Clocks With "Wheels"

1901

"Clocks are certainly queer things," said the man who was tinkering at the hall clock in a suburban house the other day. "They get cranky spells just like people. Sometimes they really act as though they were bewitched. A friend of mine had a little clock that had behaved itself and kept good time for years. One day it took a notion to lay off for awhile, and they couldn't get it started again. My friend's wife was cleaning the room several days afterward, and she took the clock and laid it down flat on its back on a chair. It started to go at once and ticked away at a great rate, but as soon as she placed it on end it stopped again. Well, they set it, and for a time it acted all right as long as it remained on its back. But it soon got cranky again and refused to go. The other day, just for fun, they turned it upside down, and, would you believe it, that crazy clock started off again. Now it only runs when it is standing on its head, and they are wondering what new foolishness it will develop next." — Boston Record.

A Diver's Escape

1899

The diver's greatest danger, says a writer in Chambers's Journal, is the possible entangling and choking of the air-pipe on which he depends for a supply of oxygen. The writer gives an experience of his own, which he styles the "closest shave" he ever had. The gates of a lock had been repaired, and he had gone down to see that all was finished satisfactorily. With twenty feet of dirty dock water above him, he felt the great gates, each many tons in weight, which were to be shut while he was down, in order that he might see whether all worked well. He says:

When ready I sent up the signal, and in a few moments felt the gate upon which my hand rested begin slowly to move. It was not long before I realized that I had made a serious mistake.

As soon as the huge masses were in motion I was gently lifted off my feet by the swirl of water in the narrow lock, and irresistibly sucked toward the meeting point of the gates. I made vigorous efforts, by clutching at and pressing against the gate surface, to save myself from being carried along, for once between the gates I must be crushed to death. On I went, however, into the rapidly narrowing gap, but fortunately I went through it, although the gates were so nearly closed that, as I passed through, I felt a leg knock against the end of each gate.

Once on the other side I was pulled up by the air-pipe tightening against the end of one of the gates, and was just congratulating myself on my escape when I suddenly realized that the pipe was still between the closing masses. A death hardly less horrible, and certainly more drawn out, than the one I had just escaped now threatened me, for with the pipe crushed flat I should be a prisoner until smothered for lack of air.

I had no knife or I could have cut the pipe, slipped off my weights, and trusted to the chance of a shoot upward.

At the very last moment, when the gates were almost closed, an inspiration came to me. I had a hammer slung to my waist by a lanyard tied to the handle. It was the work of an instant to thrust this between the meeting gate-ends.

Almost immediately I felt the jar upon it as it took the strain, and I found that there was no diminution of the rush of air into the helmet. My frail connection with the world above was uninjured.

Before I could make up my mind what to do next I felt the hammer loosen in its position, and the gates begin to open again. As they opened I was again carried through by the current, and placed on the other side — the right one for me. I hurriedly gave the signal to be hauled up, and was thankful enough to be at the surface. — Youth's Companion.

Working and Worrying — Men and Women

1916

In spite of the floods of warning from doctors and others thousands of persons keep on working and worrying themselves into early graves, or what is worse for their companions, nervous prostration that makes them unfit companions for themselves or others.

The world is full of trouble, but we are not at all backward about saying that a considerable proportion of the fusses that occur in families and between families has its origin in petulant phrases and complaints that are no sooner uttered than they are regretted. Forced from lips by a peevishness that comes from over taut and overworked nerves, they rip and tear, and we are prevented by the same physical condition from making the instant reparation that we would under other circumstances.

Men as a class have better control of their nerves than have women. This is physiological as well as psychological. They stew and fret less and their work is better fitted to preserve their nerves. If women would understand that they are under as deep an obligation to their husbands to conserve and preserve their physical health as their husbands are to them to keep up for work and thus furnish support things might be better.

—Lincoln Daily News, Lincoln, NE, Aug. 5, 1916, p. 4.

Cinders In The Eye – Continual Annoyance from Traveling by Rail

1878

Persons traveling much by railway are subject to continual annoyance from the flying cinders.

On getting into the eye they are not only painful for the moment, but are often the cause of long suffering that ends in a total loss of sight. A very simple and effective cure is within the reach of everyone, and would prevent much suffering and expense were it more generally known. It is simply one or two grains of flax seed. It is said they may be placed in the eye without injury or pain to that delicate organ, and shortly they begin to swell and dissolve a glutinous substance that covers the ball of the eye, enveloping any foreign substance that may be in it. The irritation or cutting of the membrane is thus prevented, and the annoyance may soon be washed out.

A dozen of these grains stowed away in the vest pocket may prove, in an emergency, worth their number in gold. The foregoing remedy, from the Mining and Scientific Press, appears to be based on the homeopathic principle, "Like cures like." Whether the sticking of flaxseeds into an inflamed eye is likely to prove beneficial is questionable. Better pull out the cinder with a looped horse hair.—Scientific American.

Note: If you are seeking medical advice concerning eye troubles, or any other trouble, please consult with your physician. The article quoted above is from 1878. The information on this page is for entertainment or historic value only, and is not meant to diagnose or recommend particular care plans or curative measures. And when it comes to looped horse hair, please find horse hair that has been professionally looped, that you will be sure the procedure was done according to current and prevailing standards.

From The Pencil's Point: Wisdom and Quips

1916

Troubles, like babies, grow larger with nursing.

You can bank on finding a well-filled pocketbook interesting.

Men who don't enjoy good health ought to be physicians.

When you expect an opportunity it usually misses the train.

One word may make a new friendship or break an old one.

No man ever bought a horse that turned out to be just as represented.

Wise is he who selects an obedient daughter of a good mother for his wife.

Some people seem to think you should pay rent for the place you occupy in their thoughts.

Even if you have nothing to give the poor but a crust of bread, make it palatable by softening it with a little of the milk of human kindness.

It took Father Time thousands of years to make a man of a monkey, but a girl can make a monkey of a man in two minutes.

The modest friend who offers to lend you a couple of dollars when you are broke is far more worthy of your praise than the hero of a hundred battles.