Just Short of Success

1895

A Lazy Inventor's Experiment With a Wonderful Alligator Engine.

"My boy once had a pet alligator that was pretty fierce," observed Meekin, the lazy inventor. "When he teased this young saurian, the beast would swipe out with its powerful tail in an amazing fashion, without doing itself or anybody else any good. It occurred to me that here was a splendid example of wasted energy, and I set out to devise a means of conserving it and turning it to some useful purpose.

"I spent a winter in Florida, and after I had experimented with some of the small 'gators that are supplied to tourists for a consideration I ordered some big fellows. After some little trouble I secured ten 'gators, each about four feet in length and of about ten horsepower tail capacity. My scheme for utilizing their tail power was this: The 'gators were placed side by side in stalls which left their tails free to wag. I had upright beams set like pendulums, the swinging ends of the beams coming close enough to the 'gators' tails to be in a good position for action. Then I built a tank over the stalls and filled it with thundering big cannon balls. There was an inclined chute running from the tank to a power wheel made with hollow places in the rim, something like a water wheel. In the chute I had a valve to regulate the flow of cannon balls. Half the 'gators used to work the cannon ball part of the machine and the other half to run a conveyor contrivance to lift the balls back into the tank after they had done their work in turning the wheel. I connected a small dynamo by a belt to a pulley wheel on the power wheel shaft. My main circuit ran from the dynamo to a bank of incandescent lamps which were to be used in the test.

"When everything was ready, the wheels oiled up, main switch closed and the 'gators pretty mad, I hired four little colored boys to go in front of the stalls and crack the 'gators on the head with short clubs. This made 'em awful mad, and so they struck out with their tails. Then the old shebang commenced to run. A little coon would hit a 'gator on the head, he'd let out with his tail, strike a beam, open the valve, let out a cannon ball, which rolled down the chute and onto the wheel, turning it around. Then the ball rolled back to the conveyor and was hoisted up by one of the other 'gators. She was humming beautifully, but I had forgotten one thing — that was a governor. The little coons liked their work and lambasted the 'gators unmercifully. I stopped 'em, but the wild animals were beyond control. They lashed around until the speed got so high that the armature of the dynamo burned out with a flash. The 'gators running the conveyor got into a race with the other fellows and hoisted up cannon balls so fast that the tank got overweighted and broke down. The cannon balls fell on the 'gators' heads and killed every one of 'em. Fact, I assure you." — Electrical Review.

Started In With "Enthusiasm"

1900

In an interview, Booker T. Washington tells the story of some of his early experiences at Tuskegee.

"After teaching in the ordinary way awhile, the impression began to grow upon me that I was largely throwing away my time, trying to give these students a book education without getting hold of them in their home life, and without teaching them how to care for their bodies, and inculcating in them habits of neatness, order and industry. Here it was that I conceived the idea of such a work as has followed."

"Had you any capital to start such a school with?"

"I had unbounded enthusiasm. I began looking around to see if I could get hold of some land. I found a farm near Tuskegee, that I thought would answer the purpose, but I couldn't buy real estate with enthusiasm, and I hadn't a cent of money. But my boldness led me to write to Gen. Marshall, the treasurer of Hampton, and ask him to loan me $500 to make a payment on that farm; and to my unbounded surprise he sent me a cheek for what I asked, and I wasn't long in getting the school moved."

"How have you since managed to get all your buildings and the other thousands of acres of land?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you how we got our first building, though. We pitched in and built it ourselves — yes, sir; people scoffed, but we even made our own bricks. The point at which we stuck was the burning of the bricks — none of us knew how to fire a kiln. We had no money to hire labor, but we had to have those bricks, and I owned a gold watch which I took to the pawnshop and got enough money to employ an experienced brick maker to burn the bricks."

"That was a heroic measure, sure. No doubt you cherished that watch as — "

"I have never got that watch out of pawn yet, but we are now manufacturing a million bricks a year. That was a pretty poor sort of building, but we builded self-respect and manhood into it, and when white people saw what we could do, we won their respect. Now we can put up a building that no one need be ashamed of. In our last building the steam heating apparatus and the electric light fixtures were put in by our own steamfitters and electricians. The plans were by an architect from our own school."

—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 14.

Taken For a Negro

1901

Experience of a Filipino Boy In the South.

Estiban Glori, a Filipino boy who has been in Atlanta a short time, was the cause of an excited discussion at a local soda fount the other morning, says the New Orleans Times-Democrat. Glori was taken to the fount by W. M. Pendleton, in whose charge he had been placed.

The clerk stubbornly refused to sell the boy the drink, declaring that be was a negro and as such could not be served at that particular fountain. Glori's protector and others standing around indignantly protested that Glori was a Malay and not a negro. The clerk was obdurate and resolutely refused to let Glori drink at the fountain. The Filipino, while angry at the imputation that he was a negro, was exceedingly courteous and walked away quietly.

Much interest is being shown in the course which the board of education will take when the boy applies for admission to the public schools. Glori is the son of a Filipino general and was sent to the United States by an American army officer to be educated.

Man an Aquatic Animal

1910

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

How to Cook Rice

1905

Physicians and others who have eaten rice cooked by a Hindoo, a Chinaman or a southern darky must have remarked the difference between the results obtained by these artists and those of the benighted cooks of the north. We learn from an authoritative source that the secret lies in the following recipe:

The rice should be carefully washed and placed in a kettle of boiling water, which should be set on the back of the range over a low fire, where the rice should simmer slowly until done. Stirring is not only useless, but harmful. If there is any water left, it should be drained off carefully and the rice should then stand in a hot place for some time.

Nothing should be added during the cooking, no salt, sugar, milk or butter. If the cooking has been done properly, each grain of rice will stand out by itself, plump, dry and beautiful. Served very hot at the table the rice should then be reverently treated with cayenne pepper and butter, after which, will be revealed to the consumer one of the secrets of the success of the Japanese army. — New York Medical Journal.

Truthful Children

1900

Children are naturally truthful. Nature does not lie. Let nothing be done to alter this happy disposition. Cultivate in them the love of truth, candor, and the confession of error.

It is lamentable to think what fearful falsehoods are uttered to deter children, to keep them quiet, or to make them obedient. Threats of being taken by old men, and black men, and other like terrors, are resorted to by ignorant and foolish servants to frighten them, and make them lie still in bed. It is ascertained that death, fits, idiocy, or insanity have been the consequences of such inhumanity.

But, setting aside the probable chance of such calamities, there are other certain results. If the child discovers the falsehoods practiced upon him, he becomes boldly indifferent to the threats, is more disobedient and willful than ever, disbelieves all that is said to him, and, finding no respect for truth in others, has no regard for it himself.

Firmness in adhering to promises, or any particular line of discipline in relation to children, is of first importance.


Japan Consumes Much Rice

Japan is the largest consumer of rice in the world, the average being 300 pounds a person a year. The Americans use but four pounds per capita. Belgium uses more tobacco in proportion, than any other country, about 110 ounces per capita yearly, while Italy uses only twenty-two ounces.

Doctor Sews Up Gash In Heart

Printed Jan. 1908

Negro Injured During Brawl, Subject of Remarkable Operation

New York. — A few days ago the remarkable feat of sewing up a cut in a man's heart was successfully performed by two surgeons, Drs. Blake and Dwight, at Roosevelt hospital. The patient, William Johnson, a negro about 35 years old, is still in the hospital, ill with pneumonia, but, so far as his heart is concerned, he is all right. It has healed completely.

Johnson was stabbed in the course of a saloon row with a long thin knife, which severed the fourth rib two inches to the left of the mid line, and entered the heart. He left the scene of the stabbing without telling anyone of it, and strolled about the streets for three quarters of an hour. The wound appeared to be a slight one, and, as it was not bleeding, externally at least, Johnson did not worry about it.

By and by, however, he began to feel drowsy, and sat down on the curb and put his head in his hands. Here an acquaintance found him, drew from him the fact that he had been stabbed, and telephoned for an ambulance, which carried him to Roosevelt hospital.

Dr. Dwight, the house surgeon, diagnosed the case, and at once telephoned Dr. Joseph A. Blake. Within an hour and a half after the stabbing Johnson was on the operating table. Dr. Blake performed the operation with Dr. Dwight assisting.

First the surgeons made an incision along the upper border of the third rib, cutting from the sternum outward to the nipple line, thence down to the lower border of the fifth rib, thence inward to the sternum again, along the lower border of that rib.

This cut was deepened to the ribs, and then the third and fifth ribs were severed at the nipple line, the fourth having been cut through by the weapon that caused the wound. The operation to this point had resulted in the cutting of a sort of a trap door, which was easily raised, and turned back over the sternum with the costal cartilage as a hinge.

When the trap door was lifted and the pleura exposed, the left lung collapsed, and a pint of blood was found in the pleural cavity. It was found that the lung itself was not injured, but a small wound was discovered in the pericardium, or shell which incases the heart, from which the blood was running. The pericardium was then opened, and the heart itself exposed. This exposure of the heart showed the exact nature of the wound.

In the right ventricle, close to the anterior coronary artery, there was a wound in the heart about one half an inch in length, from which, at every contraction or beat of the heart, a little stream of blood spurted to a height of four inches. Examination showed that the wound extended to the central cavity of the heart.

The heart was grasped in the hand to steady it, just as one would clasp a fluttering bird in order to examine a wound. Four stitches with silk thread were then taken in the heart, it being necessary to sew entirely through the wall of the heart for that purpose. The wound was then drawn together and the flow of blood entirely checked.

Since that time, over a week ago, there has been no further bleeding from the wound in the heart, which is apparently entirely healed. Nor has there been any sign of blood poisoning. On the morning after the operation, however, the patient had a high temperature, and signs of pneumonia appeared in the lower lungs.

Traces of this pneumonia still persist, and it is this, and not the condition of the man's heart, that is causing the attending surgeons anxiety. The difficult and rarely attempted operation of sewing up the heart has apparently been performed with complete success.

Dice Turn Up "Seven" Five Times for Judge

1920

Negro Caught With "Loaded Bones" is Fined $200

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 18. — The magic number seven failed to bring luck to Al Fields, negro dealer in supplies for crap shooters, in South Municipal Court, when Judge Edward J. Fleming took a turn at the dice. Fields, who was arrested on the street by "Tug" Carter, "ace" of the negro policemen, had in his possession a complete outfit for loading dice as well as a jar containing forty dice which Patrolman Carter declared were loaded.

"Them dice ain't loaded, judge," protested Fields.

"We'll see," said Judge Fleming.

The judge rattled the "bones" three times. Every time they turned up "seven."

"That's just luck, judge," insisted Fields.

Judge Fleming shook twice again. Each time "seven" faced him.

"Two hundred dollars," said the judge.

Fields was sent to the municipal farm to work out his fine.

Haiti Worships at Voodoo Shrine

1920

"As no accurate history of Haiti can be written without a reference to Voodooism, the story of this strange cult, which some authorities say still is in practice in its most violent form among the people of this island and others of the West Indies, may be interesting in connection with the recent investigation of American occupation in Haiti," says a bulletin from the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the National Geographic Society.

"Voodooism could scarcely be called a religion, but so strong is its influence upon the superstitions of the negroes, that despite efforts to eradicate it, every year or two dispatches report that there has been a sudden outbreak of cannibalistic practices in connection with a revival of devotional enthusiasm.

"It is said that no white man would be allowed to live long after he had given testimony leading to the conviction of a culprit charged with sacrificing a child to his god. As a consequence, authentic information is difficult to get, and proof of a human sacrifice almost impossible. Many teachers and inhabitants of the islands deny the existence of the cult, though many stories of the horrors perpetrated at a meeting of the Voodoos are recorded by naval officers who have visited the islands and by other men of integrity.

"The general belief is that Voodooism was brought to the Western Hemisphere from West Africa by the negroes imported as laborers, especially to Haiti, and it may probably be traced back to the serpent worship of Egypt. Many of the characteristics of the worship also were attributed to the French witches of the Fifteenth century, the most violent phases of the practice, perhaps, being an outgrowth of the African superstitions of the black and of the French imagination of the white inhabitants of Haiti.

"The God Obeah or Vaudoux, of which Voodoo is an American corruption, is supposed to know, to see and to do all things, but he manifests himself to his worshippers only in the form of a nonpoisonous snake and communicates with them only through a priest and priestess, known as papa-loi and maman-loi, who are held in great veneration by their followers.

"The ceremony is always held at night, usually in the fastness of some deep wood, where there will be no interruption of the rites. The devotees take off their shoes and bind about their bodies handkerchiefs, the predominating note of which is red, and the priest and priestess wear red bands about their heads in the form of crowns. Then they pray to the snake, which is exhibited for the purpose of arousing their emotions. Maman-loi mounts the box in which the god is usually kept and emits groans, shrieks and wild gesticulations as she utters her prophetic sentences.

"A dance closes the ceremony. The king puts his hand on the box and a shudder somewhat similar to the effect produced by the most recent kind of 'jazz' seizes him, and from him it passes to all the rest. Then the devotional exercises evolve into a wild debauchery and indecency under the cover of drunkenness and night.

"The initiation of a convert to the faith is enough to inspire him with terror. He pledges himself, when his lips are touched with warm goat's blood, never under any circumstances to reveal the secrets of the fraternity and to kill any member who proves a traitor to the brotherhood. This is the point at which the cannibalism is supposed to occur, but investigation has shown that many of the shocking phases of the worship have been eliminated, and the worshippers usually satisfy themselves with a cock or a goat which is afterwards cooked and eaten.

"The Voodoo women are thought to possess supernatural power, and by working on the superstitions of the natives attain a potent influence over them. Many strong men have pined away merely because they thought an enemy had 'put Obeah' on them, just as the Southern negro believed in the 'conjure' doctor who cast a 'spell' on him by leaving in his path a bottle containing horse hairs, snake's teeth, lizard claws, a piece of dried rat and a frog's foot. Objects which have been used in the practice of the black art may be seen in the museum of the Petit Seminaire at Port au Prince.

"So deeply have the people of Haiti become imbued with the cult that an empty bottle, which probably would entice a reminiscent grin from an American assembly, will throw a Haitian group into consternation, and educated Haitian girls have been known to faint at the sight of the shivers of spilled mercury."

—Reno Evening Gazette, Reno, NV, Dec. 20, 1920, p. 5.

Decatur Doctor Caught Digging Up Negro Cadaver

Illinois, 1879

BODY SNATCHING.

A Decatur Doctor After a Negro Cadaver

His Operations Brought to a Sudden Conclusion.

The Decaturites are all worked up over a body snatching affair that occurred last Friday night. A prominent Decatur physician is implicated in the affair, and if he shows up the Decatur folks promise him an anti-cordial reception.

It seems that the above mentioned physician wanted to increase his knowledge of the human frame, and with this end in view he climbed the fence of a Decatur graveyard, having in his possession those necessary grave-robbing instruments, a pick and shovel. Strange to say this son of Esculapius seems to have a horror for the Caucasians. The reason of this is not known, but it is thought that Caucasian "stiffs" do not "pan out" as well as those of other races, therefore he concluded to get a "subject" of the African persuasion.

Having arrived at this conclusion he wended his way toward the "last resting place" of a recently "planted" negro. As soon as the grave was reached he unslung his pick and immediately began to delve into the newly made grave. He worked away with a will, and he was just stooping to raise the lid of the coffin when the deep stillness of the night was broken by the loud report of what seemed to him about seventeen cannons. The bullets flew past his cranium and buried themselves in the earth a few feet beyond him. The perspiration started in great beads to his forehead, and dropping his pick and shovel he precipitately fled. Scaling the graveyard fence, he took a short cut for his stable. Arriving there he immediately hitched his horse to a buggy, and in less time than it takes to "blow up a safe" he was driving across the country at a "Sleepy Tom" gait, and no tidings of his whereabouts have been received up to this writing.

The names of all parties are reserved, as it is thought that there will be further developments made.

—Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Aug. 19, 1879, p. 4.

Fried Chicken Too Much for Negro Hunger Strike

1913

Elizabeth, N. J., July 18. — The manner in which Warden Charles W. Dodd of the county jail broke up a hunger strike today may set a useful example, he thinks, to keepers of English prisons who become custodians of suffragettes.

William Turner, a negro prisoner incarcerated last Sunday, sought to gain his liberty by refusing to eat. This morning the negro had been forty-eight hours without food, when Warden Dodd appeared at the cell with a steaming plate of fried chicken and a large section of a juicy watermelon. One sniff and Turner's hunger strike came to an abrupt end.

—The Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, July 18, 1913, p. 1.

Some of The Genuinely Odd Things That Happen in Life

1893

OF GENERAL INTEREST.

—Dr. McBride, of Orange, Va., uses a flock of geese as a team of horses, which draw him over the ice in a specially prepared vehicle at the rate of one and a quarter miles a minute. He is now making a balloon in which he proposes to ride drawn by the same team.

—The man who orders plain butter in a New York restaurant and discovers it to be oleomargarine, or other kind of substitute, can have the proprietor arrested and fined, and the informer receives half the fine. The way in which the proprietor can protect himself is to print on his bills of fare the confession that his butter is not genuine.

—Uncle Joe Ardle, an old Georgia darky living on the Savannah river, thinks it about time to take to the woods. After the earthquake of 1886 he was afraid to live on the ground, so he built a hut in the branches of a huge oak tree, where he lived contentedly until the storm of a few weeks ago blew him and his hut clear out of the trees and almost into the river.

—The keeper of a cheap but clean restaurant in the French quarter in New York has hit upon the plan of advertising his wares by means of pictures on the flags of the sidewalk. He hires a chalk artist for this work, and you may see upon the flags just within the stoop line well-drawn fish in groups of three, and other lifelike representations of the viands that the place affords.

—An alligator eight feet two inches in length and weighing two hundred and twenty pounds was lately caught in the Mississippi. Alligators are quite plentiful in southwestern rivers, but they rarely attain a length of more than four feet. So far as known, this one is by far the largest ever taken from the Mississippi. Some of its teeth are over two inches long and very like the teeth of a shark.

—The Evening Democrat, Warren, PA, Oct. 17, 1893, p. 3.

Note: I've never heard of the French quarter in New York. Probably make that New Orleans.
—Towns county, Ga., boasts of a novel specimen of the "white" negro. This one has been "turning" for several years, until the left side of his face is perfectly white while the right side remains almost jet black. Negroes whose skin changes from black to a light brown or reddish white are not uncommon in the south, but the change mostly shows in blotches, giving them a mottled appearance.

—Stock raising is a business beset with many risks which do not cease until the flocks and herds are safely marketed. A flock of sheep was being driven through Grant county, Ore., to market at Baker City a few days ago, when, in passing through a narrow ravine, the sheep stampeded, and after the scare was over the stockman counted over sixty head of dead sheep that had been smothered in the crush.

—It may distract the attention of those who suffer from headache to learn that in early English days there were remedies "for headache, and for old headache, and for the ache of half the head." "Eye work and the fiend's temptations" are also mentioned in this catalogue. Ache of half the head, or hermicrania, from which George Eliot suffered so much, has been considered a distinctively modern disease, but there is nothing new.

—A strange fatality hangs over the Weeks family of Albion, Ind. Sherman was killed recently while climbing a tree. His brother entered the army during the war and died of lockjaw. Cornelius lost his life by swallowing a copper cent. Thomas jumped from a train and was killed, while Charles, still another brother, committed suicide by swallowing poison. Edward Weeks, also a brother, moved west some years ago and has never been heard of.

—Miss Minnie Rush, of Lakeville, Indiana, has discovered for herself and, perhaps for her sisters a new field of employment. For the past three years she has had charge of the passenger, freight and telegraph offices of the Vandalia line in her town, the receipts for which are fully ten thousand dollars a month. Miss Rush is only twenty-one years old, but she has organized railroad excursions which have netted handsome profits to her employers the past year, besides conducting the ordinary affairs of the office with skill and success.

—An ingenious mechanic in the Catskills has long manufactured small articles of use and ornament from the excrescences that grow upon the maple and other trees of the mountain region. He travels far in search of these nodules, seasons them for many years, and then fashions them into polished jewel boxes and many other beautiful things. He is especially careful that his material shall be well seasoned, a fact that means a good deal when one knows that the wood that goes to form some parts of thoroughly well made pianos should be seasoned thirty or forty years.

Two Despondent Men Attempt Suicide: Laudanum, Morphine, Noose

Atlanta, 1896

BOTH WANTED DEATH

Two Despondent Men Attempt Suicide in Two Ways.

LAUDANUM, MORPHINE, NOOSE

One in a Wagon Yard, the Other in a Shed.

WILL SIMPSON TOOK DRUG POISON

He Was Found with a large Quantity of Drugs In His Stomach, but Was Saved.

The suicide mania was abroad in the city yesterday. Two citizens were seized with the desire to end their existence. Both tried the usual methods of suicides.

One of the desperate men attempted to hang himself in a deserted shed. He was found and cut down just in time to save his life. His neck bears the imprint of the improvised noose, and it also has a decided crick in it.

The other unfortunate decided on the laudanum and morphine route to the other world and he swallowed enough poison to kill several men. He was found in a wagon yard and hauled to the hospital just as the poisonous drugs were taking effect. Before the doctors could pump out the man he was nearer to death than is usual in cases when would-be suicides are saved. His was given up as a hopeless case, but at the last moment the man was saved. He is very sick now.

The poison patient was picked up by some farmers in Morris's wagon yard, on Decatur street, adjoining the police station. He had taken an ounce of laudanum and three grains of morphine in his desperate effort to kill himself. The discoverers of the man called in the police and it was found that the sick man, Will Simpson, a bartender, who works for J. G. Sprayberry, on Decatur street, was in a very bad way. He was getting worse rapidly, and but for the prompt action in sending for the ambulance and hauling the man to the hospital he would have died in the yard.

Simpson lay between life and death at the hospital nearly all day. The physicians and surgeons in charge devoted several hours applying the restoratives in such cases, and after hard work they were rewarded by seeing the sick man begin to revive. He improved slowly, and late in the afternoon was on the road to recovery. Last night the physicians said that he would recover. Officers Shepard, Walton and Abbott took charge of the man when he was found, and they sent him to the hospital. He declined to tell why he had swallowed the drugs. When told that he might die he said that he had nothing to say beforehand.

Hanging In a Shed.

The would be suicide who attempted to hang himself is not known. His name was not taken at the Grady hospital. It is not the custom of the officials there to take the names of patients who attempt to kill themselves. The man is a negro. He was found in an old shed on a lot on Liberty street, near the old barracks in the western part of the city. He tied a cloth about his neck for a rope and jumped off into space with the other end of the noose fastened to a rafter above. When cut down the darky was breathing hard and was in a dangerous fix, but he was brought round all right.

—The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, March 16, 1896, page 9.

The First Rubber Boots: Standing in Water Like a Heron

1916

RUBBER AND HUMOR.

A Closely Clinging Garment and a Laughable Request.

Once Professor Emmet of the University of Virginia visited in New York with his family and while there received from abroad a pair of india rubber cloth boots. His son, Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, in his book, "Incidents of My Life," says that his distinguished father was happier in his new possessions than a child with a new toy and spent most of his time standing like a heron in the water to test them.

Their shape was not such as would have fascinated Packelan, the famous bootmaker. They were made like a long stocking of coarse canvas, with a leather sole, and over all was smeared a paste of rubber which might have answered in cold weather, but which was sticky and ill smelling under a moderately hot sun. In very few articles has there been more improvement than in rubber goods since they first came into use.

My father took back with him a "raincoat" as a present to our old negro coachman, but he could never be induced to wear it in the rain, and when expostulated with his answer was, "Does you t'ink I's gwine wear dis new coat in de rain?" He never wore it except in the bright sunshine and on a warm day, so that when he got off the box at the stable it was necessary to take with him the cushion and remove his trousers before he could get his coat off.

I recollect as a child the first "gum shoes" in use, which were hideous to look at and most uncomfortable over a shoe, but which to the bare feet of the old negroes were a joy and a comfort. The first rubber shoe was shaped like a large sausage, and from one end along the side a piece was removed to permit the introduction of the foot. After the foot was inserted the elastic substance shaped itself about it.

They were always called "gum shoes." While a medical student I was present at the opening of the Girard House in Philadelphia, and I remember that there were printed notices at each entrance with the request, "Please wipe your gums on the mat."

How Joel Chandler Harris Came to Write "Uncle Remus"

1909

JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS.

The Way He Came to Write His "Uncle Remus" Stories.

Many great works of genius, as is well known, have been produced by accident, and an author is seldom the best judge of his own work. When Joel Chandler Harris wrote the first of his "Uncle Remus" stories and presented it for publication he did so with a hundred misgivings. He was not sure that his venture in negro folklore would prove successful. He could not know that they would bring him worldwide fame.

At the time described Mr. Harris was a young man of twenty-eight, employed on the Atlanta Constitution. Sam W. Small, afterward a revivalist, who had been writing for the same paper a popular column of negro story and dialect, had just resigned from the staff. The managing editor of the Constitution, wishing to continue the feature, said to Harris one day: "Joel, it seems to me you could do that sort of thing to a tee. See if you can't turn in something tonight."

The young writer's memory flitted back to his early days on a plantation. All the quaint settings of negro life — the little cabins, the fiddling darkies, the wrinkled story teller, the black "mammies," the noisy corn shuckings, the bobtailed rabbits disappearing along the road — came hurrying from the past. Late that afternoon he turned in his copy. The next day his reputation was made. — Current Literature.

'Healers' Swindle Aged Norfolk Man

1939

NORFOLK, Va., April 23.—(U.P.) Police Sunday night were seeking two negro men and a white woman "healer" who swindled a 100-year-old negro out of $1000 life savings by promising to cure his many ills with a "money poultice."

Charles Gandy, the victim, said they made a huge poultice from the bills, put it in a sheet and applied it to his side. Later, when no improvement came, he opened the sheet to find only paper.

Man's Head For Sale, Twice Normal Size

1903

Personal and Otherwise

Arthur Jennings, aged 27, a resident of Florence, 0., has negotiated with an Eastern medical institute for the purchase of his head. Jenning's head is almost twice the normal size. According to the informant the price is $1,000 down and an additional $1,000 to be paid to his relatives at the time of his death. His head measures 36 inches in circumference.

After having been lost 33 years, Dr. J. H. Lenow, of Little Rock, is on the eve of recovering a medal which he won in his boyhood at the Kentucky Military institute. The doctor has received a letter from a jeweler in Brownsville, Tenn., Dr. Lenow's former home, saying that the medal had been brought to him by a negro who had plowed it up in a field near town.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 4, 1903, page 4.

Black Wedding the Last Word in Ceremonies

1917

Even Blasé New York Sits Up and Takes Notice of Ebony-hued Marriage of Man-Milliner and Model

BY GEORGE MARTIN

NEW YORK, Jan. 22.—A black wedding, one of the most remarkable ceremonies ever performed in this country and one which made even blasé New York sit up and stare, was celebrated at the Church of St. Vincent de Paul, here, Monday.

It was completely black and the first wedding of its kind ever planned made the little fashion model, Eleanor Klinger, the bride of Ora Cne, designer.

From the limousine in which they threaded their way among the skyscrapers to the little church in 23rd street, to the handles on the silver service at their wedding breakfast, everything down to the most minute detail, was coal black.

Even the serving men were black; and everyone with any part in the ceremony wore black, including black gloves.

As the big black car whirled up to the curb at 9 o'clock, the driver who had a black mustache, twisted the black handle on the door and out popped the little bride and groom. They were dressed in black from head to foot. Cne, a handsome, stocky young fellow, a little below medium height, wore a single-breasted black broadcloth, cut business style and fitting close.

His collar was black and his string tie and his black silk shirt blended into his black vest.

The little bride, tripping across the sidewalk with her soon-to-be, wore black silk slippers, a black silk dress sparingly overlaid with black chiffon. Her wedding veil was a broad strip of black silk edged and overlaid with black tulle, ending in large bows.

This wedding veil and train are detachable, so, as the bridegroom explained, "it can be used either for mourning or evening."

The bride's corsage bouquet was of black pansies.

After the ceremony Mr. and Mrs. Cne sped to their black wedding breakfast at the Cne appartment in Forty-third street. There Cne's black valet served black coffee, black bread, black butter (dyed), black bass, black raisins and blackberries.

The breakfast room was in black and white, with ebony furniture and black rugs. The silver service, from coffee set to teaspoons, was fitted with dull finished ebony handles. The porcelain service was black with an edging of white.

Cne — and his bride will begin a tour of the large cities of the country with their visit to Philadelphia Friday where Cne will address the Teachers' Institute of Domestic Science. Later they will go to Fort Wayne, Ind., Cne's home town, and to Omaha, Minneapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and later on the west coast.

—The La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, La Crosse, Wisconsin, January 22, 1917, page 5.

Note: The sentence "it can be used either for mourning or evening" might have a typo in it, but it makes a great pun, whether Cne meant it that way or not. Probably not.

Famous Ghost Stories of Kansas City, 1895

1895

KANSAS CITY GHOSTS

FAMOUS SPOOKS OF THE TOWN ON THE BIG MUDDY

The Original Ghost Is From a Case of Fratricide — How the Santa Fe Spook Was Laid — How a Man With the "Jimjams" Stirred Up a Jail Full of Criminals

It may be true that conscience makes cowards of us all, but with the ignorant and superstitious conscience is not a circumstance when compared to a vivid imagination. The greatest coward on earth is the person who sees in every dark shadow, in each deserted house and around every dismal building the restless spirit of some departed sinner whose crimes will not allow him to enter heaven, who is doomed to wander around this earth until Gabriel's trumpet is sounded, who must hover near the scene of his former misdeeds until the last day.

The place by popular consent most adapted to ghost wanderings and the place most fruitful in the production of the bona fide article is naturally the graveyard. The drearier, gloomier and more mournful the aspect of the graveyard the more ghosts. But the real believer in spooks and spirits does not deem it necessary to go among the tombs and graves of the dead to find a spirit.

Ghosts are numerous. They can be found in all sections of the country. There is not a village nor a deserted country house nor a railroad bridge but has its ghost. But the ghosts are not all confined to the country by any means. There have been several in Kansas City that have gained extensive notoriety on account of their many visitations, and the parts of the city in which they are wont to disport themselves are still eyed with suspicion and looked upon askance by the inhabitants of Belvidere Hollow, Hick's Hollow and other portions of the city thickly settled by the descendants of Ham.

The oldest, the original ghost that is most vividly in the memory of the superstitious and is most often the topic of grewsome whispers among the people mentioned, walked the levee between Main street and Broadway 12 years ago. One winter's night, the story goes, a man was lying in wait for an enemy on the levee. In his hand he clutched a ponderous double barreled shotgun loaded with nails and slugs. He saw a man walking down the levee. In the dim, flickering light he thought he recognized his enemy. He raised his gun, fired and hurried away. The next day he read in the papers that his brother's body had been found on the levee, horribly mangled and torn. The murderer winced, but kept his secret. Then the dead brother's ghost began to walk. Every night, at the same hour of the shooting, it could be seen on the levee. Each time it would walk straight to the spot where the body had fallen. Then the ghost would fall, go through a death struggle and disappear. It kept this up for years, and there are those who say it does it still.

The second healthy, well developed ghost disported itself in the ruins of the old Santa Fe Stage Coach company's office at Second and Main streets in 1886. So generally known did it become that often large crowds would congregate and await the appearance of the nocturnal visitor. Early one evening a young man who wished to investigate a little went into the ruins. When he emerged from them an hour later, he found a large crowd standing on the opposite side of the street, near the jail, watching for ghosts. Someone in the crowd, thinking that the young man had been playing ghost, threw a brick at the investigator, striking him on the head. He fell senseless with a gaping wound in his head. The Santa Fe ghost has not been seen since.

In 1887 there was a story afloat that at 12 o'clock each night a ghostly cable train glided down the incline between Walnut and Main streets and disappeared into space. In the grip car, guiding the tram, was the ghost of a gripman who had died a short time before, after having been insane for some time, the result of grief over the fact that his train had run down and killed a pedestrian. Crowds congregated at the junction nightly to see the strange sight. For the most part they went away disappointed, although there was plenty who declared they had seen "it."

Another story, in which a ghost was never seen, but which smacked strongly of spooks, was the Conway murder on East Eighteenth street, between Oak and Locust, in 1885. Mrs. Conway, a young woman, and her little girl were beaten to death with a coupling pin. The murderer or murderers were never caught. Suspicion pointed toward two men, but there was no evidence. Both of them afterward died horrible deaths — one of the glanders and the other of cancer. The ghost of the victims never walked openly, but that section of the city was given a wide berth by the true believers for many months afterward.

Last, but not least, were the ghosts of Clark and Jones, the men hung for murdering Mme. Wright in 1893. These ghosts materialized in the jails, one at Independence and one in Kansas City. The scare lasted for some weeks, and the negro prisoners were thrown into a state of terror by any strange sounds. One night, when the jail was in a state of comparative quiet, a drunken prisoner, who had just been brought in, had an attack of "jimjams." By some strange coincidence he was placed in the cell once occupied by Clark, and the prisoners soon located the groaning of the unfortunate man. The negroes, not knowing that the cell was occupied, supposed that the noise was made by a departed spirit, and all started to howling with the "ghost." The effect was something that can be imagined better than it can be described. Since the Clark ghost left the jail Kansas City has been bereft of spirits, and Belvidere Hollow is breathing more easily than it has for years. — Kansas City Times.

—Warren Ledger, Warren, Pennsylvania, May 3, 1895, page 6.

Bulldog Takes a Bite Out of Crime

1922

DOG BITES CHIEF DETECTIVE

Walter Anderson Attacked by Bulldog When Making a Liquor Raid on North Fifteenth.

Walter Anderson, captain of Lincoln detectives, was bitten rather badly at 6 p. m. Friday by a large bulldog when he and other officers made a liquor raid on the house of Mrs. Ethel Brown, colored, 935 North Fifteenth street. Mrs. Brown was in the yard when an automobile carrying the police drove up, and she ran into the house. Detective Anderson ran after her, caught her and attempted to hold her. At that moment the bull dog rushed in and grabbed the calf of his leg. He pulled the dog off. Later the dog-catcher took it to the pound. One gallon of whiskey was secured.

In March another raid had been attempted on the same place. The dog was tied under a porch at the time and would let no one approach him.

Dr. R. L. Bentley, who dressed Anderson's wound, states that it will not be serious if infection does not set in.

—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 18, 1922, page 2.