Entries from September 2005 ↓

From a post in a DP forum, a user notes:

A footnote in Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, Volume 1, commenting on a letter by a 15th-century Italian:

“Though pruned of not a few redundant particles which obscure the original, this letter proves that even before Spanish fashion had elaborated feebly magniloquent expletives, the Italian style was justly chargeable with verbiage.”

Is this the pot calling the kettle black, or what?

I wonder what a “feebly magniloquent expletive” looks like?

A dramatic illustration of hypnotism accompanied by many grewsome features has been given in London by Prof. Morritt, who seems to possess extraordinary powers of a mysterious nature, says the New York World. He put a man to sleep in a coffin-shaped glass case and kept him there nearly a week and a the end of that time awakened him in the presence of a large number of witnesses. The victim of this achievement, one Alfred Wootton, is a stained glass-worker, 35 years of age. During the whole of the time he was asleep or in a trance he was exhibited in a public hall. When the experiment was ready to begin on Monday he had readily climbed into the coffin-shaped case, and many people watched the hypnotizer as he proceeded to exercise his mysterious power. Holding Wootton by the forehead and chin, the hypnotizer gazed steadily into his eyes. He then made a few downward passes from above the eyes along the side of the face, from time to time examining the pupils of the eyes. The man, it was found, had by this time become rigid. One minute after the experiment began the hypnotizer asked Dr. Forbes to examine the man. He was found to be thoroughly unconscious. His puls was 96, the exact number of beats it registered before he became unconscious. His respiration was about 116, the breathing chiefly abdominal. Temperature was 98.2, or normal. The pupils of the eyes were contracted almost to disappearance. During the following days the respiration, temperature and pulse changed slightly, but the man remained in a trance condition. His beard continued to grow. When he was awakened by Prof. Morritt the following Saturday evening, he could not be convinced that he had been in a hypnotic trance for nearly a week until he felt the thick growth of beard on his face. He said it seemed to him that he had only been asleep for a few minutes. It did not take longer than a minute to wake him up. The professor made a few passes of his hand across the man’s face and lifted his head and shoulders from the coffin-shaped case. Wootton then opened his eyes and instantly recognized friends in the crowd about him, with whom he began to converse. The only notable sensation he experienced up waking, he said, was that of hunger. A short time after being awakened he put on his coat an walked out of the building with his friends. He had been constantly watched during the whole time in the trance and evinced much interest in the records of the doctors. Prof. Morritt had previously tried a similar experiment with one Henry Nolan, but the doctors who were watching his case expressed the opinion that Nolan was not physically strong enough to undergo the ordeal.

“Say Fellows—”: Fifty Practical Talks with Boys on Life’s Big Issues, by Wade C. Smith (1921). (Biblical) advice to young men about life.

Wade C. Smith is not exactly easy to find on the web. The Library of Congress lists a birthdate of 1869, but no death date. And according to kingkong, there is a pseudonym “Wade Smith” used by Charles Horace Snow — an extremely prolific author of westerns. Is it the same person? Who knows?

Thanks to Diane Monico for Post-processing this book!

“He that has money in the scales,” says Saádí, “has strength in his arms, and he who has not the command of money is destitute of friends in the world.”—Hundreds of similar sarcastic observations on the power of wealth might be cited from the Hindú writers, such as: “He who has riches has friends; he who has riches has relations; he who has riches is even a sage!” The following verses in praise of money are, I think, worth reproducing, if only for their whimsical arrangement:

Inquiries and Opinions,by Brander Matthews. Published 1907. Brander Matthews (1852-1929) was an influential reviewer, critic and author. This book contains a dozen of his essays and lectures on literature (chiefly American) and drama, including essays on Poe and Twain.

Matthews was a proponent of American spelling reform, so you’ll see “tho” and “thru” in the book. Theodore Roosevelt, a friend of Matthews and reportedly a bad speller, tried to force simplifed spelling on the Government Printing Office, but lost.

Thanks to Janet Blenkinship for Post-processing this book!

à Paris Chez Janet, Libraire et Marchand de Musique
Rue St. Jacques No. 59

circa 1810

The two most critical times in a woman’s life are the times which makes the girl a woman, and the woman a mother. At these times, Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription is of incalculable value. It strengthens and invigorates the organs distinctly feminine, promotes regularity of the functions, allays irritation and inflammation, checks unnatural, exhausting drains, and puts the whole delicate organism into perfect condition. Almost all the ills of womankind are traceable to some form of what is known as “female complaint.” There are not three cases in a hundred of woman’s peculiar diseases that Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription will not cure.

I have been within ten feet of Jesse Pomeroy! Immured deep in the vast gray walls of Charlestown penitentiary, the strange, warped human who once bore that name is hidden away from the sight of man forever in a living death, unknown by the coming generation and forgotten by the passing one. He has a double cell, much larger than the ordinary cell, into which the sunlight streams, says a Boston writer. His room is neat, and he himself is the personification of neatness. Upon this he prides himself. He wears a beard, which is kept neatly trimmed. He changes the style of it occasionally to suit himself, and displays as much taste and is as well aware of what is becoming as the most exquisite man of fashion.

“But is he well?” I asked of the one who gave me this information, and one who knows.

“As well as you are,” was the reply, “and he looks well.”

“People say a man cannot live without exercise. The only exercise he gets is in his cell, walking up and down, yet no one could possibly be healthier than he is. So far as I know, he has never known a sick day and he has been a prisoner in absolutely solitary confinement for sixteen years. He is a great reader and student. He speaks three different languages. He does not want to work, but prefers his books.”

“Does he seem to have any curiosity about he outside world?” I asked.

“Yes, I presume so, although he never asks. He does not ask privileges; no doubt he realizes it would be in vain. The only favor he has asked of Gen. Bridges since has has been warden was permission to keep the box his holiday things came in. This favor had been granted to him once before, and he used the cover to hide a hole he had dug in the wall.

“If he gets a penknife or a spoon, the probabilities are he will commence and dig. The walls are so thick it is impossible for him to escape, and no doubt he does it to make the prison officials uneasy, more than anything else.

“He is a remarkably good-looking man, a fine-looking man, in fact. If you should pass his cell, ignorant of his name, you would comment upon his appearance and select him as a man much above the ordinary.”

It is said that either his hearing is supernaturally acute or else he is possessed of some strange sixth sense, enabling him to know things that have transpired before the guards themselves. One instance of this is related. A couple of years ago the prisoners were all assembled in the chapel awaiting the annual announcement of the governor’s pardons. Before the convicts’ cheers which greeted the lucky ones had died out, Prison Physician McLaughlin had occasion to attend a prisoner located in the same tier as Pomeroy. As the doctor passed Jesse’s cell he called to the doctor, saying, “So the governor has pardoned two men,” and giving their names. Not half a dozen people have seen him since he was a boy, and he has seen no woman’s face but his mother’s since his incarceration.