Friday, January 15, 2010

Killer Molasses!

On January 15, 1919, a molasses tank in Boston exploded with great force and flooded the streets with a huge wave of molasses that killed 21 people, crumpled the steel support of an elevated train, and knocked over a fire station.

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Monday, October 12, 2009

The Little Kitten That Came Back

From the June 28, 1910 edition of The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, a regular bit called Daddy's Bedtime Story, an uncredited column featuring quaint stories for little ones; this story is titled "The Little Kitten That Came Back."

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Friday, September 4, 2009

Winter Would Come Too Quickly

Marta had barely recovered from that Easter bonnet, and now this.


Via Flickr.

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Friday, July 24, 2009

Last Dance With Mary Jane


Die-cut candy advertising piece from the early 1900's.

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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April 1st, 1913 Orphanage Update

According to this old booklet for the Children's Home Society of Minnesota, (organized September 11, 1889), the number of children cared for up to April 1st, 1913 was 3,400.




Apparently, as a result of this publication, one of the children's heads was adopted -- at least the photo was. (Which may have affected the Center of Gravity in the Human Body Study done at the home.)


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Monday, March 16, 2009

A Comic Male Quartette

Get the lyrics to Ham & Eggs, by John Martin (arranged by Fred K. Huffer), 1917; I hear tell it's a great encore!

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Consult the Educated Monkey!

Not only does this monkey dress nicely, wearing a fine suit and bowtie -- and I don't even know how to tie a bowtie! -- the simian below is also capable of complex multiplication problems (video here):
Man, nothing's worse than being show up by a monkey. Hey, let's see him figure out square roots, because I -- wait, I can't do that, either...darn you, educated monkey!

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

"Mr. Frog led the angry beaver around to the front of his shop..."

So begins "Everyone Is Happy", from The Tale Of Ferdinand Frog.


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Monday, January 12, 2009

Ferdinand Frog & Friends

The decorated endpages of The Tale Of Ferdinand Frog, Sleepy-Time Tales, by Arthur Scott Bailey, illustrations by Diane Petersen; Grosset & Dunlap, copy; 1918. As you can see, some child has colored in the characters a bit.



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Sunday, November 2, 2008

The Room That Is All Wrong

Answers to the How Well Do You Know Your Victorian Rooms? pop quiz.



You thought I forgot, didn't you?

I didn't. I was A) hoping you folks would actually guess & B) I decided this would make an excellent poster for the bathroom -- you know, to give guests something to do while they were just sitting there...

Anyway, posters are now available and so I present the answers from page 3285 in The Book of Knowledge encyclopedias, circa 1910. (In some cases I copied the text direct because it's such a treat to read it as written.)

1 The door by which we enter the room has the finger-plates and handle and keyhole on the wrong side, being against the hinges.

2 The oval picture is hanging from a hook which is placed upside down on the picture-rail.

3 The landscape (next to oval picture) is upside down.

4 The picture hanging inn the corner has no hook at all.

5 The skirting board is reversed.

6 & 7 "We shall be surprised to find that the maid is about to shovel on to the gas-fire some coal she has taken from a coal-scuttle which has quite an impossible handle. The handle is round the bottom of the scuttle in such a way that it could not possibly be swung round for the purpose of lifting the scuttle."

8 The hands of the clock are wrong (the little hand would point to a minute or so past the hour, not before it).

9 & 10 The window fastener is the wrong way around -- and the handle to lift the lower half has been fixed on back to front.

11 The support for the curtain pole is fastened on the top, instead of at the side, which would prevent putting the pole over it.

12 The knob to open the shutter is on the wrong side.

13 "Moving round the room we come against a hassock, the lungs of which are on the sides instead of on the ends. Let us take it up and we shall notice how very awkward it would be if hassocks were always made like this one."

14 "There is something strange about the dog too. It is a spaniel with a collie's tail."

(I guess Victorians weren't fond of mutts.)

15 & 16 The chair has been "very carelessly upholstered" -- the pattern is the wrong way up, the castor has been fixed on wrong and "it would soon break with the weight of anyone sitting in the chair."

17 The floor-boards have been placed in the wrong direction "and what would happen to them underneath the carpet is impossible to say."

How many did you find?

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Saturday, September 13, 2008

Pop Quiz: How Well Do You Know Your Victorian Rooms?

From our incomplete set of The Book of Knowledge encyclopedias, circa 1910, this picture exercise on page 3175:

What Is Wrong In This Room?

This picture has been drawn with seventeen things wrong in it. It will interest you to find out these mistakes and write them down, comparing your list with the correct listing appearing on page 3285.
Luckily we have the volume with page 3285 -- and I'll present the answers in a few days or so.

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