Rum Omelette for Him

1905

This is the true story of how a Mississippi editor kept his New Year's resolution not to drink vinous, malt, distilled or other variety of intoxicating beverages. On or about Jan. 3 he came to town with a small hand satchel and the good resolution not to drink aforesaid.

In a short time he found himself at a table in a restaurant with a party of congenial spirits. The congenial spirits were partaking of spirits equally congenial. Only the Mississippi editor was adhering to a glass of cold, repellant, unsympathetic ice water.

"Have something to drink," suggested one of the party.

"No; I've sworn off; don't intend to drink any more," was the virtuous reply.

"Too bad! Too bad!" was the sympathetic rejoinder.

The conversation became more lively, spirits grew high. The Mississippi editor keenly felt his aloofness. He began to understand how the mummy at the ancient Egyptian feasts used to feel.

"Have something more, old man!" suggested one of the party to him as the glasses were being replenished, forgetting he had declined before.

To the despairing and thirsty soul of the molder of public opinion came a flash of positive inspiration.

"By heaven!" he exclaimed excitedly, under the influence of a great idea.

"I swore I would not drink it any more, but I never said a word about eating it. Waiter, bring me a rum omelette and see you pour plenty of rum over it!"

At the sixth rum omelette, which the Mississippi editor ate with a spoon to lose none of the sauce, he grew visibly elate.

Which shows that love will find a way. — New Orleans Times-Democrat.

Chicken Thief Pursued, Riddled

Pennsylvania, 1908

Enraged Farmer, After Chase, Puts Twelve Holes Through Him

Pottsville, Pa., Feb. 7. — Exhausted after a long chase, Isaac Bevan of Shenandoah, Pa., was riddled with bullets from two revolvers which his pursuer, Anthony Sinkiewicz, emptied into his body as he lay helpless in a snow drift. Twelve shots took effect, one passing through the heart, causing instant death.

Sinkiewicz had for some time been annoyed by chicken thieves and fixed up a burglar alarm. He was awakened by this alarm and he and a boarder at his home armed themselves and gave chase to the intruder by means of tracks in the newly, fallen snow. The chase continued for more than a mile, when Bevan dropped from exhaustion. Seven chickens were found in a bag which he carried. He was unarmed. Sinkiewicz gave himself up to the authorities and has been charged with murder.


Leap Year Girl's Quick Work

Philadelphia, Feb. 7. — Miss Louisa M. Hahn has led to the altar of the Mount Airy Methodist Episcopal church J. Horace Laucks of Germantown. Miss Hahn on New Year's day, ten hours after she became acquainted with Laucks, said to him: "I like you very much. Let us get married. I suggest you take time to think it over, say until tomorrow." Laucks made up his mind within four hours.

India's New Year Days; Celebrated Frequently

1915

INDIA'S NEW YEAR DAYS

They celebrate the occasion frequently by knocking off work and holding funerals. Some bury their dead, some burn them and some feed the corpses to buzzards.

India beats the world for the number and variety of its New Year days and this is so because of the large number of races and religions.

When a traveler who expects to spend some time in the country goes to the bank with his letter of credit, usually a card is handed him on which is printed the various holidays. This is for his convenience, so that he will not let himself get out of funds and go to the bank in a hurry, only to find it closed on account of some holiday. The holiday may be Christian, Mohammedan or that of any one of the numerous Hindu sects.

"When the usual card was given me in Bombay," says a writer, "I noted the number of these holidays which were ascribed to New Year. They did not exactly bear out the humorous description of every day in the year as a New Year day, but there seemed hardly a month of the Christian calendar which did not have at least one New Year designated, and in some months there were more."

Kaleidoscopic Bombay observes all these New Year days because the stream of Asiatic life which circulates through it includes all the civilization and all the races and legions of the Orient, with some additions from the Occident. The spirit is one of catholicity.

All the races and all the religious sects observe the New Year of the Christian calendar, because British rule of India is reflected in this day; but they also observe the New Year of the different races and religions among themselves, at least to the extent of knocking off work.

Whether in Bombay or Benares, the monkey temple has its throng of Hindu worshipers, and the Mohammedans often are not unwilling to share in the observance to the extent of foregoing their business activities. The Hindus on their part are apt to think it a shame to work on a Mohammedan New Year day when the Moslem population may be thronging the Jumma Musquid mosque. So it goes all round the circle of New Year holidays.

There is a simple arithmetical method of calculating the time from the Hegira in the terms of the Christian era, but the easier way is to accept Without question the fact that such and such a day is the New Year of the Mohammedan era. Similarly, the New Year of the Buddhists and the Brahmins and the Jains and the Sikhs may be accepted without bothering about the calendar.

The British New Year in Bombay or Calcutta, or Delhi is much the same as in England

While the Christian New Year is formal and stately on account of British authority, it has less standing than the New Year of the Parsees, because it is a single day's observance, while the Parsees take two days. The year I happened to be in Bombay was the Parsee Yazdezardi, 1276, and the New Year days came on September 13 and 14.

On this day I was afforded the opportunity of witnessing the Parsee religious observances, or Zoroastrian services. It was in the Allbless Bagh, on the Charni road. Their churches or temples of worship are free from architectural pretensions without and within. They are more like an ordinary hall.

In this temple the women were gathered at one end of the room and the men at the other and in the space between was a stand holding a lamp with the eternal fire under glass. The flame was very clear. A venerable bearded priest stood beside the lamp. His discourse was earnest and solemn. Both man and woman hearers were very attentive.

The ceremonies of worship are quite simple, but the mysteries of the faith may be less so. The Parsees who have been educated in England and many of those whose English education has been obtained in Bombay resent the designation of fire worshipers.

One of them gave me a monograph, written by a Parsee barrister in London, which explained the creed of the followers of Zoroaster as one of good thoughts, good words and good deeds, with the sacred flame as a symbol of the effulgence of the deity. It is not denied, however, that contact with Hindus and Mohammedans has caused corruptions to creep into the creed. The Hindus and Moslems regard the Parsees as fire worshipers.

It was on a New Year day that I drove out to Malabar hill, where are located the Towers of Silence, or the Parsee cemetery. Every traveler takes his drive. It is past the other cemeteries, Christian and Mohammedan burial grounds and the Hindu burning ghat. The cemetery of the Christians is no longer used, but on almost any day there will be Mohammedan funerals and Hindu cremations.

On this day there were two Mohammedan funerals and three parties of Hindu mourners, with their respective burdens at the burning ghat.

Malabar hill is the choice spot overlooking the Arabian sea. Within the cemetery grounds are flagstone steps, shaded walks and arbors and bowers, luxuriant vegetation covers the rocks, and there is everything that goes to make a beautiful garden of flowers.

The towers of Silence, of which there are five, are hardly towers at all. They are about 275 feet in circumference and perhaps 25 feet high. The material is whitewashed stone and cement or mortar. A near approach to the towers is not allowed strangers to the Parsee creed, nor entrance permitted to the fire temple, where the sacred fire is kept alive and seven kinds of incense are burned.

A model of the towers is shown in the registry room and an attendant explains them to visitors. The attendant explained to me the circular rows which the bodies were placed — one for the children, one for the women and one for the men. When the bodies have been stripped of their fleshly covering by the vultures, which takes perhaps half an hour, the bones remain for a while, and are then dropped into a well in the center, which is provided with drains and water flushes. Charcoal is the chief purifier.

On this New Year day there was a Parsee funeral, which could be observed only at a respectful distance. There were the four professional body bearers, with the bier on their shoulders, and a procession of perhaps fifty mourners in their white robes walking two abreast, each pair holding a handkerchief. The Parsee accounts say that the body is received by two bearded attendants at the entrance to the towers, and that by them the shroud is removed and then vultures do the rest. This is probably what happened that day.

All I could note on this occasion was a sudden movement of the vultures in the palm trees. There seemed to be hundreds of them. They paused for a minute on the outer edge of one of the towers and then disappeared within. In a few minutes they reappeared.

The Parsee method of disposing of the dead is, perhaps, as the Parsees say, more sanitary than the Christian burial in the earth, or even than the Hindu cremation. It meets the tenet of their faith that fire, water and earth are too sacred to be polluted. But the western mind cannot become accustomed to it.

In conclusion, it may be said that there are other New Year observances in India besides the New Year of the Christians, Mohammedans, Hindus and Parsees. There is a Chinese colony in Bentinck street, Calcutta, and the Chinese there observe the New Year as they do in the United States, or in any other section of the world in which they are found.

Child Lost When Father Runs Errand

Pennsylvania, 1915

FORGOT HIS CHARGE

Child Lost when Father Goes on an Errand.

Ellis Hardman, 5 year old son of Charles Hardman, Liberty township, was lost for a time in Waynesboro on Saturday. His father took him along to that town and put him in the care of another man while he went on an errand. The other man forgot the child and walked away.

The little fellow wandered around in search of his father and when he could not find him he began to cry. Patrolman Rentzel found him near the public square, and after a hunt discovered his father.


UNIQUE SOCIETY

Meets Once a Year to Watch the Old Year Out.

Among the places at which "watch night" services will be held in this county is Arendtsville, where the exercises will be in charge of an organization formed in 1876 for this special purpose and meeting once every year thereafter. Since its organization 1168 persons have enrolled as members. It is known as the "Arendtsville Time Society". Its motto is "Watch and Pray".

—Adams County News, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, January 2, 1915, page 6.

Woman Coughs Up Bullet

1920

Injured While Listening to Ellwood City Celebration

Ellwood City, Pa.—As Lucinda Capano put her head out of the window at her home New Year's eve, to listen to the whistles, bells and shooting which ushered in the new year, a bullet struck her in the face. It penetrated near the right eye, went through her cheek and penetrated the roof of the mouth and finally lodged in her throat. She coughed it up. The police were notified.

A celebrator is believed responsible for the shooting. The bullet first struck the edge of the roof of the house and then took a downward course, striking Mrs. Capano. Dr. H, E. Helling declares the wound is not serious.


$200,000 Subscribed for Children

Philadelphia. — More than $200,000 for the needy children of Europe was subscribed here at a mass meeting under the auspices of the European relief committee. Gen. John J. Pershing was the principal speaker. The largest subscription was a check for $100,000 given by an anonymous donor. "More than 3,000,000 children are facing death unless they receive aid," said General Pershing. "One dollar per month a child is needed for the next 10 months."

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1920, page 4.

On the Origins of April Fool's Day

1922

WATCH YOUR STEP TODAY

This is April Fool's Day When Practical Jokes Are Always in Order — Custom Has Interesting Origin.

Today is the day of the practical joke, that day when anyone is privileged to play practical jokes upon his friends. So watch your step, for a joke lingers in every moment of the day.

The origin of "April Fool's Day" is lost in the mists of antiquity. By some the custom is traced back to the days of the miracle plays given at Easter time. In the decadent days of these dramas, the actors literally made fools of themselves. A "Feast of Fools" was always held in the early spring by the ancient Romans and for a great many years the Hindus have celebrated the vernal equinox as a saturnalia. The chief amusement at these festivals seems to be that of sending people on fruitless errands and thus fooling them.

Many trace the origin of the custom back no further than France in the 16th century. France was the first nation to adopt the new calendar making the first of the year fall on January 1 instead of April 1. Many persons continued to send New Year's gifts and felicitations on April 1 instead of on the new date, and hence subjected themselves to taunts for going on visits that had no meaning.

Our slang expression "You poor fish" doubtless had an "April Fool" origin. The French called the victim of a prank on April 1, "Un poisson d'avril" or "an April fish," from which our expression arose. The origin of the expression probably arose in the comparison between the person who "bites" unwillingly on a joke and the April fish, who is a young fish and hence easily caught.

—Oneonta Daily Star, Oneonta, New York, April 1, 1922, page 5.

Surprise Party

About twenty of Mr. and Mrs. George Barofsky's friends gave them a pleasant surprise Monday evening, Jan. 9th, the occasion being their Fifth wedding anniversary. They were presented with a nice rocking chair, which they were justly proud of. Progressive high five was the order of the evening. At a late hour a dainty lunch was served which was enjoyed by all. Those present were Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn, Underhill, Odell, Hamilton, Connelly, Shoemaker, Baumer, Morton and Messrs. Leach, Underhill.

New Year's Reception
The Epworth League gave a New Years reception at the Methodist parsonage Saturday evening, January 6. There were about eighty present.

The reception committee were clad in Japanese costumes, two rooms were decorated in Japanese festoons and lanterns, another room was trimmed in orange and black for the High School, and the house was lighted with large candles. A guessing game and recitations were part of the program. Lunch was served a-la-Japanese, with this menu:

Salad, Waldorf Astoria and wafers, Stuffed potatoes, Riced dates and tea.

--The Ellis Review-Headlight, Ellis, Kansas, January 1911.