Entries from August 2004 ↓

Rev. Kadir Edward Davis, pastor of the Central Christian church, of Oakland, is frantically busy calling in advertising lithographs scattered throughout California announcing that “Rev. Kadir Edward Davis, popularly known as ‘The American Oscar Wilde,’” would appear at a certain date and deliver a lecture. It is a ticklish time for the aesthetic clergyman. He no longer wears a sunflower and is struggling with the temptation to cut his long hair. He has had new plates prepared for his display lithographs and hereafter he will be proclaimed merely as “the versatile gentleman.” For years Mr. Davis traveled over the United States, announcing himself as the “American Oscar Wilde,” a designation given him by an eastern paper. “I am at a loss to know just what to do,” said he to a reporter. “It is true that I have been a great admirer of the author of ‘Dorian Grey‘ and ‘A Woman of No Importance.’ I believed in aesthetics. I think a preacher should be a leader in dress as well as thought. The day for preachers to garb themselves in camel’s hair and leathern girdles is past. I took Oscar Wilde as my model. I think he is a man of great genius. Now I am not afraid of criticism and while my methods may be considered bizarre by more conservative Christians, I feel that I am pursuing a proper course in appealing to the curiosity, artistic sensibilities and even the humor of the people. But I am not going to pose any more as the American Oscar Wilde. I don’t just know how I am going to get the public to drop the title. On my lithographs my title henceforth will be the ‘Versatile Gentleman.’”

You can’t go back to yesterday, the gate is locked and the key is lost.

[Queen Wilhelmina of Holland][] is by no manner of means the “docile, submissive, and sweet-tempered girl” that she has been represented to be by the English press during her recent visit to London. On the contrary, she is exceedingly hot-tempered and passionate, and is preserved from being downright intolerable only by her warm heart, which causes her quickly to regret any pain she may have inflicted in a moment of anger.

Docility and submissiveness are about the last qualifications that could be accorded to her. The members of the royal household at The Hague tell very amusing stories of the battles royal that take place between the young queen and her fat and, in the main, good-humored mother, who experiences the greatest difficulty in preventing her daughter from giving way to all those extravagant and often preposterous impulses to which young girls of 15 and 16 are so prone.

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Scientific American: One of the most peculiar vegetable products of Brazil is the Moquilea utilis, or pottery tree. This tree attains a height 100 feet, and has a very slender trunk, which seldom exceeds a foot in diameter at the base. The wood is exceedingly hard, and contains a very large amount of silica, but not so much as does the bark, which is largely employed as a source of silica for the manufacture of pottery. In preparing the bark for the potter’s use it is first burned, and the residue is then pulverized and mixed with clay in the proper proportion. With an equal quantity of the two ingredients a superior quality of earthenware is produced. This is very durable and is capable of withstanding any amount of heat. The natives employ it for all kinds of culinary purposes. When dry it is generally brittle, though sometimes difficult to break. After being burned it can not, if of good quality, be broken between the fingers, a mortar and pestle being required to crush it.

It is thought that the smallest living woman is Miss Isabella Pinder, of Spanish Wells, on the Bahama Islands. She is 35 years of age, 36 inches tall, and weighs less than 50 pounds. She is said to be perfectly formed. She is now visiting her cousin, “General” Abe Sawyer, who is 31 years old, 41 inches tall and weighs 55 pounds.