When The Heat Is Greatest

1901

When the heat is greater out of doors than indoors, it is a mistake to think that open windows will cool a room. Instead, in the early morning, after the room is dusted and put in order, the windows should be shut and the shades drawn down and kept so until the sun has gone.

When the sun shines on the window most of the day, it should be protected by an awning of some sun resisting color that will keep out all stray sunbeams. An awning, even with the shades lifted, will keep a room comparatively dark and cool.

When it is necessary to keep a sickroom cool, an excellent plan is to open the door and almost shut it as fast as possible for about 20 or 30 times in succession; nothing changes the air in a room so quickly or so well. Then wet cloths should be hung before the open windows or anywhere where a draft of air may pass through them. Plenty of cracked ice is necessary in hot weather within reach of the patient, and in the room quite a good sized block of it in a deep pan will help keep the temperature down. — Helen Tripp in American Queen.

Chase Coyotes Over Prairie With Auto

1920

When Coyotes Take to Rough Ground, Dogs Are Turned Loose

SMITH CENTER, Kansas — Rare and exciting sport is being enjoyed these days in the big pastures of western Kansas in catching coyotes by a recently devised method.

Seated in a small motor car with a pair of hounds in a crate strapped on behind, the hunter presses the coyote to its limit with his machine and, when the pursued animal reaches the rough country, for which it always heads, the dogs are turned loose, and being fresh, they soon overtake and kill the coyote.

Caz Mahin reports catching thirty-five of the prairie pests. For each one he got $1 bounty and $16 for the hide. Some of the coyotes killed were chased for miles over the level prairie before the dogs were turned loose for the finish.


Lump of Coal With Movie Ticket

BERLIN, Germany — Here is a side light on the German coal shortage. A "movie" theater at Uelzen, near Hanover, has a sign on its entrance reading: "In order to assure proper heating of the theater, tickets can be sold only to those who furnish a lump of coal per ticket."

The Household Garbage Consumer

1896

A Boston physician has invented a vice by which all kitchen garbage may be utilized as fuel. The material is put into a dryer through which the hot air from the range circulates until all the moisture is evaporated. The receptacle then contains a quantity of refuse that is highly inflammable and will make excellent kindling, or may be thrown upon the fire and speedily burns out.

This, of course, is practicable only where people burn coal fires. In wood-stoves the heat is not of the right quality unless the fire is kept up to a raging pitch. Where gas or electricity or oil is used for heating, this way of disposing of garbage is out of the question. There are, however, enough coal-stoves used in our large cities to make this a matter of very great importance. It would pay the Board of Health to furnish these garbage dryers to every family, and pass the most stringent laws compelling their use and proper care.

The most useful plan would be to use the garbage as a fertilizer for worn out lands, but this involves great cost and great danger. Decaying animal and vegetable matter must be carted through the streets, drippings fall upon the pavements, are dried and whirled by the wind into the nostrils of pedestrians.

Where it is possible, garbage should be consumed, and, by the way, a great deal of this is done when nothing is said about it. Many families put into the kitchen range everything of a waste character, and find great economy in fuel in consequence. — New York Ledger.

Summer's Slipping (poetry)

1922

Poems You Will Enjoy
By Berton Braley

SUMMER'S SLIPPING
The summer's almost gone again,
And fall is coming on again,
When we must really get upon the job;
When we must quit our pleasuring,
And start once more to treasuring
The work that keeps the busy
world athrob.

The small boy thinks unpleasantly
Of school days coming presently;
He'd like to have vacation all the year.
Fall styles are in the stores again,
We'll soon read football scores again,
And apples on the menu will appear.

Straw hats will soon be laid away,
And Palm Beach suits will fade away,
And oysters will again be fit to eat.
Dramatic stars will flash again,
And college boys grow brash again,
And we won't be complaining of the heat.

Thus, after summer's lazy days,
We'll have the golden, hazy-days
When we'll have lots of pep on which to call,
As back to work we turn again,
To earn the coal to burn again,
When winter comes along right after fall!