Turkey Slow to Change Harem Veil Shapes Women’s Lives
A 19th century observer notes how Fatima’s influence and Islamic practice shaped Turkish women’s seclusion. The piece describes veil adoption, male public spaces, and the two-part home life, with selamlik for men and haremlik for women.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Turkey
Mahomet
Fatima
Ali
Ivan Narodny
Eive
Constantinople
Galatea
Pera
Bosphorus
Ekmekdji
Strife at Holy Sepulchre Forges Narrow Peace
The article describes fierce sectarian rivalries within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Orthodox Greek, Roman Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, and Syriac factions claim the tomb site, with clashes recurring at major feasts. A Mohammedan guard, aided by soldiers, keeps peace during crowded celebrations.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Near East
Russia
Balkan Countries
Macarius
Constantine the Great
Helena
Jerusalem
Balkans
Church of St. Sophia
Constantinople
Constantine
Archibald
Turkey
St. Sophia
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
The Galloping Horse and the Limits of Perception
A discussion notes that photographs of galloping horses claim a full leg stretch but quick cinema reveals each leg lifts and folds as the horse moves. Instantaneous movement exceeds the eye, challenging traditional depictions of the gallop.
Opening Chinese City Gates After Revolution
The Pekin city gates now close by 7 pm and sometimes 6 pm, an improvement over the old regime. General Li considers keeping gates open all night with electric lights and guards to ease business access. The gates may stay open day and night soon.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Pekin City
How to Bake Gems on Stove Top
Instructions describe baking gems on a hot stove using an iron gem pan. After greasing, pour in batter and cook until puffed and browning, then flip to finish. The method notes biscuits can be similarly made in a frying pan.
How To Make Vinegar From Tea and Fruit Parings
Save leftover tea in a jar and sweeten it as for drinking. Add tea to it whenever you have leftovers, and drop in apple parings when making sauce or pie. If you have a vinegar plant, add a little but it will still improve without it. Let stand four hours for a nicer vinegar than store bought.
Rothschilds Butterflies and Rare Animals At Tring Park Museum
The Hon. Walter Rothschild houses a vast private collection at Tring Park comprising over a million butterflies and numerous stuffed specimens. It includes the great auk with two eggs valued at about £340 each, a sable antelope, a Mongolian wild horse, and 160000 birds among the holdings.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Walter Rothschild
Tring Park
Willfulness and Self-Inflicted Injuries
Quotation notes that injuries caused by willful men arise from their own choices. Shakespeare’s line reflects self-inflicted harm through deliberate actions. The phrasing emphasizes personal responsibility and the consequences of intentional behavior.
Education of Japanese Girls and Shifting Roles
The text traces the historic aim of female education in Japan as moral and domestic training, noting the traditional obedience model and Confucian influence. It contrasts this with modern growth of over 200 girls high schools and institutes for independent livelihoods, highlighting Japan Women’s University founded in 1901 with 1,100 students and plans for new departments in music art and medicine.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Jinzo Naruse
The
Oriental Review
Japan
Nippon
Confucius
Japan Women’s University
The Worm Turned
A customer waits fifteen minutes for a fish order as the waiter promises delays. After repeated five minute promises, the customer asks with emphasis what bait the waiter is using.
Procrastination in a Review of Reviews contrast
A reviewer contrasts a distinguished citizen with an English humorist who outlines a daily routine. The writer notes the humorist rises at noon and resumes work the next day, highlighting a pattern of delayed literary effort versus public life.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
The
Republic
Babies In the East Customs at Birth and Teeth
In Cypress a first tooth date prompts songs and a water bath with boiled wheat thirty two grains on a thread stitched to the cap to aid more teeth. In Rhodes on the eighth day a wine myrtle bath ends with the cradle lit by tapers while a child tastes honey and wishes sweetness.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Ile of
Rhodes
A Slight Difference on Faith and Healing
The exchange compares belief in healing to belief in payment. The doctor notes a difference between faith in Providence and faith in a person, explaining that mindset alone does not guarantee the outcome of being paid, while belief may influence healing.
Perfumed Jewelry Invention Captures Geneva Interest
A French jeweler in Geneva claims to have invented a process to perfume jewelry per customer taste. The fragrance is applied to unseen parts of the piece and lasts for years, with the scent renewing as it wears. Price: scented paste at $50 a pound. a small item could be perfumed for only a few cents.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Geneva
Vienna Flats and Rules from a Gloomy Haus
A writer portrays the Vienna dwelling culture and strict house rules. The hausbesorger haunts stairwells enforcing bans on late singing and dancing while residents beat rugs in courtyards and drag dustbins downstairs for the dust cart. The piece notes regimental life, a dog ownership compromise, and housing routines.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Hausbesorger
Vienna
Viennese Hausfrau
Doll Soul Theories Across Cultures
A Japanese belief holds that dolls can gain a soul through generations of play and must be fed and cared for to keep luck from turning. A contrasting Roman view by Varro tied Christmas dolls to human sacrifices to an infernal deity.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Varro
Rome
Julius Caesar as the foremost ruler of men
The passage extols Julius Caesar as the greatest born leader who presided over a pivotal crisis in human history. It lauds his unparalleled qualities, notes his decisive handling of obstacles, and emphasizes the grand role he played in shaping events.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Julius Caesar
Shakespeare
Caesar
Food For the Elephant Feeding Habits
The elephant requires about six pounds of fodder daily due to rapid digestion. In the wild it feeds vigorously but wastefully, selecting preferred trees for bark or foliage while tearing down branches and discarding much. It relies on touch and smell to choose trees as a natural animal.
Montenegro’s simple king and royal habits recall Alfred
A brief portrait of Nicholas I of Montenegro noting his modest table manners and frugal court. He is served by his daughter and others help themselves while bread is baked by the queen. He advocates thrift and is a savings bank depositor. He once rebuked a hotelier who bought a gold watch, saying his own was silver.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Nicholas I
Montenegro
Alfred
Inner peace and conscience over worldly wealth
A reflective Nautilus quote emphasizes looking within to find peace and happiness. It contrasts unseen inner forces with changing external things and valuing a clear conscience above riches, love, land, and honors.
Coloring Bricks and Temperature's Role in Baking
The color of a brick is largely influenced by the temperature at which it is baked. Higher heat can produce deeper hues while cooler temperatures yield lighter tones, shaping the final appearance of ceramic bricks.
The Sofa and Social Rank in German Households
The sofa holds primacy in German rooms where social status dictates seating. Guests are assigned by rank, with the hostess on the sofa and higher born visitors displacing her as needed during coffee gossip. Unmarried men and young women are barred from sofa seating. the Sargenstuhl serves as a private chair for mood and dignity.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Germany
Avera
A Family Windfall and a Cure All Pills
A humorous verse tracing a family's ill health to various ailments from rheumatism to measles. After taking a catalog’s pills per the book, Father heals, Uncle’s stiffness vanishes, Baby’s measles disappear, and Grandma regains health. The poem ends with everyone thriving and the family making a living from testimonials.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Uncle
Johnson
Sister
Grandma
Tumbledown Acapulco Described as Wretched Town
The city of Acapulco in Mexico is portrayed as a poor, poorly built place with adobe houses, huts for the lowest class, and thatched walls. Earthquakes have left ruins and cracked structures, and there are no sewers, waterworks, telephones, or electric lights.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Acapulco
Mexico
Monkey Tails and Docked Primates Explained
A visitor questions why most primates in the menagerie have short tails. A keeper explains that South American monkeys have tails while eastern hemisphere primates do not, suggesting the other fellows grew tired of tails.
A Perfect Anagram
A compact note explains a Latin wordplay from the Vulgate. It shows that the question qu id est veritas asks for the answer est vir qui adest meaning it is the man who stands before you. The observer highlights a linguistic twist in a biblical scene.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Christ
Pilate
St. John
Estimated total books published since printing begun
Mr. R. Peddie's lecture on Bibliographical Research places the figure at about forty million books since printing was invented. He estimates roughly 50,000 titles are published each year excluding fiction, children's books, and items not considered books.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
R. Peddie
The Age Joke Anniversary Stunt
The joke notes a host planning a party at his house for a purposely secretive reason. He hints in a stage whisper that it marks the tenth anniversary of his wife’s thirty-fifth birthday, a quip reflecting calendar quirks and humor.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
St James Gazette
Dominion Police Chief Arthur Sherwood’s Rise to Fame
Lieut.-Col. Arthur Percy Sherwood, former Ottawa police chief, became chief of the Dominion police on October 7, 1882 after serving as Ottawa head since April 6, 1879. His Ottawa force included 24 constables, sergeant major, two sergeants, a chief detective and an assistant, and he resigned to assume the Dominion post. He gained celebrity through guarding visiting royalty and active militia involvement.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Dominion Service
Ottawa
Militia
Arthur Percy Sherwood
Dominion Police
Lanerell
Sherwood
Dominion Police Force
Notable Canadian official praised for service and leadership
A leading Dominion official and military figure is described as energetic and competent. He has served as superintendent and commissioner of the Dominion force, led secret service work, earned honors from King George and the Governor-General, and held top posts in rifle leagues and militia units. He is praised as popular, disciplined, and principled.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Dominion Force
Secret Service
Canada
King George
Duke of Cornwall
York
M.M.G
M.V.G
A.D.C
Canadian Military Rifle League
Ottawa Canoe Club
Ottawa
Forty-third Rifles
Eighth Rifle Brigade
Risley
Costly Furs and the London Market for Ermine
London remains a premier fur market with annual sales rivaling twenty million dollars. Ermine, once royal trim, fell from favor then surged again as fashion shifted, with Chinese hunters supplying ten thousand skins in one spring. The fur is white with a black tipped tail creating the distinctive spotting on state garments.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
London
Handsome Dogs and Judging Standards
An English dog judge, noting the difference between keen sense in hounds and bulldog exceptions, selects prize and pedigree foxhounds by eye. An artist, visiting a major kennel, chooses top animals purely on perceived strength and beauty, echoing a Shelley reference in the London Outlook.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Shelley
London
Two Inscriptions in a Guest Book Reveal Rivalry
In a country house both Gladstone and his rival the Earl of Beaconsfield stayed. Each guest wrote their name and profession in the visitors’ book. Beaconsfield signed as "Patriotism" while Gladstone, likely unaware, signed as "Apprentice."
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Gladstone
Earl of Beaconsfield
Lord Beaconsfield
Mr. Gladstone
Beaconefield
Also Mentioned on This Page
Mohammed
Yirthod
Roothschild’s Butterflies
Babies
Europe’s City OF
Tumbledown
Monkeys and
Col
Arthur P. Sherwood
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!