Report Real Sea-Serpent

1905

Rudyard Kipling has seen his second sea serpent, according to a story which comes with some seriousness from Cape Town. People who read Kipling's first sea-serpent story thought it was merely a brilliant piece of fiction. This second sea serpent story is not told by Kipling, but by the skipper of the steamship Armadale Castle. The sea serpent was seen — in fact, it was struck by the ship and probably killed — while the Armadale Castle was on her last voyage to Cape Town, in latitude 3 degrees south. Mr. Kipling was aboard the ship.

Commander Robinson is not sure whether the creature struck was a real sea serpent, a queer whale or a greatly overgrown shark. Whatever it was, the thing was hit by the bow or the ship where, in all properly regulated fishes, the pectoral fin exists. The head was doubled across the port bow and the tail trailed away along the starboard side. The violent struggles of the creature to free itself from its painful and embarrassing position led to its striking the soft brown paint of the "boot-topping" on the ship's side with the powerful fluke of its tail.

This was observed by the boatswain and some of the men who were watching the affair through the side ports immediately over the tail of the fish. The marks enabled the commander afterward to make fairly accurate measurements. From mark to stem it was forty-five feet. In girth it was apparently about the volume of one of the ship's lifeboats at the broadest part, say eight feet in diameter, very gracefully tapering away toward the tail. The body appeared to be of a greenish-brown color with large dark spots all over the back and sides, the lower parts being of a dull white.

It was first observed by one of the seamen, who heard a knocking against the ship's side. When the news was passed along the decks all the passengers, young and old. performed a mad stampede into the forecastle to look at the unhappy prisoner. The engines were stopped as soon as possible and reversed, but fully a quarter of an hour elapsed between the first discovery and the final clearance, by which time the creature was either dead or completely exhausted, for it sank slowly, tail first.

Old Portage Railroad Line

Pennsylvania, 1905

For some time prior to 1800 travel across Pennsylvania had been in canoes and in river barges propelled by poles or along the shores of rivers by horse and foot and by intervening portages on Indian trails, connecting points on the different rivers. The Philadelphia-Pittsburg national pike was built upon such a substantial basis that wherever undisturbed one still finds the gracefully modeled arches of solid masonry almost intact, after more than a century has passed. The completion of the Old Portage railroad by the state of Pennsylvania in 1834 put an end to the time-honored "coach and six," with the many picturesque and commodious inns and taverns along the line of this broad macadamized toll road, which with its substantial construction was, in point of endurance, second only to the Roman military roads of Great Britain.

This Old Portage road was constructed from material brought from England. The British government sent over experienced engineers to instruct the Americans in the running of the stationary steam engines used upon the inclined planes of the road in the Allegheny mountains. The railroad's highest point was about 2,700 feet above sea level; being only 200 feet lower than the neighboring hill, which is the highest point of the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania. The road consisted of ten planes, five of which were on either side of the mountain, and intervening levels. In 1835 the canalboats were so constructed that they could be taken in sections and hauled over the mountain on flat cars, without disturbing their cargoes. The rails were secured to stone sleepers twenty inches square, which were sunk in the ground.

On the Old Portage road the best time for the forty miles between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown was twelve hours. Express trains on the Pennsylvania railroad now run a closely parallel distance over the Allegheny mountains in a trifle over one hour. The passenger traffic on the road in those days was usually limited to one car each way a day, with a capacity of thirty passengers.

In 1854 the Pennsylvania Railroad company bought the Portage road from the state of Pennsylvania. Common rumor says that at this time the state legislature was "greased" and that not a cent of the $47,000,000 which was to have been paid for the road was ever received into the treasury of Pennsylvania.

Some Good About All Races

1900

"The Bright Side of Humanity," a new book by Dr. Edward Leigh Pell, is said to be the first serious attempt that has ever been made to present the characteristic noble traits of all races. In the preparation of his book Dr. Pell examined one thousand works of travel and although all of them set forth with considerable detail the vices and disagreeable traits of the people which they profess to describe, only two hundred dwelt at any length on their virtues. To supply the compensatory high lights in these dark pictures was a happy thought and must have been a pleasant task.


A Little of Everything

A Chicago tobacconist hands every cigarette purchaser a neighboring undertaker's card.

In the Black forest district of Germany are 1,400 master clockmakers and 6,000 workmen.

A church bell has an empty head and a long tongue, but it is discreet enough not to speak until tolled.

The sultan has forbidden the Turkish war department to use balloons or carrier-pigeons for army purposes.

A French naturalist asserts that nightingales devour the drones of a beehive, and never attack the workers.

A mint is to be established in Canada for the coinage of gold. Heretofore the coining of the metallic currency has been done in England.

An official map of Vesuvius on a scale of one in ten thousand has just been issued, being the first since 1876. A new plan in relief of the cone has also been made.

Want To Fly High

1910

Undoubtedly Most Fascinating Form of Air Navigation

London. — The most fascinating form of aviation is undoubtedly the high flight. One watches the machine rise from the ground and climb steadily an invisible stairway, winding round and round in wide spirals. From the size of a monster the vessel diminishes until it looks like an eagle, then a wild duck, then a pigeon, a blackbird, a lark, a bee, a fly, a midge — and so it finally disappears out sight; for men have now flown to over a mile, and it needs a strong glass and a clear atmosphere for a spectator to detect a machine at such stupendous heights.

One waits in amazement asking how the daring aviator will return safely to earth from the clouds. Suddenly the machine darts into sight, and it is seen plunging downward at an alarmingly steep angle. It is the vol plane, or dive, the most sensational of all aerial feats. Having climbed to his maximum, the aviator shuts off his engine and deliberately steers downward by the aid of the elevator.

He plunges through the aerial sea at terrific speed, but not at hundreds of miles an hour as some imaginative writers have put it. As the air resistance underneath the machine increases with the speed and the amount of surface presented to it by the planes, the vessel is automatically led back to its normal gliding angle, and the downward path becomes less steep. In order not to get too far away from his starting point the aviator thereupon makes another spiral at a gentle angle and then starts upon another plunge. Thus by a succession of these maneuvers he comes to a position from which he can make a final glide and reach the ground smoothly and without shock.

The world's record in high flying was broken by Brookins over Atlantic City, when he rose to the height of 6,200 feet. It took him 56 minutes to reach this point, or in other words he had to reach it by traveling over a distance of about 30 miles in a succession of long spirals, for his flight speed can be assumed to have been about 35 miles an hour all through. His descent was made in eight minutes and was composed of several high-speed dives and short spirals. Brookins used a Wright biplane.

The prettiest high flying is done by the monoplane, and at Rheims Latham, when he soared to 5,540 feet, afforded a splendid spectacle. Morane reached a height of 4,107 feet at Bournemouth and also gave a superb display. Captain Dickson is one of the most accomplished men at the vol plane, and he shows masterly skill and judgment. Mr. Drexel is also a very daring air climber, and in his descent from a height of 2,400 feet at Bournemouth he made a steep glide.

Paul de Kock — A Great Novelist's Oddities

1874

During the whole life of Paul de Kock he never left the suburbs of Paris, simply because he was mortally afraid of meeting with an accident in traveling. He never, in his long career, rode in a carriage, and the idea of entering a railway car seemed frightful to him.

He was so notional that he could not write with any pen except coarse goose quills, which he cut himself, and one day, when he had to sign a document, at the "mairie" of his "rondissement," he took his old goose quill to write his name with it. He wrote a very fine hand, but very legible. He never read his own proofsheets, because typographical errors, which he considered inexcusable, owing to the legibility of his copy, made him exceedingly angry.

Most romantic was his first interview with the woman who afterward became his wife. One day in the winter time a sleigh drove past the little Belleville where Paul de Kock kept bachelor's hall. In the sleigh sat a young woman. The horse ran away and the young woman was thrown out. The fall had stunned her, and De Kock carried her kindly into his house and cared for her. She proved to be the daughter of a well-to-do hack-driver, was only eighteen, and very pretty. Paul de Kock fell at once in love with her, and four or five days afterwards his betrothal with M'lle. Jeanne Perrin was duly celebrated.

Note: Paul de Kock is mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses as an author Molly Bloom read. "Yes. Get another of Paul de Kock's. Nice name he has."

Kashgaria — You Can't Get There From Here

1907

There are few places in the world so difficult to get at as Kashgaria. Though it lies in Chinese territory, the journey from Peking occupies no less than six months. From India caravans take two months, having to cross meanwhile the three highest mountain ranges in the world by way of several passes measuring 18,000 feet above sea level.

Then from the tail end of the Russian railway system in central Asia one may reach Kashgaria in three weeks by several routes, all involving the transit of difficult and storm swept passes.

Kashgaria is said to cover an area of 350,000 square miles — a statement that has little interest until considered in relation to the proportion which is cultivated by man. It is startling to realize that human endeavor has been capable of rendering fertile little more than a hundredth part and that ninety-nine hundredths of it is irredeemable desert. — Blackwood's Magazine.


Books Bound In Lead

A bookbinder was putting a binding of lead on a book. When asked about it, he explained: "This is a naval code book for use on a battleship All such volumes are bound in lead, so that in the event of the ship's destruction the books will sink with it for they contain secrets of immense value, and every precaution must be taken to keep those secrets dark."

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.

The Scenic Beauty of Alaska, Mt. McKinley

1916

A Grand Panorama That Reaches Its Climax In Mount McKinley.

A careful reading of literature pertaining to Alaska prepared me in part for what the journey was bound to disclose, but seeing is the only sense that can give knowledge and secure appreciation of the grandeur, the sublimity, the fascinating beauty of mountain, sea, stream, fiord, falls, islands, forests, cloud and the glorious color effects which the dazzling rays of the sun bring into existence. In connection with all these is a land of enchantment for all who love and can appreciate nature.

Cook Inlet, with its arms and reaches, has many bewildering channels, resulting from the numerous rugged islands. The forbidding and embattled shores rising into lofty mountains and at present swathed in white almost to the water's edge possess a virility, a grandeur and sublimity which require the most poetic imagination and most facile pen even faintly to portray. The grand panorama reaches its climax in Mount McKinley, monarch of the North American continent. With its altitude of 20,400 feet it stands alone in lofty pride and is distinctly visible from the vessel notwithstanding the very great distance. This fact well establishes the quality of the clarified and invigorating atmosphere of this far north country.

The Thousand Islands with all their beauty would scarcely serve as a prelude to the surpassing grandeur and loveliness of the many thousand islands that adorn the 3,000 miles of Alaskan coast. The fiords of Norway, the farfamed glaciers of Switzerland, cannot compare with their counterparts to be found in Alaska in number, variety, size, color effect and all the qualities that give charm to these works of nature. — Hon. A. Barton Hepburn in Leslie's.

Smallpox Doesn't Postpone Wedding

News Items Condensed For Hasty Perusal

1899

At Seymour, Ind., Frank Robinson, a merchant of North Vernon, and Miss Caroline Musser, also of that city, had sent out wedding invitations to be married in North Vernon. The smallpox having broken out in North Vernon, and the bride's father having exposed himself, the young couple had to change their plans. Robinson stole her from the house and they stood in a buggy and were married by a minister who stood some distance away.

When George E. Sterry, druggist, opened a package received by mail, an asp crawled upon his hand. Prompt action in shaking it off saved his life. Police are investigating.

Maz Haala, a bride of a week, committed suicide, at Bucyrus, 0., after cooking her husband's dinner. She said married life was not what she thought it was.

In London yesterday an American millionaire paid $2,500 for one of the only two copies of "The Troublesome Raigne of John," dated 1591, supposed to be the work of Shakespeare.

Mary Anderson, whose beauty, talent and fame to this day are the hope and despair of uncounted American women, the admiration of as many men, is in New York again. She has come to pay a long promised visit to her mother and stepfather and to the relatives of her husband. She is accompanied by her husband, Antonio de Navarro. They arrived by the White Star liner Majestic yesterday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Navarro traveled incognito, as "Mr. and Mrs. A. I. Hope." But their effort to conceal their identity from fellow-voyagers was unsuccessful.

—Trenton Evening Times, Trenton, NJ, April 27, 1899, page 3.

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.

Black Wedding the Last Word in Ceremonies

1917

Even Blasé New York Sits Up and Takes Notice of Ebony-hued Marriage of Man-Milliner and Model

BY GEORGE MARTIN

NEW YORK, Jan. 22.—A black wedding, one of the most remarkable ceremonies ever performed in this country and one which made even blasé New York sit up and stare, was celebrated at the Church of St. Vincent de Paul, here, Monday.

It was completely black and the first wedding of its kind ever planned made the little fashion model, Eleanor Klinger, the bride of Ora Cne, designer.

From the limousine in which they threaded their way among the skyscrapers to the little church in 23rd street, to the handles on the silver service at their wedding breakfast, everything down to the most minute detail, was coal black.

Even the serving men were black; and everyone with any part in the ceremony wore black, including black gloves.

As the big black car whirled up to the curb at 9 o'clock, the driver who had a black mustache, twisted the black handle on the door and out popped the little bride and groom. They were dressed in black from head to foot. Cne, a handsome, stocky young fellow, a little below medium height, wore a single-breasted black broadcloth, cut business style and fitting close.

His collar was black and his string tie and his black silk shirt blended into his black vest.

The little bride, tripping across the sidewalk with her soon-to-be, wore black silk slippers, a black silk dress sparingly overlaid with black chiffon. Her wedding veil was a broad strip of black silk edged and overlaid with black tulle, ending in large bows.

This wedding veil and train are detachable, so, as the bridegroom explained, "it can be used either for mourning or evening."

The bride's corsage bouquet was of black pansies.

After the ceremony Mr. and Mrs. Cne sped to their black wedding breakfast at the Cne appartment in Forty-third street. There Cne's black valet served black coffee, black bread, black butter (dyed), black bass, black raisins and blackberries.

The breakfast room was in black and white, with ebony furniture and black rugs. The silver service, from coffee set to teaspoons, was fitted with dull finished ebony handles. The porcelain service was black with an edging of white.

Cne — and his bride will begin a tour of the large cities of the country with their visit to Philadelphia Friday where Cne will address the Teachers' Institute of Domestic Science. Later they will go to Fort Wayne, Ind., Cne's home town, and to Omaha, Minneapolis, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and later on the west coast.

—The La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, La Crosse, Wisconsin, January 22, 1917, page 5.

Note: The sentence "it can be used either for mourning or evening" might have a typo in it, but it makes a great pun, whether Cne meant it that way or not. Probably not.

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.

Saws Found in Jail Cells, Men Charged with Robbery

Ohio, 1917

NEARBY HAPPENINGS

Chicken Thieves Busy in Auglaize County — Current Events of Interest

Saws were found in the cells of Jonas Mann and Morgan Dunstan, at the Auglaize county jail in Wapakoneta and it is believed that they had planned to escape from the bastile. The two fellows are under arrest charged with having robbed the Victor and Ausman stores at St. Marys.

Mrs. Jacob Zahn, aged seventy years, had been visiting several weeks in Decatur previous to going to Florida to spend the winter. She started en route South, when she suffered a stroke of paralysis and was removed from the train at Portland. Later she died at the home of Nelson R. Williamson, where she has been removed.

Mrs. Benjamin Geise. aged thirty-three years, of Delphos, is dead following an operation. She was formerly Josephine Goebel and is survived by a husband and three small children, the youngest being but four weeks of age.

A chicken thief raided the Webmeyer and Fledderjohn farms in Auglaize county, selling the birds for forty dollars at New Bremen before he could be apprehended.

Seventy-five loaded cars of freight are congesting the Clover Leaf railways yards at Delphos, held there as a result of the Eastern railroad embargoes.

Judge T. T. Shaw has been selected to fill the vacancy in the Defiance Board of Education caused by the resignation of William Gieger.

Geo. W. Dyer, aged eighty-three, is dead at his late home in Buckland. He was the father of ex mayor George Dyer, Jr., of Lima.

William Harpster, of near Ottoville, formerly of Delphos, broke his right collar bone in a fall from a wagon.

—The Van Wert Daily Bulletin, Van Wert, Ohio, January 29, 1917, page 2.

Gypsies Progress: Use Autos, Not Covered Wagons

1922

GYPSIES TRAVEL IN AUTOS

Wanderers No Longer Use Covered Wagons to Travel In.

Tuesday evening some Lincoln people returning from Crete in an automobile passed a caravan of gypsies who seemed anxious to learn if they were out of Lancaster county. The caravan was made up of three trucks and two touring cars, for now it is unusual to see gypsies traveling by the slow horse and wagon method. Officers reported that the caravan passed thru Lincoln early Tuesday evening and was about the first that has been seen this spring.

These transients are unwelcome visitors according to police officials of Lincoln, and during the past few years every legal power has been employed to make their stay as short as possible. Before the war it was uncommon to see these restless children of the great outdoors touring about in automobiles and during the war they practically ceased their wanderings. With the coming of peace, however, they once more took up their ceaseless wandering, but as tho during their period of inactivity they had learned some modern ideas, it is now a rare thing to see the real gypsy traveling in the old covered wagon.

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

Found! A Real Old-Fashioned Girl

1922

BROOKLYN, Jan. 6. -- With Miss Libbie Spies voted Brooklyn's prettiest high school girl, it should naturally follow that a stage career or stardom in the movies is her next step.

But that's where the hitch comes in!

Instead of to the bright lights or the flickering film, this 17-year-old young lady has her plans all set to turn to a complete education in teaching and cooking.

She wants to be a school marm first -- then a good housekeeper.

Pleased with this honor bestowed upon her?

"Certainly," she says, "but if I am pretty it is not due to any effort on my part -- so why get excited about it?

"I like the great outdoors and I love horseback riding and tennis. Perhaps that explains my color. It doesn't come from rouge.

"I eat regularly and I get plenty of sleep. I guess beauty is a matter of good health, and I've never been sick in my life."

When Miss Spies graduates she will take a two-year teaching course -- then become a primary grade teacher.

"Maybe I'll marry someday," says she. "When the right man comes along I will be ready to cook and keep house. My mother has trained me. And I can play a mandolin, too. But I'm too young to think of marriage now.

"And besides, I want to travel. Beauty is all right, I guess. But brains are what counts, and teaching and traveling will give me knowledge.

"Just don't put me down as a would-be movie star, or a Broadway light -- rather, just an old-fashioned girl."

--The Bee, Danville, Virginia, January 6, 1922, page 4.

Lone Baby Ends Trip Covering 7,000 Miles

3-year-old Boy Again is Safe in His Mother's Arms.

HAYDEN, Colo., May 20. -- After traveling approximately 7,000 miles alone, 3-year-old Sbiro Chakirido arrived here from Vladivostok and is safely in his mother's arms, while the lad's stepfather, Louis Charos, ex-soldier, is tilling the soil on a 320-acre plot upon which the little family of three expect to spend their remaining days.

Two years ago Mrs. Chakirido and her husband kept a restaurant in a Siberian town. Then came the uprisings and turmoil incident to the "Red terror" that has spelled finis for so many happy homes. One day the Bolshevists entered the little restaurant and killed Mrs. Chakirido's husband. By a miracle the wife and baby escaped to her home, near the town of Chita.

When the American Army forces entered Siberia, Louis Charos, a member of Company H, 175th Infantry, met the pretty widow, and they were married. Mrs. Charos returned to America with her soldier husband upon the evacuation of Siberia by Uncle Sam's men, but was obliged to leave her little son behind.

After months of frenzied search and thru the aid of the American Red Cross, the Charos were able to get in touch with the boy, and little Sbiro was started upon the long journey that has ended in the happy reunion with his mother.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, May 22, 1920, page 1.

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Baby Travels 7,000 Miles.

Spiro Chakiridio, aged 3, recently was delivered safely to his parents in Hayden, Colo., by the Red Cross after 7,000 miles' travel from Siberia. Spiro is the step-child of Louis Charos, a bugler with the American forces, who returned from Chita, Siberia, with his new wife a few weeks ago.

When the couple sailed the baby was left with the mother's family. The child's father was killed in a riot two years ago during the revolution outbreak.

The baby was well and seemed to have enjoyed the long voyage and cross country trip. He was cared for during the long trip by a Red Cross nurse.

--The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, May 13, 1920, page 8.

Comment: The baby's name is different on the second article, Sbiro Chakirido or Spiro Chakiridio. I searched on both last names and didn't find anything. As far as Louis Charos, he's apparently the Louis Charos born May 7, 1894 in Kansas City, Missouri. At a website getting information from the Monte Vista Journal (Colorado) of 4/29/1976, going along with the Social Security Death Index on the date of birth and death, he died April 19, 1976. He is described as a WWI veteran and rancher/farmer. Died at Veterans Hospital in Grand Junction, assuming that has to be Colorado. At Social Security Death Index, his last residence was Alamosa, Colorado. At the website referred to, with info from the Monte Vista paper, they also mention another child of the Charos family, Floyd M. Charos, whose death is mentioned in the 8/30/1940 Monte Vista Journal, "Two year old son of Mr. & Mrs. Louis Charos. Died on Wednesday. Buried in Spanish Cemetery. Born on Dec 9, 1938 in Lariet." No other mentions of Spiro I can see. There's another Louis Charos at Social Security born about the same time, but no apparent connection to this one.

Around the Globe on Stilts

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A fashionable New York hotel now permits women to smoke in its dining rooms, corridors, or any other old place. If this smoking stunt keeps on growing among the fair sex we may soon be confronted with divorce suits over the custody of the "makin's."
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Two men propose to journey around the globe on stilts. It is not clear why they should be permitted to do so, as necessarily they would have to traverse territory where more or less prejudice against vagrant tramps has found expression in statutory restraints, and even in rock piles.
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A schoolgirl in Indiana has fallen heir to $30,000,000. This news will probably have an agitating influence in European titled impecunious circles.
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Something in a Name
Ella - He's very narrow.
Stella - What do you expect of a flat?

--The Ellis Review-Headlight, Ellis, Kansas, 1911.

It Comes Easy

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Comes Easy
It never requires any practice to be dissatisfied.
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Births and Deaths at Sea
For every birth occurring at sea there are about 16 deaths.
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Still a Task
When life ceases to be a promise it does not cease to be a task. -- Amiel.
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The Ballot in Bolivia
Only citizens who are able to read and write have the power to vote in Bolivia.
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All in the Man
It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath. -- Aeschylus.
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Good Reason
"Cupid should be a girl." "Why?" "Because he has a string on his beau."
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Justice in London.
The administration of police and justice for a year costs London $10,000,000.

--The Ellis Review-Headlight, Ellis, Kansas, 1911.

Jerusalem A Place of Woe

Holy City and Its Inhabitants Fallen on Evil Ways.

Miss Helen M. Smith entertained a large company in the ballroom of the Tuileries this morning by an animated description of the far eastern countries, says the Boston Transcript. She presented pictures of places rich in classic and biblical interest - Constantinople, Smyrna (where the tomb of Polycarp is), the ruins of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, Jaffa and Jerusalem were all described in wonderfully entertaining fashion.

There was a narration of the gradual climb of four hours to the latter city which is 3,000 feet above the sea. Great areas of brilliant red flowers, "the lilies of the field," make a striking impression during this journey. "Jerusalem," said Miss Smith, "cannot fail to disappoint - grieve one with ideals. There is so much dirt, depravity and deceit; so many Calvaries, so many graves from which the stone was rolled away! There is only one Gethsemane, but it is a tawdry, artificial place - in no sense the secluded spot where 'the suffering Savior wept alone.' The Mount of Olives probably looks as it did 1,900 years ago. It was, indeed, the only place where I felt reverence for the holy land. From it I could see the River Jordan, the Dead sea, and follow, in fancy, the wandering step of Abraham and feel the influence of the prophets of old.

"Jerusalem to-day is surely in need of an enlightened prophet who will rid the city of its filth, bring healthy conditions to its half-blind children, and a better sense of right to its morally depraved people. Here, where the best examples of Christianity should be shown are seen the worst. Never mind where the actual cross borne along the Via Dolorosa, the cross of ignorance that is crushing the people should he lifted. All ways in Jerusalem today are ways of sorrow."

--Suburbanite Economist, Chicago, May 10, 1907, page 3.