Supply and Demand

1895

As a rule, the relic seeker does a great deal of damage to historical sites and places of interest, but it seems that it is sometimes possible to meet his demand without doing any harm.

A Washington paper says that recently, as a lady who had been standing before the tomb of the Father of His Country at Mount Vernon turned to go away, she stooped furtively and picked up a pebble. she intended to carry it away with her. Perhaps the foot of Washington had pressed this very pebble. As she started away she saw a workman approach with a wheelbarrow load of gravel, which he proceeded to dump on the very spot.

"Did you — have you fixed up this place that way recently?" the lady asked the workman.

"Bless you, miss," answered the man, "we have to do this about every two weeks, so's the tourists can have something to carry away for momentums!"

Advice to Outdoor Sleepers

1915

Two of the light-weight army blankets are warmer than a single six-pound blanket. On a cold night the camper sleeps in fresh underwear and socks, trousers, sweater, Mackinaw, German socks and moccasins. (It is no hardship, then, to get up and replenish the fire.) With the half-ax a regular backlog fire can be built and plenty of night wood laid in. Don't use wood that snaps and shoots out embers. If a snowfall is anticipated, cover the tent-frame with evergreen boughs and thatch with browse (evergreen twigs). This will also effectively screen the tent from sparks. Then build the fire as close to the tent as safety permits. If you know how to manage one, it may be within four feet.


1900

A Curious War Relic

W. C. Freeman, a commercial traveler, whose home is at 811 Mulberry street, has presented to Robert M. Scranton a ring that carries with it a realistic suggestion of the civil war. Mr. Freeman, who was a member of the Seventh Pennsylvania cavalry, took it from the finger of a dead confederate in front of Petersburg, Va., in 1863. The ring is made of hardwood, is fashioned handsomely, and has a gold top in semblance of a sunburst. — Scranton (Pa.) Republican.

Artwork -- Grandmother's Help -- 1880s

The Old Oaken Bucket In The Well – Unfortunately, Stolen

1916

THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET.

That Famous Moss Covered One That Hung In the Well.

Not far from Boston is located the well which inspired the familiar lines of Samuel Woodworth to the "Old Oaken Bucket." Every time the place is visited many new traditions are told concerning the famous old bucket about which people have been singing these many years. Having drunk deep of the sparkling waters between whistled snatches of the familiar refrain, how disconcerting it was to have the charm broken by learning that the original "old oaken bucket" was stolen shortly after his well known poem became famous!

The youngest daughter of Samuel Woodworth, the author, who died in Berkeley, Cal., often used to tell about the real old oaken bucket and of the sadness which came over the household on the day it was stolen. It seemed as if one of the family were missing. In this age of souvenir collection who knows but that some day the real old "moss covered bucket that hung in the well" may turn up in a museum or serve as a water tank in the show windows of some enterprising advertiser?

There is no other water bucket in the world so enshrined in homely, genuine romance as this one. Even the golden goblets of royalty and the treasured chalices of the crusaders have never awakened the universal and popular interest attained by the "old oaken bucket that hung in the well" until it was stolen and carried away in the zenith of its fame. — Joe Mitchell Chapple in National Magazine.

Honest Chicken Leaves Egg Behind As Train Fare

1921

HEN PAYS HER FARE; LAYS EGG FOR ENGINEER

DENVER, Colo., June 23.— Rather than beat her way on a locomotive, a hen laid an egg on the engine's pilot as payment, according to Paul Burkey, Colorado & Southern passenger engineer.

Burkey told railroad officials here that a hen boarded his locomotive at Trinidad, Tuesday. At Walsenburg, $1.25 by railway fare, the cackling hen flew off the engine pilot and Burkey found a new laid egg on the front of the locomotive. He intends to hard boil the egg and keep it as a souvenir of an honest fowl.

—Oakland Tribune, Oakland, CA, June 23, 1921, p. 11.