Few Women Laugh Heartily

1910

Whether Due to Lack of Humor or Childhood's Training Is Unknown, But Fact Remains

Women laugh too little. Whether this is due to their lack of humor or to childhood's training in gentle manners may be questioned. Certain it is that a hearty laugh in a woman's voice is rare music. An audience of women rustles with amusement, but seldom laughs. A group of girls giggle, but do not laugh. A woman reading the most brilliantly humorous story seldom gets beyond a smile.

When Sir Walter Besant, in his clever skit, "The Revolt of Man," pictured the time in the twentieth century when women should have usurped all power — political, ecclesiastical and social — he shrewdly noted that laughter had died out in England; and when men revolted against their feminine tyrants, they came back to their own with peals of laughter.

A Paris doctor has recently opened a place for the laughter cure. It is a private institution, and large fees are charged. The patients sit around a room, and at a given moment begin to smile at each other. The smile broadens to a grin, and at a signal to a peal of laughter. Two hours a day of this healthful exercise is said to cure the worst cases of dyspepsia. But whether the habit of laughing easily and naturally could be acquired by this process is doubtful. — Montreal Herald.

Substitutes Mustard for Electricity

1900

A street faker in Kenton, Kansas, had a thriving business selling electric belts until someone examined one of them. Then it was found that beneath a strip of gauze was a layer of dry mustard. When the wearer perspired a little the mustard was moistened and set up a burning sensation and the deluded victim believed a current of electricity was passing through him. Before all this was discovered, however, the faker had smelled danger and was on his way to another gullible neighborhood.


Debts Make Life Bitter

Ex-King Milan finds it more difficult every day to borrow money. His debts and his difficulties make his life very bitter. He has arrived at that stage of his continental career when he is looked on with suspicion and is placed on the ominous black list of Carlsbad's business people, who warn all their friends against "a certain Milan, formerly king of Servia," and announce that no goods should be sold to him except on a cash basis. — James Gordon, in Chicago Record.

Physician Raps "Radium Hysteria"

1914

Says Element Alone Will Not Cure Cancer

Washington, Jan. 24. — "The radium hysteria is a disease that is likely to set back the proper treatment of cancer; and the inevitable failure of radium, as at present exploited as a cure, will add acute mental suffering to the physical tortures resulting from the disease."

This, was the declaration of Dr. Francis D. Donoghue, of Massachusetts, in a brief filed with the house committee on mines and mining endorsing Secretary of the Interior Lane's proposal to withdraw the radium bearing lands of the west from public entry.

Dr. Donoghue said further:

"Radium is not a cure and probably never will be a cure alone for cancer. Rather than develop the unknown and uncertain value of radium it would be better to establish institutes for the treatment of cancer by the combined methods of known values; first, thermotherapy, second, surgery, third, ray treatment by radium and X-ray; fourth, by the use of various forms of radio-energy."

The committee had under consideration a statement of Joseph M. Flannery, of Pittsburgh, owner of Colorado lands containing radium-bearing ores and opponent of Lane's plan, to the effect that the conservation policy not only would retard the proper development of the cancer cure, but would postpone cheaper radium.

Flannery told the committee that radium has a by-product, unnamed and undeveloped, which will revolutionize the yield of the soil and greatly lower the high cost of living. He asserts that the mixing of this by-product with fertilizer improves both the size and the quality of growing plants.

A cabbage, according to the witness, will improve 300 per cent in quality and size if grown with this fertilizer. Corn has been improved in experimental work 100 per cent; wheat, 65 per cent, beans, 33 per cent, and other vegetables have shown gratifying results, according to Flannery.

"Mrs. Grundy Says" – Comments and Asides

1895

That some are confident Hades will have to be enlarged.

That as a reckless talker the girl of the period rivals the parrot.

That unbridled, malicious tongues do as much harm as unloaded guns.

That too many lawyers labor more for their fees than for their clients.

That the sycophant finds himself entirely at home in fashionable society.

That the "fine Italian hand" is seen in some late international engagements.

That women who never went near Worth are loudest deploring his death.

That the social ascendancy of the obscure does not interest the astronomer.

That women who compromise themselves are as lost as those who hesitate.

That society women who have special means of livelihood are numerous.

That he is a foolish fellow who thinks taking the Keeley cure is a distinction.

That it would be a good thing if some of the clubs went out of existence.

That some of the "lectures" under fashionable auspices are akin to twaddle.

That "how d'do" is the only thing that does not cost money in a court of law.

That fashionable sympathy is the kind extended to get further particulars.

That with so many comic papers it is to be expected that old jokes will reappear.

That high collars are the only thing that makes some men hold up their head.

That women interviewed about their divorce are not in need of any nerve tonic.

That the commercial feature of international marriages is not given publicity.

That a power of removal bill for operation in society would be a good thing.

That everybody who is anybody appears to have arranged to "go to Europe."

That amateur poets are sometimes as much a nuisance as dogs in Constantinople.

That it is a precarious thing to change one's religion for the sake of a marriage.

The Hot Springs, Arkansas

1878

At the foot of the mountain, rising 1,060 feet below the tide-water at the Gulf, on whose sides the springs gush forth, lies the town of Hot Springs, following the windings of the narrow rocky valley of The Hot Springs creek. It consists of one long, irregular street called Valley street, which crosses and recrosses the little stream.

The valley of the latter runs almost due north and south, the Hot Springs mountain rising to the east, and more thickly wooded hills to the north and west. At one part the picturesque little valley is so narrow that the street takes up most of the level, the houses on one side being built over the creek and almost into the mountain-side, which in many places has been cut into and blasted away to make room for the buildings and other improvements.

The town broadens out considerably on the more level country at the south, towards the Ouachita river, and at the other end the houses are scattered for some little distance up the valleys of the two streams, which, joining at the northern end of the town, together with the waters from the mountain-side, form the Hot Springs creek. This stream, after passing over its rocky bed in the valley, flows due south for some six miles to where it joins the historic Ouachita.

There are some fifty-six springs in all, said by some to be one spring with this number of outlets, ranging in temperature from 63 degrees to as high as 148 degrees, and situated at different elevations on the Hot Springs mountain, and in the valley of the creek below, the highest issuing 180 feet above the Hot Springs creek, and rising within a space of 1,200 feet long by 200 wide.

The majority of the springs are situated well up the mountain-side, a few are distributed along the base, while others rise on the banks of the creek, and one springs from the bottom. The hot waters rise to the surface through a formation of milk-white novaculite rock, on top of which they have deposited a layer of calcareous tufa, in some places of very considerable thickness. They are supposed to derive their high temperature directly from the interior heat of the earth, either by passing over and through heated rock formations, or by thorough permeation with heated gas and vapors, rising far below from the molten subterrene.

The springs rising on the mountain are those used for bathing purposes, and are mostly covered over to prevent any pollution at the fountain-head, as well as to preserve as much as possible all the properties of the water until it is brought into use. The waters are carried by a system of wooden pipes to the tanks above the different bath-houses. They are still so hot on reaching the bathing-tubs that cold water has to be added. Together these springs discharge some 344 gallons per minute, or nearly 500,000 gallons of hot water daily, having an average temperature of 136 degrees Fahrenheit — certainly plentiful and hot enough for any number of invalids.

Hot vapor rises continually from the limpid waters, while carbonic acid gas bubbles to the surface. In the colder months the vapor, becoming visible, rises in such clouds that it looks like a fog hanging over the mountain-side. Day by day the springs are depositing the tufa, which forms incrusted basins for the clear sparkling waters. This is also found as a coating on the pipes and troughs, in the receiving tanks, and, in fact, wherever the waters pass. At the base of the mountain the ridge formed by the tufa hangs over the hot waters of the creek.

The diseases notably benefited, and in many cases cured, by the use of the waters of the Arkansas Bethesda are those of the skin and blood, nervous affections, rheumatism and kindred diseases, and the various diseases of women. In tke case of acute and inflammatory diseases, especially those of the heart, lungs, and brain, the use of the waters is injurious, and in many cases very dangerous.

The treatment is by drinking and bathing in the waters and in their steam, producing in each case a profuse perspiration, which is an active agent in the elimination of the disease by natural channels. The advice of a physician who has well studied the effect of the waters on the system is necessary, during their use, as they, if rashly used, are as powerful in breaking down the constitution as they are in building up. In many cases the system has to be prepared for the treatment by a course of medicine.

The hot baths are usually taken once a day for three weeks, when a rest is necessary, the patient probably spending a week at the neighboring sulphur springs, near the Ouachita river. A second three weeks' course is then taken, followed again by an abstinence of some days, from bathing. The duration of the treatment depends, of course, upon the nature of the complaint and its degree of severity. The usual stay at the springs is from one to three months, but many invalids stay a year and longer, and, in fact, some settle there. — A. Van Cleef in Harper's Magazine.

Evangeline Weed — Making Personality to Order

1922

BOSTON — A medley of public officials, business men, manufacturers, debutantes and society matrons have worn a path to the studio of a modest and demure young woman in Beacon St.

They go to her filled with worldly knowledge and material experience of years but conquered by one of the greatest of man's weaknesses — self-consciousness.

She diagnoses their cases like a physician, cures them and endows them with man's greatest boon — personality.

She is Miss Evangeline Weed, proprietor of the Personality Institute, the first project of its kind.

Miss Weed numbers among her clients three mayors, two state senators, three representatives and many business men. These men, though successful, are handicapped by self-consciousness and unable to realize their full powers because of undeveloped personality.

—The Lima News, Lima, Ohio, Aug. 26, 1922, p. 1.

Man Blows Off Head with Shotgun, Temporarily Insane

Waupaca, Wisconsin, 1912

BLOWS HEAD OFF WITH A SHOT GUN

George B. Rhodes Suicides While Temporarily Insane

RELATIVES ARE SUMMONED

Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Sweet, 227 North Main Street, Called to Waupaca by News of Sad Tragedy.

Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Sweet, 227 North Main street, were called to Waupaca Monday by the suicide of their son-in-law, George B. Rhodes, who took his life early in the morning by blowing the top of his head off with a shotgun.

According to a message received from Waupaca this morning, Rhodes, who has been employed as a sexton at the Riverside cemetery there for several years has been despondent of late and it was the verdict of the coroner's jury that he took his life while suffering from a fit of temporary insanity induced by despondency.

Sunday afternoon Rhodes dug a grave in the cemetery. Monday morning he arose at 5 o'clock, without arousing other members of the family, lighted the fire in the kitchen of his home and then left the house. Shortly after 6 o'clock his body was found back of an outbuilding.

Physicians who examined the body testified at the inquest that Rhodes placed the mouth of the muzzle of the gun against the back of his head and reached around to pull the trigger. The top of the head was literally blown off. The shot gun that was used had been left at the house by a friend.

Rhodes was formerly engaged in the barber business. He leaves his wife and two children. According to Waupaca dispatch he was confined in an asylum years ago because of mental disturbance, but was released later and pronounced cured.

Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes were visitors in Fond du Lac on several occasions.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 5.


RETURN FROM FUNERAL.

Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Sweet and Roy and Clifford Sweet have returned from Waupaca where they attended the funeral of George B. Rhodes, who committed suicide in that city ten days ago. The funeral was also attended by Eugene Sweet, of Berlin; Ross Sweet, of Rhinelander; John Rhodes, of Rhinelander; and Mrs. James McCallister, of Hancock, Wis.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 24, 1912, page 1.

Note: A couple mistakes in the headline fixed, not called to WAUPUN, and not M. B. Sweet.

Here's George B. Rhodes' cemetery information: Lakeside Memorial Park, Waupaca, Wisconsin. Lot #529-L, Space 2, born 1863, died 1913, age 50. [They say 1913, but it would appear he died in 1912.]

Italian Doctor Said to Have Remedy for Cancer

1912

HE CURES CANCER

Italian Doctor Said to Have Remedy For Malignant Disease, Fifteen Patients Healed

By the United Press Associations.

Chicago, Ill., Dec. 17.—After working day and night under the shadow of Hull house, in the heart of Chicago's Italian quarter, Dr. Joseph D. Stevano, an Italian, says he has perfected a cure for malignant cancer.

The cure is vouched for by Dr. A. A. Whamond, president of the Robert Burns hospital. Dr. Whamond said today that in his hospital and in homes fifteen persons who have been declared incurable and too far advanced for operation had been cured. The cancer wounds have healed, he says, and every sympton of the disease has disappeared.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 1.

Man Falls Into Mt. Vesuvius; Lightning Bolt Cure Woman

1919

LIVES AFTER FALL INTO MT. VESUVIUS

Rome, Sept. 12. -- While taking motion pictures of Vesuvius, Baron Parisch, director general of the Myriam Films of Rome, slipped off the edge of the crater and plunged headlong into the depths, but struck a protuberance, where he clung desperately to some shrubbery.

He was rescued by means of a rope dropped to him.

--Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, September 12, 1919, page 2.


LIGHTNING BOLT CURES PARALYSIS

Jacksonville, Vt., Sept. 12. -- Mrs. William Paddock of this town recently experienced a remedy that is certain to kill or cure. The results to her were of the happiest nature. Some months ago Mrs. Paddock suffered a stroke of paralysis, and had since been unable to walk. During a severe thunderstorm the other day a bolt of lightning struck near where she was sitting, and she jumped up and ran. Her legs have been all right ever since.

--Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, September 12, 1919, page 2.

Eating Snakes to Cure Leprosy

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Has Faith In His "Cure"

Only Patient who Tried Snake Diet for Leprosy Died, but Doctor Holds to His Theory.

In practicing medicine for the benefit of the natives I worked out one theory in regard to leprosy, which is a fairly common ailment in the Archipelago. I asked myself why, since a snake sheds its skin, a man who is afflicted with disease should not be able to do the same thing.

In Singapore there was a rich Chinese leper, known as Ong Si Chew, who asked me repeatedly why I did not bring him some new remedy for his disease. Since he had a large household of servants who took care of him, and his own carriages and richshas when he traveled, he was allowed to live untroubled by the authorities; but he was very unhappy, because he had tried all the remedies of the native doctors and was steadily growing worse.

At last I told him that I had something that might help. He asked me what it was, but I would not tell him. When he insisted, I answered, "Snakes."

"Ul-la!" he exclaimed, waving his arms in the air.

Then I explained my theory. The ability of a snake to shed his skin might be transferred to a human being if he ate snakes; and if so, the person would be able to shed his leprosy. Ong Si Chew did not care for the idea at all, but I told him it was worth trying and I argued that a snake is much cleaner than an eel.

At last he consented, and I furnished him with a number of small pythons with the instructions that they were to be killed and cleaned immediately before they were eaten. He was to eat them raw with his rice.

I left Singapore soon after that, and when I returned I found that Ong Si Chew had died. People thought it was a great joke on me because my patient had not survived the treatment, but I am far from being convinced that the cure will not work – or, at least, help to throw off leprosy. Ong Si Chew was in the last stages of the disease, and his case was not a fair test. – Charles Mayer, in Asia Magazine.

--The Indiana Progress, Indiana, Pennsylvania, April 27, 1921, page 4.