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.

Artwork -- Grandmother's Help -- 1880s

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.