In Vain

1895

Here is a story on a Washington girl. She is of a philanthropical and humane turn of mind, and prevention of cruelty to animals is her hobby. In walking along by Lafayette square she saw an object that excited her sympathies. A forlorn looking cart horse had a piece of wide yellow ribbon tied between its ears, the ends flapping over its eyes so that she was sure the poor thing could not see anything at all. Stopping the cart, she motioned to the old darky who was driving to get down. The old man respectfully obeyed.

"This is absolute cruelty," she said imperiously. "That poor creature must be almost wild with that rag flapping over his eye. Take it off. The poor thing can't see at all."

"Lor, miss," said the old darky, "dat hoss bin stone blind fo' many a year!" — Washington Post.

How to Cook Rice

1905

Physicians and others who have eaten rice cooked by a Hindoo, a Chinaman or a southern darky must have remarked the difference between the results obtained by these artists and those of the benighted cooks of the north. We learn from an authoritative source that the secret lies in the following recipe:

The rice should be carefully washed and placed in a kettle of boiling water, which should be set on the back of the range over a low fire, where the rice should simmer slowly until done. Stirring is not only useless, but harmful. If there is any water left, it should be drained off carefully and the rice should then stand in a hot place for some time.

Nothing should be added during the cooking, no salt, sugar, milk or butter. If the cooking has been done properly, each grain of rice will stand out by itself, plump, dry and beautiful. Served very hot at the table the rice should then be reverently treated with cayenne pepper and butter, after which, will be revealed to the consumer one of the secrets of the success of the Japanese army. — New York Medical Journal.

Some of The Genuinely Odd Things That Happen in Life

1893

OF GENERAL INTEREST.

—Dr. McBride, of Orange, Va., uses a flock of geese as a team of horses, which draw him over the ice in a specially prepared vehicle at the rate of one and a quarter miles a minute. He is now making a balloon in which he proposes to ride drawn by the same team.

—The man who orders plain butter in a New York restaurant and discovers it to be oleomargarine, or other kind of substitute, can have the proprietor arrested and fined, and the informer receives half the fine. The way in which the proprietor can protect himself is to print on his bills of fare the confession that his butter is not genuine.

—Uncle Joe Ardle, an old Georgia darky living on the Savannah river, thinks it about time to take to the woods. After the earthquake of 1886 he was afraid to live on the ground, so he built a hut in the branches of a huge oak tree, where he lived contentedly until the storm of a few weeks ago blew him and his hut clear out of the trees and almost into the river.

—The keeper of a cheap but clean restaurant in the French quarter in New York has hit upon the plan of advertising his wares by means of pictures on the flags of the sidewalk. He hires a chalk artist for this work, and you may see upon the flags just within the stoop line well-drawn fish in groups of three, and other lifelike representations of the viands that the place affords.

—An alligator eight feet two inches in length and weighing two hundred and twenty pounds was lately caught in the Mississippi. Alligators are quite plentiful in southwestern rivers, but they rarely attain a length of more than four feet. So far as known, this one is by far the largest ever taken from the Mississippi. Some of its teeth are over two inches long and very like the teeth of a shark.

—The Evening Democrat, Warren, PA, Oct. 17, 1893, p. 3.

Note: I've never heard of the French quarter in New York. Probably make that New Orleans.
—Towns county, Ga., boasts of a novel specimen of the "white" negro. This one has been "turning" for several years, until the left side of his face is perfectly white while the right side remains almost jet black. Negroes whose skin changes from black to a light brown or reddish white are not uncommon in the south, but the change mostly shows in blotches, giving them a mottled appearance.

—Stock raising is a business beset with many risks which do not cease until the flocks and herds are safely marketed. A flock of sheep was being driven through Grant county, Ore., to market at Baker City a few days ago, when, in passing through a narrow ravine, the sheep stampeded, and after the scare was over the stockman counted over sixty head of dead sheep that had been smothered in the crush.

—It may distract the attention of those who suffer from headache to learn that in early English days there were remedies "for headache, and for old headache, and for the ache of half the head." "Eye work and the fiend's temptations" are also mentioned in this catalogue. Ache of half the head, or hermicrania, from which George Eliot suffered so much, has been considered a distinctively modern disease, but there is nothing new.

—A strange fatality hangs over the Weeks family of Albion, Ind. Sherman was killed recently while climbing a tree. His brother entered the army during the war and died of lockjaw. Cornelius lost his life by swallowing a copper cent. Thomas jumped from a train and was killed, while Charles, still another brother, committed suicide by swallowing poison. Edward Weeks, also a brother, moved west some years ago and has never been heard of.

—Miss Minnie Rush, of Lakeville, Indiana, has discovered for herself and, perhaps for her sisters a new field of employment. For the past three years she has had charge of the passenger, freight and telegraph offices of the Vandalia line in her town, the receipts for which are fully ten thousand dollars a month. Miss Rush is only twenty-one years old, but she has organized railroad excursions which have netted handsome profits to her employers the past year, besides conducting the ordinary affairs of the office with skill and success.

—An ingenious mechanic in the Catskills has long manufactured small articles of use and ornament from the excrescences that grow upon the maple and other trees of the mountain region. He travels far in search of these nodules, seasons them for many years, and then fashions them into polished jewel boxes and many other beautiful things. He is especially careful that his material shall be well seasoned, a fact that means a good deal when one knows that the wood that goes to form some parts of thoroughly well made pianos should be seasoned thirty or forty years.

Two Despondent Men Attempt Suicide: Laudanum, Morphine, Noose

Atlanta, 1896

BOTH WANTED DEATH

Two Despondent Men Attempt Suicide in Two Ways.

LAUDANUM, MORPHINE, NOOSE

One in a Wagon Yard, the Other in a Shed.

WILL SIMPSON TOOK DRUG POISON

He Was Found with a large Quantity of Drugs In His Stomach, but Was Saved.

The suicide mania was abroad in the city yesterday. Two citizens were seized with the desire to end their existence. Both tried the usual methods of suicides.

One of the desperate men attempted to hang himself in a deserted shed. He was found and cut down just in time to save his life. His neck bears the imprint of the improvised noose, and it also has a decided crick in it.

The other unfortunate decided on the laudanum and morphine route to the other world and he swallowed enough poison to kill several men. He was found in a wagon yard and hauled to the hospital just as the poisonous drugs were taking effect. Before the doctors could pump out the man he was nearer to death than is usual in cases when would-be suicides are saved. His was given up as a hopeless case, but at the last moment the man was saved. He is very sick now.

The poison patient was picked up by some farmers in Morris's wagon yard, on Decatur street, adjoining the police station. He had taken an ounce of laudanum and three grains of morphine in his desperate effort to kill himself. The discoverers of the man called in the police and it was found that the sick man, Will Simpson, a bartender, who works for J. G. Sprayberry, on Decatur street, was in a very bad way. He was getting worse rapidly, and but for the prompt action in sending for the ambulance and hauling the man to the hospital he would have died in the yard.

Simpson lay between life and death at the hospital nearly all day. The physicians and surgeons in charge devoted several hours applying the restoratives in such cases, and after hard work they were rewarded by seeing the sick man begin to revive. He improved slowly, and late in the afternoon was on the road to recovery. Last night the physicians said that he would recover. Officers Shepard, Walton and Abbott took charge of the man when he was found, and they sent him to the hospital. He declined to tell why he had swallowed the drugs. When told that he might die he said that he had nothing to say beforehand.

Hanging In a Shed.

The would be suicide who attempted to hang himself is not known. His name was not taken at the Grady hospital. It is not the custom of the officials there to take the names of patients who attempt to kill themselves. The man is a negro. He was found in an old shed on a lot on Liberty street, near the old barracks in the western part of the city. He tied a cloth about his neck for a rope and jumped off into space with the other end of the noose fastened to a rafter above. When cut down the darky was breathing hard and was in a dangerous fix, but he was brought round all right.

—The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, March 16, 1896, page 9.