Blocky miscellany from The Register reveals odd feats and figures
A Maine railroad scare ends with a man grabbing a woman’s hair after a bug sighting. The Register notes top railroads by weight, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s abstinence stance and stores near Grand Central with liquor bans, Kaiser Wiser’s long reign and generous doctor gifts, a railcar carrying farm laborers earning $1.4 million, and portraits of ex governor Andrew Curtis and Austrian cavalryman Albert in a brisk collage of contemporary curios.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Grand Central Depot
Vanderbilt
Fire shield for elevators and corporate power cautions
A BeurraLo device to fight floor to floor fire spread via shaft spray is described. Ohio Supreme Court warns that abusive corporate practices by railroads may justify revoking charters as nuisances. A quip on women and the ballot closes the item with social commentary.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
BeurraLo
Tax Supreme Court of Ohio
Standard Oil Company
Deacon Rogers J Burvette Elected in Lower Merion Church
Rogers J Burvette, noted living writer in his historical literary branch, has been elected a deacon in his Baptist Church at Lower Merion Pennsylvania. He will not be a mere figure head in the office. When Mr Gurdatte was supp...
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Rogers J. Burvette
Lower Merion
Mr. Gurdatte
Earthquake Tales And Social Spotlight From Adirondacks To Arizona
A preacher fills a vacant pulpit in an Adirondack church for several Sundays preaching free salvation. Gen Sherman looms large in New York society circles as he praises Paris for moneyed visitors, then a Benson correspondent relays Leo Harney’s tale of surviving an Arizona earthquake that drained a pond and changed a Mexican foe into memory.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Adirondacks
Tom
Laura
Good Brethren
New York
Gen. W. TF. Sherman
Paris
London
Whetstone Mountains
Arizona
Benson
Leo Harney
Leo
Jose Viliza
Gorgeous Head Coverings Of Mexican Women
A letter from Mexico contrasts sombrero prices from ordinary to lavish, noting upper-class styles resemble European fashion while middle class invest heavily in headwear. It cites wages, footman back pay, and a ragged boot boy with a cheap hat, concluding with a reflection on tomorrow.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
London
Paris
New York
Mexico
Pearl formation and fisheries across the world
The article surveys natural vs artificial pearl formation in mussels and oysters, noting factors influencing pearl development, ages for maturity, and dangers to shells. It catalogs major pearl fisheries and practices from the Persian Gulf to California, Ceylon, Australia, and the Bahamas, plus freshwater pearls and divers methods. It also details related entomology and honeycomb hexagonal structure observations from other sections.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Pacific Ocean
Mulege
Gulf of California
Los Coyotes
Gulf of Darien
California
Ceylon
Persian Gulf
Australia
Pacific
Central America
Red Sea
Bahrein
State of
Ohio
Little Miami
Norway
Bavaria
Bohemia
Bahamas
Bee Senses and Perception Explain How Bees View Worlds
The article details bee anatomy and senses, noting hundreds of faceted eyes forming a single image, three simple eyes for close vision, sensitive antennae for smell, and debated hearing abilities. It compares bee calmness to human reaction in storms, cites nervous system structure, and hints at hive communication.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Dees
Sir John Lubbock
Mr. Cheshire
Cadet Harsh Hazing at West Point Office Test
Fred Arden endures a brutal hazing ritual at Cadet Barracks after entering the eighth division hall without proper etiquette. A cadet-corporal belts out scolding, forces him to strip manners, and orders him cuffed and caged aboard an upper floor, as peers watch. The story, reported by George IL Putnam in St. Nicholas, depicts strict obedience and punitive rituals in early cadet life.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
West Point
Eighth Division
Fred Arden
Fred
Mister Arden
Ired
Maine
Jake
Iis
George IL Putnam
St. Nicholas
Beaver befriends cattlemen in dry Mont. plains tale
An old hunter on the Crazy Mountains raises a beaver pup that becomes a dam building prodigy. The animal floods the cabin floor with its creations as it learns to dam in a dry country where beavers, unlike other wildlife, are valued by cattlemen. The piece contrasts beaver ecology with western ranching norms.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Crazy Mountains
San Francisco
Northwest
Montana
Washington Rail Link and the Boss Shepherd Legend
A reminiscence recounts the crucial 1863 union of Camden and Amboy with the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore and the Baltimore and Ohio lines to link Washington to New York. It notes the heroic action of Boss Shepherd during Butler's 1861 push, the single-track wartime era, and how railroads shaped Washington’s growth and its history with the B&O.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Washington
Baltimore and Ohio
New York
Prescott Smith
Camden and Amboy Road
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Wilmington
Baltimore
Willard’s
Amboy
Bordentown
Frenchtown
Delaware
Omaha
Winnipeg
Chicago
Baltimore and Potomac
Simon Cameron
Smithsonian Grounds
Pennsylvania Avenue
New York Sun
Garrett
Butler
Boss Shepherd
Harper’s Ferry
Cumberland
Knock cement converts Protestants in Catholic conversion tale
A York mission yields two dramatic convert cases. Mrs. Bellwood, by using Knock cement, is healed of agony and enters Catholicism with her children. Mrs. Fowler of Cheltenham, once a stern Protestant, recovers after using the cement and also joins the church, with one daughter becoming a Notre Dame nun. A Dakota man rejects a scam ice freezer and buys two raffle tickets instead.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Our Lady of Knock
York
England
Mrs. Bellwood
Ireland
Bellwood
Notre Dame
Sheffeld
Dublin Nation
Dakota Bell
Vegetable poisons and potash antidotes in popular science notes
A German physician in Brazil notes permanganate of potash as an antidote for snake bites in Brazil and India. The piece surveys lightning risk, hair thickness with species counts, fire extinguisher ingredients, frog spittle origins, Swedish wood oil, and cautions that the most dangerous poisons are plant derived while warning against the marketing of purely vegetable drugs.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Brazil
India
Andries
Sweden
Do Stooge-Pipe Hats Make Bald Heads
A debate on hat wear and baldness argues dense headgear may compress scalp arteries and veins, reducing nutrition to hair follicles. Close fitting hard hats and high caps cited as causes, while open air exposure and hair follicle biology are discussed. Observers note temporary forehead congestion after wearing heavy hats.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Europe
Popular Science Monthly
Changing Color Mystery Cited In Quip Between Reporters
A bizarre exchange notes a San Antonio woman who suddenly turned white and cites a Chicago case where a man changed complexion after a harsh washing, attributed by Tevas Siflings to a joke about anarchists and police water.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Kuseiusko Murphy
Hostetter MccGinnis
San Antonio
Texas
Chicago
Also Mentioned on This Page
the Register
New Harmony, Indiana
Southern Pacific
Northern Pacific
Kaiser Wiser
New York City
Anprew G. Curtis
Pennsylvania
Russia
Congress
Pilip Marshan Ancupvuke
Albert
Austria
Charles Dudley Warner
Warge
Harold Lampoor
Popular Science
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!