Bowlegged Fellows Are Not Likely to Face Poverty

1919

Bad Luck for Turn-In Toes

There is an old saying that a bandy legged boy will never lack warm stockings, meaning that he will never be in want of money, so that folk whose friends are apt to be rude about their manner of walking may find consolation therein, says a writer in London Answers.

On the other hand, persons who walk in a fashion which quickly wears down their heels are likely one day to be in need of cash, while knock-kneed folk, though they have the ability to get wealth, have not the power to attract love — so it is said.

A long stride and a swinging walk are good — they imply that there may be ups and downs, but good fortune will never get far away, and will come out on top eventually.

Bad luck follows in the train of those who habitually turn in their toes, however, and an ancient adage has it that the man who always walks on the tips of his toes is likely to end his days in prison.

So watch your step!

A Glimpse of Caracas

1896

What Correspondent Saw in Venezuela's Capital

Comparatively few of the men here ever venture into the street unarmed, writes a Caracas correspondent of the New York Herald. There are laws prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons, but they are never observed. One of the professors in the university here assures me that he is convinced that every one of the students who attends his lectures has a revolver in his hip pocket. Weapons are often worn as much for ornaments as for protection or aggression. The caballero with silver spurs and gay trappings who prances about on a frisky mule or Peruvian horse is not fully equipped without a brace of revolvers. The humbler fellows who trudge the country lanes afoot or on burros' backs take special pride in the knives they carry in fancy sheaths at their waists, and which are equally available for cutting food or enemies. The far-famed machete is so long that the most convenient way to carry it is in the hand. It is the most terrible weapon in war and is used for every possible purpose in times of peace, opening virgin forests, cutting down trees, digging and building.

Human life is held very cheap in Venezuela, except by the law of the land in dealing with murderers. There is no capital punishment here, and a man who is caught red-handed in crime knows that the heaviest sentence that could be imposed on him is ten years' imprisonment. The worst cases, I am told, are sent to a prison in the marshy districts near the western frontier, where the man who survives his term is a phenomenon, and where two years is as much as most men can endure. Stabbing and shooting affrays are very common and rarely receive more attention than half a dozen lines in the local papers, in which sympathy is expressed for the relatives of the deceased.

The proportion of men that one sees in the streets of Caracas who are minus an arm or a leg is greater by far than it was in the United States at the close of the Civil War. Comparatively few of the cripples here were maimed in battle during the revolutions, most of them having been hurt in private brawls.

The Vargas Hospital, in Caracas, is a large institution, admirably located on a hillside and excellently managed. No public building in Venezuela is complete without a statue, and as one enters the main door of the hospital one sees in the central patio a statue of Vargas, who was, I believe, President of the Republic at the time the hospital was founded. There are ten wards for women, all opening on a long courtyard to the left of the entrance, and as many for men on the other side.

The tiny hack horses of Caracas are mainly skin and bones, and the drivers, like their prototypes all over the world, show them very little consideration. Besides the little native horses one sees in the streets many Peruvian horses, which are one size larger and are excellent for riding, and big American horses in swell carriages. Burros far outnumber the horses, and mules are very common.

Teams of oxen are used to haul the heavy wagons, and cows are driven by milkmen from door to door with their calves by their sides. Most of the calves have their muzzles tied in rags to prevent them from getting any milk before all the customers have been supplied. It is also a common thing to see a boy driving a flock of turkeys through the main streets, usually in the direction of the markets. In the corrals are usually many live animals that have been brought in from the country and left for sale — deer and wild pigs, with bristles like porcupines, predominating.

About the market place are kept the skins of huge snakes and wild animals, for which fancy prices are asked if they are in reasonably good condition. The prettiest fur is that of the leopard-tigre they call it here. The tigre is very ferocious and is dreaded by all who have occasion to travel. The puma, which is dignified by the name of lion, is far less common, and about equally dangerous to meet.

I fancy that the supply of dogs has always been large in Caracas, as the Cathedral here has an odd functionary called a perero, or dog boy. The office dogs bark to the colonial dogs, and the present occupant is an urchin with a black face, very bright eyes and a beautiful set of teeth. In the street he looks like any other little fellow who does not keep his face particularly clean, but in the Cathedral he is quite imposing in his long gown of dark purplish blue and his big white collar. He carries in his hand a stout whip, with a long, knotted lash, and he walks about with all the pride of a recruit in the army carrying a gun for the first time. He is quite expert, and loud yelps occasionally prove that his whip hurts.

The Rag Man Finds His Occupation Gone

1910

Rag Man's Business Has Dwindled to Vanishing Point

"Rags, bones, old iron!" is a cry not nearly so familiar to the children of to-day as to those of the '80's. For the ragman, like the chimney sweep and the sun dial maker, is becoming extinct. His used to be a profitable trade. The woolen rags he bought, turned into shoddy, brought thrice their cost. So did the bones, which were ground up for fertilizer. So did the iron, which, melted, lived again. Many millionaire manufacturing families had their beginning in a long-headed ragman. He first ground his rags into shoddy. Then he spun the shoddy into thread. Then, a full-fledged millman, he wove the thread into cloth. But the municipalities of to-day contract with single firms for the disposal of their people's refuse, and the old ragman is disappearing because there is so little for him. For — and this is the great secret — while the ragman made a grand profit on what he bought, it was on the refuse given him that he really throve.


From "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again"
By Bob Dylan

Oh, the ragman draws circles
Up and down the block.
I'd ask him what the matter was,
But I know that he don't talk.


A Poultry Point

"Always ask for the right leg of a chicken or turkey," said a chef. "If the left leg is offered you refuse it. It will be tough and stringy.

"You see, these birds nearly always roost on one leg, the left. Hence that leg becomes very muscular. The sinews are like steel. It is an excellent leg from the athletic, but a vile one from the culinary point of view.

"But the favored right leg remains tender and juicy. Therefore, as the advertisements say, 'Ask for and insist on getting the right leg.' "

"Left Clothes on Ship by Mistake," Says Paris Actress Noted for Legs

1920
Click picture for nice big copy

American Legs Shapely

French Girl With Million Dollar Limbs Won't Compete With American Women

NEW YORK, March 3. — The French girl with the "million dollar legs" won't bet a cent on 'em against American competition.

Mlle. Andre Spinelli, who walked into the European hall of fame on "the most shapely limbs in the world," looked down from the balcony on a scantily clad Zeigfeld chorus girl going through rehearsal steps and said:

"No, I will not say I have ze best."

And the conversation turned to legs.

Whereupon the noted little French danseuse freed herself of some personal secrets.

"On ze other side it es ze whole shape," with a sweeping gesture from the shoulders down.

"Ze Americans also zink ze leg is only from here to here," pointing from a dainty bare ankle to a dimpled knee that peeped out below a flaming pair of wildly combined colors in crepe de chine junior breeches.

"But on ze other side zey call it ze leg from here down" marking the start at the hip where a brief white "hug-me-tight" sweater reached its farthest.

"Most of my clothes got on ze Adriatic by mistake and aren't here yet," she added and no one questioned it.

"Ze papers say I have ze most beautiful legs in ze world. Well, I do not know. I will let ze Americans judge for themselves. I never say I have ze best but I do say I have ze fine shape. So have all ze American girls I have seen. Oh, oui, oui.

"I do not like ze talk about ze legs. Ze people will zink zat's all I have, I have ze whole shape. And I sing and I act. I like to do ze comedy and I am going to do it.

"What are ze ideal limbs? I could not say. I am not ze man. Look, what you say?"

The reporter didn't say.