Tradition of The Horseshoe

1895

How It Came to Be Protection Against Evil Spirits

In Morocco iron is considered a great protection against demons, who are the lineal representatives, after all, of the hostile spirits. Hence it is usual to place a knife or dagger under a sick man's pillow, his illness being, of course, attributed to demoniacal possession. In India the mourner who performs the necessary but somewhat dangerous duty of putting fire into the dead man's mouth carries a key or a knife in his hand to keep off the evil spirits. In short, a bit of iron is a very useful thing to have about you at any time if you desire to escape the unfavorable attention of the ghosts, the trolls, the fairies and the demons generally. This is good reason for buying a pocketknife. It is also a reason for nailing up a horseshoe. "But why a horseshoe in particular," you ask, "more than any other odd piece of iron?" Well, primarily the good luck depends more upon the iron as iron than on the special shape or function of the horseshoe as a horseshoe.

But there are also many reasons why the superstition should happen to fix itself more particularly upon horseshoes. We must remember that in Europe at least it is the cattle, the horses and the domestic beasts in general that are specially liable to the hostile attacks of "the little people." Therefore the elves and trolls are most likely to be dreaded on farms or in the country, where horses and cattle most do congregate. Now, if you went to nail up a bit of iron as a protection against the fiery darts of the evil ones on your stables or cowhouses, which is the place where one oftenest sees them, nothing is more likely to come handy to your purpose than a cast horseshoe. Besides it has obvious congruity for the place and object, and it can readily be picked up in the road almost anywhere. Furthermore, it is provided beforehand with convenient holes, by means of which you can readily hang it up, either over your own house door or over your sheds and stables. These various advantages of cheapness, ease and readiness for fixing would have given the horseshoe a fair start in life, it is believed, as a charm against fairies, trolls and evil spirits generally, even without any other and more special advantages. — Cornhill Magazine.

The Queen of Romance

1904

An English lady tells a story of Queen Victoria which she believes has not before appeared in print, and which she knows is true. Three children were walking along the road between Windsor and Stoke Poges. They heard the sound of carriage wheels. It was the queen's carriage, and she was in it.

The oldest child, a little boy, had been reading Oriental stories and fairy lore. He knew what was due to a queen, and cried to the others: "Get down flat in the dust before the carriage, and we'll all call out at once, 'O queen, live forever!'"

Down went the three little bodies flat in the dust, much to the mystification of the coachman, who reined up sharply.

The queen leaned forward and asked, "What in the world is the matter, children? Are you frightened?"

Three voices came out of the dust in a smothered treble: "Yes; O queen!"

Then there was a pause, and one reproachful voice said, "There, we forgot the 'live forever' part!"

The queen grasped the situation and laughed aloud, as her coachman afterward said, "more heartily than she had laughed for years."

Lingerie is Dainty

1910

Undergarments Look Like the Work of Fairies

Attractive and Almost Endless Selection of Materials Now to Be Had Give a Most Gratifying Variety

Once upon a time a girl thought herself very well provided for when her mother gave her a bolt of longcloth and some spools of cotton and admonished her to be industrious, but times have changed, and girls have changed with them. Today longcloth undergarments are practically unknown and instead of the tatting and crocheted trimmings once fabricated so laboriously the modern woman goes to the shop for the daintiest laces. Her intimate little garments — nighties, chemises, drawers, skirts and underbodies — are all made of cottons or linens that look as if they have been spun by the fairies.

The one thing the dainty modern girl does in imitation of her grandmamma is to make her under-raiment by hand. If she is not skilled in the use of the needle, she buys lingerie by hand.

But, alas, even in the finest materials ready-made lingerie is of two sorts, the good and the bad. It may come from gay Paree or be made in the slums of the great American cities, but it is open to the same objection. The lovely restraint which is shown in the good things is balanced by a superfluity of ornament, a gushing abandon as you might say, that brings a blush to the modest cheek. Is it possible, you think, any woman would wear such horrid things! When garments in coarse lawn and cambric are trimmed in this way they seem so inappropriate, that only to look on them dulls the appetite for elaborate lingerie. "Let me be plain forever more," you growl, "and go forth with a nunlike petticoat, treated only to hems and tucks."

The best results in lingerie are correspondingly attractive, and the endless variety of materials now used for the purpose gives a gratifying variety. Fancy lawn skirts, flounced with dotted muslin or cross-barred muslin, and nightgowns, chemises and underbodies are all made of these dainty weaves. The expensive batistes and dimities, the crinkled crepes and handkerchief lawns once regarded as exclusively for outside wear, are now used for all kinds of undergarments.

With lawns, linen and cotton some new insertions that look like canvas are much used and several kinds of lace appear on a single petticoat. Tasteful monograms in hand embroidery are now de rigeur, and ribbons are run through a lawn insertion with slits of the exact width.

With the exception of the joining of the seams, which is done by machine, every garment constructed in perfect taste should be made by hand. A delicate touch of color sometimes appears in the figured dimities, but the general preference is for all white, with only the ribbons tinted.

The illustration comprises a very smart petticoat and corset cover of nainsook. The skirt is gored, and the two cuts show it may be made either with a deep or a narrow flounce. For a dressy costume the flounce could be of lawn, with lace instead of the cambric trimmings, shown herewith. The underbodice is hand embroidered, and can be made in a single piece, except the tail, for the tucks at the sides fit it into the figure.

Good undervests for summer are of lisle or Italian silk — the vests which are not ribbed. Three of a very excellent gauze-lisle can be had for a dollar, and one dollar and twenty five cents will buy a dainty silk vest with a lace edge and ribbon drawstrings. — Mary Dean.

Sand Castles (poetry)

1909

Sand Castles

By Elizabeth Ruggles

At midnight when the moon is bright,
And everybody out of sight,
The beach is filled with little folk,
Who think it a tremendous joke
To occupy the forts so grand
The children fashioned out of sand.
The snails are set on guard, for fear
Some mortal might approach too near.
And then the revelry begins:—
The fishes spread their shining fins,
And, standing upright, glide along
To join the merry-making throng.
The music from the Cricket Band—
By far the best in Fairy Land—
Accompanies the sprightly dance.
And moonbeams, shimmering, enhance
The beauty of the creatures fair,
Who gaily, madly revel there.
But hush! a sound of heavy feet,
And noiselessly, with motions fleet,
The merry dancers disappear,
For Mr. Boogy Man is near.
With one great stride he soon destroys
The scene of many earthly joys,
And when the children come next day,
They'll find their forts all swept away.
But gorgeous new ones soon they'll make
For all the little fairies' sake.

–The Fort Wayne Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN, Sept. 18, 1909, p. 24.

A Poem of Spring – "A Maiden Song"

1889

A MAIDEN SONG.

She ties her strings of lighted hair,
And o'er her comely forehead bare
She nimbly draws a wimple;
With lissome speed athwart the mead
She sings through cheeks that simple:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

Her buoyant arm a basket swings;
The boyish winds her kirtle toss,
And rimple o'er her tresses' floss;
With sidling ear she seems to hear
A voice that sings to silver strings:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

The sweeping swallows dive to set
In airy rings a coronet
Upon her head that dances,
And on the bill of birds that trill
The burden sweet she fancies:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

Within the brooks that break away
To bargain at the booths of spring,
She drops her face, and hears them sing
Of sunbeams' worth and sweets of earth,
But with their lay she dreams they say:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

Through grasses lush, with rise and dip,
Along her winged ankles trip,
Where thoughts of spring are vieing,
To where she hears with woodland ears
The fairies softly crying:
"Oh, violets are blowing!"

—Edward A. Valentine in N. Y. World.

—The Pittsburgh Post, Pittsburgh, PA, April 20, 1889, page 4.