No Reduction Accepted.

1895

The count came near and whispered softly.

"I am ready," he said, "to make a sacrifice for you."

She gestured deprecatingly.

"Sacrifice?" she repeated. "No, Reginald, I am able to pay the regular price."

She smiled, as in the consciousness of power. — Detroit Tribune.



Trivia

An unjust acquisition is like a barbed arrow, which must be drawn backward with horrible anguish, or else will be your destruction. — Jeremy Taylor.

The clove is the dried and unexpended bud of a tree technically known to botanists as the Caryophyllus aromaticus.

Belgium took its name from the Belgae, a warlike tribe which inhabited it before the time of Christ.

The early Egyptian lamps were of granite, alabaster and terra cotta.

Deceitful

1895

Jagwell — What makes that hen in your back yard cackle so loud?
Wigway — Oh, they've just laid a cornerstone across the street, and she's trying to make the neighbors think she did it. — London Answers.


Trivia

"Wake, Nicodemus," a very popular song during the war, was written by Henry C. Work, the author of "My Grandfather's Clock."

Webster is said to have been able to repeat the most, if not all, of "Paradise Lost."

Needles of bone, very delicately made, have been found in the Swiss lake dwellings.

Dickens' Slips

1895

Dickens' "Pickwick Papers" has delighted millions of readers during the past half century, but it has apparently remained for a somewhat critical down town reader to detect two or three amusing blunders or inconsistencies that have gone unheeded through hundreds of editions.

For instance, during the rook shooting at Dingley Dell, it is recorded that the immortal Fat Boy "laughed as he retired with the bird." In chapter 45, when that corpulent youth stumbled upon the lovemaking between his young mistress and the poetic Snodgrass and had been bribed into silence with half crowns, one reads, "He burst into a horse laugh for the first and only time in his existence."

Again, when the reader is introduced to the fussy little Mr. Peter Magnus, he is surveying the world through blue spectacles, while at the end of the unfortunate episode of the middle aged lady in curl papers be "dashed off his green spectacles."

These are amusing trifles, but they serve to show that novelists can make mistakes just like ordinary people. — Philadelphia Record.


Think So

The passenger came out of the smoker into the parlor car and sat down by the first man he came to.
"By George," he said, "there's a fellow out there can tell stories that will make your hair stand on end."
"I'll give him $100 if he can," replied the other party.
"Well, he can. You just go out there and listen to him."
"Do you think so?" smiled the other party, removing his hat and showing a head like a billiard ball. — Detroit Free Press.


Japanese Patriotism

Mr. Lafcadio Hearn asked in different classes of his Japan school for written answers to the question, "What is your dearest wish?" Twenty per cent wished to gain glory by dying for the emperor. Others stated a similar wish in less definite language. Patriotism is, in Japan, devotion to the ruler personally rather than to the country.


Eden

Edenton, N C., was named after Charles Eden, a royal governor.

Escape From Justice

1895

"Gag him!"
"Put the ice cold iron in his mouth!"
"Tie his head back so he can't move it!"
At this critical moment Mr. Finkenbinder woke with a start from a horrible dream in which a lot of ferocious horses had got hold of him and were using him as he was in the habit of using his own horse. — Chicago Tribune.


Poets

"I'm going to call my baby Charles," said the author, "after Lamb, because he is such a dear little lamb." "Oh, I call him William Dean," said the friend. "He Howells so much."


Lanterns

The Feast of Lanterns is a Chinese holiday. It is celebrated by an unusual and very splendid display of lanterns, fireworks and illuminations of all kinds.

And So It Is

1895

It was an old fashioned spelling class — that is, the little girls were standing in a row, spelling and "defining," and the visitor was looking on.
"Jewel," said the teacher, and one little pink cheeked maid spelled it correctly and then gave the definition, "Gem."
On that word it happened that the teacher departed from her usual custom.
"How does a gem look?" she asked. "What is a gem?"
The little girl did not know. The entire class looked puzzled. Finally one lassie brightened and raised her and triumphantly. When she was called on, she almost "sang out" in the excess of her zeal:
"A little cake baked in a gem pan" — Youth's Companion.


Amusement

The habit of dissipating every serious thought by a succession of agreeable sensations is as fatal to happiness as to virtue, for when amusement is uniformly substituted for objects of moral and mental interest we lose all that elevates our enjoyments above the scale of childish pleasures.


Trivia

The oldest known coin comes from China. It is brass or copper, is a block nearly cubical and weighs about a pound.

During the years immediately preceding the civil war $1,000 was a common price for a healthy young negro man.

The Boston brown bread is made of rye and cornmeal in the proportion one to two.

Keokuk, an Indian chief, furnished the name for an Iowa town. The word means sly fox. Rahway was once Rahwack, the name of an Indian chief.

An Orang Outang's Nest

1895

The nest of an orang outang taken from a tree at Borneo has lately been placed in the Natural History museum at Berlin. The nest measures 4½ feet long and 1 foot to 2½ feet wide by about 7 inches high. It is made of 20 to 25 branches locked and twined together. — Berlin Correspondent.


Liberty

"The Feast of Liberty" was a grand festival held by the Athenians once in every five years to commemorate the victory at Salamis. It was always celebrated on the battlefield of Plataea.


Pompeii Shears

A pair of shears with blades 10 inches long is among the spoils of Pompeii. The instrument belonged to a tunic maker.

A Test of Eligibility

1895

A story is told by a Scotch contemporary of a new arrival at the Border Counties' Lunatic asylum, near Melrose, who was sent out along with some others to work in the grounds. After he had been working for some time an old inmate, who had been watching him, came up and said, "Unless ye delve wi' the rake and rake wi' the spade, ma man, ye'll be no' lang here. " — London Globe.


A Certain Remedy

"I wish," said Mrs. Corntossel, "that they wus some way ter keep people from talkin about ye behind yer back."
"They is," replied her husband.
"What?"
"Run for office. Then they'll talk about ye ter yer face." — Washington Star.


During 1846, the first year of the Irish famine, wheat sold in Amsterdam for £20 6s.; in London for £14 14s.; in New York for $40; in St. Petersburg for £10 8s. a ton.


Over 1,000 yards of linen cloth have been unrolled from one mummy. The cloth in texture resembles the cheesecloth of the present somewhat. It is finer in quality.


Wheat was cultivated in China B. C. 2700 and at that date was deemed the direct gift of the gods.


With some people a roll of honor is made up of bank bills.

The Traveling Crane

1895

Among the improvements lately introduced into great iron works are electric cranes. The structures are made with heavy iron poles in trestlework fashion and support tramways, upon which these immense cranes travel. For carrying the heavy products of the mills this form of transportation has points of advantage over all others. The lines from the various mills lead to a general storage point and make shipping much more convenient and expeditious. — New York Ledger.


Big Legged Frying Pan

A frying pan with legs about 6 inches long is among the curios recovered at Herculaneum. It belonged to Docilia, who had scratched her name on the handle.


Toothpick Cars

The National Toothpick association claims an output of 52 cars annually.

A Misstatement

1895

Mrs. Spiffins had answered the doorbell of her suburban residence in person. There was a man at the threshold who politely touched the brim of a hat of the vintage of 1892 and began:

"Madam, I represent" —

He did not proceed. Mrs. Spiffins had recognized him instantly, and she interrupted his remarks:

"No, you don't represent! You misrepresent. You were here a year ago and represented that some seed you sold me were those of a celebrated flowering shrub from China, whose blossoms would give me joy the long summer through. When they grew up, I found you had palmed off pumpkin seeds on me. Now, if you don't git this instant, I'll break a broomstick over your back."

He got. — Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph.


Trees

I have written many verses, but the best poems that I have produced are the trees that I have planted on the hillside which overlooks the broad meadows scalloped and rounded at their edges by loops of the sinuous Housatonic. Nature finds rhymes for them in the recurring measures of the seasons. Winter strips them of their ornaments and gives them, as it were, in prose translation, and summer reclothes them in all the splendid phrases of their leafy language. — Oliver Wendell Holmes.


The Giant of the Bat Family

The king of the family Vespertilonidae is the gigantic fox bat of the Philippine islands. Specimens of this winged mammal procured for the Minnesota State University museum by the Menage expedition in 1892 are believed to be the largest examples of this species yet obtained by the naturalists, several individuals measuring more than 5 feet from tip to tip of their leathery wings and having heads and bodies as large as the American red fox. This creature has been fully described in "Notes For the Curious" under the heading of "A Flying Fox." — St. Louis Republic.


Not Necessary Now

"Well, Bessie," said her confidential friend, "you've been engaged now for three weeks. Does it seem as you expected it would?"
"Y-yes," replied Bessie, turning her engagement ring round and round on her finger, "only Herbert doesn't bring me any candy now." — Chicago Tribune.

Lord Russell's Ruse

1895

The lord chief justice was too smart for the juryman who sought to be excused from serving. "On what ground?" asked his lordship. The man approached with his hand to his ear and said, "I'm deaf, my lord, and cannot bear the evidence." "You can go," said Lord Russell in a whisper. "Thank you, my lord," replied the juryman, taken off his guard, but the learned judge had not finished his sentence, and he sternly added, "into the box and do your duty!" The man quailed and obeyed in some confusion at the failure of his ruse. — Westminster Budget.


An Insult

Miss Beans (of Boston, visiting in Chicago) — Mamma, that Mr. Porkingham insulted me last night, and I shall never speak to him again!
Mamma — How, my child?
Miss B. — He asked me if we were from New York. — Detroit Free Press.


Pompeiian Sculptor

In the house of a Pompeiian sculptor were found 32 mallets, 15 compasses, 3 levers, several chisels, together with jacks for raising blocks and nearly 30 statues and busts, in every stage of manufacture.


Beavers

The tail of a beaver is a regular trowel and is used as such.

Couldn't Understand

1895

Little Dot — What does this mean? "Love laughs at locksmiths."
Mamma — You can't understand until you are older.
Little Dot — I thought maybe it meant something like the time you locked me in a room for kissing Willie Sweet, and I climbed out of the window and kissed him some more. — Good News.


William's Uniforms

Emperor William's uniforms are not all made by the same tailor, nor are they all made in Berlin, but by court tailors in various parts of the empire, all of whom possess his measures. The average price of a military coat is given as $45.


Albany

Albany is named from the second title of the Duke of York, afterward James II. The title is Scottish, from the Celtic word Albyn, a native name for Scotland.

Trivia and Humor – A 16 Pound Trout

1911

A Record Trout
A trout weighing more than 16 lbs. which was captured during netting operations at Blagdon Lake, Somersetshire, is believed to be the largest trout in English waters.

Queer Superstition
There is a superstition in Cumberlands England that if an infant is not baptized before it is taken out of long clothes it will be bad tempered and ill natured all its life.

Dressing a Chicken
"So you think you can dress a chicken?"
"Oh, yes," said the ambitious bride. "I saw my uncle take a clock apart once. You just number the pieces as you take 'em out."

A Helpful Teacher
I had a teacher once Who helped me to think for myself — the first of my real teachers; and what the others gave me came through the door that he opened. — Henry Van Dyke.

Her Declaration
"Have you anything to declare," asked the customs inspector. "Yes," replied the lady who was returning from Europe. "I unhesitatingly declare that it is an outrage the way this government permits things to be mussed up in one's trunk."

Trivia and Humor — Uncle Eben's Philosophy

1911

Uncle Eben's Philosophy
"Some men hates work so bad," said Uncle Eben, "they would kick on de responsibility of keepin' an eight-day clock wound up."

Sun Injures Mirrors
A mirror should never be hung where the sun shines directly upon it. The mercury spread on the glass to form a looking-glass is soon ruined by exposure to rays of the sun.

Profit in Cattle Raising
Prices paid to Argentine cattle raisers have been rising steadily for the last twenty-five years.

Cause of Red Hair
Red hair is of that color, says a scientific journal, because it has in its composition a larger proportion Of sulphur than black hair.

His Path in Life
Blessed is he who has found his work. Let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work — a life purpose; he has found it, and will follow it. — Carlyle.

Every Deed Has Weight
Every man's actions form a center of influences upon others, and every deed, however trivial, has some weight in determining the future destiny of the world.

Trivia — California's Quicksilver

1911

Quicksilver From California
California furnishes about three-fourths of the quicksilver produced in the United States.

True Greatness
He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.

Long Distance Spider Web
A web two and a quarter miles long has been taken from the body of a spider.

A Treasure Indeed
The woman who can both act and think for herself is a treasure indeed to the man lucky enough to possess her. — "Madame."

Life Long; Art Fleeting
The Critic—"My dear, just fancy having your portrait painted in your car! Why, a motor car goes out of fashion in a single year!"

Piano Hint
A small bag of unslacked lime hung inside, underneath the cover of the piano, will catch dampness and prevent rust of the wires.

Prolific Birds
A thrush's nest containing five eggs was discovered recently at Dane End, near Hertford, and a blackbird's nest with two eggs has been found in some ivy at Burnham-on-Crouch.

Women First Forbidden To Wear Glasses

1896

Roger Bacon was the first to suggest the use of spectacles. When they came into use in Italy about the year 1825, on the recommendation of Allessandro di Spina, a monk of Pisa, women were forbidden to wear them, because it was thought such facial ornamentations would make them vain.


Trivia

The king of beasts in his native wilds often lives for 100 years. A lion in captivity in the Tower of London lived there seventy years, and his age was unknown when he was captured.

Sitting Bull's pony, which was in his possession when he was shot on the Standing Rock Reservation some five years ago, is now owned by a farmer in Stanley County, South Dakota.

Poland in the fourteenth century had a pigmy king, Ladislas the Short, who won more victories than any other northern monarch of his time, and who left a great name as a jurist, statesman and ruler.

The claim of being the youngest mother in the state of Oregon is made for Mrs. J. F. Magee, wife of the marshall of Mitchell Township, who is a little over fifteen years old and has a handsome and healthy boy baby.

Cherryfield, Me., has a fire company bearing the odd name of the Egg-Beater Fire Company. It appears to be a good company, too, for the citizens of Cherryfield have just presented to it a silver trumpet in recognition of recent good work in fighting a fire.

Loud Kisser Charged In Court

1896

A young woman was brought before Judge Steers, of Flatbush, N.Y., on the charge of kissing her husband in public, and so loud as to constitute a breach of the peace. The Judge decided that a woman had a right to kiss her husband out loud, and wherever she chose, and put the complainant under a peace bond.


Trivia

Michigan papers are telling, with apparent sincerity, of a parsnip eight feet and two inches in length recently pulled at Union City, and a radish grown at Schoolcraft that measures twenty-three inches in circumference.

While hunting a few days ago Oat Darby, of Adams, Ind., lost the sight of his left eye by a peculiar accident. He fired at a rabbit, and one of the shot rebounded, and struck him in the eye, instantly destroying the sight.

A mouse nibbled through the insulated covering of an electrical light supply wire in a tomato factory in Salem, N. J., and a fire resulted which stewed 8000 gallons of skinned tomatoes. These were given away to the poor people of the town.

Elephants frequently live 120 years.

A lioness and two leopards escaped from a circus in Marion County, Ohio.

Mahlon A. Sellers, postmaster at Windsor Castle, Penn., has held his appointment fifty years.

The page of honor to Mary Tudor, John Jervis by name, was one of the tiniest dwarfs of his day.

Murphy has been given up as an Anglicized corruption of his name by an Irish clergymen, who has taken up again the true form, O'Morchoe.

"Missing Links" — Darwin Rested with a Cigarette

1895

At the age of 73 Darwin declared that a cigaret rested him more after hard labor than all else.

Spectacles were first used in the latter part of the thirteenth century.

The rare operation of amputation at the hip was recently performed at Cincinnati.

The first crop of tea grown in Natal was in the year 1881. To-day Natal tea is common.

Sixteen pints of the juice or sap which makes India rubber are frequently taken from one tree.

At the Bon Marche (cheap market), Paris, last year, 662 persons were arrested for kleptomania.

The climatic limit to the cultivation of wheat is not so much the cold of winter as the heat of summer.

In the Bank of England sixty folio volumes or ledgers are filled daily with writing in keeping the accounts.

The deepest well on our Atlantic coast is that at the silk works near Northampton, Mass.; depth, 3,700 feet.

The older the Christian, the newer he will find God's book.

Gamblers Trim Rich Indian

1920

"Little Feather" Is Arrested as Vagrant After His Plucking

LINCOLN, Neb. — "Little Feather," a member of the Osage Indian tribe of Oklahoma, whose royalties from oil lands he claims are $1,000 a month, was arrested here as a vagrant.

The Indian says he left his home with plenty of funds to see a little of the world, but fell in with white gamblers who got his money, and when he reached Lincoln he was penniless.

The police were convinced of the truth of his story and he was discharged when means were supplied to send him home.


Origin of "Horse Chestnut"

It is said that the name horse chestnut was derived from the fact that when the leaves of the tree fall there is a scar left on the twig in the shape of a horseshoe that bears marks resembling the nail of a shoe.


First Paper From Wood

It is just fifty years since the method of grinding wood as raw material for paper was introduced in the United States.

The World Owes You a Living; Hustle and Collect It

1917

Flashlights

About all that jealousy asks to make trouble is a chance.

Fair as women are, even they are no excuse for the so-called ladies' man.

No matter how much a man may neglect his wife it always makes him mad to discover that some other man is slightly interested in her.

This world may owe you a living, but if you don't care-enough for it to hustle round and collect it, the world isn't going to do any worrying.

Luck doesn't play nearly so big a part in the other fellow's success as you imagine.


Little Things Worth Knowing

The best marksmen are generally those with blue or gray eyes.

German silver is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. There is no silver in it.

There are fifteen technical colleges in Queensland, with 8,000 students in attendance.

Under perfect conditions watercress may be made to flower and seed within eight days of planting.

Something Worth Bragging About

1915

One day I decided to visit one of my old friends and to take my little niece, five years old, with me. We were talking about dishes and my friend got one of her highly-prized hand-painted plates and was telling me how much she valued it, when the little girl broke in: "Oh, that's nuffin'. Why, we live in a hand-painted house." — Chicago Tribune.


Thinkers

"Men of thought" are the thinkers, the creators of ideas, the men who furnish the inspirations and theories, while "men of action" are the workers, who carry out the plans furnished by the others. Sometimes the two are combined in one, as in the case of Napoleon, Caesar, Da Vinci, who were at one and the same time great in both theory and practice.


Smallest Bird

The smallest bird is a Central American hummingbird, about the size of a blue bottle fly.


Daily Thought

Wise, cultivated, genial conversation is the last flower of civilization, and the best result which life has to offer us. — Emerson.


Another Try

Recruiting Officer — What's the good of coming here and saying you're only seventeen years old! Go and walk around that yard and come back and see if you're not nineteen. — Punch.