WWII Poster
The poster above might be a more modern version of this saying I found in a Civil War Era newspaper:
If you your lips would save from slips,
Five things observe with care;
Of whom you speak, to whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.
Weekly Standard (Raleigh, North Carolina) 22 Apr 1863
Richmond, Virginia. Almshouse 1865
So much for the saying, “Love Conquers All.”
SAD RESULT OF A RUNAWAY MARRIAGE.–The New York correspondent of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes:
A few years ago the marriage of Miss Boker, a young, beautiful and accomplished lady, with her father’s coachman, John Dean, set all the scandalmongers in Gotham on end. A sad addendum to the “strange, eventful history,” has now to be added. After the marriage, the couple, notwithstanding there different “bringing up,” lived happily enough together, in a small cottage over in Williamsburg. The husband obtained an office in the custom house, and saved money enough to open a public house at the foot of Grand street, Williamsburg.– But, Alas! for John Dean, he could not keep a hotel. It is said “he was his own best customer,” and as a natural result he commenced treating his wife badly. In a short time all their money was spent, and with poverty coming in at the door, live, as usual, flew out of the window. John beat and abused his wife, but all this she put up with until starvation stared her in the face when she was compelled to ask admission into the almshouse. The petition was granted, and the fashionable, elegant, and accomplished belle of the Fifth Avenue–a few years ago–is now the associate of beggars and paupers.
Weekly Standard (Raleigh, North Carolina) 21 Jan 1863
Log Hut Company Kitchen
Times were tough during the Civil War, especially in the south. Two examples from the same southern newspaper:
HORSE AND MULE MEAT.–Our contemporary of the Charlotte Democrat copies with commendation the advice of the Richmond Enquirer, that we must take good care of the horses and mules, for we may have to come at last to horse and mule meat. Will the Editors of those journals set the example? Let them have their teeth filed and make a trial of it. John Mitchell was no doubt used to such meat in Europe, but it would test the molars of our contemporary Yates.
What a commentary is this on the extravagance of those in power! Eighteen months ago meat was as plentiful almost as rocks. The army and the people had the greatest abundance; but now the army is reduced to a few ounces to each man per day, and thousands of our people have not tasted meat for weeks. The most magnificent resources any people ever had to begin a revolution, have been misapplied and wasted; and now the suggestion from the official paper is, the people must make up their minds to live on horse and mule meat. They will do no such thing. They will stop the war before they will do it.
You go, girls!
THE WOMEN SEIZING MOLASSES.–We learn from a friend that seven women at High Point, a day or two since, six of whom were soldier’s wives, went to the store of Mr. Wilham Welch and rolled out a barrel of molasses and divided it. The merchant, it is said, had refused to sell, and was holding up for a higher price. Our informant states that the merchant is a great war man, and favors general impressment of supplies by the army. How does he like the principle of impressment as applied in his case?
Weekly Standard (Raleigh, North Carolina) 25 March 1863
Kansas Pioneer Family
This story reminds me of the “Little House on the Prairie” books:
A Mother and Three Children Die in a Lonely Cabin on the Kansas Prairies.
STOCKTON, Kan., Jan 6 [?] From Farmington, Rooks County, comes a fearful tale of destitution. Four years ago John Clifton died and left a widow with five children. Year after year the crops failed and the poor woman was obliged to sell off her stock until at last there was none left. This year finished the fight and when the recent blizzard came it found the house with neither food nor fuel. The house was located in the Blue Hills, four miles from the nearest neighbor.
Saturday some persons passed the house and seeing no signs of life entered the house, where they found the dead bodies of Mrs. Clifton and three of her children, while the other two were in the last agonies of death. Prompt attention was given to the living, but there is little hope for their recovery.
New Castle News (PA) 07 Jan 1891
I wonder if the two surviving children made it, or if it really was too late.
Spousal abuse is a serious matter, at least it is nowadays.
Jake Henry has at least one characteristic of Carrie Nation. He loves to brandish a hatchet. He has a different method, however, of disposing of all the liquor he comes across.
Monday morning he had been indulging very freely. He bethought himself of his little home on Water street and on reaching the house he began to smash everything in sight much to the disgust of his wife who attempted to check him.
Whereupon Jake assumed a Pawnee Bill attitude and hurled a hatchet at his gentle frau’s head. Luckily she dodged in time to save herself and escaped to a neighbor’s house.
The authorities were notified at city hall and Turnkey Decker hurried down. Jake had fled but was located on Walnut street and brought to the city prison. He will be given time to thoroughly cleanse himself of his war paint and reflect on his barbaric actions.
The Coshocton Age (OH) 27 Feb 1903
Wolves
To have to live with this memory; Poor James! Poor John!
A Woodchopper Disables Himself and Is Killed and Eaten by Wolves.
CHEBOYGAN, Mich., April 13. While John and James Gillespie were chopping in the woods near Mullet Lake, a few miles from here., Saturday, James ax slipped and sank into his ankle. His brother John attempted to stench the flow of blood and carry him two miles to the nearest house, but the load and deep snow was too much, and at James’ suggestion John started for the settlement alone, leaving James in the snow. John roused a party of rescuers, who started out to bring James.
On arriving near the place where John had left his younger brother, they came to a lot of blood stains and wolf tracks in the snow, and following the trail they beheld a pack of wolves growling and fighting over a lot of bones and shreds of clothing. The party beat the wolves off with their axes, as they had no other weapons, and took all that remained of James back to Mullet Lake for burial.
New Castle News (PA) 15 Apr 1891
**Has April 15th ever been a good day?
An interesting account of Native American ingenuity. Obviously, had this been written today, the wording would be much different.
C.H. Russell, an old resident of Arizona, speaking of the trouble among the Indians, asserted that in his opinion the most intelligent and at the same time the most cunning of the western savages are the San Carlos Apaches. To them, according to Mr. Russell, is due the invention of the centre fire cartridge. “During the outbreak some eight or nine years ago,” he continued, “their arms were all Winchester rifles of the rim fire pattern, and they soon exhausted their supply of cartridges. They had plenty of powder, bullets and percussion caps, but they were not available for breechloading guns. The cunning rascals had saved their brass shells, and, with surprising ingenuity, they altered the hammers of their guns, drilled holes through the center of the shells for the caps, loaded them and used them during the rest of the war. It was discovered when they were captured. They were, I believe, the first of the kind in use.”–San Francisco Call.
Daily Nevada State Journal 17 Feb 1891
** The title is the actual title from the news article.
