Pickpocket's Hand in a Mole Trap

1905

Louis Hugon, a young pickpocket of seventeen, had a most unfortunate experience this afternoon while exercising his profession.

A crowd had assembled around a fallen horse in the Place d'Italie, and Hugon saw a lady whose bulging pockets offered all kinds of tempting possibilities. Without further ado he deftly introduced his hand, but instead of grasping the expected purse, found his finger securely caught in a new mole trap which the lady had just purchased.

With Spartan-like heroism, he uttered no cry, but tried to withdraw his hand. The lady, however, became conscious that something was wrong, and Hugon was seized by the bystanders and handed over to the police. The latter took him to the Hospital de la Pitie, where the amputation of his finger was adjudged necessary. — Paris correspondence, London Chronicle.


Descended Mountain on Skis

Norman Libby of Bridgton, Me., recently made the ascent of Mt. Washington and made the descent to the base on skis, without mishap, being the first man who ever successfully made the attempt.

Concerning Beds, Mattresses in Days of Old

1874

During all ages, from the earliest times, men have displayed their invention in designing beds which should gratify their natural love for comfort, for elegance, and for luxury. In the prehistoric times the dwellers in the caves most probably followed the suggestion given them by the animals which they drove out from their rocky dens, in this early stage of the "struggle for existence," and made their beds of leaves. From this condition to providing skins for the coverings of their couches, was a great advance, and with their increasing ability to dominate their surrounding conditions, and provide the materials for gratifying their natural as well as artificial wants, this step was but the first in a long course of invention and improvement applied to beds.

Among the Romans and the Greeks, as well as the other nations of antiquity, such an appliance as a mattress was unknown. They made their beds upon couches of wood, which were covered with skins, furs, woolen and other stuffs. Their luxury in beds consisted only in using more expensive coverings, replacing a sheep's skin by a tiger's or substituting for a rough woolen blanket one of finer texture, or a shawl of silk embroidered in gold and silver thread. These improvements, or those consisting in replacing the wooden bench which formed their support with one of bronze, or even of gold or silver, was really only a display of greater wealth, but could not be considered in these days an advance towards securing the advantages of a comfortable, luxurious, and healthy bed.

In the early period of modern history, beds were almost universally, in Europe, nothing but bundles of straw. As late in England as the times of Queen Elizabeth, when no carpets were used, and the floor was strewn with rushes, the beds were hardly anything better, and a wooden bench, or any rude framework which lifted the bed above the floor, was a luxury. Erasmus, in his letters, describes the social condition of the people during the reign of Henry VIII, and was disgusted at the state of the floors. The rushes, he says, were so seldom changed, and became so damp, that the feet were constantly kept wet, and thence colds and consumption were quite common.

In the dining-rooms, he speaks of the filth collected on the floor among the rushes; the bits of meat and bones thrown to the dogs, who fought around the guests' legs for them; the beer and wine emptied upon the floor; the slices of bread, used as plates for eating their meat on, and then thrown aside, altogether giving us no very high conception of the neatness and fine breeding of the time.

From Delaroche's fine picture of "The Death of Queen Elizabeth," an accurate idea can be gained of the beds of royalty at this period, and consequently those of the common people can be imagined. By a careful study of the times, and from all the contemporary evidence bearing upon this point, Delaroche was enabled to reproduce the scene with a truthful accuracy of detail. The queen is reposing upon a bed formed by spreading cloths upon the floor. She is covered with richly embroidered spreads of velvet, bordered with golden fringe. The moment chosen is when she is upbraiding the Countess of Nottingham for keeping back the ring Essex had sent to his royal mistress just before his execution. The queen herself is gorgeously attired, as was her constant custom, but the comparison between the brilliant coverings of the bed and its position, one which now would be considered as in the dirt, affords an admirable picture of the partial civilization of the times, with its splendor of display and its want of the simplest decencies of the present.

Mattresses were first made of straw or wool, then moss came to be used, and feathers, and finally curled hair. The trouble with all mattresses of these materials is, that they become by use matted and hard, and have to be remade. Besides, too, all of these materials have a greater or a less tendency to retain the bodily exhalations, and in all public places, such as hotels, hospitals, and other institutions where the beds are used in turn by a number of different persons, the danger of contagion, and the difficulty in any case of keeping the beds hygienically clean and pure, according to the demands of the present medical standard, is very great, if not impossible.

The Girl on the Job – "Nursing"

1921

The Girl on the Job

How to Succeed — How to Get Ahead — How to Make Good
By Jessie Roberts

NEED FOR NURSES

There are not enough trained nurses to meet the demand. On the other hand nurses are saying that they cannot make both ends meet unless their pay is increased. Many women who might take up the work are deterred because of this fact.

To meet this, the alumni societies of the training schools are combining with a view to settle on a proper advance. The new rate of pay would be $6 a day for 12-hour periods, and $50 a week for contagious cases.

Nurses are going to be asked for by communities to do public work. District visiting and prenatal care at the expense of the community, where circumstances demand, will be put into the hands of trained nurses. It will be worth doing, and sure to appeal to certain types of women who like nursing, but who do not care for private or hospital work.

A girl who wants to study for this profession should select her hospital with care. She will have to expect to do hard and disagreeable work. But in a number of institutions the eight hour schedule is being adhered to, more salary is being paid, and other matters that have given rise to discontent are being improved.

A trained nurse is one of the most important members of the community. There is now a great need for more of her. Most hospitals accept only college-bred women, and no women without the equivalent of a high school training will be accepted. If you who read this feel a call for nursing, get the address of a good hospital, write to the matron of nurses there, and follow her directions. You cannot enter upon a finer walk of life.

—Mountain Democrat, Placerville, California, October 29, 1921, page 6.

They're Smoking Cigarettes to Match the Gown

1920

Cigarets Same Color As Gown

Paris. — Cigarets rolled in paper dyed delicate shades of rose, blue, green or orange are declared by the Daily Mail to be the latest vogue for women. Women wishing to be really smart fill their cases with cigarets of a tint harmonizing with the color of their gowns.


Missing Navy Balloon Is Found

Rockaway, N. Y.—The missing navy balloon A-5598 landed 10 miles northwest of Moose Factory, Ontario, and the crew of three men is safe at a Hudson Bay trading post, according to a telegram received at the naval air station here. The balloon had been missing since December 13.


Manager Caught In Machinery

New Castle, Pa.— Robert Hengst, manager of the Universal Sand Company, was caught in machinery and his left arm was mangled. He was removed to the Shenango Valley Hospital, where an effort is being made to save the arm.

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1920, page 4.

Woman Swallows Mouse; To Hospital

1920

Penalty of Sleeping With Mouth Open, She Says

LONDON, England -- St. Thomas Hospital, London, has just treated a patient who told the doctors that she had swallowed a mouse. She is Mary Watson of Lambeth, a young married woman.

"I have swallowed a mouse and am very sick," she said to the doctor who attended her. She explained that she was asleep at 3 a.m. with her baby when she was awakened by the child moving.

"I saw a mouse coming along my breast. The mouse slipped into my mouth before I could stop it. I always sleep with my mouth open."

It was thought unnecessary at the hospital to put the woman under X-rays, as she was suffering from ordinary sickness only, and she left easier in mind.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 9.

Comment: So did she swallow a mouse or not?

Father of Luikart Babies Sues Wife

1920

BRINGS DIVORCE ACTION IN A MICHIGAN COURT

Charges Mate, Who Poisoned Little Girls, Was Believer in "Sex Antagonism"

DETROIT, Mich. -- Roy E. Luikart, father of Shirley and Edna Luikart, whom the mother, Mrs. Hazel Luikart of Royal Oak, attempted to poison last September, has brought divorce action in the Circuit Court, it became known. Mrs. Luikart is held in the Ionia Hospital for Criminal Insane.

The bill of complaint says the mother was much in the company of a Royal Oakman, who had promised to take her to Europe just before she tried to end the lives of her daughters.

Thought "Women Were Toys"

According to the bill of complaint, Mrs. Luikart became a devotee of the philosophy of "sex antagonism." The husband says she told him "women were the toys and playthings of men, that men never suffered, and that she had made all the sacrifices and he had made none."

The bill reviews the poisoning case, and how Shirley and Edna were saved by being taken to Dr. Carter in Chicago, where they attracted the sympathy of the entire country. Luikart alleges that on the day of the poisoning Mrs. Luikart and the man he names had an appointment, which the man failed to keep.

Mother Named in Suit

The Royal Oak man is made a party to the court proceedings. Two other co-defendants are Alexander Zora, stepfather of Mrs. Luikart, and Mrs. Luikart's mother.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 3.

Hospital Patient, Clad in Nightie, Hides Sixty Hours in a Coal Bin

1920

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Barefooted, with only a nightshirt covering his body, Marlow Hutchins, 52 years old, who escaped from the Minneapolis General Hospital, hid in a coal bin and defied the March weather, but succumbed to hunger. He gave himself up and was returned to the hospital, after being out in the cold sixty hours.

"I didn't mind the cold, but I had to get something to eat," he told physicians.

When Hutchins eluded the hospital attendants he managed to make his way without being seen or reported, to the northern part of the city, where he crawled into a coal bin. he lay there quietly, he said, until he was driven out by starvation.

Physicians said that Hutchins was in a serious condition. His feet, from walking barefoot in the snow and ice, had been frozen, and he was suffering from exposure.

Hutchins escaped from the hospital when he cut the straps, which bound him to the bed, with the rough edge of a tin cup, and leaped from an upper window. He was being treated for a nervous disease and had been delirious.

When Hutchins could not endure hunger any longer, he came out into the street, where he was seen by a man driving an automobile.

"Please take me to the hospital," he pleaded.

The man, who did not give his name, wrapped the nightshirt-clad man in a robe and drove him to the hospital.

"I hated to go out before," Hutchins said. 'I was almost seen many times before I hid in the coal bin. Men passed close to me many times, but I dodged and didn't let any one see me."

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 1.