Napkin Folding

Folding napkins is not a new art, in fact, I've heard it mentioned in many volumes written during the 19th century. Below is an excerpt about Folding napkins for waiters in fine restaurants and hotels. Many of the napkin arrangements can be found at How to Fold Napkins also known as Serviettes.

From The Steward's Handbook ©1889

NAPKIN FOLDING TO MAKE MONEY.
In our talk about waiters it is several times mentioned that there are w hat are called good tables to which the best or most deserving waiters are allotted. In the case of a Paris cafe it is shown that these best tables are only reached by slow promotions and delinquent or absentee waiters are invariably placed at the bottom or worst tables when they return to work and have to progress to the better places slowly. The meaning of good tables is that they are occupied by guests who pay their waiter well; the worst tables are those frequented by, let us say, "dead-heads," or by some sort of customers of whom little or nothing is to be expected. It is precisely the same in our hotels and perhaps most markedly the case in pleasure resorts where families take up their summer or winter residence, occupy the same tables through the season and pay their waiter well. The headwaiter gives such tables as favors to the waiters he likes the best, and if he does not like a waiter he can keep him down to a table where he cannot make a dollar. The best way a waiter can help himself and make it so the headwaiter cannot afford to keep him down is to learn to be a boss napkin folder; if he is the best folder in the dining room he has a big advantage; he will be always needed, and needed at the best tables. Perhaps the reason of this is not plain to all, it is because the best guests expect all sorts of elegant little attentions and must not see the next table to them faring better than they. The waiter brings in various things upon folded napkins and if he could not produce ornamental effects that way he could not be in such a position. When, for example, he brings in the various cut cakes, macaroons and bonbons, he provides himself with, say, the "Chestnut Pocket" on page 8 or the "Heraldic Rose" and cross, page 14, not caring for the cross but opening up the pockets and filling them with the handsomest and most delicate confections he can obtain at the pantry or fruit room. The cheese and crackers he brings in another pattern; the table he has already furnished with such a pattern at each plate as the "Flower Basket," page 20, or what not, while his rival at the next table may be trying himself to do something still better These attentions are practiced by the waiters because it pays them to do so; the people at the good tables appreciate them, and moreover, they expect them and the head waiter is obliged to find waiters who can meet these expectations. Some of the handsomest folds are cabable of many changes; the "Heraldic Rose" when opened up is known as the "Boston Fold," the "Flower Basket" with the points up is known as the "Saratago Fold," but several of these might as well be called the "Tip Catcher," the "Remember Me," the "Christmas Gift Collector," etc.

NAPKIN FOLDING FOR EFFECT.
Napkins there must be at every dinner in every hotel of the least pretensions to elegance and it is a waste of a grand advantage not to make use of them for ornamental effects by employing the more imposing forms of folding them for setting on the table in readiness for the dinner. The use of the napkin to hold the dinner roll or piece of bread is a fashion of private table-setting and for caterers for private parties, but the piece of bread to each plate is not a hotel custom, it is not suitable. The flat folds of napkins instead are used as above named to bring pretty things to table in and to hold buttonhole boquets or the menu. Where the napkin and the art of folding shows up the grandest is in the hotel dining room with its fifty tables, its hundreds of plates, its long white rows of Pyramids, Hamburg Drums, Tulips, Palm Leaves , Double Fans; Columns, Crowns, Mitres, any of them, the taller the better, all alike, of course, on each day but changed in form every day. That indeed is a sight that is pleasing alike to hotel man and guest and for good reason; it is a scene of real beauty and symmetry of forms and distances, pleasing by its whiteness and intimation of cleanlines and purity. It is something much too ornamental and satisfactory to be lost to a dining room for want of a knowledge how to fold napkins.

THE WAY TO LEARN.
Learn the folds by using good stiff white paper, the size is of but little consequence. The apparent difficulty of following the diagrams . 1 and directions vanishes after one trial, and when the folds CS (A have been carried out with a sheet of paper a stiff napkin VI yi can be tried with a better chance of immediate success. Duji Some of the forms which require a hot iron for every fold are hardly practicable for use in hotels except for special Y*# party occasions, but there are plenty of easy forms that do Y not consume much time and some of them produce as good

Sinking John L. Avery

Disasters add conflict to a story and conflict is necessary to keep your reader turning the pages. Below is a real life account of the Sinking of the John L. Avery. The account gives the basics about the situation but there are gems in this account for me to learn from with regard to 'writing" and 'creating" a disaster for my characters. Such as, how many people were affected, the actual physical descriptions of the boat and the process of sinking. How the captain reacted, the passengers, etc. Enjoy.

The J. L. Avery, J. L. Robertson commander, was a new boat, built in the most substantial manner, and furnished with every necessary equipment for a first class passenger boat, being designed as a regular packet between New Orleans and Natchex. She left New Orleans, on her customary trip up the river, on March 7th, 1854. She stopped at Point Coupee and took in a large quantity of sugar and molasses; and on the 9th of the same month she passed the steamer Sultana, off Black Hawk point, forty miles below Natchez; and having left the Sultana, (with which she appears to have been racing,) about a mile astern, she struck what was supposed to be a tree washed from the shore by a recent freshet. A very large leak in the bottom of the boat was the consequence of this accident, and although the pilot immediately steered for the shore, the steamer sunk before she could get near enough to land the passengers. Mr. J. Y. Guthrie, an engineer, and the carpenter, were standing just forward of the boilers when they heard the crash—the boat at the same time making a sudden surge to one side. The carpenter immediately lifted the scuttle-hatch and leaped into the hold, but finding the water pouring in too fast to admit of any attempt at repairing the damage, he made haste to get out again, at the same time giving notice to the engineer that the boat had nagged. Mr. Guthrie, perceiving that the boat was going down, hastened to the engine, but before he got there, he was up to his knees in water. The cabin passengers were hurried up to the hurricane-deck. Soon after, the boat righted, and the hull separated from the cabin and sunk in sixty feet of water.

As the hull parted from the upper works, the surging of the waters caused the cabin floor to rise up against the hurricane roof, and six persons who remained in the cabin were dragged out through the skylights by Capt. Robertson and his two clerks. Mrs. Parmin, one of the six passengers rescued from that perilous situation, had her eldest child in her arms at the time, and was with difficulty prevented from plunging in again, as her babe was left asleep on the bed. But the situation of the deck passengers was the most calamitous; there was a large number of them crowded in their allotted place, where they were walled in by hogsheads of sugar, which would have prevented their escape, if escape had been otherwise possible. These unfortunate people were nearly all drowned.

There were many Irish emigrants on board, whose names were unregistered, and there is a great deal of uncertainty respecting the number of those who perished. Eye-witnesses testify that a large number of men, women and children could be seen drowning at one time. Of the twenty firemen on board, twelve were drowned. The second mate and another person launched the life-boat, but it was almost itnmedidiately upset, probably by the eager and ill-directed efforts of tho drowning people to get into it. The steamer Sultana, with which the Avery had been racing, promptly camo to the rescuo of the drowning crew and passengers, and was the means of saving some of them; but the number lost is believed to be at least eighty or ninety.

Mrs. Seymour, one of the cabin passengers who escaped, relates the following incidents of the wreck: party accounted for by stating that some unusual means had been used to get up extra steam, as the officers of the Avery were resolved to outrun the rival steamer, Sultana. Mrs. Seymour had retired to her state room for an afternoon nap, from which she was aroused by the concussion when the boat struck; and soon after, she found herself in the water. She was drawn up into the floating cabin by one of the waiters, named John Anderson, who, as Mrs. Seymour testifies, was instrumental in saving the lives of several other passengers. She states that her pocket-book, containing nine hundred dollars, which had been placed under her pillow, was lost. She also lost a manuscript which she was preparing for the press, and which she valued still more highly than her pocket-book.

Mrs. Seymour continues :—I cast my eyes upon the water, which was covered with fragments of the cabin. To these frail supports human hands were clinging, while many human voices were crying, "Save me ! oh, save me!" The water at first was dotted with human heads, sinking and rising, and then sinking to rise no more. A sudden splash drew my attention to the side of the boat, and I saw that a young lady, who had been drawn from the inundated cabin through the sky-light and placed in safety on the floating deck, in the delirium of the moment had plunged again into the water, from which she never again emerged. Several others followed her example, but appearing again on the surface, they were rescued by the waiter Anderson and two or three others of the boat's crew, who never slackened in their efforts to save human life. Two or three gentlemen leaped into the water and swam to land. A fine Texan poney, belonging to Mrs. Emerson, escaped from the deck, and endeavored to save himself by swimming. He reached the shore, but not being able to climb the bank, he fell back into the water and was drowned. In a faint but earnest tone, I heard a female voice say, " Oh, William, do save her!" On directing my gaze to the place from whence the voice came, I saw a woman sinking in the river. At the same time a child's voice exclaimed, "Oh, mother, he cannot save me!" I saw her fair hair, all wet, fall back from her young face as her little arms loosened their grasp on the neck of her brother, and the mother and her two children sank together.
Source: Fifty Years on the Mississippi ©1889

Etiquette & Manners

Etiquette & Manners is something often discussed on some of my of the writer loops I belong to as they pertain to the 19th century. Through Google books I've found a great source of books regarding such topics. Below is a list ordered by the year they were published. I've gathered this resource list over the past two years from Google Books. Hope it helps you in your search for proper behavior in the time period of your setting.

1832 Domestic Manners of the Americans
1835 Pencil Sketches
1837 The Young Lady's Friend
1839 Miss Leslie's Behavior Book
1842 Elegant Extracts
1843 Etiquette or, A Guide to The Usages of Society with a Glance at Bad Habits
1854 Etiquette Social Ethics and the Curtiousy of Society
1854 The Behavior Book
1860 The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manners
1860 The Hand Book of Etiquette
1866 Marine's Sensible Letter Writer
1868 Manners or Happy Homes
1870 Good Manners a Manual of Ediquette
1872 The Ladie's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness
1873 The Gentlemen's Book of Etiquette and Manual of Politeness
1884 Don't: A Manual of Mistakes and Improprieties More or Less
1888 Manners
1889 American Etiquette and Rules of Politeness
1889 Perfect Etiquette or How to Behave in social...
1892 Etiquette An Answer to the Riddle, When? Where? How?
1896 Social Etiquette or Manners and Customs of Polite Society
1897 Manners for Men
1897 Practical Letter Writing
1899 Twenty Letters in Letter Writing and Business

English Sparrows

I stumbled upon this little tidbit while reading a history of Essex, MA.

In 1873 English sparrows began to make their presence known here about this year--probably the progeny of those imported into Boston. It was believed that they would benefit agriculturists by destroying ravaging insects, but they did not fulfill expectations, and were soon declared worthless.

In 1889 "The English Sparrow (Passer domesticus) in North America" was published. According to their research the English Sparrow was brought to America via Brooklyn, NY. Eight pairs. They were released into the wilds in the Spring of 1851. Several trips to England were made for these birds and during the last delivery some escaped in Boston. Ten years later (1868) the English Sparrow was seen regularly in the Boston Commons.

Custard Pie

Custard goes back long before the 19th century. The recipe below is from the White House Cook Book, not to be confused that this cook book is authorized from the White House in Washington, DC. However later editions of this cook book were co-authored by White House steward Hugo Ziemann. The name was chosen as a marketing ploy, which seemed to work. Fannie Gillete the original author started her writing career and fame when she was sixty years old and with the first edition of the White House Cook Book in 1887.


BAKERS' CUSTARD PIE.
Beat up the yolks of three eggs to a cream. Stir thoroughly a tablespoonful of sifted flour into three tablespoonfuls of sugar; this separates the particles of flour so that there will be no lumps; then add it to the beaten yolks, put in a pinch of salt, a teaspoonful of vanilla, and a little grated nutmeg; next the well-beaten whites of the eggs; and lastly, a pint of scalded milk (not boiled) which has been cooled; mix this in by degrees, and turn all into a deep pie-pan, lined with puff-paste, and bake from twenty-five to thirty minutes.
I received this recipe from a celebrated cook in one of our best New York bakeries. I inquired of him "why it was that their custard pies had that look of solidity and smoothness that our home-made pies have not." He replied, "The secret is the addition of this bit of flour—not that it thickens the custard any to speak of, but prevents the custard from breaking or wheying, and gives that smooth appearance when cut."
Source: White House Cook Book ©1889 pg293

Sewing Machines

The first progress of sewing machines was done for factory work, there were several starts and failures in Europe and America. You can read an overview of the history at About.com

For the purpose of a practical sewing machine for the 19th century housewife we start with Hunt & Elias Howe in 1834.
1846 Elias Howe was issued the first American patent
Then comes Isaac Singer who built the first successful machine. It was this sewing machine that started showing up in homes across America.

Yes, there was a patent war between Singer and Howe and Howe one, making him a wealthy man. Of course, Singer continued his production and paid royalties to Howe.

For purposes of writing historical fiction note these facts.
1846 Howe introduces the first home use sewing machine.
1851 Singer introduced a sewing machine for home use. His was scaled down for home use.
1854 Singer received patent for home sewing machine. This machine had a rigid arm and held the fabric down.
1889 First practical electric sewing machine
By the end of the century Singer claimed 80% of the world market.

Another source for a time line is from Idea Finder.

Oklahoma Land Rush

Apr. 22nd 1889 at high noon was the start of the Oklahoma land run. Land that had been given to the Native Americans was now being reallocated for the white man. It was a race to pick out your spot. 160 acres were given for farm land and I'm not sure what the size of town lots were. People hid in the woods and arrived long before those who were fairly entering the competition. People would grab your land if you left it to go to the river and gather some water. In reality it wasn't a simple solution and after a few weeks more people were leaving the area than were arriving. In the end the area was built up and cities and towns were formed.

Online I've found a source that gives an interesting aspect to this land run. Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889 check it out if you'd like to know more about the event.

Around the World in 80 Days

This post probably isn't going to be what you are thinking it should be. Yes, Jules Verne wrote the novel but did you know that in 1889-1890 Nellie Bly a female journalist completed the journey? You can read about Nellie at Wikipedia.

Below I've included an excerpt from

Recollections of "Nellie Bly."
The filing for probate in New York City, the other day, of a second will purporting to be made by Robert Seaman, president at the time of his death of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company, brings once again to mind the personality of the former famous newspaper correspondent, who was known by the pen-name of "Nellie Bly."

At one time, when she out-did "Phineas Fogg's" mythical circumnavigation of the globe in eighty days, "Nellie Bly" occupied the attention of two hemispheres. In her early career as a newspaper worker she successfully surrounded herself with a mystery as to her identity, which added to the value of her writings.

At that time she was variously pictured as a gushing school girl, an embittered old maid, a grass widow, a real widow, a wife and mother, an effeminate man disguished as a woman, and as a myth altogether, kept before the public eye by an enterprising syndicate of three journalists, with Joe Howard at the head.

Not one newspaper reader in a thousand was quite sure whether "Nellie Bly" was of feminine gender. Those who believed that she was a woman held the opinion that she was of great beauty of face and form. There were a score of men in New York who were ready to make affidavit that they possessed an intimate personal acquaintance with the writer of the "Nellie Bly" articles, and that in private life this writer wore trousers and drank absinthe frappe in inordinate quantities. Indeed, it has been asserted in all seriousness that "Nellie Bly" was the father of an interesting trio of bouncing baby boys, and that his wife wrote all his articles.

* * * * * "Nellie Bly"—as of course we all know now— is in reality a woman; a young woman past the school girl age, and not yet at the quarterpost of old-maidism when she entered newspaper life. She was then, as far as appearances go, a very ordinary everyday young woman, rather slight in form, leaning to eccentricity in dress, masculine in her tastes and ideas, and a man hater from 'way back. That may sound strange, but it is true nevertheless. Beyond business relations with the male sex "Nellie Ely" had at that time no further use for them. All her love was extended to her mother, and to make that mother comfortable and happy was the one thought that actuated her in every undertaking.

In the pursuance of this ambition she has endured what would drive almost any other woman wild with shame, mortification or chagrin. The basest motives were at times attributed to her by thoughtless and brutal carpers and cynics. She was declared unwomanly, unmaidenly, bold, presumptuous, by men, and brazen and forward by her sister women. While it is true that the vast majority of persons who felt an interest in her novel and original line of work entertained only the kindest sympathy for her, the very nature of her occupation subjected her constantly to the crudest kind of unthinking animadversion.

* * * * * "Nellie Bly" is a Pittsburg girl by birth. Her first attempt to gain a livelihood with her pen was made early in 1886, on The Pittsburg Dispatch. She had written a communication to that journal on the condition of workingwomen in the city of Pittsburg, and there being something in it that caught the fancy of Mr. Madden, the managing editor, she was requested to send her name and address. With this she complied, and as a result was engaged. It was Mr. Madden who suggested the title of Steven C. Foster's lullaby, "Nellie Bly" as a signature, and at his instance the name, being euphonious and easily remembered, was adopted. The young woman's real name was kept an office secret, and for some months successfully, but The Pittsburg Leader finally discovered and published it. Numerous cognomens were afterwards published in different cities, purporting to reveal the identity of the new woman writer, whose real name is "Pink" Elizabeth Cochrane. Her father, who has been dead for a number of years, was an Associate Judge in one of the oil region towns. "Nellie Bly's" first important mission was a trip to Mexico, where she traveled for six months, learning to speak Spanish with fair fluency in that time. Her letters were published in The Dispatch and attracted attention because of their originality and quaint treatment of old subjects in a new way. "Miss Bly" was honored during this her first practical newspaper experience by a love-lorn Mexican, who became desperately enamored of her, and who thummed his guitar with such savage persistency and wrote so many notes breathing "love or death" that the object of his admiration was obliged for her own peace of mind to take a hasty departure. He was a particularly handsome fellow, this Mexican, and took a solemn vow that the young American should either become his bride or he would convert himself into a cold, clammy corpse. Whether he carried out his latter alternative or not was never learned. At all events he missed making good the first section of his oath.

***** When "Miss Bly" returned to Pittsburg, she was put in charge of the society column of The Dispatch, alternating this work with writing theatrical notices and criticisms, and in preparing articles on woman's work. With her added experience, these papers attracted attention in New York, and were frequently introduced in the Metropolitan dailies. This gave "Miss Bly" the idea that she could better herself in the bigger city, and she secured a letter of introduction to Joe Howard, Jr., from one of her newspaper friends in Pittsburg. With nothing more definite than this, she said good-bye to her mother, and started out with the full determination to win or die, and, as she has confessed herself, it came nearly being a "die."

Arrived in New York, she presented her letter, and was given several large chunks of fatherly advice and the cheerful opinion that she had made a mistake, and ought to go home. She didn't go, but sought out Foster Coates, managing editor of The Mail and Express, and one of the leading spirits in a newspaper syndicate. It was just at this time that Andrew Carnegie, the millionaire, had taken unto himself a bride, and it was estimated that if "Miss Bly" could interview Mrs. Carnegie, such service might be acceptable. Small hopes were held out that success might attend this effort, as the most experienced New York interviewers had triefl and failed. "Miss Bly" started in, and by perseverance and the exercise of a little feminine diplomacy obtained a very complete and exhaustive talk with the bride, touching upon every subject that would be of interest to women readers.
* * * * *
The news market was not glutted with millionaires' brides, and that field promised no further crop.
Like all beginners in newspaper work in the big city, "Miss Bly" speedily reached that period when it appeared that there was not a single new thing under the sun to write about. She thought and thought and thought, and tried and tried, but met rebuffs at every turn. She was boarding at a modest little boarding house 'way up in Harlem, where the fare was just about generous enough to support life because of the moderate price paid for it. Cheap as this living was, it could not be paid for without an income. The little store of money that the girl had hoarded was becoming rapidly exhausted. She was indebted to her landlady, and could not meet the obligation. To make matters worse, "Miss Bly" one day lost her purse, and with it every dollar she possessed in the world. This misfortune did not discourage her, however, and she was too proud to make her loss known. Every day she walked from six to eight miles, because she had actually no money to pay her carfare. The situation began to look desperate. Days were slipping by, and the board bill was growing. Something had to be done, so without much hope of success letters of introduction were obtained from Joe Howard to every editor in New York. After a great struggle and the exercise of a most extraordinary amount of perseverance, interviews were obtained with the editors or the editors-in-charge of The Herald, The Sun, The Times and The Tribune. Not one of them professed to believe that "Nellie Bly" would be a profitable investment. They had heard of her in a perfunctory way, but they did not believe they had any work which she was capable of doing. The old and favorite method of politely disposing of the applicant by taking her name and address was adopted, and "Miss
Bly" was informed that if her services were needed she would receive a notification by mail.
*****

Then the young woman, who refused to be disheartened, betook herself to the office of The World and secured an audience with Joseph Pulitzer.

3 cent piece

Yes, you read that correctly back in 1851 a three cent piece was minted. Postage rates had gone down from 5 cents to 3 cents giving people the ability to have a single coin to make small purchases with. The coin was smaller than our current dime and was minted from 1851 - 1873. They were made of silver but also included with cooper so folks wouldn't melt them down for their silver value.

There were two different three cent pieces. The three piece silver and the three cent nickel. The later was produced during the Civil War to help stop the hoarding of silver coins. The nickel was produced from 1865-1889.

You can read more about this at Wikipedia

A three cent piece became the discussion of politicians again in 1911 but that isn't our century of focus.

You can also do a search at Google books and come up with several references of three cent pieces. Along with the "Laws of the United States relating to loans, paper money, banking, and coinage, 1790 - 1895. In there you'll find the percentage of metals to use to produce the coin.

Blacksmith's Hammer

Below comes an excerpt from Practical Blacksmithing Vol. 4 by Milton Richardson ©1889

THE HAMMER.*
* * * The hammer is generally known as a rude instrument, but as a matter of fact it is in some of its uses a very refined one, requiring great care and skill in its use. * * *

Time forbids that I should refer to more than a few prominent forms of hammers. The carpenter's mallet has a large rectangular head, because, as his tools are held in wooden handles, he must not use a hard substance to drive them with, or he will split the handles. Wood being light, he must have a large head to the mallet in order to give it weight enough.

The author than goes on to explain a stone mason's hammer, a machinist's hammer.

USES OF THE HAMMER.
In whatever form we find the hammer, it is used for three purposes only, namely, to crush, to drive and to stretch. And the most interesting of these operations are stretching and driving. The goldbeater, the blacksmith, the sawmaker, the plate straightener and the machinist, as well as many others, employ the hammer to stretch ; while the carpenter, the machinist, and others too numerous to mention, use the hammer to drive. Among the stretching operations there are many quite interesting ones. Here in Fig. 3, for example, is a piece of iron, two inches wide, and an inch thick, bent to the shape of the letter u. This piece of wire is, you observe, too short to fit between the jaws, and I will now bend the piece and close the jaws by simply hammering the outside of the curved end with a tack hammer. The proof that the blows have bent the piece is evident, because the piece of wire now fits tightly instead of being loose, as before the hammering. The principle involved in this operation is that the blows have stretched the outer surface, or outside curve, making it longer and forcing the jaws together. If we perform a similar operation upon a straight piece" of metal, the side receiving the blows will actually rise up, becoming convex and making the other side concave, giving us the seeming anomaly of the metal moving in the opposite direction to that in which the blows tend to force it. This process is termed pening, because, usually, the pene of the hammer is used to perform it. It is sometimes resorted to in order to straighten the frame-work of machines, and even to refit work that has worn loose.

Broker's Technicalities

From Houghtaling's Handbook of Useful Information ©1889

A bull is one who operates to raise the value of stocks, that he may buy for a rise.

A bear is one who sell stocks for future delivery, which he does not own at the time of sale.

A corner is when the bears cannot buy or borrow the stock to deliver in fulfillment of their contracts.

Overloaded is when the bulls cannot take and pay for the stock they have purchased.

Short is when a person or party sells stocks when they have none, and expect to buy or borrow in time to deliver.

Long is when a person or party has a plentiful supply of stocks.

A pool or ring is a combination formed to control the price of stocks.

A broker is said to carry stocks for his customer when he has bought and is holding it for his account.

A wash is a pretended sale by special agreement between buyer and seller, for the purpose of getting a quotation reported.

A put and call is when a person gives so much per cent for the option of buying or selling so much stock on a certain fixed day, at a price fixed the day the option is given.

Sun Stroke

This comes from Houghtaling's Handbook of Useful Information ©1889

Take the patient at once to a cool and shady place, but don't carry him far to a house or hospital. Loosen the clothes thoroughly about his neck and waist. Lay him down with the head a little raised. Apply wet cloths to the head, and mustard or turpentine to the calves of the legs and the soles of te feet. Give a little weak whiskey and water if he can swallow. Meanwhile let some one go for the doctor. You cannot safely do more without his advice.

Sunstroke is a sudden prostration due to long exposure to great heat, especially when much fatigued or exhausted. It commonly happens from undue exposure to the sun's rays in summer. It begins with pain in the head, or dizziness, quickly followed by loss of consciousness and complete prostration.

Interest Rates

Taken from Houghtaling's Handbook of Useful Information ©1889.

Interest, How it Eats.
One of the causes of bankruptcy is that so few persons properly estimate the difference between a high and a low rate of interest, and therefore often borrow money at a ruinous rate that no legitimate business can stand. Few have figured on the difference between 6 and 8 per cent. One dollar loaned for one hundred years at six per cent, with the interested collected annually and added to the principal, will amount to $340. At eight per cent, it amounts to $2,203, or nearly seven times as much. At three per cent, the usual rate of interest in England it amounts to $19.25; whereas, at ten per cent, which has been a very common rate in the United States, it is $13,809, or about seven hundred times as much. AT twelve per cent, it amounts to $85,075, or more than four thousand times as much. At eighteen per cent, it amounts to $15,145,007. At twenty-four per cent (which we sometimes hear talked of), it reaches the enormous sum of $2,551,799,404.

One hundred dollars borrowed at six per cent, with the interested compounded annually, will amount to $1,842 in fifty years, while the same one hundred dollars borrowed at eight per cent, will amount to $4,690 in fifty years. One thousand dollars at ten per cent, compounded, will run up to $117,390 in fifty years.

How to Measure Corn in a Crib, Hay in a Mow, etc.

This excerpt is taken from Houghtaling's Handbook of Useful Information ©1889

This rule will apply to a crib of any size or kind. Two cubic feet of good sound, dry corn in the ear will make a bushel of shelled corn. To get, then, the quantity of shelled corn in a crib of corn in the ear measure the length, breadth and height of the crib, inside of the rail; multiply by the length, by the breadth and the product by the height; then divide te product by two, and you have the number of bushels of shelled corn in the crib.

To find the number of bushels of apples, potatoes, etc., in a bin, multiply the length, breadth and thickness together, and this product by 8, and point off one figure in the product for decimals.

To find the amount of Hay in a Mow, allow 512 cubic feet for a ton, and it will come out very generally correct.

The Nations that Eat the Most

I came across this short excerpt in Houghtalings Handbook ©1889 and got a chuckle out of it. Okay, please note, I'm not responsible for the comments in the passage below.

The Nations that Eat Most
Among modern nations, the greatest eaters are the English, Germans, French and the Americans--the rulling people of our civilization. The diet of the Spaniards and the Italians is notably less substantial than that of the English and Germans, just as their brains are less active and original.
The Americans are, on the average, the greatest eaters in the world. Said Carlyle to Emerson: "The best thing I know of the country is, that in it a man can have meat for his labor."

Signs of the Tongue

From Houghtalings Handbook of Useful Information ©1889

The tongue is the indicator of the system. A white coated tongue indicates febrile distuurbance; a brown, moist tongue indicates disordered digestion or overloaded passages; a brown dry tongue indicates depressed vitality, as in typhoid conditions and blood poisoning; a red, moist tongue indicates debility, as from exhausting discharges; a red, dry tongue indicates pyrexia, or any inflammatory fever; a "strawberry" tongue, with prominent papillae, indicates scarlet fever, or rotheln; a red glazed tongue indicates debility, with want of assimilative power of digestion; a tremulous, flabby tongue indicates delirium tremens; hesitancy in protruding the tongue indicates concussion of the brain.

Business Laws in Brief

I thought this additional post from Houghtalings Handbook of Useful Information ©1889 would be in keeping.


Business Laws in Brief.
Ignorance of law excuses none.
It is a fraud to conceal a fraud.
The law compels no one to do impossibilities.
An agreement without consideration is void.
Signatures made with lead-pencil are good in law.
A receipt for money paid is not legally conclusive.
The acts of one partner bind all the others.
Contracts made on Sunday cannot be enforced.
A contract made with a minor is invalid.
A contract made with a lunatic is void.
Contracts for advertising in Sunday newspapers are invalid.
Each individual in a partnership is responsible for the whole amount of the debts of the firm.
Principals are responsible for the acts of their agents.
Agents are responsible to their principals for errors.
A not given by a minor is void.
It is not legally necessary to say on a note "for value rec'd."
A note drawn on Sunday is void.
A note obtained by fraud, or from a person in a state of intoxication, cannot be collected.
If a note be lost or stolen, it does not release the maker; he must pay.
The indorser of a note is exempt from liability if not served with notice of its dishonor within twenty-four hours of its non-payment.

The Way For Business Men to Get Rich

Hi all,
This excerpt comes from Houghtaling's Handbook of Useful Information ©1889 but some of the truths are useful for today as well.

The Way for Business Men to Get Rich

The way to get credit is to be punctual in paying your bills. The way to preserve it is not to use it much. Settle often; have short accounts.
Trust no man's appearances–they are deceptive–perhaps assumed, for the purpose of obtaining credit. Beware of gaudy exterior. Rogues usually dress well. The rich are plain men. Trust him, if any, who carries but little on his back. Never trust him who flies into a passion on being dunned; make him pay quickly, if there be any virtue in the law.
Be well satisfied before you give a credit that those to whom you give it, are safe men to be trusted.
Sell your goods at a small advance, and never misrepresent them, for, those whom you once deceive will be aware of you the second time.
Deal uprightly with all men, and they will repose confidence in you, and soon become your permanent customers.
Beware of him who is an office seeker. men do not usually want an office when they have anything to do. A man's affairs are rather low when he seeks office for support.
Trust no stranger. Your goods are better than doubtful charges. What is character worth, if you make it cheap by crediting everybody.
Agree beforehand with every man about to do a job, and, if large, put it into writing. If any decline this, quit, or be cheated. Though you want a job ever so much, make all sure at the onset, and in a case at all doubtful, make sure of a guarantee. Be not afraid to ask it; the best test of responsibility; for, if offence be taken, you have escaped a loss.

Speed of a Trotting Horse

This question is asked a lot by writers of historical fiction.

From Hougtalings Handbook of Useful Information ©1889

The following table shows the distance a Horse goes each second at various rates of speed, from 2.20 to 4 minutes:
At a 2.20 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 37 5-7 feet per second
At a 2.25 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 36 1/2 feet per second
At a 2.30 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 35 1-5 feet per second
At a 2.35 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 34 1-16 ft. per second
At a 2.40 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 33 feet per second
At a 2.45 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 32 feet per second
At a 2.50 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 31 1-17 feet per second
At a 2.55 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 30 1-6 feet per second
At a 3.00 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 29 1/3 feet per second
At a 3.10 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 327 3/4 feet per second
At a 3.20 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 26 2-5 feet per second
At a 3.30 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 25 1-7 feet per second
At a 3.40 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 24 feet per second
At a 3.50 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 23 feet per second
At a 4.00 gait a horse travels. . . . . . . . . 22 feet per second

Civil War Confederate Soldiers Surrendered

From Houghtalings Handbook of Useful Information ©1889 (Editorial change. In the original publication the information below was in a paragraph, I'm putting it in a list for easier viewing.

Confederate Soldiers Surrendered at end of War.
Army of Northern Virginia, 27,805;
army of Tennessee, 31,243;
army of Missouri, 7,978;
army of Alabama, 42,293;
army of Trans-Mississippi, 17,686;
at Nashville and Chattanooga, 5,029;
paroled in Departments of Virginia, Cumberland, Maryland, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Texas, etc., 42,189;
Confederate prisoners in Northern prisons at the close of the war, 98,802;
total Confederate army at close, 273, 025.
A large and unknown number of Confederate soldiers were not present at surrender.