Racks That Match Tables

1910

Newest Kind Made of Thin White Wood, Covered with Fancy Material

Handsome racks can be bought in brass and different woods to match various tables. Those in burnt wood are also popular, with those who like this form of decoration.

So much of this decorating is done by amateurs that it is one of the first kind of rests chosen to make. Far newer, however, are the racks made of thin white wood and covered with fancy cretonnes, embroidered brocades or other materials.

The wood part is made to slide like the ordinary racks, and is either painted white and enameled or is stained to correspond with table, on which it is to be used.

Even easier to make are the racks with two ends and under slides with no connecting rods. Each end has an upright with rounded or square angles to be slipped under the end books.

These frames may be made of wood or heavy cardboard, and are covered with green burlap, bound with dull gold braid and have flat brass ornaments pasted on each end.

A Pet Cemetery

1908

Where Pet Dogs and Cats Are Buried In State

New York. — In a picturesque little spot situated on one of the most beautiful of the Hartsdale hills lies one of the oddest of cemeteries. The casual visitor here, inspecting the inscriptions on the tombstones, would expect to see records of long forgotten generations, perhaps the history of the village in the lives of its citizens, but instead the stones contained nothing but inscriptions to dogs, with an occasional cat epitaph here and there.

"Fido, asleep," "Our beloved fox terrier, Flossie," "Dedicated to the memory of our pet cat, Smutty." Such a jumble of inscriptions meet the eye that the visitor begins to wonder whether the souls of Fido and Smutty now rest peacefully side by side or whether they arise at the witching hour to fight out once more their lifelong battle. In that case even the back fences of Harlem would be preferable to the rural peace of Hartsdale.

This cemetery, moreover, contains French dogs and French inscriptions and German dogs. And just as human tombstones have little angels on them so these dog tombstones have little puppies carved on them playing with toys. Next to one of the graves the owner has erected a big rustic mourner's bench so that he may grieve for his pet in comfort.

The most elaborate grave is that of a bulldog that once belonged to a family named Willson. Besides having a big granite stone at the head, it has two little bay trees on either side, and at the foot is a little marble trough with three little marble canaries drinking out of it. The canaries would be more easily explained if it were a cat grave, but perhaps this particular bullpup had feline predilections.

For six months after he was buried tali dog had fresh violets or roses placed upon his grave every day, it is chronicled. The burial cost the bulldog's owner over $500.

The grave digger of the cemetery also tells of dogs buried in rosewood or mahogany coffins, some with gold handles, and gold, jewel-studded collars around their necks.

"You have no idea," he will wander on, "how much money some undertakers make on the side in these dog coffins. Often the coffins are lined with plush or velvet and cost large sums of money.

"And then some people insist on having their dogs embalmed before they are willing to bury them. Of course the undertakers keep that part of their business very secret, but they do it just the same."

Many of the dogs that were prize winners in their lively days have all their trophies, ribbons, silver mugs and such things buried with them. Others have all their old collars, whips and playthings, and one woman actually buried a Bible and rosary with a dog.

"Of course I know it must seem very silly," she said in explanation, "but it just makes me feel better, so why shouldn't I do it?"

"And do they have real funerals for dogs, with services and so on?" asked the seeker of information of the digger of graves.

"Well, no; no real services," he explained, "though some of them would like to, I guess, by the way they act.

"Sometimes they bring the body up from New York in an automobile, sometimes they ship it up as freight and meet it at the railway station with carriages. Only family and friends, you know. There are never very many of them.

"But the way those people act when it comes to covering up the box is — well — just about the limit. And the men are not much better than the women, either. I've got a pretty interesting job, I can tell you.

"And most of them come up regularly and see to it that I'm keeping the grave in OK condition. And on the day of the dog's death they usually decorate the grave with flowers. I can tell you I wouldn't mind being some dogs."

There are now 450 dogs and about 20 cats buried in the cemetery. Plots cost from $15 to $25 each, including a zinc lined box which is hermetically sealed for shipping. This, however, is only the minimum expense for a dog funeral, and from this point the price goes up far into the hundreds.

They're Not Dead, But Living

1914

On Memorial Day

There is no death. There are no dead. In every town in America they are garlanding graves; lilacs from the tree beside mother's door, peonies from a great red mound which has been the pride of the place for years, snowballs and syringa from shrubs which father planted when the place was new.

But beneath the friendly grasses under the low mound marked with some dear name, there lies not one dead hero. Here is laid the dust fallen from his garments, here perchance may still be found a keepsake not yet indistinguishable. For all the years that we have mourned this brave spirit, he has lived only a little way apart in a planet to us invisible, alert, progressing, rejoicing in a plan universal, and at peace and in harmony with the law of love eternal. — Exchange.


Remember Lincoln's Message

That man honors the memory of the dead on Memorial day who, in Lincoln's words, dedicates himself "to the unfinished work" which must be done before this nation shall be worthy of its opportunities, and of the devotion of those who gladly died for it.

A Little Hostess at Her Seventh Birthday Party

Georgia, 1896

A Little Hostess

Josephine Davis Entertains Friends on Her Seventh Birthday

On the afternoon of Saturday, the 14th instant, from 3 to 6 o'clock, Josephine Davis, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Allan P. Davis, entertained her little friends a "pink heart" party, in honor of her seventh birthday.

After playing many interesting games beneath the softened luster of light falling through delicate pink shades, refreshments were served to the guests from a table exquisite in every appointment. In the center a large mirror represented a lake, upon whose waveless surface a heart-shaped cake rested, and sustained seven lighted candles, while beautiful smilax fell in graceful folds to the water's edge. A fairy lamp shone on a large smilax heart, which depended from the chandelier. At one end of the table seven La France roses wafted their perfume to seven pink carnations at the other side.

One of the most enjoyable features was the cutting of the birthday cake, containing a beautiful diamond ring, the fortunate winner being George Everett. As each little guest departed, leaving many wishes and expressions of a most delightful time, he or she was presented with a souvenir basket of bon-bons, daintily tied with pink ribbons.

Miss Annie Louise Dennis delighted the company with a waltz, finely executed, while little Miss Wright, from Rome, reminded every one of a French marquise with her dainty little figure robed in filmy white, her hair like prisoned moonbeams in the light, and dark, shining eyes.

There were present: Athena Hill, Lillian Woodside, Claud Patterson, Nannelle Crawford, Alice Ormond, Laura Witham, Nellie Bell Catlett, Helen Ware, Annie Louise Dennis, Alberta Orr, Fannie Peck, Jennie Hutchins, May Robson, May Van Devender, Clara Hutchins, Minneta Hill, Josephine Davis, Jennie Butler, Mata Woodward, Addle Wright, Clarence Davis, Emerson Peck, Paul Orr, Harold Fuller, Fred Patterson, George Everett, Clayton Orr, Hoyt Peck, Wilson Sheldon, Stewart Witham, Starr Peck, Reid Ware, Johnny Woodside, Roger Gardien, Donald Fuller, Dan Woodward, Charley Randall, Alf Ford, Wayne McDonald, Dawson McDonald.

The little hostess was the recipient of many beautiful gifts.

—The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, March 22, 1896, p. 3, children's pages.

Memorial Day — A Widening Memorial

1904

Like everything else, holidays undergo a gradual change in spirit and observance. When Decoration day was first set apart many persons predicted that its observance would last only so long as the generations which knew the participants of the Civil War. It was supposed that there would be little present-day enthusiasm for decorating graves of Revolutionary veterans, no matter how great the popular admiration for their valor and sacrifices.

The change of name was wise. Memorial day is a broader term than the old one, and the significance of dedicating one day in the year to the memory of those who gave their lives for their country has been more broadly and fittingly recognized. Memorial day is coming to represent a solemn, serious aspect of our national life, just as the Fourth of July stands for the joyful and the exuberant aspect; and for a nation, as for the individual, "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting."

As other wars come in the long line of history, the graves of their heroes also will be decorated. There is already a tendency to hold on this day memorial services for firemen and others who fall in public service. Gradually, too, and perhaps unconsciously, the occasion has assumed something of the character of All Souls' day in Paris. Not only do we place flowers on those hallowed spots which are marked by flags, but we leave a wreath upon the graves of our own dear ones who have gone before; and this is well.

One day in the year we can appropriately give to the memory of that great army of the dead whose banners are the lily and the rose, and of which the armies of the Blue and of the Gray are but divisions. — Youth's Companion.

A Poet's Treasures – What Was Found in Eugene Field's Room

1896

A Poet's Treasures

Eugene Field's Queer Room and Its Strange Contents

Before we go upstairs to Eugene Field's room, the one which holds his choicest treasures, it is necessary to remind you again that he has a child's love of grotesque toys and of barbaric colors and effects. He was especially fond of red. The room in which he died is papered with a fantastic, swirling pattern on a red ground, which is absolutely exasperating to those people who prefer soft browns and dull reds. Few persons understand what his idea was in selecting this red paper with its grotesque yet conventional swirl. In Henry B. Fuller's "With the Procession" that author tells about a Chicago woman named Susan Bates, who furnished her whole house magnificently except one little room.

Upon this room she spent a great deal of money, and visited many old-fashioned stores, in order to furnish it like a primitive one she had occupied when a girl in her father's house. Now this was partly Eugene Field's idea in furnishing his own room. He was fond of grotesque effects, he loved red passionately, and he wanted a reminder of the furnishings of a century ago. Where he found that gorgeous red paper, or the old-fashioned calico for the red curtain, would be difficult to tell, but he had a knack for discovering quaint things which other people pass by without notice. When it is added that the rugs on the floor are also red, perhaps it may be imagined that this room in hideous. But it is not. The long bookcase on one side, the white column in the middle around which are arranged shelves holding Mr. Field's treasures, and a gray screen repeating with a slight variation the same singular swirl that is upon the walls relieve the eye to such an extent that the effect is harmonious.

As you enter the room, you are confronted with two hideous figures. An outlandish Japanese figure is suspended from the wall by one arm. In the other it holds three Japanese gongs fastened together so as to make a loud sound when struck with the red stick. The other is the face of a hobgoblin attached to the headboard of his bedstead. Field pretended that he bought it to frighten away his babies when they insisted upon interrupting him while he was writing; but, like their father, they were so fond of the ludicrous that the strange faces the monster would make when certain strings were pulled only made them laugh; so the intended bugaboo but added to the attractions of the room.

On the shelves one may find a strange collection of quaint bottles of every conceivable shape and size, and Mr. Field hunted many shops for those candelabra which our grandmothers loved — those with glass pendants through which a child may distinguish the seven colors of the rainbow. He also had a queer collection of canes, candlesticks and baby shoes. Not alone the first shows of his own babies wore, with the toes and heels worn out, but wood shoes, and even glass shoes, reminding one of Cinderella's glass slipper. There are also two strange wooden horses, one used by Mr. Toole, the English actor, when he played "The Cricket on the Hearth," and the other, daubed with a few spots of paint, used by Mr. Jefferson in the same play. Neither must one forget Mrs. Hawthorne's ginger-jar, nor the ax Mr. Gladstone gave Eugene Field. The ax is suspended above the window. — St. Nicholas.

Physician Declares Colors Have Influence on Nerves

1920

A New York physician who gives more credit to nature than he takes for himself in the cures he has wrought is a great believer in the effect of colors on the human race. Nature is the best teacher in these things, he says. You will find in your surroundings in the country no black and very little red. Blue and yellow are combined in the restful, reviving green. There is no doubt, the doctor contends, that the wearing of black has an evil effect on both health and spirits. It is the color of Saturn, the planet of gloom, misfortune, fatality and other evil things. If one wishes to be happy and brilliant, blue is the color to wear. The doctor says that the spirit of evil hates blue intensely and flies at the sight of it. Blue also calms the nerves and therefore it is a good color for room decorations.


Great Musicians of India Care Not for Worldly Things

To the Hindu, music, like sculpture and painting, is a sacred art. Music originated from Siva, one of the Hindu Trinity, and Saraswati is the goddess of music and of learning in general. As people look upon music as something sacred, so it has become a highly specialized art. Amateur musicians are not much encouraged. The public seem to say, "Do it well or don't do it at all; don't play false with music; it is too sacred for light treatment." The great musicians of India are generally ascetics. They care not for name, fame, or wealth. They live a life of comparative poverty. The Hindu is of the opinion that a voluptuous or a luxury loving person cannot be a great musician.