Save Lots of Money by Not Shaving

1911

Wise Cracks in the News

A Massachusetts octogenarian who has never shaved in his life, claims to have saved $24,000 in that way, but most men would rather not have the money than the whiskers.

A lady smuggler arrested with $8,000 worth of jewels in her stocking claims that that's where she always wears 'em. Evidently we've been overlooking a good thing.

A few phlegmatic men who never become excited about anything are not going to buy a fruit farm next and get rich in one season by raising apples.

The fashionable dressmakers are still quarreling over the location of the waist line, and women will have to go along a while without knowing where it will finally be located for the season.

There are many ways of getting in bad, only one of which is to travel on a train which is about to be wrecked.

We are told that the day of the novel is ended. When we consider the alleged literature that has been perpetrated recently, we cannot squeeze out even the semblance of a tear.

With Heaps of Wool, They Spin It by Hand

They Spin by Hand

1896

The hum of the spinning wheel is still a familiar sound in Block Island, quaint and interesting resort in summer and a miniature world in winter, in which the habits and customs are those of one hundred and fifty years ago. The island is fifteen miles off the Rhode Island shore and almost directly south of stormy Point Judith.

The heads of thirty Block Island families set sail in fishing boats the other day and pushed up the Thames River to Oakdale, where they left heaps of wool to be carded into rolls for hand spinning. The rolls will be spun and knitted into stockings and mittens for the protection of the hardy islanders against the bleak winter winds of the Atlantic.

There are times during the winter when the wind sweeps across the treeless land at a velocity of eighty-four miles an hour, and women take their lives in their hands when they venture out of doors. The isolation of the island is almost complete.

John Schofield established the first woolen mill in Connecticut near Oakdale, where the carding was done by power cards. In 1798 the Block Islanders began to send wool to the mill to be carded into rolls, and generation after generation have kept up the practice. Formerly many bags of grain accompanied the wool, and grist and woolen mills were kept running day and night, while the fishermen and farmers enjoyed themselves in the quiet Connecticut village until the work was done. — New York Herald.

Co-Eds Swindled Out of Stockings

1920

Woman Agent Collects Girls' Money -- Departs

LAWRENCE, Kan. -- Kansas University sorority girls are holding the sack for the amount of $100. The deficit is on account of some extra fine silk hose, which they thought they had purchased for $3 or $4, when the retail price is $7 to $10.

It all hinges on the visit of "Miss A. B. Court" to Lawrence six weeks ago. Miss Court, as she introduced herself to the sororities, was a very well-dressed and fashionable woman of about 25. Her brunette complexion was admirably set off by a strictly tailored suit, expensive black straw sailor, with face veil, and her pleasing personality easily "got over" with the sorority girls.

"Miss Court's" line, as she demonstrated, was silk hose, her assortment of samples was a wonderful collection, and, coupled with her plausible explanation that her company was in competition with an already established national hosiery company, enabled her to take several large orders for hosiery. The Chi Omegas invested to the extent of $30, and the Sigma Kappas, Pi Beta Phis and Kappa Alpha Thetas each bought $20 worth.

Just before Miss Court left each of the houses she is reported to have said:

"Would it be too much trouble for you to pay me the whole amount now? You know when I return with the hose half of you will be in classes, and you know how hard it is to collect from a bunch of girls, anyway."

And she was paid.

The lucky buyers gloated over their sisters who had not been so lucky in getting the wonderful bargains, and waited. "Miss Court" failed to show up and one of the prospective purchasers of hose telephoned to the bank in which her money was deposited and found that the checks were cashed the day they were made. Then she learned "Miss Court" had "skipped out."

The latest campus rumor is that as soon as spring starts in earnest certain of the sororities will discard stockings altogether.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 10.