Not To Be Open Sundays

New York, 1895

The younger element in the Jamaica Club want the club-house open on Sunday. The older members do not. The younger members wanted to pass the tedious Sunday hours at the club-house in reading and conversation. The old fellows thought it might lead to abuses. The youngsters claimed that when the old fellows went to Newport, Saratoga, and Lake George, in the Summer, they were not so particular how they spent their Sundays. It was a pretty hot contest. It requires a two-third vote to change the by-laws, A vote was taken Saturday night, and the youngsters were beaten, but by only a few votes, and they expect to carry their point later on. If they don't they threaten to join the Chub Club, which is always open.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 8, 1895, p. 12.

Girl Wife Roughly Seized and Carried Off By Force

1919

Sensational Cave Man Tactics Charged Against Young Husband — Brother of Alleged Kidnaper Said to Have Rendered Strong-arm Assistance in Strange Affair

CRESTON, Iowa — The sensational kidnaping of a young wife who was stolen from under the very eyes of a watchful brother-in-law, who, worn by his vigil, nodded and then slept, is alleged to have taken place in the southeast part of this county, and resulted in a hurry call for Sheriff E. C. Young, who early in the evening arrived at the scene of the excitement and placed under arrest the parties to the affair.

Clifford Bullock is charged with kidnaping his 16-year-old wife, from whom he had been separated, and carrying her to the home of his sisters, where they were found by the sheriff and brought to Creston.

The brother-in-law of the girl-wife, named McGuire, told the sheriff that while Mrs. Bullock was staying with her sister, Mrs. McGuire, Clifford Bullock and his brother arrived at the house in a bobsled. They asked Mrs. Bullock to go with them to a rehearsal for a play by amateur talent. She refused to go and the Bullocks retired, but it appears did not go very far.

McGuire, scenting trouble, decided to stick around and watch, but sleep overcame him, and he says that the first he recalls was hearing screams of the girl, who was calling upon him to come to her help. He rushed to her rescue and found her in the hands of her husband and his brother, who were forcibly taking her from the house, which they did despite her screams and kicks and struggles.

McGuire says that when he attempted to interfere he was shot at.

The Bullocks drove off, and McGuire says he could still hear his wife's sister screaming far up the road. Evidences of the struggle in the bobsled, he says, were also found, as several comforts and blankets which had been thrown from the sled were picked up.

Sheriff Young says that when found the young wife of Bullock declared she would never live with her husband, but still was reluctant about being the cause of his getting into trouble.

It has not been determined what disposition will be made of the case.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 7.

Note: The article says "comforts."

Youthful Soldiers

1920

J. H. Monroe, famed after the Civil War as "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh," is dead. He enlisted in the Northern Army when 10 years of age and his death recalls the fact that the war between the States was largely fought by boys under 21.

Soldiers of 16 were common and "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" had his confederate counterpart in George S. Lamkin, who enlisted in Mississippi at 10 years of age, was seriously wounded at Shiloh and twice again at Chickamauga. He was living a few years ago at Nashville, Tenn.

Farragut held a midshipman's warrant at 10. Andrew Jackson joined a body of dragoons and fought in the Revolutionary War when he was 13. Oliver Hazard Perry became a midshipman at 14. John Paul Jones went to sea at 12, and Lord Nelson boarded a 64-gun man of war when he was 12. Buffalo Bill was an Indian fighter and buffalo hunter at 12.

The World War is not without its heroic figures of tender years, but with the exception of the German armies, the gaps of which were filled with mere boys toward the end, it was a struggle on the part of men who had reached maturity. As the world grows wiser, childhood is looked upon as a state which is best to prolong as long as possible and children make better men and women for being longer aloof from the realities and vicissitudes of life.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 6.

Pointed Paragraphs

1916

Leap Year is twenty-seven percent gone, girls.

Old men frequently give advice to young men — and occasionally they give up money to confidence men.

No husband is always wrong and no wife is always right. Remember this, you married disputants.

When a man offers you something for nothing you will save money by going out of your way to avoid accepting it.

Blind Boy's Wonderful Feats

1905

Pennsylvania Youth Gets Along Very Well Without Sight

Young Stephen Mellinger of Denver, Pa., does things remarkable in one who moves, as he does, in continual darkness. His senses of touch and hearing are very keen. He works in the field. He sows, uses the rake and spade, helps harvest the crops, milks, climbs trees, and, what is still more remarkable, drives spirited horses and rides a bicycle.

The boy is as bright, and cheerful as any of his associates. He is able to harness a horse unaided and to drive several miles to the village, where the household supplies are obtained. Every morning it is his duty to hitch a horse to a milk wagon and drive a mile to Denver village. In this drive he is compelled to cross railroad tracks at two points.

Spirited horses are his delight, and two belonging to his father which are too wild for the average man to handle with safety are used by him without a thought of danger. It is unwise for others than he to approach these animals. The young man does not work, ride or walk in a hesitating manner, after the usual fashion of the blind. He takes a fast horse out on the road and gallops at full speed, turning out for vehicles and other horses and rounding sharp corners without pulling up. On his wheel he rides as if possessed of full sight, and can be seen alone miles from his home.

The Confidence of Youth

1920

There are some moments in our lives when obsessed by discouragements and failures we have made, we think with bitterness of the time when we looked forward with eager eyes, and glowing hearts to the opportunities to demonstrate our ability to carve out a great success for ourselves. We recall almost with contempt the joy we felt when we first arrived at the dignity of finding a position and the satisfaction of knowing that we at least stood upon our own feet and were not dependent upon others.

We did not become discouraged because perhaps we were forced to begin at the foot of the ladder, and even when we found the climbing hard work and the setbacks we received surpassed our successes we did not murmur, but pushed upward as far as we could. We thrilled to the young blood that flowed through our veins and warmed us into action; we could not realize our experience and because this was so we dared heights which later on proved beyond our reach, and when we achieved a failure instead of a success we did not grow discouraged.

There is a certain buoyancy of spirit and elasticity of hope in our early years that carry us forward over the roughest of roads to approximately our goal, and it is these qualities, says the Charleston (S.C.) News and Courier, that make life-in-the-making so happy a season for the majority of persons. It is only when failures pile up, and discouragements grow, and one ambition after another are denied fulfillment that we begin to lose that faith that has kept us alive, not alone faith in the ultimate achievement of our hopes, but also faith in ourselves without which we cannot expect to do very much.

—Saturday Blade, Chicago, Feb. 28, 1920, p. 6.

"Goodbye" to Doctor Costs Polly a Leg

1920

Door Nips It Off and Now Bird Must Wear a Peg

JEFFERSONVILLE, N.Y. — Dr. Cyril Mydole of this village has a parrot. The doctor bought the bird when she was a year old and gave her the real parrot name, Polly. Polly displayed much intelligence from the day he purchased her and in a few months developed startling vocabulary "cuss" words. Today the parrot is using her profanity freely and the doctor says she is justified.

Polly has been allowed the freedom of the physician's office. She would follow the doctor to his office door and bid him goodbye. On a recent afternoon the doctor started to leave his office. Just as he closed the door he heard a scream. He looked around and found Polly's leg had been caught in the door. Upon examination he found that the leg was so badly mangled that he amputated it at the second joint.

Polly is now forced to stand on her right leg. She says it is "damn hard luck," and hurls invectives at the doctor. As soon as Polly's injured leg heals the doctor will provide her with a peg leg.


Washboard Salary Halts Honeymoon

ST. LOUIS, Missouri — "On his salary she would have to use the washboard for a piano," said George W. Windmuller, in discussing the suit filed in the Circuit Court by his daughter, Mrs. Georgia Chembra, 16 years old, to annul her marriage to Albert L. Chembra.

She was married to Chembra by a justice of the peace in Clayton Jan. 28 last. He is 20 years old. After the ceremony she returned to her father's home, and he to that of his mother. When the girl's father learned of the marriage through the newspapers he refused to allow Chembra to see his bride.

Mrs. Chembra in her suit says her husband misrepresented his financial condition and his earning capacity.

Wise Compromise in Slang

1914

"Good slang is permissible among school children," according to Dr. G. Stanley Hall. Precisely the same thing is true of college boys, of college girls and of the rest of us.

Slang is inevitable. To thunder against it, to ignore it, to burlesque it is equally idle. Since we cannot end it — and really, we should not and would not if we could — the part of wisdom is endeavor to mend it. Let educators direct their satire and condemnation against vulgar, vicious, idiotic slang — of which there is abundance — and they will accomplish something. The slang that is racy, spontaneous, humorous, expressive deserves kindly toleration if not encouragement. Some of it establishes itself and becomes classical English.

As to the question what good slang is, it is manifestly foolish. There is no fixed test, but persons of taste and cultivation have no difficulty in differentiating between legitimate slang and grotesque, silly and offensive slang.

Comment: So, slang is manifestly foolish, yet it deserves kindly toleration if not encouragement, because some of it will establish itself and become classical English (like that's any kind of goal.) "We would not [end it] if we could." Somehow I don't believe you, anonymous writer of long ago.

Bridegroom of 13 Spanked by Dad

March 1914

KINGSTON, Ontario. — "Well, father, permit me to introduce my bride," said Eugene Lovelace, a romantic youth of thirteen, as he presented a blushing eighteen-year-old girl, who was Miss Laura Richardson.

"Your what?" gasped the astonished parent, as he looked from one to the other.

"My bride, pop. We've come for the paternal blessing."

The bridegroom has a hazy recollection of what followed. He has a distinct remembrance of father's No. 9 shoe, still containing father's foot connecting with remarkable force somewhere amidships. He remembers getting a fleeting glimpse of a big flat hand coming in his general direction. He is in too much pain to try to recollect other incidents.

The bridegroom does not look any older than his age, and at the time of his decision to embark upon the gale-swept seas of matrimony he purchased with the bulk of his available funds the first pair of long trousers he had ever worn.

Mrs. Lovelace looks and acts much younger than most young women of eighteen do, and was won quickly by the romantic Eugene when he decided to settle down in a home of his own.

Is Bride Only 11 Years Old? Dentists Helping Find Out

Nebraska, 1921

TO EXAMINE BRIDE'S TEETH

Believe That Maria Gollardo Is Eleven Years Old, But Facts Are Lacking

HASTINGS, Neb., Dec. 3. — Examination of the teeth of Maria Gollardo by Hastings' dentists will be resorted to in an effort to determine her age. Maria, a Mexican girl, was married to Jose Gonzales on November 21 and because the school authorities are convinced she is only eleven years old, the county attorney has been trying to establish the girl bride's age with a view to beginning action to annul the marriage.

Miss Clara Altman, teacher of Spanish at Hastings college, has been drafted as interpreter in the investigations but nothing definite of the girl's age has been learned. She is the foster child of Butamio Gollardo and all they can say is that when they got her in Oklahoma four years ago, Maria was losing her first canines.

Meanwhile Maria and Jose are seemingly happy and can't understand what the officials are wrought up about.

—The Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Dec. 4, 1921, p. 8-B.

Life in Dreary Iceland; Romance in America

1878

Life in Dreary Iceland

Men and women, masters and servants, all inhabit the same room, while the cleanliness is not much attended to; but poor as they are, and accustomed to great privations, they set an example of cheerful contentment. The beauty of the young girls is remarkable; their fair hair falls in long plaits, partially covered by a black cloth coil, daintily worn on one side of the head, and finished at the top with a tassel of colored silk run through a silver or steel buckle, which floats on the shoulder. It reminds the traveler of the Greek head-dress, but the blue eyes, with their sweet, benevolent expression, soon recall to his mind their Danish origin. The dress is made of the cloth woven in the country, and on festive days the bodice is gaily adorned with silver braid and velvet, while the belt and sleeves are ornamented with silver devices, beautifully chased and often of great value. On wet and cold days the shawl becomes a useful mantilla, completely enveloping the head, and defending the wearer from the effects of the frequent storms. — Chambers' Journal.


Condensed Romance

1878

Who says that there is no romance in practical America? Who says that the days of chivalry and love-making are gone, and that this is a world of ledgers and blue stockings?

Why, the exchange table shows:

(a) that romance begins early: for a Chicago lad of fourteen eloped, last week, with a sweet little miss of thirteen;

(b) that it gets on fast: for a dashing naval officer proposed to a Washington belle last Tuesday, was accepted on Wednesday and married on Saturday;

(c) that it is numerous: for a woman in Coventry, Conn., swears that, like the good wife in Chaucer's tale, she has had seven husbands, and that they have annoyed her all her life by turning up after she had every reason to suppose that they had been hanged as pirates, or carried off by small-pox;

(d) that it is exceedingly uncertain: for "Clara," of Westfield, Mass., broke the engagement the moment she heard that her betrothed had been bitten by a mad dog, on the ground that it would be unsafe to marry a man who might have the hydrophobia;

(e) that it is never too late for it: for a farmer in Massachusetts, who confessed his seventy-third year, hired his neighbor's son to find a wife for him, insisting that she must be young and pretty, and the agent brought to the venerable widower an engaging lass of seventeen, who, rather than work out for a living, professed her willingness to marry him, and to inherit his money in the sweet by-and-by; but the marriage has cost the old man dear, for, besides the commissions charged by the neighbor's son, he has had to give his daughter, who was the bride's senior by eight years, $10,000 outright before she would consent to leave his roof and allow him to enjoy his honeymoon. — New York Tribune.

Mysterious Suicide — "I Hate To Go, But I Must"

Ohio, 1878

MYSTERIOUS SUICIDE ! !

ENVELOPED IN MYSTERY — NO CAUSE ASSIGNED FOR THE RASH ACT.

Early last evening, the streets were alive with rumors that a young man had shot himself. Our reporter ascertaining his residence, visited the scene; there he found a young man lying upon the bed, a ghastly wound in the right temple, evidently inflicted by his own hand; he was breathing heavily, and apparently near death's door. He was a strong, finely built young man aged about 20 years. His people know of no cause for the act of self-immolation. All they could say, was, that he came in about 5 o'clock, went to his room, then out to the wood-shed, and to his room again, when the shot was fired. There was supposed to be a young lady mixed up in the case; our reporter called upon the lady, but she was wholly reticent, and says that it does not concern the public. As it was known that the young man had written and sent a letter by carrier, to the lady, previous to the shooting, our reporter, after super-human efforts, succeeded in enabling us to place it before our readers:

"Marion, Ohio, Jan., 17: Dear friend Annie, I am going to leave this world, I am in trouble, and I must die; so good-bye, good-bye. Tell Jane and Katy to come to my burial, and come yourself. I hate to go, but I must; I would like to see you before I go, but I cannot; good-bye, good-bye. From yours, FRANK WEAVER."

From the tone of the letter, we should judge that the young lady had nothing to do with the cause of his taking off. She certainly seems deeply grieved. The funeral will be held to-morrow at 9 o'clock. His last words were, "I did it; no one is to blame but myself."

—Daily Star, Marion, Ohio, Jan. 18, 1878, p. 4.

Girl Bride Takes Poison with a Smile

1901

Girl Bride Drains Cup in Presence of Husband

CHICAGO - Mrs. Belle Foran, a girl bride, kissed her husband, and sent him off smiling and happy to his work. Then she sent a neighbor's child after him, and when he returned she confronted him with a cup in her hand.

Her cheeks were flushed as if with pleasure and she smiled as she said: "Tom, I'm going take poison." The boy husband did not try to check her, because he thought she was jesting and held only a cup of water in her hand. Then she swallowed a draught of carbolic acid and sank to the ground in an agony of pain.

In two hours the bride was dead. Foran knelt at the side of the body and cried; then resolutely folded his arms and denied admittance to the relatives who had opposed his marriage. It is supposed the girl was despondent because her marriage had resulted in the estrangement of her husband from his family.

—Dubuque Daily Telegraph, Dubuque, IA, Sept. 6, 1901, p. 3.