Entries from April 2006 ↓

[David, on his fourth birthday, wants to ride on the street-sprinkler, which passes by without noticing him]

Do you call that any way for the street-sprinkler man to act? But of course there might be some good reason for such criminal behavior. David remembered that he hadn’t consulted any fairy godmother about it; long since he would have done so, only he could never catch any fairy godmothers hanging around. They were always busy somewhere else. Even Mother herself had failed to introduce him to any competent, respectable fairy godmothers. She was all right on telling about them; she was strong on that, but somehow they never seemed to know when they were wanted. That is their great fault; they are so unreliable. Once let them get loose from a Cinderella book, and their business system is always defective.

Animal Ghosts or, Animal Hauntings and the Hereafter, by Elliott O’Donnell. Published 1913.

Thanks to Graeme Mackreth for post-processing this book.

Bookp(h)ile

The Religion of Numa; and Other Essays on the Religion of Ancient Rome, by Jesse Benedict Carter. Published 1906.

Thanks to Taavi Kalju for post-processing this text.

Bookp(h)ile

Yellow and white. Botanists are agreed that the earliest petals were yellow, and that, originally, all flowers were of that color. The order of development of color in flowers appears to be yellow, pink, red, purple, lilac, up to deep blue–probably the highest level–while white may occur in an normally colored flower, just as albinos are found among animals. As flowers become more specialized they become more dependent upon the visits of special insects, purple and blue flowers, for instance, benefitting most from and being most preferred by bees and butterflies. A French authority states that about 4,200 species of plants are utilized for various purposes in Europe. Of these only about one-tenth have an agreeable perfume, the other being either inodorous or having an unpleasant smell. White flowers are the most numerous. One thousand one hundred and twenty-four species out of 4,200 are white, and 187 of these have a scent; 931 (77 perfumed) are yellow; next in order comes red, with 823, of which 84 give forth perfume; then blue, 594 (34 scented), and violet, 308, only 13 of which have any perfume. The remaining 400 kinds are of various shades of color, and only 28 of them have a pleasant smell.–Boston Standard.

Thanks to Sankar Viswanathan for post-processing this book.

Bookp(h)ile

Little Fuzzy, by H. Beam Piper. Another in the group of relatively recent Science Fiction found to have risen to the public domain.

This one’s a classic. I’ve worked as hard on Post-processing this as I’ve done almost any other text, not only because it was full of printing errors, but because I know people know and love this story.

If you haven’t read it, you might enjoy it! “Yeeek!“

Sir Walter Scott, by Richard H. Hutton. Part of the English Men of Letters series, edited by John Morley. Published 1878.

Thanks to Sankar Viswanathan for post-processing this text.

Bookp(h)ile

Elias B. Dunn, the weather observer at New York, has been studying atmospheric electricity for two years, says the Boston Transcript. The sergeant, as they used to call him; the farmer, as they call him now, said the other day that he will live to see the day when electricity collected from the atmosphere and stored by some means which an Edison or a Tesla will have to devise, will revolutionize the world. The prophet expects that cities will be lighted and heated by atmospheric electricity; that every train and car will be run lighted and heated by it; that coal will become a curiosity, that steam heating will be a granny talk to the children of the next generation; that the telegraph and telephone companies will lose their monopolies; that war will become a farce because a touch of electricity will make the British Grenadiers or the German Uhlans or the Scotch Highlanders sit down on the cold ground powerless. Even the dreams of communication with the inhabitants of Mars will become realities, and a man will be able to strike up electricity as he does a parlor match. There will be no more trolley strikes, because there will be no more trolleys. Mankind will tap the atmosphere for almost any convenience except food and clothing, and even the clothing will be woven and the food cooked by atmospheric electricity; street cleaning will be as easy as the magician’s “Presto! change!” and everybody will live comparatively happier ever after. Mr. Dunn is sure that his ideas are practical and probable. The atmosphere is his constant study, and, having introduced general humidity to the public as the principal element in uncomfortable days, he has determined that the potent element for good in the air we breathe shall no longer be wasted. Why, he said, the whole atmosphere is soaked with electricity.