Figs and Thistles

1900

Worry wears.

Haste makes waste.

Wishing is not willing.

Faith frames fate.

It is best to kill serpents in the egg.

Courtesy is never costly, yet never cheap.

When heaven is in the heart heresies are kept out of the head.

No man was ever healed of a disease by reading a medical book alone.

Only they who have known the great change now know no changes.

Good things are always beautiful, but beautiful things are not always good.

The indiscriminate lash will drive ten devils into the boy for one it drives out.

The prescription for salvation must have an application as well as an understanding before healing is found.

The difficulty that the Bible presents to many skeptics is not that it will not stand deep and rational examination, but that it will not stand superficial examination.

Patriotism is based on principles.

Restraining prayer is retaining care.

That only is done which the heart does.

God's work must have God's power.

No furnace can ever burn out the gold.

To take up a cross is to lay down a care.

— The Ram's Horn, Nov. 17, 1900, p. 5.

Lovemaking and Practice

1910

The only way to become an expert at lovemaking is to practice. This was the information handed out to a handful of hearers by the Hindu philosopher, Sakharam Ganesh Pandit, in a lecture on "The Science of Love."

"Love is a divine discontent," said the philosopher, "and if you want to arouse love in others it can be done only by giving them love. How to develop the emotion of love in another, is the great question of today — the art of making love. It needs a great deal of study and a great deal of practice."

Little Waldo Suffers

1910

"It's disgusting," said Mrs. Waldo Beaconhill of Boston; "the makers of children's blocks never think of putting Greek letters on them; and there is my poor little Emerson simply dying of ennui for the want of a good fairy tale in words of moderately extensive syllabification."



Slap on the Wrist

Tightwad — Did you ever notice, my dear, that nearly all these misers reported in the papers are single men?
Mrs. Tightwad — Yes; but that's only natural. Married misers are too common to be worth mentioning.

Very Cooling To Think Of

1910

Artificial Ice is Purer and Can Be Sold Cheaper Than Natural Product

No longer are dealers and users of ice compelled to stand sentinel over nature, with all her vagaries, and wait for ice to be frozen for them. Only a few years ago ice was gathered from anywhere and everywhere, and none could guess what sort of refuse contaminated the waters, rivers, canals, ponds and pools where it was gathered.

No longer does the citizen in the midst of a mild winter take alarm at the prospect of no ice or ice at an almost prohibitive price on account of its scarcity. The manufactured ice is purer than that of nature, without flaw or blowhole, free from admixture of snow and therefore more lasting.

Artificial ice is one of the great discoveries of the last few years and has been reduced to such system that it can be sold at a good profit cheaper than that which was formerly sawed out, loaded in vehicles, hauled to railroad or steamer landing and shipped by rail or by sea to the vast and ugly storage houses, where it was taken from masses of sawdust as it was sold.

The Wonders About Us

1910

Let not care and humdrum deaden us to the wonders and mysteries amid which we live, nor to the splendors and glories. We need not translate ourselves in imagination to some other sphere or state of being to find the marvelous, the divine, the transcendent; we need not postpone our day of wonder and appreciation to some future time and condition. The true inwardness of this gross visible world hanging like an apple on the bough of the great cosmic tree, and swelling with all the juices and potencies of life, transcends anything we have dreamed of superterrestrial abodes. — John Burroughs.

Art of Writing Very Old

1910

New Discoveries Carry Back Existence of Written Documents Centuries Beyond Phoenician Record

The revelations made at the remains of a great prehistoric palace at Knossos, in Crete, which is believed to be the original of the fabled "Labyrinth," would seem to carry back the existence of written documents on Greek soil some eight centuries beyond the earliest known monuments of Greek writing and five centuries beyond the earliest dated Phoenician record as seen on the Moabite stone.

These discoveries, therefore, place the whole question of the origin of writing on a new basis. It is thought that the Cretan hieroglyphs exactly correspond with what, in virtue of their names, we must suppose to have been the pictorial originals of the Phoenician letters on which the alphabet is based.

Among these are Aleph, the ox's head; Beth, the house; Daleth, the door, and so forth. This contravenes the old theory of De Rouge that the Phoenician letters were derived from early Egyptian forms signifying quite different objects.

Jenny Lind's Great Triumph

1906

Won Jealous Rival by Sweetness of Simple Song

A beautiful little incident is told concerning Jenny Lind and Grisi, when they were rivals for popular favor in London. Both were invited to sing the same night at a court concert before the queen. Jenny Lind, being the younger, sang first, and was so disturbed by the fierce, scornful look of Grisi that she was at the point of failure, when suddenly an inspiration came to her. The accompanist was striking his final chords. She asked him to rise and took the vacant seat. Her fingers wandered over the keys in a loving prelude, and then she sang a little prayer which she had loved as a child. She hadn't sung it for years. As she sang she was no longer in the presence of royalty, but singing to loving friends in her fatherland.

Softly at first the plaintive notes floated on the air, swelling louder and richer every moment. The singer seemed to throw her whole soul into that weird, thrilling, plaintive "prayer." Gradually the song died away and ended in a sob. There was silence — the silence of admiring wonder. The audience sat spell-bound. Jenny Lind lifted her sweet eyes to look into the scornful face that had so disconcerted her. There was no fierce expression now; instead, a tear-drop glistened on the long, black lashes, and after a moment, with the impulsiveness of a child of the tropics, Grisi crossed to Jenny Lind's side, placed her arms about her, and kissed her, utterly regardless of the audience. — Exchange.

Comment: Maybe they ought to try that on American Idol. But you could say, 'Isn't it just like Grisi, stealing Jenny's moment and drawing attention to herself after such a tender moment?!' (The sentiment of this article is kind of sickening.)

Boats to Prevent Suicide

1906

For the saving of would-be suicides, the municipality of Rome has decided to employ police motor boats on the Tiber.


Decided Horse Committed Suicide

In a lawsuit at Aberdeen, Washington, over a horse whose death the owner attributed to a man who had hired it, the court decided the animal had committed suicide.


Suicide Statistics

Sundays from 9 to 12 at night is the favorite time for women to commit suicide. Taking all days into consideration, more men kill themselves than women in the proportion of seven to two.


"Anatomy of Melancholy"

Robert Burton published the "Anatomy of Melancholy" at 45. It was written to relieve the strain of mind bordering on insanity.

Expressions of a Prima Donna

1906

America is delightful!
Yes, football is too rough.
New York is wonderful, magnificent!
American women are the most beautiful and charming on earth.
Nothing is better for the complexion than Smearine.
The tones of the Pianoleon are exquisite.
I always take Doperine for headaches.
Eau de Swash is the finest hair tonic.
The Gasmoblle is the best made.
Denticide is excellent for the teeth.
I can't breakfast without Boneless Oats.
N. G. corsets are the only proper ones.
Never travel without Sneezerine for coughs and colds.
I fervently recommend Scrubolio.
By all means try Nervosis.
Yes, this is positively my last season on the stage.
I expect to get the decree next week. — Smart Set.

Getting a Reputation

1910

There is a desk in the senate particularly convenient as a place from which to make speeches. It is next to the aisle and almost in the center of the chamber, and affords an opportunity for the speaker to make everybody hear.

At least a dozen senators, according to the Washington correspondent of the St. Louis Star, have borrowed this desk when they had special utterances to deliver to the senate. This led, not long ago, to a mild protest from its legitimate occupant.

"I am perfectly willing to give up my desk," said he, "but I am afraid people will think that the same man is talking all the time. I don't want to get the reputation of constantly filling the senate with words." — Youth's Companion.

Only Today

1910

The future is an illusion; it never arrives; it flies before you as you advance. Always it is today — and after death and a thousand years it is today. You have great deeds to perform and you must do them now. — Charles Ferguson.

Note: Maybe if the future did exist, Mr. Ferguson could come to it and get some royalties from Eckhart Tolle.

Setting the Pace

1910

"Pacemaker at a banquet is what I should call the unique job," said the city salesman. "I met a man the other day who holds that title among the artistic eaters of the town.

"He doesn't make any money by it directly, but it pays for most of his meals. He got the job through his ability to chew at just the right tempo.

"He doesn't lag, he doesn't bolt. At all big dinners where persons of different habits are brought together some one with an even jaw movement who can set the pace in eating facilitates the progress of the meal.

"This man is not labeled pacemaker at those affairs, yet his air of knowing the polite tempo in mastication impresses the other diners and they try to imitate him. Laggards hurry, the swift delay. Waiters keep an eye on him, because they have been told to, and when he finishes a course they clear the table."

Man an Aquatic Animal

1910

Every moderately well-educated person knows that life originated in the water, but not so many are aware that we are still aquatic animals. Every cell except those of the outside skin is dependent upon a surrounding liquid to keep it alive, and if it became dry it would perish. A person who realizes this fact will always take care to drink plenty of water, and will also eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, since these contain large quantities of water, and that in a purer form than is usually available. The pickaninny shows his good sense when he feasts upon the juicy watermelon, and instead of ridiculing him we might better go and do likewise.

Was One Great Large Fool

1910

German Applicant for Citizenship Gives His Opinion of Subject of Polygamy

Herman Selferth, a wood turner from Germany, was among the first of a score of applicants seeking "papers" from a federal judge in Kansas recently. Herman had been in America seven years, and his conversation, albeit a trifle warped, was quite understandable.

So it was with no great effort that the judge and others understood Herman solemnly to assert that liberty was the capital of Missouri and that Abraham Lincoln was the first president of the United States.

So far, so good. The questions of law and morals proved a bit more difficult.

"What do you think of polygamy?" the assistant district attorney inquired.

"Vot iss?" parried the examinee, puzzled.

"Polygamy — polygamy," the interlocutor repeated. "Do you believe it is right, proper and lawful?"

Herman was stumped. There appeared to be no word in the lexicon of the Vaterland that sounded enough like polygamy to give Herman even a false start. The judge ventured a hint.

"What do you think of a man that would have several wives at the same time?" the court asked.

That was easy. Herman looked vastly relieved.

"Oh," he rejoined, positively. "I think such a man would be one great, large fool." And the court was so well satisfied with Herman's moral attitude and right intent that the "papers" were forthcoming despite the applicant's minor inaccuracies in history and geography.

Chrysanthemums

1910

Chrysanthemums stand fourth in commercial importance among flowers. Only the rose, the violet and the carnation surpass them, and that chiefly because the chrysanthemum season is so short, while the others can be had from the florist nearly the whole year round. Greece gave us the name. Chrysanthemum means "golden flower." But the name was invented long before the big butter yellow globes were known in the Occident. It referred to the prevailing gold in the small varieties that were known. Strangely enough, the first chrysanthemum brought into Europe was not gold, but purple. It was a small flower about two inches across, shaped, like an aster. Somebody took it to Europe from China in 1790 — and, presto, the modern history of chrysanthemums was begun. — Argonaut.

Murdered for a Cent

1910

A quarrel over a single penny led to a murder in Hoboken the other day. A man from Nebraska, who stopped at a hotel in Hoboken while awaiting the sailing of the steamer for Europe, put a penny in the slot of an automatic music box in the dining-room of the hotel, but the box refused to pour forth the expected ragtime tune. The Nebraskan became indignant and upbraided the German porter. The latter explained to him that it required a nickel and not a penny to set the mechanism of the music-box in motion, but that explanation did not satisfy the man from Nebraska. He became abusive and when the porter threatened to put him out, he pulled a revolver from his pocket and shot the porter dead.

The Flowers of the Sea

1910

Like the land, the sea has its flowers, but the most brilliant of the marine flowers bloom not upon plants, but upon animals. The living corals of tropical seas present a display of floral beauty that in richness and vividness of color and variety and grace of form rivals the splendor of a garden of flowers. The resemblance to vegetal blossoms is so complete that some persons find it difficult to believe that the brilliant display contains no element of plant life, but is wholly animal in its organization. Among the sea animals that bloom as if they were plants are included, besides corals, the sea-anemone and the sea-cucumber. It has been remarked that among the coral gardens the birds and butterflies of the upper world are replaced by fishes of curious forms and flashing colors which dart about among the animal flowers.

Your Baby's First Vegetables and Fruits - 1938 Booklet

Your Baby's First Vegetables and Fruits - 1938 Booklet

Published by Libby, McNeill & Libby, 1938. 24 pages. Baby's world is a changing world. Doctors now direct baby's upbringing, with earlier feeding of vegetables. Vintage health/nutrition and parenting guide (in advertising form) for families long ago.

Women

Nebraska, 1901

They Drink Not Wisely But Too Well and Are Haled Into Police Court

This morning the police judge was busy trying a bevy of prostitutes taken up in a raid on the lowlands the middle of last December. The trouble all came from a little drunk indulged in by Bell Naden. The 17th of last month she went on a tear and at the same time went calling on her neighbors, which is against the rules. She was in a boisterous condition and the police were notified. They went to Dora Brown's house and found a great rough house. Everybody in the place was about as drunk as they could be, and, from the sounds that penetrated through the walls of the house, were having the biggest kind of a time.

Incidentally they arrested Mattie Head, Bell Naden, Mary Glasco, Hattie Thurbie, Geneva Newberry and Ruth Collins. This morning they appeared in police court for the last time on the charge and received their due.

Mattie Head will wait a few days before paying her fine. Bell Naden drew ten days in the county jail, Mary Glasco was discharged because she was sick, and, Hattie Therbie pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later. Geneva Newberry paid $5 and costs. Ruth Collins did the same.

Dora Brown was also present and raised a great disturbance. Her attorney took occasion to roast the police and did it to a finish. He said that his client was a special mark for the few men who control the destiny of the lowlands. Across the street from Dora Brown's house was another brothel which was much worse but had not been raided. He wanted to know about it.

Miss Dora Brown drew $10 and costs, notwithstanding. This she paid in part, after expressing her opinions to the court. She complained that she was the special mark for police prosecution, that they were running her business and spent their time eavesdropping at her windows. She was a poor innocent prostitute, no worse than the others, but suffered for their crimes.

—Lincoln Evening News, Lincoln, NE, Jan. 7, 1901, p. 6.

How to Cook a Coon

1910

In preparing to cook a coon see that the kernels have been thoroughly cut out of the arm pits, groins and from under the root of the tail after it has been skinned. Coons' kernels are similar to musk glands. The carcass should be hung up in the frost for two or three days to freeze by night and thaw by day until properly tendered and then parboiled and baked. Some use a dressing of bread, sage and onions; others use oysters and crackers; still others use sweet potatoes or persimmons. All use a basting rich in butter, red pepper and vinegar. A coon beyond all other flesh absorbs any other flavor put with him, so sweet herbs are occasionally used. Not too fat nor too lean, he makes a fine repast for a hunter's supper.

Asparagus Cultivation

1910

How to Make a Bed of the Edible Young Shoots

Asparagus is a perennial herb cultivated for its edible young shoots. It is a rugged plant and will thrive under adverse conditions, but to obtain the succulent stalks needed for culinary purposes well drained, rich soil is absolutely necessary. The soil should be well mixed with rotted manures containing much nitrogen and potash.

Prepare the bed by plowing or spading deeply, beginning the work early and looking after the drainage problem carefully. Plants at least one year old should be obtained for this bed. They can be raised from seed, which is sown outdoors in April in drills one foot apart, the seed being covered about one-half inch. Plants suitable for transplanting the following spring may be easily grown this way, or roots may be obtained from one to three years old.

Set the plants in the permanent bed in furrows eighteen inches apart, the plants being the same distance apart in each furrow. Be careful to spread the roots out naturally and set each plant on a little mound of earth in the furrow. Cover at first to a depth of a few inches, gradually filling in as the season advances. In the fall cut back all the stocks to a level with the ground for the winter.

In the second year loosen the soil by shallow spading. When the first shoots appear the rows may be hilled up somewhat. Cut sparingly until the third year, as the plants will be more productive afterward.

A Rattlesnake Story

1910

In "Life and Sport on the Pacific Coast" Horace A. Vachell relates one of his narrow escapes from a friend's bullet.

"My cousin and I had been camping and hunting for several days in a sort of paradise valley. One day during a long ride on horseback we had seen a great many rattlesnakes and killed a few, an exceptional experience. That night my cousin woke up and saw by the light of the moon a big rattler crawling across my chest. He lay for a moment fascinated, horror struck, watching the sinuous curves of the reptile. Then he quietly reached for his six shooter, but he could not see the reptile's head, and he moved nearer, noiselessly, yet quickly, dreading some movement on my part that should precipitate the very thing he dreaded, and then he saw that it was not a snake at all — only the black and yellow stripe of my blanket, which gently rose and fell as I breathed. Had he fired — well, it might have been bad for me, for he confessed that his hand shook."

And They Didn't Exercise

1910

William M. Evarts, who lived until he was nearly ninety, said he kept his health by never taking exercise. The celebrated Dr. William George Mead, who lived to the surprising age of 148 years, spent nearly all of his time in the open air and played a little golf. Dr. Mead used to drink two or three quarts of water every day, and perhaps there is a suggestion in that. Old Dubois, who lived in Canada for the better part of 119 years on the north shore of Lake Erie, never worked and never took exercise. He spent seventy-five years of his life fishing with hook and line and ate nothing but baked apples and milk and brown bread and unsalted butter. Perhaps you can live that long if you do nothing but fish and eat what old Dubois did. But take notice that these long livers never exercised. — New York Telegraph.

The Leather of the Egyptians

1910

The ancient Egyptians were skilled in the art of tanning leather and manufactured it in various ways and for various purposes besides that of furnishing covering for the feet. Indeed, it is to those builders of the pyramids that we are indebted for the first artistic forms of footwear, and, so far as can be ascertained from history and the researches of archaeologists, the Egyptians were the first shoemakers who were worthy of that name.

It is a fact, too, that tanners of today employ very much the same methods as did the ancients. About the same materials are used, and the processes are almost precisely similar to those in vogue hundreds of years ago. It is true that tanners of the present day have found a means of greatly shortening the time required to convert a hide into leather and that steam power and modern machinery have done much to expedite and improve the processes of finishing the leather; but, after all. the principals of tanning remain the same as they have been from the first. — London Globe.

A Faithful Dog

1900

How He Saved The Lives Of Some Prospectors

Deeds of heroism have been enacted in Alaska which history will never chronicle. Truth prints a story of one party of prospectors who owe their lives to a dog.

Upon the desolate waste of that inhospitably glazier, the Valdes, which has proved a sepulchre to so many bright hopes and earnest aspirations, last winter a party of prospectors were camped. Day after day they had worked their way forward, death disputing every foot with them, until it was decided that the main party should remain in camp and two of their number accompanied only by a dog should endeavor to find a trail which would lead away from the glazier.

For days the two men wandered, until nature succumbed and they lay down, weary and exhausted. Their faithful companion clung to them and the warmth of his body was grateful as they crouched low with the bitter ice ladened wind howling about them.

Their scanty stock of provisions was well nigh exhausted, when one of them suggested sending the dog back to camp. This was a forlorn hope, but their only one. Quickly writing a few words on a leaf torn from a book they made it fast around the dog's neck and encouraged him to start back on the trail.

The sagacious animal did not appear to understand but after repeated efforts they persuaded him to start and he was soon swallowed up in the snow, the mist and the storm.

Two days and nights passed, during which the men suffered untold agonies. On the evening of the third day when all hope had gone and they were becoming resigned to their fate out of the blinding and drifting snow bounded the dog, and close behind him came ready hands to minister to their wants.

The remainder of the story is simple. The whole party returned having abandoned their useless quest and on the last Topeka going south were two grateful men and a very ordinary looking dog. "That dog will never want as long as we two live," said a grizzled and sunburnt man.

—The Hartford Republican, Hartford, KY, Jan. 19, 1900, p. 1.

1911 Ads, Local Kansas Newspaper

Read this doc on Scribd: From 1911, Local Newspaper Ads (Kansas)

Ads from 1911, the Ellis, Kansas Review-Headlight.

Concerning Sprees

1916

Dr. Allan Hoben, of the University of Chicago, in his address here to the Teachers' Association, said that when "a person gets so that he doesn't crave to go on a spree, he is getting old." Therefore, when the "spree" fever ceases it is a sign that you are Oslerized and have on hand all the nails necessary for the coffin and your only work left is to construct your coffin. — East St. Louis Journal.


Oslerized (in case the word isn't familiar)

An old dog, so old that his blood had ceased to circulate and was suffering from a tubercular running sore in his head, was "Oslerized" yesterday after it had been pronounced that his usefulness was a thing of the past. — From 1906.

Ways of Picking Husbands

1916

Maidens Have Various Methods, Some of Which Would Seem to Border on the Ludicrous

To ninety-nine girls out of a hundred the most important duty in life is choosing a husband. Methods of choice vary a good deal, of course, chiefly perhaps as between town and country-bred maidens.

To the town or suburban girl a man's clothes count almost for everything. The bride is to the best dressed. The cut of a coat or the color of a cravat weighs more with Clara than character.

Her country cousin, on the other hand, knows better than to pin her faith to a tailor's dummy. She is guided in her choice by more than occult signs. By agitating with her hand the water in a bucket she can see the image of her future spouse. If she desires confirmation she has only to throw broken eggs over a friend's head and the same image will appear.

The peasant girls of Russia arrive at a similar result by seating themselves in front of a small looking glass in a semi-dark room, when a vision of their future lord and master will be certain to present itself.

Once a year an exceptional opportunity occurs. At twelve o'clock on Christmas eve every girl who can contrives to steal out in order to ask the first man she meets his name. Whatever he gives is that of the bridegroom-to-be.

Walking Sticks

1916

Walking sticks have been used by men from Bible times down to the present age. These have come in all varieties from the plain staff to the gold and silver mounted ones according to the fancies and customs of the age.

When, in 1700, footmen attending gentlemen were forbidden to carry swords, these dangerous weapons were usually replaced by a staff with a large silver handle. This was called a Porter's Staff. Some thirty years later gentlemen began to discard their swords and to carry large oak sticks with thick knobs, whereon were carved ugly faces. Before long a competition arose between long and short walking sticks. A writer of that time describes the long ones as "leaping poles," while others preferred a yard of varnished cane. This latter is still in vogue, ornamented to suit the taste of the wearer.

An Important Point

1916

It always seems unfortunate for a boy to have to wear spectacles. It holds him back from the rough and tumble of boy life. If the other boys pick on him, he can hardly retaliate until he has put his glasses away. By that time he may be sent spinning in the dirt, his glasses broken and perhaps an unreasonable punishment is awaiting him at home. But lifelong trouble may result from failure to wear them. Teachers and parents should look carefully for early indications of such defects, and get good advice about them. — East St. Louis Journal.

Shrapnel (Pointed Humor)

1916

A doctor's pills may cure some ill — but not ill humor.

Courtship is a game in which a girl plays her heart against a man's diamond.

If women looked like the pictures in fashion magazines men would take to the woods.

It isn't necessary for a man to be a hypnotist in order to get his mind concentrated on the toothpick.

If time were money, the average man would have his watch geared to run forty-eight hours a day.

A young widow knows that the easiest way to catch a successor to the late lamented is to run away from him.

If the phoenix of common sense rises from the ashes of a fool's money the conflagration has not been in vain.

Possibly an honest man might be otherwise if an opportunity worth while were to knock at his front door.

Pointed Paragraphs

1916

Leap Year is twenty-seven percent gone, girls.

Old men frequently give advice to young men — and occasionally they give up money to confidence men.

No husband is always wrong and no wife is always right. Remember this, you married disputants.

When a man offers you something for nothing you will save money by going out of your way to avoid accepting it.

Vags Are Plentiful

1916

The city authorities should insist that vagrants cease their begging from house to house. Housewives should refuse to feed men at this time of the year who refuse to do small jobs about the home. There is plenty of garden spading, rug cleaning and general cleaning up work about the house that would give the man who really wants work sufficient work for a meal.

The facts are, however, that the average beggar will not work when asked to do so. Two such shiftless fellows appeared one after another the other Monday at a home where the housewife was hard at work. They were told they would be fed if they beat a rug. One of them said he would and disappeared after looking at the rug. He said he only wanted a few potatoes anyway and he didn't feel like working until he saw his partner. He never came back. His partner appeared a few minutes later and said he didn't want to work. It made him tired. — Murphysboro Independent, Illinois, March or April 1916.

Cooling of the Earth

1914

The application of Stefan's law to the calculation of the mean temperature of the earth, at a given latitude, shows that at the latitude of 80 degrees, the temperature was in the neighborhood of 90 degrees Cent., when the sun's radius was about one and a half times its present dimensions, i.e., about two million years ago. Thus it would appear that life commenced on the earth in the vicinity of the poles. The same reasoning leads us to the conclusion that in less than two million years, when the sun's radius will be reduced by one-tenth of its present value, the temperature on the earth will have fallen below 0 degree, even at the equator. — Scientific American.

Snake Demands Its Eggs Fresh

1914

Species of South African Snake With a Dainty Appetite and Keen Sense of Smell

The South African snake called the eggeater has inherited from long generations of ancestors a sense of smell so acute that it appears never to be at fault. Professor Fitzsimons, director of the Port Elizabeth museum, gives in his book on "The Snakes of South Africa" an interesting instance of the wisdom of these serpents.

"Being short of fresh pigeons' eggs once, I went to my cabinet and took the clean-blown shells of a few doves' eggs. Beating up the contents of a fowl's fresh egg, I syringed them into the empty shells, and carefully pasted tiny bits of tissue paper over the holes. I put these in the eggeaters' cage, and watched, for I expected the snakes to swallow them as they did the other eggs. First one eggeater advanced. He touched each egg gently in turn with the tip of his nose or the point of his forked tongue, and crawled away in disgust. Another and yet another eagerly advanced, repeated the performance, and straightway retired. I began to get interested. Leaving the eggs, I returned in a few hours' time to find them still there.

"For two whole weeks those eggs remained in the cage untouched, although I refrained from giving the snakes any others. Then I procured some fresh pigeons' eggs and put them into the cage. The snakes approached, touched them with their noses or tongues, and instantly began to swallow them. I tried this experiment a second time with the same result. Frequently I have noticed that the snakes would eat some of the eggs that I gave them, and reject others. On breaking the latter open, I always found that they were either addled or else had a partially developed young bird inside. I could never induce an eggeater to swallow an egg that was not perfectly fresh.

"The eggeater is an expert climber, and his sense of smell is so sharp that he can discover birds' nests with the greatest facility. If you place an empty bird's nest in the cage of an eggeater, he will take no notice of it, except to use it occasionally for a cozy bed. But if you put fresh eggs in it, he at once detects their presence, although they are hidden from his sight." — Youth's Companion.

Puny Children Need Vinol

Read this doc on Scribd: Puny Children Need Vinol

An Engineer's Experience

1902

"The superstition about owls is a wonderful thing," said an old railroad engineer, "and if I had not been inclined to be superstitious about the birds the engine I was riding one night would have been knocked into smithereens and the passengers in the coaches might have fared very badly. I am not always superstitious, but I am particularly so about owls. But I like the creatures, for one certainly saved my life.

"The incident occurred on a very dark night. The train was running at full speed. We were running on a straight line, and there was nothing for the fireman and myself to do but to look directly ahead and let her run. I had been looking intently for an hour, when something flew into the cab. It struck the coal pile and fell back dead. It was a great gray owl. Within less time than it takes to tell it I began to think that the owl was a bad omen, and I stopped the train immediately. I cannot say what made me feel so, but I was sure that death was ahead. I descended and walked to a switch that was a short distance ahead of us. It was open and a long train of empty freight cars was on it.

"I had the owl stuffed, and since that time he has had a place in the cab of my engine. I owe my life to the superstition about owls, and if another one strikes my engine I will close the throttle at once." — New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Skinning a Pearl

1902

The lapidary was skinning a pearl. He had on gloves of a very delicate sort of kid, and the glasses that he wore had lenses of such great magnifying power that his eyes, through them, looked as big as saucers.

"I wear gloves," he said, "because the hands perspire freely in this work, and perspiration has often been known to discolor pearls. This stone was injured by the accidental dropping on it of some acid. The disaster discolored it, you see. With this very delicate little tool I am removing its outer skin, and if I find that the acid has filtered through and discolored the inner skin also I may remove that as well.

"A pearl, you see, is composed of concentric layers, or skins, and you can, if you are a clever workman, peel it down and down until it disappears. That operation, indeed, is often done by the apprentices of the lapidary trade. They work on spoiled, worthless pearls, and the experience is very good for them. It teaches them a great deal about the pearl's anatomy, and it gives wonderful cunning to their hands. The pearl is the only precious stone that can he skinned. To skin it is often the only way to restore its milky color." — Philadelphia Record.

Keep Your Shoes "New"

1902

Some people always buy the most expensive footwear, and always manage to look ill shod. Others haunt bargain counters and wear unpretentious shoemaker's shoes, and somehow the boot toe peeping from beneath their skirt is always of the neatest.

All boots, shoes and slippers intended for ordinary wear should be kept on their tree when not in use, and whenever the walking boots get damp, they must be rubbed with vaseline as soon as they are taken off, first, however, removing the mud and afterward padding them with soft linen rags or paper. This will preserve their shape and prevent shrinkage. Shoe polish should be used sparingly, and only after the dust has been wiped off, for more shoes are destroyed by the reckless use of polish than is generally supposed.

Lamps For The Library

1902

The newest lamps for the drawing room and library are of metal and naturally form a fitting foundation for those beautiful bent glass domes in leaded effects or other metallic settings. A number are in art nouveau effects; one of these is of oxidized brass. In shapes they range from graceful forms (not the very squat shapes) to tall monumental affairs of the banquet variety.

A clever thing of Grecian form with low, graceful supports is in mandarin bronze, and is very attractive. One charming oxidized bronze lamp is in the old Dutch style, a simple, sturdy loving cup as to shape and the column resting on three savage looking griffins.

Choosing a lamp is easier than choosing a shade, for a shade must look well when lit up, and it must be becoming. — New York American.

Eight Rules For Popularity

1902

First — Remember that a good voice is as essential to self-possession as good ideas are essential to fluent language, The voice should be carefully trained and developed. A full, clear, flexible voice is one of the surest indications of good breeding.

Second — Remember that one may be witty without being popular, voluble without being agreeable, a great talker and yet a great bore.

Third — Be sincere. One who habitually sneers at everything not only renders herself disagreeable to others but will soon cease to find pleasure in life.

Fourth — Be frank. A frank, open countenance and a clear, cheery laugh are worth far more oven socially than "pedantry in a stiff cravat."

Fifth — Be amiable. You may hide a vindictive nature under a polite exterior for a time, as a cat masks its sharp claws in velvet fur, but the least provocation brings out one as quickly as the other, and ill-natured people are always disliked.

Sixth — Be sensible. Society never lacks for fools, and what you consider very entertaining nonsense may soon be looked upon as very tiresome folly.

Seventh — Be cheerful. If you have no great trouble on your mind you have no right to render other people miserable by your long face and dolorous tones. If you do you will generally be avoided.

Eighth — Above all, be cordial and sympathetic. True cordiality and sympathy unite all the other qualities enumerated, and are certain to secure the popularity so dear to everyone. — New York World.

A Cheerful Soul

1902

"Hanks always looks on the bright side of everything. Do you know what he said when he lost his job the other day?"
"I haven't heard."
"He seemed to be quite cheerful over it. 'You see,' he explained, 'I applied for a raise of salary nearly six months ago and didn't get it. Think of how much more I would have had to lose if they'd given me the increase." — Chicago Record-Herald.


He Dropped the Subject

He was talking to the pessimistic, sharp-tongued damsel.
"Have you noticed," he asked, "that, as a general thing, bachelors are wealthier than married men?"
"I have," she replied.
"How do you account for it?" he inquired.
"The poor man marries and the rich one doesn't," she answered. "A man is much more disposed to divide nothing with a woman than he is to divide something." — Chicago Post.

No Cause For Him to Complain

1902

"See here," remarked the guest to the new waiter, "there doesn't seem to be any soup on this menu card."
"Oh, no, sir," replied the waiter, nervously, "I didn't spill it at this table — it was the one on the other side of the room." — Cincinnati Commercial Tribune.


Satiric

"Don't you think that some people in society are very deficient in manners?" said the man who had been annoyed by a box party.
"Perhaps," answered Miss Cayenne; "but possibly they are not to blame. They have to meet so many customs house inspectors, you know." — Washington Star.


As She Reasoned It

"It is but natural," said Mrs. Van Scadders, "that those who possess wealth should consider themselves the best people."
"I don't quite follow you?"
"It is an axiom that everything is for the best."
"Yes."
"And the people with money are the only ones who have a chance to get everything." — Washington Star.

A Promoter of Pedestrianism

1902

"So you are going to get an automobile!"
"Yes," answered the man who is always thinking of his health. "The doctor says I must walk more."


A Conclusive Objection

"Poverty is no disgrace," said the young woman with ideas of her own.
"No," said Mrs. Cumrox; "it's no disgrace. But it certainly is extremely unfashionable." — Washington Star.


Softened Grief

Wilson — "I lost that fine silk umbrella that I carried in town to-day."
Mrs. Wilson — "Oh, what a pity!"
Wilson — "There is one consolation, it wasn't mine."—Somerville (Mass.) Journal.


Another Advance

She — "So you think the necessities of life are constantly advancing in price? For instance?"
He — "Well, the average fine for 'autospeeding' has advanced from $10 to $30 within a year." — Puck.


Correcting Him

Gabbleton (effusively) — "Why, hello, Grimshaw! Glad to see you're back."
Grimshaw (coldly) — "This is my face you are looking at, Gabbleton." — New York Journal.

The Funny Side of Life

1902

Point of View

When a fellow has spent
His last red cent,
The world looks blue — you bet!
But — give him a dollar
And you'll hear him holler:
"There's life in the old land yet!"

— Atlanta Constitution.


Precious

Mrs. Knicker — "Mrs. Smith seems very proud of her diamonds."
Mrs. Bockor — "Yes, she refers to them as her white coals." — New York Sun.


Worth While

She — "I should like to know what good your college education did you?"
He — "Well, it taught, me to owe a lot of money without being annoyed by it." — Life.


The Influence

Jerry — "How do good clothes make a man a gentleman?"
Joe — "They make him feel as if he was expected to act like one." — Detroit Free Press.

Have Got Beyond Feeling

1902

The people of Martinique, or those who still cling to that unfortunate island, will probably not be alarmed by the scientific report that it is likely to sink out of sight, says the Chicago Inter Ocean. They are probably beyond the reach of alarm by this time.


Lucky Old Maids

Woman insure against being old maids in Denmark, says the New York Mail and Express. If they marry before they are 40 what they have paid goes to the less fortunate, and these last are pensioned for the remainder of their lives on a scale proportioned on what they paid in.


Starving in Galicia

In Galicia the wage of the farm laborer has been so reduced that he is starving to death on a pittance of from three to 16 cents a day.


Index of Cleanliness

The average French person uses six pounds of soap in a year; the average English person uses ten pounds.


Will Follow a Swiss Model

Swiss postal officials are to be employed to assist in the reorganization of the Japanese post office. The Swiss postal system is to be taken as a model.

As to Conversational Parrots

1902

Do parrots understand what they say? A correspondent writes that a friend with a fine Brazilian parrot has been staying with her. The parrot a fluent and accomplished speaker. A gray parrot was introduced one day, but the Brazilian haughtily declined to have anything to say to the gray. Then another friend, who had just been given a newly imported green Brazilian, brought the newcomer to call.

The moment the parrots caught sight of each other they broke into a torrent of apparently articulate language, consisting, as it seemed, of questions and answers, but what the language was no one present could tell. The owner of the first parrot had never during the years it had lived with her heard it speak this strange tongue. The two parrots talked to each other without ceasing all the time they were together, and a few days later, when they met again, exactly the same thing happened. Was the first parrot — long exiled from its native forests — asking eagerly for news of its people? — London Chronicle.

Burning Mud

1902

Nowadays everything that will burn is interesting. A fuel works at Stangflorden, in Norway, where peat is made into a useful fuel, should be of especial interest to Massachusetts, which is said to be talking of opening up its extensive peat beds. The factory at Stangflorden is run by electricity generated by water power, and has been in operation since 1898. The chief difficulty in manufacturing fuel from peat is getting rid of the water with which it is always soaked. About eighty-five per cent, by bulk is water, and practically all of this must be removed before a satisfactory fuel is obtained. At Stangflorden the wet peat is brought to the factory in boats, from which it is removed by electric conveyors and submitted to a preliminary rough drying and pressing. The briquettes thus formed are placed in chambers, through which warm, dry air is driven, and are finally placed in electrically heated retorts, where the drying is completed.

The peat yields, besides these briquettes, tar, charcoal, creosote, sulphate of ammonia and other by products. The electric power is obtained from five eighty-kilowatt dynamos. The plant is capable of turning out 1000 centners (a centner is about 110 pounds) of air-dried peat a day. The fuel is said to burn well, yields little soot and ash and is really salable in Bergen and other towns.

Where People Are Content

1902

In his book, "The Soul of a People," Mr. H. Fielding Hall gives an interesting and sympathetic account of the quiet life and philosophy of the Burmese. Among other things he says:

"And so all the people are on the same level. Richer and poorer there are, of course, but there are no very rich; there is none so poor that he cannot get plenty to eat and drink. All eat much the same food, all dress much alike. The amusements of all are the same, for entertainments are always free. So the Burman does not care to be rich. It is not in his nature to desire wealth, it is not in his nature to care to keep it when it comes to him. Beyond a sufficiency for his daily needs money has not much value. He does not care to add field to field or coin to coin; the mere fact that he has money causes him no pleasure. Money is worth to him what it will buy. With us, when we have made a little money, we keep it to be a nest egg to make more from. Not so a Burman; He will spend it. And after his own little wants are satisfied, after he has bought himself a new silk, after he has given his wife a new bangle, after he has called all his village together and entertained them with a dramatic entertainment — sometimes even before all this — he will spend the rest on charity."

Crack of the Whip

1902

It is Rapidly Becoming a Sound of the Past

"That crabbed old German, Schopenhauer, who said the crack of the whip was like a drink from the bad place, would have found but little to complain of if he had postponed his passing for a while," said a thoughtful man, "for the whip is getting to be an awfully scarce article in this age. I suppose the whip will finally pass out of existence altogether unless it is put to a new use. Of course, the small riding whip, the kind which jockeys use in urging the horses they ride, will be used as long as horseflesh is used, either in the realm of sport or in the more serious affairs of life. But the kind of whip the old German had in mind was of a larger, longer and older type, the kind the ox-driver uses even now in some of the more remote sections of the world. Whips of this kind generally swing easily on the end of a long handle.

"Frequently the handle is eight or ten feet long and is made of hickory or some wood that is supple enough to bend in the green state. The whip itself, which is generally a four and six-plat rawhide, is from ten to fifteen feet in length, with a seagrass cracker on the end, tightly twisted and knotted at spaces an inch apart. It is this article that makes the noise of which the old German pessimist complained, and a whip of this kind in the hand of an expert can be popped until it sounds like the crack of doom. In a quiet forest where timbermen carry on their work this noise is even fiercer than it is in the cities. Teamsters in cities still use the old whip to some extent, but it is gradually going out, and the sharp crack of the seagrass is rarely heard. Speaking of whips, I am reminded of the marvelous accuracy some men acquire in the use of whips. I suppose the Esquimau has reached a higher standard of proficiency in this respect than any other class of men. I have seen boys of this race pop a silver half-dime at a distance of twenty feet every time they swung a whip. They can simply hit anything they want to hit as long as it is within the reach of the whip. But here in the South I have witnessed some rather notable performances in this respect. Up in Arkansas I have seen ox-cart drivers crack off a snake's head at a distance of twenty feet, and they could do it whenever it pleased them to do it. But these old whips are going out, and I suppose when electricity comes into more general use the crack of the whip will be an unknown sound." — New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Oregon's Vigorous Old Men

1902

A well-known citizen of 77 years who had been out in the country, and had a large paper sack of mushrooms in his hand, which he had gathered himself, was standing at the corner of Fifth and Morrison streets, Saturday afternoon, waiting for a car. Another old-time citizen, who will be 80 in a few months, came to the same corner to wait for the same car. The man with the mushrooms exhibited them proudly, and said that they were to be put up in glass, adding that he had bought about 100 pounds in the market, which was already put up, but it was difficult to find really fresh ones. He then asked his friend of 79½: "Where have you been lately? I haven't seen you for a week or so." "I have been busy for a week," was the answer. "I had 12 cords of wood to put in, and it was so hard to find anyone to do it, I concluded to put it in myself." "Did you wheel it in in a wheelbarrow?" asked 77. "No, indeed; I had to carry it up a flight of 11 steps, two or three sticks at a time. I got in six cords in three days and finished the other six this afternoon, and so had the afternoon to come down town." As they boarded the car which came up a stranger, who had overheard their conversation, remarked: "By Jingo! they raise pretty husky old men here in Oregon."

The Original Caribs

1902

Very mysterious is the origin of the fierce savage, now almost extinct, who were in possession of the Caribs, the smaller West Indian islands, when the white man discovered them.

They showed a distinct Mongolian character and it would be hard to distinguish a Carib infant from a Chinese child. Twenty years ago a Chinaman who had drifted to Dominica declared the Caribs to be his own people and married a pure-bred Carib woman. The resultant child showed no deviation from the native type.

The Caribs have dropped their man-eating ways; but in the sixteenth century they scoured the Spanish main in search of human food and from Porto Rico alone are said to have taken more than 5,000 men to be eaten. Though Spaniards, Frenchmen, Dutchmen, negroes or Arrowaks were all meat to them, the Caribs seem to have shown an interesting preference for certain nationalities. Davis says in his "History of the Caribby Isands," that "the Caribbeans have tasted of all the nations that frequented them, and affirm that the French are the most delicate and the Spaniards are hardest of digestion."

Laborde in one of his jaunts in St. Vincent overtook on the road a communicative Carib who was beguiling the tedium of his journey by gnawing at the remains of a boiled human foot. This man ate Arrowaks only. "Christians," he said, "gave him indigestion."

The Regulation of Clocks

1902

The remarkable pendulum experiment in the Pantheon at Paris to prove the rotation of the earth, strikingly illustrates the majestic uses of the familiar clock-maker's device.

It seems almost impossible of belief, in an age of well-regulated watches, that the clocks of Galileo's time could not be kept going at a uniform speed. Clocks went by means of a dragging weight, but the pendulum had not been thought of as a regulator. It occurred to Galileo to make a clock with the pendulum only, but of course, the work of turning the wheels stopped it. It was left to Haygens, in 1656, 14 years after the great astronomer's death, to combine the pendulum with the dragging weight and thus solve the problem of reckoning astronomical time with exactitude.

Middle Course Best

1901

"It is hard to say which is the best thing for us," remarked the bill collector. "If nobody paid his bills, we should get no commissions, and if everybody paid them we should be thrown out of a job. Our profession offers no exception to the general rule that a middle course is the safest." — Boston Transcript.

A Little Tale From the Persian

1901

There was a young man who loved a beautiful maiden, but he was poor. One day he asked her to be his wife, and she answered:

"I love you. Still, I do not wish to be a poor man's wife. Go and get money and then return and we will live happily ever after."

The young man went away and ere long began to sway the markets. He made millions and still more millions, and the maiden waited.

When the man had ten millions, he wanted to outshine one who had fifty millions, and when that wish was gratified he longed for a hundred millions, then he yearned for two hundred millions, and at last he set a billion up as the amount he wished to accumulate.

When, one day in those parts, a certain old maid lay dying, she said:

"There's no use expecting a hog to keep his mind on anything else after he gets his feet in the trough." — Chicago Times-Herald.

Stage Signals

1901

There are a number of ways of giving the signal which warns the leader of the theater orchestra that the curtain is about to rise. The most common in American theaters is the illumination by electricity of a common incandescent bulb placed in front of the conductor. Many players, however, follow the English custom of having the ring of a bell as a signal. This has the advantage of giving notice alike to the players behind the curtain and the orchestra and the audience in front.

The French players employ the system, but not the bells. A stout club rapped loudly on the stage floor does duty instead. Two raps constitute the one minute signal and three as the final notice. The reason for the cumbersome method is that of precedent, for the call is that of the Theatre Francais. — Chicago Tribune.

Toads as Medicine

1901

"Out of the queer use of a common creature regarded as most potent in old time medicine there came the most surprising and nearly the most important of inventions," says Harvey Sutherland in Ainslee's.

"Every schoolboy knows that a toad can cause warts or make the cow give bloody milk, but not everybody knows that toads are also powerfully medicinal. It is a fact. Martin Luther says so. These are his very words: 'Experience has proved the toad to be endowed with valuable qualities. If you run a stick through three toads, and, after having dried them in the sun, apply them to any pestilent humor, they draw out the poison, and the malady will disappear.'

"Pope Adrian always carried a bag about his neck containing dried toad, pearl, coral, gum tragacanth, smaragd and other articles of junk. It did him a power of good, he said. It was all that kept him up. And lest you think that they only did that hundreds of years ago, I want to say here that when my father was a boy and suffered from quinsy they used to tie live frogs about his throat. The frogs nearly clawed the hide off. They did not cure the quinsy, but that's a detail."

Unlucky Men

1901

"The unlucky men are all kin; they all have certain qualities alike," says An American Mother in The Ladies' Home Journal. "They have eyes keen to look into the root of things, but which also dream dreams and see visions; they have hot human blood, they love or hate in no half way measure. To each of them, too, comes at times — no matter what the business or pursuit may be by which they strive to push their way among men and to grow rich — a sudden disgust of it, heartfelt and real, a contempt for the work and for its successes. They dream of something before them better than money or office, and they try to clutch at it. So they go through life groping for success with one hand and for their dream with the other, and they lose both. We must choose either God or Mammon as master and keep faith with him if we mean to succeed."

Gypsy Is "Sot" On Him

1901

Young Man Who Has a Wild Time With a Fair Romany

Janesville, Wis., April 25. — A well-known young man of this city has applied to the police for protection, as he fears he will be kidnapped.

For some days past a gypsy named Zyra has been telling fortunes here, and many people have been to consult her, among them the young man in question. After the gypsy had told his fortune, according to his story, she declared that he was hers and that she could not live without him. She cried that she loved him, and begged him to run away with her. He had a wild time leaving her, as she tried force to keep him. She vowed that members of her band would bring him back to her. She is the queen of a band of gypsies encamped on the outskirts of the city.

—Waterloo Daily Reporter, Waterloo, IA, April 25, 1901, p. 2.

Perseverance

1901

With perseverance the very odds and ends of time may be worked up into results of the greatest value. An hour in every day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits would, if properly employed, enable any man of ordinary capacity very shortly to master a complete science. It would make an ignorant man a well informed man in ten years. We must not allow the time to pass without yielding fruits in the form of something learned worthy of being known, some good principle cultivated or some good habit strengthened.

Whittier's Dog

1901

During one of the last birthday celebrations of the poet Whittier he was visited by a celebrated oratorio singer. The lady was asked to sing, and, seating herself at the piano, she began the beautiful ballad, "Robin Adair." She had hardly begun before Mr. Whittier's pet dog came into the room and, seating himself by her side, watched her as if fascinated and listened with a delight unusual in an animal. When she finished, he came and put his paw very gravely into her hand and licked her check.

"Robin takes that us a tribute to himself," said Mr. Whittier. "He also is 'Robin Adair.' "

The dog, hearing his own name, evidently considered that he was the hero of the song. From that moment, during the lady's visit, he was her devoted attendant. He kept by her side when she was indoors and accompanied her when she went to walk. When she went away he carried her satchel in his mouth to the gate and watched her departure with every evidence of distress. — St. Nicholas.

Peeps at Queen Victoria's Wardrobe

1901

The sorting and arranging of the personal effects of the late queen has proved a tremendous task. One peculiarity of her majesty was never to discard any dress, mantle, hat or bonnet which she had ever worn, and her wardrobe might well be considered the most complete record of the fashion of the last 60 years in existence.

Another fancy of Queen Victoria was to have everything in duplicate. Two hats, two cloaks, etc., were always ordered. Her majesty had a wonderful collection of lace, but this is not to be compared with the collection of the queen dowager of Italy, said to be the best in the world.

The queen's linen, beyond being exquisitely fine, had nothing remarkable about it, as her majesty always adhered to the patterns in fashion in her youth and cared nothing for the intricacies of modern lingerie. — London Sketch.

Healthy Open Air Life

1901

Modern humanity has done much to throw away the generous gift of robust health. By warm clothing, indoor fires and an overgenerous diet we have rendered ourselves comparatively independent of heat and cold.

And the direct result has been that modern skins are not as robust as were those of our ancestors. They are thinner, more delicate and less able to form an efficient protection for the body.

As originally intended, the skin is the great protecting mantle, which, properly performing its function, is able to keep the body as warm under the gray sky of December as in the sunshine of a summer afternoon.

Why is it that people in town catch cold more readily than their country cousins?

Why is it that soldiers on campaign, even though repeatedly wet through and without any change of clothes, are notoriously free from colds? Why is it that pampered people are so liable to take "a chill?"

The answer is: Country people, soldiers on campaign and all who lead an open air, natural life have healthier, stronger and more industrious skins than their more artificial fellow citizens.

How to Keep Your Friends

1901

"The less you exact of your friends the more they will give you," writes Helen Watterson Moody of "The First Tragedy In a Girl's Life" in The Ladies' Home Journal.

"For yourself give as richly and as nobly as you want to of your love and your confidence and your loyalty. Live up to your highest ideal of what a friend should be (and the higher you make that ideal the finer woman you will be and the more friends will flock to you), but never exact of your friends that they shall give you more than they choose easily to give. If someone you love disappoints you — and as many, many more will do in days to come — do not hold up your ideal of what they should be and do as a mirror in which to count their imperfections. Let it pass, if you can, with a little smile that may be sad, but need not be at all satirical. And never be jealous of a friend if you want to keep one. If anybody you are fond of forms other friendships or seems to be engrossed with other friends, do not let it make you unhappy and, above all, never comment upon her all too evident neglect of her old friends for her new ones."

Almost Time for May Baskets

1901

Month of May is Near

Admirers of Young Women and of Old Folks Will Hang Nosegays on Doors — Recalls Visions of Childhood and Youth — Happy Days of Yore

The youngsters will be out with their May baskets in a few nights now. The evening will be punctuated with bursts of illy suppressed laughter and "pit-a-pat" will go the small scurrying feet when the door bell bearing the nosegay has been rung. We have all hung May baskets in our time. Hung them for love and hung them for sentiment and kindness. Who has not hung May baskets? To have failed is to have missed one of the prettiest customs of the American people. There is nothing more joyous than to make the hearts of others beat with pleasure as we do acts of kindness and love to those we hold dear. And how better can this sentiment of affection and regard be expressed than through the language of flowers. Flowers are nearest the angels, and the purer the expression of sentiment the happiest the lover, be the loved one gray-haired and bent or brown-eyes with rosy cheeks.

Who has not wandered in the woodland for the pink anemone and the anemone patens of the common sort, from the meadow bottoms gleaned the caltha palustrus from its banks of yellow? Who has not had mother or sister make the baskets and arrange the tinsel, placing therein the bunches of sweet-scented blossoms? As night grew on apace and the cool May time air snuffed good in the nostrils of youth and toned the muscles to a tension for sprinting, who has not met the neighbor's boy in the woodshed or out by the front gate and with him sped away in the darkness to the home of some fair inamorata whom youthful affection has sought out and made the ideal of ideals? Softly up the front walk with the best and prettiest basket of them all you steal. Deftly it is hung o'er the knob of the big door and then — !

"Ting! Ting! Ting!" goes the bell in blatant tones.

Hip! And with a great stride you leap from the porch and race into the plutonian darkness. From a safe distance you watch the operations at the door, hear the exclamation of delight and then, if there chances to be a big brother, you light out and do some hot footing lest he catch you and discover your passion for his sister. At school next day you manage to insinuate something about May baskets and then you tell a white lie when face to face with a question of identity. You know that you fib, she knows and you both know that each other knows it — but what is the difference, she knows you hung the basket.

And the old people, God bless them, we have all hung baskets of flowers on their door-knobs, and have been happier and better for it. Now as we look back upon the hanging we believe we are happier to have hung the baskets for the old and feeble ones than for the youthful ones. Time cannot obliterate the gratification for having hung these baskets, at least, with no selfish motive, no ax to grind, nothing but pure and unadulterated kindness and a desire to make others happy.

Thus youth, passing along the short shore line of happiness, grows to middle age when May baskets may not be, with propriety, hung, when business threatens to blot out the sentiment of youth. Then it is the children and the young people steal into our lives and re act the old, old story that brings back a flood of recollections and of peace.

Know Thyself

1901

Ah, if we would watch for everything that might improve and instruct us! If the arrangements of our daily life were so disposed as to be a constant school for our minds! But oftenest we take no heed of them. Man is an eternal mystery to himself. His own person is a house into which he never enters and of which he studies the outside alone. Each of us need have continually before him the famous inscription which once instructed Socrates and was engraved on the walls of Delphi by an unknown hand, "Know thyself."

Can Cope With Wolves

1902

A New Breed of Staghounds Combines Speed With Ferocity

William A. Richards, assistant land commissioner, is a hunter of no mean prowess, and in his home near the Big Horn mountains, Wyoming, has killed more than one grizzly and mountain lion. Several days ago Mr. Richards was talking over sporting matters with a Washington Post reporter, when the conversation turned upon dogs and the value of the several breeds for hunting purposes, when he said:

"In my section we have at last secured a breed of dogs that is highly satisfactory. As wolf dogs they cannot be excelled, and the only time that to my recollection I ever saw these dogs turn tail was on an occasion when they faced four grizzlies. Even then they showed fight, retreating only when it was absolutely necessary. Several years ago we began experimenting with a view to securing a breed of dogs sufficiently heavy and ferocious to attack and kill wolves and fleet enough to run them down. After many trials we found that a cross between the old Scotch staghound and the common greyhound proved far superior to any of the experiments we had previously tried.

"These dogs combine the fleetness of the greyhound with the strength and ferocity of the Scotch staghound and as a result are being extensively bred all through the west. A coyote stands no show whatever with these dogs, for as soon as the pack overtakes him he does not strike the ground until he is literally torn limb from limb. The gray wolf is a better and harder fighter, but even in a fair fight one of these crossbred wolf hounds is an even match for the gray wolf. In fact there are some of my dogs that are almost as wild and fierce as the wolves themselves.

"These animals do not hesitate to tackle the black bear and generally make life a burden for him, while in hunting the grizzly bear they are quite useful in holding the game at bay until the hunter arrives to give 'Wahb' his coup de grace."

Is It A Home You Want?

1902

If so, we have an unusual bargain for you. $100 cash and the balance of $750 in payments of $12 per month will buy a fine new cottage on Lincoln street. Choice lot on Park road at $375 and will take jewelry or other personal property as part payment, balance cash or time.

It is worth the money and if you doubt it call and we will gladly show you the lot and convince you what we say is true. For particulars call on Waterloo Stock Exchange.

—Waterloo Daily Reporter, Waterloo, Iowa, March 6, 1902, p. 3.

Notice

1902

I hereby give notice that I will not be responsible for any debts contracted in the future by my wife, Mrs. Mamie Samueles. — JAMES SAMUELES.

—Waterloo Daily Reporter, Waterloo, Iowa, March 6, 1902, p. 3.

The Hon. Doc Brown's Courtship

1902

The "Hon. Doc" Brown, of Morgansfield, Kentucky, who represents his district in the State Legislature, is one of Kentucky's unique characters. To illustrate a point in a recent speech, he gave the following account of his courtship:

"Take my advice and never give a woman anything she can't eat, and never make love to her out of an ink bottle. Why, when I courted my wife, I just grabbed hold of her and said, 'Sally, you are the sweetest thing on earth, and your beauty baffles the skill of man and subdues his ferocious nature,' and I got her." - New Orleans Times-Democrat.

The Profitable Sausage

1902

For the amount of meat used the sausage is the most profitable legacy of the hog. Fully fifty different kinds of this suspected article are manufactured to suit the taste of many peoples; for Italians, with a dominating measure of garlic; for Germans, hard and fatty; for Frenchmen, dry and well larded; for Americans, well spiced; and all of these several grades.

Whatever meat cannot be used otherwise is consigned to the sausage, although for no other reason than that every diminutive piece is available — ham, head and foot trimmings, and the old remnants from the butcher's block. Potato, flour, spices, and water are mixed with the meat, which has been, finely chopped by rocking-knives, and a steam-driven piston forces the mass into the casings, whereupon it becomes sausage. The casings are the intestines of the hog thoroughly scraped and washed by mechanical process.

The pig's snout does not escape — that would be a gross oversight — so it is trimmed off and sold as a pickling "delicacy" to new Americans with unpronounceable names. — The Century.

The Revelation of St. John the Divine

This is a new blog I started. It features clips and thoughts on the Book of Revelation. I'm putting the link to it here because for some reason Google is not indexing it yet.

Insurance Against Surgical Operations

1902

In England people of moderate means are beginning to insure themselves against surgical operations. The plan is that subscribers who pay an annual fee shall be entitled either to free admittance to a hospital or nursing at home and a free operation or to a fixed sum paid down to defray the cost of an operation if one becomes necessary.

In England, as here, the cost of surgical repairs to the human body has become oppressively great to persons who just manage to pay their way. People who are obviously poor get a great deal of excellent surgical and medical treatment in hospitals and elsewhere for nothing, but for the next class above them a serious illness — especially if it involves an operation — is almost ruinous. It would seem as if the time was near when societies for insurance against specialists might be profitably organized in the larger American cities.

The specialist has come to be a very important — indeed, an indispensable — institution, especially to families in which there are children. The office of the family doctor has now become simplified to the task of coming in and telling the patient which specialist to go to. It is not that specialists charge too much, for their honorable services are above price. It is that landlord, butcher, baker, grocer, milkman, coalman, dentist, and trained nurse do not leave you money enough to pay them appropriately.

To subscribe a considerable sum annually and have all the repairs and desirable improvements made in one's family without further disbursement would be a comparatively simple way out of a troublesome predicament. — Harper's Weekly.

Suggestions to the Wakeful

1902

If you are nervous and wakeful in temperament, don't overtax your memory, but if you have anything on your mind make a note of it. It will pay better to use a paper tablet than to exhaust your brain.

Do no mental work whatever after the evening meal. Use the evening entirely for relaxation, amusement, but not excitement.

When you go to bed stop thinking, or let the mind rest very lightly on some pleasant or even childish subject.

A hot foot-bath before getting into bed soothes the tired nerves, draws the blood from the brain and is one of the best sleep inducers.

Relax. Lie as limply on your bed as though you were a year-old babe. You cannot have repose of mind without repose of muscle.

The salt rub will be found highly beneficial with the bath. First wet the body with warm water, then rub hard all over with handfuls of damp salt, rinse and rub dry. — American Queen.

Note: This advice is from 1902.

Berlin Smoke Free

1902

The German Capital Has Demonstrated that Smoke Nuisance is Curable

One of the cleanest cities in the world, so far as soot and smoke are concerned, is Berlin, Germany. Although a busy manufacturing city, it is of the cleanest and best kept in Europe.

The smokeless condition of Berlin is ascribed to three facts. The preponderant use of coke and briquette, which are practically smokeless; the skillful scientific construction of boiler furnaces and chimneys, and, finally, the high standard of skill that is taught and enforced among firemen who stoke furnaces with coal for steam and manufacturing purposes.

Before a man can assume such a charge he must be taught the theory and practice of economical, scientific firing by which the coal is distributed in such a manner and quantity over the grate surface as to secure the most perfect combustion of its volatile elements.

The Silesian coal used in Berlin in most large steam plants and factories is rich in bitumen and would rank below many of the bituminous coals of the United States, and yet the long, dense, trailing clouds of smoke from mill and factory chimneys which are so familiar a sight in many American cities are rarely seen in that section of Germany, where the indiscriminate shoveling of a raw bituminous coal into the steam and other furnaces is considered an ignorant and wasteful proceeding.

Mr. Yet Y

1902

"We often see peculiar names," said Deputy Register J. P. Pemberton recently, "but the most peculiar one that has ever come to my attention in the years that I have spent in the Register's office was the name of a gentleman transferring a piece of property a few days ago. His name was Yet Y. There is no joke about the matter, for the official records show this is his actual name, and no one would take the chances of tampering with the official records.

"The name struck me as being so peculiar that I asked him how he came to get such a name. Mr. Y said: 'I do not know just exactly how I came to have the very peculiar name, though I have investigated the matter. I find that my family originally came from the southern part of England, and the name was first spelled "Whey," doubtless from the fact that some of my early ancestors worked on the wheys. Later I find the name came to be "Why." However, the name of my grandfather was simply Y, and my father's name was Sacques Y. I suppose that I was given the name I now bear to let the people know that the family name was 'yet Y.' " — Chattanooga Times.

Rules For Right Living

1902

For the man or woman, whether young or old, who wishes health, which means happiness, the following simple rules were gathered:

Pin them up where you will see them. But do not let that be all you do. Read them again and again, and, best of all, act upon them.

Eight hours' sleep.
Sleep on your right side.
Keep your bedroom window open all night.
Have a mat to your bedroom door.
Do not have your bedstead against the wall.
No cold water in the morning, but a bath at the temperature of the body.
Exercise before breakfast.
Eat little meat, and see that it is well cooked.
For adults, drink no milk.
Eat plenty of fat to feed the cells which destroy disease germs.
Avoid intoxicants, which destroy those cells.
Daily exercise in the open air.
Allow no pet animals in your living rooms; they are likely to carry about disease germs.
Live in the country if you can.
Watch the three D's — drinking water, damp, drains.
Take frequent and short holidays.
Limit your ambition.
Keep your temper. — New York American.

Note: This article and its advice is from 1902. Please check with your physician or neighborhood scientist before screwing up your life too much.

Daily Bath For Beauty

1902

A daily bath in cold or tepid water is an indispensable aid in keeping the skin of the body in good condition, says the London Standard.

The complexion, also, very often suffers from insufficient washing in pure water, or, for preference, in rain water. It is impossible for those of us who live in large towns to keep the complexion quite as blooming and healthy as the inhabitants of country districts, but more care might be frequently taken to wash off the smuts that help to clog the pores of the skin, or the fine dust that covers the epidermis like a mass after a long day out, or, in any case, before going to bed.

Use hot rain water if it is possible to secure it, with two or three spoonfuls of oatmeal thrown in to soften the water. Next proceed to thoroughly massage the face with some good soap and a firm sponge; then rinse the skin in another basin of cold water, into which has been poured a few drops of eau de cologne or alcohol, finally rubbing into the face and neck a little cold cream.

Small Alarm Clock — Ouch!

1903

A novelty in the way of an alarm clock has been perfected by an American jeweler. It is about the size of a hazel nut. It is made to wear on the finger. The alarm is not a bell, but a sharp pin, which pricks the finger at the time the wearer wishes to rise.


Electricity Saves Windmill

In Germany electricity, among other curious results, has rehabilitated the discarded windmill. At Neresheim a windmill applies power for thirty-six incandescent lamps that light a large paint factory. Another in Schleswig-Holstein keeps a steady current of thirty volts. At Dusseldorf a windmill winds up a heavy weight of which the descent works a powerful dynamo.

Memorizing Poetry

1903

To economize time in memorizing a poem it should be read as a whole; that is, entirely through each time. Tests made in psychological laboratories show that to memorize one verse at a time takes one-fourth longer.


Down of a Thistle

In China the down of the thistle is gathered and mixed with raw silk so ingeniously that even experts are deceived when the fabric is woven. It is also used to stuff cushions as a substitute for eiderdown, and a very good substitute it makes.

Memory Lost After Fall on Ice

1903

As the-result of falling on the icy sidewalk, Samuel A. Chapman, of Boston, a student at Annandale College, is suffering from a peculiar malady.

On the evening of January 20 Chapman, in company with two other students, called on friends near the college. On their return Chapman slipped on the icy path and, falling backward, struck the base of his spine. He suffered no immediate effects, and being helped up by his companions, walked on to the college. Next day he was unconscious, remaining so for two days. Upon regaining consciousness his memory was a blank. In about two weeks he made some progress, looking to the improvement of his memory. He is nineteen years old.


Cats' Eyes

Cats and other beasts of prey reflect fifty times us much light from their eyes as human beings.

A Delightful Prison

1903

It is very doubtful if there is anywhere a more delightful prison than that of Tobel, in Switzerland. There are very few guards, not more than one to every 25 prisoners, and they never think of carrying arms. The prisoners' cells are constantly open, so that the inmates can easily communicate with each other and can tell at any time what the guards are doing.

Moreover, the prisoners are allowed to have paper, ink, newspapers, cider and various dainties from the kitchen, including fried eggs, of which they are very fond. One would suppose that prisoners would not desire to leave such an earthly paradise as this, yet three notorious murderers — Lohrer, Schmid and Hess — quietly strolled away from it recently, and, it is said, have not as yet shown any inclination to return.


Bygone London Customs

In Edward Longshank's days persons living in the city were allowed to keep swine "within their houses." But these Plantagenet pigs were not to occupy sites that encroached on the streets. At a later day the permission to keep them even within one's house would seem to have been limited to master bakers.

Treasures of the Sea

1903

The sea around the shores of Greece is full of treasures. A little time ago the divers were bringing up the statues lost when the ship which was taking them to Rome was wrecked over 2000 years ago. Now the relics of the battle of Navarino, which was fought in 1827, are being fished up, and a number of old bronze cannon, swords, guns and pistols have been recovered from the Turkish and Egyptian ships. — Tit-Bits.


Household Sermons

The best sermons that ever were written to make men good husbands were written to recipes. — New York Press.

England's Boundarymaker

1903

Sir Thomas Holdich leaves England on his mission to lay down the new frontier between Chile and the Argentine Republic. It is not a light task, but Sir Thomas already knows something of the Andes, and he has probably had more experience in mapping out boundaries than any man living.

Much of his work has been on the frontiers of India, which he knows as intimately as we know our London streets. He has written a book called the "Indian Borderland," and if ever he gives us his reminiscences they should be full of agreeable accounts of travel. He was serving in India nearly forty years ago as a young officer of the Royal Engineers.

The Abyssinian campaign took him to another continent, but the Afghan war took him back to the regions which he has done so much to make plain on maps. Sir Thomas is within sight of sixty, but a grand tour of mountainous South America has no terrors for him. He and his staff of engineers expect to be away several months. — London Chronicle.

Navajo Blankets

1903

How They Won Their National Reputation

Though Navajo blankets as rugs, portieres, couch coverings and a dozen other things, have held their own in American homes for a season and more, there are many interesting details of their manufacture which are not known to the casual customer.

The impress of the Spanish cross, recalling the invasions of the Coronado expedition of 1540 is still paramount in this industry of the tribe. This marked the Navajo's first knowledge of the white race, and the later influence of Mexican art can be traced in the zigzagging diamond.

There is always one blanket weaver in a Navajo family, generally a woman, though sometimes a man, and the blanket frame which is erected outside the "hogan," or hut, is part of its architecture. This frame is of upright posts or rude poles. Kneeling or squatting in front of it is the patient weaver from morning till night.

The blankets are considered a medium of barter, as current as any coin among the neighboring tribes, for the Navajo's country is the finest for flock raising, and their wool far famed. The dyes used, too, are practically indelible, and their manufacture is a tribe secret.

The blanket is the banner garment of the squaws with 'dressy" aspirations, and the choicest of wigwam decorations. The care taken in the making of these blankets may be realized when one knows that two or three months are given to the manufacture of some of the more elaborate. No two of these are ever exactly alike, and for certain tribal ceremonies especial patterns are introduced. The choicest designs are reserved for enshrouding the dead, as the journey to the "Happy Hunting Ground" is considered much enhanced by the richness of the traveler's wrapping.

It is the Navajo blanket, too, that oftenest forms the charmed square of the snake dancing Mokis, and the sun dancers of the Shoshones and Arapahoes carpet their sacred enclosures with these same weaves that American bachelors and den devotees pay such round prices for. No wonder, with its history, its wealth of association, with its richness of color and originality of design, the Navajo blanket has attained a National reputation.