Firstborn Children Strongest

1901

It would seem that firstborn children excel later born children in height and weight. This may be due to the greater vigor of the mother at the birth of the first child.

In England it was found that growth degenerates as we go lower in the social scale, there being a difference of even five inches in height between the best and worst fed classes in the community.

An investigation of 10,000 children in Switzerland showed that children born in summer are taller for their age than those born in winter. As a majority of children in the public schools are poor, in winter their parents are forced to economize more on account of expense of heating. Their rooms are also liable to be small and poorly ventilated, while in summer they are out in the fresh air. Food is also cheaper and more varied. The influence of unhealthy conditions on a very young child would be much greater than when it is older and better able to resist them. — Everybody's Magazine.

How "All Men Are Born Equal"

1905

The woman born beautiful doesn't bother to educate her intelligence, is spoiled by flattery, is unable to hold the men she attracts; the woman born homely is driven to develop her character and her mind, and so more than overcomes her handicap as against her pretty sister.

The man born clever loses because he wins too easily and has no incentive to that sustained effort which alone achieves success; the man born "slow" develops patience, assiduity, balance and, best of all, tenacity.

It comes near to being a universal rule that strong points and weak ones just about offset each other in any human being at the start, and that the development is a matter for the man himself to determine. And there is no fatal handicap except the disposition to regard one's handicap as fatal. — Saturday Evening Post.


Use Pipes of Pure Gold

There is an endless variety of substances of which pipes are made. In China the stems are of bamboo. In India leather stems are used, in Persia sweet jasmine, in Asia Minor cherry wood. In the Philippine Islands a richer material is available, for the natives hollow out sold nuggets which they find in the torrent beds, and use them as pipe bowls.

Of Course, the Bride Knew He Was Wrong

1920

Always That Way When Meek Man Weds Robust Woman

FORT SCOTT, Kansas, Feb. 26. — Sometimes it's easy to see, even before the couple is married, just which is going to be boss of the household and which one is to do the paddling in the boat in which they traverse the matrimonial sea. Habitues of the court house in this city saw a concrete example of this fact this week.

A big, robust woman stepped into the office of Register of Deeds Adler Johnson. She had authority written all over her face and her big frame.

"Is this where I get a license?" she inquired in stentorian voice.

"What kind of a license?" queried Adler.

"A marriage license," said the woman.

"No, we don't handle them," continued Adler. "Go to the first door down the hall on your right."

"I knew at first this wasn't the place," said the big woman with evident disgust; "that's what I told him."

Thereupon she stepped into the hall and when the door opened Adler could see a little, meek-looking man standing on the outside. It was evident that the woman had usurped the command and was going to take charge of the marriage license business, not to mention, of course, the honeymoon and the rest of the alliance.

Words of Wise Men

1921

Diffused knowledge immortalizes itself.

A little commendation goes a long way.

Ambition to merit praise fortifies our virtue.

He who does what he can has done what he ought.

The strength of will is the test of a young man's possibilities.

Truth is a mighty instrument, whatsoever hand may wield it.

All the best men have been best because they possessed "ideals."

The thought that conquers the world not contemplative but active.

Some doubts are as generous and passionate as the very noblest conditions.

Every noble life leaves the fiber of it interwoven with the work of the world.

To strive with difficulties and to conquer them is the highest human triumph.

Strong-Minded Women

1874

You must not think, the woman's-rights movement is a new idea, It dates back as far as the days of Theseus, when Hypolita, the Queen of the Amazons, was vanquished by the Grecian hero, who compelled that strong-minded woman to marry him. Shakespeare, in the "Midsummer Night's Dream," has made a very charming use of that ancient tradition, as, no doubt, all our readers well know.

Even in the present generation these female warriors exist in the Kingdom of Dahomey; their principal drill consists in yelling, firing, and then running at full speed out of danger.

The ancient Amazons, however, seem to have been of a far superior race of beings to the black heroines of Africa, if we may judge from what Herodotus says of the Amazons.

"These Amazons," says Herodotus (Book iv., 110-117), "the Scythians call Aiorpata; and this name in the Greek means man-slayers, for they call a man aior, and pata means to kill." He goes on to tell us that, with a lively, womanly fury, these Amazons, being captured by the Greeks and taken away, "as many as could fill three ships," rose against their captors, when asleep, and cut them all to pieces. But when they had done that, they could not navigate the ships, and were carried at the mercy of the winds to a part of the coast of Scythia. The Scythians, a herd of whose horses they stole, thought they were a set of smaller and more impudent men, and gave the impertinent creatures a beating, till, by their dead bodies, they found that their enemies were women. They then changed their tactics, and sent out only the young men to make love to them; and so these cruel man-slayers were subdued.

It is a very pretty story. There are two or three masterly touches in it that raise it in our esteem, while, at the same time, they prove the truthfulness of the Father of History. Who that knows men and women would not swear that this was true? Herodotus, who visited the descendants of these Amazons, is accounting for a corrupted speech. 1. The men were not able to learn the language of the women, but the women soon acquired that of the men. 2. The Sauromatae (their descendants) use the Scythian language, speaking it corruptly from the first, since the Amazons never learned it correctly. Ask any of the teachers at the ladies' colleges if that is not the touch of a master. 3. When the women understood the men, they (the men) spoke to them as follows: "We have parents and possessions (that's men all over); let us, then, no longer lead this kind of life, but come to our people, and live with them; and (here they put their arms round the warlike young ladies) we will have you as our wives, and none other."

It is a very pleasant episode, and would make a fine picture. The ladies, however, were equal to the occasion. "We could live with you," they said, "but not with your womankind. What would they think of us? We ride, shoot, throw the javelin, kill people and wild beasts. They sit at home, or ride in wagons, and mind household affairs. If you desire to prove yourselves honest men, go to your parents, claim your property then come back and marry us, and let us live by ourselves."

Herodotus does not tell us what the Scythian young ladies said as to a whole posse of their bravest and most marriageable men being thus carried off. The young men, taking their sweethearts' advice went home, claimed their fortunes and goods, and came back to their warlike brides; but, having got thus far, it was not in the Amazon, or woman nature, not to go further. The next morning, they cried out, "Alarm and fear are upon us (poor Amazons!); we have deprived you of your parents, them of you. What will they think of us? But since you consider us worthy to be your wives, let us leave this country which we have invaded, and, having crossed the River Tanais, let us live there." The poor men yielded; and hence, says sly old Herodotus, the descendants speak bad Scythian — just as Mrs. Malaprop or Mrs. Partington might speak bad English, never having caught the by-words cleverly — adding, a Sauromatian virgin may not marry until she has killed an enemy. "Some of them, therefore, die of old age, without being married, not being able to satisfy the law.