And So It Is

1895

It was an old fashioned spelling class — that is, the little girls were standing in a row, spelling and "defining," and the visitor was looking on.
"Jewel," said the teacher, and one little pink cheeked maid spelled it correctly and then gave the definition, "Gem."
On that word it happened that the teacher departed from her usual custom.
"How does a gem look?" she asked. "What is a gem?"
The little girl did not know. The entire class looked puzzled. Finally one lassie brightened and raised her and triumphantly. When she was called on, she almost "sang out" in the excess of her zeal:
"A little cake baked in a gem pan" — Youth's Companion.


Amusement

The habit of dissipating every serious thought by a succession of agreeable sensations is as fatal to happiness as to virtue, for when amusement is uniformly substituted for objects of moral and mental interest we lose all that elevates our enjoyments above the scale of childish pleasures.


Trivia

The oldest known coin comes from China. It is brass or copper, is a block nearly cubical and weighs about a pound.

During the years immediately preceding the civil war $1,000 was a common price for a healthy young negro man.

The Boston brown bread is made of rye and cornmeal in the proportion one to two.

Keokuk, an Indian chief, furnished the name for an Iowa town. The word means sly fox. Rahway was once Rahwack, the name of an Indian chief.