Entries from May 2005 ↓

As this is the season to make up our list of papers and magazines for the ensuing year, I will take a glance around my own cosy room set apart for a library.

It is here that I do the most of my reading, writing, and planning; and although I pretend to be deeply engaged while ensconced in the large willow rocker, strictly forbidding entrance to my farmer office, yet the children and “Spot,” my Gordon setter, will intrude, making things lively for awhile, driving my thoughts wool-gathering and breaking many a thread of thought that I had fondly hoped would place my name high on the roll of scribblers. It is a good thing to have the little innocent children and the dog to blame for these shortcomings, as they can not take issue with us on the question.

But I started to talk about a farmer’s library; and taking my own for a small sample, let us see how it looks….

On glancing up from the stand on which I am writing, the first objects that attract my notice are my breach loader, cartridge belt, and game-bag hanging on the wall; then by the side of the stove hangs the file of The Prairie Farmer, within easy reach of my left hand; next it swings the Country Gentleman, then comes the Forest and Stream, then Colman’s Rural World, then the Drainage Journal; next Harper’s Weekly, then Harper’s Bazar. This is my wife’s paper and she persists in hanging it among mine. Then comes Harper’s Monthly and the Century, not forgetting the Sanitary Journal. On the other side of the room we find the Inter Ocean, Democrat, and several other political papers fairly representing both sides, also some standard books of valuable information; and last but not least, the Prairie Farmer Map which you sent for my club.

Now, this may be considered a pretty large outlay for a common farmer to make, but outside of life insurance, I consider it my best investment.

In this selection I get the cream of all matters of practical importance to the farmer….

Alex Ross.
Cape Girardeau, Mo.

Joseph Dennison, who for several years has taken care of Byron McClelland’s breeding stock at Lexington, Ky., has become violently insane. His insanity was caused by the accident to McClelland’s valuable yearling colt by Longfellow dam Sallie McClelland. The colt broke its left hind leg and had to be shot. Dennison became imbued with the idea that he was to blame for the loss of the colt, and has thought and talked about nothing else since the accident. He went into town and acted so queerly that he was locked up and will be sent to the asylum.

The question of bloomers has assumed a new form at the Michigan University at Ann Arbor. Miss Edna Day, a pretty junior literary student, appreciates their superiority over skirts and wore them until her landlady told her she would have to don her skirts while in the house. Miss Day has complied. When outside the jurisdiction of the boarding house keeper, however, Miss Day will appear as of yore. She is an enthusiastic bicycle rider, and thinks that such a dress is much more sensible and comfortable to wear on rainy days an during sloppy weather than muddy skirts. The wives of several professors also favor them and her instructors have commended her upon the stand she has taken.

The Unpopular Review, Vol II, No 3, July-September 1914. Probably edited by Henry Holt (the publisher) but I have been unable so far to find an authoritative bibliographic reference stating this.

The Unpopular Review is a periodical from around the time of the first World War — a quarterly journal dedicated to exploring “unpopular” topics like tobacco reform, the higher education of women, and psychic research.

I have seen it described as “conservative.” And in some cases it is, especially with regards to the idea of governmental interference in one’s personal life. Well, conservative in 1914, at least. But it also has its progressive moments, like decrying the calls to teach only domestic science to college women, at the expense of traditional liberal arts courses.

And then there is the psychic research stuff, which given this first example I’m reasonably certain Holt is a believer. But not on faith — it appears he also wants to there to be scientific evidence.

While this is the first issue I’ve read (and frankly, I haven’t read it all the way through), I’m looking forward to seeing more issues — if only to follow the discussion on Simplified Spelling.

This Oil has become so celebrated in the treatment of diseases of the horse, and as a consequence the demand becoming great throughout the country–that the cupidity of designing men has induced them to palm off upon unsuspecting persons, an imitation article for the Genuine Gargling Oil; designing thus to ride their base mixture into market upon the popularity of the only true article, which now sustains an enviable reputation, which it has acquired by more than fourteen years’ use in the United States and Canada.

It is allowed by farriers and all who have used it, to be decidedly the best application for horses and other domestic animals, of any now in use, and may be used as an internal remedy in some cases, with surprising results.

A faithful trial of this remedy will satisfy any person that the many cures it proposes to perform are neither magnified nor misrepresented.

The following among many others, in the cure of which this Oil has been completely successful, and in which other pretended remedies had entirely failed:–

Spavins, Sweeney, Ringbone, Windgalls, Poll Evil, Callous, Cracked Heels, Galls of all kinds, Fresh wounds, Sprains, Bruises, Fistula, Sitfast, Sand Cracks, Strains, Lameness, Foundered Feet, Scratches or Grease, Mange, Rheumatism, Bites of Animals, External Poisons, Painful Nervous Affections, Frost Bites, Boils, Corns, Whitlows, Burns and Scalds, Chilblains, Chapped Hands, Cramps, Contraction of the Muscles, Swellings, Weakness of the Joints, Caked Breast, &c.

Extract of a letter, dated Sunbury, Pa., Aug. 2, 1850.

Dr. G. W. Merchant–SIR–I must relate a new case in which your Gargling Oil has done great things.

I heard a man telling to-day that his little girl had a sore knee that had had a thick scab on for a long time. He had a Doctor attending it, but he could do nothing with it. What it was I do no know, but the scab was from a half, to one inch thick, and covered the whole knee-pan. He said he had the Gargling Oil in the house, and it struck him that it might cure. He put it on, and in two days, half the scab came of[f]. He then applied it the second time, and in a day or two the other half came off, and he found a new skin coming on it, with the exception of a few places. He applied it the third time and now she is perfectly well of it.

P. B. MASSER.

Extract of a letter ordering a new supply of Gargling Oil, dated, North Bergen, N. Y., Aug. 20, 1850.

Dr. G. W. Merchant–SIR–I have sold all but one bottle of the Gargling Oil you sent me. It gives most excellent satisfaction to every one to whom I have sold, whether they use it as a common Liniment in their families or on their horses.

Please send me two dozen of each size bottles, as I think I shall sell it in about that proportion.

Respectfully,
D. F. MERRILL

All orders addressed to the Proprietor will be promptly responded to.

Get a Pamphlet of the Agent, and see what wonders are accomplished by the use of this medicine.

Sold by respectable dealers generally in the United States and Canada.

The following are wholesale and retail agents, viz:–A. McClure & Co., Albany; M. Ward & Co., and C. V. Cleckner & Co., New-York; P. D. Orvis & Co., and C. Heimstreet, Troy; L. M. Rexford, Binghamton; R. Steel, Auburn; W. M. P. Mooers, Plattsburgh; Rossman & McKinstry, Hudson; J. W. Williams & Co., and R. Hollister & Co., Buffalo; T. H. Camp, Watertown; Wm. Pitkin, and Post & Willis, Rochester; Lampman & Williams, Syracuse; Greenman & Smith, Utica; A. D. Platt, Geneva; C. Canfield & Son, Oswego; Jenner, Sprage & Co., Ogdensburgh; G. W. Schuyler, Ithaca.

The Day of Days, by Louis Joseph Vance, is a novel with gangsters, masques, a missing heiress, true love, and Kismet!

It was made into a movie in 1914.

Louis Joseph Vance wrote short stories, novels, and screen plays, many of which were made into movies. His most popular works were a series about “The Lone Wolf,” a charming rogue. He died in a fire — some say that it was spontaneous human combustion…

Thanks again to the mystery Post-Processor!

The Memories of Fifty Years, by William H. Sparks. Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the Southwest.

In this case, “Southwest” means Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia. William Henry Sparks (1800-1882) was a lawyer and prolific poet.(?!) You can read more about him here.

Thanks to the (anonymous) Post-Processor!

On Wednesday evening a wager was laid between William Laduke, of Vergennes, and Messrs. Forton & La Bombord, as follows: Laduke was to eat in ten hours two pounds of pork-steak, four large potatoes, one-half of a pie, two slices of wheat bread, each one and one-quarter inches thick, one-quarter pound of butter, half a bushel of apples, and to drink two cups of tea. At seven o’clock on Thursday morning the gourmand began his task by eating five apples. He then ate one pound of pork-steak, two large potatoes, one slice of bread, one-quarter of a pie, one-eighth of a pound of butter, and drank one cup of tea. The remainder of the forenoon he spent walking about and eating apples, of which he had devoured twenty-three at twelve o’clock. At noon he ate one pound of pork-steak, two large potatoes, one quarter of a pie, one slice of bread, one-eighth pound of butter, and drank two cups of tea. He was then weighed, and found to have gained seven and one-half pounds. For the next three hours he averaged about two apples per hour. At 5:30 p. m. he ate the the last apple and won the bet with half an hour to spare. His weight when he began was 145 pounds, and at the close 153 pounds, showing a gain of eight pounds in nine and one-half hours. Seven and one-half pounds of this he acquired in the first five hours, the last five hours adding only one-half pound to his weight. The half-bushel of apples was “heaping” measure, and numbered just sixty-five apples. Laduke is twenty-six years old, five feet seven inches in height, and has never experienced a sick day in his life. He is a thin, spare man, and has always worked out for his living, usually among the farmers. He experienced no unusual difficulty from his square meal, and offered to bet five dollars that he could eat another peck of apples the same evening.–Vergennes (Vt.) Cor. N. Y. Sun.