Chinese Theatre and a Lavish Chinese Dinner in China
A visitor describes chartering a theatre for a merchant’s send off, noting a raucous Chinese orchestra, sparse stage props, and the ban on women performers. The feast includes 38 dishes such as bat, dog, eagle, and monkey meat, with wines served hot and a finale of Havanas. The writer reflects on cultural differences and vows never to repeat the experience.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Burt E. Squier
Toledo Blade
China
Uman
Creation
Attac
Wales
Children Cry for It Why William Napoleon Farrington Concluded Home
The Arizona Kicker notes kids crying for the paper. Major Bostwick buys a subscription for his 6-year-old, while editorials mock a Tucson murder suspect, a claim jumper, and a courthouse humor column. Colonels, gunfire, and threats close with a warning to trespassers at the office.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
William Napoleon Farrington
Detroit Free Press
Arizona Kicker
Major Bostwick
Grizzly Ranch
Sunday School Advocate
The
Christian Herald
Theatre Etiquette Snags for Chicago Audiences
The piece offers comic theatre audience tips from the Chicago Herald era. It mocks heckling tips and rude behavior such as criticizing seats, shouting at cabmen, and waving hats while urging proper manners and spectacle awareness during performances.
North Side Lady Troubled by Repeated Postal Cards
A Minneapolis North Side resident complains about an express office pestal card that promises a package. She questions the agent’s need for personal details and demands the parcel or a rest, while the exchange ends with her awaiting another notice after a year.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Minneapolis Tribune
Dakota
Frivolous Exchange Amid Divorce Reference
A brief dialogue in French humor shows a man told to smile and think pleasant thoughts despite announcing his divorce. The remark pivots to suggesting thinking of someone else’s wife, highlighting social sharp wit in a clipped exchange.
Poisoned Goat Mystery on Cooney Island
In a moonlit New York hamlet, the missing tail and a threat to murder spark a village scare as Mrs. Finn suspects their ravenous billy goat of crime. Neighborhood ally Mrs. O’Brien recounts a baffling tale, ending with shared laughter and a reconciled family.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Ernest Jarrold
New York Sun
Slide Mountain
Big Indian Valley
Mickey Finn
Mrs. Finn
Billy
Cooney Island
Mr. Finn
Mike Finn
Tee Avic
Mickey
Mike
Little Mike
Biddy
County Clare
Mrs. O'Brien
Honolulua
Bull
O'brien
Alexander Selkirk
Juan Fernandez
Gu Gabetly
Ren
Patsey
Jamesey
Marien
Aherty
Mr. Kare
Finn
Bey
Ike
Paris
Gene Arrah
T’ Murphy
Million-Dollar Silver Haul Moves From Post Office Vault
The United States government via Adams Express transfers seven million dollars in silver dollars from the Philadelphia post office vaults to the Washington treasury. Major James Mullane oversees with two aides. twenty Philadelphia mint workers and Treasury secret service guards ensure security as one million dollars is loaded daily into sealed bags, transported by carriage to Sixteenth and Market, then shipped to Washington in secure cars guarded by detectives.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Philadelphia Record
Adams Express Company
United States Government
Post Office
United States Treasury
Washington
United States
Adams Express
James Mullane
National Treasury
Philadelphia Mint
Fox
Secret Service
Treasury Department
National Capital
Express
Chant Street
Sixteenth
Market Streets
Sub-Treasury
Another Discouraged Man
A Detroit Free Press piece recounts a snow shoveling would be contractor who, after delivering a pompous sales pitch at a house, offers to clear snow for 20 cents then bores the homeowner with promises of advance payments and misused authority before being dismissed as impractical.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
He Wouldn't Do It to a Dog
A San Francisco Examiner item recounts a dialogue where Giddings praises a newly married man and compares his affection for his wife to how one would treat a dog. Peyton challenges the notion, saying he would not kiss his dog, highlighting a humorous exchange about propriety and affection.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Esquire Jones
Pete Jackson
Abram Weeks
Jackson
Jim
San Francisco Examiner
Giddings
Peyton
Ledith
Tupper
Hana
Love's Young Dream
A lighthearted exchange between George and Daisy in a jewelers weekly page lyric. They joke about time flying while saying goodbye as a clock strikes ten eleven twelve, with Daisy remarking the clock is selling itself in the dining room.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
George
Daisy
Stranger After Ten Years Returns In New York
A New York Weekly note recounts Bud Luck & Co. still at the old stand selling out after ten years away, with the firm in financial straits following a cost sale.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York Weekly
Stranger
Bud, Luck & Co
Citizen
Stanc
Grandpop and Peleg recall an old tale of tame crows
In a New York Sun piece, Peleg asks Grandpop for a New Year story. Grandpop recounts training two tame crows Ebenezer and Hanner, their swift talking, mischief with Polly Tubbs, and how the crows grew up to mock him, with vivid Sugar Swamp dialect and humor across the tale.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York Sun
Grandpop
Peleg
Sonny
Kentry
Peles
Bill Simmons
Brother van Slocum
Unday
Yeshita
Sugar Swamp
Ebenezer
Hanner
Polly Coupe
Jake
Polly Tubbson
Silas
Polly
Bill Slive
Benezer
Saad
SF Acker
Sleeping Courtships In Simple Folklore Echoes
A Julians Ralph Epoch column recounts a German maiden and a boss plumber who court in chairs and sleep. The narrator recalls a similar tale of a farmer beau who napped soon after arriving to visit, hinting at themes of quiet affection and delayed courtship.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Julian Ralph
Farmhouse routine ends in late night routine
A young farmer and a young woman shared a tiresome days work and alternating waking, with the farmer bidding good night and leaving as dawn approached. Neither found relief or freedom in their quiet farm life.
The Influence of a Red Hat on a Lady’s Life
A moral tale from Harper's Magazine about a sober woman who adopts a dull red hat with a plume and, under its spell, abandons frugality and virtue for fashion and social display, transforming from a benevolent exemplar to a society ornament.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Charles Dudley Warner
Harper's Magazine
Ladg
Warner
Eles
Solomon
Why Widows are Wily and Winsome
An opinion piece from the New Orleans Picayune arguing widows hold social power. It praises widows for experience, social finesse, sympathy, and understanding of men, contrasting with younger women and noting the widow’s refined art of courtship and mourning.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New Orleans Picayune
Weller
The Acute Sophomore and the Hasty Telegram
A sophomore at Amherst College faces heartbreak as a telegram reveals Charles Maxwell has been hanged for murder. The weighed moral choice brings grief and a shift in romance for the young man and Alice.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Hartworp
Conn
Amherst Eollege
Amherst
Charles
Alice
Charles Maxwell
West reformer gets wife in three weeks
A lighthearted tale recalls a departing Washington official, a genial West Gent with a knack for horses. After a rounds tour he learns a clerk is married and vows to wed her himself, and does so within three weeks.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Washington Post
Question of Citizenship On Atlantic Liner Causes Stirrings
A heated discussion aboard an Atlantic liner centers on the gender and nationality of a man at the saloon's far end. Opinions range from English and German to American, with one passenger claiming the man’s legs on the table reveal his American identity.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Ocean
A Pretty Picture in Philadelphia Society
Mrs Rural Emde on Chestnut street admires a sweet little girl. Mr Emde, a country doctor, agrees she is a pretty picture with delicate beauty. A New York Weekly humor piece notes a young lady asking for shoes, two will do, while a new boy queries for a box of sixes.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Chicago Herald
Philadelphia
Rural Emde
Chestnut Street
New York Weekly
Cadet Humor From The San Francisco Argus
A brief, humorous dialogue fragment from the San Francisco Argus features two cadets joking about a scent of powder and a Vassar girl, reflecting light-hearted campus banter.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
San Francisco Argus
Vassar
The Lime Kiln Club Fines Samuel Shine and Elder Toots
A Detroit Free Press item mocks a quarrel among Samuel Shine and Elder Toots, fining each five million dollars in a satirical club setting. The piece uses humor about expectations and daily woes, with a mock debate and commentary from figures like Judge Pula Johnson.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit Free Press
Brother Gardner
Paradise Hall
Gnittith
Samuel Shin
Mai ‘Ajor Teberentnis
Quackenbush
Pula Johnson
Elder Toots
Pana
Tonigh Rother
Ega
Ala
The Quick or the Dead Author Portrait
A description from The Independent sketches a striking image of a beautiful woman. The face is refined with almond shaped eyes, a straight nose, and a square chin while golden brown hair frames the forehead. One arm rests by her side and the other holds a fan, presenting a graceful full-face portrait.
Hint to Bill Collectors Sparks a European Departure Threat
A Detroit Free Press anecdote shows a debtor refusing to pay a small bill, threatening to go to the papers to announce an imminent departure for Europe, prompting the collector to urge receipt and end the delay.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit
Europe
Some Mexican Superstitions
The piece notes beliefs among northeastern Mexico about murder escape and capture based on how a body falls after death. It cites a March Scribner’s essay by Thomas A. Janvier and mentions a bride preparing for her wedding as part of the observed customs.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Thomas A. Janvier
Scribner's
Mexico
Also Mentioned on This Page
Arizona
Tucson
Hajlmen
First National Aauk
N. P
Norier
Tim Reeves
Joe Smith
Hank White
Lindsley’s Woods
Old Billy
Little Peleg
the Reounty
Prex
the Lime Kiln Club
Samuel Shine
Tennyson
Camerica
Little Robert Reed
Nebraska State Journal
Hominy Hall
Munsey’s Weekly
Cupid
Crace
Sarah J. Hurke
Chambers’ Journal
Eleanor Louisa Hervey
This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!