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This newspaper page contains 23 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
Boston Weekly Globe
Location
Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America
Date
May 05, 1885
Page
6
A Confederate reminiscence describes Lee’s withdrawal after Gettysburg, detailing a July Shenandoah Gap engagement with Union cavalry and infantry. The Seventeenth Virginia held a key position in Thoroughfare Gap, repelled a cavalry raid, endured hornet chaos, and fought through heavy pressure until nightfall before withdrawing.
A humorous travelogue on the varied and quirky marks put on clothes by laundries across American towns. Dr. J Burdette laments diverse private marks, from big Xs to Greek letters and red threads, detailing absurd labeling in Philadelphia Pittsburg Columbus Kalamazoo Council Bluffs Concordia Kansas City Decatur Terre Haute and many more.
An ancient Bengali tale from the weekly Medical Recorder recounts how a mouse is transformed through several animals by a sage. The narrative links the queenly Postomani to a poppy tree whose sap yields opium, predicting the drug’s long history and the user’s traits mirroring the animals.
The piece satirizes the lifelong male pretense of understanding women. A young man believes he has mapped every nuance of female nature after a few years, only to be humbled when his confident calculus collapses as reality derails his theories. In witty opinion, the author notes the gulf between theory and life.
An Albany Journal item recalls a church scene where a young boy, entrusted with a nickel for the contribution plate, insists on getting a penny as his share of four remaining coins. The boy’s demand prompts a lecture on plate etiquette later at home, in a tale of small generosity and budding thrift.
A long tale on practical jokes spans from Teodore Hook style hoaxes in 18th century Paris to modern pranks in Brooklyn. The piece weighs the ethics of mischief, recounts elaborate hoaxes by Septenville and Prault, a milkmaid donkey prank, and ancient Thracian games, noting jokes fade as society refinements rise.
A Brooklyn Times tale shows a pretty widow charming a hard hearted merchant with tearful appeals for a mourning outfit. She extorts credit by hinting at an upcoming marriage to a known fiancé, prompting the manager to extend a generous, if risky, bill under the threat of security. The clerk’s pity prevails as he orders a full black wardrobe for a potential buyer.
The article surveys fifteenth to late sixteenth century court dress, tracing the corset’s evolution from bodice origins to the whalebone prison. It highlights Catherine de Medici, Mary Stuart, Eleanor of Austria, and Maria Touchet, noting rigid, beetle-like silhouettes, stiff collars, and jeweled bindings as emblematic of their era's excessive fashion.
A Philadelphia Times report observes old men and city residents avoiding cracks in flagstone pavements. Reporters counted fourteen crack-steppers in half an hour and found about 75 percent of city men practice the habit, often unconsciously, with no clear reason.
A facetious passage defines a kiss as sweet not from saccharine content but from its sudden impact felt as a lightning express through a man’s system. It argues that men who describe a kiss likely never had one, while those who have prefer silence, reflection, and a fatalist dream.
In Somerville Journal style a tragedy unfolds as scarlet fever claims three of Mrs. Fogarty’s eleven children. Friends console the grieving mother while noting the sorrow and the burden of burial costs.
A Chicago Herald excerpt surveys how education and culture shape the nose as a symbol of character. It traces noses in art, literature, and history from Socrates to Washington, Dickens to Bardolph, and notes nasal types, provable traits, and the surgeon's craft of rhynoplasty for nose reconstruction.
A lurid caricature labels Mohammed Ahmed known as El Mahdi as a daring but comical fakir who rises from a Sudanese cave to lead a misguided clerical clan. The piece mocks his background, prophesying pretensions, and lampoons Arab warfare and Bedouin quirks with caustic humor.
The passage recalls Tycho Brahe, famed astronomer known for a golden nose after a duel over a remark about the moon. His prosthetic nose led to tales that he resembled a wizard, and the speaker urges continued attention to the story while inviting a return visit.
Continental Gazette reports American gentleman Mr. Livingston once drove twenty three horses in Florence, defying a six-horse limit. He used three carriages with six horses each, strapped to the seats as footmen aided. Police fines followed, then a yearly settlement offered, but accidents and public safety concerns led to the ban on the extravagant hippie display.
A Detroit Free Press item recounts a wife asking a citizen to write a postal card to John Sessions in Cleveland. She bids him begin with My dearest husband and notes their baby, the weather, and her request for funds next week.
A historic look at how fans shifted from male to female ownership in Europe, becoming a silent language of flirtation and social signaling. The piece notes that delicate handling distinguished class, with Louis XV era commentary asserting a princess could be read by a fan’s movements.
A London World account of Lauriston, the Swan residence, where electricity powers almost every room. Bright chandeliers, wall lamps, and clever touch switches illuminate dining rooms, halls, and even a kitchen motor. The system runs from two dynamos and an accumulator with about seventy one lamps and safety bells, promising effortless control and safety with electric living.
A satirical piece describes a supposed Mexico based assassination market where brokers quote prices and margins for killing a target. The grotesque scheme escalates as investors are misled into paying further fees, with the broker pushing the ruse until collapse or tragedy.
A Rehoboth Sunday Herald piece explains a nihilistic cipher used in Russia. It describes a dot separated numeric code that hides letters by adding key word letter positions to the figure stream. Using a word like liberty, the cipher yields different figures for repeated letters depending on location.
A riddle-like note describes a man who feels small while his wife repurposes his son's old clothes to fit him, suggesting a humorous take on scale and adaptation within a household.
A collage of brief items from the periodical page including a quip about the ostrich stomach, a poem about Ruth and tomatoes, a Yonkers Statesman joke on wedding serenades, short nature verses by Mary Erwin Hobbs, a Puck item on Castor oil for flies, a romantic verse about white roses and mirrors, and a Fall River Advance quick observation on winter mornings.
A collage of verse and prose recalling a farmer’s nostalgia for past days in a grocery and with Jemima, interwoven with notes on a popular faro bank on Kearny street and poetic reflections on train travel. The piece muses on memory, longing, and the shaping of everyday life into story.
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