How He Did It Western Railway Brakeman Mule Goat Tale
An eastern railway official recalls a brakeman granted a month off who spent time in Denver with friends on a Colorado road. He received a goat as a gift and devised a shipping tag to get the animal home. The tag read Please pass the butter signed by Thomas Z Meechin.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Tie
Rockies
Denver
Colorado
Black Car Line
Thomas Z. Meechin
S. S
Harper's Weekly
Ant Merchants Supply Eggs And Live Ants For Game Preserves
Ant merchants in Europe rely on eggs shipped from across the continent to fill game preserves. They keep eggs in run-like houses, feed them, and pack the eggs in wooden bores for shipment to earls dukes counts and other elites. Ants themselves are slain when they stop laying and sold as blocks similar to plug tobacco to bird dealers.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Paris
London
Europe
New Orleans Times-Democrat
Striking Coincidence Reveals Past Conviction
A debtor’s tale of recognition after years of trying to bury the past is recalled by Professor Jowett. A Liverpool man, later jailed, obtained a colonial editorship after release. Tornado reveals his old English papers, exposing his prior conviction and trial report.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Jowett
Liverpoolla
Mes
Sinter
Liverpool
St. James
Pants and Trousers: A Wholesome Fraternity Debate
The piece contrasts speakers who use trousers or pants by preference with those who adopt the other term to imitate others. It condemns insincere pretension and social imitation, labeling hypocritical talk as craven and related to genteel affectations like tight shoes and unliked olives.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Atlantic
Evolution of Books From Wooden Beginnings and Beech Staves
The text traces book origins to beech staves and Anglo Saxon boe, linking book to letters as Buchstaben. It notes Latin libr, inner tree bark, papyrus, and Greek biblon shaping terms Bible and bibliography. It mentions collex as a wood block and leaf as a visible reference.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Biblon
Biblophile
A Compromise In London Scraps Humor
A private soldier challenged his sobriety aloud to a sergeant in charge. The sergeant authorized him to remove his boots, prompting the man to insist he is only half drunk. The sergeant then ordered him to take off one boot.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
London
Peculiarity of Madness and Subordination in Bedlam
Afedor Messenger notes that mad houses rarely show subordination as kings poets and philosophers inhabit Bedlam. He observes human deeds and lives are understood only after they finish and that you cannot predict how manhood or a child will turn out.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bedlam
Afedor
The Case of Jones End of a Tramp’s Long Strife
A battered vagrant Jones loses wife and child, clashes with labor overwork, is jailed, wanders five years amid hard townsfolk, finds brief humanity, then declines to a consumption death in a charity home. His life exposes cruelty, indifference, and the drift of a man from dignity to destitution.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Babe
Leene
Trafic
Jones
N. Quad
Artful Maid and a Milk Spill Tale
A household servant Ellen endures scoldings from Mrs. H for breaking dishes. She jokes that if her heart were in her head and feet, mishaps would stop. one day she falls spilling a gallon of milk, insisting the fault lies with her heels not her head or heart.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Ellen
Mrs. H
Elton
London
Need of Covers While Asleep
A physician explains the body rests during sleep and the heart slows its strokes by about 0 each minute. Over eight hours this reduces total heartbeats and blood flow, requiring extra warmth from covers to compensate for slower circulation.
The Snake and the Umbrella
A traveler recounts a strange tale of a man napping in the woods with an umbrella. As rain begins, he awakens to a stiff umbrella tearing open a living black snake trapped inside. The man drops the umbrella and halves the snake from stem to stern after recovery.
Cigar Cutters and Disease Warned by Tobacconist
The Sixth Avenue tobacconist claimed cigar cutters threaten public health. He argued buyers bite and moisten cigar ends, spreading germs from tuberculous or other diseased mouths to the cutter and onto the next cigar end.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Sixth Avenue
New York Press
Thrifty dispute between two Scotswomen over thrift
Two Scottish women quarrel about who is thriftier. One boasts of a purse kept since youth. the other retorts that Dugald is not the first man, implying another suitor, and warns against preaching thrift.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Miehty
Dugald
Ambitions of Youth in Harper's Weekly
A mother scolds her two sons, Willy and Johnny, urging Johnny to imitate his brother Willy, who may rise high, while Willy doubts his future and asks to dig in the sewer too. The dialogue contrasts dreams of ascent with humble labor in a late 19th century frame.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Johnny
Willy
Harper's Weekly
What He Drew in the Chicago News
A humorous exchange quotes a caller remarking that the writer often smokes while drafting. The horse reporter answers with a pun noting he draws smoke, not inspiration from a pipe, in a light Chicago News style.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Chicago News
Got Plenty Ail Tragedy editor’s dramatic piece
The dramatic editor’s column uses a sharp tone to critique society’s woes with satire and wit. It riffs on appetite and excess, framing cultural critique as a banquet of ideas and provocation from a Philadelphia columnist.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Ranter
Eighth Stand Erected in Middlebury Cemetery
A widow places an 8 Stand in a Middlebury Vermont cemetery for her loving husband with an inscription promising reunion. The text questions who would claim to be a philosopher and set no duties toward Aristotle.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Middlebury
Poisoned dinner flirt saved by nut pick tale
Sullivan King recounts a Petersburg state dinner where a noblewoman friends of the imperial couple signs a hidden danger. A powdery note in a folded paper behind a nut pick prompts a daring rescue as police hunt, exchanging clues with a secret Russian circle. The episode ends with exile from Russia and a mystery about the girl’s fate lingering.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
St. Petersburg
Inc
Siberia
Russia
America
Siberis
Walter
Siberian
Sullivan
Also Mentioned on This Page
J. Hennessy
M. D
Allealls
House Phans
Emmetsvurg
Lowe
Dit
J. L. Walk EL Momeopathig
Hiosdwey
Atta Cauich
Xx. Crevameyer, M.D
Humetsburg
Iowa
I. E
Christopher
Wagner & Keepers Barn
E. Kidder
Music Hall
Emimetsburg
Lowa
DR. Thomas
Emmataking Ofice
Farméra’ Savings Bank
A. A. Theile
Brown-Kerwick
Emmetsburg
Lows
H.W. Burnard
Emmietsburg
E J Higgins, Jr
Optometrist
Alt
Thos. O'Connor
Offee
Palo Alto County Bank
Laws
Cohoon Aticorney-At
Omfccon
Escend
Fcor
McCarty
McCarty Lawyers
Inmeteburg
Jaws
Oney Tolonn
Spertent
Opera House
E. A. Morling
H. Morling
Farmers Savings Bank
J. E. Williams Law
Unstein Goers House
Lewis Stuehmer
FERCE
Freeman's Grocery Store
Emmergburg
J.S. Atkinson
Esst
D. E. Schootey
Hinkley Building
Wilbein
A. M. Peterson
Gund Peerless Beer
WM. Pender
Milwaukee
W. H. Goonan
Domentia
Harper
Fawlty
Aristotle
Helriré
P. R. Wells, Carpenter and Bulldes
W. Brennan
Crouch
Security Gall Salon
J. C. Paulson
The
Emmetsburg Auto G Gas Engine Co
Fairbanks Morse & Co
Emmetsburg Auto & Gas Engine
South Cones Company House
Squar
Chicago
Rock Island
LaSalle
C. J. Shauger
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!