Various Oddities and Anecdotes From The Register
A collage of quirky notes from Lyons to Boston includes twenty one years of effort on a perpetual motion machine, a Baltimore heiress seeking marriage after learning her lover’s poverty, a Rhode Island courtship lasting forty one years, and doubts about burial survivals. Also: customs chief McCannant’s $8500 post, a Toronto street car driver heir to a vast New York estate, Fraulein Senkrah’s marriage, Colonel Bu ford Wit sex in Springfield politics, and a signwriter poet near an Ohio cemetery.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Davi Jennines
Lyons, N. Y
Joan Stir
Thowbury
Canada
Toronto
New York
Temperance Book Flasks Appeal to Drinkers on Streets
A city observation notes men with books like Great Expectations or Our Mutual Friend may hide whisky flasks. A spring mouth reveals a ready nip, popular enough that a New York firm sells them as Temperance Book Flasks, challenging readers to resist temptation.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
New York
Sharks on the Mediterranean coast spark canal fears
Residents along the Mediterranean complain of growing shark numbers. They note the Suez Canal links their Indian Ocean home to Mediterranean waters, allowing many sharks to pass through. Efforts to head them off prove difficult, and critics credit Count de Lesseps with another bearing on nature.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Mediterranean
Suez Canal
Indian Ocean
Count de Lesseps
Wealth and titles span a strange 19th century panorama
James C Froop, a lonanza king, loses five million in a Nevada Bank wheat deal yet remains worth about fifteen million. Mrs Flood’s wealth will be divided among wife son and daughter with the daughter holding millions in bonds and real estate. Duke of Westminster’s heir dies. Grosvenor’s frugal upbringing noted. A boy Earl buys a parson sold pup for a sovereign. Sumatra tobacco becomes Europe’s chief market. American buyers seek US imports. Darte tobacco firms boast large dividends.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
James C. Froop
Lonanza Kings
Nevada Bank
Mrr. Flood
Heidelberg
Flood
Duke of Westminister
Lord Grosvenor
Papa
Asts Terpam
Sumatra
Holland
Iss
Darteh Tobaeco
Dell
Arendsburg
Ropes dipped in copper solution for scaffolding safety
A competent authority proposes dipping dry scaffolding ropes in a bath containing twenty grains of sulphate of copper per liter for four days to resist damp, rot, and parasites. The method, deemed more practical, suggests ropes will absorb copper sulfate, extending their life. The Liverpool Mercury notes rapid British imperial growth across Fiji, Borneo, New Guinea, Zulu land, Congo, Egypt, Cyprus, and South America.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Liverpool Mercury
Fiji
Fromutier
India
Upper Barmah
Borneo
New Guinea
Zululand
South Africa
Congo
Egypt
Berber
Khartoum
Cyprus
Turkey
South America
Sneeze send burglar to jail in Pennsylvania tale
A visiting guest at a Pennsylvania prison heard a burglar justify his crime with a sneeze as the trigger. The man claimed an impulse to sneeze woke the officer, leading to his arrest. The anecdote appeared in Golden Days.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Pennsylvania
Lady Duprey Insures Life For 500000 For Children
Lady Duprey secures a life insurance policy valued at half a million dollars naming her younger children as beneficiaries, reflecting a planned provision for their future and welfare.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Lady Duprey
Night Panther Sighting at Mollychunkemunk Lake Camp
A lone hunter recalls a stormy night near Mollychunkemunk Lake. He woke to a terrifying scream from a large panther on the shore within 100 yards, kept by a small fire, then tracked the creature's tracks to confirm a panther sighting, with dawn revealing large footprints and a brook leap.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Mollychunkemunk Lake
St Paul
Fourest
Strean
Literary heroes and the limits of patriotism in poetry
Eduard Gosse surveys a roster of English and American poets from Chaucer to Browning and Tennyson, judging originality and greatness while noting poets like Bryant Holmes Emerson Poe Longfellow and Wordsworth. He values enduring craft over national loyalty, praising Emerson as a potential sovereign poet and championing Poe's perennial charm.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Tickell
Addison
Wolfe
Sir John Moore
Elizabeth
Chaucer
Spencer
Shakspeare
Milton
Dryden
Pope
Cray
Burns
Wordsworth
Coleridge
Byron
Shelly
Keats
Tennyson
Browning
Bryant Holmes
Emerson
Poe
America
Longfellow
Priory
Lafontaine
Bryant
Enerson
Chinese Marriage Safeguards and Traditions
A historical account describes Chinese wedding customs aimed at luck and protection. It notes the bride’s half bowl meal before leaving her father, the broken shoe omen, charms on the sedan, and rituals to quiet future critics as she departs for the husband’s home.
Fragmentary line notes maternal scene re resources
A fragment describes a mother placing herself near the kitchen range to ensure her peace and leisure is mirrored in her daughter's life, hinting at shared domestic routines and safeguarding family harmony.
Quicksands Challenge Western Railways Stalling Bridges
Pressing hardships in Kansas Pacific and Atchison Topeka Santa Fe routes showed quicksands in Western Kansas streams. Pile-driving failed, earth and stone filling failed, necessitating costly short truss bridges. An engine sank in River Bend, Denver area, vanishing despite 65 foot deep searches.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Southwestern States of America
Kansas Pacific
Atchison, Topeka
Santa Fe
H. L. Carter
Kansas
Rocky Mountains
Carter
River Bend
Denver
Jiuman Ken
Too Greedy Partner Ends in Ruinous Real Estate Bet
A southern real estate reporter at a St. Louis paper, seeking to aid his impoverished mother and sisters, bought an option on property worth half a million with $100 borrowed and $900 from a friend after hearing of a pending big syndicate purchase by Tom Scott. Tom Scott later offered £600,000, but his partner refused to sell, predicting a higher offer. Scott withdrew the next day, and the venture collapsed, leaving the reporter worse off.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
St. Louis
Tom Scott
Scott
Ian
Alltieta Constitution
How a Hedgehog Kills a Serpent
The Hedgehog approaches a sleeping serpent and seizes its tail. It rolls into a ball and endures a struggle as the serpent bites, its jaws wounded by hedgehog spines. After tiring, the hedgehog unrolls and disembowels the serpent, forcing the creature to kill itself on the spines.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
de Pharmacie
The Mistress at the Tent Prepares Mock Tea
A tent mistress cleans a kettle and brews a brown tea using coarse leaves salt and cream. She pours the tea into wooden cups, serving half pint portions to travelers, describing tea as a blessing for weary journeys.
New Flora Found On Krakatoa After Eruption
The 1883 Krakatoa eruption left no living germ but three years later Dr M Treuch found six microscopic algae coating the rock and forming soil for eleven fern species. A Java grass grew and flowering plants appeared on coral islands. Seeds of coral trees were found on shore, Krakatoa lies ten miles from Sibesie and twenty miles from Sumatra and Java.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Krakatoa
M. Treuch
Java
Sibesie
Sumatra
Abyssinian Rav Alula Aged About 400, Noted Warrior King
Descriptions portray Rav Alula, Abyssinian leader, as around four centuries old and about six feet tall. He is muscular, broad shouldered, with a deep chest and athletic build. His hair is cut short, copper complexion, oval face, good teeth, and a calm, composed demeanor.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Rav Alula
Yellow Fever and land quarantine debate in the South
The article argues against inland quarantine as a public health tool for yellow fever. It supports miasmatic origin theory, notes possible airborne spread in Bermuda, and emphasizes maritime commerce as the main diffusion path. It urges strict sanitation of ships from fever areas and removal of healthy unacclimated populations to curb spread.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Bermuda
Widival News
Precious stones and shifting fads in antique jewelry
The Philadelphia Lines notes how emeralds and coral were once prized by Egyptian and Sicilian women for health and luck, with coral fashion fading and emeralds and diamonds losing value as imitators erode their worth. It counsels gem collectors to favor rubies or sapphires for lasting value.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Cleopatra
Philadelphia
Reviewing the Sermon and Local Gossip
Mrs Smith asks Mrs Brown about Dr Pulpit sermon last Sunday. They discuss Mrs Bejones and her husband, noting gossip about travels and appearance with sharp, disapproving judgments.
The Earth's Cloud Belts and Wind Influence
A report on M Teisserie de Bort findings shows earths cloudiness forming belts parallel to the equator with a central belt near the equator and lighter bands between 15 and 85 degrees latitude, varying with seasons and aligning with sun movement. A Cincinnati dynamer displayed yellow fever symptoms but locals noted he bought it in Kentucky for fifteen cents a glass.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
M. Teisserie de Bort
Cincinnati
Kentucky
Insult Leads to a Twenty-Eight Year Grudge
In Georgia, lawyer Mayberry recalls a long ago postmaster dispute over a missing stamp. At a national convention in Atlanta, Mayberry confronts the ex-postmaster in a hotel room, subdues him, and forces an apology to be written as a condition to peace.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Atlanta Constitution
Mayberry
Georgia
I. Stump
Blue Rock
Maysherry
A Matter of Roads and Quick Wit in Nova Scotia Legislation
A recall from old Nova Scotia politics features Laurence O'Connor Doyle and two fellow legislators at a dinner. When Kenny choked on champagne cork, Unieke quipped about Cork and Doyle added a sharper line about it being the wrong road for Cork but nearly killing Kenny. The piece notes a strip of earth called No Man's Land now houses hundreds and is famed for bad whisky and snakes.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Laurence O'Connor Doyle
Nova Scotia
Doyle
Unieke
Kenny
Harpers Magazine
No Man’s Land
Also Mentioned on This Page
New Harmony, Indiana
Baltimore
Rhode Island
McCatnant
Washington
Fraudlein Senkrah
Miss Harkness
Germany
Weimar
Boston
BuuFord Witsex
The
Treasury
Grant
Whisky Wing
Springfield
Til
Senator Buackarryx
Michigan State
Henry Snell
Milford
Mass
Slice
Texas
Wattses
Columbia
D. C
Poets
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