Entries from December 2005 ↓

My Lords, I have submitted to you, with the freedom and truth which I think my duty, my sentiments on your present awful situation. I have laid before you the ruin of your power, the disgrace of your reputation, the pollution of your discipline, the contamination of your morals, the complication of calamities, foreign and domestic, that overwhelm your sinking country. Your dearest interests, your own liberties, the Constitution itself totters to the foundation. All this disgraceful danger, this multitude of misery, is the monstrous offspring of this unnatural war. We have been deceived and deluded too long. Let us now stop short. This is the crisis–the only crisis of time and situation, to give us a possibility of escape from the fatal effects of our delusions. But if, in an obstinate and infatuated perseverance in folly, we slavishly echo the peremptory words this day presented to us, nothing can save this devoted country from complete and final ruin. We madly rush into multiplied miseries, and “confusion worse confounded.”

“Business is business,” says the man vowed to that life, and so it is unquestionably, but equally, personality is personality. Leaving the latter out of consideration will throw business calculations about as far astray as those of the astronomer who does not allow for personal equations. This the successful man of affairs fully understands.

When it can be recognized there is nothing more interesting than watching the actual consultation of a business man with the promptings of his won mind’s equations. Such power of consultation is not possessed by all and is invisible with many of those who have it.

I remember hearing a young business man describe such a rare revelation in an interview with an older business friend known as the keenest financier. The proposition which the young man had to present was reasonable, seemingly sure of success, and he himself believed in it enthusiastically.

“I laid it before the old fellow,” he said, “one by one meeting and explaining the vexed points he raised. He ceased questioning me finally because the patent value of the proposition seemed proved so far as words go. He nodded affirmation as each heading was checked off. I felt emboldened to ask: ‘What do you think of it, sir?’ And then I saw a curious sight. The old fellow sat motionless, looking away into space, his blue eyes growing innocent and far away as a child’s who is listening to a distant and familiar voice. I could have sworn that he heard something which I did not. Finally he turned to me with a smile and shook his head. ‘I can’t exactly believe in your plan,’ he said. I sat staring at him. I knew, and he knew, that his reason was convinced; it was an instinct alone that held the old man back–an instinct in which he superstitiously trusted and on which he obstinately acted. It was the most extraordinary thing I ever saw. The more so that events have proved the warning voice gave him a private information which was more than correct. The plan failed dismally, as I too well know.”

Extraordinary or not, those who come in contact with successful business men will see the same phenomenon repeated over and over in greater or less degree. Call it a genius for affairs or what you will, this curious power of divination remains still as unexplained a mystery as any other kind of second sight.

Anna Rossman, a beautiful woman about 22 years old, was found walking the streets of Denver in a somnambulistic condition on a recent afternoon, says the Rocky Mountain News. An Italian fruit vender noticed the strange condut of the young lady near the corner of 15th and Arapahoe streets. She walked into the drug store at the mining exchange, the police were notified and the patient was taken to her home. The case is a very peculiar one, and has before been brought to the attention of the police department during the past two months. On account of the family, all mention of the matter has, until this time, been suppressed. It is evident, however, that the somnambulistic tendencies of the unfortunate woman have become chronic and the peculiar features of the attach are attracting the attention of physicians. Miss Rossman formerly lived in Pueblo. There she attracted attention by her strange performances, walking about the streets apparently awake, but really asleep and totally unconscious of where she was going. Removing to Denver, the same conduct was continued, and the family then went to Cheyenne. They again came to this city and settled at the place they now reside. It is claimed by the friends of the afflicted woman that she is possessed of supernatural powers, is gifted with second sight, and that other strange phenomena are within her control. In these spells she would attract but little attention were it not for the fact that she is utterly oblivious of passing objects and walks before carriages, street cars and other vehicles with recklessness. Otherwise her appearance is that of a person in possession of her normal senses. A little over a month ago she was found at the union depot, and Yardmaster Pierce discovered that she was not aware of where she was. A carriage was called, she was taken to the police station, and afterward to her home. Again on the 7th of March she was found in a similar condition at the Glenarm hotel. One day when Dr. Johnson, the police surgeon, was in a restaurant, Miss Rossman walked in and the waiter thought that she was intoxicated. Grasping the situation, Dr. Johnson left his meal, took the patient’s arm, and quietly walked with her to her home, Miss Rossman being all the while utterly oblivious of the notice she was occasioning from bystanders. The young lady had come from Cheyenne just before her latest sleep-walking experience, and walked from the depot to the place where it was found that she was still asleep. No information could be gained as to what she had been doing at Cheyenne or whether she had made that trip in a somnambulistic state. When the ambulance came to the mining exchange Miss Rossman was taken quietly to the conveyance and realized nothing of the situation until her home was reached. She then awakened out of the deep sleep, but gave no particulars as to her sudden visit north. She is a beautiful blond, has the sympathy of all who know her in the unusual affliction which has befallen a woman who is said to be possessed of a bright mind. When these fits have passed away she knows nothing of what has transpired.

A remarkable story comes from the upper Yakima country, Washington. Two years ago Peter Stromshadt located on a piece of land near what is now known as Borax Springs, his family consisting of his wife and two children. A few days after his settlement Stromshadt discovered a spring close to the shack he had built, the water of which was strongly impregnated with iron, but not unpalatable. Stromshadt dug and deepened the spring, and since July 1893, the family has used the water for all domestic purposes. One night recently a heavy electric storm passed over the cascades, accompanied by vivid displays of lighting. The following day Mrs. Stromshadt, while kindling a fire in the stove, found it almost impossible to separate the stove lifter from her hand. Her husband, hearing her scream, ran to her assistance, when, to his surprise, he found that he, too, experienced great difficulty in detaching any article of iron with which his hands came in contact. Breakfast was finally prepared and the family sat down to the meal. The children, girls of 5 and 7 years respectively, drank their milk from tin cups, and upon raising their cups to their mouths found themselves unable to detach the cups from their lips. Stromshadt, who is an intelligent from Sweden, was nonplused, and while unable to account for the wonderful occurrence, nevertheless laughed at his wife’s exclamations that the family was bewitched. In a letter to a friend he says that the small bed in which the children sleep is upon roller casters. At night when the children are put the sleep the head of the bed is a little to the east. Invariably in the morning the bed is pointing north and south. A member of the Portland, Ore., Academy of Science, to whom the circumstances were related, says that the Stromshadt family has become saturated with iron, which was rendered magnetic by the passage of electricity from the clouds to the earth during the recent electric storm. Stromshadt himself takes the mater philosophically, and aside from the inconvenience of having his head decorated with a fringe of knives, forks and teaspoons, which are attached to him, is inclined to regard the occurrence lightly.

The Wings of Icarus, Being the Life of One Emilia Fletcher as Revealed by Herself in: I. Thirty-Five Letters Written to Constance Norris Between July 18th, 188-, and March 26th of the Following Year; II. A Fragmentary Journal; III. A Postscript. By Laurence Alma Tadema, daughter of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Miss Alma Tadema wrote at least one other novel (Love’s Martyr).

This small book explores the nature of Love and Truth, and the difficulties Free Thinkers have in adhering to their ideals.

(Thanks Andrew, for the correction.)

French Art: Classic and Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, by W. C. Brownell. Published 1892. A series of essays on French art, which first appeared in Scribner’s Magazine in 1892. Unlike the magazine, however, this edition does not have any illustrations of the works mentioned.

William Crary Brownell (1851-1928) was a noted literary (and art) critic for Scribner’s Magazine.

Thanks to Graeme Mackreth for Post-processing this book!

The Destiny of Man, Viewed in the Light of his Origin. By John Fiske. Copyright 1884. Published 1893 (20th edition). A book-length essay discussing human evolution and the role of infancy in the development of mankind.

John Fiske was a librarian at Harvard, later a lecturer at Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri). He lectured and published on American History and on evolution, and was a frequent contributor to the Atlantic Monthly.

On Tuesday morning last, while Mr. William Thompson, assisted by Robert R. Smith, was engaged in making an excavation near the house of the former, about half a mile north of West Hickory, preparatory to erecting a derrick, they exhumed an enormous helmet of iron, which was corroded with dust. Further digging brought to light a sword, which measured nine feet in length. Curiosity incited them to enlarge the hole, and after some little time they discovered the bones of two enormous feet. Following up the “lead” they had so unexpectedly struck, in a few hours’ time they had unearthed a well-preserved skeleton of an enormous giant, belonging to a species of the human family which probably inhabited this and other parts of the world at that time of which the Bible speaks, when it says “And there were giants in those days.” The helmet is said to be of the shape of those found among the ruins of Nineveh. The bones of the skeleton are remarkably white. The teeth are all in their places, and all of them are double and of extraordinary size. These relics have been taken to Tionesta, where they are visited by large numbers of people daily. When his giantship was in the flesh he must have stood 18 feet in his stockings. These remarkable relics will be forwarded to New York early next week. The joints of the skeleton are now being glued together. These remains were found about 12 feet below the surface of a mound which had been thrown up probably centuries ago, and which was not more than three feet above the level of the ground around it. Here is another nut for antiquarians to crack.–Oil City Times.