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Comet in Johnson City, Tennessee

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Articles on This Page

This newspaper page contains 18 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.

Newspaper

Comet

Location

Johnson City, Tennessee, United States of America

Date

Nov 11, 1909

Page

3

Millionaires Caught in Cash Only Customs Rule

A report notes that high income individuals including C Oliver Iselin were forced to pay duties in cash rather than with certified checks or guarantees. The incident highlights the U.S. Treasury insistence on currency for imported personal effects, with one millionaire reluctantly yielding cash after a humorous exchange at the pier.

Vanderbilt Astor Morgan Rokefeller Gould Uncle Sam Europe Sam C. Oliver Iselin England Iselin Williams Custom House Barney” Biglin Biglin

Uncle Charlie Seaver cameo sparks farm buckboard talk

A city visitor inquires after Uncle Charlie Seaver who jokes about not yet being an uncle and offers a ride in a 40 horsepower car rather than the old buckboard. The scene shifts to a children's party with a zoo role play where kids declare animal identities. One child shyly says he feels sick.

Charlie Beaver Charlie Seaver Charile Proid Order of the E Carrie Reggie Hilda Tommy

The Polite Peons Language Mixup Tale

An engineer from Mexico tries to command railway peons with a mix of Spanish and English. Confusion over palabras like para stop ustedes hombres piedras via leads to repeated stone tossing until the workers bow and reply di senor.

Mexico Via Para Ustedes Hombres Senor

Once A Mortal Sin Perjury In Perilous Folklore

In a San Francisco courtroom during the Ruef trial commentary notes perjury as the greatest crime of the age. The piece contrasts past beliefs that false oaths carried dire penalties with modern crime, arguing people lied for practical or immoral reasons regardless of era.

The Mission of Jimmy in Cove City

In Cove City two ways of communication existed with equal effect. The town relied on Jimmy Fallow to relay news and organize events from his front fence as coroner, wharf master, undertaker and notary. He tracked farmer arrivals, Helping Hands sewing, doctor presence, and Sunday services, while noting only the next steamboat's arrival remained uncertain.

Jimmy Cove City Que Jimmy Fallows Alice Hogan Rice Mr. Opp Century

Puzzling Canadian Time at Union Depot

A traveler asks about Canadian train times using the 24 hour clock. Information clerk C E B Barbie explains that trains depart at 13 20 and arrive at 22 10, with hours counted from midnight. The trip started 1 20 PM and ended 22 10 PM at the destination.

Union Depot C. EB. Barbie Sald Barbie Kansas City Star Johnson City Erwin

Dickens in China and the clash of tales with ethics

The essay argues Chinese readers prefer adventure and detective tales over romantic scenes from Dickens. It notes translations of Western novels fascinate but moral views alter the reception of characters like David Copperfield, suggesting Chinese authors would alter plots to suit local norms.

Dickeng China Dickens David Copperfield Dora Agnes John China Man

True and Faithful Epitaphs and a Farcical Jailbird

In Hagerstown Maryland a churchyard epitaph mocks romance and substituted names for a true tale of ary F. Wife of Walter Jenkins who died December 20 1864 age 19 years nine months and was true to several partners. The piece notes a comic line about a man arrested for misdemeanors using a pun on fine fetters delivering a grim grin at his handcuffs.

Hagerstown Ary F Walter Jenkins Jacob Wineman Henry Snow Philip Harrow Harper's Weekly

Temptation Tale Ties Couple to Fortnight at Old Orchard

A dialogue reveals a husband and wife apart for a fortnight with suspicions and admonitions about fidelity. The wife remains in the mountains while the husband plans a stay at Old Orchard, hinting at underlying marital strain and restraint.

Hicke Gayboy Old Orchard Wicke Hicks

Fragmented Wordplay Text From A 19th Century Column

The excerpt presents dialogic fragments featuring a child Freddy-Pop questioning a nurse with a red cross band and a powder maker curious about Tom’s candle in a gunpowder shed. The piece appears as a clipped humor or gossip column excerpt with incomplete phrases.

Freddy

Photographic Plate Temperatures Vary by Star Brightness

English astronomer finds that for some plates the best temperature for faint stars differs from that for brighter stars. Between 24 and 75 C warming slows faint star exposure but speeds brighter star exposure, guiding plate temperature choice by object brightness.

The Wreckers of the Sea

An Appletons description praises ship wreckers who face brutal seas and cold, risking life for salvage. It notes many wreckers die yearly and others suffer amputations, paralysis, or frostbitten extremities after dangerous operations at sea.

Saya Appleton’s

Dusts the Tomb of Napoleon in a Paris Office Tale

A Paris insurance manager receives Legion of Honor and a plate from clerks. An old Invalid, calling himself Napoleon’s orderly, explains he dusts the emperor’s tomb. A joke follows on how portmanteaus reveal holidays as workers depart or return.

Paris Legion of Honor Invakides

Among Indians of Louisiana

The Koasati of Louisiana favor the blowgun to hunt birds, using cane tubes and eight inch darts. They weave Spanish moss into blankets and retain ancient crafts like pottery, beaded sashes, baskets, and silver ornaments made from coins, as described by M. R. Harrington.

Louisiana Mons Allversmitha M. R. Harrington

Vienna funds Radium Institute as Ramsay honored

The University of Vienna, via the Vienna Academy of Sciences, receives 600,000 kronen anonymous donation to establish a Radium Institute. Sir William Ramsay is lent a fraction of radium for continued experiments. A gramme of radium stores energy equal to one horsepower for 15 days and would take about 30,000 years to exhaust itself.

University of Vienna Vienna Academy of Sciences William Ramsay

Roman numerals replace street suffixes on New York ads

The New York Times notes tailors and merchants on Fifth Avenue prefer Roman numerals in addresses. Vth Avenue appears on new cards and ads, drawing surprised comments as other avenues resist adopting the style. Trade houses foresee widespread use of Vth Xth and similar forms in cards and posters.

Vth Avenue Nassau Street Fifth Avenue New York Times

Christmas High Finance and the Hide and Seek Bank Tale

The passage recalls William Bayard Hale described as caustic by a magazine editor. At a bankers Christmas banquet he jokes about a Christmas game likening a bank CEO taking all funds and hiding, with detectives pursuing and the forfeit paid if caught.

William Bayard Hale Hale

Going the Limit in a City Vignette

A country cousin joins his city kin for a night out and drinks heavily after a show. The city duo head to a bar for more, while the country guest resists, insisting he must leave as the urban spree continues. The exchange ends with a humorous dinner-table debate on eating.

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