Image from Historical Collections of Ohio, Vol. 1 – by Henry Howe ©1888

Farrar’s Groundhog Speech.

We have been asked for information concerning Captain Farrar’s famous groundhog oration, In reply we reprint the following from the pen of a writer in Cambridge, Ohio, who contributed the readable account to a recent daily publication:

Each groundhog day. whether the sun shines or not, brings back to the citizens of Cambridge, Ohio the old story of how “Groundhog” Farrar got his nickname.

Captain William H. Farrar, at one time a leading lawyer in Eastern Ohio, banker, philanthropist and several times Mayor of Cambridge, was sent to the Legislature back in the seventies by the Republicans of Guernsey County. He was expected to make his mark as a law maker, as he had ability and was an eloquent speaker. The following incident, whatever else he said or did while a member of the lower House, gave him newspaper notoriety from one end of the land to the other:

One of the biennial sessions of the Buckeye Legislature, somewhere around 1884-87, was noted for what it did not do. There seemed to be no leader of either party, and, in fact, there seemed to be no laws needed, few changes in the existing laws and the members, both of the Senate and House of Representatives, were equal to the occasion and loafed most of the time.

One day, while the members of the House were sitting around waiting for some one to ‘do something’ or move the usual adjournment, Captain Farrar arose and said:

“Mr. Speaker, I have a resolution which I wish to offer and I ask as a personal favor from my colleagues that I be allowed to make some remarks before submitting the measure.”

The voice from old Guernsey was like a bolt from a clear sky. Weeks had passed without a set speech on any subject and the eagerness of the members to ‘hear something’ and to finally get to vote on a measure was expressed by many of them, and the Speaker himself waived any objection.

Captain Farrar began by setting forth the duty of the members of the body. He told of how each man was violating the trust put in him by his own people. He declared that the state of Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Chase, Ewing, Hayes, Tom Corwin and a hundred other brilliant men was being made ridiculous by the House of Representatives, and the people who sent them to the Statehouse were disgusted. He then gave a history o’f the state in its territorial days; the settlement at Marietta,; the admission of Ohio to the Union in 1803; the part the Buckeye State had taken in national politics and what she had done in the War of the Rebellion. By this time he had spoken almost four hours, and as he sat down he asked leave to continue the following day.

Members approached him after his long speech and asked him what his object was. He only informed them that he would not discuss his speech.

The following day found every member in his seat. The newspapers had printed long accounts of the splendid flow of oratory, and this drew a crowd to the galleries. No one knew what the Guernsey member had up his sleeve, but they felt that something was going to happen. The Captain arose promptly, and, picking up his historical talk of the day before, issued forth such a flow of oratory as had seldom been heard in the Capitol. His eloquence caused profound silence, and there were no interruptions from ‘the other side.’

The second day’s session was brought to an end and the members were as much at sea as on the previous day. There was eloquence, but no argument. What was Farrar driving at? Were the Supreme Court members to be impeached? Was there treason somewhere? * No one knew. There was no question brought up which could call forth a denial from his opponents. There was a great mystery, and no one could fathom it

That night party leaders were summoned from Cincinnati, from Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo. A delegation from Cambridge was hurried to Columbus to find out what was going to happen. Their representative had talked for two days and had not finished!

The third day found a great crowd in the Assembly Hall. The Senate met and immediately adjourned. The members crowded into the House. The galleries were packed almost to suffocation, and Captain Farrar arose.

Several long, uninteresting decisions by the Supreme Court were read; long lists of prices of coal, wool, wheat, etc., were read. War stories were told and sketches were given of illustrious Americans. Weakened by the awful strain and so hoarse he could scarcely speak, he stopped for a moment, then, taking his bill from his inside coat pocket, concluded as follows:

“And now, Mr. Speaker, having covered the points I think necessary, I submit, for an immediate vote of the House, a bill which urges that Groundhog Day be set back from February 2d to January 2d, so that we may have an earlier spring.”

From:

Title: Ohio archaeological and historical quarterly, Volume 12
Author: Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society
Publisher: Published for the Society by A.H. Smythe, 1903
Pages 331-333 (google book link)

FEBRUARY.

February — fortnights two –
Briefest of the months are you,
Of the winter’s children last.
what do you go by so fast?
Is it not a little strange
Once in four years you should change
That the sun should shine and give
You another day to live?
Maybe this is only done
Since you are the smallest one,
So I make the shortest rhyme,
For you, as befits your time;
You’re the baby of the year,
And to me you’re very dear,
Just because you bring the line,
“Will you be my Valentine?”

- Frank Dempster Sherman in Exchange.

The Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) Feb 4, 1899

FEBRUARY.

Month of the valentine,
Month of the frosted pain;
Month of the groundhog and
Of snow on hill and plain;
Month of the lengthening days –
Thrice welcome and thrice dear –
Come sit before the blaze
And help us make good cheer.

Month of the chilling winds
That howl across the waste;
Oh, sharp and soulless month,
When Jack Frost must be faced –
Month of the frozen pipes,
Thrice welcome and thrice dear –
For the simple reason that
You’re the shortest of the year.

– Exchange.

The Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) Feb 6, 1899

FEBRUARY.

Not many love thee, February,
By few thy praise is sung;
While thousand cherish Maytime merry,
And June’s on every tongue.

Half like thy brother stern before thee,
And half like March, so rude,
Soon sped withal, bards quite ignore thee,
Or chant with listless mood.

And yet, my February, dearly
I prize thy four brief weeks;
Thy many an early sign that clearly
Of days still distant speaks.

I love thee for each certain token
That gleams ‘mid melting snow;
Each sure hint of the summer spoken
In kindlier winds that blow.

I scent e’en now the roses’ savor,
I see yon green expanse;
And, as men own some future favor,
“I thank thee in advance.”

– Ladies’ World.

The Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) Feb 18, 1899

Images from Harper’s Weekly on Son of the South, where you can read about the Capture of Fort Donelson.

[From the Boston Daily Advertiser.]

The Capture of Fort Donelson.

“McClernand’s division, composed of Oglesby’s, Wallace’s and McArthur’s brigades, suffered terribly. They were composed of the 8th, 9th, 11th, 18th, 20th, 29th, 30th, 31st, 45th, 48th and 49th Illinois regiments.”

“The 8th, 18th, 20th and 31st Illinois regiments occupied a position above the fort.”

“The four Illinois regiments held their ground full three hours. Nearly one-third had been killed and wound. Yet the balance stood firm.”

O, gales that dashed th’ Atlantic swell
Along our rock shores,
Whose thunders diapason well
New England’s glad hurrahs, –

Bear to the prairies of the West
The echoes of our joy;
The prayer that spring’s in every breast,
“God bless thee — Illinois!”

O, awful hours, when grape and shell
Tore through th’ unflinching line;
“Stand firm, remove the men who fell,
Close up and wait the sign.”

It came at last: “Now lads the steel!”
The rushing hosts deploy;
“Charge boys!” — the broken traitors reel.
Huzza for Illinois!

In vain thy rampart, Donelson,
The living torrent bars;
It leaps the wall, the fort is won,
Up go the Stripes and Stars.

Thy proudest mother’s eyelids fill,
As dares her gallant boy,
And Plymouth Rock and Bunker Hill
Yearn to thee — Illinois.

Boston, Feb. 22, 1862

The Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Mar 20, 1862

Image from the History website – Civil War: Mathew Brady Photo Gallery

Put it Through.

Loose not one single band,
Binding our Union grand,
Woe is on all the land
If you do.

Chorus –
Long as the rebels can,
We can fight, man to man,
Traitors the war began,
Put it through.

Stop not for parley, when
Knaves fall on honest men;
Blow for flow give again, –
Three for two!

Till the last foe is dead,
Or, over all is spread,
Proudly the white and red,
And the blue.

Law shall in triumph reign,
Order shall come again,
Courage and hope remain,
To the True.

The Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Jun 18, 1863

SEE THE BATTLE. –

“Here’s your Daily Times — all about the battle!” cried a newsboy the other day, vending his wares.

An individual with shoulder-straps, hearing the exciting announcement, purchased a copy, and hastily glancing at the headlines of the dispatches, remarked to the dealer in afternoon literature, “Where’s all about the battle? I can’t see it.”

“No,” said the boy, “and you never will see it as long as you hang round this city.”

The Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Jun 18, 1863

Peace at any Price.

Peace — yes, peace with the men who would basely betray us!
Let the treacherous hand be in friendliness pressed!
Let us welcome the foeman that’s seeking to slay us!
Let the poisonous serpent be clasped to our breast!

Since there’s nothing so wrong in one’s being the hater
Of whatever is noble and lofty, why, then,
Let poor Judas no longer be curst as a traitor,
And let Satan go back into heaven again!

Let us show to the thief where our treasures are hidden;
Let us polish a sword for the murderer’s hand;
Let the breakers of oaths and of compacts be bidden
To sign pledges of peace and write laws for the land.

Let the scruples of honor and right be surmounted,
And, since now is the time for concession, why, then
Let poor Judas among the Apostles be counted,
And let Satan go back into heaven again!

The Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Feb 19, 1863

GANDHI ASSASSINATED!

Incident Sets India Ablaze

NEW DELHI, Jan. 30 — (UP) — Mahandas K. Gandhi, saint of India, was shot and killed today in an assassination which may set the whole subcontinent of India ablaze with warfare between Hindus and Moslems.

The 78-year-old wisp of a man, his body even more frail than usual after a fast which ended a scant fortnight ago, was shot down by three bullets as he walked to the prayer grounds of Birla House for his evening devotions.

He was carried into the great mansion home of one of India’s greatest industrial magnates, in the arms of his weeping disciples. There he died at 5:45 p.m. (7:15 a.m. EST), a martyr to the cause for which de dedicated his life — India’s freedom.

Gandhi was shot by a man giving the name of Ram Naturam — a Hindu mane. He fired two shots from a revolver at Gandhi and then turned his gun on himself, firing a third shot which grazed his head.

The assassin, a man of about 32 years of age, was seized by Gandhi’s hysterical followers who pummelled him seriously before he was reached by police who drove the crowd back with rifles and fixed bayonets.

It appeared that the assassin was a Hindu extremist — one of a group which has bitterly attacked Gandhi’s policies of moderation and has called for a blood war of extermination against the Moslems. Only two weeks ago a bomb was exploded outside Birla House by a member of this group and Gandhi’s followers long had feared for his life because of the threats of these extremists.

The assassination seemed certain to mark a turning point in the turbulent history of the 350 million people who inhabit India.

Traverse City Record Eagle (Traverse City, Michigan) Jan 30, 1948

‘Great Soul’ Dies Disillusioned ‘Saint’

NEW DELHI, Jan 30. (INS) Mohandas K. Gandhi, the Hindu political and spiritual leader assassinated today, was unique in history — regarded as a living saint and a combined George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.

There is nobody to step into the place of the “father of is country.”

But there are millions of Hindus who will try to carry out his preachments:

Nonviolence; live for your fellow man; simple living without pomp or luxury.

Gandhi, who was cut down at 78, had hoped to live until he was 125. He thought he could do this by being a strict vegetarian for one thing. He lived mainly on oiled vegetables and goat’s milk.

He devoted an hour or two every morning to sun bathing, tub bath, massage, and sometimes hsi beloved mudpacks.

Gandhi introduced the innocent seeming but powerful weapon of civil dosobedience — a policy of nonviolence that made British leaders helpless in their decades of political clashes over Gandhi’s goal of complete independence.
Gandhi was called the mahatma, or “great soul,” by his followers, a term which he disparaged.

He died a disillusioned man because his great goal of independence was marred by the splitting of India into two states, one of them Moslem Pakistan.

Long Beach Independent (Long Beach, California) Jan 31, 1948

Image from Heirlooms by Ashton House

POPPING CORN.

We were popping corn,
Sweet Kitty and I;
It danced about,
And it danced up high.
The embers were hot,
In their fiery light;
And it went up brown,
And it came down white.
White and beautiful,
Crimped and curled,
The prettiest fairy dance in the world!
The embers were hot,
In their fiery light,
And it went up brown,
and it came down white.
Ah! many a time are the embers hot,
And the human spirit can brook it not,
Yet radiant, forth from the fiery light,
Cometh transform’d and enrobed in white.

The Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Jan 26, 1860

POPPING CORN.

And there they sat a-popping corn,
John Stiles and Susan Cutter;
John Stiles as stout as any ox,
And Susan fat as butter.

And there they sat and shelled the corn,
And poked and stirred the fire,
And talked of different kinds of ears,
And hitched their chairs up nigher.

Then Susan she the popper shook,
Then John he shook the popper,
Till both their faces grew as red
As sauce pans made of copper.

And there they shelled, and popped and ate
All kinds of fun a-poking,
And he haw-hawed at her remarks
And she laughed at his joking.

And still they popped, and still they ate,
(John’s mouth was like a hopper,)
And stirred the fire, and sprinkled salt,
And shook, and shook the popper.

The clock struck nine, the clock struck ten,
And still the corn kept popping;
It struck eleven and then struck twelve,
And still no signs of stopping.

And John he ate; and Sue she thought –
The corn did pop and patter,
Till John cried out, “The corn’s afire!
Why, Susan what’s the matter?”

She said, “John Stiles, it’s one o’clock!
You’ll die of indigestion;
I’m sick of all this popping corn –
Why don’t you pop the question?”

The Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts) Feb 26, 1863

Congress and President Hoover Under the Mistletoe

Appleton Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Dec 18, 1930

Unemployment and Drought Relief Problems

All Together Now!

“Our Country is To-Day Stronger and Richer in Resources, in Equipment, in Skill, Than Ever in History.”

Appleton Post Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Dec 4, 1930

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin) Dec 31, 1921

Eskimo Pie Inventor Makes Fortune
BY ROY GIBBONS

Chicago, Feb. 13 — Christian K. Nelson came to Chicago from Omaha 15 months ago with 19 cents and an idea.

Today the 19 cents has grown to a steadily increasing fortune of six figures. It’ll be well over a million before Nelson pays his income tax.

What did it?

The idea!

Nelson’s idea was to cover a square of cold ice cream with a layer of hot chocolate, thus caking a confection with real ice cream inside.

He got that idea while he was managing his father’s ice cream plant out in Onawa, Ia. And he furthered it while he was studying chemistry at college.

When he was graduated he peddled the idea around from ice cream factory to ice cream factory. Everybody laughed at him.

“Cover cold ice cream with hot chocolate? Man; you’re crazy!” they’d say.

But Russell Stover, manager of an ice cream plant at Omaha, was different. He thought Nelson’s idea could be put over. And together Stover and Nelson did put it over.

That’s why you see a big yellow sign advertising “Eskimo Pie” in your confectionery store window.

For Nelson’s the inventor of Eskimo Pie.

Nelson’s not making it. His company, composed of himself, Stover and others, is selling licenses to firms in other cities to manufacture the confection.

Today there are more than 1,000,000 Eskimo pies eaten daily. And Nelson’s company gets 5 cents royalty on every dozen pies.

And Nelson’s busy with an adding machine trying to figure up his income.

“Don’t lose heart,” Nelson advises others. “I kept at my hunch and plugged — that’ why I succeeded.

“Just don’t give up. It seems to me that too many folks are only too anxious to tell the world they’re licked.”

Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, Michigan) Feb 13, 1922

Image from Emporia State University

STOVER KING OF ESKIMO PIE
“Eskimo Pie”, now figuratively and almost literally, in “everybody’s mouth,” promises to make a near-millionaire, if not a real one, out of a Johnson county boy. Russell Stover, the inventor of the chocolate and ice cream confection that bears that name, is a son of Mr. John R. Stover, a prominent Johnson county farmer, who lives one mile west of Indian Lookout, where the young candy man, who is heading the Russell Stover company of Chicago, was born.

Sure to Enrich Him

The “Eskimo pie” is destined to enrich the Iowa City and S.U.I. boy of other days, is indicated strongly by a letter Mr. Stover received from his son today. The inventor is traveling, far and near, putting in 18 hours a day, licensing manufacturers to produce his confection. He has more than 250 on the list now, and more than 40,000 retail stores are handling the article already. He predicts a sale of 2,000,000 a day, and the Stover company will get 5 cents a dozen royalty, he writes, on these. This spells $3,000,000 a year for the Iowa Citian and his associates.

To Entire World

Plans are making to ship to China, Japan, and all parts of Europe. Mr. Stover has been called to New York and New Haven, Conn., this week, to address conventions of manufacturers. His traveling secretary is General Leonard Wood’s presidential campaign secretary, Fugitt, who declares the “Eskimo” campaign is more exciting than the political fight.

Some big lawsuits may follow, as the company alleges imitators and infringers are busy violating the Stover copyrights and patents. Test suits will be instituted in the metropolises.

Some Interesting Figures

Some figures are of interest in connection with the Iowa City man’s business campaign. The company telephone bill — before breakfast — in a single day, is $160. The advertising bills are enormous. A contract for a double page in Saturday Evening Post, in February calls for $14,000.

Iowa City Press Citizen (Iowa City, Iowa) Jan 16, 1922

Inventor of Eskimo Pie Prefers His Old Job As School Teacher

CHICAGO — (Special) — Anybody’d think dipping ice cream into hot chocolate would melt the ice cream. Christian Kent Nelson discovered the way to do it, however, at just the right temperature. The result — eskimo pie.

Until he made his discovery Nelson was a poor but contented teacher at Onawa, Ia. Today money’s pouring in on him so fast that he’s scared. “I want to stay human,” he says.

He tried hard enough to market his idea before it “caught on.” Most people he approached were skeptical. Finally Russell Stover of Omaha went in with him. From that moment the golden tide began to rise. For Nelson, at any rate, it rose too high.

“Money! The more I see of it, the less I like it. I’d rather be with my books, or back on the job as teacher again,” he exclaims. He hasn’t even bought an automobile.

Perhaps wealth came a bit too fast — about a year, from a shoe-string to affluence is sudden enough to be disconcerting.

Nelson’s a graduate of Nevada University. He’s only 29. His father and mother are living and he has brothers and sisters. He’s unmarried.

When a reporter asked him, “Do you intend to take a wife?” “Maybe,” he answered.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) May 25, 1922

Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune (Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin) Mar 2, 1922

Image from D-Lib Magazine Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation

The Modern Trend

How times do change,
Oh, me! Oh, my!
We ne’er hear now
Of Eskimo pie.
– Montgomery, Ala., Advertiser.

And customs too,
Have changed, my lan’!
Nobody ev –
Er shoots the can.
– Macon, Ga., Telegraph.

Ah, yes, ’tis true,
Only gran-pap
Knows the meaning of
The word, “Gid-dap!”

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Sep 10, 1925

Decatur Review (Decatur, Illinois) May 14, 1922

*****

A native Chinese might be amazed at the sight of chop suey as it is known in America, but probably no more than an Eskimo on seeing his first Eskimo pie.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Sep 26, 1929

Daily Review (Haywood, California) Sep 12, 1949

Image from the American History Archives Center – THE ESKIMO PIE CORPORATION RECORDS, 1921-1996

Getting Rich
[excerpt]

The more people you assist or entertain, the greater your income.

Often you comment along these lines: Einstein, a super-scientist of the sort that appears only once in centuries, makes less money than the inventor of some trifling thing like the Eskimo pie, ice cream cone or safety pin.

The answer to this is that Einstein serves only a small and limited number of customers — scientists — while the other inventors serve millions, each contributing his mite to the inventor.

In any scheme to get rich, don’t forget the importance of doing something that will serve a great multitude.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Mar 2, 1922

A highbrow is a person who wants his Eskimo pie a la mode.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Mar 16, 1922

Told Cop To “Get Out With His Eskimo Pie”; Aggie Wanted a “Fag”

NEW YORK, Aug. 17. — Aggie Kelley, aged 14, was advised to go back to her father and stay with him by Recorder Kane in Bayonne, N.J., today, when she was brought before him.

Policeman Bonlin found the girl yesterday sitting on a curbstone crying.

The lieutenant sent a policeman to buy ice cream for the little girl, mean while putting her in a room by herself. When he came back he was met at the door by Aggie, who was smoking a cigarette. She told him to get out “with that Eskimo pie.”

“If you want to do me a favor,” shed added, “you might bring me a small pack of cigarettes.”

She told the recorder she had a good home with her father on a canal boat and she wanted to go there as quickly as she could.

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) Aug 17, 1922

Image from The Public “I”

YE OLD TYME TOURNAMENT

The hoi-polloi
With shouts of joy
Doth group abut
In twos and bunch
and munch the festive Eskimo pie
And chew on other lightish lunches.

Cease your talk
For down the walk
Come all the buxom corn-fed maidens;
Hearken to their dissertation –
“I says to him — he says to me –”
The corn’s all right — so are the maidens
But Gawd forgive the combination.

With close shaved necks
And sunburned beaks
In phalanx come
The village shieks!

Who is the cent of this group
Whose checkered vest has spots of soup?
He hold the power of life and death!
Two-foot watch chain, eye of eagle
Look him o’er — the local Kleagle!

With Beech-nut filling
Up his jaw
Here comes the long are
Of the law
His uniform is slightly tight,
(‘Twas made for some less portly wight).
Constantly, at greatish rate,
The Law, he doth expectorate.
And every time he spits by chance
He breaks a city ordinance.

‘Tis after nine,
The crowd is gone,
All but the shieks
Who linger on
Within some lowly pea-pool den,
And dissipate and drink pink pop
‘Til oft’ as late as half-past ten.

The Vidette Messenger (Valparaiso, Indiana) Mar 1, 1929

]]> http://yesteryearsnews.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/oh-my-eskimo-pie/feed/ 0 mrstkdsd New Years Eskimo Pie - Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune - 31 Dec 1921 Christian K Nelson - Eskimo Pie Inventor - Ironwood Daily Globe 1922 russell stover Christian K Nelson -- Too Much Money - Lima News 1922 Eskimo Pie Essay Contest Winners - Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune - 2 Mar 1922 Eskimo Machine 1955 Eskimo Pie Summer Delight - Decatur Review IL 14 May 1922 Eskimo Pie Jingle Contest - Daily Review - Hayward CA 12 Sep 1949 Christian K Nelson eskimo-pie vintage girl smoking police guard at Bank 1929 http://yesteryearsnews.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/pirates-opium-and-the-plague/ http://yesteryearsnews.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/pirates-opium-and-the-plague/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 18:15:24 +0000 mrstkdsd http://yesteryearsnews.wordpress.com/?p=9415 ]]>

Three Hundred Criminals Beheaded.

SAN FRANCISCO, March 12. — The steamer City of Pekin has arrived from Hong Kong and Yokahama, bringing advices that 300 pirates, robbers and other criminals were beheaded in Kwantung province during the last few days of the old Chinese new year.

New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania) Mar 18, 1891

Things theatrical for the past two weeks have been rather of routine. The near approach of the holidays is having a depressing effect on the attendance at the Faurot. With tonight’s performance the Holden repertoire company will have closed their engagement of one week. Only two shows are booked for the coming week, the first being that startling success, “King of the Opium Ring,” this is booked for Tuesday night.

KING OF THE OPIUM RING

No doubt that enthusiasm is already being manifested concerning the engagement of the Chinese-American play, “King of the Opium Ring,” which will be the attraction at Opera House Tuesday, December 19.

The play comes with a repute for great success at the Academy of Music, New York, where it played to the capacity of that great theatre for 150 nights. It is a sensational melodrama which is said to contain more different kinds of villiany and Chinamen than anything that has been seen for a long time.

The scenes are laid in San Francisco’s famous Chinatown. The first act represents Deadman’s Dock, showing the escape of the smuggling yacht, “Halcyon” with a revenue cutter firing a fusillade from a rapid fire gun.

The second act is an opium joint, which from the outside is an innocent looking laundry, but the interior shows side rooms with upper sections fitted with bunks in which men and women lay with little lamps at their side inhaling “happy thought,” through realistic looking opium pipes. Opium smoking is a form of a vice which most theater-goers are familiar with only through the newspaper reports of a raid, and the realistic layouts offered in this act are a decided novelty.

In the third act is pictured the heart of Chinatown on the occasion of the Chinese New Year; the great mart, the Chinese theater and Joss house, together with the many illuminations are shown, and the thrilling climax of the rescue of the Queen from an upper balcony by the wonderful Chinese acrobats.

The last set is the assembly room of the swell Chink club of ‘Frisco, the Fong Quay Society, and is an exact reproduction of the original. This scene is said to be one of Oriental magnificence; in fact, it may be said that all of the scenes are the same, true to the originals.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Dec 16, 1899

Image from Geocaching – Plague!

BLACK PLAGUE IN HAWAII.

Breaks Out In Two Islands — Situation In Honolulu Improves.

Honolulu, Feb. 15, via San Francisco, Feb. 23. — The black plague has broken out at both Kahului, on the island of Maui, and Hilo, on the island of Hawaii. The latest advices report seven deaths at Kahului, all Chinese, and one at Hilo, a Portuguese woman, the wife of A.G. Seneo. The news was received here Feb. 10 in a letter from Sheriff Baldwin.

Chinatown in Kahului, which had about 300 inhabitants, has been destroyed by fire. The sanitary conditions were worse than in Honolulu. The towns of Lahaine and Hauhua have established quarantine against other portions of Maui. An unfortunate feature of the case is the proximity to Kahului of several large plantations with their thousands of laborers. It is thought that the plague reached Kahului through the shipment of Chinese new year goods.

In Honolulu the health situations is better than at any time since the outbreak of the plague. Not a case has developed in the last ten days. Although the board of health is confident that the trouble is over, vigilance will not be relaxed. Up to Feb. 6, the date of the last case, there had been 50 deaths from the plague in this city. The board of health has passed a resolution prohibiting the landing of all merchandise from countries where the bubonic plague exists.

Saturday, Feb. 17, has been set apart as “rat killing” day, and a great slaughter of the rodents is expected.

Portsmouth Herald (Portsmouth, New Hampshire) Feb 24, 1900