Hot Boxes

1895

Those who have traveled much by rail are more or less acquainted with the hot box. A hot box, as it is commonly called, really means a hot journal bearing or a hot journal, or both. It arises sometimes from the use of poor material in the bearing, sometimes on account of imperfect casting and sometimes from too great weight upon the bearing, producing friction and heat.

There are now far fewer hot boxes than formerly. Some of the heaviest cars are now carried upon six wheeled trucks, thus distributing the weight of each end of the car upon six journal bearings, instead of four, and reducing the danger of excessive friction. Better materials are used, and the workmanship upon them is better, weights to be carried are calculated more nicely, and greater care is exercised in operation, so that the hot box is not what it once was. A man thoroughly familiar with railroading, who made not long ago a trip of 10,000 miles, which included points as far apart as the City of Mexico, San Francisco and Chicago, said that he did not encounter a hot box until he was within 20 miles of New York on his return. — New York Sun.

Stole the Hackman's Rig

New York, 1895

The Flushing police are looking for the thief who stole a horse and wagon from E. G. Shire, a hackman, at Whitestone, on Sunday night. Shire left his horse in front of the railroad station a few moments and when he returned the rig was missing. There is as yet no clew to the thieves.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.

Railroads of U.S. To Advance Rates

1920

WILL ADD BILLION AND HALF TO YEARLY EARNINGS.

Fare to Cost One-fifth More; Freight 25 to 40 Per Cent, Pullmans 50.

WASHINGTON, D. C. — Authority for the railroads of the country to increase their revenues by approximately one and one-half billion dollars has been granted by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Freight rates will be advanced about one-third, passenger fares one-fifth and Pullman charges one-half.

Coastwise and inland steamship lines and electric railway companies also were granted permission to increase their freight rates in proportion to the increase granted to the railroads serving the same territory. No estimate of the aggregate amount to result from these advances has been made.

May Go Up September 1.

The new rates, which are to continue in force until March 1, 1922, will become effective upon five days' notice by the carriers to the commission and the public, and they must be in operation before January 1. Since the Government guarantee expires September 1, the carriers are expected to bend every effort to put the advances into effect by that date.

Increases granted by the commission are designed to offset the $600,000,000 wage advance awarded by the railroad labor board and to provide the 6 per cent net income on the aggregate value of the railroad properties as permitted under the transportation act.

The aggregate value of all of the railroads was estimated by the commission at $18,900,000,000 as against a book value of $20,040,000,000 given by the carriers.

Increase Is General Thruout U. S.

The 20-per-cent increase in passenger fares, excess baggage charges and milk transportation rates and the 50 per cent surcharge on Pullman fares authorized by the commission will be general the country over.

Freight rate increases will vary according to territory, with 40 per cent in the East, 25 per cent in the South, 35 per cent in the West (from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains) and 25 per cent in mountain-Pacific territory (from east of the Rockies to the Pacific coast, not including Alaska).

The commission held that the increases were justified in view of the rapidly changing conditions as to prices and the necessity for providing adequate transportation facilities during and after the period of readjustment

NEW RATES EASILY FIGURED.

Travelers will have little difficulty in calculating from the present fare rate the amount of the new fare, With no surcharge complication, the new fare is simply one-fifth more than the old fare.

The following table illustrates the difference which the new rates will make in travel between Chicago and other cities:

To New York — Present rate: $29.40; New rate: $35.28; New rate with surcharge and Pullman: $45.00.

To Milwaukee — Present rate: $2.75; New rate: $3.20; New rate with surcharge and Pullman: $4.02.

To New Orleans — Present rate: $30.38; New rate: $36.45; New rate with surcharge and Pullman: $47.39.

To San Francisco — Present rate: $72.12; New rate: $86.54 2-3; New rate with surcharge and Pullman: $[*].

The freight rate increase means a levy of $12 per capita a year for every man, woman and child in the country.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 2.

Note: [*] Missing information. The other San Francisco rates are pretty certain.

Bangor Strike Declared Off

Maine, 1916

Bangor, Sept. 9. — Bangor's street car strike, which has been on since Saturday, August 26, was declared off at 5 o'clock tonight by unanimous vote of the two-thirds of the strikers who had remained loyal to the union. The other third had returned to the jobs as individuals during the past two weeks.

The strike, which lasted two weeks, has been accompanied by violence, which cannot be attributed to the strikers. Bricks have been hurled through car windows, granite blocks and sleepers have been placed on car tracks, an imported workman was arrested charged with brandishing a revolver and the feeling on both sides of the controversy has run high. For a time, 80 per cent of the electric car patrons refused to ride on the cars, the electric company carried fewer passengers than ever before. Last Saturday night there was a public demonstration in favor of the strikers.

The strike was declared off by vote of the men following a conference between their leaders and representatives of the Central Labor Union, at which it developed that after September 16, support from the Central Labor Union would be forthcoming.

At the offices of the railway company tonight, it was said that few of the strikers would be taken back, as their places have been filled.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 6.

Strike Still Threatening

1916

New York, Sept. 21. — The threatened strike in sympathy with the striking street car employes will be called tomorrow it was announced late today by Ernest Bohm, Secretary of the Central Federated Union. Bohm made the announcement after a conference between labor leaders and a citizens committee which both he and Mayor Mitchell declared had failed in its efforts to avert the strike.

According to announcement late tonight by union officials, the threatened general strike order will include cooks and kitchen help, waiters and bell boys. Virtually every large hotel and restaurant in New York, it was said, would be affected.

Labor leaders were given formal warnings by Mayor Mitchel tonight that he would employ the "full civil and military powers" conferred upon him by law to prevent disorders if the threatened general strike of trades unionists is called tomorrow to aid the street car employes who quit their places September 6.

State May Intervene in New York Strike

1916

Governor Whitman in City to Watch Developments in Struggle Between Street Car Men and Companies.

NEW YORK — Efforts at State intervention were expected when the strike of the street car men's union reached its sixth day. The report gained more credence from the fact that Governor Whitman established headquarters here to watch developments.

The danger of a great general strike to help enforce the demands of the traction employes seemed remote in view of the statement that the only unions likely to be involved in such a movement were those directly concerned with the operations of the street cars. Hugh Frayne, State organizer for the American Federation of Labor, who made this assertion, said that if a sympathetic strike were called it probably would not involve more than 60,000 workers. In this class he named engineers, firemen, longshoremen and teamsters.

The strike involves three counties and the residents of Yonkers, Mount Vernon and New Rochelle are entirely without street car service. Every trolley car in Manhattan and the Bronx stood still Monday night and service was resumed on only a fraction of normal schedules.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company maintains that subway and elevated trains are running regularly, but the strikers declare that they have made inroads in the ranks of the company's motormen. As a result of the limited service on the surface lines, elevated and subway trains are crowded and the suburban service of the New York Central and the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway systems is congested.

Two Killed in Crash.

The first tragedy of the strike occurred when a trolley car, operated by a "green" motorman, got beyond control as it started down a grade at One Hundred and Seventy-fourth street and Boston road, crashing into two jitney buses.

Two persons were killed and nine injured. Four of the injured were so badly hurt that their death was believed to be only a matter of a few hours.

—The Saturday Blade, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 3.

Hansom and His Cab

1933

After diligent search it might appropriately be possible to find in New York, U. S. A., its last American stronghold, a specimen of the high-wheeled vehicle which will have its centenary celebrated this summer in York, England. For in the English city a century ago Joseph Aloysius Hansom designed the "Patent Safety Cab" which immortalized his name.

Hansom had a talent for construction and design. Born in York in 1803, he left his father's joinery shop to become an architect's apprentice. When he was 28 years old, his designs for the Birmingham Town Hall were accepted, with unfortunate financial results for Hansom. Next he patented the "Safety" cab and sold the rights for $50,000 which he never got. Apparently disgusted with his profession, Hansom founded a newspaper in 1834. Lack of capital put an end to the venture, so he returned to architecture, with success. He obtained commissions for public and private buildings not only in the United Kingdom, but in Australia and South America. Hansom died in London in 1882.

His name lived after this, particularly through the '80s, the era with which the Hansom cab will forever be associated. In the original design the driver's seat was at the side, but eventually only the high wheels and the axle prevailed through various changes of construction.

Consequently it was noted less for its safety than for its elegance. Although the seat tilted at a restful angle and the motion was soothing, there were hazards involved in getting into the cab. The driver had his perch at the top and back, with a little trap-door in the cab's roof which threatened the privacy and seculsion offered by the hooded body and hinged apron shutting the occupants snugly within. The cabbies of those hansoms could tell tall tales to make the modern taxi- driver's life seem spiceless in comparison, if one may believe rumors.

Off-hand Hansom is scarcely remembered as the name of a man. But the word "hansom" will stand in the English language for the graces and formal elegances of a "nice" age that died with the Nineteenth Century, in which the cab was invented. — Detroit Free Press.

—San Antonio Express, May 20, 1933, p. 10.

The Man Who Dared Disobey

1900

The great soldier is the man who, as a subordinate, on all ordinary occasions obeys orders implicitly, but who, when the great emergency arrives, knows that, to save the day and his country, he must disobey. He breaks his orders on his own responsibility, knowing that the result and the future will justify him. Failure would be his ruin. Success may immortalize him. And if he is great, he knows that he shall succeed.

One of the members of the Russian imperial cabinet, Monsieur Witte, minister of finance, is one of the most powerful and important men in the empire. Highly esteemed and trusted by the emperor, he is respected and honored by the representatives of foreign powers. Yet Monsieur Witte is of humble origin — a fact which, in Russia, where every circumstance favors the man of noble blood above the plebeian, has counted for much against him.

Monsieur Witte, in his early life, after an imperfect education, was made station-master at a small and unimportant railway station in southern Russia. The war between Russia and Turkey arose, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers had to be transported into Roumania and Bulgaria. One day Monsieur Witte, in his station, received telegraphic instructions to make certain arrangements in connection with the passage of these troops along the line.

In Russia orders from a high source, connected with the affairs of the government, are terrible things, not to be disobeyed. But this young man saw that obedience in the present instance would create great confusion, if not positive disaster. His superiors had told him to do the wrong thing. He ventured to violate his instructions, and to do the right thing.

The president of the railway summoned the young man before him, and asked why he had presumed to disobey his telegraphic orders in a matter of such vast consequence. Monsieur Witte told him why, and convinced him that he, the station-master, was right, and that the orders were wrong. Instead of removing or punishing him, the chief of the road advanced him.

Afterward this railway president, Monsieur Wichnegradski, was called to St. Petersburg to assume a place in the imperial cabinet. Remembering the man who had so successfully disobeyed, he sent for him and gave him a post under him. After that Monsieur Witte's advancement was rapid, and he rose to occupy the highest "business" position in the empire — that of minister of finance. — Youth's Companion.

What's Wrong, Lassie? Rover's In The Well?

1910

Dog's Remarkable Intelligence

Thomas Jones, who owns a big ranch on San Juan island, lost a collie dog last fall for nearly a month, and for several days searched the woods about his place zealously for the animal, without success. One day he tossed a bone to another collie. Instead of gnawing it, he picked it up and started for the woods. He kept turning his head, apparently to see if he was followed, and Jones concluded to follow him.

The dog trotted along for about a mile and stopped at the edge of an abandoned well. He dropped the bone over the edge of the well. Jones got a ladder, climbed down and found the dog that had been lost. There was only about two inches of water in the well, but the animal would have starved to death had it not been for the other. The lost dog was in good condition, and as it had been missing 24 days the other animal must have kept it supplied with food for nearly a month.


The Rule of the Road

There appears to be no definite record explaining the prevailing custom of turning our vehicles to the right in this country. One authority says that it grew out of the fact that in our early colonial days, before the arrival of rigs for pleasure driving, the drivers of heavy vehicles used in transportation fell into the way of turning to the right.

The English custom of turning to the left is an ancient one. It obtains in practically all of the British provinces.

A grizzled driver in Bermuda, asked once why all drivers turned to the left, explained that it was done so they could see just how much room they had.


Strength of Locomotive

A railway engine may roughly be said to equal in strength 900 horses.

The Trolley Wagon

1898

A New Thing Which Makes Fifteen Miles an Hour

The very latest vehicle to transport people around is called the trolley wagon. This interesting contrivance is really a happy medium between the trolley car and the ordinary vehicle. We have had auto-cars and motor-cars, but the trolley wagon is neither. It is an invention all by itself, and its source of power is the one thing that enables the trolley car to call it a first cousin.

The motor of the wagon is connected to the rear wheel by suitable gearing. It is about 15-horsepower. It is a powerful affair, for its two rear wheels are eight feet in diameter. The two front wheels are four feet in diameter. The frame supporting the motor is suspended from the wagon frame.

The width of the wheels is considerable, and as the front wheels are much nearer together than the rear wheels the wagon acts to quite a degree as a road roller. One of the advantages of the trolley wagon is that the worst road in the country has no terrors for it. The width of its wheels and the way they are adjusted make it possible for it to even ride over plowed ground in safety, and without that disagreeable jar that a rough road generally causes.

The trolley itself is adapted to run either on two or three wires. Everyone who has seen a trolley car must have noticed the little wheel that runs along on the wire. This is called the locking wheel, and its movement, which has heretofore been on a vertical plane, is arranged in this instance to operate on a horizontal plane, thus changing complication to simplicity and reducing the cost and weight of the wheel.

The inventor of the vehicle believes there are wonderful prospects in store for it. He sees no reason why it may not be utilized in many sections of the country, particularly where street cars do not run, and the building of a street car line would involve tremendous expense. He thinks the trolley wires could be erected, and then all that is needful will have been accomplished, as the trolley wagon can run over any kind of a road.

The wagon referred to has made a speed on a road of not over good construction of 15 miles an hour without great jar or accident. The invention certainly possesses the merit of being unique, and in attracting no little interest among those who are interested in the future of the trolley. — Philadelphia Press.

Florida Man Has Team of Alligators Pulling His Boat

1901

LEE DRIVES A QUEER TEAM

Florida Man Who Employs Alligators to Tow His Boat

Jefferson Lee, who lives on the St. John's river, in Putnam county, Fla., has the most extraordinary team in the country. It is a team of alligators that Mr. Lee uses to tow his boat up and down the river when he goes to market.

Mr. Lee has to go six miles down the river to his post office, and it is a hard pull against the current, coming back. He noticed how swiftly alligators swam, and it occurred to him that it might be a good idea to turn the alligators that abound in the St. John's river to some account. He captured a pair of young 'gators and raised them in his yard. He taught them to swim and drag a weight behind them, and he also taught them to turn either to the right or left by pulling ropes fastened to their teeth on either side.

When the alligators were big enough he put a harness that he had constructed on them and harnessed them to his boat. They swam well and pulled the boat through the water at a good speed. By pulling the reins that passed through the mouths of the 'gators, Mr. Lee was able to turn his strange water team in the direction he pleased.

Mr. Lee made a point of never feeding his alligators until after they returned from a trip, when he would immediately reward each one with a fine meal.

The alligators seem to be willing to perform their task of pulling his boat, and when he turns them out of the pen in which they are stabled and starts them for the water, they shuffle down to the boat in the liveliest style, and after they are hitched they plunge into the water with grunts of delight.

Mr. Lee says his strange team has never run away nor kicked out the dashboard of his river craft, but that they have one fault, for which, however, he does not blame them. They sometimes sweep their powerful tails in a curve through the water, and once smashed one of his boats into little bits and threw Mr. Lee and a party that he was taking boat riding into the river. They would all have been drowned had not the alligators swam back to them and permitted the party to climb on their backs, after which the alligators swam swiftly to the shore and all the party were saved. Mr. Lee now hitches his team 20 feet in front of the boat, so that the sweep of their tails will not endanger the craft.

Mr. Lee's success has created great interest among all of his neighbors, and now many alligators are being trained for duty as sea horses. — Chicago Tribune.

Why the Bicycle Persists

1904

Prophets are the great speculators in "futures," and in that sort of gambling the "bears," who see calamities ahead, are usually losers. Nothing has been the subject of more pessimistic forebodings during the last few years than the bicycle, yet this spring the wheel comes out again, almost as numerous and as popular as ever.

Automobiles, it is true, have greatly increased in numbers, and they have been looked upon as the supplanter and successor of the bicycle. "Americans like to travel fast," said a man, recently, "but they don't want to work for it. That is why the automobile appeals to them." There is some truth in the remark, but the fact remains that most of us must "work for it."

The bicycle is the poor man's automobile, and a good one. It does not bother him about starting or stopping, does not often get out of repair, requires no outlay for fuel; yet it makes him master of a wider circle of country than he could possibly command without it, and pays him handsome dividends in health and strength for every pound of energy he spends in propelling it.

The time of the "scorcher" and the "century run" is past, and the era of sensible wheeling has come in. Those who own and buy bicycles now are those who use their wheels for exercise; for recreation and as practical vehicles. They would cling to their hobby tenaciously even if their own experience had not been enforced by medical approval, which is now overwhelmingly with them. The bicyclists for years to come will continue to outnumber, as they have in the past, the devotees of every other pastime. — Youth's Companion.

After Hours, Railway Mean Checking For Dropped Coins

New York, 1893

Nickel Hunters

Anyone who chances to take a stroll just before sunrise along the line of any of the surface railways in New York, will be sure to see from two to a dozen men walking near the tracks with hands in pockets and heads bent down. He may also observe that the conductors and drivers on the infrequent horse cars of that early hour also have their eyes turned earthward. They are all hunting for money.

During the night, and particularly when the after theater homeward rush is on, the conductors are very busy collecting fares and making change by the dim light of the car lamps. In the process both they and the passengers allow more or less small coin to slip through their fingers, and it is for the dimes and nickels that have rolled to the pavement that search is made at dawn. The change that falls beneath the floor slats of the closed cars belongs to the cleaners at the stables.

Mushing With Dogs in Alaska, Carrying Great LoadsMushing With Dogs in Alaska, Carrying Great Loads

1914

DOGS IN ALASKA.

Carry Great Loads Over Snow That Would Not Hold a Man.

Dogs are surely the real thing for "mushing" in the cold country. To my mind they beat reindeer a mile. Most of them weigh less than 100 pounds, and they distribute their weight over their four feet. So that they can trot over a weak snow crust where a man would sink out of sight by breaking through the crust into the soft snow below. On a good, level, smooth trail ten dogs can trot along with a ton of freight behind them, and 500 or 600 pounds is a fair load on poor trails.

A peculiar thing is that a twelve foot sled, twenty-two to twenty-four inches wide, with runners two and one-quarter inches wide, bearing a load of 600 to 800 pounds, will not sink through a snow crust that will not bear a man. This occurs because two runners two and one-quarter inches wide and twelve feet long give a large area of bearing on the crust. This, coupled with the motion that keeps the sled passing over all the time, accounts for the remarkable fact I am speaking of.

One of the greatest dangers in "mushing" is encountering water under the snow on the river ice in very cold weather or breaking through into hollow places where the stream has sunk away from under the ice. This is the most dangerous of all and often when it happens a man is frozen to death before he can get to shelter or get up his tent and start a fire. — B. S. Rodey in Albuquerque Herald.

Flying Machines To Change Travel After War

1917

THE FLYING MACHINE

To Revolutionize Travel After the War

At a recent meeting of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain a paper on "Commercial Aeronautics" was read by G. Holt Thomas, one of the pioneers of aviation in that country. Mr. Thomas said that in his opinion aeronautics would revolutionize the world, not only from a commercial point, but also from a humanitarian point, much more than it had revolutionized the war.

He said he was not one of those who thought that commercial aeronautics were going to bear out of existence the railroads and other forms of transport, but rather that flying would act as an adjunct to present modes of transport.

From a business point of view speed was everything. The aeroplane would enable a business man to leave London in the morning, go to business in Paris, and be home again to dinner. It would take him to Bagdad in a day and a half or to New York in two days.

Ceylon would become two and three-quarter days from London. Tokio four and one-half, Sydney five, Cape Town three and one-half, and Vancouver three. As for the question of cost, it would be possible to run a profitable air service between London and Paris $25 a passenger, a cent an ounce for mails and 50 cents each for parcels of three pounds.

A Constantinople to Moscow journey of twenty-four hours might involve a cost of $125 a ticket.

—La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, La Crosse, WI, Oct. 2, 1917, page 4.

Tales of Two Nickels and a Five-Dollar Gold Piece

1903

TALES OF TWO NICKELS

Singular Things That Happened to Street Car Travelers.

It was in a Boston street car. When the car stopped at a crossing, a lady got up and went to the door. As she rose there was the chink of a coin on the floor, but before it occurred to any one to stop her, she was out of the car and across the street. Two ladies, who had sat next to her looked with anxious indifference on the floor. One of them leaned slightly forward, but said nothing. Just as the conductor was reaching for the bell-rope a young man spied the coin, and dashed out of the car. He caught the lady who had left the car, handed her the coin, ran back, caught the step of the car as the motors began to sing in crescendo, and sat down breathless. One of the two ladies opposite him leaned forward and said coldly, "Young man, what did you do with the nickel I dropped?" The passengers tittered. An old man at the other end of the car turned to his neighbor, "That reminds me," he said, "of something that happened to my wife years ago.

"It was before the days of conductors, when we used to drop nickels into a slot, and they ran down a groove to the box behind the driver.

"My wife had started out with a little change and one of those troublesome five-dollar gold pieces which used to be more commonly in circulation than they are now. Her eyes were not good, and so she was nervous about her gold piece, and had it on her mind all the way downtown.

"When she took a car for home, she met a friend, and grew interested in conversation with her. She put her coin in the slot absentmindedly. The driver turned as it struck the box. You remember the coin fell into a glass compartment first, and then the driver pushed a lever which sent it into the strong box below.

"As my wife heard the click of the lever, she thought of her five-dollar gold piece. She looked in her purse. Sure enough it was gone. She went forward and spoke to the driver. He said he hadn't looked very carefully, but he thought there were only three nickels in the glass receptacle when he pushed the lever.

"My wife insisted. The driver said if she would ride to the end of the line, the cashier at the station would open the box. This meant a journey of two miles beyond our street, and my wife was in a hurry.

"An old gentleman who sat by the door said he was going to the end of the line, and offered to give her $4.95, and get the gold piece at the station. My wife thanked him and took the money. When she got home she found the $5 gold piece in the lining of her purse.

"Next day I went to the station. The cashier said an old gentleman had made him open the box. There was no gold piece. The old gentleman had left in a rage, refusing to give his name. He said he had been swindled, and did not want to be known for a fool.

"We advertised in the papers, but we never heard from him. — Youth's Companion.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, March 4, 1903, page 3.

Avoid Chronic Grumblers, Discontented and Gloomy

1912

AVOID SPREADERS OF GLOOM

Chronic Grumblers and Avowed Discontented Persons Are Never the Best of Companions in Life

The chronic grumbler is not a good companion nor in any way an admirable person. We fly from her as from a contagious disease. Nothing so certainly affects one's spirits as being in the constant company of a person who has a grievance.

The cherishing of discontent with our circumstances, business, dress, or any other thing in life soon robs us of beauty and marks the countenance with the lines of worry and ill temper that tell their own unhappy story.

Why anybody who is young should indulge in grumbling as a pastime is one of the puzzles that never is solved, yet such people there are, and we meet them to our sorrow almost every day.

If they happen to be passengers on a railway train they pile their bags and bundles on an extra seat for which they have not paid, are conveniently blind to the weariness of other passengers who are standing, and assume the aspect of martyrs when the conductor courteously but peremptorily informs them that they must make room.

They object to having the windows open, although the air may be loaded with impurities from the congestion of the crowd; they scold and fret at the throng or the conductor and rail at providence in general because everything in life is not arranged with a view to their comfort.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 20, 1912, page 3.

The Present Butterfly Decoration Craze

1912

The Butterfly Craze

There is at present a craze for butterfly effects. The design flutters on parasol tops, on smart veilings, and is worked in wonderful, iridescent effects on the new trimmings. The winged favorite is used also as shoe buckles, brooches, coiffure ornaments and beautiful designs are seen in enamels and simuli diamonds. Black satin and velvet butterfly bows edged with brilliants or colored stones are lively. The material is slipped into a frame, and thus any color can be added to the diamond's rimmed bow.


Men's Defects Sized Up

The ten chief defects of men, as decided by the votes of the women readers of Femina, one of the most popular women's weeklies in France, are egotism, easily first with 2,387 votes; then comes jealousy, 1,968; infidelity, 1,783; intemperance, 1,417; cowardice (or rather base mean-spiritedness), 1,350; immorality. 1,070; despotism, 1,057; anger, 1,051; conceit, 1,000; and idleness, 935.


Ideal School Described

M. Augustin Rey, a Parisian architect, has described his ideal school in a recent paper. He said that the beneficial effects of the violet rays were so well known that it was criminal to build in such a way that they could not penetrate to every part of a room; it was doubly important that this should be possible in schoolrooms. If there was a choice between heat, ventilation, and sunshine we should see that we had the sunshine first. His building was so arranged that the classes should meet in the east rooms in the afternoon after the morning sun had thoroughly disinfected them and in the west in the morning, since the afternoon sun would have disinfected the western rooms on the previous day. There should be plenty of ground and plenty of sand about school houses. It is better to economize in decorations than in sunlight and ventilation. He said that while this was his ideal school, he preferred the open air school.


Slow Coach

A gentleman was one day, in the old coaching times, traveling by a coach, which moved at a very slow pace. "Pray," said he to the guard, "what is the name of this coach?" "The Regulator," was the reply. "And a very appropriate name, too," said the traveler, "for I see all the other coaches go by it."

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 18, 1912, page 3.

Prohibition: Bartenders Serving Hair Tonic Booze

1919--

NEW YORK BARTENDERS SERVE HAIR TONIC BOOZE

NEW YORK, Nov. 10. -- Since the prohibition law went into effect New York's insistent and enthusiastic drinkers have been consuming the "nonbeverage" alcohol which usually goes into hair tonic, cologne and patent medicines at 30 or 40 cents a glass, according to Col. Daniel L. Porter, supervising internal revenue agent here.

Prune juice and caramel have aided bartenders to cater to customers, and whisky made "while you wait" from the hair tonic ingredient has been colored and served as "Scotch," "rye" and other favorite brands. This has come about because there has been no genuine "liquor" available since July 1, Col. Porter asserted. It has proved satisfactory to customers who have not been let in on the secret, because it has a powerful "kick."

The nonbeverage alcohol was manufactured under the war-time food control law and cost $240 a barrel. When the saloon keeper obtained it his next business operation was to buy a half dozen empty barrels and dilute it. Then, with his stock of prune juice and caramel at hand and his bartender ready he served his disguised stock by the small glass, making a profit of anything from $1,000 to $3,000, according to how much heart he had for his customers.

--The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, November 11, 1919, page 14.


Bessemer, Indiana, 1919--

RUNAWAY HORSES HAVE RIGHT OF WAY

After tying his team to a post at the south end of the main street at Bessemer, William Hillman started to do his shopping. When the horses became frightened They started away, full gallop.

Several men ran to the center of the road intending to stop the runaway, but thought better of it when the two frightened horses came nearer to them.

A few minutes later the driver came out of the store, and finding his team gone, he good naturedly shouldered a piece of pipe he had purchased, and started after the team. He reached home about a half an hour later than the team.

--Ironwood Daily Globe, Ironwood, Michigan, November 22, 1919, page 8.

Automobilists or Horsemen - Who Has Most Cussedness?

South Dakota, 1909--

FAULT ON BOTH SIDES

Automobilists Say that Horsemen are Often in the Wrong

Much has been said and written locally of late referring to the carelessness and all around cussedness of automobile owners as a class, but no one has come forward to assert that there was another side to the matter, until this morning when one of the most enthusiastic motorists of the city ventured into the Huronite office and remarked that the chauffeur had his troubles as well as anyone else.

At a recent city council meeting the matter of fast and careless driving was brought to the attention of the city fathers. The complaint was that some of the autoists of the city were in the habit of speeding on First street, and thus endangering the lives of all who dared to put foot on that highway. The chief of police was instructed to obtain the numbers of all who thus violated the city ordinance and to bring them to time, and this was a wise and timely act.

All motorists, however, are not bent on the shedding of human blood along the public thoroughfares, and they in their turn meet with difficulties presented by others on the roads. It is a known fact that a prejudice exists among certain people against automobiles, and that they refuse to give them even the half the road that is their's. They will turn to the left and do other things to inconvenience the drivers of machines. If they acted thus upon meeting another team they would expect sooner or later to have an accident, and there is the same possibility in the case of trying to tease the automobilists. There should be fairness on both sides, and the police should be instructed to look after the irresponsible among horse drivers as well as among auto drivers.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 26, 1909, page 7.