An Engineer's Experience

1902

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

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

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

Skinning a Pearl

1902

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

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

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

Keep Your Shoes "New"

1902

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

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

Lamps For The Library

1902

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

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

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

Eight Rules For Popularity

1902

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Cheerful Soul

1902

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


He Dropped the Subject

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

No Cause For Him to Complain

1902

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


Satiric

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


As She Reasoned It

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

A Promoter of Pedestrianism

1902

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


A Conclusive Objection

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


Softened Grief

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


Another Advance

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


Correcting Him

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

The Funny Side of Life

1902

Point of View

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

— Atlanta Constitution.


Precious

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


Worth While

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


The Influence

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

Have Got Beyond Feeling

1902

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


Lucky Old Maids

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


Starving in Galicia

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


Index of Cleanliness

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


Will Follow a Swiss Model

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

As to Conversational Parrots

1902

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

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

Burning Mud

1902

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

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

Where People Are Content

1902

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

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

Crack of the Whip

1902

It is Rapidly Becoming a Sound of the Past

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

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

Oregon's Vigorous Old Men

1902

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

Can Cope With Wolves

1902

A New Breed of Staghounds Combines Speed With Ferocity

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

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

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

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

Is It A Home You Want?

1902

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

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

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

Notice

1902

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

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

The Hon. Doc Brown's Courtship

1902

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

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

The Profitable Sausage

1902

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

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

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