Saturday Snippets 6 July 2013: Dead men’s teeth, fishing with crinoline, a Suffragette spanked, Princess Charlotte in a temper

Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, from the collection of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton.

Dead Men’s Teeth. — Dead Englishmen’s teeth, collected on the battle-fields in the Crimea, are now in great demand by the London and Paris dentists  The price current of human ivory has greatly fluctuated recently, owing to the quantities of deceased soldiers’ masticators put into the market. It is stated the idea first entered the heads of some Londoners to send voyaging clerks to the seat of war in search of teeth. The harvest was a good one, apparently, and promises to yield a remarkable price, as connoisseurs vaunt the superiority of Englishmen’s and Higlander’s teeth over all others. The Medical World: A Journal of Universal Medical Intelligence, Volume 2 20 May 1857: p. 131 

Large fortunes sometimes have queer beginnings. The Gardiner (Me.) News says that one of the wealthiest firms in that state began business on $5,000, which a sister of the partners got in a breach of promise suit for damages against a rich man. Evansville [IN] Courier and Press  30 October 1889: p. 2  

The editor of the Plum Creek Gazette furnishes a practical illustration of woman’s rights. The foreman of the shop is a girl, the printer a girl, and the devil a girl, and such doubt exists as to the sex of the editor that a committee of citizens threaten to make an examination. Omaha [NE] Daily Bee 17 May 1886: p. 5 

A Princess of Spirit

The Princess Charlotte, daughter of George the Fourth, was a young woman of great spirit and originality. One day, one of her teachers chanced to enter the room when the princess was reviling one of her attendant ladies, in great wrath, and after giving her a lecture on hasty speech, he presented her with a book on the subject. A few days later he found her still more furious, and using language even more violent. “I am sorry to find your royal highness in such a passion,” said he; “your royal highness has not read the book I gave you.”

“I did, my lord!” cried she tempestuously; “I both read it and profited by it. Otherwise I should have scratched her eyes out!” – Argonaut

Youth’s Companion, Vol. 64, 1891: p. 485 

[Here is admirable post with many illustrations, about  Princess Charlotte of Wales, only daughter of George IV, her wedding gown and wardrobe. And a fascinating post on a royal reward for one of the ladies who tried hard to keep the “spirited” Princess in check, from the Two Nerdy History Girls.]

A DEVIL, LOOSE FROM HELL

A Human Being Who Flirted at His Dead Child’s Funeral.

New York Dispatch, 27^th

A statement alleged to have been made on her death-bed by Mrs. V. Woodward was to-day read to Justice Bartlett, in the Brooklyn Supreme Court. In it she declared that her husband, George S. Woodward, carried his amours so far that while going to the cemetery to bury his dead child, he tore off the apple blossoms that the mother had put on the coffin and tossed them to flirtatious young women whom they met on the way. The dying declaration was read to convince Justice Bartlett that Mr. Woodward, who is a theatrical man, is not entitled to the custody of his little girl Lillian, aged 3. A number of affidavits were read, in which Woodward is accused by various persons of such crimes as larceny, embezzlement, bigamy, seduction, criminal malpractice, conspiracy, cruelty and extortion .The case was not concluded. Charlotte [NC] Observer 30 June 1893: p. 3

 WHAT HE SAID.

He put his arm around her waist,

And closer drew her head

Unto his own with tender clasp,

And looking downward said:

“You haven’t got the right man, dear;

He’s not quite onto it.

You should have had my tailor, for

Those bloomers do not fit.”

The Clothier and Furnisher, Volume 24, 1897

The militant branch of the Suffragettes has been making the most desperate efforts to hush up the outrageous assault recently made by a gang of medical students at one of the Liverpool Colleges on Miss Christabel Pankhurst, one of the youngest, pluckiest and handsomest of the Suffragettes.

Miss Pankhurst had been attending a meeting and was lured away from her companions after the speeches were over by a band of students, who numbered about ten. Having got her in their power in a small room they locked the door and having submitted her to various, not serious, but humiliating indignities they each deliberately spanked her in turn and then let her go.

Miss Pankhurst was for sending for the police, but her friends dissuaded her as they said it would harm, rather than advance the cause. So the medical students have escaped all punishment and the Suffragettes never even mention Liverpool. Winston-Salem [NC] Journal 26 February 1908: p. 2 

THE yachting craze has been succeeded by the equine mania, which is one of the results of the recent horse show. The girls are wearing belt buckles engraved with horses’ heads, crossed whips, and jockey caps, while the tops of umbrellas consist of ivory, gold, or silver hoofs. Card-cases and portfolios, silver-mounted brushes and dash-board clocks are ornamented with the insignia of the stable, and are lavishly displayed as Christmas presents. Silver and gold brooches, sleeve-links and stick-pins, consist of tiny jockey caps, horses’ heads, whips, etc.; leather belts with harness straps are very stylish—in fact, anything that savors of horsey tradition is quite the thing with the swell women of today. Godey’s Lady’s Book [Philadelphia, PA] January 1896  

Shad Caught in a Crinoline Trap.

A few weeks ago a lady of Rocky Hill, Ct., while passing a brook which runs into the Connecticut, saw two find shad sunning themselves in the stream. The shad looked tempting; the lady coveted them, but had no fishing tackle with her. She finally bethought her of her hoops, took them off, and having tied the upper end, set the contrivance in the brook and drove the unsuspecting shad into the net, when they safely drawn to land, the most cruelly deceived victims of crinoline. Richland County Observer [Mansfield, OH] 9 July 1861:  p. 1

WAITING FOR FRIENDS

A well sinker got up early to his work one morning, and found that the shaft he had been making had “folded in.” Desirous of knowing how much he would be missed, he hung his jacket and waistcoat upon the windlass (as if he had gone down to his digging) and hid himself behind a hedge. Presently, quite a crowd of people gathered around the place–among them his wife–and they all “concluded up” that he was buried alive. The question arose, should they go to the trouble of digging him out, or should they leave him where he was, and save the expense of burial in the proper form? The wife said that, as he had left his jacket and waistcoat behind, it did not much matter. So they abandoned him, as they supposed, to his fate. In the evening he slipped away from the place, a sadder, and a wiser man. In three months he returned home, dressed precisely as he was when he went away, and without a word, took his old place by the fireside. “Why, Jabes,” exclaimed his wife, “where did you come from?” “Wal,” he replied, “I found that none o’ you critters would dig me out, so I set to work myself; and if it hadn’t bin that I got astray in the dark, and dug myself six miles away, I should ha’ bin here afore.” Moral: When you want anything done, don’t die waiting for friends, but go at it yourself!  The Christian Recorder [Philadelphia, PA] 17 April 1869

  Less to Carry and less to Count.—A chimney-sweeper’s boy went into a baker’s shop in the Strand for a two-penny loaf, and conceiving it to be diminutive in size, he remarked to the baker, that he did not believe that it was weight. Never mind that, replied the man of dough; you will have less to carry.— True, rejoined the lad, and throwing three-halfpence on the counter, left the shop. The baker called after him, that he had not paid money enough. Never mind that, hallooed young sooty, you will have less to count.

A Thousand Notable Things, Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquise of Worcester

Saturday Snippets 4 May 2013

Courtesy of The Graphics Fairy: http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/

Today Mrs Daffodil introduces a new feature: Saturday Snippets. Every Saturday you will find items of interest which may have been written to Mrs Daffodil’s “Facebook” page, but which were too short to form an entire post without the reader feeling unsatisfied. In compiling this mélange, Mrs Daffodil found that it was very much like searching through one’s store of silk and velvet scraps when piecing a crazy-quilt. Or sorting coloured lithographed scraps to paste into an album, not that Mrs Daffodil indulges in such pastimes, preferring to spend her leisure reading some improving book or scanning the pages of the newspapers for interesting deaths. Mrs Daffodil has an ample stock of The Horrors and will be glad to hear from her readers if items of a more grewsome character would gratify their tastes.

Q. What are the best shoes for wet weather? A. Pumps.

More Puniana, Hugh Rowley, 1875

Duel Between Old Women

A singular duel recently took place in Paris, the home of duelists, between two old ladies, one 60 years old and the other 71. The more spritely of the two wounded her opponent seriously after a furious co-slaughter that would have disgraced two dragoons, and the combatants were separated only by the interference of the police. Evansville [IN] Courier and Press 14 December 1891: p. 5

The Polish nun lacemakers abroad are maintained by the Protestant lace-wearers of England. A History of Hand-made Lace, Mrs. F. Nevill Jackson, 1904

SULPHUROUS.—A verdant Irish girl just arrived, was sent to the intelligence office by the Commissioner of Emigration, to find a place at service. She was sent to a restaurant, where “stout help” was wanted, and while in conversation with the proprietor, he took occasion to light his cigar by igniting a locofoco on the sole of his boot. As soon as she saw this she ran away half frightened to death , and when she reached the office was almost out of breath.

“Why, what is the matter with you?” and the officer, seeing her rush in with such confusion.

“Och, shure, sur, ye’s sint me to the old Nick himself, in human form.”

“What do you mean—has he dared to insult ‘a help’ from my office?” inquired the man.

“Yes sur,” returned the girl. “He’s the old Nick.”

“What did he do to you? tell me, and I’ll fix him for it,” said he quite exasperated.

“Why, sur, whilst I was talking with him about the wages, he turned up the bottom of his fut, and wid a splinter in his finger, sur, he just gave one stroke, and the fire flew out of his fut and burnt the stick, and he lighted his cigar with it right before my own face. He’s the old Nick, shure sur.” The Vincennes [IN] Times 3 February 1866

A MAN MILLINER .— They have one in New York, and, of course, he will be patronized merely because he ought not to be. The sewing is done by burly, strong he-Prussians, Poles, and Hungarians. Godey’s Lady’s Book October, 1870

A REASONABLE WOMAN

The Chicago Press & Tribune is responsible for the following:

A day or two since a lady of unusual amplitude of crinoline got into one of our street railroad cars. She spread her skirts over the adjacent seats to the horror of the conductor who calculated on a rush of passengers immediately. After arranging matters and things, the lady called the conductor and said: “How many seats do you think I occupy?” He was an unmarried man and did not care to exaggerate the matter, replied: “Three seats” With that the lady handed him over fifteen cents, saying, “There’s pay for three seats—now don’t let me be disturbed.” And she was not. Kenosha [WI] Times  4 August 1859: p. 3

There has been exhibited at Syracuse, New York, a miniature steam engine made at Glasgow, Scotland, perfect in every part, and so small that it can be covered by a lady’s thimble.  Dubuque [IA] Daily Herald 25 August 1870: p. 3

INK ERASER PIERCED SIDE

Youth Who Tried to Evade Kissing Stenographers Meets With Death

New York, Feb. 16 While endeavouring to elude a bevy of girl stenographers who sought to kiss him in honor of his 15^th birthday, George S. Millett was the victim of an odd accident in the offices of the Metropolitan Life Insurance company.

The lad, struggling to escape the embraces of the girls, accidentally fell to the floor and an ink eraser in his pocket pierced his side above the heart. He died from internal haemorrhage. The girls became panic-stricken when they saw that the boy was hurt.

The police detained Miss Gertrude Robbins, a stenographer, to obtain information concerning Millett’s death. Portsmouth [NH] Herald 16 February 1909: p. 3

Dr Mary Walker, of Washington City, was picked up in New York the other night by a policeman and taken to the police station. It was the Doctor’s queer suit that got her into trouble, which consists of something like a cross between the dress of a Zouave, a man’s suit, and the outfit of a picnicker. It was gray in color, her hat was brown straw, and her gaiters sported many buttons. She wore a flimsy brown necktie, tied in a bow, and carried an umbrella and a stout walking-stick. When spoke to by the policeman she “jawed back,” as is her usual custom and the custom of her sex, and he, never having heard of Dr. Mary Walker, thought it to be his duty to arrest the mixed apparition before him and have it authoritatively investigated. When in the station she took off her hat and asked: “Do I look like a man?” Having established her identity, and satisfied the officer that she was simply a fool and not a culprit, she was suffered to depart, after “sassing” everybody to her heart’s content. The Tiffin [OH] Tribune 22 August 1878: p. 3

A number of ladies in Paris have formed themselves into a society called “L’ Union des Femmes Chretienne,” for the purpose of reforming the fashions. Each one promises to pay so much a year for her toilettes, and not to employ any dressmaker or buy goods unless she can pay for them right away. Won’t they please try this on here? Monticello [IA] Express 26 Mary 1870: p. 3

A Marrying Man. —The Utica Gazette cautions ladies against one Hiram N. Barnes, a hatter. He has already had five wives. The Liberator [Boston, MA] 26 June 1846

FOR SEA SICKNESS.

Take a few fresh figs, reduce them to a pulp, and mix them with a little rum or champagne wine, diluted with ten or twelve drops of lemon juice, Let the sea sick drink it, and they will speedily recover. 1829 remedy. The Christian Recorder [Philadelphia, PA] 17 April 1869