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This newspaper page contains 28 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
The Visitor
Location
Winthrop, Massachusetts, United States of America
Date
Feb 12, 1886
Page
2
A collection of humorous snippets and dialogues from old newspapers. An old man, a lazy boy, and a boastful wager frame a string of quips about taste, thrift, and discipline, with a Rochester Union echo.
Gilhooly created a stir in an Austin restaurant by ordering fried calf brains and waiting long for service that never came. When asked about his brains the waiter delivered the fatal line there ain t any that s all. The tale circulated and sparked talk of a run for the legislature.
In a San Francisco Call item a six year old, Johnny, sits idle in class claiming no pencil. The teacher enforces memory with repetition while dulling a basin water rule for cleaning slates and sponges, but an omission leads Johnny to note no water was passed and misstates language.
The Arkanaate Traveler quotes Judge Bicknell calling Bill Ridly a wolf after a suspicious man sold a horse for twenty dollars and Ridly later claimed the animal. The tale alleges the man used Ridly and the horse for profit, fattening it and then reclaiming it.
A Detroit stove dealer sold a widow a coal stove with a promise to fix issues. After repeated visits for chimney, dampers, and gas problems, the dealer proposed marriage to the widow’s suitor to ensure service for the winter, and they were married three days later.
War veterans assemble in the town hall to share stories and memories over coffee and baked beans. The scene is a quiet, poignant reunion as old comrades recall battles and friendships, the hall filled with whispered tales and tears.
In a Boston Iluminator account a veteran recalls prison hardships and wartime memories during a communal feast. The group offers hospitality as he jokes about mules and Texas borrows while tears and empathy rise among the attendees.
A readable portrait of the Mikado's palace and court life based on a popular curiosity piece. The description covers a twenty six acre palace with gilded gates a moat and connected buildings. It notes audience rituals at the throne a curtained bed dais and the ceremonial use of mats fukusa and silk.
Ten year old Ethel Spooner of Brooklyn received twenty thousand dollars in a Kings County court from the Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railway. In 1884 at Orange New Jersey she saved two cousins from an oncoming train by throwing herself down as wheels passed over her leg, which was amputated above the knee that evening. The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff despite defense claims of parental negligence.
A Washington letter to the Cleveland Leader quotes Rep. Guenther of Wisconsin on the Agabebic iron region near Michigan, praising the Colby mine in Lake Superior. It notes 800,000 tons mined this fall, potential 200,000 tons next year, and profits amid a rising boom with Carnegie Bros. watching developments.
A correspondent surveys the so called jumpers among French Canadians noting sudden startling autonomic reactions to noises and signals. Observations include a post office incident where a jumper grabbed a man by the throat and a camp heater episode causing burns. The piece cites inherited tendencies and tickling triggering convulsions as factors, with Chicago records cited for municipal costs and threats.
A fragment on happiness requiring air and change, liberty, and steadiness. It notes principles of discretion, peace, and temper, comparing pride and vanity, and urging mastery of circumstance by facing it boldly. It emphasizes calmness, measured speech, and the benefit of self-command in life.
The article explains a medical explanation for a sinking feeling in the stomach. It notes improper breathing and relaxed abdominal and dorsal muscles causing the diaphragm to work harder. Remedies suggested are fresh air and exercise.
Guidance on breathing through the nose in cold weather to warm air and filter out dust and germs. Emphasizes teaching children correct habits from the start for better respiratory health.
A London aquarium study reviews how different fishes sleep or rest. Fresh water species like roach and dace sleep periodically, while others such as goldfish and pike never sleep but rest. Some ocean fish show no night sleep preference. pilot fish aboard a moving ship remain stationary for days, suggesting complex sleep behavior in marine life.
The piece warns that at forty to sixty a man can remain in prime health with proper regulation. After sixty, death’s river looms, but a frail viaduct called The Turn of Life may cross to Old Age if trodden carefully. Gout and apoplexy lurk, so restraint and steadiness sustain strength as life wanes.
The Hartford Times describes a flock of forty or fifty wild geese moving fast in an irregular curve toward the so called land of cotton. The old gander leads with a deep note while the geese cry and sweep the sky. Observers note speeds of 500 to 600 miles per day as they flee winter toward warmer regions.
Dr H B Groe discusses color blindness no cure its hereditary factors and prevalence four in a hundred men one in four hundred women. He notes insects have many lens eyes and that rubbing eyes is ineffective. He mentions third eyelids and blind spots and warns against eye cups as harmful. Buffalo Express.
A Vidette writer recalls a cool act during the war near Port Hudson where a soldier fetched berries behind a cotton bale despite Confederate rifle fire. He repeatedly moved at each puff of smoke, finally stepping into the road where a fatal shot narrowly missed him. Also noted is Woolwich using electric light to photograph a cannon interior for flaw detection and a quip about a bachelor with long hair and good habits.
A correspondent presents a hypothetical case of a dying man who revokes a will after a reconciliation with his estranged son. The query asks if such a codicil could be attacked on the grounds of mind control by a professional mesmerizer, given the son's alleged influence and psychological feats. The piece notes the question's ingenuity for general readers.
The New York Mail and Express noted Daniel Smith of Merrick L I reaching ninety two and his wife ninety in their ninety two years of marriage. He served in the 1812 war and was stationed at Fort Green Brooklyn. They run a farm, with buckwheat and two acres cut last fall. They have fourteen children and many grandchildren as part of a long family line.
An eclectic column surveys ancient dwellings near a church, the bark paper Sism and Burmali used as slate substitutes, and betel leaf erasure. It also reports Sanford Florida alligators bred for sale, Majendie’s flour experiment with dogs, Roman roots of Valentine’s Day, a strangely stunted girl, Burmese disease insights, and curious insect shocks to notable men.
The St Louis Globe Democrat reports rumors of a breed of wild horses and cattle around Fort Pillow, connected to Confederate forces fled into swamps after the Civil War. A search party is organized to explore the area and uncover the rumored stock and beef.
The Death Valley in Inyo county California is famed for extreme desolation and harsh conditions. It spans about forty miles by fifteen with a 100 to 400 foot depression below sea level. Water is scarce and often salt or alkaline. springs exist but are unfit to drink. An 1865 explorer noted January temperatures near ninety degrees, and winds raise salt and sand in great clouds.
Popular Science notes link cholera to soil characteristics and its entry into the alimentary canal. It reports on Lartgley’s theory about Earth heat without atmosphere, Fleischman’s milk heating method extending freshness, and leaf evaporation rates.
Captain Robert M. Lavender aboard the Alice Montgomery reports a belt of floating dead fish off the eastern Gulf of Mexico south of Rebecca Shoals four days before reaching New Orleans. The sea appeared yellow with yellowish surface scum and the vessel sailed through the area for about twenty miles. Theories point to submarine volcanic activity and poisonous gases as likely causes.
The pall Mall Gazette notes a Munich custom called the coopers dance staged from January through Ash Wednesday every seventh year. Journeymen coopers perform in streets with hoops and foliage, mimicking old costumes to revive public courage after the plague of 1517.
The passage evokes a demon like blizzard moving with swift speed as travelers in a tunnel fear the freezing air. Elements describe ice cakes four inches thick and a stiff air that grips faces and beards. The scene conveys a perilous, unseen force of nature.
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