U.S. Army Blankets Adorn French Girls

1920

Have Been Made Into Cloaks Since Doughboys Had Them

PARIS, France, Feb. 26. — How the humble Army blanket, protection of the grumbling doughboy, has increased in value from 12 francs to 200 francs, and come to be apparel of French beauty along the boulevards, has been brought to light in Paris.

At a sale of Army stocks, a French grocer bought 2,000 American Army blankets for 12 francs each. He sold them for 11 and 20 francs each to a clothing manufacturer.

The clothing manufacturer made them up into women's cloaks and sold them at 70 francs each to a department store, which retailed them at 180 and 200 francs each.

Voila, la vie chere!


Woman, 102, Walks Miles to Hospital

NEW YORK, N.Y., Feb. 26. — Despite her 102 years Mrs. Fannie Cohen traveled alone and unassisted from her home to Bellevue Hospital, where she sought admission. She is suffering from ailments due to old age. Her home is several miles from the hospital.


Wants Husband Declared Dead

PORT HURON, Michigan, Feb. 26. — Mrs. Alice Reo has brought suit in Circuit Court to have her husband, Capt. Joseph Reo, declared legally dead. Captain Reo was in command of the Government survey boat Surveyor, and last was heard from May 25, 1910, when he left the boat at Cleveland. Mrs. Reo wants to acquire property held by herself and her husband.


Baby Adds Fifth Generation

Kansas Child's Great-great-grandmother Is Still Living

HARTFORD, Kansas, Feb. 26. — A son was born a few days ago to Mr. and Mrs. James Hartenblower of Eureka, Kan. This baby has two grandfathers, one grandmother, two great-grandfathers, two great-grandmothers and one great-great-grandmother.

The great-great-grandmother is Mrs. Mary Ann Rhoads, of Topeka.

Centennial Anniversary of William Abbott Holcomb, Ohio

Article from Leon, Iowa area, 1904

Mrs. Helen J. Close has returned to Mt. Pleasant recently from Ravenna, Portage county, Ohio, where she attended the family reunion and one hundredth birthday anniversary of her relative, William Abbott Holcomb, which was celebrated on Monday, September 5th. Mrs. Close writes that she has just completed a delightful two weeks' tour through the state of Ohio and after a few days' rest at the home of her sister at Mt. Pleasant she will leave for a brief visit at the St. Louis Exposition.

The Ravenna Republican contains a well written account of the Holcomb reunion and picture of Mr. Holcomb and some of his descendants. From this article we learn that William A. Holcomb was born in Westfield, Conn., Sept. 5, 1804. His great-great-great-great grandfather was Thomas Holcomb born in Devonshire, England, in 1590, and afterwards became one of the founders of Dorchester, Mass. Caroline Holcomb married John G. DeWolf and died in 1891.

When William was 18 years old he set out afoot for the Ohio wilderness carrying on his back an 18 pound package containing all his earthly possessions. He remained one year in the wilderness and then returned on foot to Westfield. He worked as a brick mason and also in the iron works. On Sept. 24, 1826, he married Lydia Olmstead, a demure Quaker maiden. They emigrated to Portage county, Ohio, where Mr. Holcomb engaged in farming and later on as a railroad contractor. He built Hiram College in 1840. In 1865 he moved to Ravenna and purchased residence property. Besides his elegant city home he owns a valuable farm of 205 acres near Ravenna.

Mr. and Mrs. Holcomb were the parents of ten children, only two of whom are living. The wife died in 1894. The living descendants of this remarkable centenarian number two children, 17 grand-children, 25 great-grand-children, and one great-great-grandson.

Couple, 109 and 104, Join "Shimmy" Class

1920

Both Are Still Able to "Shake a Lively Foot"

BARLEY MILLS, N.Y., Feb. 26. — It may or it may not have been a coincidence that the first piece struck up by the jazz band when Lon Tiller, 109, and his wife, 104, joined the dancing class at the town hall here was, "He may be old, but he's got young ideas!"

Tiller and his wife have taken several lessons and are now as proficient at the new steps as the younger couples. Mrs. Tiller was especially interested in learning the "shimmy" and danced it with youths of this village, among whom was her great grandson, Franklyn K. Tiller.

"It would be hard to find a girl in her teens who can shake a livelier foot than my grandmother," declares young Tiller.

The elder Tiller asserts that he owes his longevity to keeping abreast of the times as far as the modern dances are concerned. He declares that he has been dancing since he was a youth of 16 and expects to live at least another decade.

Robert Louis Stevenson's Grandson Finds Buried Treasure

1910

SAN FRANCISCO — When little Louis Osborne, the eight-year-old son of Lloyd Osborne, novelist and stepson of Robert Louis Stevenson, armed himself with his midget shovel and went out on a sand hill near his home here to dig a few days ago he had visions of finding treasure. This is not an unusual thing for the lad, for he has not heard his father's illustrious stepfather talked about without getting some spirit of adventure of the author of "Treasure Island" fixed in his mind.

So while Louis dug he hummed "Sixteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest, Yo! Ho! Ho! and a Bottle of Rum."

The lad stopped digging because his shovel had encountered an obstruction. Tested carefully the thing that resisted proved to be metal. Then Louis dug more furiously than ever. In a few moments he unearthed a metal box. And, sure enough, it contained treasure. Opening it hastily, the boy found 2,600 shares of valuable stock, deeds to city property, other valuable papers and several empty ring boxes.

Of course, the boy did not realize the value of the property, but he knew the papers must be worth a great deal or they would not have been placed in such a secure box. So he hastily carried his find to his mother, who turned the property over to the police. The papers belong to Augustus Imbrie, a wealthy man whose house is closed and who is out of the city. The police think robbers ransacked the Imbrie residence and, after taking money and jewelry from the box, buried it.

Grandmas

1920

Little boys and girls know that grandmas have the most comfortable laps of all the women in the world. And it is sad to think that some little boys and girls have never known what it means to "go down to grandma's house."

Grandma's house, sitting way-back in the yard, with the old-fashioned flower garden of hollyhocks and lavender, sweet peas and forget-me-nots, geraniums, pink and red, and the sweet-scented verbenas and sweet Williams, all so carefully tended. Grandma's house, where the cookie crock was never empty, where the attic was full of old books, old clothes and mystery. Grandma's house, where the yard was overgrown with untrimmed trees and lilac bushes, in which redbirds nested in the summer and jaybirds fought in the winter. Grandma and grandma's home are great institutions.

Grandma, thin and smiling, or jolly and fat, it was all the same. At the door to greet one when he arrived; there to bid him come again when he left, loaded down with childish treasures. When grandma laughed she shook, and so others laughed with her, too. What a wonderful, peaceful face, what beautiful, tapering fingers, grandma had!

—Appleton Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wisconsin, Feb. 9, 1920, p. 4.

Note: "Tapering fingers" is "taping fingers" in the original article. I can't find a definition for "taping" that would seem to fit. But peaceful and tapering sounds like the delicate, gentle image the author was going for there at the end.

A Poem in Memory of Mrs. E. Calvey, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

1912

IN MEMORIAM

Lines in Memory of Mrs. E. Calvey.

Grandma's chair is vacant
In the old familiar place
Where the children sat and listened,
To her tales of childhood days.

We children loved her dearly
Our grandma, good and kind,
Whose tender voice and loving hands
Now cold in death, they'd ever soothing find.

We will grieve for her and call her,
But we will call in vain:
She has gone to her eternal rest,
To no care or pain.

Her old arm chair is vacant,
But we will hold her memory dear,
And we'll keep the old chair sacred,
Though she'll never more be here.

MARIE FITZGERALD.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 20, 1912, page 5.