Camp and Field Picket Life in Civil War Times
An excerpted study by George F. Williams surveys picket duty in the Civil War, contrasting coffee coolers and bummers with disciplined sentinels. It recounts marches, foraging, battlefield nerves, humorous incidents, and the varied reactions of raw recruits and seasoned soldiers under fire, with anecdotes from Malvern Hill to Petersburg.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
George F. Williams
Malvern Hill
Fair Oaks
Pope
Lee
Virginia
Samson
Afass
Jie
John Pope
Sountain
Antivium
McClellac
Amazing Invention: Paper Shirt Fronts Patent in Philly
A Philadelphia lawyer promotes a seven front paper shirt concept from Lackawanna county. Each front bears a different design with a serialized tale printed on the back, offering varied outfits at fifty cents for patterns and thirty five cents for plain white. The inventor claims broad entertainment value and novelty.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Philadelphia
Connecticut
James
Washington
Lackawanna County
Coney Island
Philadelphias
Athletics
Atlantic City
Sheepshean Bay
Notions About Brides From Old Fanciful Customs
A historical review of bridal superstitions and bridesmaids duties from Cassell's Family Magazine. It covers color symbolism for brides, the fling of stockings, the benediction vessel, dow purse practices, and regional remnants in Scotland and Cumberland.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Cassell
Misson
Herrick
Hesperides
Horace Walpole
Miss Berry
Cumberland
Scotland
Liszt Performs Softer Echoes for Seven in France
The era reports Liszt on a French tour where a provincial hall held only seven listeners. He smilingly proposed moving the piano to his hotel and performed the entire program there, inviting the guests to a modest supper. The next night the hall crowded, with many turned away at the doors.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
France
Liszt
Time Value and Life Lengthening Theory Column
The piece titled Economy of Time Lengthens Life argues that small daily time losses add up over a year. It presents an answer time table showing working days per year and daily minutes lost, including figures for 6, 10, 20, 50 and 60 minutes lost per day and their yearly totals.
Witchcraft in Gotham Negro Quarter Exposed by Visit to Voodoo Den
A New York Commercial Advertiser reporter visits a Thompson Street voodoo shop to witness a voodoo rite. The piece depicts aging women with charms, cat familiars, and root-based potions sold for luck, love, or vengeance. It notes white and black patrons, and warns of the social persistence of superstition in the city’s Negro quarter, Greene to MacDougal streets.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York Commercial Advertiser
Cbila
Greene, Wooster
Thompson
MacDougal
Thompson Street
Broome
Teniers
Tuchro
Chile
Luchra
Adam and Eve
Tuedro
Sonny
Adam
Ebe
Tuchru
de Chiilen
South
SHIPS OF THE DESERT
A London Telegraph piece contends camel riding relies on stamina and simple technique rather than skill. It describes the camel’s stubborn nature, the single pace of trained animals, and rider methods for maintaining balance, stopping, and mounting.
The Man With Class Legs Tale From Detroit Times
A Detroit Times anecdote recounts a dyspeptic bachelor who feared glass legs. A doctor tricks him into a drive, overturns the buggy, and a stray stage nearly flattens him before he escapes, ending his fear of glass legs.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Detroit
Jenks
Called That Rail Road President In A Humorous Boardroom Tale
A Wall Street news item recounts a railroad facing debt and missed dividends. During a directors meeting the president proposes resigning and offering the presidency to a wealthy fool who will fund dividends. The board accepts and the called man jokes about how they chose him.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Wall Street News
Poisoned by laudanum and a mysterious act ends life
A Mexican report notes a man survived laudanum exposure after unknown actions and a police find a string around a corpse infant on ashes in Guadalajara. Doctors Ortega and Aguirre travel to France for career completion. Stage scenes feature Maria Arnefat performing at Thatro Principal with admired precision.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
el Correo de Las Doce
Guadalajara
Leopoldo Ortega
Augustin Aguirre
France
Maria Arnefat
Thatro
A Man A Gun A Woman And A Mouse
A Hawaiian Gazette item recounts a Beretania street household where a mouse in a flour barrel led to a chaotic scene. The man fired a gun, the dog reacted, the woman fainted, and the servant fled fearing murder. the mouse escaped.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Beretania Street
German Student Life A Passion For Duelling Inherent In The Soul
A Brooklyn Eagle piece describes German students living with freedom and a self enforced code of honor centered on duelling. It details kneips drinking, cap sword ceremonies, and large beer gatherings, noting rare mortal duels yet strong social bonds and a secret language linking students from Kiel to Konigsberg.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Brooklyn Eagle
Phllister
Philister
Fatierland
Germany
Kiel
Freiburg
Bonn
Konigsberg
A Fond Father's Letter to His Son at School
Bill Nye in San Francisco writes to his son describing finances for education and clothing, joking about winters, hazing, and family struggles. He recounts selling property, sending $13, and plans to cover costs while urging thrift and perseverance in study. He recalls humorous incidents with rural districts and a hazing tale, ending with well wishes.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bill Nye
San Francisco
Ingleside
Sam Hill
Gosling
Old Man
The Elevator Hermit and the Mirthless Ascent
Rehoboth Sunday Herald profiles the elevator conductor as a restless figure always moving yet never arriving. He ferries cargoes of humanity between floors, living in a metallic cage and savoring glimpses of life from a shaft’s edge as shadows depart.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Rehoboth Sunday Herald
Sisyphus
Chumber
How People Enter a Car Study
Observational sketch by Rean Campbell in Pointer on how travelers vary in boarding a car. It contrasts the seasoned traveler choosing the shady side seat with methodical seat-hunting by two women, a farm party resolving seating, and a western man who mistakes car doors for stagecoach doors, finally entering through an open window.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Rean Campbell
Make One Person Happy Each Day Says Sidney Smith
Sidney Smith urges daily happiness as a simple remedy to improve many lives. He argues that if one person is made happier each day for forty years, about fourteen thousand people gain some happiness, even if only temporarily.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Antietam
Lincoln
McClellan
Petersburg
Finnegan
Florida
Lee
Johnny
Sidney Smith
Woman's Sphere poem ends with a vow on women's worth
A Wyoming woman juror was asked to inscribe in her album. She writes that there is no task or fate on earth or in heaven that weighs less than a woman’s worth, asserting a profound measure of female influence beyond traditional bounds.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Laramie
October Delights and Humorous Snippets Across Newspapers
A collage of playful tips and wry humor from early 20th century press. Advice columns urge prudent marriage choices, oyster statistics amuse readers, poems paint autumn scenes, and cartoons poke gentle fun at art and life with light satire.
Precautionary Measures in a Drake’s Travellers’ Magazine
An unpleasant anecdote describes a drug clerk permitting a customer to buy a pound of arsenic at double price, reflecting caution in handling dangerous goods. The piece contrasts with reflective autumn verses from Philadelphia Times about harvest, colors, and tranquil scenes, followed by a humorous London church pew anecdote.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Drake
Travellers’ Magazine
the Proprietos
Philadelphia Times
Harper's Bazaar verse and a rector’s playful Sunday school
A collage of verses from Harper’s Bazaar and Chamber’s Journal pieces, including Ruth Hall in Harper’s for November and light poetry about fate romance and haying. A brief Rector’s Experience in Sunday School notes a playful exchange where a child answers catechism questions with humor about who made you and who was the first man.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Harper’s Bazar
Eddie
Also Mentioned on This Page
Sherman
Butte
Gotham
Billy Johnson
Negro Quarter
Buliet
Ships OF the
London Telegraph
Kneip
Burlington Free Press
Chicago News
Helen Chase
Woodbine
Norristown Herald
Luther G. Riggs
Jennie
Coz
Browne
D. T. Highmore
Daniel
Carl Pretzel
Lily
Blaine
London
Ruth Hall
Harper's
Rose
Bangor
Boston
Mr. B
Ana
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!