Coca-Cola Fair Ad (1920)

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Interesting artwork, state fair theme, with the midway, featuring favorites of the sideshow, Cora the Fat Woman (450 lbs.), the Smallest Man Alive, Mazye the Snake Handler, and who knows what all else. A barker calls to patrons, barefoot children share a bottle of Coke, and everyone seems to be having a great time. It's August, a hot summer day on the midway!

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 2. Approx. 4-1/8" x 7", the heavy black border's dimensions.

New Hampshire Neighbors — Watson Hill

New Hampshire/Maine, 1916

Frank Wilkinson and family from East Wakefield called to see his father Sunday for a short time. They came in an automobile.

Mrs. Ruth K. Moulton is spending her vacation on the Hill with her mother, Mrs. Sadie Kezar.

Mr. H. S. Rass and family returned to their home in Boston Saturday after spending a very pleasant summer at Hornheam Hill.

Mrs. Ida Waston[*] called on Mr. and Mrs. Eli Wilkin Sunday afternoon.

Most everyone is getting back to the city now and it leaves the summer places kind of lonesome until another year.

Mr. and Mrs. Alphonse Wilkin and son of Salem recently spent a few days with his father.

Miss Nellie Kezar spent the weekend of last week in Rochester returning Monday.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 12, 1916, p. 3.

Note: [*] Perhaps should be Ida Watson since the place is Watson Hill. Just a guess (educated), but I left it Waston.

Transplant in the Fall

1916

In general, the fall is the best time to plant trees and shrubs on the home grounds. When planted in the fall, the plant is given an opportunity to spend its strength in producing new root growth rather than top growth. These new roots are the "feeding" roots, and if well established will give added vigor to the plant the following year. The protection and health of the root system is the most important consideration in plant growing.

There are some exceptions to this rule. If the summer and fall seasons have been unusually dry and the plant has suffered from drought, it may be best to wait until early spring to transplant, as plants may recuperate during the winter. In some parts of the country, late summer planting of evergreens has proved best, but for Missouri early spring planting seems more satisfactory.

It is best to transplant all trees and shrubs in the fall. It is possible to move plants after they have leafed out, but there is some danger of over-evaporation of moisture from the leaves and bark which will exhaust the strength of the roots. The plant will then show wilt and spend its strength on new leaves instead of readjusting its roots. To lessen the danger from evaporation, it is always well to cut the tops back severely, and if in leaf, the trunk of a tree should be wrapped with straw or sphagnum moss to keep it moist. It is better to transplant early in the morning or late in the afternoon.

Rainy or cloudy days are the best ones in which to do planting. Transplant after the leaves drop in the autumn or before they open in the spring. Remove injured roots, broken branches, and cut back the tops. Preserve the fine hair-like roots; they are the feeders, the others only serve as anchors. Never allow the roots to dry out in the wind or sun. Cover them with earth or wet straw. Dig the hole much larger than the spread of the roots and do not bend or crowd them. Tamp the soil firmly and closely about the roots, but leave about two inches of loose soil at the surface. These planting rules are important. A tree lives longer than a man; take time and care in planting it, and, in general, plant in the fall.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 4.

Postage Stamps In Winter Garb Oct. 1.

1916

HEAVY COATS FOR WASHINGTON AND FRANKLIN.

George and Ben to Doff Summer Attire and Appear Well Clad for Cold Season.

Some people prefer to change to their winter things later, but on October 1 George Washington and Ben Franklin will put on their heavy gum coats. It's their wish and the Government respects it.

Whether the first frosts of winter come in September or November, these two old sticklers for convention put on their heavy gums Oct. 1, and keep them on until the 1st of next May. If they didn't they would never be able to stand the climate, the Government stamp doctors say.

The next time the man who somehow "never seems able to keep any stamps of his own" asks for the loan of a 2-cent pale-pink lithograph of George Washington you will be absolutely within your rights as an American citizen If you reply:

"Sure thing. How will you have George — summer or winter style?"

The same also applies to that other popular favorite, Ben Franklin, whose profile now appears almost as many times as George's on the all-steel art work turned out by the Government presses.

If your query does not stump the perennial stamp-borrower he will be one of the very few American citizens who know that George and Ben are being turned out in two styles — to catch the winter and summer trade — but with no tempting reductions in prices. A 2-cent stamp still costs 2 cents.

Educated people are supposed to know that in spring a young man's fancy lightly turns somewhere or other; that the hardest-shelled crabs turn soft-shelled, and that one's heavy winter flannels are put away in camphor and one's light summer affairs are made ready for one to put on. But ever so many well educated and patriotic persons are totally ignorant of the fact that George and Ben are built on the crab pattern and need a change of wearing apparel in the hot sultry days.

Notables In Summer Attire.

Just at present George and Ben are wearing their summer weight clothing. They made the change along about May 1, when the warm days set in and the crabs began to shed their armor plate and shop windows were decked out in the latest things in hot weather toggery. George and Ben suffer terribly from the heat. Keep them in their winter things beyond the May 1 limit and Whole sheets of Georges and Bens will curl up and crack and stick to the furniture and otherwise make eloquent protest against the cruel disregard of their feelings and the dictates of fashion.

Kind-hearted souls in the Postoffice Department down in Washington were the first to discover this little human failing on the part of George and Ben. Gum experts were called into consultation and the problem was soon solved. What George and Ben needed was a change of glue. And so, you buy — or borrow — your Georges and Bens done summer style these days, and you will continue to do so until Oct. 1.

No Change in Flavor.

The difference between the summer and winter coats worn by George and Ben is one entirely of weight. Suggestions that the flavor of the gum be varied also, so as to appeal more to the taste of those who go in for crushed fruit and chocolate concoctions in the warm days, have never been seriously considered by the attending physicians of the Postoffice Department. Their concern is solely with the general well-being of George and Ben.

As one of the visiting nurses in the cashier's department of the old postoffice explains it, George and Ben have become inordinately fussy in their old age and won't stick to their jobs — or to letters — unless their whims are attended to.

"You see," he said, "the winter gum is so heavy it soaks up all the moisture in summer and stamps curl up and crack and spoil on our hands. The summer gum, being lighter, keeps better during the hot season and sticks just as well. The stamps don't curl up and there is less waste. But this light gum won't do in cold weather. It dries up and the stamps won't stick, no matter how hard you lick them. So we go back to the winterweight gums."

Winter Weights Being Made.

All of which works out very well here in Chicago, where Ben and George are in such great demand that the postoffice officials have to send to Washington every week or ten days for a fresh supply. The Government bureau of engraving and printing is already beginning to manufacture winterweight Bens and Georges, and along toward the end of September, when the local office calls for more, it will get its Bens and Georges with their new heavyweight gum coats.

But out in the rural districts the law of demand and supply works less smoothly and there is intense suffering for Ben and George when the cold snap comes. In these places supplies of Bens and Georges are ordered at longer intervals — enough to last three or four months sometimes — and it frequently happens that Oct. 1 finds the supply still going strong. Thus Ben and George are obliged to enter upon their winter labors wearing their last summer's garments, which is tough on Ben and George, to say nothing of the home folks who have to do the licking.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 9.

Note: It seems odd, but 'post office' was spelled as one word back in those days.

Dwellings of Eskimos

1901

It is a mistake to suppose that the Eskimos of Greenland live in huts made of ice or snow, even though some of the writers of geographies do say so. The huts in which they pass the winter are rudely conical in shape, a little more than five feet high, made of stone, with the cracks and spaces filled with earth and the whole covered with turf or sod.

A passageway about six feet long and less than three feet square leads to the interior, and there is a small window in the hut directly over the passageway. The hut, which is called an igloo, contains only one room and has built around its sides a rude platform or bench of stone.

When summer arrives, the Eskimos abandon their igloos and dwell in skin tents, called tupics. Huts made of ice and stone are never used except temporarily, as, for example, when they are traveling long distances during the winter or when for some reason they do not return to their winter settlements.

Plan to Play Ice Baseball

1915

Big Leaguers Get a New Idea — Scheme In the Making

Winter baseball played on the ice by major leaguers will be offered to New York fans who can't get enough of the old ball game in the summer, if plans of the promoters pan out.

"Wild Bill" Donovan, Heine Zimmerman, Rube Oldring and Harry McCormick are the promoters, and they reason it this way:

The winter rent on the Polo grounds could be paid from the proceeds of the skating ball game; the games would be played on skates with an indoor baseball; the ice would benefit the sod of the field, and the tariff on pleasure skaters when games are not in progress would leave a nifty profit.

The plans are only in the making, however.


Athletics Sign Boy of Seven?

The claim has often been made that Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia American League team, signs his ballplayers when they are infants, and Jack Doyle, Chicago White Sox scout, claims to have the dope in one case.

"I got a tip on Davies, an outfielder," says Doyle, "watched him in several games and decided to sign him.

"I found he had been signed by Connie Mack when he was only 7 years old. He is only 17 now and was with Mack's team last season."

November In Georgia (poetry)

1899

By Francis Barine

Is this November—late November, too?
The woods have scarce a bough stripped wholly bare;
And soft and clear and kindly is the air,
And Summer's skies are not more deeply blue.
No richer roses in her garden grew,
Nor are these her "Good-by," — these roses rare:
The year has many roses yet to wear
Ere Winter comes, even here to claim his due.
Here Summer lingers — all the garden-ways
Are fragrant still. The bamboo's tangled green
Is mirrored where the warm brown water shines.
The distant hills are unobscured by haze —
Across a league of rolling land between
How clear the sky-line rampart of tall pines!

Yet there is something in the air to-day —
What is it? — sighing Summer's day is done,
Though Psyche float and circle in the sun,
And wayside-weed and garden-bed be gay.
Here waves the cotton-sedge, grown ghostly-gray—
There stretch the withered corn-fields. One by one
Queen Summer's brilliant courtiers vanish — none,
Except the roses, to the end will stay.
It is as if, arrested, Summer stood —
A fugitive queen, yet royal — with raised hand
Commanding silence, wherefore not a breath
Breaks the deep stillness of the waiting wood,
While with sad eyes she looks across the land
For his approach whose coming is her death.

— Youth's Companion.

Lessons of Winter

1874

There is no season of the year so well calculated to bind us together in the ties of a common brotherhood as is winter. Nature claims and receives our sympathy in all her varied aspects.

In the spring we rejoice in her renewed activity, and greet with delight her balmy air and budding beauty. As the summer approaches, we disperse to behold her in new phases and to enjoy her cool breezes from mountain and sea. In the fall we witness with tender sadness the departure of the gorgeous foliage and rich bloom, and still linger lovingly among her shadows. But when nature puts on her winter's dress, she bears a different message to us all.

With the bleak wind and stinging frost she sends us from her presence for a time, and bids us draw closer to one another for warmth and comfort. She brings more forcibly to the mind the delights of home and friends, and at the same time speaks impressively of the pain and sorrow, poverty and woe that call for sympathy and help.

Each season has its appropriate lesson, and that of winter is surely intended to strengthen within us the spirit of humanity that shall blossom into brotherly love and kindness. As the dusk of twilight calls the children away from outdoor play to assemble in the home, and brighten the family with their cheerful presence, so winter calls the human family from their summer rambles into a more intimate communion and sympathy with each other.

It is a pleasant task to learn one part of winter's teachings, that which relates to social and domestic union. The festivities of Thanksgiving and Christmas, the long winter evenings, the cheerful fireside, the lectures, concerts and social gatherings, the hilarity of the young, and the cheerful sympathy of the old all draw families and friends together in closer bonds.

All honor to the merry pastimes, the genial society, the friendly harmony which winter inaugurates. Let parents and children devote themselves more assiduously to each other, let brothers and sisters strengthen fraternal love by kindly offices and close companionship, let acquaintances blossom into friends, and friendly intercourse ripen affection, and, above all, let the sympathy thus developed serve to inspire each with higher purposes and nobler aims, and one part of winter's mission, will have been accomplished.

Summer's Slipping (poetry)

1922

Poems You Will Enjoy
By Berton Braley

SUMMER'S SLIPPING
The summer's almost gone again,
And fall is coming on again,
When we must really get upon the job;
When we must quit our pleasuring,
And start once more to treasuring
The work that keeps the busy
world athrob.

The small boy thinks unpleasantly
Of school days coming presently;
He'd like to have vacation all the year.
Fall styles are in the stores again,
We'll soon read football scores again,
And apples on the menu will appear.

Straw hats will soon be laid away,
And Palm Beach suits will fade away,
And oysters will again be fit to eat.
Dramatic stars will flash again,
And college boys grow brash again,
And we won't be complaining of the heat.

Thus, after summer's lazy days,
We'll have the golden, hazy-days
When we'll have lots of pep on which to call,
As back to work we turn again,
To earn the coal to burn again,
When winter comes along right after fall!

It's Time To Go Out On A Picnic

1919

Want to Have a Regular Picnic?
(By Ruth Baird.)

Do you know what fun it is to go picnicking? Take your family out to the woods the first pleasant evening and becoming acquainted with our glorious out-of-doors. They will tell you it is great fun and you, yourself, forgetting the hot routine task of preparing supper and washing dishes, will decide that after all, summer is a time to enjoy yourself.

There are picnics — and picnics, of course. You could spend all day preparing the lunch and then at the picnic small Billy might say, "My lemonade is warm and the creamed potatoes are going through my paper plate. What shall I do?"

Or tragedy of tragedies, your husband might confess that he was too rheumatic to sit on grassy hummocks or picturesque rocks.

Simple Dishes, But Mighty Good.

A little forethought, however, will guard against such possible objections. A menu like this would not require a day for its preparation and brings no problem of creamed sauce on paper plates.

Meat Loaf, Potato Chips, Pickles, Vegetable Salad, Bread and Butter Sandwiches, Fruit Cookies, Lemonade.

If you desire a simpler supper, sandwiches, cookies, and fruit, with perhaps hard boiled or stuffed eggs, are always good.

An elaborate equipment is not necessary but if picnics become a family habit, one of the many kinds of convenient picnic outfits on the market would add much to the joys of picnicking. All that would be necessary for our picnic could be found about the house; a basket or carton, cups, paper plates and napkins, a little silver as possible, paraffin paper for wrapping the sandwiches and cookies, a carrier for the lemonade or coffee, and a tablecloth or some clean fresh wrapping paper to use in its place. A thermos bottle is excellent for carrying the drink, be it hot or cold, but it is not essential. Lemonade can be chilled by ice carried from home or it may be made fresh at the picnic if pure spring water is close at hand.

Cool Weather Even Better.

If the weather should turn cool and we should decide to change our menu to include eggs or a meat to be cooked over the fire, and coffee, one of the chief charms would be the coffee brewing over a camp fire in your "second best" coffee pot or kettle.

Man's Tomato Vines Resemble Jack's Bean Stalk

Irvington, Indiana, 1918

WHAT MIGHT HE HAVE DONE HAD HE KNOWN TOMATOES?

Although a Novice, W. M. Young Declares Vines Resembled "Jack's Bean Stalk"

W. M. Young, 28 Colorado avenue, Irvington, is wondering how large a tomato crop in the rear of his home would have been last summer had he been an expert agriculturist rather than a novice at the game.

Young, who is a busy man as traffic manager for the Nordyke & Marmon automobile and milling machine plant, sought some pastime as a relief from his "grind" at the office — a regular "nightmare" of less than car loads, differentials, freight tariffs, lost shipments and overcharges.

A kind neighbor found a solution. It was gardening. Tomato seeds were supplied and early last spring Young got busy with the spade. He kept busy and cared for the tender plants in the same gentle manner that an experienced farmer does his crops.

The vines continued to grow until they took on astounding proportions. Some of the vines climbed to a height of six feet, and Young says some of the tomatoes were "nearly" as large as red toy balloons. The season's yield from twenty-one vines was six bushels.

Young is planning to establish even a better record next summer and his entire back yard will be transformed into a garden for the exclusive development of a tomato crop.

—The Indianapolis Sunday Star, Indianapolis, November 23, 1918, page 4.

Arithmomania: Count to 100 Before Reading This

1920

A Peculiar Disease: Arithmomania

Arithmomania — the medical name for another disease — is full of interest. In this the patient has the irresistible impulse to count a certain number of times before doing anything. One case recorded is of a girl who had to tap on the edge of the bed nine times before getting into it; a hundred times before brushing her teeth; to knock three times on a window by the side of the door, and a similar number of times on the door itself before she would unlock it.


Private Park

If the rear yard is properly planted with a border of flowering shrubs and perennial flowers, has a velvety green lawn and a few shade or fruit trees, it will give the family a quiet, peaceful little private park, in which all can enjoy the moonlight during the hot summer evenings without making a long, tiresome trip to the parks. This is the height of pleasure afforded by a well-planted home yard.

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1920, page 4.

The Luxury of a Great Porch in the Summer

1912

SUMMER PORCHES

The Luxury of Living Outdoors in Hot Weather

WHAT PAINT WILL DO

Get Out Your Own Chairs, Buy Two New Wickers, Give Them a Green Coat and Then Dress Them Up In Gay Chintzes

It seems a pity that all country homes are not built with roomy, spacious piazzas. After all, the principal reason that any one has for living in the suburbs and going through all the trouble of commuting is because he wants to live in the country. Of course six months in the year it is too cold to sit out of doors, but when spring comes the suburbanite wants to enjoy the country to the utmost. He cannot do this by sitting indoors, certainly. He wants to read his paper and smoke his pipe where he can see nature's beauties spread all out before his eyes — namely, on the porch.

Modern architects are realizing more and more the need for big porches, no matter how small the house. Of course the suburbanite who owns his own home can always add to the porches if he wishes. But the others must make the most of what they have and do the best they can to make their piazza cozy and comfortable, no matter how small it may be.

You women who live in the country will find that a can or two of paint and a bolt of pretty chintz will do much to transform your porch furniture. If you have no comfortable chairs for piazza use do buy one or two. They need not be expensive pieces, but be sure they are comfortable and have pretty lines.

The wicker or reed furniture is really the most attractive for verandas, and it is not at all expensive.

You need not worry if you have two or three pieces of one kind and a couple of pieces of another variety. After you have given them all a coat of the same paint and made chintz cushioned seats and backs for them they will look enough alike to fool any casual eye. Besides, no one expects rigid formality in porch decorations.

If your house is white or gray you will find that green porch furniture will look best. Give all the chairs, tables and settees a coat of green paint and one of green enamel paint. The chintz for green furniture should contrast with it, and a figure with a good deal of red in it will be found most effective.

It may be wisest to have a cheap upholsterer make the seat cushions and backs if you are afraid to tackle so tricky a job. Have them made with some white goods as a cover. Then you can yourself make slip covers of the chintz for them. The reason why it is better not to have the chintz put right on as the first cover of the cushions is because it may soil very quickly, being where the street dust can easily reach it. If the chintz is made into slip covers they can be removed and washed when soiled.

If your house is any other color except white or gray brown porch furniture is prettiest. So you can paint your furnishings brown and use almost any gaily colored, pretty bright chintz for cushions.

—The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, June 24, 1916, page 7.

Street Gossip About Town — Kingston, New York, 1916

1916

STREET GOSSIP ABOUT TOWN

We notice quite some change in woman's styles this season, the hair being dressed low and the skirts high.

Our June tip to bridegrooms — If you start now helping the bride to wash the dishes you will have, unknowingly, contracted a life job.

The remarkable power and strength of the human eye is almost unbelievable and to quote but a single instance. The other evening one of the large plate glass fronts in the Arnold saloon on Mill street fell out. The bartender when questioned next day as to how it happened said "Somebody looked at it." As every one knows bartenders are unusually truthful and his statement as to how it happened should be accepted without reservation.

We rise to remark that we hope the present administration has now decreed a closed season on ultimatums.

Did you forget to carry your umbrella with you Wednesday?

For the first in some time we went off to work leaving ours at home, much to our regret.

Constant Reader suggests that as President Wilson has now qualified as an expert in note writing that he be requested to send one to the weather man.

We are hoping, however, that Company M will not have to contend with rainy weather when they go to camp.

Our own weather report — like the present administration's foreign policy, somewhat unsettled.

It is said that North Rondout residents are thinking of applying to the state fish hatchery for a supply of fish to stock the trenches in the streets which have now been filled with a quantity of water on the grounds that as long as the R. P. W. does not fill up the holes in the streets they should be allowed to have some pleasure in sitting on their front porch and throwing a fish line into the deep holes with the prospect of landing a nice trout for dinner.

There Is no foundation to the rumor that the government is thinking of chartering the Skillipot to transport the soldiers to the summer camp.

Residents of Ulster county are still watchfully waiting for work to be started on the concrete piers for the Sleightsburgh bridge.

With the thermometer registering as low as 55 degrees the first night of summer it is still best to use plenty of bed clothing.

An old resident remarked during the rain storm on Wednesday, the first day of summer, that he fails to recollect a rainy season at this time of the year to equal the one we are "enjoying."

The reason why we emphasize the fact that Wednesday was the first day of summer is that no one would guess it from the weather we are having.

Have you joined Company M yet? If not better hurry before the boys leave for camp.

We wonder if the men who shouted loudest for intervention in Mexico were among the first to join the National Guard when the call went out for recruits.

—The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, June 24, 1916, page 2.