1904 - It costs $4,000 to raise a boy. Is it worth it?

Somebody has figured out that it costs $4,000 to raise a boy and then asks if it pays. That depends. If after raising a boy until he was 21 years of age, and spending a good lump of money in getting him thus far, we found that he resembles some people we know, we would feel discouraged and want our money back. The boy who never held anything down except a dry goods box, and who never raised anything except a smoke from a dirty cigarette; who spends his Sunday school hours in loafing on the public square instead of sitting in a church or at home, and who will not go to school because he is too lazy to study his lessons -- that kind of a boy is a poorer investment than buying real estate in the Missouri river. But the boy who reaches the age of 21 and appears to realize that he is a man with a duty to perform, and goes at that duty with his sleeves rolled up, a whole bundle of good, clean energy; ambitious to make a clean record for himself in the world -- that's the sample of a boy that is worth the $4,000 and dirt cheap at that. - Red Oak Express.

The Nebraska Advertiser
Nemaha, Nebraska
Friday, September 30, 1904

1921 - Whole World Scorched by Hot Wave

SCIENTISTS ARE BAFFLED BY THE CONTINUOUS HEAT

Conditions in Europe More Severe than in the United State

Conditions Here Declared To Be The Warmest Since 1901, But Europe Has Had No Such Weather in the Last 50 Years.

(BY H. B. HUNT)

WASHINGTON, July 19. - Uncle Sam's weather experts are stumped.

The hot wave prevailing not only throughout the United States, but the whole of the north and south temperate zones, is, they declare, without rhyme, rule or reason.

While the United States has been in the grip of a heat wave not equated since 1901, England and Europe have been sweltering in temperatures greater than have been known for 50 years.

Alpine glaciers, dissolving under the abnormal heat, have swollen mountain streams to raging torrents.

In other sections, streams have dried up, wells gone dry and crops are parched.

Grazing lands are burned dry and stock raisers, without forage and with little water for their animals are desperate.

Fires have caused large damage in many European forests. Inhabitants of villages scattered through the famous forest of Fontainbleau, near Paris, refuse to go to bed for fear fires, many of which have been put out by desperate efforts, will sweep the great wood.

"We have not been able to identify any exact causes for the conditions," says Dr. Charles F. Marvin, chief of the government Weather Bureau.

"There is no provable relations between the weather and sunspots, although sunspots are blamed by some. Sunspots occur and recur at intervals, but it never has been possible to identify them as exerting a definite influence on weather.

"The most exact measurements of solar radiation reveal little if any change in temperature due to them. As a matter of fact, however, we are now passing through a period when sunspots are at the minimum.

"Neither is there any basis for ascribing unusual conditions of weather to earthquakes. It would be just as logical to ascribe earthquakes to unusual weather influences. There is no established proof either way."

One of the most unusual features of present world weather conditions, Marvin said, is the similarity of conditions in America and Europe.

"Usually," he said, "they do not run parallel. When we have a hot summer in the United States, it generally is cool in Europe. When it hot in Europe, it normally is cool here. But the present hot weather seems general throughout the temperate zones.

"What it is due to, no one can say with any degree of assurance."

An examination of Weather Bureau charts covering the past few weeks, show a temperate averaging 10 to 12 degrees above normal in the Great Lakes region, the Dakotas and Minnesota, and from 5 to 8 degrees above for the remainder of the central states and the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Only one section, comprising Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexia, has been below normal.

Compared to the summer of 1901, when mercury stuck above 100 degrees in Mississippi valley states for over 20 days, the present summer has been a balmy, pleasant and exhilarating one.


Mt. Vernon Register-News
Mt. Vernon, Illinois
Tuesday, July 19, 1921

1902 - Hint to Coal Consumers

"A Swedish professor, Svend Arhenius, has evolved a new theory of the extinction of the human race. He hold that the combustion of coal by civilized man is gradually warming the atmosphere so that in the course of a few cycles of 10,000 years the earth will be baked in a temperature close to the boiling point. He bases his theory on the accumulation of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, which acts as a glass in concentrating and refracting the heat of the sun."

The News-Herald
Morganton, North Carolina
Thursday, October 23, 1902

2016 - We Need to Preserve Our Past AND Our Future

"The Union of Concerned Scientists, a group of over two thousand scientists, has concluded that global warming is beyond dispute, and already changing our climate. The last 30 years have seen the warmest surface temperatures in recorded history, and the past several years have been among the warmest on record.

Scientists have concluded that human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels, is the major driving factor in global warming..." learn.eartheasy.com/

Sadly, our leadership either does not care or is too stupid to realize they need to care. Either way, this is going to have to be a grassroots fight. We can do this if  we find ways to prove to the masses that the entire future of this planet depends upon it. Each one of us needs to reduce our carbon footprint.

In future posts, we will explore ways to preserve both our past and our future. We will offer interesting articles and tips on what each of us can do. By becoming more aware and making (in many cases) minor changes to our lifestyles we can live healthier lives while ensuring that our children and grandchildren have a future as well as an appreciation for the past.

To learn more, check out National Geographic's Before the Flood.

Before the Flood

1849 - Invention of Safety Pin -- as told in 1895

THE SAFETY PIN.
Interesting Story of Its Inventor, Walter Hunt.

Buffalo Commercial.
John R. Chapin, now of Buffalo, gives some interesting reminiscences of Walter Hunt, who, in the opinion of may, including Mr. Chapin, was the real inventor of the sewing machine. "Let me close," he says "with an anecdote of his talent in the line of invention. He came inot my office on Nassau street one day looking quite down-hearted, and to my inquiry, 'What's the matter, Mr. Hunt?' he replied, 'I owe you $15, don't I, Chapin? Well, I've not a cent in the world, and don't know where to get one.' Upon my assurance that it did not matter, he said: 'Yes, but I don't know where to get a meal of victuals.' After walking the floor for a few minutes in a brown study he suddenly exclaimed: 'I have it. I'll be in this afternoon and pay you.' He went to his shop, took a piece of brass wire about eight inches long, sharpened one end, turned a coil in the center and a loop on the other end, bent it over and made the admirable shielded pin now in common use; took it down to Greene street, sold the right for $400 cash, came in before 4 o'clock, paid me my $15, and said: 'There, Chapin, make out the papers for that and your money is ready for you.'"

The Saint Paul Globe
Saint Paul, Minnesota
December 25, 1895

1853 - Discovery of the Potato Chip -- as told on its 75th anniversary

This year is the seventy-fifth anniversary or the potato chip and a resident of Saratoga Springs advises The New Yorker that many of the older neighbors are all excited. It seems that the chip was invented there in 1853, and that is why it is known more elegantly, as the Saratoga Chip. The discoverer's name was George Crum, and there are still alive people who remember talking to him... We say discoverer rather than inventor because it all came about by accident. Crum was a renowned fisherman and cook in the days before the Civil War and, with Peter Francis and William Groom (co-discoverers), altho it was Crum who spied the first chip), he was the chef at Moon's lake House, a fashionable place to take dinner.

The three men were filling orders in the kitchen when some finicky gentleman sent in a demand for fried potatoes of more delicate dimensions then French fried. Perhaps, in a spirit of sarcasm, Crum or one of the others sliced off a piece of potato as thin as a wafer and dropped it in the hot fat of the frying pan. Then Crum fished it out and let it cool. Absently, he ate it, and liked it. He tried a few more. The other cooks ate and approved. Mrs. Mary E. Moon, wife of the proprietor of the Moon House, was called in. She named the little fried potatoes Saratoga Chips and had a lot of them cooked and put up in white paper cornucopias. They became popular at once and with the best people. It grew to be a common sight to see fine gentlemen standing at the bar at Moon's a cold whiskey punch in one hand and a cornucopia of chips in the other.

Gay ladies, beautifully dressed, were seen returning from Saratoga Lake in their victorias daintily nibbling the chips, as recent as the early nineties. For such modern ladies as may be interested we give the recipe for the chips as they were made in Saratoga in the old days: Slice the potatoes as thin as possible; place them in very cold water for half an hour; let them dry on a white cloth; then dip in very hot grease until brown adding salt.

The recipe for the cold whiskey punch, we are sorry, we do not know.

Alton Evening Telegraph
Alton, Illinois
February 28, 1928

1900 - MICE, MATCHES AND WINE - A Combination Which Started and Then Put Out a Fire.

When the post office was opened Monday morning it was found that what was supposed to be water had leaked through the ceiling from the apartments above, occupied by Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Brooks, who are on the Pacific coast for a stay of several weeks. An investigation followed and a rather remarkable discovery was made. The rooms were filled with smoke and after it was allowed to escape through open windows and doors, it was found that by a most peculiar circumstance a fire had started and had been extinguished. When the rooms were locked up on the departure of the family for the coast, a number of matches had evidently been left on a stand, under the edge of which a case of wine had been set, the bottles being in jackets of straw. When examined on Monday the bottles were all broken and were still warm and the straw jackets had been burned to ashes, while the case was badly charred. The supposition is that mice had nibbled at the straw and set off a match, which had dropped from the stand and the jackets on the bottles were thus set on fire. The fire had heated the bottles to the breaking point and the wine ran out and extinguished the fire, and prevented a conflagration which might have proved very serious.

Aberdeen Weekly News
Aberdeen, South Dakota
September 20, 1900

1995 - SNAKE WORSHIPER BITTEN BY RATTLER IN CHURCH DIES

Enigma, Ga. (AP) - A Baptist man was bitten and killed by a rattlesnake he brought to church because the Bible says believers "shall take up serpents."

DEWEY BRUCE HALE, 40, was bitten during Sunday services at New River Holiness Church and died at home late that night, the sheriff's office said. The death was ruled accidental.
"The Sheriff's Department was not called by family or the church," said Sheriff Jerry Brogdon. "Nothing was reported. If he had gone to the hospital, it would've all been different."
Witnesses said HALE brought the rattlesnake to church in a box and was bitten on the hand when he took it out.
Martha Hale, a cousin of the victim, said church members "feel that the Holy Spirit moves on them enough that they can take up serpents."
"Many have been bitten and were healed at that church," she said.
"They feel he didn't die because of the snake, but that he died because it was his time to go."

Tyrone Daily Herald Pennsylvania
January 19, 1995