Friday, August 29, 2008

PESTS OF THE PLAINS.

1895

The Rattlesnake's Sting and the Bite of the Hydrophobia Skunk.

Major Wilcox, a veteran surgeon from Fort Huachuca, told the other day of the red racer snake, a deadly foe of the rattlesnake and who fights the latter on every occasion. He cannot kill the rattler by a poisonous sting, but awaiting an opportunity seizes his victim behind the head and gives it a crushing squeeze in his powerful jaws. This severs the rattlesnake's spinal cord and causes death. The red racer then swallows the rattler, poison and all. Occasionally, when in the field, Major Wilcox treated soldiers for rattlesnake bites and found it easy to overcome the effects of the poison.

One day a private came to him with a wound from a rattlesnake's fangs in his index finger. The major hastily scarified the wound, broke open a rifle cartridge, poured powder over the wound and exploded it. This cauterized the injured part and so effectually dispelled the poison that only one-half the hand was swollen. The patient soon recovered. On another occasion a man cut off a rattlesnake's head, and, desiring to preserve it, packed cotton into the dead snake's mouth. The jaws closed upon the man's fingers, inflicting a wound from which he soon died.

Rancher Leonard, owner of a vast cattle range in New Mexico, in recounting his experiences on the plains, remarked that he feared the hydrophobia skunk far more than he did the rattlesnake. The snake gives warning of his presence; the skunk does not. This variety of skunk is not only vicious, but aggressive, while the rattlesnake seldom attacks unless disturbed. The hydrophobia skunk is probably the only animal, excepting the coyote, west of the Rocky mountains whose bite induces rabies. Besides this and because of its fondness for occupying the tents of frontiersmen at night, the animal is much dreaded.

Occasionally a coyote will "run mad" and bite another, and thus hydrophobia is communicated to large packs of the fleet footed animals and they race over the prairies and mesas, making mad every living creature in their pathway that they happen to bite. One of the amusements of the cowboys is to capture a rattler alive and get the creature drunk. With a forked stick the snake's head is held down, its mouth is forced open and whisky poured down its throat in sufficient quantity to intoxicate it. The snake will then try to coil its body as if to go to sleep. The action of the alcohol makes it "groggy" and the coils won't coil. When a stick is shoved before the snake's nose, it tries to strike, but the head and body wobble from side to side much as does a drunken man in his attempt to reach a lamppost. — San Francisco Chronicle.

A Novel Watch.

1895

A watch has been invented which measures distance by sound. The inventor, a French officer named Thouvenin, has called the instrument a phonotelemeter. To operate it a little button is pressed at the instant of the flash and again at the sound. In the meantime a needle traverses a dial, registering time to the one-tenth part of a second. The rest is a mere matter of calculation.


Trivia

The true test of civilization is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops, but the kind of men that the country turns out. — Emerson.

The Wax Chandlers' company of London was incorporated in 1483.

Hats were first made in England by Flemings about 1510.

Shoes and Gloves.

1895

As a rule, that old fashioned word "tidy" is reserved rigidly for commendation of a housegirl or housewife in the lowlier walks of life. Your fine lady would scorn to be called "tidy," why, no one can exactly say. But she is in no danger of earning the appellation so long as it is the fashion to wear dirt white gloves with the handsomest street toilets.

A woman can never be pronounced faultlessly attired if there is anything amiss with her shoes or her gloves. A rusty shoe peeping from under a hem of glistening satin or chick crepon stamps its wearer, in the eyes of spectators, as a lopsided woman. But a rusty shoe may be cautiously concealed by care and attention, a soiled glove never. — New York Mail and Express.

New at the Business.

1895

Scene in a dry goods store which has lately added a cigar department:

Salesman (transferred from linen stock, to customer, an old smoker, — Ah, good morning, sir! What can I show you today? Here are some lovely Henry Clay perfectos — from the same house, sir, that sends us the Clay worsteds, which you will find at the cloth counter.

(Customer looks surprised.)

"Yes, sir, and just look at this pretty bunch of imported Manila cheroots! We have them in all shades and sizes, sir. And the ribbon around this bunch exactly matches your four-in-hand."

(Customer glares.)

"Or perhaps you would like this sweet meerschaum pipe? It is warranted not to change color or show smoke marks."

(Customer gets red in the face.)

"Chewing tobacco, sir? Yes, sir. Will you have a yard or two yards?"

(Customer explodes into violent language and salesman faints.) — Buffalo Express.

A Bit of Human Nature.

1895

"Did you see that, mister?" said an elevated railroad guard to a man who stood with him on the rear platform of the first car the other night.

"Yes."

"Well, then," added the guard, "you saw my three little children. They were kneeling at a trunk in front of the window of that house we passed. Over them stood their mother. She was about sending them to bed, but before they go she teaches 'em to pray for me, and she brings 'em there so I can see 'em.

"And," he added, with a manly attempt to keep his voice from trembling, "she has told me what she tells 'em to say."

"What is it?"

"I hope you won't think me childish, sir; but, as I guess you are a married man and a father, you may care to hear it. You see, it's this way: The kids go to bed at 9. That's about the time my train goes by the house. So just then she brings them up to the trunk in their nightgowns and makes 'em kneel down, with their hands clasped on their faces. And then they pray that papa will be good and kind and keep sober and bring home all his money, and" — The big guard's voice trembled.

"I'm rough, tough and all that," he at length continued, "but I love my wife, and I love my children. They are the only ones on earth that keep me straight.

"Bleeck-e-e-er! Good night, sir." And the train proceeded, leaving at least one man with tears in his eyes. — New York Recorder.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Color In the Home.

1895

The modern scientific decorator assures us that while yellows are all right for a hall or vestibule they should not be used in rooms where one reads or works. The reason assigned is that yellow does not absorb light, but is a strong reflector, and those reflected rays are trying to the eyes, but, more than that, are distinct brain disturbers. For the library or workroom the most soothing or satisfactory tint is coffee.

The influence of color upon temperament and physical condition being an accepted fact it follows in natural sequence that the treatment of living rooms is of real importance. Undoubtedly some natures respond quicker to these influences than others, but any one planning a change in furnishings will do well to give the matter some attention.


Teeth of Man and Animals.

A horse has 40 teeth, and a mare only 36, wanting the tusks, or so called "wolf teeth." The ox and sheep family have 32, each lacking the eight incisors of the upper jaw. The hog has 44 teeth, and the dog 42. Where the dental formula is perfect in all varieties of the human species it is found to show 32 teeth. — St. Louis Republic.

The Metal of the Standards.

1895

There are no products of human skill on which a greater degree of care is expended than the standards of weight and measure in use among the civilized nations of the globe. Two things in particular have to be considered — accuracy and durability. Nature does not furnish any single metal or mineral which exactly answers the requirements for a standard of measure or weight that shall be, as nearly as possible, unalterable.

The best substance yet produced for this purpose is an alloy of 90 per cent of platinum, with 10 per cent of iridium. This is called iridio-platinum, and it is the substance of which the new metric standards prepared by the international committee of weights and measures are composed.

It is hard, it is less affected by heat than any pure metal, it is practically nonoxidizable, or not subject to rust, and it can be finely engraved. In fact, the lines on the standard meters are hardly visible to the naked eye, yet they are smooth, even, sharp and accurate.

If our civilization should ever be lost, and relics of it should be discovered in some brighter age in the remote future, there is nothing which would bear higher testimony to its character than these standard measures of iridio-platinum, for the production and preservation of which the science of our day has done its very best. — Youth's Companion.

MRS. BROWNING'S SONNETS.

1895

Edmund Gosse Tells an Interesting Story of How They Were Named.

Edmund Gosse tells in his late essay on Mrs. Browning's sonnets how her volume of "Sonnets From the Portuguese" was christened, as follows: "During the months of their brief courtship, closing, as all the world knows, in the clandestine flight and romantic wedding of Sept. 12, 1846, neither poet showed any verses to the other. Mr. Browning in particular had not the smallest notion that the circumstances of their betrothal had led Miss Barrett into any artistic expression of feeling:

"Their custom was, Mr. Browning said, to write alone and not to show each other what they had written. This was a rule which he sometimes broke through, but she never. He had the habit of working in a down stairs room, where their meals were spread, while Mrs. Browning studied in a room on the floor above. One day, early in 1847, their breakfast being over, Mrs. Browning went up stairs, while her husband stood at the window watching the street till the table should be cleared. He was presently aware of some one behind him, although the servant was gone. It was Mrs. Browning, who held him by the shoulder to prevent his turning to look at her and at the same time pushed a packet of papers into the pocket of his coat. She told him to read that, and to tear it up if he did not like it, and then she fled to her own room.

"Mr. Browning settled himself at the table and unfolded the parcel. It contained the series of sonnets which have now become so illustrious. As he read his emotion and delight may he conceived. Before he had finished it was impossible for him to restrain himself, and, regardless of his promise, he rushed up stairs and stormed that guarded citadel. He was early conscious that these were treasures not to be kept from the world. 'I dared not reserve to myself,' he said, 'the finest sonnets written in any language since Shakespeare's.'

"When it was determined to publish the sonnets in the volumes of 1850, the question of a title arose. The name which was ultimately chosen, 'Sonnets From the Portuguese,' was invented by Mr. Browning as an ingenious device to veil the true authorship, and yet to suggest kinship with that beautiful lyric called 'Caterina to Camoens,' in which so similar a passion had been expressed. Long before he ever heard of these poems Mr. Browning called his wife his 'own little Portuguese,' and so, when she proposed 'Sonnets Translated From the Bosnian,' he, catching at the happy thought of 'translated,' replied: 'No, not Bosnian — that means nothing — but from the Portuguese. They are Caterina's sonnets.' And so, in half a joke. half a conceit, the famous title was invented."

Eating to Live.

1895

Dr. Pavy, perhaps the most eminent authority upon diet, says that the average man in a state of absolute rest can live on 16 ounces of food a day. A man doing ordinary light work can live on 23 ounces, and a man doing laborious work needs from 26¾ to 30 ounces.

This is food absolutely free from water, and it must be remembered that everything we eat contains more or less water, so that from 48 to 60 ounces of ordinary food are necessary to the work in which a man is engaged.

Sir Lyon Playfair, another great authority, gives the following as all that is necessary for a healthy man to eat in a week: Three pounds of meat, with one pound of fat; two ordinary loaves of bread, one ounce of salt and five pints of milk, or, for the meat, five or six pounds of oatmeal may be substituted. This sounds like starvation diet, but Sir Lyon Playfair generally knows what he's talking about. — Lancet.

Made Her Warm.

1895

When measles once ran riot in a girls' boarding school, the physician in charge had great difficulty in persuading his skittish patients to remain in bed and so induce the perspiration absolutely necessary to recovery. Every means was tried, but to no avail. The girls found it impossible not to just hop out from the blankets in order to run in and tell their next door neighbors that it was decided to trim the new hat with heliotrope, or that it was true that Cousin Fred was actually engaged, all of which seriously retarded recovery. It looked for a time indeed as though funerals might become epidemic as well as measles.

Finally the psychology teacher hit upon a scheme that seemed likely to work. It consisted in the few well girls stationing themselves in turn at the bed of each invalid and criticising her most unmercifully. The success of the plan was simply phenomenal. After but a few brief moments of such treatment the patient broke out into a profuse and violent perspiration. Recovery soon followed, the doctors were overwhelmed at this fresh proof of the influence of mind over matter, and the psychology teacher was a proud and happy pedagogue. — New York Sun.

HEREDITARY NEEDLES.

1895

A Case That May Arouse Some Apprehension In the Rearing of Families.

Needles have never been supposed to be hereditary, but a recent case reported by a physician of eminence offers undoubted evidence to the contrary. A lady accidentally ran a needle into her foot 80 years ago, and it lay apparently dormant in her system for so many years that its existence was almost forgotten.

In 1878 she was married, and a year after the birth of her infant daughter the needle made its appearance in the infant's shoulder. There could be no doubt that it was the original needle by which the mother had been attacked in 1860, for it was of a peculiar and now obsolete pattern, and the mother distinctly remembered that needles of that pattern were in use at the time of her attack.

There could be no doubt that the infant inherited the needle from her mother, and that henceforth physicians will expect to find a natural tendency to needles in the tissues.

As it is asserted that people have died from needles, although there are very few such cases on record, the insurance companies will doubtless add to the questions which they put to candidates for insurance, "Did your father or mother ever swallow needles, and, if so, how many, and Of what kind — sewing, darning or carpet?" — Spare Moments.

THE SIZE OF THE UNIVERSE.

1895

Miles Are Too Insignificant to Be Used In Its Computation.

While it is interesting to know the distance of some of the stars in miles, when stated in that way the numbers are so large that they frequently convey very indistinct conceptions to the mind. For this reason it is customary to estimate stars' distances in "light years." A light year is the distance that light, moving at the rate of 186,300 miles per second, travels in one year. This amounts in round numbers to 5,880,000,000,000 miles. The distance of Alpha Centaur is 4.35 light years, that of Sirius, the dog star, is almost exactly twice as great, or 8.6 light years. In other words, light requires 8.6 years to come to us from Sirius. And these are among the very nearest of the stars. Some whose parallaxes have been rather estimated than measured appeared to be situated at a distance which light could not traverse in less than one or two centuries. The great still Arcturus, for instance, has, according to Dr. Elkin, a parallax of only eighteen-thousandths of a second. Its distance must, in that case, be about 181 light years, or more than a thousand million million miles. And if its distance is so great, then, since light varies inversely as the square of the distance from its source, it can be shown that Arcturus must actually give forth 5,000 or 6,000 times as much light as the sun yields.

Yet Arcturus is evidently much nearer than the vast majority of the stars are. Not one in a million is known to have a parallax large enough even to be intelligently guessed at. There may be stars whose light requires thousands instead of hundreds of years to cross the space separating them from us.

We thus see that only a few points on the nearer shores of the starry universe lie within reach of our measurements — here and there a jutting headland, while behind stretches the vast expanse over which the hundreds of millions of stars known to exist are scattered. — Garrett P. Serviss in Chautauquan.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

New Fire Proof Safe Installed

New York, 1895

Jamaica Brevities.

The Jamaica public schools will close for the summer vacation on Friday, June 28th.

A new fire proof safe for keeping the town maps was placed in the town clerk's office on Wednesday.

William Wright, superintendent of streets, has been appointed truant officer by the board of education.


Children's Lawn Party.

A children's lawn party was held at the residence of Alfred H. Beers at Jamaica Friday. afternoon, the object being to give financial aid to a mission in Brooklyn. Under a tent an entertainment was given, consisting of songs and recitations by Lillie Scott, Irma Jarvis, Carrie Pottinger, Nellie Jones, Bessie Beers and Grace Jones.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.

Police Court Business.

New York, 1895

Thomas Kehoe was brought before Justice Hendrickson on a charge of being drunk and disorderly, and sentence was suspended.

Annie J. Bronson, of Ozone Park, who was arrested on Fulton street, Jamaica, on Monday afternoon, was arraigned before Justice Hendrickson on Tuesday on a charge of intoxication and disorderly conduct. She was sent to the county jail for thirty days.

Curtis Degrasse, residing on the Merrick road, Jamaica, who was arrested for stealing a bicycle from Joseph Baylis was arraigned before Justice Hendrickson on Friday and sentenced to the state industrial school at Rochester. An older brother, Foster Degrasse, is in the same institution.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.

J. TYLER WATTS HONORED.

New York, 1895

Engrossed Resolutions Which Express Public Opinion of the Man.

The board of trustees of the village of Jamaica surprised ex-President J. Tyler Watts at his home on Union avenue last Friday evening, and presented him a handsomely engrossed copy of resolutions that the board and the other village officers had adopted at the time of Mr. Watts' retirement from office. The document expressed the high esteem of Mr. Watts' official associates, and was signed by all of them. Trustee Van Allen made the presentation speech. The preamble and resolutions are as follows:

WHEREAS, After many years of faithful service as trustee and as president of the village, J. Tyler Watts has voluntarily retired from said board of trustees, and

WHEREAS, We, the officers of the village, have, from long official intercourse with him, become impressed with the zeal and honesty of purpose which has always characterized his actions, his readiness to suggest and co-operate in any movement tending to the benefit of the corporation and his unwavering determination to do right regardless of his personal interests; therefore be it

Resolved, That in the retirement of Mr. Watts from the aforesaid board the community has lost the earnest and valuable service of a conscientious and faithful officer; and

Resolved, That we take this opportunity of placing on record our appreciation of the courtesy, fairness and uniform kindness which has marked his official relations with us; and

Resolved, That we tender to Mr. Watts our sincere regrets at the severance of our official ties, and the assurance of our heartiest good wishes for his future welfare, success and happiness, and that he may long live to enjoy the peace and comfort to which his integrity and devotion to duty fully entitle him.

Mr. and Mrs. Watts entertained the company pleasantly.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Insanity Contagious.

1895

A Malady That May Be Acquired by Association With One Afflicted.

An interesting discussion upon the subject of communicated insanity was brought out at the meeting of the Association of Asylum Superintendents in 1887 by the reading of the history of the Pocassett letter carrier, Freeman, who, with the consent of his wife, who had become possessed of the same fanatical ideas, offered up their son as a sacrifice, in the manner of Abraham, says Dr. Pilgrim in The Popular Science Monthly.

The insanity of the mother was not detected at the time, but in a month she became manifestly insane. As will be seen, this case cannot be considered a typical one of communicated insanity, for the remorse and grief which necessarily followed the participation in her husband's fanatical act were sufficient to account for her insanity, aside from any influence which he might have had over her. The discussion, however, brought out the interesting fact that several of the superintendents present had had experience with cases which would appear to justify the use of the term "communicated insanity," although others objected to its adoption.

One particularly interesting instance was related by Dr. Fletcher of Indiana, where two brothers and a sister, living on a farm isolated from the rest of the community, became, one after the other, controlled by the same insane delusion. They were Germans, industrious and thrifty, but uneducated and superstitious. The elder brother conceived the idea that the devil had taken possession of their farm and was secreted under a certain bowlder in the barnyard. He imagined that no good crops could be raised until his satanic majesty had been unearthed. He began searching and worked for several days rolling up great bowlders, until the younger brother, and finally the sister also became possessed of the same idea also and lent their assistance.

They all worked for about six weeks, making an excavation about 20 feet square and 15 feet deep. They worked so hard and became so emaciated that the neighbors interfered and had them sent to an asylum, where, happily, under the influence of treatment, change of surroundings and good diet, they ultimately recovered.

Hard Case.

1895

It was said of Hiram Wilson's conversational powers that they were "enough to turn the most knowledgeable folks scatter witted for the time being," and when he began to tell a story groups of men melted away as if by magic.

"I was goin by the Widder Follet's this mornin," he began one day as he joined the group around the new village pump, "at least I say goin by, an I dunno why I say goin by, for I wa'n't exackly. I was just goin along, as old Sam'l Gill used to tell about — leastways I dunno why I say old, for he wa'n't so turrible old — not much older'n most of us here — leastways I dunno's I orter say most of us, for there's Peter Franklin that I've heered tell — that is t' say, I ain't ever exackly heerd, bein as I'm so deef from the rheumaticks settlin in my ears, an I dunno's I've any call to say rheumaticks 'nother, for there was one doctor told me — leastways I dunno's he act'lly was a doctor, but he made out — an I dunno but made out's a kind of a ha'sh way to put it, but ye see he" —

At this point Mr. Wilson paused and looked about him. The legs of his last listener were vanishing around the corner of the postoffice, and he was left alone.

"Well, I never see anythin like it," said Mr. Wilson in an aggrieved tone as he proceeded to follow his late audience. "Seems 's if a man couldn't tell a succumstance — an I dunno's I'd orter say succumstance, for it wa'n't" — His voice died away in an inarticulate murmur as the postoffice door closed behind him. — Youth's Companion.

Monday, August 25, 2008

BANK CASHIER WOOD.

New York, 1895

The Man Who Handles the Money of Jamaica People.

William L. Wood, cashier of the Bank of Jamaica, is widely known as a brisk, though cautious, business man, with a reputation for probity that is bombproof. He was born in Brooklyn in 1857, his father being the Hon. Alfred M. Wood, ex-mayor of that city and colonel of the fighting Fourteenth regiment, when it was doing its splendid service at the front in the late Rebellion. William L. is the colonel's only son. He was educated at Alexander Military academy, in White Plains, and after leaving school began his business career with a brokerage firm in Wall street. He soon developed keen business tact, a quality his employers were not slow to recognize, and gradually he was advanced to positions of greater importance, which afforded broader fields for the exercise of his faculties.

In May, 1889, the Bank of Jamaica was chartered, and the gentlemen interested in that institution offered him the position of cashier, which he accepted. His career in the bank speaks for itself. The splendid success that the institution has achieved is due largely to his careful and conservative management. Nothing could ever induce him to depart one iota from the line of policy which he, as cashier, laid down as being calculated to best conserve the interests of the bank. A year ago, when financial storms were wrecking monetary institutions all over the country, or battering wildly at their doors, the bank of Jamaica, with Mr. Wood at the helm, bravely weathered the storm, never once exhibiting the slightest signs of weakness. He is highly esteemed by the patrons of the bank for his uniform courtesy and his readiness to give attention to all matters which may come before him officially.

Mr. Wood was for many years connected with the Williamsburg athletic club, always having a fondness for athletic sports. He served a little short of seven years in the ranks of the Twenty-third regiment, and is at present a member of the Veteran association of company H. He lives in Queens, in a comfortable home that he built nine or ten years ago, and now that his father has returned from his duties in Italy, he has taken up his residence near him.

Like his father, Cashier Wood in politics is an ardent Republican. While he has done some hard work for that party, he never sought a political office, and never held one. It may be truthfully said of him that he would not take a political office, though it were offered to him on a golden salver. He gives strict attention to the business of the bank, and is never absent from his post, except when out of town, which rarely happens. To sum up, Mr. Wood is "all wool and a yard wide." — Brooklyn Times.

—Reprinted in The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.

Sneak Thief at Levi Lynch's Home

New York, 1895

Woodhaven and Ozone Park News.

Harrison Tuttle is spending his vacation in Orange county.

Sunday afternoon a sneak thief entered the home of Levi Lynch, on Hatch avenue, and stole $10.

Charles Tucker is spending a week angling for weak fish. Charley has sent home some very nice ones.

Martin Rilling of the Twenty-Sixth ward, Brooklyn, is preparing to open a bakery at Woodhaven Junction.

Children's Day was observed in the Ozone Park Methodist church on Sunday evening. There was extra music prepared for the occasion by F. Luce. The morning sermon was by the Rev. William Ross.

Xavier Kumpf was buried on Sunday in Maple Grove cemetery. The funeral ceremonies were conducted wholly by the Odd Fellows' lodge, of which the deceased was an active member. About 200 Odd Fellows were in the procession and they made an excellent showing.


The Siacs crossed bats with the Giants of Brooklyn on Saturday and took them into camp after a hard struggle. Score: Siacs 13, Giants 9. The Siacs have secured a phenomenon for first base. He can fairly eat the ball. A large crowd enjoyed the game from start to finish.

An inquest was held Monday night by Coroner Nutt and a jury as to the cause of the death of the unknown man whose body was found in Maple Grove cemetery last month. The jury rendered a verdict of death by strangulation at the hands of parties unknown.

The funeral of Franz Eigenbrodt took place on Sunday. The Odd Fellows and several other organizations, with a band of music, escorted the remains to Broadway and Ocean avenue. Fully 250 men were in line. A large number of carriages followed the remains to Maple Grove cemetery.

The citizens of Union Course will hold a mass meeting this evening for the purpose of co-operating with the board of education in its efforts to provide adequate accommodations for pupils. The board has appointed a conference committee of forty citizens residing in the several parts of the school district to examine into the pressing needs.

The inquest on the boy Jerome Gainer, who shot himself while out walking with his sweetheart last week, was held on Wednesday night. Several witnesses were examined, among them Miss Blanche Hempstead, who was with him when he committed the deed. The jury rendered a verdict of death by his own hand.

A lady claiming to be the wife of Joseph Garcia appeared at Aqueduct on Friday, and created considerable excitement by claiming that her husband had been recreant. He is a well known resident of that place and is a member of the grocery firm of Van Brunt & Co. His partner a young lady and she was the especial object of the wife's wrath.

The Gillespie artificial ice company has erected a large building extending through from Ocean avenue to Lawn avenue fifty feet on each street, for the manufacture of artificial ice. They have invested nearly $30,000 in the plant and the citizens are taking great interest in the new venture. The first lot of ice was turned out last week, and now fifteen tons are made daily. The size of each cake of ice is 11x22x44 inches. The well from which the water is obtained is 15 feet in diameter and 50 feet deep.

The article in THE FARMER last week pricking up Coroner Nutt for apparent sympathy with an attempt to conceal the identity of the suicide found near Cypress Hills caused a genuine sensation in this village. The result was that the jury ascertained the deceased to be one Charles Schaefer, of Brooklyn. He is supposed to have taken his life during a recurring fit of suicidal mania. Investigation revealed that he was of excellent family and that his relatives were desirous of keeping his identity from the public prints.

William J. Howard, who has a goat farm near Aqueduct, has had three men arrested for slaughtering his goats to gratify a grudge. The men are locked up in the Town Hall. The farm, which covers an area of some 150 acres, is devoted to the breeding of goats from stock brought by Mr. Howard from Mexico. They are very thin and wiry, and have skins of peculiar texture, suited better to conversion into kid than that of almost any other breed of goats. The experiment is being made of feeding them on meadow grass and hay, on which they seem to thrive. The firm has a factory in Brooklyn, where the skins undergo treatment. When Mr. Howard reached the farm Thursday morning he found five of the goats slaughtered. Extreme brutality had been resorted to in the destruction of the animals, one having been struck with a knife in eighteen places. Then a second slaughter took place, when six animals were killed.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.

Wrecked a Mineral Water Wagon.

New York, 1895

While on its way to Long Island City Tuesday morning the Sag Harbor express came into collision with a mineral water wagon driven by J. H. Skidmore at Springfield. The locomotive hit the wagon near the rear end and filled the air with mineral water and flying glass. The front of the engine was covered with broken bottles and the engineer was badly cut about the face by the flying glass. The horse was found crippled about twenty-five feet from the track, while Skidmore Was picked up badly battered and bruised.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 8.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Stole Mr. Van Siclen's Posts.

New York, 1895

For some time past Garret Van Siclen, residing on the Black Stump road, Jamaica, has been missing locust posts that had been cut and piled on his farm. Shortly after 1 o'clock Monday morning, as his son was preparing to go to market, he saw two men removing posts from the pile. Without disturbing the men in their work, he hurried to the village and notified Constable Ashmead. The officer walked up Hillside avenue and arrested the men as they were driving to Brooklyn. They had 35 posts in the wagon. They gave their names as Matthew Funcke and August Wieber. They were locked up to await examination.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 4.

Shipherd's Love Letters.

New York, 1895

The love letters that Shipherd wrote to Mrs. Crowell are a strong link in the scoundrelism of the whole case. Shipherd had had at least two wives before he became infatuated with Mrs. Crowell, or rather before he hypnotized her. One of these he divorced in Utah by a power of attorney, and then married the other, and it has always been a mooted question among lawyers whether he had not committed bigamy. The last woman that he is known to have married lives on Staten Island and, so far as any one knows, is still his wife, in law. If Shipherd has married any other women the fact has not appeared, but the language in some of his letters creates the impression that if he has not had other wives he has been a villainous woman hunter. Mrs. Crowell regards him as her "husband" and he recognizes the validity of it in his reply to her letters, but that may be based on their free love ideas rather than on the substance of a ceremonial marriage. She said to him as they parted in Philadelphia and he promised her a letter: "A piece of paper instead of my husband! No. I want my husband!" Then he writes to her from Atlanta: "A great many times those words have come back to me, and I have found my respect for them steadily increasing." * * "And then like a flash from heaven came back your words to me, 'A piece of paper instead of my husband! No. I want my husband!' And all my soul cried out, 'Those words are true."' * * "The words above all others in this No. 6 that my soul responds to this morning are these: 'When I am with my husband I feel as if I would like to shut out the world and be alone with my dearest, dearest.'"

Shipherd's ideas of a husband's responsibilities were well illustrated by his defence to an action brought against him for the recovery of property by the children of his last (legal) wife. He offset the children's claim to the property by charging them with the support of their mother, his wife, for a number of years, and for her hotel expenses at Washington during the time of his trouble with Secretary Blaine. Shipherd was beaten in this action. He could not have the services and comfort of a wife at some one else's expense, with the sanction of the court.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 4.

Equality for Colored Persons.

New York, 1895

Governor Morton has signed Assemblyman Malby's bill to provide perfect equality for colored persons. The law not only makes it a misdemeanor to discriminate against colored persons in the matter of service at hotels, restaurants, theatres, and Turkish baths, but permits the complainant to recover from $100 to $500 from the offender. Not only the hotel waiter is liable, but the proprietor if he directs the waiter to make the discrimination. The bill provides that all persons within the jurisdiction of this state shall be entitled to the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, restaurants, hotels, eating houses, bath houses, barber shops, theatres, music halls, public conveyances on land and water, and all other places of public accommodation or amusement, subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law and applicable alike to all citizens.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 4.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Charm In Scotch

1895

I wonder if persons who can write Scotch are sufficiently aware of the great literary advantage they have over writers who are not born to that ability. It is no credit to them that they can do it. It is a gift to nature dropped in their lap. I never heard of any one who learned by artificial means to write Scotch. Scotch writers do it, and no one else. It has long been obvious that the proportion of good writers to the whole Scotch population was exceedingly large, but I do not remember that it has ever been pointed out how much easier it is for a Scotchman to be a good writer than another because of his innate command of the Scotch tongue.

There are such delightful words in that language; words that sing on the printed page wherever their employer happens to drop them in; words that rustle; words that skirl, and words that clash and thump. — Scribner's.

Famous Banquets

1895

The hog played an important part in Roman civilization, and it had its influence on religion, too, in another corner of the world, for Buddha died of an overfeed of dried boar's flesh. In recent times there has been more hog at the table than upon it.

Perhaps the best livers of olden times were the French noblemen of the middle ages. The modern world has never seen such luxuries and extravagance as attended the banquet of the pheasant, given by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, when he was striving to organize a crusade against the Turks.

Lucullus' famous banquets were a mere bagatelle to the dinners given by Vitellius. This glutton of proverbial memory spent nearly $10,000 a day, or its equivalent in denari, upon his eating, and it was not uncommon for him to give a little feast that cost $60,000. At one of those there was served a golden bowlful of peacocks' brains. Another dish was made of tongues of the flamingo, a very rare morsel. To procure those dainties it was necessary to send several ships to the strait of Gibraltar and companies of hunters to the mountains of Krapacks. — New York Press.

Fooled His Landlady

1895

Young Millingham's Heavy Correspondence Paid His Board For a Week.

There is more than one way of beguiling a landlady.

Mrs. Sunday, who keeps a very excellent establishment in Forty-third street, grew suspicious of young Millingham, one of her boarders. He had for three weeks neglected the trifling formality of paying her any money, and she had prepared to speak to him about it Saturday morning.

But he saw the resolution written in her face and escaped. In the afternoon he sent the following advertisement to a morning paper:

"Wanted — Man of from 20 to 30 years of age can secure employment at good wages by addressing M. Millingham, No. — Forty-third street; no peddling; no personal applications considered."

He managed to get in at an hour when Mrs. Sunday was out of his way and comfortably abed. At the breakfast table, where he appeared fairly radiant in smiles of assurance, he confided to his neighbor, though for the evident benefit of his landlady, that half a dozen men had called on him the previous afternoon for his new formula.

"Formula for what?" asked the neighbor.

But he intrenched himself in mystery, and only assured him that he had "caught the town."

At 9 o'clock two letters came for him. At 1 there were half a dozen. By night he had received two dozen. And the landlady, whose frowns had been black as Egypt in the morning, began to look upon him as a person of note.

She said nothing about his board bill Monday morning, though he bearded her boldly in the hall and told her to take care of any letters that might come for him.

There was an armful of them in the evening, and Mrs. Sunday was more than gracious to him. Tuesday he told her he had used up all his materials, and borrowed $10 of her to purchase a new supply. Wednesday she told the other boarders she was surprised that none of them had Mr. Millingham's business ability.

And then one of them, in self defense, turned up that advertisement. So that if Millingham ever does go back to Mrs. Sunday's boarding house he will learn her opinion of a man who does business on a capital of false pretenses. — New York Herald.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Wait Till the Summer Comes

1895

A good story is related of a small tradesman in a Welsh town. Last winter a large lake near the town became frozen over for the first time for many years, and large numbers of people from a neighboring city came over for the purpose of enjoying some skating. As this sport was a novelty to the residents they became also desirous of entering into it and besieged the local iron monger for skates.

Incredible as it may appear, this individual had never heard of such articles, but, disdaining to admit his ignorance, replied that he had not any in stock. Wearied at last, however, by repeated orders for skates, he remarked to his wife:

"Mary, we must lay in a stock of these skates, for, look you, if there's such a great demand for them now, what will it be in summer, when the tourists come?"


Done With

Artist — I sold a picture yesterday.
Friend — Ah! What are you going to do with the money?
Artist — It's already done with. My landlady bought it for half the board bill I owed her. — Detroit Free Press.

Rapid Growth of Fungi

1895

The rapidity with which many, if not all, fungi grow baffles calculation. The great puffball, Lycoperdon giganteum, will grow as large as a peck measure in 48 hours, and 'specimens of Agaricus campestris have developed from the button — of the size of a pea — to a mushroom as large as a coffee saucer in a night. But this great increase is not actual growth. These species are many weeks forming under the surface of the ground. Their cells are small and closely packed. When the proper degrees of moisture and heat around this incipient fungus coincide, it rapidly absorbs moisture, and stimulated by the heat swells to its full size in a few hours. — Boston Transcript.


Sun and Tan

Some people "tan" in the sunshine because the chemical action of the light on the skin causes the deposit of a pigment in its substance. Tanning is a provision of nature to protect the true skin from the bad effects of too much light and heat.

An Unfortunate Present

1895

"No; I never see anything of him now," sighed the girl in blue, stirring her chocolate mournfully. "He hasn't been to see me since Christmas, and I don't understand it, for I sent him a lovely present."

"What was it?" asked the girl in gray.

"I'll tell you all about it," said the first girl, with the air of one eager to impart confidences. "You know he writes poetry. He sends the girls he knows sonnets and things. Well, I wanted to give him something literary, you know, as a sort of tribute to his talent, but I didn't want to send him a volume of poetry. It would have seemed to suggest a comparison, you know. I thought a long time, and finally sent him" —

"What?" demanded the girl in green as her friend hesitated.

"A rhyming dictionary! Now can you see why he hasn't called? What are you laughing about?" — New York World.

An Anecdote of General Scott

1895

After his retirement Scott passed the summer of 1862 at Cozzens' hotel, West Point, where every evening a party of gentlemen adjourned to the general's sitting room for their game. Being a good player, the host was usually victorious, but if he and his partner were ever beaten Scott's ire was made manifest. One night it happened that the usual party was missing. What was to be done? The general must have his whist. There happened to be staying at the hotel a judge, who was asked to do the favor of taking the fourth hand. With some protest on his part he agreed to do it. By cutting for partners the general and the judge played together and were beaten — horribly beaten. Knowing how it irritated the general to lose the game, the judge, as he rose from the table, said in his most dignified and courtly way: "I formerly played a fairly good game of whist, but have been out of practice so long that I am somewhat rusty. I hope that fact may be taken as an excuse for my mistakes." Whereupon the general arose with equal dignity and retorted, "I am glad to learn that I have been playing with latent talent and not with a natural born fool!" — Kate Field's Washington.

The Spring Failed

1895

Lord Southey Had a Guillotine Erected In His Drawing Room For Suicide.

Lord Southey once, in a fit of disgust with life, had a magnificent guillotine erected in the drawing room of his magnificently appointed house in the Rue de Luxembourg, at Paris. The machine was an elaborate affair, with ebony uprights inlaid with gold and silver. The framework was carved with great artistic skill, and the knife, of immense weight and falling at the touch of a spring, was of ornamented steel, polished and as sharp as a razor.

The spring which liberated the knife was placed within easy reach of any one kneeling upon the scaffold — in fact, every detail was arranged with a view to the convenience of the would be suicide. The day that the engine of death was entirely finished Lord Southey completed his testamentary dispositions, shaved, had his hair cut, and, clothed in a robe of white silk, knelt upon the platform under the knife.

The guillotine was placed before a large mirror, wherein the person committing suicide could see his own image until the last. Murmuring a short prayer, Lord Southey placed his head in the semicircle and pressed the spring.

The next morning he was found calmly sleeping in his bed. The spring had failed to work, and after several fruitless efforts Lord Southey was compelled to relinquish his attempt upon his life. Thoroughly cured of his spleen, he presented the guillotine to the Glasgow museum, whence he made an annual pilgrimage to see it until the end of his life. — Pittsburg Dispatch.

Wanted It Out Anyway

1895

My friend, the major, tells me some good stories about the gallant men who inhabit the marine barracks at Charlestown. The latest incident involves a brave sergeant who was going the rounds one night to see that all the lights were out in the barracks rooms. Coming to a room where he thought he saw a lamp shining, he roared, "Put out that light there!"

"It's the moon, sergeant!" replied one of the soldiers.

Not hearing very well, the sergeant cried in return: "I don't care what it is! Put it out!" — Boston Globe.


Worry

Worry annually kills more people than work, for worry fatigues the nerves, but it is useless to tell people of nervous temperaments not to worry. One should strive, however, to avoid all things that tend to disturb the nerves. Throw away a pen that scratches and a pencil that has a bit of hard lead in its make up. Discard a needle that "squeaks" and a basin that leaks. Use sharp tools and wear soft garments. Oil the hinges of the rheumatic door and fasten the creaking blind. — Philadelphia Ledger.


Out of Sight

Mrs. Witherby — I think I shall have my new bonnet trimmed with bats' wings.
Witherby — Don't they come high?
Mrs. Witherby — Yes, my dear, the kind of bats you know about come very high. — New York Herald.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

THE BODGES HAVE A DIFFERENCE.

New York, 1895

Arrest of the Husband on a Charge of Abandonment.

Mrs. Elizabeth Bodge, the wife of John J. Bodge, of Dunton, has made complaint to Justice Hendrickson, of Jamaica, charging her husband with abandonment and non-support of herself and their child. Bodge was arraigned before the justice on Wednesday. Bodge claims that his wife is indolent, and that she is too intimate with one Mrs. Benemiller, a neighbor, who is objectionable to Mr. Bodge, his three daughters, and his friends. He says that after he remonstrated with Mrs. Bodge for keeping company with Mrs. Benemiller, she continued to go openly with her and drove about with her in a carriage. He insisted that she should not do it, and then she left him altogether, taking with her the child which was her's by a former marriage to a Mr. Watts. Mrs. Bodge claims that her husband had abused her and absolutely refused to support her any longer. The case was adjourned until July 3. Ex-District Attorney Fleming appeared for Mr. Bodge, and Counselor Stanford for Mrs. Bodge. The Bodges have only been married about a year and a half.

There appears to be no merit in the charge against Mr. Bodge. He seems to be a victim of persecution, and his arrest seems to have been caused to annoy and humiliate him. Mrs. Budge came to court in Mrs. Benemiller's carriage, dressed like a society belle. Mrs. Benemiller is the woman who was arrested some time ago for committing an assault on Colonel Crandall.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

Band of Youthful Till Tappers.

New York, 1895

George Bartley, 16 years old, of Long Island City, made a written confession in Justice Duffy's Court Wednesday, implicating eight Greenpoint boys in the organized gang of till tappers now under arrest. Justice Duffy held the youthful prisoners for examination.


Found in the Nissequogue.

A number of the papers belonging to the Presbyterian church at Smithtown, which were stolen three weeks ago from the safe in Conklin & Jayne's store, which was blown open by dynamite, were found floating on the Nissequogue river.


Saved a Drowning Girl.

Clara Zimmer, 14 years old, while swimming near the College Point Casino at 5 o'clock Monday afternoon, ventured out too far, and was being carried into the sound by the strong current when a young man named Edward Raw heard her cries and jumped in to save her. He got the girl around the waist and swam ashore. When he reached the wharf the girl was thought to be dead. She was revived with difficulty.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

Took Possession of Barlow's Farm.

New York, 1895

A party of Brooklyn excursionists took possession of the Barlow farm on the Jamaica road Saturday and tried to run the place. They arrived in wagons and camped in a grove of cherry trees. They set up a keg of beer, and were having a good old time when Farmer Barlow appeared and ordered them off his premises. They dared him to put them out of the grove. He procured a warrant from Judge Connorton for the arrest of the party. Eight of the men were brought to the town hall, but they were dismissed with a reprimand. One of their number, William Wright, became abusive in court, and was sent to the county jail for ten days.


Two Wayward Freeport Girls.

Two girls, Susie Johnson, 16 years old, and Nellie Gombert, 13 years old, who disappeared from Freeport Sunday evening, were arrested in Hempstead Tuesday afternoon by Officer Dunbar. Mr. Gombert, Nellie's father, keeps a bakery in Freeport, and employed the Johnson girl as a servant. Her home is at Rockville Centre. Last Sunday Nellie decided to seek employment and consulted Susie in the matter. The two girls packed their clothes and taking $3 walked to Rockville Centre and from there to Hempstead.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Hermann's Horses Ran Away.

New York, 1895

A four in hand team of horses belonging to Professor Hermann were frightened by a train near the railroad station at Whitestone on Saturday, and ran away. All four horses were injured, and the carriage was badly damaged.


Six Months for Theft.

Philip Clark, of College Point, was on Friday arrested on the charge of stealing a silver watch belonging to John Finnegan. When arraigned before Judge Beiderlinden he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.


Accident to a "Trailer" Car.

A trolley car on the Calvary and Lutheran cemetery branch of the Steinway railroad fell over an embankment at Maspeth, Sunday afternoon. The car was a light open one and was being pulled along by a closed motor car. When the accident occurred the two cars were on their return trip from the cemeteries to Long Island City. The twelve passengers of the "trailer" were badly shaken up, and one or two of them injured, but none fatally.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

Fire Panic in a Factory.

New York, 1895

The men and girls at work in Kleinert's rubber factory at College Point were startled just before noon Thursday by cries of fire. Smoke came in clouds from the second story and soon filled the whole building.

The fire escapes of the factory were crowded with women scrambling to escape. Lillie Wurtz fell to the ground and broke her arm. Another young woman jumped from a second-story window to the scaffolding, twenty-five feet below, but escaped injury. Half a dozen girls were slightly bruised.


Pustler Charged With Libel.

Professor Paul Kyle, director of the military academy for boys at Flushing, has brought an action for libel against Paul Pustler, who until a few days ago was employed as music teacher in that institution. In his complaint Mr. Kyle alleges that Pustler has been circulating a report that the institute was infested with diphtheria and that Mr. Kyle treated his pupils in an inhuman manner.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

FIRED THE TRESTLE FOR FUN.

New York, 1895

A Boy Tries to Destroy Part of the Long Island Railway.

Lucien Haurdberg, 15 years old, employed as a wiper in Lalance & Grosjean's agateware factory in Woodhaven, was held without bail by Justice Hendrickson Wednesday morning on a charge of setting fire to the Long Island railroad trestle at Woodhaven Junction. The fire was discovered in the trestle just before midnight Tuesday by Night Watchman Charles Daggatt.

The last train for the night had crossed when Daggatt saw smoke ascending from the trestle. He and several others clambered out over the string pieces to the blaze and extinguished it. At first it was supposed that the fire originated from a hot coal dropped by a locomotive, but Daggatt eventually discovered what appeared to be a bundle of greasy rags partly burned. They proved to be the remnants of two small pairs of trousers, soaked with oil and grease. Detective Sarvis arrested young Haurdberg, who lives near the trestle with his parents.

To the detective and Justice Hendrickson the boy acknowledged that the trousers were his. Tuesday night, he said, his mother told him to take them out and burn them as they were no longer fit to wear. He thought it would be great fun to get the firemen out, so, with the trousers under his arm and a handful of matches in his pocket, he climbed up the earth embankment. He clambered out on the heavy wooden stringpieces, and, placing the trousers in a convenient corner formed by the beams, he struck a match and set fire to them. Then he hastily retraced his steps. Upon reaching the ground he became a little frightened and ran home and went to bed. Soon he heard the village fire alarm and then he knew his blaze had been discovered.

But for Watchman Daggatt's timely discovery the trestle would probably have been destroyed or the timbers charred and weakened sufficiently to wreck the first train that crossed in the morning.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Mustn't Ride Wheels to School.

New York, 1895

The teachers in the public schools at College Point, especially those who ride bicycles, are aroused over an order issued by The Board of Education forbidding them to ride their bicycles to school. The board declares that the minds of the teachers are concentrated more upon their wheels than upon their work at school. They further declare that wheeling tends to create immorality.


Burglars at Sag Harbor.

Burglars got into the dwelling of Capt. Robert Hanna, U. S. A., at Sag Harbor, just before midnight Thursday night. Their entrance awoke the servant, who gave an alarm, and the burglars fled. The house was searched and the family silverware was found in a heap in the dining room, ready to be lugged off.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

JAKE SHIPHERD'S LOVE LETTERS.

New York, 1895

Three that He Wrote to Mrs. Crowell.

SHE KNEW HOW TO LOVE

Called Her His "Dainty One," "My Own, My Only Own," "Loveliest Love," "Love of Loves," "Lovie" and "Lamb," "Lovie Sweet" and "Sweetest."

"HUSBAND" AND "WIFE."

THE FARMER gave last week but an outline of one or two letters written by Jacob Rudd Shipherd of Richmond Hill to Mrs. Lydia S. Crowell. We lay before the reading public to-day three of Shipherd's letters to Mrs. Crowell, taken from full stenographic notes of the trial of the divorce suit. In one or two particulars these letters may seem offensive, but we have no right to mutilate them, as they are part of the court record; and if mutilated Shipherd might claim that the omission did him an injustice, so they are printed verbatim. The letters are but three out of a lot. Some of the statements in them may not seem entirely clear in the absence of Mrs. Crowell's letters to which reference is had. It seems that they posed as husband and wife. Mrs. Crowell's terms of endearment for Shipherd must have been extravagant and ravishing, but they can only be guessed at. Shipherd's terms of endearment are soul stirring and heart crushing. She was his Rock and his rest in her was better than ten millions of money could make it. She was his "My Dainty One," his "My Own, All My Own, My Only Own," "My Lamb," "Lovie Sweet," "My Love," "Sweetest," "Sweetest, Loveliest Love," and "Best Loved," "Lovie," "Dearest Dearest," "My Love of Loves," and so on.

As Crowell still has a suit pending against Shipherd for damages for the loss of Mrs. Crowell's affections, the letters will prove important evidence for Mr. Crowell.

The letters follow:

ATLANTA, Oct. 8, 93.

"The happiest woman in this world." "The happiest woman in this world." My my though, wouldn't that be almost too happy, dearie? She doesn't say she is that — she only says she would be that if. If — that is, she thinks she wd be that — if. If — well, that's lovely reading anyway. It sort o' warms m' heart & things. I think it brings a shine into m' eyes. I know it makes me glad like solid gold.

I went to the university at 4.30 & got back 2 hours later. Then I went to the Cong. Ch. to Chr. Endeavor. The minister was there & made me talk again, & after the preaching he & I talked some more, & some more brethren came up to introduce themselves & hope I would keep coming right along. One of them saw me there once in May & had remembered it ever since. Pa makes nice boys & girls, dont he, dear? After church Pa sent me to studying on 271 & remarked that if it was his wife & sister he'd left in Phila he sh'd go round and see if there weren't some letters. Nuff ced. I went, and there they were — 2 letters & a big pkg. There is a bright electric light within 10 feet of 271, & a broad stand-up desk to lean on. It only took 1½ minutes to absorb both letters, & 2⅛ seconds more to get into the box.

O my lamb! It was lovely of you — but this Pig had other views. He wanted her to buy her a syringe or some such thing for herself out of those virgin bills — it adds inches to the feel of his ears to have her little savings lavished on him this way. Now if I send her $2 special will she please got her a syringe for me — just for me, lovie sweet? Tell me true & nice my dainty one.

It makes me glad without surprise that you like the city of your kin. It is the smoothest, most restful and peaceable settlement of size I was ever in. I was sure you must like it — but left you free to find your own impressions. Mayhap you & I will settle there or near there yet & put on (both of us) the plain dress and say "thee" and "thine" and so drift out together upon the sleeping sea. Would my love like it?

Every word you write sets my heart a-glow, sweetest. And the full, clear name at the end shines like a star cluster in my eyes. My own, my own, my only own — and all my own.


Oct. 14, '93.

Your No. 6 gladdens me this morning — but, O my loveliest love, every day I find your words talking for me better than my own. When I was coming away and you were rebelling — not naughtily, only helplessly — and I tried to comfort you with some reminder about letters, & you retorted indignantly, "A piece of paper instead of my husband. No, I want my husband." I thought at first — just for an instant — that you were scarcely appreciating letters.

A great many times since those words have come back to me, and I have found my respect for them steadily increasing, and this morning, after opening your parcel with quivering eagerness & feasting upon every mark of your pen, I lay it down as one famishing with thirst might set down the empty cup in the bottom of which he had found a few trickling drops only, & my soul cries out "And is that all? How am I to live all day on that? and probably must live 24 hours on it? And then there will be only as much more. O this is sheer starvation; and are there weeks and weeks of it yet to come?"

And then like a flash from heaven came back your words to me "A piece of paper instead of my husband. No, I want my husband." And all my soul cried out "Those words are true." The words above all others in this No. 6 that my soul responds to this morning are these: "When I am with my husband I feel as if I would like to shut out the world and be alone with my dearest, dearest."

The greater facts of life are the same, regardless of all time & space & surroundings. To each other we are alone — always, everywhere — what is ours is as separately ours as if God and we alone were alive. If our holy of holies could be entered, there could be no sacredness assured to us. But only God has access there, and he comes in only to cheer and bless and enrich and approve.

The longing we both feel to be absolutely (for the most part) left to ourselves, is only the nimbus of the sun of our joy — a halo surrounding the pure & central shining. It is sweet to be quite by ourselves — alone, alone, alone, alone, in every sense and manner of form. It is pain, a weight, a clog, a stricture, when we are parted in any manner, when any conditions intervene to divide us in any way to any extent. But it is not immeasurable relief to remember that as matter of fact, the most holy place which is ours alone can never be entered by any profane foot or eye or car. That what is truly ours alone can never be shared under any conceivable conditions by any other than our Father alone? And that all these interrupting experiences are in their very nature transient and fleeting — a part of those "light afflictions which are but for a moment."

Were it not so, O best loved, it seems to me I could not endure to live. You have had some hints — the merest hints only — of what I suffered when an infinitely lesser love was — in a manner, profaned and outraged. I had not then learned of the Inner temple of ALL; I did not then know where to take refuge. There are no words to tell of the uplifting of joy I have since known nor of the horrors of darkness out of which I have since been saved. Now love me somewhat as I do not mean less; I only mean that for the first time in my life I seem to have met one who can love as I can love.

Always hitherto I have given dollars for pennies, diamonds for stones — I mean of course outside my own family. Always hitherto, for one reason or another I have been compelled, even inside my own family, to limit my loving, to restrain myself, to forbid myself, to repeat over and over every hour of the day — "Stop here, stop here, stop here." Sometimes I have wondered how God could compel me to desire so much and to forbid myself almost all of it. But never mind now. In you & through you God has shown me so much of present sweetness, such promise of future sufficiency, and such eternal certainty — that I can now wait with such hope and such measure of content as I never knew before I knew you.

We are saved easily by hope, when our hope rises out of sufficient knowledge. Hope that is blind is but another form of desperation. Faith that does rise out of knowledge is but a dream and a snare.

I am glad Father cares. It would be much more agreeable to me to alternate the formal address; I know mother cared, and was not sure that Father did. I have obtruded so much loving upon so many people that I am very timid now. There is a sense in which it is necessary to be "weaned," nor is the experience seriously painful when the conditions are normal; but in the sense in which you cry out, "I shall never be weaned, darling, never," all my soul cries with you. Not only will it never be easier to be torn from you — it must always be harder and harder.

But we may learn & shall learn now (largely) to ignore the conditions of time and space. But for this our whole life wd grow harder & sorer, & wd soon become intolerable. Yes, lovie; please send me one of the photos. I must begin my day's work now.

This will be due in N. Y. at 1 P. M. tomorrow — in good season for R. H. on Monday A. M. O my love of loves.


Oct. 18, '93, 9 a. m.

At the office I found 4 letters waiting for me — four. I had them all for breakfast, and now I sit before my wife's No. 9, No. 10, No. 11 with a sense of wealth unknown before. I will write to Julia to hand you the $2. Let me know that you get it. I could write you pages of history about my care of your husband. If he gets any harm while in my charge it will not be my fault — the first cold night for example, the cold was so unexpected that no one was ready. The next morning at breakfast every one was clamoring about the inability to keep warm. But I wasn't caught napping, & I took care of your husband. I made him report to me every two or three minutes when he was awake. Of course we started with the foot muff. Then came the b-quilt. Next the knee quilt. Then a thin under vest; then thick drawers. Then thin stockings. Then woolen stockings over them. There were a heavy pair of new & handsome blankets & coverlid all the time, but as the night wore on & the cold steadily strengthened I found the man was still a shade too cool, & I bounded out once more. I brought him his brown coat and made him sit up & put it on. He laughed a pile & declared that in all his life he had never worn a coat in this way, but of course I was inexorable; it is easy enough to be flinty when you have a duty to do. His wife was right before me every minute, & I was hard as granite in her presence. There is nothing in the universe (I suppose) so flinty as pure love.

Julia writes that you mentioned the flowers I sent her but gave her none; I don't understand it; As to Sadie I think you are wise to be silent & let things take their course — no effort of ours can change anything and certainly we have no wisdom as to the future. How can we tell whether it is best, she sh'd. go with us or not? And is it not certain that only the best things will be given us? Is not the best good enough?

I have myself thought about a thicker overcoat. It is to say whether it will be needed or not. If I send for it, please pack it in one of those boxes you will find in the storeroom closet: "To whom does that table belong?" What table, dear. "I took charge of the small envelope." Thanks dearie. "Did your umbrella go all the way to Atlanta with you?" I am able to assure you, dear, upon the highest authority that my umbrella did go all the way to Atlanta with me. If you will be good enough to step into my room for a moment I will show you where it stands this moment, just over there in the southwest corner of my room, beside my cane. "Cane?"

Sure enough, your spouse hadn't told you, had he? Well, forgive him, and let me tell you all about it; He moves around more or less evenings, always to the P. O. and 2 or 3 times a week to some public place & felt sort o' unprotected in the dark, besides, he is so clumsy he likes to have something to sound the darker places with, and I told him to go right off and get him a cane, that his wife wouldn't allow the question to be debated, etc. He only hesitated about the expense but when I quoted his wife he knew I was right and said no more. He chose a very substantial hickory stick, closely like one he carries at home, with a round handle. It is handsome and it is strong, and he never goes out in the dark without it. It cost 75 cents & wd. be cheap at twice the money. His father said he'd provide the money (I hear his father is quite well to do; at least in comfortable circumstances.)

"I will have to come back to the thought that everything is right." I wouldn't love if I could do better. I think we have the right to demand always the best; for myself I confess I never came to that thought till I was forced to it by the failure of every other refuge; then I got away from it again directly, and I have got away from it a million times since and I never get back to it till I am driven back to it. Never.

This is the reason I do often hear these lines, "Blest be the tempest, kind the storm that drives me nearer home."

"I hope Pa will solve the lawyer problems and then your mind will rest." No dearest, not then. First because I can't wait. "I want it now." I must have it now. I can't stand on any uncertainty any more. Since I have once stood on the Rock.

Second, because I couldn't rest on any human thing — not for a moment. If I had the new charter now I could not rest on it an instant. If I had ten millions of money besides I couldn't rest on both of them a instant: Since I have found the Rock. Since I have found the Rock I can never rest anywhere else. I do rest now darling, absolutely, utterly.

There are no longer any problems (in the sense) for me. All my problems are solved. "Thy Maker is thy husband." Multiply your rest in your husband by a thousand millions or so — that is what it is to rest in Him. "Will you accept an unlimited number of kisses?" Try me, love. Try me.

————————

When Jacob Rudd Shipherd was first accused of wrongfully detaining Miss Bennett, and when he was strongly suspected of the infamy which was developed in the Crowell divorce trial, the Jamaica Standard's columns were used in his defense. It is said now that money was paid for the use of the paper.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 21, 1895, p. 1.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Mrs. Bergen Has Few Arrested.

New York, 1895

Frank H. Few, of Smithville, was arrested on Tuesday by Constable Ashmead, on the complaint of his mother-in-law, Mrs. Sarah Bergen, upon a charge of grand larceny. Mrs. Bergen says that several years ago she gave Few $2,500 with which to purchase a house and ten acres of land at Smithville South for her, Some time ago she engaged Counselor Stanford to make an abstract of the title from the records at the county clerk's office, and it was found that the title to the farm was in Few's name. She says he has since neglected to correct the matter. Few was arraigned before Justice Hendrickson at Jamaica on Wednesday, and gave bonds in $2,000 for examination.


Construction Train Accident.

There was a big smashup on an unballasted section of the new Long Island railroad at Easthampton Thursday morning. An engine, six platform cars, four freight cars and the caboose were overturned.


1895 Advertisement

A healthy appetite, with perfect digestion and assimilation, may be secured by the use of Ayer's Pills. They cleanse and strengthen the whole alimentary canal and remove all obstructions to the natural functions of either sex, without any unpleasant effects.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 5.

Dickens' "Situations"

1895

The Similarity of His Methods In Winding Up His Plots.

It is curious what a penchant Dickens had for certain melodramatic situations, which smiled to his fancy so telling that he repeated and reproduced them many times over. He had a lively dramatic turn, and I always thought would have had extraordinary success as a dramatist. I once asked him why he had not taken up this "line" seriously, and I think he made the excuse — it was long ago, many years before his death — that he had not time, taste or patience. The real reason no doubt was that he could not work without expanding and could not "carve heads upon a cherry stone."

A literary friend, who has his "Boz" at his fingers' ends, has with great acuteness pointed out to me that Nicholas Nickleby was a genuine "Adelphi walking gentleman." His manner, heroic bursts, protection of his sister, boarding of Ralph, etc., were all elements in the Adelphi melodrama. Ralph was a regular stage villain. That his works are all dramatic and conceived in the true spirit of the stage is plain from the vast list of adaptations. Each story has been adapted again and again and will bear the process admirably.

One method for winding up his plot, to which he was excessively partial, was the unmasking of the villain owing to the betrayal of some confederate. The parties are generally brought together in a room by the more virtuous members. The confederate then emerges from his concealment and tells a long story of villainy. We have this denouement first in "Oliver Twist," where Monks makes his revelations. In "Nickleby" Ralph is confronted with "the man Snawley and Squeers." In the "Old Curiosity Shop" Quilp is similarly exposed. In "Barnaby Rudge" Haredale forces his hereditary enemy to make revelations. In "Chuzzlewit" Jonas is confronted with another betrayer. In "Copperfield" Uriah Heep is denounced and exposed by Mr. Micawber. In "Bleak House" Lady Dedlock is similarly tracked. In nearly all the cases the guilty person goes off and commits suicide. — Gentleman's Magazine.



A Compulsory Conclusion

He was a flirt, and the girl knew it.

He had been saying tender things and looking unutterable ones for weeks.

And every time he opened his mouth he put his foot in it.

At last he came to the point.

"I have lost my heart," he said to her in that way which every woman knows so well the interpretation of.

She looked at him searchingly. "Science," she responded, "says that nothing is lost."

He was about to reply, but he caught himself.

Then he got out of the presence of that girl, for he knew in his soul that she was science, and that in her opinion his heart was nothing. — Detroit Free Press.

Kabo Corsets (1895 advertisement)

If you appreciate a perfect fitting corset, give the Kabo 105 a trial. It's sure to please you. There is one DRESS STAY that won't melt apart, can't cut through the dress, don't stay bent. It is Ball's Peerless. A. SCHLANK, "Bee Hive," Fulton Street, Jamaica.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 3.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

LET HIS FEET HANG OUT.

New York, 1895

An Italian Railway Laborer Killed in a Peculiar Accident.

An Italian laborer, whose name is not known, was killed at Farmingdale on Sunday in a peculiar manner. He was one of 250 who had been employed on the new extension of the Long Island railroad at Amagansett and was being conveyed to Long Island City to be paid off. The men were in a train of box cars.

Just before the train reached Farmingdale the man who was killed sat down in the doorway of the car he was in, allowing his foot to hang out. The train was going thirty miles an hour. The man's feet struck the freight station platform and several heavy pickle barrels that were standing on the platform. The man held on to the iron rods that support the door of the car and was not pulled out.

The force of the collision demolished two of the barrels and swept several others from the platform. The man was not killed instantly, and when the train was stopped he still had hold of the iron rods. He died two hours later.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 4.

The Crowell Divorce Suit.

New York, 1895

Jacob Rudd Shipherd and Mrs. Lydia S. Crowell have had a fair trial before an impartial judge and an unbiased jury and they have been found guilty of the offense which Charles B. Crowell, the woman's husband, charged against them. The evidence of their guilt was overwhelming. Mrs. Crowell has been a most foolish woman. One might almost assume that she could not have been of sound sense so easily was she lured to her ruin, and that Shipherd is a hypnotist before whom DuMaurier's creation of the mythical Schvengali fades wholly away. From the first meeting of the couple on an electric car and their flirtation Shipherd seems to have marked the woman for his victim and to have pursued her relentlessly until at last he got her wholly within his power under his own roof. It cannot be said that she was not a willing victim, for she had been put on her guard by friends who knew full well the fate that would befall her if she continued to coquette with Shipherd. She received him in her home and concealed his visits from her husband. She received affectionate letters from him, and letters that were impious and nasty, and concealed the fact and the letters from her husband. The receipt of such letters by a woman is not in itself evidence of criminal conduct on her part, for a man might send such missives to her maliciously, with the intent of injuring her good name and disrupting her family relations, but when a woman consents to receive improper communications, breathing love or uttering unprintable words, and replies to them and revels in them, and makes her husband a thing to be mocked at by her duplicity, she becomes a moral criminal deserving only to be despised and cast out from association with decent people. This is Mrs. Crowell's case precisely. The verdict of the jury stamps Shipherd a scoundrel who ought to be in prison. There are purer and better men wearing stripes. In his temporary absence from the object of his lust he defiled Christianity by audaciously invading the sanctuary and making a religious address, by carrying his polluting person into the midst of an assemblage of pure young people of the Christian Endeavor order, and writing home to his concubine letters that sought by the use of Gospel quotations to justify his and her moral leprosy. Such a creature is not fit to be spat upon by the wayfarer.


Short Editorial, No Headline:

"Pig" was the pet name Mrs. Crowell choose for Jacob Rudd Shipherd. It was well chosen, too. His was not so happy a thought in calling her "Lamb." Old Mutton would have been better.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, June 14, 1895, p. 4.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Artificial Pearl

It is possible to produce a film having much of the appearance of mother of pearl at a very trifling cost. For this purpose are required one part nitro cellulose, 7 or 8 parts of 100 per cent alcohol and 21 parts ether. Soluble glass is used as a solvent, 10 parts of this to 90 parts of water being the proportion. A series of interesting experiments in color, brilliancy and consistency are made by adding bisulphite of carbon in the proportion of 25 parts to 100 parts of the solution. Benzine may also be added, with the effect of changing the arrangement of the colors and varying their intensity. — New York Ledger.


Experience

He — Now, darling, I shall go and ask your father for you.
She — He won't give his consent.
He — How do you know?
She — Because four or five have tried it before you. — Detroit Free Press.

The Fall of Venice

1895

HUMILIATION OF THE PROUD OLIGARCHY BY BONAPARTE.

Contemptible Cowardice of the Patricians Who Had Ruled With Such High Hand — The French Conqueror Declared the Venetians Unfit For Liberty.

Since the days of Carthage no government like that of the Venetian oligarchy had existed on the earth. As its best it was dark and remorseless. With the disappearance of its vigor its despotism had become somewhat milder, but even yet no common man might draw the veil from its mysterious, irresponsible councils and live. A few hundred families administered the country as they did their private estates. All intelligence, all liberty, all personal independence, were repressed by such a system. The more enlightened from the mainland, many even in the city, had felt the influences of the time and had long been uneasy under their government, however smoothly it seemed to be running.

Now that the earth was quaking under the march of Bonaparte's troops that government was not only helpless, but it actually grow contemptible in its panic. There was indeed the most urgent necessity for a change. The senate had a powerful fleet, 3,000 native troops and 11,000 mercenaries, but they struck only a single futile blow on their own account, permitting a rash captain to open fire from the gunboats against the French vanguard when it appeared. But immediately, as if in fear of their own temerity, they dispatched an embassy to learn the will of the approaching general. That his dealings might be merciful they tried the plan of Modena and offered Bonaparte a bribe of 3,000,000 francs; but, as in the case of Modena, he refused. Next day, the grand council having been summoned, it was determined by a nearly unanimous vote of the patricians (690 to 21) that they would remodel their institutions on democratic lines. The pale and terrified doge thought such surrender to be the last hope of safety.

Not for a moment did Lallemont and Villetard, the two French agents, intermit their revolutionary agitation in the town. Disorders grew more frequent, an uncertainty both paralyzed and disintegrated the patrician party. A week later the government virtually abdicated. Two utter strangers appeared in a theatrical way at its doors and suggested in writing to the great council that to appease the spirit of the times they should plant the liberty tree on the place of St. Mark and speedily accede to all the propositions for liberalizing Venice which the popular temper seemed to demand. Such were the terror and disorganization of the aristocracy that instead of punishing the intrusion by death, according to the traditions of their merciless procedure, they took measures to carry out the suggestion. The fleet was dismantled and the army disbanded.

By the end of the month the revolution was virtually accomplished, for a rising of their supporters having been mistaken by the great council in its pusillanimous terror for a rebellion of their antagonists they decreed the abolition of all existing institutions, and after hastily organizing a provisional government disbanded. Four thousand French soldiers occupied the town, and an ostensible treaty was made between the new republic of Venice and that of France.

This treaty was really nothing but a pronunciamento of Bonaparte. He decreed a general amnesty to all offenders except the commanders of Port Luco, who had recently fired on the French vessel. He also guaranteed the public debt and promised to occupy the city only as long as the public order required it. By a series of secret articles Venice was to accept the stipulations of Leoben in regard to territory, pay an indemnity of 6,000,000 francs and furnish three ships of the line and two frigates, while, in pursuance of the general policy of the French republic, experts were to select 20 pictures from her galleries and 500 manuscripts from her libraries.

Whatever was the understanding of those who signed those crushing conditions the city was never again treated by any European power as an independent state. Soon afterward a French expedition was dispatched to occupy her island possessions in the Levant. The arrangements had been carefully prepared during the very time when the provisional government believed itself to be paying the price of its new liberties. And earlier still — on May 27, three days before the abdication of the aristocracy — Bonaparte had already offered to Austria the entire republic in its proposed form as an exchange for the German lands on the left bank of the Rhine.

Writing to the directory on that day, he declared that Venice, which had been in a decline ever since "the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope and the rise of Triest and Ancona, can with difficulty survive the blows we have just given her. This miserable, cowardly people, unfit for liberty and without land or water — it seems natural to me that we should hand them over to these who have received their mainland from us. We shall take all their ships; we shall despoil their arsenal; we shall remove all their cannon; we shall wreck their bank; we shall keep Corfu and Ancona for ourselves."

On the 26th a letter to his "friends" at the Venetian provisional government had assured them that he would do all in his power to confirm their liberties, and that he earnestly desired that Italy, "now covered with glory and free from every foreign influence, should again appear on the world's stage and assert among the great powers that station to which by nature, position and destiny it was entitled." Ordinary minds cannot grasp the guile and daring which seem to have prearranged and foreseen all the conditions necessary to plans which for double dealing transcended the conceptions of men even in that age of duplicity and selfishness. — Professor W. M. Sloane in Century.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

A Woman Detective

1895

HOW SHE RECOVERED THE POCKETBOOKS OF THREE SHOPPERS.

An Experience With a Pretty Pickpocket Which Is Duplicated Every Day In the Large Stores of New York — Why the Thieves Are So Seldom Punished.

A young woman with a pretty face pressed into crowd of bargain hunters gathered about the silver counter of a Sixth avenue dry goods store on a recent afternoon. She elbowed her way into the middle of the throng, but got no further. Perhaps the lines in front of her were too compact, or she was tired from the exertion of getting so far. At all events she remained stationary.

A demure faced young woman who walked about the outside of the circle of shoppers, apparently aimlessly and with her eyes fixed on the floor a good part of the time, seemed to take an interest in the other after several glances in her direction. The demure woman kept her eyes on the pretty woman, and after awhile she elbowed her way into the crowd, so that presently she was right behind the object of her attentions. When the pretty woman moved, the demure woman kept step with her and showed the utmost curiosity about her actions, peering over her shoulder when she could do so unobserved and at other times watching her arms and hands as closely as possible.

Suddenly a shopper directly in front of the pretty woman screamed and showed an inclination to faint.

"Somebody has stolen my purse!" she cried.

The shoppers and clerks crowded around. The former made examinations to determine whether their own purses were safe, and several declared hysterically that they, too, had been robbed. Some frightened women forgot all about the bargains and hurried away. The others, in whom curiosity was stronger than fear, plied the victims with questions. Only two in the crowd did not seem greatly interested. They were the pretty woman and the demure woman. The former was a little pale, but otherwise she appeared calm. She moved slowly and deliberately toward the edge of the crowd, but as she got free she stepped more quickly. Just then she felt a hand upon her shoulder, and turning quickly looked into the face of her follower.

"I'll trouble you for those pocketbooks," said the demure woman quietly.

"What do you mean?" demanded the pretty one, not indignantly, but in apparent surprise.

"I'll trouble you to stop into the office," said the demure woman. "I will explain there."

The pretty woman said nothing, but assumed a puzzled expression.

"Come. I'm the store detective," insisted the demure woman.

"I am sure I have done nothing, but I will go with you," was the reply.

This conversation had been carried on so quietly that none of the excited shoppers around them heard it, and when the two walked away they were not noticed. They went straight to one of the executive offices. There the detective said sharply:

"Now, there's no use of your playing it any longer. I saw you take one purse anyhow, and you've got them all. If you put me to the trouble of finding them I'll make it hot for you."

"I really think you must be crazy," returned the accused woman calmly. "I know nothing about anybody's pocketbook but my own."

The detective started in methodically to search her. She began by feeling the big, puffed sleeves and worked down. She found nothing. She stood back and looked sharply at the suspect. The latter returned her gaze in the frankest fashion, and, except that she seemed annoyed, there was nothing to arouse suspicion about her. The detective began her search all over again. Again she was foiled, and her sentiment changed to alarm. Visions of suits for damages filled her brain. At that moment the accused moved uneasily, and that directed the detective's eyes to her feet. There lay a well filled purse, and the woman's feet were making futile efforts to poke it under her skirts.

The detective caught her by the arm and gave her a quick shove. Then two more pocketbooks were exposed. Evidently the woman had slid them noiselessly down her dress and trusted to luck to recover them later.

In the meantime the victims had been making complaints to the superintendent, and the latter understood the situation when the detective, flushed with triumph, marched in with the thief and the pocketbooks. Briefly the detective related her experience, while the owners of the property indulged in exclamations of wonder and praise.

"I trust you will see that this thief is properly punished," said one to the superintendent.

"Of course," chorused the other two.

"Nothing would please me better," said the superintendent gravely. "Of course you ladies will appear to testify against her?"

There was dead silence for a moment. Then one said:

"My husband would never allow me to enter a police court."

"Certainly not," said another. "Why, the reporters would write horrid stories about us."

"I wouldn't have my name connected with such an affair for a dozen purses," said the third.

The thief smiled, The detective groaned, and the superintendent looked sarcastic.

"But think of your duty to the public," he said. "You don't want this woman to be let loose in the community, do you?"

Your detective can prosecute her," replied one of the women.

"We have tried it over and over again," replied the superintendent, "but it is impossible to get a jury to convict a woman, especially if she is pretty, upon the uncorroborated evidence of a paid detective."

The women shrugged their shoulders, but no amount of argument could induce them to change their minds. They walked out sheepishly, while the thief grinned.

"You're dead right," she said, as they disappeared, dropping all further attempt at disguising her character. "My face is my fortune."

"Just the same," said the superintendent, "we can put you to a great deal of inconvenience by having you locked up for a time, at least, and if you ever are caught in here again we'll do it, regardless of the trouble or expense. Now get out of here." — New York Sun.


Made It Harder

"Father," said the studious girl, "what is the proper pronunciation of 'q-u-i-n-i-n-e?' "
"Why, look in the dictionary."
"That's just what I have been doing. I thought I knew until I happened to see it there." — Washington Star.