seems to hear
A voice that sings to silver strings:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

The sweeping swallows dive to set
In airy rings a coronet
Upon her head that dances,
And on the bill of birds that trill
The burden sweet she fancies:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

Within the brooks that break away
To bargain at the booths of spring,
She drops her face, and hears them sing
Of sunbeams' worth and sweets of earth,
But with their lay she dreams they say:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

Through grasses lush, with rise and dip,
Along her winged ankles trip,
Where thoughts of spring are vieing,
To where she hears with woodland ears
The fairies softly crying:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

—Edward A. Valentine in N. Y. World.

—The Pittsburgh Post, Pittsburgh, PA, April 20, 1889, page 4.

The Candle Buoy, Once Used by Mississippi River Pilots

1916

THE CANDLE BUOY

A Friend of the Mississippi Pilots In the Old Days.

QUEER LITTLE LIGHTSHIPS.

They Were Floated and Anchored in the Channel of the River on Dark Nights and Showed the Navigator on Down Trips Where Reefs Were Not.

In the old steamboat days on the Mississippi, before the government had undertaken the duty of marking and lighting the "crossings" where the channel swings over from one bank to the other, the river pilots had to devise their own means of finding their way through these difficult and dangerous places.

In the daytime it was not hard to do, and on moonlight nights the landmarks, which every pilot knew by heart, could be seen plainly enough to make the crossing possible. But there were many nights so dark or foggy that the shore marks were not visible; then the reefs had to be "candled."

Candling was resorted to only on the down trip. Going up the river the pilot might "feel" of the reef with his boat, and if he did not find the best water the first time he could back off and try again a little to one side or the other, wherever the soundings showed the deepest water to be.

In going down the river, however, that was impossible. The pilot had to find the channel the first time, for if the boat struck the current would drive her hard on the reef or else swing her broadside on the bar and in ten minutes imbed her in the very midst of it with tons of drifting sand.

To guard against such a disaster when nearing Pig's Eye, Beef Slough or Trempeleau bars — or any one of a dozen bars of equal difficulty — on a dark or hazy night the pilot stopped the boat at the head of the reef. With two men to row, a mate or watchman to steer, a "cub" pilot to manipulate the "candle buoys" and an older pilot to take soundings, the yawl was lowered and permitted to drop down the channel below the steamboat.

After the pilot had determined the best course by taking soundings the "cub," under his direction, anchored two, three or even four of the candle buoys, one after the other, in the center of the channel, and then the men let the yawl drop down below the reef, where it lay a little oarside the channel. Then one of the men swung a lantern — a signal at which the pilot on watch came ahead, steering for the tiny lighthouses and running over them, one by one, until the reef was passed.

The candle buoy was made of a piece of two inch light pine plank, beveled for four inches at the "bow" in order to prevent its "diving" as the current pressed against it. A tin "sconce" with three legs, three or four inches long, was tacked down to the plank. Half of a common candle was placed in each sconce, and after being lighted an oiled paper chimney, with a base corresponding to that of the candlestick, was placed over the light to protect it from the wind. The outer ends of the tin "legs" of the sconce were turned back over the base of the paper chimney to hold it in place, and the buoy was ready for launching.

A hole was bored about six inches from the end of the plank. Through the hole a small cord some ten or twelve feet in length was rove and knotted, and to this cord a lump of coal weighing perhaps ten pounds was tied. This served as an anchor to hold the buoy in its place in the center of the channel.

Such was the procedure fifty years ago or more. Since the government boats began patrolling the river and establishing permanent lights at all bad crossings it is seldom necessary for the pilots to go out in a sounding boat although it is not an unheard of proceeding even now.

But the candle buoy is a thing of the past. Probably there are scores of present day pilots who never even heard of the makeshift little lightships that their puzzled predecessors were wont to launch amid the darkness and doubt of former years. — Youth's Companion.

The Old Oaken Bucket In The Well – Unfortunately, Stolen

1916

THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET.

That Famous Moss Covered One That Hung In the Well.

Not far from Boston is located the well which inspired the familiar lines of Samuel Woodworth to the "Old Oaken Bucket." Every time the place is visited many new traditions are told concerning the famous old bucket about which people have been singing these many years. Having drunk deep of the sparkling waters between whistled snatches of the familiar refrain, how disconcerting it was to have the charm broken by learning that the original "old oaken bucket" was stolen shortly after his well known poem became famous!

The youngest daughter of Samuel Woodworth, the author, who died in Berkeley, Cal., often used to tell about the real old oaken bucket and of the sadness which came over the household on the day it was stolen. It seemed as if one of the family were missing. In this age of souvenir collection who knows but that some day the real old "moss covered bucket that hung in the well" may turn up in a museum or serve as a water tank in the show windows of some enterprising advertiser?

There is no other water bucket in the world so enshrined in homely, genuine romance as this one. Even the golden goblets of royalty and the treasured chalices of the crusaders have never awakened the universal and popular interest attained by the "old oaken bucket that hung in the well" until it was stolen and carried away in the zenith of its fame. — Joe Mitchell Chapple in National Magazine.

Shakespeare and Slang — "Fie! Beat it hence!"

1916

Later Day Phrases That Were Used by the Immortal Bard.

"Good night," a terse ejaculation that has taken ranking position among the slang of the day, had its source in no less authority than Will Shakespeare. It took a Hamilton college student to discover that the magic words were frequently used in Shakespeare's plays and with as much variety of meaning as we have been giving to them.

"The idea that 'good night' has the mark of modernity," declares this student, "is a sad mistake. In act 1, scene 3, of the first part of 'King Henry IV,' Worcester says he will disclose a matter of Hotspur which is as full of peril 'as to o'erwalk a current roaring loud on the unsteadfast footing of a spear.' To which Hotspur replies, 'If he fall in, good night.' "

Many other bits of modern vernacular are from Shakespeare, the student says, among them "Go to it!" "You cheese!" "I am for you," "Dead drunk" and plenty of others.

And regarding that once very favorite phrase "Beat it" the student says this: "Every one from a former president to a newsboy has made use of these two words. Yet in act 2, scene 1, of 'The Comedy of Errors' Luciana exclaims: 'Fie! Beat it hence!' " — Hartford Courant.

The First Rubber Boots: Standing in Water Like a Heron

1916

RUBBER AND HUMOR.

A Closely Clinging Garment and a Laughable Request.

Once Professor Emmet of the University of Virginia visited in New York with his family and while there received from abroad a pair of india rubber cloth boots. His son, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, in his book, "Incidents of My Life," says that his distinguished father was happier in his new possessions than a child with a new toy and spent most of his time standing like a heron in the water to test them.

Their shape was not such as would have fascinated Packelan, the famous bootmaker. They were made like a long stocking of coarse canvas, with a leather sole, and over all was smeared a paste of rubber which might have answered in cold weather, but which was sticky and ill smelling under a moderately hot sun. In very few articles has there been more improvement than in rubber goods since they first came into use.

My father took back with him a "raincoat" as a present to our old negro coachman, but he could never be induced to wear it in the rain, and when expostulated with his answer was, "Does you t'ink I's gwine wear dis new coat in de rain?" He never wore it except in the bright sunshine and on a warm day, so that when he got off the box at the stable it was necessary to take with him the cushion and remove his trousers before he could get his coat off.

I recollect as a child the first "gum shoes" in use, which were hideous to look at and most uncomfortable over a shoe, but which to the bare feet of the old negroes were a joy and a comfort. The first rubber shoe was shaped like a large sausage, and from one end along the side a piece was removed to permit the introduction of the foot. After the foot was inserted the elastic substance shaped itself about it.

They were always called "gum shoes." While a medical student I was present at the opening of the Girard House in Philadelphia, and I remember that there were printed notices at each entrance with the request, "Please wipe your gums on the mat."

The Scenic Beauty of Alaska, Mt. McKinley

1916

A Grand Panorama That Reaches Its Climax In Mount McKinley.

A careful reading of literature pertaining to Alaska prepared me in part for what the journey was bound to disclose, but seeing is the only sense that can give knowledge and secure appreciation of the grandeur, the sublimity, the fascinating beauty of mountain, sea, stream, fiord, falls, islands, forests, cloud and the glorious color effects which the dazzling rays of the sun bring into existence. In connection with all these is a land of enchantment for all who love and can appreciate nature.

Cook Inlet, with its arms and reaches, has many bewildering channels, resulting from the numerous rugged islands. The forbidding and embattled shores rising into lofty mountains and at present swathed in white almost to the water's edge possess a virility, a grandeur and sublimity which require the most poetic imagination and most facile pen even faintly to portray. The grand panorama reaches its climax in Mount McKinley, monarch of the North American continent. With its altitude of 20,400 feet it stands alone in lofty pride and is distinctly visible from the vessel notwithstanding the very great distance. This fact well establishes the quality of the clarified and invigorating atmosphere of this far north country.

The Thousand Islands with all their beauty would scarcely serve as a prelude to the surpassing grandeur and loveliness of the many thousand islands that adorn the 3,000 miles of Alaskan coast. The fiords of Norway, the farfamed glaciers of Switzerland, cannot compare with their counterparts to be found in Alaska in number, variety, size, color effect and all the qualities that give charm to these works of nature. — Hon. A. Barton Hepburn in Leslie's.

Hold Up Your Head, For Mental, Physical Stimulation

1916

HOLD UP YOUR HEAD.

It Will Stimulate You Mentally as Well as Physically.

In a letter to Robert Grimshaw of the New York University William Muldoon gives advice that it would be well for every man and woman, boy and girl in America to take to heart. He says:

"I was taught in early manhood not to throw my shoulders back, stick my chest out, draw my stomach in or hold my chin down like a goat preparing to butt, but to always try and touch some imaginary thing with the crown of my head. If one tries to do that — first understands how to try and then tries — he doesn't have to pay any attention to the rest of his physical being. That effort to touch something above him not with his forehead, but with the crown of his head, will keep every particle of his body in the position that nature intended it should be.

"And as a boy I was advised to frequently back up against the wall and make the back of my head, my shoulders, hips, heels all press against the wall at the same time, and in that way get an idea of what was straight, or, in other words, how crooked I was becoming by drooping."

Both to young and old Mr. Muldoon's "hold your head up" suggestion is inspiriting. Try it. The effect physically and mentally is immediate. When the head goes higher the impulse is to deeper breathing. A man finds more elasticity in his limbs. He steps out with more ease. There is more spring to his gait. He isn't a lumbering, shambling creature, but a man alive. With the elevation of the crown of the head there seems to come clearer thinking, a more buoyant feeling and a brighter outlook. — Commerce and Finance.