The Arena, Volume 4, Issue 6, edited by B. O. Flower. Published November 1891.

Thanks to Richard J. Shiffer for post-processing this project!

Bookp(h)ile

In 1872 Cream-of-Tartar was 40 cents per pound; in 1892 it was 19 cents per pound. Have the high-price Baking Powder monopolists reduced their price? They have not!

“Calumet” was the first, and is the only high grade Baking Powder offered to the public at a moderate price. Its motto is:–

“Monopoly must yield to moderation–
Impurity must improve or go under–
‘Calumet’ is the standard.”

A Western Passenger Train Held Up by a Swarm of Hornets

A swarm of hornets held up a passenger train on the Chicago, Fort Madison & Des Moines railroad, and gave the trainmen and passengers a battle that will be remembered longer by far than if it had been against bandits, says an Ottumwa dispatch to the Cincinnati Tribune. The train was running slowly up a steep grade just outside the city, where the hillside is covered with trees. Suddenly Engineer Cunningham noticed a black mass moving through the air ahead of the train. Had he known what was coming he could have stopped his engine and backed to the next station. The small cloud soon developed into a swarm of hornets. The hornets notice the slowly puffing engine and made for it. They attacked the engineer and fireman, who were forced to stop the train. It was a sultry day and all the car windows were open. This gave the hornets an opportunity to enter the cars and pester the passengers. It was an hour before the trainmen and passengers succeeded in driving away the hornets. A number of persons were severely stung. The train stopped at a farmhouse until the injuries could be attended to and then proceeded to this city.

Tourists returning from abroad report a new fad which has, for the moment at least, superseded the erstwhile popular craze for souvenir spoons; instead, milady now collects dainty handkerchiefs. From the days of Josephine to the present the handkerchief has been an important item in the expenditure of a fastidious woman; a good dresser considers her toilet incomplete without a bit of snowy lawn or linen, which, though scarcely ever seen, and it may be severely plain, must yet be above reproach with regard to fineness of texture. An inveterate globe trotter, who has just returned from the other side, rejoices in an exquisite collection of these cobwebby nothings. At every city or town where she stopped, no matter how short her stay or how insignificant the village, another square of linen as faithfully added to her spoils, and, curiously enough, she readily recalls where each was purchased. So that her handkerchiefs, in a measure, serve her as a sort of note book.

London Tid-Bits: One of the most valuable flocks of Southdown sheep in the United States is the property of Mr. Mansan Migg, the beet-root sugar magnate. A peculiar fact in connection with the flock is that it is looked after, not by sheep dogs, but by six trained Spanish game cocks. They are armed each morning with spurs, and have so fierce a way of attacking any sheep that tries to run away or will not be driven that the animals are now thoroughly afraid of the birds and obey their directions perfectly. Mr. Migg’s daughter brought the birds from the Canary Islands.

One of the most singular looking creatures that ever walked on the earth or “swam the waters under the earth” is the world famous man-faced crab of Japan. Its body is hardly an inch in length, yet the head is fitted with a face which is the perfect counterpart of that of a Chinese coolie–a veritable missing link, with eyes, nose and mouth all clearly defined. The curious and uncanny creature, besides the great likeness it bears to a human being in the face, is provided with two legs, which seem to grow from the top of its head and hang down over the sides of its face. Besides theses legs, two feelers, each about an inch in length, grow from the chin of the animal, looking for all the world like a forked beard. These man faced crabs swarm in the inland seas of Japan.

News comes from Texcapa, Mexico, a small town inhabited by Indians and Mastisos (half-breeds), that ten persons were burned there as heretics by order of the the auxiliary town judge. The judge claims he was acting according to the will of God, manifested to him in an extraordinary vision, accompanied by certain indications of divine wrath against heretics and people leading immoral lives. The whole population of Texcapa seems gone mad. All believe the judge was commissioned by the Almighty and the saints to destroy evil-doers. They point to the pile of bones on which they profess to see miraculously traced outline forms of the saints who, on advising the judge to burn the heretics left their images. Twenty-one arrests have been made.

In certain parts of Holland when a young man thinks he loves a girl he asks her for a match to light his cigar at the door of the beloved one’s home. This is done to let the parents know that something is intended, and if the visit is repeated and the same thing occurs no doubt is left in the minds of the girl’s parents, and they immediately proceed to investigate the young man’s character and antecedents. When he calls a third time they are prepared to give him an answer. If his suit is looked upon favorably he is given a match. If refused, he produces his own match, lights his cigar and walks away. If a favorable answer is given he steps forward and joins hands with the girl. While the engagement is by no means a settled fact even at this important stage, it is stated as a truth that if, on the occasion of the young man’s third visit, his inamorata offers him a second cigar and he smokes it in the house the engagement is never canceled.