A Dead Face In the Window

1901

Crockford, the proprietor of a well known London gambling house, was made to play a queer role after he was dead. When one of Crockford's horses was poisoned just before the Derby, the misfortune brought on an attack of apoplexy, which proved fatal within 48 hours. Now, many of Crockford's friends had staked large sums on another of the gambler's horses, which was a favorite for the Oaks and which was disqualified by the death of the owner. Only the people in the gambling house knew of Crockford's death, and it was resolved to keep it a secret until after the race.

The servants were bribed and sworn to secrecy, and the conspirators on the day after the night upon which Crockford died had the body placed in a chair at a window, so that people returning from the track could see the gambler sitting there. He was fixed up to look as lifelike as possible and through the window and partially concealed from view by the curtains looked so natural that no one of the great crowd which came cheering by the house when on their return from seeing Crockford's horse win the Oaks suspected the trick.

The nest day it was announced that Crockford was dead, but it was years before the true story leaked out.

Both Have Equal Rights

1901

It is the duty of a pedestrian to keep upon the sidewalk save when it is necessary to cross the roadway, and then to cross at an opportune moment and with reasonable expedition. It is nevertheless, equally the duty of those in charge of vehicles, however propelled, to restrain them within reasonable speed, to keep them under constant control and steerage way and to exercise all possible diligence in avoiding collisions. They are as much bound to look out for pedestrians at the crosswalks as pedestrians are to look out for them. They are as much bound to slacken their speed to avoid collision as the pedestrian is to quicken his. It is in fact far easier for the men on the vehicles to keep their eyes on the pedestrians and avoid running them down than it is for the pedestrians to keep theirs on the multitude of vehicles which may be converging upon them from different directions. Simply ringing the gong is not enough. "Caveat pedes" is not the only rule of the road. — New York Tribune.

Flashed Wife's Pass for Girl Companion

1920

Brakeman and "Other Woman" Fined $300 for Fraud

DES MOINES, Iowa — C. G. Graham, special inspector for the Rock Island road, returned from Ottumwa, where he ran down a pair using a railroad pass fraudulently. He has prosecuted several of these cases and has many others to investigate.

In the Ottumwa case a brakeman at Eldon named Vandevere and a girl from Fairfield named Linn were fined $300 each by Judge Wade for using the pass of the wife of Vandevere for Miss Linn.

The girl was introduced to conductors as his wife by Vandevere, who is a former service man and has a wife and child at Eldon.

Vandevere denied entertaining more than friendship for the girl, and she testified she was living on the savings she had made when employed in a store. The judge gave them permission to pay the fine $50 a month.


Masked Gang Raids Liquor Warehouse

LEXINGTON, Kentucky — Seven men, masked with handkerchiefs, raided the old Tarr distillery warehouse here and, at the point of revolvers, forced two guards to unlock the warehouse. The gang stole ninety-four cases of whisky seized last January at Versailles, Kentucky.

First Money Mark Twain Earned

1906

Marshall P. Wilder, in his book entitled The Sunny Side of the Street, says that he once asked Mark Twain if he could remember the first money he had ever earned.

"Yes," replied the famous humorist, "it was at school. There was a rule in our school that any boy marring his desk either with pencil or knife, would he chastised publicly before the whole school or pay a fine of $5.

"One day I had to tell my father that I had broken the rule, and had to pay a fine or take a public whipping, and he said:

" 'Sam, it would be too bad to have the name of Clemens disgraced before the whole school, so I'll pay the fine. But I don't want you to lose anything, so come upstairs.'

"I went upstairs with father and came down again feeling a tender spot with one hand and $5 in the other, and decided that as I had been punished once and got used to it, I wouldn't mind taking the other licking at school. So I did, and I kept the $5."

Rules for the Consumptive

1914

New Jersey Board of Health in Laudable Endeavor to Prevent Spread of Tuberculosis

Acting under a law of 1912, the New Jersey state board of health has issued the following rules, which are to be followed by all consumptives in that state:

1. All persons suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis (consumption) shall effectively destroy their sputum (spit).

2. All persons suffering from running sores due to any form of tuberculosis shall burn all soiled dressings immediately after removal.

3. The room occupied by a tuberculosis patient shall have at least one outside window.

4. No person suffering from pulmonary or other communicable form of tuberculosis shall handle food designed for the use of others except when necessary in the performance of household duties, unless the food be wrapped in such a way as to protect it from contamination or unless some necessary subsequent process of preparation such as cooking will sterilize it.

5. The manufacturing of any kind of goods for commercial purposes or the performance of any work known as "shop work" in the home of any person suffering from pulmonary or other communicable form of tuberculosis, is prohibited, unless the product is such as can be sterilized, and unless sterilization is done in strict accordance with the requirements of the local board of health.

Baseball's Early Days – Different Rules and Pitching

1916

THE PITCHER'S BOX

In Baseball's Early Days It Was Just a Line Twelve Feet Long

Up to 1857, or for eighteen years after the first game of baseball was played, there was no limit to the number of innings, the first side scoring twenty-one runs, or "aces," as they were then called, being the winner. In 1857, however, the game was divided into nine innings. The pitcher had a line twelve feet long, kept behind it and could take a short run before his delivery, just the same as is permitted in cricket today.

In 1863 the old "line" for the pitcher to stand behind was done away with and the twirler limited to a "box" twelve feet long and four feet wide, but in this area he could roam at will and throw from whatever spot he pleased. A few years later the "box" was made six feet square, and in 1876 it was again reduced to four feet wide and six feet long. Ten years later it was made a foot longer and a foot wider and in 1887 cut down in length to five and one-half feet.

These "boxes" being always a source of much change and discussion, they were finally abolished altogether and a rubber slab 12 by 4 inches took their place, the pitcher being required to keep his back foot against the slab. This slab was enlarged to two feet by six inches in 1895 and has remained the same since. — Philadelphia Bulletin.

You Can't Even Be Born These Days!

1920

Landlords Put Clause Against Babies in Lease

NEW YORK, N.Y. — The old-fashioned landlord who refused to let an apartment to a family including very young children was a gentleman, scholar and philanthropist, E. W. Engel, a Brooklyn attorney, says, in comparison to a new variety of landlord which has sprung up in parts of the Brownsville district and adopted the rule:

BABIES ARE FORBIDDEN TO BE BORN ON THESE PREMISES.

Attorney Engel, who represents the Tenants' Union of Brownsville, exhibited a new form of lease wherein the landlord lets and the tenant hires an apartment for one year, "to be used and occupied for dwelling purposes only by father, mother and not more than two children."

"In my opinion," said Mr. Engel, "there isn't a court in christendom that would sustain a lease with this clause in it. Without question it is against public policy. But it serves to show the spirit animating a certain percentage of the profiteering landlords of today, who will have to be brought to book pretty soon if New York is to escape serious trouble.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, page 1.

Adam and Eve Cited for Having No Hunting License

1922

LIVED IN THE PRIMITIVE WAY

Game Laws of Maine Violated by Couple, Who Have No Regrets.

HOULTON, Me., June 10. — Carl A. Sutter of Boston and his wife, Margaret, broke the game laws of Maine to get food necessary to sustain life, they told Judge James Archibald here yesterday when pleading guilty to five violations of the game code. It was charged that the man and woman while living as the "modern Adam and Eve" in the woods near Howebrook, trapped a deer, killed partridges, caught fish and made fire without reference to state regulations. They paid fines and costs aggregating $354.

Describing the plan of himself and wife to live six weeks in the wilderness under natural conditions, without civilized clothing, food or weapons, Sutter told the judge that the good resulting from his experience would more than balance any harm done by him in the woods.

—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 11, 1922, page 9.

Teacher Ousted for Allowing Dance Party

1922

SCHOOL HOUSE USED FOR DANCING PARTY

And Now the Lady Teacher at Eminence, Kas., Has Been Deprived of Certificate — Accused of Breaking Law.

By the Associated Press.

EMINENCE, Kas., June 7. — Not counting prairie dogs and jackrabbits, this western Kansas village had ninety- two inhabitants at last count, most of whom do not consider dancing sinful. But because she permitted a dance to be held in the school house, the school ma'am, Mrs. Clare White, has had her teaching certificate revoked by Miss Lorraine Wooster, state superintendent of education.

Eminence is thirty miles from the railroad, and though that is not as far as it was before the days of the flivvers, still amusements are not exactly plentiful. What there are the community has to evolve for itself and community dances were favored. Mrs. White says, however, that since she allowed a dance to be held in the school house and attended it, she has been informed by the state superintendent of education that she has broken Kansas laws, and trifled with the dignity of the commonwealth.

For that reason she has been officially informed that her teacher's certificate will not be renewed.

Mrs. White has written to the state board of administration protesting against the action. She says there was not a thing objectionable about the dance and it was a perfectly proper use for a school house outside of teaching hours.

—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 8, 1922, page 1.

Girl Kicked Out of School for Powdering Her Nose

1922

SHE STILL POWDERS HER NOSE

Provincial School Board Suspended Girl Bent on an Education.

KNOBEL, Ark., June 6. — Miss Pearl Pugsley, eighteen years old, who was prevented from attending school here because she "powdered her nose," is determined to obtain an education, still persists in using cosmetics, and has matriculated in the normal school course at the agricultural college at Jonesboro, Ark.

The girl says she will enter school and probably continue her course and secure a teacher's certificate so that she may within a few years be at the head of some school in the state. She firmly declares it is nobody's business if a girl desires to powder her face moderately.

The local school board barred Miss Pugsley from school because she violated an order banning cosmetics.

—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nebraska, June 7, 1922, page 5.