Too Poor to Buy Clothes

New York, 1895

Professor Chickening, superintendent of the Flushing schools, says that a large number of colored children have been unable to attend school during the past two months on account of insufficient clothing.


Refuses to Pay the Tax

August Johnson, of Patchogue, has refused to pay his village taxes, claiming that the incorporation of the village was illegal. He has been sued for the amount and will contest the case in court. His bill is only $6.


Plenty of Free Coal

Great quantities of coal are being washed up on the beach at Amityville from the wreak of the barge Seth Low, which went ashore at that place some weeks ago. The life savers of Zach's inlet station have gathered several tons.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 8, 1895, p. 1.

All Over The State

1916

A most successful as well as profitable round trip from New York to Buenos Ayres was completed by the five-masted schooner, Harwood Palmer. She went out from Norfolk with coal and back to New York with linseed, four months and 27 days being occupied on the double voyage. The vessel stocked the comfortable sum of $145,000, which goes to show that there is still some money in the shipping business.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 1.

Bandits Slay Mine Boss; Get $11,000

1916

FIVE HUNDRED WORKERS HUNT OUTLAW PAIR.

Pay Roll Carrier's Car Is Halted and Official Shot Without Warning — Driver Unhurt.

MARTINS FERRY, Ohio — Police and specially employed detectives are still out searching for the two masked bandits who shot and killed Lee Rankin, superintendent of the Youghiogheny & Ohio Coal Company, and escaped with $11,000 which Rankin was carrying to the mine to pay the employes.

Rankin was on his way back from the bank at Martins Ferry in a taxicab driven by Paul Pickens. At a lonely spot in the road two masked and armed men emerged from the bushes and without giving the two men in the taxicab a chance for their lives, began to shoot. Pickens threw up his hands and was spared.

The robbers quickly seized the money from a suitcase and disappeared. Rankin was hurried to a hospital by Pickens, but died without regaining consciousness. In Rankin's pockets was found $1,000 that the bandits overlooked.

Rankin was popular with the miners, most of whom are foreigners, and a posse of 500 men was formed as soon as the news of the robbery reached the mines. Armed with rifles and revolvers, these men hastened out to scour the country, declaring they would kill the murderers on sight.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 5.

Extracts Alcohol

1919

English Engineer Obtains Liquid Fuel From Coke.

CLEVELAND, England. — It is announced here that a local engineer has succeeded in extracting commercial alcohol from coke. It is claimed that if the process, which requires the use of gas, is applied to all the coal carbonized in Great Britain, an estimated yield of 60,000,000 gallons of motor spirits will be obtained annually, revolutionizing the supply and cost of liquid fuel.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 9.

Utilizing the Mayor

Dec. 1919

Several infuriated citizens took it on themselves to jump all over Mayor Chamberlin last week because of a current rumor that "the rest of the towns were getting all the coal they needed," says the Pleasant Hill (Mo.) Times. But the mayor took it good-naturedly and said that's what a mayor is for.


"Nobody Home."

Real prosperity item from the Springfield (Mo.) Leader: Despite the cold weather in Springfield during the past week, the city jail has not yet had any of its "annual guests" who apply for refuge from the elements. The record made by the city's "hotel" so far this year has been remarkable, Chief Rathbone said, as in previous years the holdover usually was in great demand by persons known to the police department as "sleepers."

Berlin Smoke Free

1902

The German Capital Has Demonstrated that Smoke Nuisance is Curable

One of the cleanest cities in the world, so far as soot and smoke are concerned, is Berlin, Germany. Although a busy manufacturing city, it is of the cleanest and best kept in Europe.

The smokeless condition of Berlin is ascribed to three facts. The preponderant use of coke and briquette, which are practically smokeless; the skillful scientific construction of boiler furnaces and chimneys, and, finally, the high standard of skill that is taught and enforced among firemen who stoke furnaces with coal for steam and manufacturing purposes.

Before a man can assume such a charge he must be taught the theory and practice of economical, scientific firing by which the coal is distributed in such a manner and quantity over the grate surface as to secure the most perfect combustion of its volatile elements.

The Silesian coal used in Berlin in most large steam plants and factories is rich in bitumen and would rank below many of the bituminous coals of the United States, and yet the long, dense, trailing clouds of smoke from mill and factory chimneys which are so familiar a sight in many American cities are rarely seen in that section of Germany, where the indiscriminate shoveling of a raw bituminous coal into the steam and other furnaces is considered an ignorant and wasteful proceeding.

Mine Fire Burns 25 Years

1915

Blaze Thought Conquered, Rages in Remote Gangways

HAZELTON, Pa., Dec. 16. — The Lehigh & Wilkes-Barre Coal Company is fighting a mine fire at Honey Brook No. 1, that was believed to have been extinguished twenty-five years ago. Stripping operations at the west end of the basin of anthracite fuel uncovered the flames, which were eating up measures which were flooded in the eighties.

In 1906, when the water was tapped from Honey Brook, nine men were choked to death by white damp found in the workings of a residue from the mine fire twenty years ago. No further trace of the blaze was encountered, but it is now believed that it continued to rage in remote gangways cut off by falls of rock from the body of coal that was being worked.



"Didn't Know It Was Loaded"

Pugilist Killed While Fooling With Man's Rifle

NEW BRUNSWICK. N. J., Dec. 16. — George Reed walked into a lunch room here and placed his rifle in a corner and sat down to eat breakfast. In a few minutes Severin J. Kucinsky, a pugilist, 25 years old, came in.

He greeted everybody cheerfully. Then he walked over to the rifle, picked it up and placed the muzzle against his heart.

"Now," he said to Reed, "pull the trigger!"

Reed did so. Kucinsky died two hours later in St. Peter's Hospital. Reed was arrested. He said he thought the gun was empty.

The Hand Upon the Jail Wall

1896

Upon the wall of cell No. 7, in the County Jail at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, is the imprint of a man's hand, which would not attract attention were it not for the strange story connected with it — a story which can be vouched for by many of the town's citizens.

Alexander Campbell, of Lansford, was an occupant of the cell in June, 1877. The Mollie Maguires were holding their reign of terror throughout the coal regions at that time and he was arrested and sentenced to be hanged in connection with the murder of John P. Jones. He stoutly asserted his innocence, and it was only through the confessions of his comrades in crime that he was convicted. The night before he was hanged he stood on his cot, and, it is said, placing his hand upon the wall, he declared that in proof of his innocence the imprint would remain upon the wall forever. The impression of the hand can be as plainly seen now as if placed there yesterday, though the walls have been whitewashed often.

The phenomenon has been viewed by many, but none of them has been able to suggest a plausible solution of the mystery.

The cell is regarded with awe by the prisoners in the jail, and if any of them become unruly the warden has only to threaten them with a night in cell No. 7. — New York Herald.

Harvesting the Sun

1896

When we sit in front of a coal fire and enjoy its generous warmth, do we realize that the heat and light of the burning coal are really sunshine that has been stored up for ages? Such is the fact. Centuries ago the sun shone on the earth, the plants and trees grew, fell, and grew again; they were covered by geologic deposits, and acted upon by great heat and pressure, until in the course of years and ages these broad layers of organic matter were transformed into coal. The coal thus represents the work done by the sunshine years ago, and when it is burned the imprisoned solar energy is loosened again.

Our system of power production depends upon this presence of energy. But coal is a wasteful source of energy. Even the best engines do not utilize over 10 per cent of the calculated energy of the heat of coal. And, besides this it is an inconvenient thing in many ways; it has to be mined, freighted and stored. Can we not find some more economical way of using the sun's energy?

During the last few years the great progress in electrical science has enabled man to utilize the solar heat in a thriftier way. During its day's work the sun draws up a large amount of water from the oceans and damp earth. By the action of its rays plant life flourishes, and plants draw from the ground and evaporate into the air large amounts of water. Thus an oak tree of average size, with seven hundred thousand leaves, lifts from the earth into the air about one hundred and twenty-three tons of water during the five months it displays its foliage. This evaporated water, sooner or later, falls as rain, and by the action of gravity begins to flow downward. Thus the great rivers are fed. Round and round incessantly goes the water lifted by the tireless sun to fall when deserted by him, and again to fall and run seaward as long as it may exist upon this earth.


Peculiar to the Locality

Some interesting discoveries have recently been made about animal life on the Hawaiian Islands. It appears that all the land and fresh water shells are peculiar to the locality. Nor is that all. Fifty-seven out of the seventy-eight species of birds, and seven hundred out of the one thousand species of insects do not exist in any other portion of the globe.

Keeping Men Out of Mischief

1915

To keep its men out of mischief a big coal company inaugurated the garden habit among its miners. Result!

Pay day sees far fewer fights, much less money spent for liquor and a larger sum carried home to the wife and children. I learn from the manager that besides these immediate effects many of the miners are now able to raise a considerable part of the vegetables their families eat.

Some of the large iron and steel companies divert their men with music. C. M. Schwab is patron saint of a great band at Bethlehem.

There are four bands or drum corps at the Cornwall Ore banks, and the Frick company goes the limit in mixing music with coke, having 14 bands at its various works.

Give men something pleasant to do, and they will spend less money and time for things that are unpleasant. — Philadelphia Ledger.


Asbestos

The first use of asbestos was in the manufacture of crematory robes for the ancient Romans.


Trade Secret

"Now the first thing to learn about the shoe trade is this. As soon as a customer comes in take off his shoes and hide 'em."
"What's that for?"
"Then you can wait on 'em at your convenience, my boy. They can't walk out!" — Louisville Courier-Journal.

Wisecracks About the News

1911

That New York person who shot himself five times and failed to kill himself will probably die some day of the pip. You never can tell.

A Washington man has started suit for $300,000 for the loss of his wife. All of which leads us to remark that she must have been some wife.

"In the future," says Doctor Wiley, "the air will furnish heat, fuel and power." It might do so right now if some way to extract the coal from it could be found.

That Kansas City man, as we understand the case, did not want a divorce merely because his wife smoked, but on account of what she smoked.

Europe's wine shortage this year is said to be the greatest for a century. Still there will no doubt be enough for us who buy it only for medicinal purposes.

A writer in the New York Medical Journal says whisky is not a cure for snake bite, but kindly refrains from expressing an opinion as to its suitability for fish bait.

Chase Coyotes Over Prairie With Auto

1920

When Coyotes Take to Rough Ground, Dogs Are Turned Loose

SMITH CENTER, Kansas — Rare and exciting sport is being enjoyed these days in the big pastures of western Kansas in catching coyotes by a recently devised method.

Seated in a small motor car with a pair of hounds in a crate strapped on behind, the hunter presses the coyote to its limit with his machine and, when the pursued animal reaches the rough country, for which it always heads, the dogs are turned loose, and being fresh, they soon overtake and kill the coyote.

Caz Mahin reports catching thirty-five of the prairie pests. For each one he got $1 bounty and $16 for the hide. Some of the coyotes killed were chased for miles over the level prairie before the dogs were turned loose for the finish.


Lump of Coal With Movie Ticket

BERLIN, Germany — Here is a side light on the German coal shortage. A "movie" theater at Uelzen, near Hanover, has a sign on its entrance reading: "In order to assure proper heating of the theater, tickets can be sold only to those who furnish a lump of coal per ticket."

A Recipe for Diamonds

1906

If Anyone Wants to Make a Few, Here Is the Way to Go About It

Would you like to know how to manufacture diamonds — real diamonds? The process is somewhat difficult, requiring time, patience and some outlay of money, but then consider the possible results! The diamond, we know, says the New York Herald, is simply carbon in a transparent crystalline form. It comes of humble parentage and is brother to the lump of coal.

Unlike easily crystallizable bodies, carbon is insoluble in all ordinary solvents, but molten metals will combine with it. Let the diamond maker choose iron for a solvent for charcoal, melting it in an electric furnace, allowing it to take up as much carbon as it can — in other words, saturate itself with carbon. The crucible containing the white hot metal should then be plunged into a bath of molten lead. The result will be that globules of iron will rise to the surface of the lead and are quickly cooled on the outer surface. Inside the hard crust the iron remains for some time in a molten condition, and, as iron expands in solidifying, the contents of these little globules receive a pressure unattainable by any other means. When the lead becomes solidified some bullets of iron will be found bound up in the mass. Dissolve with some powerful acid first the lead and then the iron, and a residue of carbonaceous matter will be found to contain tiny crystals — real diamonds. Any chemist with a well equipped laboratory can make diamonds in this way, but the largest of them will not be more than a fiftieth an inch in diameter.

Nature's Secrets — Possibilities of Solar Power

1920

Man gets to feeling pretty smart at times, but nature still has a great deal to teach him if she only would, says the Ohio State Journal. A scientist in the employ of the National Electric Lamp Association at its great plant in Cleveland devoted the entire season last year to studying the lightning bug in the effort to find out how that interesting creature makes light without heat. He failed to discover the secret, as had many another scientist before him.

The potential power which falls on the decks of a battleship in the sunshine of an August day, if it could be harnessed and utilized, would drive the ship vastly faster and farther in a day's journey than its great engines can drive it. The problem of harnessing presents, thus far, the insurmountable difficulty. When that is solved, as probably it will be someday, people will heat their houses with stored sunshine and gas shortages and coal strikes will be matters of perfect indifference.

Nature is jealous of her secrets, but she has grudgingly given up some and she will give up more as time goes on for she cannot resist forever the blandishments of the endless race of wooers whose hearts and intellects are concentrated upon finding out what else she knows.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, p. 6.

Summer's Slipping (poetry)

1922

Poems You Will Enjoy
By Berton Braley

SUMMER'S SLIPPING
The summer's almost gone again,
And fall is coming on again,
When we must really get upon the job;
When we must quit our pleasuring,
And start once more to treasuring
The work that keeps the busy
world athrob.

The small boy thinks unpleasantly
Of school days coming presently;
He'd like to have vacation all the year.
Fall styles are in the stores again,
We'll soon read football scores again,
And apples on the menu will appear.

Straw hats will soon be laid away,
And Palm Beach suits will fade away,
And oysters will again be fit to eat.
Dramatic stars will flash again,
And college boys grow brash again,
And we won't be complaining of the heat.

Thus, after summer's lazy days,
We'll have the golden, hazy-days
When we'll have lots of pep on which to call,
As back to work we turn again,
To earn the coal to burn again,
When winter comes along right after fall!

How Long to Sleep

1874

There has been a great deal of trash written and labeled "Hygienic;" but the following so entirely accords with our own experience, that we commend it to readers as sensible:

The fact is, that as life becomes concentrated, and its pursuits more eager, short sleep and early rising becomes impossible. We take more sleep than our ancestors, and we take more because we want more. Six hours' sleep will do very well for a plowman or brick-layer, or any other man who has no exhaustion but that produced by manual labor, and the sooner he takes it after his labor is over the better. But for a man whose labor is mental, the stress of work is on his brain and nervous system, and for him who is tired in the evening with a day of mental application, neither early to bed nor early to rise is wholesome. He needs letting down to the level of repose.

The longer the interval between the active use of the brain and his retirement to bed, the better his chance of sleep and refreshment. To him an hour after midnight is probably as good as two hours before it, and even then his sleep will not so completely and quickly restore him as it will his neighbor who is physically tired. He must not only go to bed later, but lie longer. His best sleep probably lies in the early morning hours, when all the nervous excitement has passed away, and he is in absolute rest.

Note: Please don't take this old article for true advice on your own sleeping. I had to read it a couple time because I can't believe my eyes. The author discounts the exhaustion of a man who plows or lays bricks as something less than one whose labor is more mental. And since the author was a writer, guess who is being talked about there. It would seem that he or she is feeling a bit superior to those others. It seems like the truth would be just the opposite, or neither. There's a lot of looking-down on people in these old articles, a lot of snobby upper class hoity-toityness.


Perseverance

A poor woman had a supply of coals laid at her door by a charitable neighbor. A very little girl came out with a fire-shovel, and began to take a shovelful at a time and carry it to a sort of bin in the cellar. I said: "Do you expect to get all that coal in with your little shovel?" She was quite confused with my question, but her answer was striking: "Yes, sir; if I work long enough." Humble worker, make up for your want of ability by abundant continuance in well-doing, and your lifework will not be trivial. The repetition of small efforts will effect more than the occasional use of great talents.