A Curious Cheat

1895

The unrolling of an Egyptian mummy, supposed to be that of a princess, disclosed a curious cheat. The priests who did the embalming probably spoiled or mislaid the body intrusted to them, and for it substituted that of an ordinary negro man. — Philadelphia Ledger.

Pretty Egyptian 'Vamp' Weds Man Accusing Her of Theft

1920 (Click graphic for bigger)

Romantic Beauty Needs but Five Minutes to Persuade Accuser to Drop Charge and Go to Altar With Her — Declares She Is a Descendant of Cleopatra.

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal. — The Princess Della Pattra has made good her claim that she was a champion vamp. Brought here from New York on the complaint of Erich Buehle, a hydraulic engineer, that she had defrauded him out of several thousand dollars, in five minutes she had persuaded him to drop his charge — and marry her. And now [*it's likely there will] have been a little revenge connected with the wedding and that Erich may have more troubles coming.

Erich and the princess met out on the Pacific Coast some months ago. Erich had money. The princess had romance. Erich recounted his accomplishments and expanded upon his prospects. Della confided that she was a niece of the Khedive of Egypt and a descendant of Cleopatra. Her parents, she said. were Hassan El Kammel Bresla and Mardena Salempta, citizens of Alexandria. Pathos entered her story. She was not wanted in her homeland, so she had come to this great America to make a fortune — and to acquaint the world with her much libeled progenitress. To do this she must get into the movies.

Erich Finances Movie Ventures.

Didn't Erich think any director should be glad to employ her? Erich did. Then Della admitted that they weren't. Not a one of those studios out on the coast would give her work. No, but piff! What did she care for them! She would go East. She would become the greatest of Cleopatras. Yes, she would take her charms and her talent to New York. But Meester Erich — it was a delicate matter; she hated to speak of it — the trip, it would cost money. The waiting, that, too, would cost money. And money she had none. She, the niece of the Khedive of Egypt; she, in whom flowed the blood of the Queen of the Nile, was without the necessary.

A happy thought. Perhaps Meester Erich would make her the loan. She hated to ask it. She would pay him back. She would pay him double — threefold, when she should have made the success. Mr. Erich would and did. Several thousand dollars there were in the package he handed her. The princess was overjoyed. She would write him every day. No, she would send him the wire — the mails were too slow.

Erich was at the train when Della — and his money — went away. Weeks passed, and Erich heard from neither. He grew impatient. His impatience developed into anger, and he went to the police. The police listened to his story. It sounded bad for Della, so they wired detectives in New York. It wasn't long till Della was found.

Della Makes Peace.

She was taken before a judge. She heard that Erich was anxious about her — and his money. She laughed. "I want to go back," she said. "I want to talk to Erich. I know everything will be all right after I see him." The judge doubted Erich's reception, but he showed her her ticket for San Francisco.

In San Francisco she was visited by the young engineer. They talked together alone, and Erich obtained her release. For a few days their names were out of the papers. And then one morning Erich Buehle and Princess Della Pattra appeared at the window of the marriage license clerk. They went from there to the offices of Judge Bernard J. Flood, picking up an audience of newspaper men and courthouse employes as they went. And there the ceremony was read.

The Princess wore a sumptuous gown of rose in which she had created a sensation [**] before upon her arrival from New York; under it were silver pumps. An oriental touch was given by a black lace harem veil and great hoop earrings which might have delighted her ancestress.

All Solemn but Della.

The words of the ceremony were solemn; the judge was solemn; more solemn than either was Erich, bur there was nothing solemn about Della. She couldn't keep her eyes from wandering coquettishly toward the little group of newspapermen who composed the audience, while her lips were parted in a smile, which with the dazzling expanse of tiny white teeth it revealed, must have made even the Judge's mind stray.

But what could one expect? Surely, not that the princess should enter matrimony in the same manner as those of less amorous antecedents. Della has inherited too great an understanding of love and lovers to be much impressed by any of love's formalities. It was pretty serious business for Cedric, but for Della it was a lark.

"All lovers quarrel," Della said. "The more they love the more they quarrel. The more 'caveish' the man, the more severe his actions to win the woman he loves."

Under her arm she carried a cookbook. "We go to a hotel for supper," she said. "After that I take my cookbook home and I cook some hotcakes."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 4.

[*] Some words, letters mostly gone. This phrase is partially a guess.
[**] Missing approximately 5 or 6 words.

Gems of 1900 B.C. Exhibited in U.S.

1919

ARE BRIGHT AS NEW, THO 3800 YEARS OF AGE.

Were Worn by Egyptian Princess and Found in 1914 by English Scientist.

NEW YORK, N. Y. — Jewelry worn by an Egyptian princess of the twelfth dynasty, nineteen hundred years before the Christian era, was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

It is declared to be the finest collection of personal adornment ever brought out of Egypt.

When marauders entered the tomb of Princess Sathathoriunut at some odd moment in the last 3,800 years they took away her mummy and even the elaborate funeral trappings, but overlooked a niche containing the wonderfully wrought ornaments she wore when attending the ancient equivalent for a first night at the opera.

Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, head of an English archaeological society, dug the collection out in 1914, and today it looks as bright as if it had just come from the makers.

It consists of a gold necklace inlaid with carnelian lapis lazuli and green feldspar and another pectoral similarly made of King Senusert II., father of the princess.

There is also a gold collar of double lion heads, a girdle of gold with rhombic jeweled heads, a necklace of amethyst with gold lion claw pendants, armlets and bracelets with gold bars and beads of gold, carnelian and turquoise; and parts of the princess' jewel box, made of ebony with gold and carved ivory panels.

The jewels are identified as belonging to the princess by her name and the name of her father in cartouches on the larger pieces. According to custom, the Cairo museum retained the choice of the collection, a diadem.

Since its purchase by the museum the collection has been in a vault in London, stipulation having been made that it should remain there until six months after hostilities closed.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 12.

The Leather of the Egyptians

1910

The ancient Egyptians were skilled in the art of tanning leather and manufactured it in various ways and for various purposes besides that of furnishing covering for the feet. Indeed, it is to those builders of the pyramids that we are indebted for the first artistic forms of footwear, and, so far as can be ascertained from history and the researches of archaeologists, the Egyptians were the first shoemakers who were worthy of that name.

It is a fact, too, that tanners of today employ very much the same methods as did the ancients. About the same materials are used, and the processes are almost precisely similar to those in vogue hundreds of years ago. It is true that tanners of the present day have found a means of greatly shortening the time required to convert a hide into leather and that steam power and modern machinery have done much to expedite and improve the processes of finishing the leather; but, after all. the principals of tanning remain the same as they have been from the first. — London Globe.

Poisons Long In Use

1910

Some poisons have been known for ages. Prussic acid, then called "the poison of the peach," was used by the Egyptians before the pyramids were built. They were the first to distill the poison from peach pits.

Corrosive sublimate was one of the favorite poisons of Charles IX of France. He offered a large prize for any one who would find an antidote for it. A physician came to him one day to claim the reward. The king sent for his cook, who had burned the meat that day, and made him take a fatal dose of corrosive sublimate. The antidote was administered immediately, but the cook died, notwithstanding. The king had the doctor taken out and hanged, so his spirit followed the cook's in less than a quarter of an hour.

Old Ways of Keeping Time

1910

Devices That Were Adopted by the Egyptians, Romans and Early English People

As far back as history will take us we find that there was always some crude means of reckoning time. The clock is, of course, a comparatively modern invention, the first mechanical ones that would keep the time even approximately having been made in 1250 A.D.

The early Egyptians divided the day and night each into 12 hours, a custom adopted by the Jews or Greeks probably from the Babylonians.

The day is said to have been first divided into hours in 293 B.C., when a sun dial was erected in the temple of Quirinus at Rome. As early as 158 B.C. the time was called in the streets of Rome by regular public criers.

In the early history of England we are told that the people found a means of measuring time by the use of wax candles. It was reckoned that three inches of candle would last an even hour.

Among most of the nations of the north day began at sunrise, while among the Athenians and Jews it began at sunset. With the ancient Romans it began, as it does with us, at midnight.

On the Antiquity of the Saw

1916

The saw is the earliest tool that has been traced in Egyptian history. It was found first in the form of a notched bronze knife in the third dynasty, or about 5,000 years before the Christian era, and was followed in the fourth and fifth dynasties by larger toothed saws, which were used by carpenters, but there are no dated specimens until the seventh century before the Christian era, when the Assyrians used iron saws.

The first knives on record were made out of flint and were in fact saws with minute teeth. They probably were used for cutting up animals, as the teeth would break away even on soft wood. Rasps, which are but a form of saw, were first made of sheets of bronze, punched and coiled round, but the Assyrians in the seventh century used the straight rasp made of iron similar to the modern type.

In the present day the saw is probably used more than any other tool. It has taken three distinct forms for the working of both wood and metal — the straight saw, the band saw, and the circular saw.