Billiards An Old Game

1905

The game of billiards may lay claim to great antiquity, for in "Anthony and Cleopatra" Shakespeare makes Cleopatra say: "Let us to billiards;" and so, unless we accuse the great poet of error in chronology, we have traced the game back to a period before the Christian era. In early times a similar game was played on the grass or turf with stones, and later with balls of lignum vitae and other substances.

How to apply the right "twist" or "English" to the cue ball is one of the most interesting and important elements in the art of good playing. In early times only two balls were used, and each player sought simply to pocket the ball of his opponent. The red ball was introduced as a novelty to keep the game from dying out.

As time has gone on the game has had varied development in different countries. In Spain they play with three balls and five wooden pins are set up in the middle of the table. In Russia they play with five balls, two white and a red, blue and yellow one.

The English game is played quite differently from the American and French games. It is a combination of the American games of both pool and billiards, being played on a table having pockets, as in an ordinary pool table, and the points as scored in both the American games being counted.

The French and American games are played with three balls upon a table without pockets and only "canons" or "caroms" are counted. In America the game of billiards has undergone a rapid development on account of the great skill acquired by American players. Early in the last century the game was commonly played with four balls upon a pool table, more or less like the present English game, for both pocketing the balls and making caroms were counted, but in time this style of playing proved so simple that a table was adopted without any pockets in it — and caroms only were counted. — Outing.

Eating Parrots, Albatross, Weeds, Acorns

1896

Food Can Be Almost Anything

Few of us, or, indeed, of any people, would think of eating parrots, especially if anything else could be gotten, yet the Romans esteemed them for the table, the Boston Traveller writes.

Cranes are sometimes used for food.

The American ostrich, of South America, is eaten, both flesh and eggs. The eggs of the African ostrich are used, and the flesh, when the bird is young.

The albatross, largest and strongest of birds, produces eggs that are edible.

There is a weed in this country, much cursed by all who have to do with the soil and its products, called a vulgar phrase "pussly." No one in this country would think of eating it, yet this foe of farmers and gardeners is used as a salad in Europe and Egypt.

Acorns in this country are put to no use, unless it be for swine; but in Saxon times "mast" was valued not only for herds, but for man. In times of dearth acorns were boiled and eaten by the poor in England and in France, as one species is still in Southern Europe.

Whales are no longer eaten by civilized men, but in the thirteenth century their tongues were held in great esteem in parts of Europe. Whales are now, with seals and walruses, the chief food of many inhabitants of the Arctic regions. Of the narwhal the Greenlanders eat flesh, fat and skin.

Isinglass is a strange food; it is a gelatin prepared from the air bladders of different kinds of fish from large rivers that flow into the North and Caspian Seas.

Hungry Enough To Eat A Rhinoceros

1896

Palatable Around The World

The rhinoceros, the elephant and the hippopotamus, three most gigantic of creatures, are all edible, and, indeed, greatly esteemed as food, the Boston Traveller says.

The porcupine has a repulsive exterior, but a delicious interior, when properly served.

How strange it seems to eat moss! Yet the Iceland moss, found in the west and north of that country, is excellent for consumptives, and is used in Iceland in times of scarcity.

The Old World species of locusts form articles of food with certain semi-civilized and savage races, by whom they are considered as delicacies, or as part of ordinary diet.

There is a kind of clay eaten by certain people in the Carolinas.

Grasshoppers are eaten by Indians.

To most people in our country snails seem to be a strange food, though they have been used for a long time in France, Italy and Spain. The helix pomatia, or the edible snail, which is the kind that is used, has in recent years been farmed in this country, and sold in the New York markets.

The selection of the tongues of birds as an article of diet seems to us strange, yet the tongues of song birds and of the peacock were great delicacies among the Romans.

King of Beasts Sometimes King of Feasts

1896

The Things People Eat

The so-called king of beasts is usually associated with eating rather than being eaten, yet the lion is an article of food among the natives of the countries he inhabits, according to the Boston Traveller.

Several species of monkeys afford food for the natives of their habits. Travelers who have tried them declare them good.

Dogs are eaten by the California Indians in times of distress; they do not use them for this purpose in ordinary times, because they are too valuable to them for other purposes. Marco Polo says the Tartars used dogs for food, as did also the Mexicans the native dog or Alco.

The chase of the horse for the purposes of food was one of the chief occupations of man in Europe in the Neolithic Age. The Tartars eat horses as regular diet, and there are many butcher shops in Paris and Vienna where only horseflesh is sold.

The wild ass is eaten in Abyssinia; and the flesh of the suckling foal is esteemed by the Lasilio a great dainty. The milk of asses is also used in Abyssinia, as is the milk of mares by the Tartars.

The tallest and awkwardest of all creatures, the giraffe, when grown to maturity, is defended from all human teeth by its impenetrable toughness, but when young it is esteemed highly as food.

Chinese Fond of Swallow's Nests

1896

Crocodile Steaks and Rats

Of all strange foods that men have ever used, the one that seems most singular to us is the bird's nest used by the Chinese. The edible nests are those of the Nicobar swallows, found in the cluster of islands of that name in the Bay of Bengal. These nests form one of the principal exports of the islands. They are held in the highest estimation by the Chinese, as an article of food, says the Boston Traveller.

In Siam the flesh of crocodiles is sold regularly in the markets as human food. They are eaten by the natives of Africa also. Herodotus says they are eaten by the Egyptians near Elephantine, though worshiped and their lives sacredly preserved by the inhabitants of other parts of Egypt. The alligators of North and South America were eaten by the aborigines, as they are still in some parts of these countries.

The general rule is that beasts of prey are not good for food, but there are striking exceptions to the rule, and, among others, the tiger is sometimes eaten in India.

There seems to be no really good reason why rats should not be eaten, and in the country where they originally belonged, China, they are commonly used for that purpose; as, indeed, in Paris, during the siege, people were often glad to sit down to a feast of this kind.

The fox, though an object of sport, is seldom thought of in connection with the table, yet it is sometimes eaten by Indians.

Girls Travel On "Nerve"

Oct. 1910

Two Oklahoma Young Women Start Out Without Money on a Three-Years' Trip

Chicago. — "We are going around the world on our own endeavors and nerve for educational purposes and to see if two women can work their way in such an undertaking," said Miss Olive Adair and Miss Oralee List, two young women from Tulsa, Okla., who arrived at the Congress hotel, Chicago, from St. Louis, on the first part of their long journey.

They wore broad white satin sashes, with the words, in black letters, "Around-the-World Girls From Tulsa, Oklahoma," and their suitcases and traveling bags were decorated in similar manner. They wore light tan traveling gowns and black turbans. "We are going to make a tour of the world," they said, "and will earn our passage."

Miss List is a composer of music, and Miss Adair is a singer and a writer of short stories. "We started without one cent of money, earning our fare to Kansas City by singing on the streets and selling papers."

Both the Native-Born and Immigrant Have Duties to America

1920

By Senator W. S. Kenyon of Iowa

The alien cannot Americanize himself. He can never become assimilated if he is shunted off into a shanty town. He cannot be Americanized with a club. There is more hope in a handshake than in profit-sharing.

There is a growing need for America to Americanize itself; for each individual to stop shifting the blame onto others and depending on some one else to put our house in order. The immigrant has his duty to America and he must be made to discharge it. The native-born has his duty and he must search his own heart to see if there are any roots of the trouble there. If we could only control our greed, our avarice, our quick prejudice and passion and pull together for the general welfare of our country, what a nation this would be! America means more than stocks and bonds, and churches and schools and farms and stores. It means a great ideal of justice for all men. A man who cannot be just whether with his employee or with his employer is not a true American.

The ship of state is sailing through pretty troublesome seas, but it is a mighty sturdy old ship. It will weather the storm. It will pull through every crisis. It is a time for aroused conscience and determination of all our people to enthrone justice in their own hearts and then do what they can to assist others. We are engaged now in much talk of helping the world. We can help it by giving to the world a high example of justice and fraternity, and in so doing many of our industrial problems will be solved.

John Smith Everywhere

1912

The good old name of John Smith does not suggest in English any great degree of aristocracy, but transferred to other languages it seems to climb the ladder, so to speak.

Thus, in Latin it is Johannes Smithus, the Italian smoothes it off into Giovanni Smithi, the Spaniards render it Juan Smithus, the Dutchman adopts it as Hans Schmidt, the French flatten it out into Jean Smeet and the Russian says Jonloff Smittowski.

When John Smith gets into the tea trade in Canton he becomes Jovan Shimmit; if he clambers about Mount Hecla the Icelanders refer to him as Jahne Smithson; if he trades among the Tuscaroras he becomes Ton Qa Smittla; in Poland he is known as Ivan Schmittiwelski; should be wander among the Welsh mountains they talk of Jihon Schmidd; when he goes to Mexico he is called Jontli Smitti; if of classic turn he lingers among Greek ruins he turns to Ion Smikton, and in Turkey he is utterly disguised as Yoe Seef.