Tidbits of Times Past
August 11th, 2005 | Project Gutenberg
1891, Fiction
Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl, by Jenny Wren (Sister to that “Idle Fellow”). Published ca. 1891. A series of essays playing on Jerome K. Jerome’s Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, but from a female perspective.
Jenny Wren is a pseudonym of an unknown person.
Thanks to Sankar Viswanathan for Post-Processing this book.
August 5th, 2005 | Miscellany
1895, Ann Arbor Register, June
The crocodile’s egg is about the size of that of the goose.1
The coldest place in the ice box is under the ice, not on top of it.2
About seven and a half millions of tons of coal are consumed annually.3
The queen of Italy is a graceful and skillful bicyclist, and every day has a spin on her silver-mounted wheel.4
The last criminal hanged in England for attempted murder was Martin Doyle, who was executed at Chester on the 26th of August, 1861.5
An inch of rain, falling upon an area of one square mile, is equivalent to nearly 17,500,000 gallons, weighing 145,250,000 pounds, or 72,625 tons.
In France, if a structural defect in a bicycle causes an injury to the person using it, the manufacturer is legally accountable for damages.6
Stockholm has the largest death roll from alcoholism of any city in the world. Ninety in one thousand die from the excessive use of intoxicants.7
The prime of life in a man of regular habits and sound constitution is from 30 to 55 years of age; of a woman from 24 or 25 to about 40 years of age.8
The stovepipe hat appeared during the war between king and parliament in England, and has scarcely changed its form from that time to the present.9
In 1630 no gentleman, either in England, France or Germany, thought for a moment of going abroad without his cloak, even in hottest days of summer.10
About 1641 the apron was an indispensable part of every lady’s wear. It was made of all sorts of costly materials, and was generally bordered with fine lace.11
The widow’s cap is as old as the days of Julius Caesar. An edict of Tiberius commanded all widows to wear the cap under penalty of a heavy fine and imprisonment.12
Donizetti wrote sixty operas; of these comparatively few are well known, but their melodious character is likely for a long time to preserve them their great popularity.13
Cambric was first introduced into England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The first piece imported was presented to the virgin queen to make a ruff for her neck.14
Biggins were caps much resembling the pointed nightcap seen in comic pictures. They were worn in France in the fifteenth century by gentlemen when walking or traveling.15
1 Google “crocodile goose egg size” and you will get a page of results that repeats the assertion of “size of goose egg = size of crocodile egg.” But I have been unable to find a good source of information on how big a goose egg is. According to the Poultry Club, a good goose egg should weigh 5-7 ounces depending on the breed, though they decline to give a dimensional specification. Egg artists buy eggs that are measured around the longest axis — which at one retailer vary from 8 to 12.5 inches. The best known use of eggs for art is pysanky.
2 This makes sense: heat rises (or “cold falls” as some will say), but I’ve never actually measured this for myself. Sounds like a kitchen science class is in order!
3 According to the Energy Information Administration, the US consumed about 1,066 millions of short tons of coal in 2002. That is 142 times more used than in 1895. Compare the population in 1900 (the closest I can get to 1895): 76.1 million, to the population in 2002: 287.9 million. It is an increase of less than 4 times (3.78). It makes you want to go turn off your air conditioner, television and computer. Well, maybe not the computer.
4 Princess Margrethe of Savoy (1851-1926) (apparently also called Margherita). I am unable to find out about her bicycle, though.
5 This doesn’t mean that people weren’t hanged in England after 1861. The last ones were executed in 1964.
6 Ah, so it’s France’s fault we’re so litigious.
7 A recent report from eurocare suggests the Swedish mortality rate due to alcohol (direct and indirect) is about 3.5%. Quite an improvement in 100 years.
8 Oh no! Past my prime already?
9 I haven’t been able to find any pictures or information about “stovepipe” hats in the mid-1600’s in England, so I can’t figure out just how much things have changed. However, looking here, I see that perhaps the editor meant French hats of the same time period.
10 No idea. Perhaps they were looking at some costuming book from the 17th century.
11 Most of the sites I saw mentioned aprons, but mostly for working women. You can see some contemporary engravings at about.com.
12 The hazard of not having a classical education. Tiberius reigned around the turn of the millennium (AD 14-37).
13 The Donzetti Society reports nearly 70 operas, three of which built his reputation. And yes, they are still performed today.
14 Cambric is also known as chambray
15 Biggins are close-fitting hair protectors worn under other caps or hats. Not pointy, as far as I can tell.
This article should not have been called “Curious and True” — it should have been called “Fashions from three to four hundred years ago misremembered, with a few other bits thrown in.”
Reviewing it does bring a question to my mind, however. How many “fact books” exist today that are completely half-truths? Where does the true information lie? Not in the internet to be sure (even using my methodology: I try to find several unrelated versions of the information, and sometimes it isn’t possible). What is the true nature of “fact” and why do I feel like I know less now than I ever did?
August 4th, 2005 | Project Gutenberg
1854, Fiction
The Home in the Valley, by Emilie F. Carlén, translated from the original Swedish by Elbert Perce.
Emilie Flygare-Carlén (1807-1892) was one of the most widely read Swedish authors of the 19th century. This is one of her lesser-known works, and the first in Project Gutenberg.
Elbert Perce was a translator, author, and inventor of Perce’s Magnetic Globe.
Thanks to Sigal Alon for Post-Processing this book!
August 3rd, 2005 | Science & Natural History
1896, Ann Arbor Register, April
Baldwin county has the largest grapevine on record. It stands a mile and a half north of the town of Daphne and overlooks Mobile bay. It measures six feet one inch in circumference at the base and its branches are entwined among the tree-tops, reaching from one to another for rods around in all directions. The main trunk is about fifteen feet high and is supported in the crotch of a cedar now dead, the vine having sapped the life from the roots. There it stands today and there it has stood for a century at least. But its race is almost run, for some hunter, in the excitement of a ‘coon chase, when his appreciation for baked ‘coon was greater than his love for nature’s beauties, has used his ax on this king of vines with fatal effect and it now stands with a large hole in its side, revealing the great hollow in its trunk, into which the ‘coon ran for safety.–New Orleans Times-Democrat.
Is this a comment on short- versus long-term thinking? Eating or Art? No, I didn’t think so either.
A search for “largest grapevine” brings several possibilities:
The first is the grapevine in Chiltern, in Victoria Australia, planted in 1867. (And there isn’t any good picture or tourist information about it.)
The second is in Graaf-Reinet in the Western Cape of South Africa. It was planted in 1870.
The third is at the Hampton Court Palace Gardens (home of Henry VIII, etc). It was planted in 1768.
All these are pretty big looking. Makes me think that my mother’s twenty-two-year-old vines are just babies.
The New Orleans Times-Democrat was active until about 1914. It’s mentioned in Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi, and is well-known to readers of Lafcadio Hearn (he was its fiction editor in the 1880s).
