Women Are Best Taught by Women

1901

Womanly graces of mind and heart are best taught by women. Nothing can make up for the lack of early mother love and mother care in a girl's life. The motherless daughter knows this too well. It is much the same in schools and colleges. Girls need the inspiration of a high type of womanhood always. They should have it before them at college, and they should also have while away from home the intelligent guardianship and guidance of woman instructors who command both love and respect. — Ada C. Sweet in Woman's Home Companion.

Fortunate Twentieth Century Girl

1901

It is indeed a good time for girls to live, and I think they should realize by whose efforts it became the "good time." Do they ever think what women and girls had to contend with before this time dawned upon the world and how much they owe to some of these same women?

Just think of it! The women breadwinners of the United States, by the report of the last census, count away up into the millions, and it is not so very long ago when not only the industrial avenues, but those of education as well, were closed to girls. Think of their lack of opportunity even half a century ago and contrast it with the present. What were the possibilities of education? Unless she happened to be the daughter of a family who believed in advance of the age that a girl had the brain and ability to learn and that education would not spoil her or make less of a woman of her and a family could afford to give her private masters she had to be content with the merest common school education, less even than children get now in the lower grades of the grammar schools, and even that was grudgingly bestowed upon them. — Sallie Joy White in Woman's Home Companion.

Signals To Mars

1901

What a British Scientist Thinks of Their Possibility

In a London newspaper Sir Robert S. Ball writes of the futility of human endeavor to attract the attention of possible inhabitants of Mars. He says: "If the whole extent of Lake Superior was covered with petroleum and if that petroleum was set on fire, then I think we may admit that an inhabitant of Mars who was furnished with a telescope as good as that which Mr. Percival Lowell uses at Flagstaff might be able to see that something had happened. But we must not suppose that the mighty conflagration would appear to the Martian as a very conspicuous object.

"It would rather be a very small feature, but still I think it would not be beyond reach of a practical observer in that planet. On the other hand, if an area the size of Lake Superior on Mars was to be flooded with petroleum and that petroleum was to be kindled we should expect to witness the event from here not as a great and striking conflagration, but as a tiny little point of just discernible light. The disk of Mars is not a large object, and the conflagration would not extend over the three-hundredth part of that disk.

"It is sufficient to state these facts to show that the possibility of signaling to Mars is entirely beyond the power of human resources."

A Peanut Slot Machine

1901

No doubt most of our young readers are fond of peanuts, especially of the salted variety. It would seem rather queer, would it not, to put a nickel in a slot and get some salted peanuts in return? Yet this is exactly what a very large firm intends to make a common thing. A company was recently organized in Norfolk called the Southern Peanut company, and it has bought practically all the No. 1 Spanish peanuts in the market. It will operate 50,000,000 nickel in the slot machines in various parts of the world, which will be well stored with peanuts, washed, boiled in cocoanut oil and salted. — New York Herald.

Pictures Now Sent by the Wireless Telegraph

1901

You can have your picture taken now by wireless telegraphy, says a New York dispatch to the Boston Herald. You can have it wafted through space on the crest of an electrical wave without the intervention of even a wire as a medium, and faithfully reproduced in a few minutes for publication in your favorite newspaper.

You may even have your physiognomy hurled through, an eight-inch brick wall with the speed of a series of lightning flashes, and received in good condition for recognition, on the far side of the wall, without serious detriment to your cherished lineaments.

All this can be done, for the New York Herald has demonstrated it in a series of experiments, concluded the other day, whereby it has successfully applied the principles of wireless telegraphy to the accurate transmission from point to point of portraits, sketches, maps and other pictures.

This practical achievement should be feasible not only to report without connecting wires the progress of a yacht race off Sandy Hook, as has already been done successfully, but to transmit almost instantaneously and by wireless devices actual illustrations made at sea depicting the critical moments of the struggle.

Unpaid Accounts Drove a Woman to Suicide

1901

Not so very long ago a woman threw herself before a New York elevated train and was instantly killed. Her sister testified afterward that she was a "fashionable" dressmaker and had over $15,000 worth of outstanding accounts which she could not collect. The people from whom she bought her goods were persistently asking for their money, but she could not pay them because her customers did not pay her for her work. It so preyed upon her mind that after weeks of sleepless nights she determined to kill herself. And she did. — Ladies' Home Journal.

Note: If you owe someone money, pay them back today. Tomorrow might be too late.

Antique Clocks

1901

A common trick of clock makers and repairers of years ago, when the craze for antique "grandfather" clocks first showed itself, was to alter the names and dates of the original makers on such of these clocks as came to them. This trick has made it difficult to prove the exact age of an old clock now, even by experts, and still more difficult to learn the name of the real maker. Reputable repairers do not follow the practice in these days, having realized that it results in the end in injury to the business. — Jewelers' Circular-Weekly.


Lions and Tigers

There is nothing odd or peculiar about the sleep of the lions and tigers. In captivity they show the same indifference to danger that they manifest in the jungles and by day or night will slumber through an unusual tumult, unmindful or unconscious of the noise. Their sleep is commonly heavy and peaceful.

Note: Interesting for the eye, the combination of u's, m's, n's together: "an unusual tumult, unmindful or unconscious."

A Good Knight

1901

"Don't you think that if I had lived the days of old I would have made a good knight?" asked the young man who had been talking ancient history from 8 to 11 p. m.

"I don't care so much what you would have made then," wearily observed the young lady, "but you might see what kind of a good night you can make right now." — Baltimore American.


Caricatures and Photos

Most of the dandies of the Georgian period took as great a pleasure in seeing themselves caricatured as our generation does in seeing their photograph in the shop windows.


Sugartime

The refining of sugar was invented in Antwerp in the sixteenth century.

Firstborn Children Strongest

1901

It would seem that firstborn children excel later born children in height and weight. This may be due to the greater vigor of the mother at the birth of the first child.

In England it was found that growth degenerates as we go lower in the social scale, there being a difference of even five inches in height between the best and worst fed classes in the community.

An investigation of 10,000 children in Switzerland showed that children born in summer are taller for their age than those born in winter. As a majority of children in the public schools are poor, in winter their parents are forced to economize more on account of expense of heating. Their rooms are also liable to be small and poorly ventilated, while in summer they are out in the fresh air. Food is also cheaper and more varied. The influence of unhealthy conditions on a very young child would be much greater than when it is older and better able to resist them. — Everybody's Magazine.

Is a Good Breakfast Necessary? Yes

1901

A good breakfast is the physical basis of a day's work. The American breakfast, regarded with so much horror on the European continent, has contributed largely to make the nation what it is today. It enabled our forefathers to do an amount of work which it appalls foreigners to contemplate.

As a rule there is something wrong with the man or with his habits if he cannot eat a good breakfast. A man who works at high tension all through the morning hours without this substantial foundation is working entirely upon his nerves. That means disordered nutrition and sooner or later bankruptcy and collapse.

If a man gets up in the morning with a bad taste and no inclination for food, it is because his system is full of waste and his circulation of obstructions. Let him make a radical change in his habits and train his digestive organs to accommodate a nourishing morning meal. — Medical Brief.

The Florida Razorback

1901

The Florida "razorback" is the hog indigenous to this climate and soil. He is usually large of limb and fleet of foot, being the only known porker that can outrun a darky. He has a tail of wondrous length, which, while he is in active motion, he twists into the tightest corkscrew, but with which while quietly feeding he raps his leathery sides much in the same manner that the docile cow uses her tail.

He is self supporting. He earns his own living and thrives equally well in the highwoods, in the flatwoods, in the hummocks and in the marshes. He subsists upon anything he can find above the earth or underneath its surface. He has a clear, farseeing eye and is very sensitive of hearing. Nature has equipped him with a snout almost as long as the beak of the wild pelican of Borneo, with which he can penetrate the earth many inches in quest of worms, snakes and insects.

He is the most intelligent of all the hogs and is likewise the most courageous. He has been known to engage in mortal combat with a coon for the possession of a watermelon and to rend asunder a barbed wire fence. — Forest and Stream.

Kansas Wheat For France

1901

The enormous wheat crop in Kansas and Oklahoma is bringing grain buyers of foreign countries to Kansas, says a Topeka dispatch to the New York Sun. Alon and Jean Goldschmidt, importers of Paris, came recently to negotiate for shipments. They declare that there is little promise of a big wheat crop in France this year, and France always turns to the United States when her own crop is short. Kansas wheat is famous in France for good flour. It is the product of Russian seed, but the wheat of Russia does not compare with the Kansas product. The French importers will arrange for shipping by way of the gulf of Mexico.

$1,000 an Acre From Dandelions

1901

The dandelion is but little grown in this country as a vegetable other than in some parts of New England. Some of the market gardeners in the vicinity of Boston claim to have taken as much as $1,000 worth from an acre. The variety known as the improved French thick leaved is the best and most generally grown. It is not at all particular as to soil or situation — in fact, it will thrive anywhere — but the larger profits are made in growing it on heavy loam, with good tilth. The seed should be sown soon after May 1, but good results are obtained when grown as a second crop, the seed being sown as late as Aug. 1.

The soil should be finely prepared as the seeds are very small, and the young plants because of their dark color are quite inconspicuous. Sow in drills one foot apart and cover thinly. Roll the ground after sowing. In order to see where the rows are a little lettuce seed should be mixed with it, say two ounces to the acre. The lettuce will plainly show the rows. Cultivate in summer so that weeds will not grow. Upon the approach of cold weather cover with any coarse litter and remove same in early spring. One quarter of a pound of seed is sufficient for an acre, says Rural New Yorker in conclusion to the foregoing.

The Game of Chess

1901

The game of chess differs in the various countries of the world. Thus, in the Hindoo game, four distinct armies are employed, each with their king, each corps counting among its fighters an elephant and a knight which slay but cannot be slain. The Chinese game of chess, which boasts of the title of choke-choc-kong-ki (the play of the science of war), has a river running through the center of the board, which their elephants, equivalent to our bishops, cannot cross, and there is a fort which their kings cannot pass.

Under the Sanskrit name of chaturanga a game essentially the same as modern chess was played in Hindustan nearly 5,000 years ago. From Hindustan the game is said to have been carried to Persia and thence to Arabia. The Arabs introduced it into Spain and the rest of western Europe during the eighth century, where it became the principal pastime about the year 1000.

The Jockey's Bogy

1901

"The bogy of a jockey's life is taking on flesh," says Ainslee's. "He dreads this as a beauty dreads to lose her charms, and his whole thought from the age of 16 to 25 is to avoid the catastrophe. This is the pernicious feature of the life and distinguishes as a healthful sport from boxing or from football, in which the physical being is developed according to the laws of nature and is not outraged or balked. In order to reduce his weight nine pounds Monk Overton once remained in a Turkish bath from 10 p.m. one day until 2 p.m. the next, with no nourishment except a cup of tea and some toast.

"Again, Mike Bergen, mounted on a favorite, rode such a poor race that the stewards came to the paddock to investigate and punish him for fraudulent riding. They forgave the performance, however, when they found him collapsed and unable to speak. Knowing that he had to ride at a certain weight, Bergen had spent 48 hours in a Turkish bath, eating nothing whatever. When he reached the track, he was so weak that a stimulant was necessary. The one drink of whisky he took so demoralized his faculties that he could scarcely keep his seat in the saddle.

"Such a violation of physical development at the age when a boy should be most rapidly maturing makes it difficult for a jockey ever to become robust. Moreover, the mere riding of a race is a terrible drain on the nerve force of a jockey. A boy may lose a pound of weight in a hard race."

For Elderly Women

1901

In the mixed Oxford suitings in dark gray and black are a number of different qualities that make up well in coat and skirt, and it is just as necessary for an older woman to have a coat and skirt costume as for a young girl.

The skirt is best that has a flaring flounce at the side and a front breadth narrower at the top than at the bottom and with skirt of medium length. The jacket should always be three-quarter length and with straight fronts with pointed revers and fronts faced with some dull silk so that the coat can be worn open if desired.

If a woman is stout, she should have her coat made rather shapeless and with box back, or a seam in the middle, and at the sides curved in somewhat to the figure, this being more becoming than a tight fitting jacket. In black wool a light weight material made in this way, with the flounce trimmed with bands or folds of satin, makes a smart gown. — Harper's Bazar.

The Gypsy Woman

1901

The gypsy woman
Lives on the moor;
She sleeps in a tent,
With a curtained door.

Low is her dwelling
And hard her bed,
But the stars at night
Are a crown for her head.

Rough is her greeting:
From all that's human,
But the morning smiles
At the gypsy woman.

The wind is her harper
And brings from far
His sons of wooing
And shouts of war.

On the printed page
She need never look;
The changing sky
Is her holy book.

She knows not the call
Of church bells ringing;
The falling rain
Makes sweeter singing.

And the voice of the lark
At morn and even
Is a key to open
The gate of heaven.

—Westminster Gazette.

The Blind Smoker's Cigar

1901

We are often told that a man who is smoking in the dark would be unable to tell whether his cigar were alight or no unless he could see the red glow at the end of it. So, too, a man with his eyes shut would have great difficulty in telling whether he were drinking port or sherry. Now, as I have been blind for upward of 30 years I am unluckily somewhat fairly qualified to contest the validity of this statement. I was a smoker for 20 years before my infirmity crept upon me, and I am smoking even now as I dictate this letter. In fact, I have smoked all my life.

To say that I do not know whether my cigar is alight or no because I cannot see either the smoke or the red glow at the end of the weed is simply absurd. The taste alone is sufficient to tell me accurately. The one is infinitely pleasurable and flavorable and the other exceedingly disagreeable and objectionable. Tongue, palate and odor are incontrovertible testifiers. I grant that the pleasure of smoking is lessened by the absence of the sight of the smoke, but only slightly, and to assert that I do not know whether I am smoking or not is as much as to say I do not know whether I am standing on my head or my heels. — Saturday Review.

The True Poker Flat

1901

In 1852 Poker Flat produced $700,000 in gold bullion in a single month and celebrated the event with a triple hanging. Then came the public spasm of virtue which caused the John Oakhursts and the "outcasts of Poker Flat" to depart from thence and die of cold and starvation on the snow bound road to Sandy Bar. There are no "Oakhursts" nor "Uncle Billys" in Poker Flat today, and when the stranger makes the slow descent and suddenly by a sharp turn in the trail comes upon the famous camp he finds in that huddle of cabins little to remind him of the Poker Flat of 1852.

The famous slope presents almost a picture of utter ruin. There are but eight persons living in the old town, while a hundred dead ones sleep in the cemetery. Some of the graves are marked with wooden headboards, some with stakes, but many have nothing above them. Nearly all of them were laid to rest without religious rites save a Bible reading by old Charlie Pond, who, though a professional gambler, was selected for the religious office owing to his excellent voice and oratorical ability.

In 1853 and 1854 there were 2,000 souls in Poker Flat and 15 stores, 5 hotels. 3 dance halls and 7 gambling houses. There is but one man left today of that original company. He is an old and grizzled veteran, who delights to tell how in 1856 a circus came to town and sold 1,500 tickets of admission at $20 each. — W. M. Clemens in Bookman.

Will Not Kiss Their Wives

1901

Thirteen Married Men of Mount Hope, Kansas, Form an Organization.

Thirteen men of Mount Hope, a small town near Wichita, Kan., are adherents of the belief that men should not kiss women, says the Chicago Record-Herald. All of the 13 are married, and they have just formed a club known as the Mount Hope Married Man's Anti-kissing club.

All the members are quite prominent in business circles of that place, and the organization of the club was kept under cover for three weeks, but the secret finally leaked out, In a statement to reporters President Wilson said:

"All this talk about our wives going to sue us for divorce because we have pledged not to kiss them is rot of the worst kind. We went into this with the understanding that it was to be carried out as an experiment, and we will stick to it if the women uphold us in it. Of course, every member has taken a pledge not to kiss his wife for one year, but there is a proviso that if we all get tired of the proposition we can disorganize the club and no one will have broken a pledge.

"I have been into it now three weeks and am perfectly satisfied with the arrangement, as is my wife. I find that kissing is a filthy habit and without it man can love a great deal more strongly."