Eating With A Knife

1895

The Puritans Were Not Up In the Science of Living Well.

I wouldn't have knives supplied with pie, beans or blueberries. As I have before remarked, the table knife is the great American instrument of death, and the American is slowly but surely carving his own tombstone, and until Americans learn to dispense with the table knife in conveying provisions to the bazoo they are a declining race. Ages hence the future man as he stands in some ancient city — one of the cities of today — recently unearthed, as Pompeii and Herculaeneum have been excavated, will view with astonishment the rusty table knives and wonder to what manner of people we belonged.

And who can blame him? I have seen a man of sound standing in the community eat blueberries with a knife, and he succeeded almost beyond belief of any except eyewitnesses. It beats "pigs in clover" all out. The idea seemed to be to get half a dozen blueberries on the knife, and as it was lifted toward the mouth and the berries began to roll toward the handle to get them in line, rolling back again and into the tunnel before any of them fell off. It was a great trick.

To be able to eat skillfully with a knife is a sure sign of Puritan ancestry. The quick lunch restaurant is the preparatory institution to the tomb. Every person must build the abode of his own soul by eating, and most men do it as though they had a contract job on hand.

If you wish to see people eat in an ideal manner, go into an Italian restaurant on North street. There may be dirt on the floor and dust on the windows, but the food is good, and the leisurely subjects of Humbert know how to eat. They appear to derive fully as much satisfaction from looking at their food and fondly regarding it as from eating it. They eat leisurely and enjoy it.

Not so in the average down town restaurant. The man of business or the clerk comes in. He orders from the "time table," he chafes until he gets it, then he swiftly and skillfully arranges each dish around his plate in such a manner as to lose as little time as possible, ties his napkin around his neck so the ends of the knot stick up behind his head like a mule's ears, takes his knife in one hand and the fork in the other, casts a determined look around him, and then knife and fork begin to play back and forth from his plate to his mouth, and the only wonder is that they don't clash on the way. — Boston Courier.

Nose Rings Desired by San Blas Indians

1919

Defy Police When Government Rules Out Ornament.

"Changing the style of wearing gold nose rings by government order has aroused dissatisfaction in social circles in the San Blas Indian country on the Atlantic coast of Panama," is a statement made by Everybody's. Police were called in when the ladies insisted upon wearing the facial decoration, despite the order, and several women were fined.

According to the authority on this secluded spot of the world: "The San Blas occupy the Atlantic coast and the adjacent islands near the Colombian border and are among the best natural sailors in the world, many of them going to sea on ships from the Panama canal. They are great fishermen, and their coast and islands are said to produce the best cocoanuts in the world. These natural seamen bring large loads of cocoanuts to Cristobal, piled high in their dugout sailboats, up the roughest bit of coast on the Caribbean, with the waves laving over the edge, and never lose a nut.

"Their blood is probably the purest of any of the American Indians, as no men in the world have guarded their women with more jealousy and efficiency than the San Bias. In a country everywhere touched with the blood of the West Indian negroes, the San Blas never show the slightest trace of any kind of mixture. Until a few years ago, and it is still often true, no men other than those of their own tribe were permitted to be ashore on their coasts or on their islands after sunset."

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

Stork Brings "Quads" to Indian's Tepee, But Three Are Given Away

1919

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Head Chief Shot-Both-Sides, son of the famous Chief Crop-Eared Wolf of the Blood Reserve, near Lethbridge, just now is the pride of all Canadian Indians. His squaw has given birth to quadruplets, two boys and two girls, all living and healthy. For all that he is a chief with a formidable name, the family tepee was not built to accommodate such a rapidly growing family, and after a prolonged pow-wow, Mrs. Shot-Both-Sides picked out the man-papoose she liked best and the other three babes were quietly disposed of.

Indian women do that kind of thing as a matter of course when their families get too big — and the foster mothers bring them up just like their own. These "overs," being from the ranks of the tribe's "400," there was keen competition among the squaws for possession of the mites, which were finally given to Lizzie Long-Run-Home, Mary Saltfish and Little Glow Worm, who almost in one voice declared that they could have received no more welcome Christmas present.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 8.

Ways of Picking Husbands

1916

Maidens Have Various Methods, Some of Which Would Seem to Border on the Ludicrous

To ninety-nine girls out of a hundred the most important duty in life is choosing a husband. Methods of choice vary a good deal, of course, chiefly perhaps as between town and country-bred maidens.

To the town or suburban girl a man's clothes count almost for everything. The bride is to the best dressed. The cut of a coat or the color of a cravat weighs more with Clara than character.

Her country cousin, on the other hand, knows better than to pin her faith to a tailor's dummy. She is guided in her choice by more than occult signs. By agitating with her hand the water in a bucket she can see the image of her future spouse. If she desires confirmation she has only to throw broken eggs over a friend's head and the same image will appear.

The peasant girls of Russia arrive at a similar result by seating themselves in front of a small looking glass in a semi-dark room, when a vision of their future lord and master will be certain to present itself.

Once a year an exceptional opportunity occurs. At twelve o'clock on Christmas eve every girl who can contrives to steal out in order to ask the first man she meets his name. Whatever he gives is that of the bridegroom-to-be.

A Delightful Prison

1903

It is very doubtful if there is anywhere a more delightful prison than that of Tobel, in Switzerland. There are very few guards, not more than one to every 25 prisoners, and they never think of carrying arms. The prisoners' cells are constantly open, so that the inmates can easily communicate with each other and can tell at any time what the guards are doing.

Moreover, the prisoners are allowed to have paper, ink, newspapers, cider and various dainties from the kitchen, including fried eggs, of which they are very fond. One would suppose that prisoners would not desire to leave such an earthly paradise as this, yet three notorious murderers — Lohrer, Schmid and Hess — quietly strolled away from it recently, and, it is said, have not as yet shown any inclination to return.


Bygone London Customs

In Edward Longshank's days persons living in the city were allowed to keep swine "within their houses." But these Plantagenet pigs were not to occupy sites that encroached on the streets. At a later day the permission to keep them even within one's house would seem to have been limited to master bakers.

Penny Weddings

1900

The Scotland penny weddings were so called, although the guests contributed shillings and occasionally half crowns, toward the wedding feast.

The penny wedding of Germany is on a different basis. The bride receives her guests with a basin before her, in which everybody deposits a jewel, a silver spoon or piece of money. In some parts of Germany the expense of a marriage is met by each guest paying for what he eats and drinks, and, moreover, at a very high rate, so that the young couple obtain a sum sufficient to start them nicely in life. As many as 300 guests often assemble.

In Poland a girl is not eligible for marriage until she has not only made her own trousseau, but the garments for the friends that will accompany the bridegroom to the altar.

Labor of Ants

1907

It would perhaps be pushing metaphors to an unwarranted extreme to speak of "dignity of labor" in connection with the occupations of ants. But if by the phrase we mean that labor is the honorable lot of all citizens and that all labors of whatever sort are upon the same level of respectability then we might venture to apply the saying even to the labors of an ant hill. For therein all are workers, from the newly fledged callow to the veteran of a second summer. — Harper's Magazine.


Armenian Marriages

An Armenian mother usually chooses her daughter's husband. After all business preliminaries are settled between the families the bridegroom's mother, accompanied by a priest and two matrons, visits the bride and gives her a ring in token of espousal, and with this ring the couple are ultimately married. Among the fishing communities very ancient and elaborate rings are used, and they descend as heirlooms from generation to generation.

Marken Island Old Style

1917

Ancient Manners Are Still Observed and Historic Costumes Are Worn by the Inhabitants

Marken island is a bit of the old Holland, an inlet lying in the Zuyder Zee not far from Edam, of cheese fame. Holland is rapidly becoming modernized nowadays; the blue bloomer of the canal boatmen has gone the way of the wooden shoe, well toward oblivion, although the latter, it is said, is becoming increasingly popular with the price of leather soaring, writes Niksah. The Dutch are rapidly abandoning the old ways that endeared them to the artists of bygone generations, so that any spot where the traditional customs are still preserved is worthy of note as a living museum of history.

Such a spot is Marken island, where old manners are still followed and the old costumes still worn. Separated by only a narrow channel from the progressive mainland, it is none the less fifty years behind the times. It seems to be characteristic of small islands that they progress much more slowly than mainland whence their people came. Thus in the Arran Islands off the coast of Ireland the old Irish tongue is still spoken; in the Hebrides men still live as they lived in the days of Scott, and on Marken island the men still go down to the fishing boats in bloomers and wooden shoes.

The dark blue bloomer is the mark of the married man, while the single men wear white — a somewhat illogical arrangement in view of the facilities for laundry work that married men ought to have. The women wear the old-time costumes and carry their knitting about with them on the streets. Every one of the houses is exceedingly small and almost unbelievably clean. There are not more than 300 people all told in this little colony of fishermen.

Marken is quaint and old-fashioned, but it lacks the touch of self-unconsciousness to make it perfect. In all the little shops yon can purchase picture postal cards depicting scenes that are "quaint" and "typical." And when a region begins to realize that it is picturesque it has taken the first step on the road to the commonplace.

Coffins as Furniture

1905

A man living at Queensbury not only uses his coffin as a piece of household furniture, but he has also a grave made in the local churchyard headed by a gravestone on which his name is set out in conventional style. Underneath is the line: "Not dead, but waiting."

One man at Tong, near Bradford, kept his Sunday clothes in his coffin, and another who ate porridge at breakfast used his coffin as a meal bin.

Some years ago a Keighley man kept butterfly specimens in his coffin. — London Daily Mail.


Novel Action to Insure Marriage

In the harbor of the little village of Ploumanac'h, in the Cote-du-Nord, is an islet of rock which can be reached at low tide. It is surmounted by a shrine of St. Guirec, who is said to have landed here from Britain in the sixth century. There are two rude statues of the saint, one of which is of wood.

To this statue on St. Catherine's day, come the young women of the neighborhood, who, following an old tradition, stick pins into the statue, in order that they may be married before the end of the year. — London Graphic.

The Cuban Girl

1896

A Cuban girl's life is very restricted, and she is never allowed to go out alone nor receive callers of the other sex except in the presence of her chaperon or some member of her family. If during her childhood she attends a day school, a maid or some family servant takes her there every day, and she cannot go as short a distance as across the street unaccompanied.

In some instances Spanish customs are absurd and incongruous. Every well-fitted establishment in Cuba is provided with a concierge, to guard the entrance and admit callers. This man, usually an ignorant peasant, sometimes escorts the young ladies of the family he is serving, and that is considered perfectly proper, whereas it would not be proper for them to go out attended by a gentleman, even if he were old enough to be their father, and an old friend of the family as well.

Of late years, however, the frequent intercourse between Cuba and the United States has somewhat modified the customs. For instance, two ladies can now go out alone in Havana in the day time, which would have been considered an unheard of and almost shocking proceeding a few years ago.

The social pastimes a girls enjoys in Cuba consists of balls, parties, concerts, receptions, the theatre and opera, and picnic, for Cubans have adopted this American division, although in a modified form, to suit the requirements of Cuban etiquette.

Indians Believed to Be Syrians

1896

Canon J. D. Good, of British Columbia, tells a San Francisco Call reporter that his long residence among the Columbian Indians warrants him in saying that the latter are of Syrian origin, and are, in fact, Syrians now, having the customs and language. "I was astonished at the richness of this language." he said, "and its wonderful capacity for accurate expression.

"I found many pure Syrian words in it, as, for instance, Eneas and Solomon-Chute, among proper names. The words of the language are historical and traditional, and observe the same laws as those of the Syrian language. I think the language of the Thompson River Indians is one of the Toranian tongues. There are direct Syrian words in it.

"Then there are other evidences that these Indians are the Syrian descendants. Their medicine man is the same as the Syrian seer. The burial customs are to this day the same. Besides this there is the character of the people, who are Syrians in thought, habits of life, and general customs.

"When I first went among the Indians they had their war chiefs as well as their civil chiefs — the same as the Greeks. All I saw in every way convinced me, and I have during the ensuing years been very fully confirmed in my conviction that these Indians are Syrians."

Princess and Countess

1900

The romances of royalty are as tragic as those with which Mr. Anthony Hope has filled the imaginary realm of Ruritania. Princess Stephanie, a daughter of the King of the Belgians, in the bloom of early youth became the wife of Archduke Rudolf, the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. She seemed destined to be an empress, but her life in Vienna has been overshadowed with unhappiness. The tragic death of the crown prince left her a widow with a young daughter to be educated in the stateliest but most gloomy court in Europe.

The princess at thirty-five has entered upon her second romance. Her marriage to Count Elmer Lonyay involved the sacrifice of her royal rank and complete separation from her daughter, who has reached the age of sixteen. The King of the Belgians and the Emperor of Austria each attempted to dissuade the princess from this second marriage, but she had fallen in love with the Hungarian count, and chose to take her leave of a court where she has never been happy, and to leave behind her daughter, to whom she is devotedly attached.

At the marriage, which took place in March, neither her royal father nor her imperial father-in-law was present. Etiquette forbade them to assist at the ceremony. But the countess has not forfeited their love or their esteem.

The count is of noble, but not of royal, birth. He has estates in Hungary, and is a diplomatist who has been connected with the Austrian embassies at several European courts. Royal etiquette is rigid and without sentiment. The crown princess, who had expected to be an empress, divested herself of royal rank and privilege when she became a countess. She can never again meet on terms of equality her own daughter, who is a great figure at the Austrian court, and is to marry a king's son.

Yet she has exchanged a life which had become a perpetual tragedy for one that promises happiness; and every one who knows her, wishes her happiness in the fullest measure.


Doesn't Go To Waste

Thrift can almost live on what extravagance throws away. The dust from blast furnaces is apparently worthless material, but in France successful experiments have been made with it for fertilizing purposes. The land responded satisfactorily. The dust contains ingredients which the earth finds to be stimulating. After all, there is little on this world of ours that is without value.

— Youth's Companion.

George Washington's Love Affairs

He Was Not a Success with Ladies, Till He Met the Widow Custis

In a paper recently read by Chauncey M. Depew in New York, at the reception of the Original Society of Colonial Dames of America, the following account is noted of Washington's social life:

Washington was intensely human as he was supremely great. He loved women, he was fond of sport, he was a great hunter, he was the best horseman of his age, he delighted in balls and parties and was a gallant dancer, he traveled hundreds of miles to witness a trial of speed between famous horses, and in common with the universal habit of his time took his chances in the lottery. While never a drunkard or intemperate in any way, he was a free liver and a generous and jovial host. He seems to have been unhappy in his earlier love scrapes. He was 6 feet 2 inches high, straight as an arrow, perfectly formed, except that he had phenomenally large hands and feet, and his face was pockmarked with the smallpox which he caught at the Barbadoes. The Colonial girl flirted recklessly with him, but never seemed to fall in love with him. He writes to one of his correspondents a letter from Lord Fairfax's, in which he says:

"My place of residence is at present at his lordship's, where I might, were my heart disengaged, pass my time very pleasantly, as there is a very agreeable young lady lives in the same house, but as that is only adding fuel to the fire, it makes me the more uneasy, for by often and unavoidably being in company with her revives my former passion for your lowland beauty, whereas were I to live more retired from young women I might in some measure alleviate my sorrows by burying that which is a troublesome passion in the grave of oblivion or eternal forgetfulness, for, as I am very well assured, that is the only antidote or remedy that I shall be relieved by or only recess that can administer any cure or help to me."

Who was this "lowland beauty?" is a mooted question which probably can never be decided. It has been discovered that he paid earnest attention to and his heart was deeply touched by Lucy Grymes, Mary Bland, Betsy Fauntleroy and Alice Fairfax. Of all these he was absorbed in and devoted to Betsy Fauntleroy. He worshiped at her shrine for several years, until a rival carried her off.

Washington was the most industrious of correspondents, and in his letters revealed his most secret passions and desires. But, though we know how tenderly he loved and how long he grieved over the loss of Betsy Fauntleroy, we are still in doubt as to who was the lowland beauty who seemed to take possession of his heart as soon as the charmer of the house was driven or retired from its portals.

Alas for Betsy. She failed to forecast the future, and as the wife of a Virginia planter lived to see her rejected lover become the greatest man of that or any other age. Washington became more popular with the ladies after his return from Braddock's defeat and the massacre. In that battle he had two horses shot under him, and four bullets through his uniform, and had held his Virginia regiment steady when the veteran red-coated British soldiers had all run away. When he returned, the hero of the hour, every Virginia house sent invitations to the gallant young soldier to come and visit. He was here and there, and everywhere, but his heart was mortgaged beyond redemption to the proud beauty who would not smile upon him. One of these letters of welcome to him is from the Fairfax home. Three young ladies in the house party, write him this letter, which shows his new-born popularity from Braddock's bloody field:

"Dear Sir — After thanking heaven for your safe return. I must accuse you of great unkindness in refusing us the pleasure of seeing you this night. I do assure you that nothing but our being satisfied that our company would be disagreeable should prevent us from trying if our legs would not carry us to Mount Vernon this night. But if you will not come to us to-morrow morning very early, we shall be at Mount Vernon. Sally Fairfax, Ann Spearing, Elizabeth Dent."

From the home of the Randolphs came another invitation, closing with the message that "Mrs. Cary and Miss Randolph join in wishing you that sort of glory which will most endear you to the fair sex."

In order to settle the question of the regularity of his commission as Colonel, Washington made a journey to Boston. Beverly Robinson, a Virginian, had married Susana Phillips, a daughter of Frederick Phillips, the patron of the great manor by the Croton. Robinson entertained his friend, now famous because of his gallantry at Fort Duquesne, at his house, and induced his wife to have her sister, Mary Phillips, as a guest at the same time. Here Washington's susceptible heart was subject to an entirely different charm from the English ladies in the Barbadoes, or the lovely Virginians of his native state. It was the metropolitan girl — the New Yorker — as typical then as now — self-possessed, traveled, with the experience of several seasons in the society of the largest city of the country, familiar with the attention of British officers and titled fortune hunters, a beauty and an heiress. The type was new to Washington, and he fell madly in love. But the proud and finical New York belle saw too many of the woodsman and the Indian fighter to allure her from the refinements of the metropolis to the seclusion of plantation life, and so she gave her hand and heart to Lieut. Col. Roger Morris, to become, with her Tory husband, during the revolutionary war, a fugitive to England, while Washington, in the fortunes of revolution, made their house his headquarters during the campaign in New York.

Washington, however, two years after the Mary Phillips incident, met at a country house Mrs. Martha Dandridge Custis. She was a widow, 26 years of age, and seven months of sorrow. She not only belonged to one of the most distinguished families, but she was the wealthiest woman in the colony of Virginia. Her sorrow was alleviated by the presence of two little angel Custises, Jack and Nellie. Washington wrote to his physician before arriving at this country house in very bad health, that he considered himself a doomed man, and that he was expecting very soon his "decay." This was on March 5, 1758. But the sick man left this hospitable home at Williamsburg on April 1, entirely recovered in health and engaged to the beautiful widow. We know very little of Mrs. Washington except that she was petite, a brunette, very pretty, and could not spell. Washington destroyed all her letters to him on this account. Most of her letters which are in existence were written by Washington and copied by her. But she proved a good wife. She was a born lady and had all the high instincts of a thoroughbred. Jefferson and Madison and Hamilton, who had met her, all seemed to be impressed with her limited educational attainments, and equally impressed with her perfect good breeding. Washington never wandered in his affection for her, and always alluded to her as the partner of all his domestic enjoyments. They lived happily together for forty years. In his last illness he lay for four hours at night with that chill which killed him, because he would not wake his wife and have her get up in the cold. This consideration for her put him almost beyond help when morning came.

He was the most attentive of husbands. Fearing she might overwork herself with the multitude of guests that thronged Mount Vernon, he secured a housekeeper. He saved her the trouble of ordering her own clothes to a large extent. He was a martinet on appearances, and extremely particular, both as to his own clothes and as to hers. White satin and black velvet were his favorite materials for his own coats.

When Washington became General of the army, and the army went into winter quarters this good woman made the long and perilous journeys from her home in Mount Vernon and spent every winter in camp with her husband. At Valley Forge they lived in a hut. She not only looked after him, but presided with grace and dignity at the headquarters table, where his staff and every general officer were welcomed every day. By her kindness and attention to the sick soldiers she did much to prevent the discontent of the army under the great hardships which they endured, and to alleviate the sufferings of the ill and wounded. Both she and the General were passionately fond of dancing, During the war, at winter headquarters, they arranged assemblies on the subscription pattern, the same as those of Delmonico's, Waldorf and Sherry's, and they were called "assemblies." They had especially notable assemblies at Germantown, at Morristown and at Philadelphia. The Washingtons always arranged a winter assembly at Alexandria for the families of the country. Mrs. Washington did not care much for these festivities, but she sacrificed herself because these parties relieved her husband from the tremendous strain to which he was subject both as General of the armies during the revolution and as President of the United States during the formative period of the republic. It was not uncommon for Washington at these assemblies to dance from 10 o'clock until daylight. He was impartial, and tried to secure each lady in the room for a partner.

Gypsy Girl Bride Held for Ransom

1920

Father Gives Her Up When Hubby Pays $500

This is Romany Custom, Explains Parent

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The kidnapping of Mrs. Lena Stevens from her home in Cleveland by her father, who held her from her young husband for $500 ransom, has been explained. Instead of finding a villainous parent, Newark detectives learned of a gypsy custom which made the "ransom" legitimate.

George Stevens married Lena Judson, a gypsy, about a year ago. They hit the gypsy trail by automobile, slept outdoors, cooked their meals in the fields and enjoyed a prolonged honeymoon.

Father Starts on Their Trail

Through a mysterious channel Ephraim Judson, the father of the bride, heard that his son-in-law was mistreating his daughter. So he set out to find the couple. When he found them he discovered that the reports were false and had been spread by a rival for the girl's hand.

Judson then demanded $500. He said he had spent this amount of money in ascertaining that his son-in-law was the right kind of husband. Stevens promised to pay, and the couple returned to their Cleveland home.

But the money was not forthcoming, and a week or two ago Mrs. Stevens disappeared. The husband told the police, and they decided it was a case of kidnapping when he showed a letter asking $500 for the return of his wife. Stevens searched and finally found her at her father's home in this city.

Both Wait for $500

Judson explained the circumstances of the "kidnapping," and the son-in-law wired his father in Cleveland to send him $500, so he could get his bride.

The police found the young husband living with the gypsies in a small store in Newark, New Jersey. He explained that his father-in-law, by gypsy custom, was entitled to the $500.

So Stevens is in Newark, hoping his father will send him the $500, while Mrs. Stevens is in New York, hoping her father gets the $500. And husband and wife are hoping to be reunited soon.

Took Ghost's Word for It

Took Ghost's Word for It

1914

New York Woman Declares Father's Spirit Told Her That Friend Had Purloined Ring

Through the proxy of Mrs. Ida Shapiero of Brooklyn, the ghost of her father appeared as a witness before Magistrate Miller in the New Jersey Avenue police court of that borough, alleging that Mrs. Clara Steiner, who occupies an apartment on the same floor with Mrs. Shapiero, had stolen a $150 ring belonging to her.

Mrs. Shapiero charged that Mrs. Steiner had visited her on July 3 and was upward of an hour in her bedoom, which Mrs. Shapiero had occasion to leave once or twice. In a drawer of the dresser reposed the ring. On July 4, when Mrs. Shapiero missed her ring she went looking for Mrs. Steiner, and learned she had gone to Paterson, N. J.

"But sure as I am here, your honor," said Mrs. Shapiero, "the figure of my departed father appeared to me. I could see him as plainly as you yourself sitting before me. He spoke slowly. He said: 'Mrs. Steiner has your ring. She took it from a drawer in your dressing table. Take her into court and recover your property.' "

Whether Magistrate Miller pinned faith in the evidence of the astral father of Mrs. Shapiero or was unsatisfied with the answers made by Mrs. Steiner, who, among other things, declared most earnestly she did not steal the ring, does not appear as a matter of record, but he held her in $500 bail for the grand jury.


Mayor's Pleasant Duty

A pretty ceremony took place at Newcastle, England, recently, when the customs of "Barge Day" were observed, and the mayor and corporation sailed up the river to "claim the soil" of the Tyne. The great moment of the ceremony is the landing, when the mayor has the delightful, if invidious, privilege of selecting any young lady he pleases from the assembled crowd and giving her a kiss and a sovereign. The sheriffs also choose a fair lady on whom to bestow a kiss and a gift, and the mayoress is expected to make some useful present to the damsel kissed by his worship.

India's Intelligent Women

1895

Mrs. Annie Besant's observations of women in India, during a recent visit to that country, led her to think them very intelligent, and while their standards and methods of education differ materially from those in other countries, according to their own estimate of learning, many of the women are highly educated.

Reading and writing are not a part of their education, however, as all their knowledge is acquired from "pundits," who go from house to house every week to give oral instruction in philosophy and literature to the entire household, so the memory is wonderfully strengthened by this process of training the mind quickly to grasp and retain all the information entirely independent of books for reference.

Indian women are peculiarly simple and childish in character, yet very different from Europeans of the same class. Northern and southern India, says Mrs. Besant, are two distinct countries in all the laws and customs which affect women. In the north the "Purdah" is in full power, and the women look upon any publicity as an outrage, while in the south their position is quite different, yet men and women do not meet freely in society.

Mothers and grandmothers have great influence and authority in the family and home life, and in outside affairs as well, for an Indian will not act in a public matter against the advice of either one. In southern India very young children are married, and if the infant husband dies his youthful widow can never marry again.

Oriental Politeness — 'Your Arrival Drives Away Somber Night'

1888

Some curious notes on the etiquette of the East are published in a recent issue of the Gazette de France. For instance a Turkish Effendi, when speaking to another about himself, always says: "your servant," "your valet," or "your slave;" and to the other he says "your high" or "your eminent personality." Instead of saying "I saw you at the theater the other night," he would always say: "At the theater the other night I saw the dust of your shoes;" after all, a rather doubtful sort of compliment.

But here is the Turkish form of an invitation to dinner: "My Generous Master, My Respected Lord: This evening if it pleases Allah, when the great king of the army of stars, the sun of worlds, approaching the kingdom of shades, shall put his foot into the stirrup of speed, you are invited to enlighten us with the luminous rays of your face, which rivals the sun. Your arrival, like the zephyr of spring, will drive away from us the somber night of solitude and isolation."



Personal and Literary

1888

—A granddaughter of Charles Dickens is now a type-writer, and copies MSS. for a living.

—Rev. Dr. Bartol says of the late A. Bronson Alcott: "Were it possible, he was courteous to excess. He would have been polite to Satan."

—Of the literary men who died during 1887, the ages of one hundred and twenty are recorded in the Literary World. Taking them as a basis the average age of literary men is found to be seventy years.

—The youngest woman in the newspaper business heard from up to date is Miss Agnes McMellan, the local editor of the Seward Democrat of Nebraska. She is but fifteen years old, and an excellent news gatherer.

—D. W. C. Throop, editor of the Mount Pleasant (Iowa) Free Press, was writing a few days ago an article on the lesson of Tom Potter's death from overwork. Suddenly he paused, put his hand to his heart, and fell to the floor a corpse.

—"Buffalo Bill" is to try his luck as an author. He will write a book which treats of the reclamation from the Indians of the vast domain which lies west of the Alleghenies. The volume will recount the exploits of many famous frontiersmen.

A Dozen Carloads of Callers Give Newlyweds A "Belling"

Ohio, 1918

WERE TENDERED AN OLD-TIME BELLING

A dozen machine loads of Elks called at the home of Attorney and Mrs. F. S. Scott, in the Mt. Vernon road, last evening, and gave them an old-fashioned "belling."

Judge Scott had retired when his wife aroused him by informing him that several machines must have missed the road as they were coming up their driveway. The din made by the visitors was terrific, and later they were invited into the home by Mr. Scott, who introduced his wife and refreshments were served.

Congratulations were extended the newlyweds, and a speech of felicitation was made by Dr. H. H. Baker. Attorney Scott responding, stating that he was sorry they had not called earlier as he would like to have shown them all his war garden, consisting of everything in the vegetable line; his poultry and his livestock, consisting of two cows, five Belgian hares, and an English bulldog.

The visitors left after spending a pleasant evening and were all given a cordial invitation to return.

—The Newark Advocate, Newark, Ohio, June 12, 1918, p. 4.

Strong-Minded Women

1874

You must not think, the woman's-rights movement is a new idea, It dates back as far as the days of Theseus, when Hypolita, the Queen of the Amazons, was vanquished by the Grecian hero, who compelled that strong-minded woman to marry him. Shakespeare, in the "Midsummer Night's Dream," has made a very charming use of that ancient tradition, as, no doubt, all our readers well know.

Even in the present generation these female warriors exist in the Kingdom of Dahomey; their principal drill consists in yelling, firing, and then running at full speed out of danger.

The ancient Amazons, however, seem to have been of a far superior race of beings to the black heroines of Africa, if we may judge from what Herodotus says of the Amazons.

"These Amazons," says Herodotus (Book iv., 110-117), "the Scythians call Aiorpata; and this name in the Greek means man-slayers, for they call a man aior, and pata means to kill." He goes on to tell us that, with a lively, womanly fury, these Amazons, being captured by the Greeks and taken away, "as many as could fill three ships," rose against their captors, when asleep, and cut them all to pieces. But when they had done that, they could not navigate the ships, and were carried at the mercy of the winds to a part of the coast of Scythia. The Scythians, a herd of whose horses they stole, thought they were a set of smaller and more impudent men, and gave the impertinent creatures a beating, till, by their dead bodies, they found that their enemies were women. They then changed their tactics, and sent out only the young men to make love to them; and so these cruel man-slayers were subdued.

It is a very pretty story. There are two or three masterly touches in it that raise it in our esteem, while, at the same time, they prove the truthfulness of the Father of History. Who that knows men and women would not swear that this was true? Herodotus, who visited the descendants of these Amazons, is accounting for a corrupted speech. 1. The men were not able to learn the language of the women, but the women soon acquired that of the men. 2. The Sauromatae (their descendants) use the Scythian language, speaking it corruptly from the first, since the Amazons never learned it correctly. Ask any of the teachers at the ladies' colleges if that is not the touch of a master. 3. When the women understood the men, they (the men) spoke to them as follows: "We have parents and possessions (that's men all over); let us, then, no longer lead this kind of life, but come to our people, and live with them; and (here they put their arms round the warlike young ladies) we will have you as our wives, and none other."

It is a very pleasant episode, and would make a fine picture. The ladies, however, were equal to the occasion. "We could live with you," they said, "but not with your womankind. What would they think of us? We ride, shoot, throw the javelin, kill people and wild beasts. They sit at home, or ride in wagons, and mind household affairs. If you desire to prove yourselves honest men, go to your parents, claim your property then come back and marry us, and let us live by ourselves."

Herodotus does not tell us what the Scythian young ladies said as to a whole posse of their bravest and most marriageable men being thus carried off. The young men, taking their sweethearts' advice went home, claimed their fortunes and goods, and came back to their warlike brides; but, having got thus far, it was not in the Amazon, or woman nature, not to go further. The next morning, they cried out, "Alarm and fear are upon us (poor Amazons!); we have deprived you of your parents, them of you. What will they think of us? But since you consider us worthy to be your wives, let us leave this country which we have invaded, and, having crossed the River Tanais, let us live there." The poor men yielded; and hence, says sly old Herodotus, the descendants speak bad Scythian — just as Mrs. Malaprop or Mrs. Partington might speak bad English, never having caught the by-words cleverly — adding, a Sauromatian virgin may not marry until she has killed an enemy. "Some of them, therefore, die of old age, without being married, not being able to satisfy the law.

African's Teeth Passport

1922

When a man of Central Africa is asked from where he comes his answer is a grin. This answer is perfectly satisfactory, because his teeth are filed and sometimes colored to show to what tribe he belongs.

The women of the Felletah tribe stain their teeth blue, yellow and purple, leaving a white tooth here and there. These women are veritable "rainbows of fashion," with their contrasting colors. Sometimes the women stain their fingers, toes and hair also. Then they feel sure they are much more "dressed up" than any of their neighbors.

In time of war, or any kind of trouble among the tribes, the shaped or colored teeth are a good means of identification. A spy from another tribe can be detected immediately and will not be able to prove an alibi. The dental work is done when the African is very young, and marks him all through his life. — Detroit News.