Wouldn't Sell the House

1901

The house in which Joan of Arc was born is still faithfully preserved in pious veneration at Domremy, where it is looked upon almost in the light of a shrine. Passersby invariably cross themselves and utter a prayer for protection as they go by.

The story goes that a rich and eccentric Englishman tried hard to buy the place in 1837. It was at that time the property of a farmer named Girardin. The Englishmen offered to let him name his own price, but the old man held firm. "No, no, no," he cried. "I would not sell it even to a Frenchman, much less to a foreigner and especially an Englishman. People here would call me a traitor and a coward were I to part with the house from which Joan of Arc set out to serve France."

The Englishman convinced himself that further bargaining was useless and went his way.

Soon after an officer from the king's household arrived in the village and asked to speak with Girardin. Before the whole village, assembled in the street, he said: "Girardin, the king has learned that you have refused to sell your house to an Englishman. He desires to reward you, but not in coin. He knows that you no more want the money of the French than of the English, therefore has he commanded me to present you with the cross of the Legion of Honor."

A Glimpse of the Japanese

1901

Mrs. Hugh Fraser, the author, widow of an English diplomat and sister of Marion Crawford, says of her life in Japan, to which her husband was minister from Great Britain:

The absence of snobbishness and kindred vices in Japan impresses itself very clearly upon one. There are two characteristics of the Japanese which stand out very boldly. Home life is paramount, and the possession of money is but lightly regarded. Any one who would pretend to be richer than he is would be calmly avoided as a fool. Money is not spoken of, the absence of it is not apologized for. A person living in a poor way gives a guest all he has to offer and is not humiliated at having to show his poverty. The rich man does not overwhelm you with his riches. He shows you one beautiful object from his collection at a time in an empty room, only beautiful through its perfect proportions, coloring and cleanliness.

These people travel through life so lightly weighted, their requirements are so few in the material order, that they seem as independent as the swallows and fly where we, weighted down by the commissariat for our artificial wants, can only creep. But they hold invisible things very precious. Honor and self respect, the love of their children, the harmony of the family, the privileges of patriotism, the commonwealth of learning, these are things for which they will sacrifice much.

Farming in Mexico

1908

Primitive Methods Still in Vogue in Many Sections

Mexico City. — The most primitive methods of agriculture are still in vogue in many parts of Mexico.

Even upon the farms adjacent to the City of Mexico and other large cities of that country, where it might be expected that modern machinery would have replaced the antiquated implements which have been in use since the time of the Aztecs, the ground is broken by wooden plows drawn by oxen.

These plows are cumbersome in construction and method of operation. The beam is about eight feet long and to it is frequently spliced another beam in order to afford working room for two yoke of oxen. The handle of the plow is an upright curved piece of timber. The plow point is also made of wood and is lashed to the brake-beam by means of thongs of rawhide.

The plowing with this heavy and unwieldy piece of mechanism is frequently done by Indian women. The men pick the easier kind of labor. The plow does little more than scrape the surface of the soil and but for the natural richness of the land and the splendid climate little could be grown where the work is performed by the ancient implement.


Famous Woman Life-Saver

America's bravest woman, in the opinion of the Society of the American Cross of Honor, is Ida Lewis Wilson, keeper of the Lime Rock lighthouse, off Newport, R.I. "Mistress Wilson," as the sailors call her, is declared by the society to have "rendered greater service tending toward the saving of life than any other woman of the country." The society has therefore awarded her a cross of honor. Mrs. Wilson is better known as Ida Lewis, who years ago gained a world-wide celebrity through her many heroic rescues of drowning persons. — Leslie's Weekly.

Short Shorts

1900

Conventional Wisdom

The duelist's aim is at the point of honor.

Some business men only win financial success through failures.

The fresh young man is generally not worth his salt.

If a lazy man is comfortable he is happy.

The woman who is fond of home isn't necessarily homely.

A vain woman is like a street piano — she is full of airs.

Never judge a man by his relatives — they are not of his own selection.

Every man who isn't prominent imagines he will be some day.

The boy who works in a bowling alley earns his pin money.

The aristocratic dentist should be a man of excellent extraction.

There are few people who think they are worse than they really are.

Wit is a diamond in the rough that is polished by adversity.

The only step from the sublime to the ridiculous is usually a short one.

The flustrated bride usually has all sorts of presence except presence of mind.

He who lacks time to make also lacks time to mend.

A woman who probably speaks from experience says a husband who can be led isn't worth leading.

You will observe that men who post as fancy whistlers seldom amount to much.

Return good for evil. If your enemy heaps coals of fire on your head, pile chunks of ice on his.

Woman Fought for Liberty

Woman Fought for Liberty

1900

Deborah Sampson, who enlisted in the continental army as Robert Shurtleff, was one of the most dashing and bravest fighters for the cause of liberty. She enlisted in a Massachusetts regiment and served three years before it was known that the brave soldier was a woman.

She was taken ill in Philadelphia and the hospital nurse had pronounced her dead, but a slight gurgling attracted the doctor's attention. He placed his hand over her heart, and finding, to his surprise, an inner waistcoat tightly compressing her breast, ripped it open. She was immediately removed to the matron's apartments, where everything was done for her comfort.

The commanding officer, upon learning that his aid was a woman, granted her an honorable discharge and presented her with a letter from Washington commending her services. The humble soldier stood before him with shining eyes filled with tears and thanked him many times, begging him to ask that her fellow soldiers be told and that he ask them to tell him if she had done aught that was unbecoming a woman. This was done and her comrades and officers declared their respect for her was unbounded.

Upon her honorable discharge from the army she returned to her mother's home, striving to escape the calumny which followed her singular career. After Gen. Washington became president he wrote a most cordial letter to Mrs. Gannett (Deborah Sampson — she having married in the meantime), inviting "Robert Shurtleff" to visit him. She accepted and was treated with the greatest honors by the president and residents of Washington. — Ladies' Home Journal.


Too Early In The Day

When Sir Frederick Carrington was in South Africa before with the Bechanaland border police a new recruit wanted to join. He was questioned with martial-like severity, winding up with the question: "Do you drink?" As there was a syphon of soda and something suspiciously like whisky near it, the would-be recruit conceived the idea that he had been invited to partake. Nevertheless he answered the colonel's question with a modest, "No, thank you, sir; It's rather too early in the day for me."

New Orleans Woman Honored for Work in Education

1904

A Noble Woman

An unusual ceremony took place in New Orleans on the afternoon and evening of April 30th, when many thousand persons from every walk of life gathered to do honor to a woman. A loving-cup was presented to Miss Sophie Wright, whom her fellow townsmen love to call "The First Citizen of New Orleans," and the presentation was made the occasion for a public demonstration of affection.

Miss Wright is a little, crippled woman, white-haired and sweet-faced. All her life she has been struggling against poverty and against the never-ceasing pain of a spinal trouble. Able to go about only with the aid of a steel harness and a cane, she still has the strength of a multitude in doing good works.

Twenty years ago she was but a girl of eighteen, yet she had already established a prosperous and growing boarding school, and was beginning to see ahead an end to poverty. One day a young mechanic asked her to teach him to read and write. Suddenly brought face to face with the fact that thousands of boys were growing up in New Orleans untaught and without hope of advancement, she threw her school open to them in the evening, and called for volunteer teachers from among her girl pupils. This was established a free night- school to which thousands of men to-day owe all their education. This year it enrolled fifteen hundred pupils, and three hundred were turned away for lack of room.

Fighting weakness and pain which would render another a helpless burden, she spends her days earning money to support herself and her charity, and her evenings teaching her "boys." Yet with it all she finds time for the countless other demands on her. There is scarcely a charity in the city but feels the inspiration of her aid. Last winter she engineered the raising of seventeen thousand dollars to build a home for crippled children. Her reward is in a love from the people of New Orleans such as few have earned. Her life is an example of what a noble woman can accomplish. — Youth's Companion.

The Wrong Coffin — His Mother-in-Law and The Admiral

1878

The Wrong Coffin

A gentleman, who had been spending the winter at a village between Perpignan and Toulon, France, started for Marseilles, having under his charge the remains of his wife's mother, who had expressed a desire to be buried in the family vault near the sea.

On arriving at Marseilles he went with the commissioner of police to receive the body from the railway officials, but noticed that the coffin was of a different shape and construction from that which he had brought from home. It turned out that the officials had sent on to Toulon the coffin containing his mother-in-law's body, believing that it held the remains of a deceased admiral, which were to be embarked for interment in Algeria, while the coffin awaiting delivery was the one which should have been sent on.

The mourner having requested the railway officials to communicate at once with Toulon by telegraph, proceeded thither himself with the coffin of the admiral, but the dispatch had arrived too late. He ascertained when he got there that the first coffin had been duly received, taken on board the State vessel which was waiting for it, and dispatched to Algeria.

He at once called upon the maritime prefect, and explained the circumstances of the case, but though a dispatch-boat was sent in pursuit, the other vessel was not overtaken.

Acting upon the principle that an admiral in hand is worth a mother-in-law in the bush, he declined to give up the remains then in his possession until the authorities should produce the other corpse. He consoled himself doubtless with the thought that full military and naval honors had been paid to his wife's mother, for the remains had gone out of harbor amid the thunder of fort and fleet. — New York Tribune.