Gareth to Lynette

Image from ARTMAGICK

Poem in College Magazine.

The following poem which appeared in the University of Virginia Magazine, published by the students, was written by L. Travis White, of Frederick, who is studying law at the institution:

Gareth to Lynette.

Then Gareth: “Here be rules. I know but one —
To dash against mine enemy and to win.” — Tennyson.

More soft than silken strands the hair
That tumbles round thy temples fair,
Tossed by the summer air;
Like roses bloom thy cheeks;
The droning bee they near deceive,
When proffered sweetness to receive
Some brim-full flower he seeks.

Thine eyes, like twin stars on the deep,
Soft-mirrored when the billows sleeps
And moaning winds their silence keep,
Shine tenderly; yet seem
They like the dewdrops when the lawn
Gem-strewn, doth greet the Sun of dawn —
And mockingly they gleam.

Near thee the lark on tireless wing
Hovers his sweetest song to sing;
To thee the zephyrs tribute bring,
With violent-laden breath.
The buds whose fragrance is most sweet
Are gladly crushed beneath thy feet —
Thrice blest in such a death.

But thy heart is as hard to lover’s pain
Like the rocks beside the storm-swept main —
Against them dash, in vain, in vain,
The waves of a passionate sea;
Yet slow to ocean yields the land,
The proud rocks crumble into sand —
So will I conquer thee!

— L. Travis White.

The News (Frederick, Maryland) Dec 4, 1912

L. Travis White is number 4 in the picture above.

Frederick High School’s Class of 1911 is once again part of the scene at the local school, at least in the form of the official class photograph presented to the school recently by Robert J. DiDomenico, executive director of Goodwill Industries of Monocacy Valley Inc.

The full story of where the old fashioned studio picture spent the last 60 years will probably never be known, although it can easily be visualized gracing the living room of some proud graduate’s home.

Whatever its history, the picture complete with handsome frame and glass, turned up as part of an anonymous donation to Goodwill and was spotted by Mrs. Barbara Coulter, secretary to DiDomenico, who recognized it as an interesting bit of memorabilia for the school.

DiDomenico agreed that this was a fitting disposition for the photograph and it was presented to George Seaton, principal of Frederick High School.

The picture, taken in the era of the old Boys High School, now Elm Street Elementary School, reveals several points of contrast with more recent high school class photos. Most obvious, of course, is the fact that the class is composed of only 19 members, all boys.

It is also interesting to note that the students are pictured in a West Point type military uniform, an indication of the schools’ past presently reflected only in the nickname “Cadets,” used by Frederick High athletic teams.

The students’ haircuts, on the other hand, are a bit on the full side with moderate sideburns not too different from today’s more conservative styles.

Most familiar, however, are the surnames, most of which are still prominently represented in Frederick County today. No effort has been made to tell how many members of the class survived, but Principal Seaton would be pleased to hear from any who might still live in the area.

Names of those identified in the Smith Studio (of Frederick) photograph include: Clyde E. Burgee, Allen G. Quynn, Earl E. Zeigler, L. Ray Burgee, Louis A. Rice, James R. Keller, J. Ernest Haifleigh, R. Dorsey Sappington, Willis D. Witter, George L. Rothenhoefer, Dean W. Hendrickson, David L. Johnson, William H. Solt, Marvin L. Shirley, Prof. Amon Burgee, Edgar J. Eyler, J. Roger Fisher, L. Travis White, John L. Shaw and J.F. Minor Simpson.

The Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) Dec 15, 1971

The News (Frederick, Maryland) Jun 6, 1912

The News (Frederick, Maryland) Jun 20, 1914

The Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) Apr 11, 1931

Image from Gamblers Book Club

From Bridge Guys – Bridge Books:

White, Littleton Travis – (July 3, 1894 – December 1973) – Littleton Travis White

Odd Tricks, c1934, Edited by Albert H. Morehead and Clifford A. Bender, Publisher: The Bridge World, Inc., New York City, United States; also Odd Tricks, 1978, Edited by Albert H. Morehead and Clifford A. Bender, Publisher: GBC Press, Las Vegas, United States, ISBN-10: 0896508102; also Odd Tricks, 1983, Edited by Albert H. Morehead and Clifford A. Bender, Publisher: Casino Press, ISBN-10: 0870190334 / ISBN-13: 9780870190339, LC: 34041970

Note: Mr. Paul Ryan has contributed this information in addition to a scanned version of the newspaper article in the El Paso Herald Post upon the publication of the bridge book. This information is included in a .pdf file for the interest of the bridge visitor and, in addition, a visually more acceptable version, also in a .pdf file format. Mr. Paul Ryan has also included the scanned version of the World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, of Littleton Travis White and also the scanned information collected during the 1930 United States Federal Census. Also include is the Social Security

*     *     *     *     *

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Work Done By The Just Government League:

[excerpt – L. Travis White’s mother was involved in women’s suffrage movement]

The News (Frederick, Maryland) Dec 15, 1915

The News (Frederick, Maryland) Dec 17, 1901

*     *     *

Evidently, his sister was a bit of an artist:

The Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) Oct 15, 1917

Image from HCAP

L. Travis White’s sister, Roxanna, married the president of St. John’s College. What I found interesting were his comments to the Rotary Club about the educational revolution, and St. John’s “counter-revolution”:

COLLEGE HEAD TALKS TO CLUB

St. John’s System Explained To Rotarians By President

Educational counter-revolution by St. John’s College, Annapolis, shared discussion with the shortage of Maryland oysters as topics of discussion before the Wednesday luncheon meeting of the Frederick Rotary Club.

Dr. John Spangler Kieffer, president of St. John’s College and also of Annapolis’ Rotary, described the 100-book foundation of knowledge system inaugurated by the school in 1937.

W.R. Slemmer, chairman of the local Rotarians’ committee for an oyster-roast to be held later this month, changed the after-dinner talk of members from the day’s topic of  “Education in Revolution”, to “will we be able to get oysters to roast?”, when he refused to continue sale of tickets for the proposed affair, until weather conditions and the bivalve market assures delivery of the food.

Introduced by his uncle, Rev. Henri L.G. Kieffer, the speaker of the meeting explained St. John’s College new system as anomalous, in that it is designed to maintain the “aura of college aristocracy, with democratic ideals.”

The highly honored Harvard graduate was made president of the Annapolis college last year, succeeding Stringfellow Barr in continuing the “nationally observed new-trend for education, started in 1937.” President Kieffer’s wife, the former Miss Roxanna White, is a native of Frederick.

Called Revolutionary

Dr. Kieffer explained that the St. John’s program is actually a revolution against the nineteenth-century revolution in education. That classical education of the past hundred years was not the complete fundamental knowledge necessary to developments of laboratory sciences and that elective courses were a compromise which undergraduates are not capable of choosing.

He deplored over-specialization in teaching undergraduates and summed up the program of his college system, as one intended to complete adolescence of students by training the mind to think generally and adultly; thereby being acquainted with the “principles” of the civilization in which he will live.

“We are living through a revolutionary period, as evidenced by the present loss of standards, faith and belief in things,” Dr. Kieffer said, “There is skepticism, dogmatism, on every hand. There is a general lack of knowledge and faith in fundamentals. We have lost the stability of the nineteenth century minds, because the atomic bomb disproved Maxwell’s system of physics,” the speaker concluded.

The Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) Feb 12, 1948

*     *     *     *     *

Interesting “men vs. women” note in this article excerpt:

PARTY FOLLOWS FINAL SEMINAR

Mr. And Mrs. Kieffer Are Honored By Group At Library

Women may control the wealth of the country as statistics indicate, but it was the men who defended its economic system as opposed to the Communist theory in a lively final session of the Great Books Seminar in the C. Burr Arts Library, May 2 during the discussion of the Communist Manifesto. John S. Kieffer, director of adult education at St. John’s College, Annapolis, who has been conducting the Seminar, presented. The session concluded with a party given by Between-the Book-Ends Club in honor of Mr and Mrs. Kieffer….

The Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) May 12, 1952

*     * Census Records *     *

John Kearnes White, the father, doesn’t every appear to be with the family:

1900 Federal Census – Frederick, MD

1910 Federal Census – Frederick, MD

In 1920, Mrs. White and Roxanna are still living in Frederick, MD, sans father, and Littleton Travis White is a roomer in Virginia, practicing law.

*     *     *

By 1940, Littleton Travis White was finally married, and to quite the YOUNG lady:

Living in El Paso, Texas, with his mother-in-law, young wife, and baby daughter.

*     *     *     *     *

According to his mother’s obituary, she was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy:

The Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) Apr 30, 1954

Travis’s father appears to have authored a book of poetry. The interesting part is the dedication:

To My Mother, not My Wife.

HATHI TRUST Digital Library has the book online: THE WHITE ROSE

*     *     *     *     *

Littleton Travis White died in Annapolis, Maryland, while visiting his sister:

His death was front page news in the El Paso Herald-Post (El Paso, Texas) Dec 8, 1973

The End

All this for a poem!

Pumpkin Pie Time

THE OLD-STYLE PUMPKIN PIE.

Some like a fancy custard pie.
Or apple, mince or game.
Or some new-fangled article,
I ‘low, just for the name,
I ain’t so p’tic’lar’s some I know,
And different from the rest.
But the good old-fashioned pumpkin pies
Are what I love the best.

I’m hankerin’ for a piece, right now.
Of the pie that mother made,
When I came home from school I,d get
A hunk and in I’d wade.
And, (p’r’aps my mouth is somewhat large)
Though I’d resort to tears.
She wouldn’t give me another piece
Because it mussed my ears.

I’ve lingered here a lifetime since,
Put up with what I got,
But oft in dreams I’m back again
To that old familiar spot.
And then, at such times, I can find,
On the butt’ry shelf arrayed,
A row of good old pumpkin pies,
The kind that mother made.

— Philadelphia Times.

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Nov 3, 1898

Times Record (New York) Nov 4, 1943

FOR THE IDEAL PUMPKIN PIE
_____
Why Wait Until Thanksgiving to Enjoy This Exclusively American Delicacy? — Make It Now.
_____

Our neighbor came to call early this morning with lips stained a dark purple from a saunter through the arbor; on his arm he carried a basket of grapes and in each hand a big red apple, and in his buttonhole a spray of goldenrod, and the first red autumn leaf made him quite gorgeous. Under his arm he carried a pumpkin, so we invited him to breakfast.

One should not wait until Thanksgiving for the first pumpkin pie, but begin putting their appetite in training for the feast by some preliminary work on the American pastry.

Steam the pumpkin instead of boiling it, and when cool press it through a fine sieve or vegetable press.

For each pie allow a pint of this strained pumpkin, one cup of rich milk, one egg, one-half cup of sugar, one teaspoon of ginger, one-half teaspoon of allspice, one-half teaspoon of cinnamon and a little salt.

If the milk is brought to the boiling point before the other ingredients are added the pie will bake more smoothly.

The crust should be baked before the filling is put in, as this prevents it becoming soggy. Unlike most custard pies, pumpkin requires to be baked quickly. When the top is brown, firm to the touch and glossy it is done.

— Henrietta D. Grauel, in the Cleveland Leader.

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Nov 11, 1912

The Frederick Post (Frederick, Maryland) Nov 20, 1923

CRADLE SONG

For the frost-rime now approaches,
And the price of eggs is high,
While the grapes hang blue and purple
On the vines.
From their store the wild bee poaches
Knowing winter time is nigh,
And the pickle snuggles deeper
In the brine.

Winter’s coming, coming, coming,
And the vittles that it brings
Fetch a trembling tear of gladness
To the eye.
You can hear the turkeys drumming
While the first fall sausage sings,
And the whipped cream lights upon
A pumpkin pie.

Love, the scoffing of the summer
That they talk of leaves us cold
All these ices and these salads
Give no thrill.
Each day’s rations leave one glummer
Yeh, but pumpkin pies are gold,
Welcome, then the blizzard coming
O’er the hill.

Kokomo Tribune (Kokomo, Indiana) Nov 21, 1929

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Jun 26, 1912

The Frost Is on the Pumpkin, So of Course We’ll Have Pie

Open Season For Dessert Popular Since Pilgrim Days

By LOUISE BENNETT WEAVER
AP Feature Service Writer

ITS OPEN SEASON for pumpkin pie, a dessert treasured in America since Pilgrim days.

In preparing this famous fall pastry, there are three important things to consider. First, the crust’ it should be short and well fitted into a deep pie dish. Second, the filling; it must be subtley pungent — not too spicy or too flat — and it should be very creamy and a rich brown color. Most important is the baking.

Cook the pie ten minutes in a moderately hot over — about 450 degrees. That helps prevent a soggy under crust. Then reduce the heat to moderately slow — about 325 degrees — for forty-five minutes to give the filling its desired velvety texture. Always cool the pie on a rack.

DRY PUMPKINS ARE BEST

You can use any of the excellent canned varieties of pumpkin for the filling or cook up your own golden fruit. If you cook your own, cut the pumpkin into medium-sized pieces, discard peel, seeds and fibrous portions. Steam until the pulp is soft and press it through a fine sieve.

Dry mealy pumpkins make the best pies. So, if your pumpkin is moist, cook it over a low heat or in a double boiler until the moisture has evaporated.

If your recipe calls for three eggs and you are a little short, you can substitute two tablespoons of flour for one egg. Add it with the sugar.

TOP DRESSING

Pumpkin pie fillings sometimes have a flecked appearance, but you can easily prevent it by thoroughly blending together the sugar, salt, spices and pumpkin before adding liquids.

The favored pie steps right out when it’s dressed up with a new topping. For instance, then minutes before time to take the pie from the oven, sprinkle it generously with grated cheese or carefully cover it wit ha slightly sweetened meringue flavored with a few gratings of orange peel.

Cocoanut, marshmallows, chopped candied ginger (just a dash), candied fruit peels, dates, raisins or nuts also introduce variety. Use them for topping or add them to the filling before it is baked.

A sponge or chiffon pumpkin pie is of the lighter, fluffier kind. Add the egg yolks with main part of the ingredients and then lightly fold in the beaten whites just before the mixture is poured into the crust. A whipped cream coating gives this pie a real party air.

A two-crust pumpkin pie is a novelty. Bake a one-crust pie, as usual and at the same time bake a lid of pricked crust that will just fit on top of the pumpkin. Just before serving the pie, slip the lid into place.

PUMPKIN PIE

Two cups steamed and strained pumpkin (canned pumpkin may be used), 1 cup pure New Orleans molasses, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1-2 teaspoon salt, 1 egg, 1 cup rich milk.

Mix ingredients in order given and bake in one crust. Top of pie should be sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon and dots of butter before it is put into the oven. Canned pumpkin is excellent. Crackers, rolled fine, can be added to mixture in place of the egg in pumpkin pie. Serve warm and topped with whipped cream.

Abilene Reporter News (Abilene, Texas) Oct 28, 1938

The Daily Herald (Chicago, Illinois) Jan 25, 1918

Positively Insulting.

“I know the pumpkin pie was rather thin as to filling,” said the landlady, almost crying, “but I don’t think he had any right to say what he did.”

“What did he say?” asked the second table boarder.

“He asked me if I didn’t think that the pie crust would be improved if it had another coat of paint.”

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Feb 7, 1899

Lima News (Lima, Ohio) Oct 21, 1928

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26. — The art of camouflage has now reached the good old pumpkin pie. Mrs. G.M. King, of 241 William street, East Orange, N.J., today sent to the National Emergency Food Garden Commission a recipe for making pumpkin pie without the pumpkin.

Here it is:

Scald one quart of milk; add scant cup of Indian meal; little salt. When cool add two eggs, cinnamon and ginger to taste. Sweeten with brown sugar. Put a little cream or milk on top and bake.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Nov 26, 1917

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie is almost as old in the American history of feasting as those hungry Redskins who attended the first Thanksgiving get-together on the Massachusetts coast. Here are two recipes — one more or less in the homey tradition, the other based on a newer process.

Mix 1 tablespoon old-fashioned molasses with 1/4 cup brown sugar, then mix this with 1 1/2 cups cooked, mashed and strained pumpkin, or canned pumpkin. To this mixture add a pinch of salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 2 cups milk. Beat 2 eggs until fluffy, then add. Line your pie plates with your most perfect pastry, pour in this mixture and bake in hot oven 10 minutes, then in moderate oven about 35 minutes more.

Modern recipe: Mix these: 1 cup steamed, strained, canned pumpkin, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon cloves, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3 well-beaten eggs, 1 1/3 cups sweetened condensed milk, 1 cup water. Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake in hot oven for 10 minutes and reduce heat to moderate and bake another 35 minutes, or until crust has set.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Nov 22, 1936

Variations on the familiar Thanksgiving dessert theme is the rule in the Maltby household in northwestern New York state. Lucy Maltby, noted American interpreter of what the average American family likes best to eat, says, “Let’s have both a mince meat dessert and a pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving, and add a surprise element to the dinner.”

Mrs. Maltby, an old friend of readers of this column, has worked out this mouth-watering “old wine in new bottles” recipe exclusively for us.

BUTTERSCOTCH PUMPKIN PIE
(8 Servings)

Pastry — 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1-2 teaspoon salt, 2-3 cup lard or other fat, 6 to 8 tablespoons ice water.

Filling — 3 eggs, 1-2 cup dark-brown sugar, 1-2 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1-4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1-2 teaspoon ginger, 1-4 teaspoon cloves, 1 3-4 cups cooked pumpkin, 1 3-4 cups milk.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut in shortening until the size of lima beans with a pastry blender or two knives. Add ice water a little at a time, mixing it in with a fork. Pat dough together and chill if possible.

For the filling, separate eggs; beat yolks until foamy. Mix with yolks the brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and pumpkin. Scald milk and add to pumpkin mixture.

Roll out about three quarters of dough on floured board. Line 10-inch pie plate, leaving about an inch overlapping the edges. Make double upright fold and pinch between thumb and forefinger to make fluted rim.

Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into pumpkin mixture. Pour filling into pastry lined pan. Roll out remainder of dough and cut pastry turkeys with turkey cutter. Place on top of filling. Bake in a hot oven (450 degrees F) for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat of oven to 350 degrees F and continue baking for 30 minutes or until knife comes out clean when inserted into pumpkin custard.

Abilene Reporter News (Abilene, Texas) 14 Nov 1941

Siriusly – Hot “Dog Days” Weather

DOG DAYS.

I’ll sing a curious little song,
Perhaps you’ll find it dull and dreary;
In truth, I drive the Muse along,
And often notice she is weary.
To sing of dog days I’ll confess
Requires a lot of nerve and notion,
Still, if you’ll bear with me, I guess,
You’ll save lost motion.

When Sirius upon the scene
Climbs upward with his constellation,
The other stars feel real mean,
And drive the world to consternation;
Poor mortals must, perforce, throw fits,
Or seek the heart-destroying places;
Freak baths allure, the mud and sitz
Preserve our graces.

The angry stars get jealous now
Of Sirius, who roars and blusters —
He stirs all heaven to a row
With hypochondriac-like flusters.
Throughout this time when flies abaft
Our beam refuse to let us swat them,
This heavenly bully drives us daft —
We know we’ve “got them.”

Our cows — they give us buttermilk;
Our pigs break through our beds of tulips;
Our silk worms all refuse to silk,
We keep alive by mock mint juleps;
Just how we strive through heat and wet
Proves that our life’s no bed of clover —
Well — let us sweat and swear and get
These dog days over!

Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel (Fort Wayne, Indiana) Jul 23, 1917

Never Go.

Misfortune ne’er leaves us,
A fact which is plain —
The dog days have left us,
But cat nights remain.

— Detroit Tribune.

Decatur Herald (Decatur, Illinois) Aug 29, 1905

FOR HOT WEATHER.

Dog Days and Cat Nights.

“Making any progress toward getting acquainted with those fashionable people next door?”

“Just a little. Their cat invited our cat over to a musicale last night.”

Fitchburg Daily Sentinel (Fitchburg, Massachusetts) Aug 31, 1918

A Little Mistake

Image from Life of a Jersey Girl

A LITTLE MISTAKE.

Since Gladys took to gardening
And wields the rake and hoe,
She wears a pair of overalls
Just like her brother Joe.
She is a picture that
Whenever I behold her makes
My heart go pit-a-pat.

Last night beneath the silver moon
I stole upon her where
She weeded the potato patch
With slow and patient care.
I clasped her in my arms and took
A kiss and then another,
Before I saw that it was not
My Gladys, but her brother.

— Minna Irving, in New York Sun.

Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Jun 30, 1917

Image from Abigail Doll

You Can’t Forget a Garden, But Can You Forget a Poet?

Image from Alfredo Rodriguez

YOU CAN’T FORGET A GARDEN

You can’t forget a garden
When you have planted a seed —
When you have watched the weather
And know a rose’s need.
When you go away from it,
However long or far,
You leave your heart behind you
Where roots and tendrils are.

— Louise Driscoll, in “Garden Grace.”

Fitchburg Sentinel (Fitchburg, Massachusetts) Jun 11, 1932

Louise Driscoll To Speak at Normandie

Garden lovers will have an opportunity to indulge themselves, in imagination, in the delights of their hobby, despite Winter’s barricade against outdoor participation, when Louise Driscoll speaks on Thursday, February 20, in the ballroom of the Normandie, No. 253 Alexander Street.

Miss Driscoll will have as her theme that evening “A Garden Thru the Year.” Author of “Garden Grace” and “Garden of the West,” she will bring the spirit of all gardens to her listeners, as in her poem, “Lost Garden,” from “Garden Grace.”

Guest of Mrs. Forbes

Miss Driscoll will be the guest of Mrs. George M. Forbes of Alexander Street, president of the Rochester Poetry Society, under whose auspices she will speak.

Rochester Journal (Rochester, New York) Feb 13, 1936

ON BEING A NEWSMAN IN PASADENA

I have long said one of the delightful aspects of being a newsman in Pasadena is that — no matter on what subject you write — you may rest assured that among the thousands of persons reading your stuff will be at least one of the world’s greatest authorities on that subject.

It never fails.

Some of the most valued acquaintances I have picked up over the years have developed this way. You do a “masterpiece.” Next day the phone rings, or there’s a letter on your desk. You were right, and you know it. Or you were wrong, and you’ve picked up a world of understanding.

*          *          *

On my desk this morning was a letter of a different type — illustrating the point I am making in another way.

It was in response to a column I wrote way last spring, forgot, and then published late because I still thought it was a good column. I called it, IN WHICH I GROW SENTIMENTAL. It was built around re-discovery of this poem, which, half forgotten from my boyhood days, nonetheless had carried me through many tight places.

Here’s the letter I found on my desk.

L.M. — I was very much interested and pleased to see, in your column, a quotation from a poem by Louise Driscoll.

Louise — who died some years ago — way my cousin.

She was for many years, head of the library of Catskill, New York, and was a poet of quite considerable reputation. In the days when poetry, to be publishable, did not have to be (a) an imitation of the New Yorker, or (b) something just long enough to fill that annoying gap at the end of a magazine page.

Her poems were published in many magazines in the 1920s and thereabouts, and appear in several anthologies. She published one book of collected verse, so far as I know; a small book of very charming and rather haunting poems, under the title “Garden Grace.”

I am sure it would have made her very happy to know that one of her poems was remembered.

Very sincerely,

Marjorie C. Driscoll,

Altadena.

See what I mean about the delightful aspects of being a newsman in Pasadena?

*          *          *

SENTIMENT HAS A PLACE IN OUR BEING

Star-News (Pasadena, California) Jun 9, 1959

 

Distinction for Local Women

New York, Sept. 26 (Special). —

Three Kingston women, seven residents of Woodstock, one Palenville and one Catskill woman are members of a group of outstanding women of the nation selected for inclusion in “American Women,” a who’s who of the feminine world just completed and published.

The honor was attained locally by Mary E.S. Fischer, illustrator, Melvina E. Moore-Parsons, and the late Mary Gage-Day, physicians of Kingston, Mrs. J. Courtenay Anderson, Agnes M. Daulton, Harriet Gaylord and Louise S. Hasbrouck, writers, Nancy Schoonmaker, lecturer, Lily Strickland, composer, and Mrs. Bruno L. Zimm of Woodstock, Jennie Brownscombe, artist, of Palenville, and Louise Driscoll, librarian, of Catskill.

New York state has contributed 1,096 of the 6,214 women chosen for the distinction of places on the list. Eighty-two per cent attended college and the majority are active in clubs and organizations. The possibility of success for a career and marriage combination receives strong endorsement from the fact that 41 per cent of the roster are married.

Approximately a third of the list, in true feminine fashion, declined to state their age. Writers formed the largest class, numbering 800, and professors the second with 355. Four each are engaged in aviation and astronomy, five in engineering and thirteen in the ministry. Gardening is the most popular hobby. Only sixty-four like to play bridge and one goes in for hunting mushrooms.

Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, New York) Sep 27, 1935

Louise won an award for this one:

Title: Poems of the Great War
Editor: John William Cunliffe
Publisher: The Macmillan Company, 1917
“The Metal Checks”
Pages 78-83

Her Father:

Kingston Daily Freeman (Kingston, New York) Jan 3, 1941

Services Tonight For Mr. Driscoll, Dean of Masons
—–
Native of Rockland County, 103, Died Yesterday in Catskill
—–

CATSKILL — Masonic services will be held tonight for John Leonard Driscoll, a native of Piermont, Rockland County, and oldest Mason in the state, who died yesterday at his home. Mr. Driscoll, who had been in remarkable good health until two weeks ago, was 103 years old last October eleventh.

Mr. Driscoll was a descendant of Johannes ver Vailen, one of the holders of the Harlem Patent who had an inn and a ferry at Spuyten Duyvil in the early days of the state. His father was Isaac Driscoll and his mother Eliza Burgess Shaw. His great-grandfather came to the United States from Ireland about the middle of the Eighteenth Century.

Surviving Mr. Driscoll, who had lived under twenty-five of the nation’s thirty-two presidents, are the Misses Lizbeth, Caroline and Louise Driscoll, all at home.

As a boy Mr. Driscoll witnessed the digging of holes and the planting of rails for the Hudson River Railroad. Until the age of sixty he had never smoked. He first tried a cigar, without becoming sick, and then changed to a pipe which was his favorite and constant companion during the last few years of his life.

Syracuse Herald (Syracuse, New York) Sep 30, 1937

At the age of 100, referring to his job in the 1830’s when pine logs were used for fuel and he was chief engineer for the Catskill Mountain Railroad, he said, “A good fireman in those days would handle the wood only once. He pitched each chunk at such an angle that when it landed on the floor of the engine it would bounce through the fire door into the box.”

He explained his philosophy of life, take it as it comes, by saying:

“When you’ve lived as long as I have, and seen many things, you realize there are few things in the world worth worrying about. It’s a good world, too, as long as people keep their sense of humor.”

Middletown Times Herald (Middletown, New York) Jan 3, 1941

* Another obituary states his wife died in 1903. (See end of post for image.)

* I couldn’t find obituaries for Louise or her sisters. It is possible there were some in the Greene County Examiner-Recorder, but I don’t have access to the years they would have appeared. A shame, really; Louise was a very talented lady and I would like to know more about her.

Quilt square sewn by Louise Driscoll’s grandmother:

From Dutch Door Genealogy:

18. E.B. Driscoll, age 47
She was Eliza Burgess Shaw, mother of Carrie, above, and in 1862 was the widow of Isaac Blauvelt Driscoll (#6010) in 1836. Isaac died in 1851. Their children who lived were John Leonard Driscoll, born 1837, lived to be 103; Charles Francis, born 1841; and Caroline, born 1844. Eliza was a seamstress, per the 1860 census.

Read more about the quilt at the link.

This is the closest I could come to finding a biography, other than the short bit I linked at the top of the post:

Louise Driscoll, who had a story, “The Tug of War,” in Smith’s Magazine for May, and a novelette, “The Point of View,” in the June number of the same magazine, lives in Catskill, N.Y. She has written verse since she was a very little girl, and while still a schoolgirl used occasionally to send poems to the New York newspapers and different magazines, many of them being accepted. It is only within the last few months that she has tried to do much prose, and she says that she has found the editors of the American magazines so ready to receive and educate a new writer that she has no faith in the tales so often heard concerning the necessity of influence to gain attention. Her verses have appeared in Lippincott’s, the Critic — now Putnam’s Monthly — the Independent, the Metropolitan, and a number of other periodicals, and some of them have been widely copied. One poem, “The Highway,” which appeared in Lippincott’s about three years ago, brought her a good many letters from readers, including some editors of other magazines. Miss Driscoll in now at work on a longer and more serious book than “The Point of View,” which is her first long story. She is very ambitious and believes fully in hard work, but she says she writes because she must, and is sure she would write if she had never heard of type. Incidentally, she has a large regard for the English language, and a sincere desire to use it correctly.

The Writer, Volume 19
By William Henry Hills, Robert Luce, 1907

Another garden themed poem by Louise Driscoll:

Olean Evening Times (Olean, New York) Nov 17, 1924

One of Louise Driscoll’s books can be accessed for free at Google Books:

Title: The Garden of the West
Author: Louise Driscoll
Publisher: The Macmillan company, 1922

From Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine – 1907

THE POOR HOUSE

by Louise Driscoll

There’s a white road lined with poplars
And the blue hills rise behind,
The fields lie green on either side
And the overseer’s kind.

This is a play/skit:

Title: The Drama Magazine – Volume 7
Author: Drama League of America
Editors: Charles Hubbard Sergel, William Norman Guthrie, Theodore Ballou Hinckley
Publisher: Drama League of America, 1917
Pages 448-460

This description from The Quarterly Journal of Speech Education – 1918:

One act tragedy for two men and two women. Realistic play of American rural life and the tragedy of weakness and lack of determination.

She also wrote and/or translated music lyrics. I ran across a Christmas carol she did as well:

Polska
Metsän puita tuuli tuudittaa,
ja joka lehti liikkuu,
oksat keinuu, kiikkuu,
karjan kellot kilvan kalkuttaa
ja linnut livertävät
la la la la la la.
Niinpä neidon mieli nuor eli’ ijällä
lentää kuin lehti ilman tiellä
Näin iloiten vain ma laulelen
la la la la la la la la la la la la.
Karjan kellot kilvan kaikottaa
ja linnut livertävät
la la la la la la.

Sunnuntaina taasen kiikuttaa
pojat iloissansa
kukin neitojansa.
Korkealle keinu heilahtaa
ja tytöt laulelevat
la la la la la la.
Niinpä neidon mieli nuorell’ ijällä
lentää kuin lehti ilman tiellä.
Näin iloiten vaan ma laulelen
la la la la la la la la la la la la.
Korkealle keinu heilahtaa
ja tytöt laulelevat
la la la la la la.

*****

Polka

In the woods the trees, the trees are gay.
See how the branches lightly swing and sway, swing and sway.
Sheep bells tinkle and sweet birds sing,
So sing the maidens, tra la, la,la, la,la.
Shaken like a leaf when winds are blowing,
Is a girl’s heart when the rose is showing.
Tra la, la tra la,la, when high flies the swing,
Tra la, la,la,la.la,la,la,la,la,la,la,la.
Her heart goes there like the swing in air,
And falls while she is singing_Tra la, la,la,la,la.

English version by
Louise Driscoll.

Title: Folk Songs of Many Peoples, Volume 1
Editor: Florence Hudson Botsford
Publisher: Womans Press, 1921
Page 26

*     *     *     *     *

Greene County Examiner-Recorder (Catskill, New York) Jan 9, 1941

Swat the Agitator

Country Is In Need of Rest From Agitators

By GEORGE B. HUGO, President of the Employers’ Association of Massachusetts

OUR  COUNTRY UNDOUBTEDLY NEEDS A REST FROM PROFESSIONAL MISCHIEF MAKING AGITATORS AND UNIVERSAL FIXERS OF EVERYTHING — MORAL, POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC. IT DOES NOT  NEED A REST, THOUGH, FROM THOSE HONEST AGITATORS WHO VIGOROUSLY ATTACK EXISTING ABUSES AND ADVOCATE DESIRABLE REFORMS.

The pure food agitation, for instance, deserves every encouragement. The “swat the fly” movement is also productive of general good. But because it is it DOES NOT FOLLOW THAT WE SHOULD SWAT EVERYTHING THAT FLIES, CRAWLS OR WALKS. We see, though, to have entered into a NATIONAL SWATTING CONTEST, evident in may diverging lines of endeavor. Some of these, while not productive of good, are NOT DANGEROUS TO THE PUBLIC AT LARGE.

But this cannot be said of that type of agitators, inciters of class hatred, advocates of lawlessness and violence, who frankly declare, “The question of right or wrong does not concern us.” They attack by this teaching the very fundamentals of morality and are therefore a positive MENACE TO THE COUNTRY.

Wichita Daily Times (Wichita Falls, Texas) Aug 6, 1912

Image from American Gallery – Robert Koehler

The Socialist Menace

The socialist is usually the worst menace to the country in which he resides when it is at war. The real socialists — the ones with brains enough to understand their own propaganda — are opposed to violence, but attached to them is always a group of extremists who are in favor of anything that savors of mischief and even bloodshed.

Laredo Times (Laredo, Texas) May 13, 1917

Thinkin’ of the Old Trout Brook

Reverie of Trouting Days.

I’m thinkin’ of the old trout brook,
A-windin’ where the woods are thick;
An’ see myself a-wadin’ there —
A boy, with feet all tanned and bare.
My eager hand a fishpole grips,
An’ close upon the dancin’ rips
My breath comes short and quick!

I seem to feel the sudden tug,
An’ see the trout dart high in air;
A silv’ry flash of liquid light,
The prelude to a glorious fight!
A dart! a rush! a sullen stop!
The last despairing, anguished flop —
Hi’s mine! Away, dull care!

The prize secure, I see myself
Prone on the bank with panting joy!
An’ — blame my eyes! of I ain’t here
Horrayin’ with the old-time cheer.
While wheezy breath and husky shout
Tell plain the old man’s pet’rin’ out!
Heigho! But I was onc’t a boy!

— N.Y. Evening Sun.

Davenport Daily Leader (Davenport, Iowa) AUg 22, 1895

*****

*****

Coshocton Morning Tribune (Coshocton, Ohio) Aug 2, 1917

The Trout Brook.

Half Hidden by tall meadow grass that sways with every breeze,
And running through deep, silent pools, and under spreading trees;
Now stealing through the quiet ways of solitary wood,
And now beneath a timbered arch where once an old mill stood;
Across the fields and to the brow where valleys fall away,
Then over beds of shelving rock its waters dance and play,
And now and then, as though in joy of such delightful fun,
It springs into a waterfall that glistens in the sun,
And eddies round and round about, in strange fantastic glee,
Then steadies down and flows away sedately to the sea.

— Frank H. Sweet, in St. Nicholas.

Davenport Daily Leader (Davenport, Iowa) Aug 22, 1895

*****

*****

Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) Jun 21, 1916

Swat Him Now, Iowa!

**********

STARVE THE FLY.

The best method to prevent houseflies from breeding is to observe strict cleanliness in the homes and on the streets. This method was successfully carried out along the Panama canal in the campaign against malaria and yellow fever, which are conveyed from one person to another by mosquitoes.

Don’t give the deadly fly a chance!
Keep the house free of food for flies!
Starve him out!

**********

Smite Him Hip and Thigh.

The bugle call of Hygeia
Is sounding through the land,
Arousing all the people
To form a swatting band —

To swat the pesky fly at sight,
And swat him hip and thigh,
Till not a single buzzer
Is left to make a cry.

Because he carries death germs
From many, many ills
That poison food and people
And run up doctor’s bills.

The powers that be have said
“Exterminate the fly,”
And typhoid, with the other ills,
Will bid the world goodby.

**********

STUDY THIS FLY CATECHISM.

Practice It and You’ll Save Many a Life.

WHERE does the fly live? Where there is filth.

Is there anything too filthy for the fly to eat? No.

Does the fly like clean food too? Yes, and it appears to be his delight to wipe his feet on clean food.

Where is his favorite place of feeding? The manure heap and the garbage can.

Where does the fly go after leaving the manure pile and garbage can? Into the kitchen, dining room and bedroom.

Does the fly visit those sick with typhoid fever, consumption, smallpox and cholera infantum? He certainly does and may call on you next.

Is the fly dangerous? Yes; he spreads disease.

How does he spread disease? By carrying infection on his legs and wings and by “fly specks” after he has been feeding on infectious material.

What disease may the fly thus carry? He may convey typhoid fever, tuberculosis, cholera, dysentery, and “summer complaint.”

Did the fly ever kill any one? He killed more American soldiers in the Spanish-American war than the bullets of the Spaniards and was the direct cause of much of the typhoid fever in this country last year.

Where are the greatest number of cases of typhoid fever and summer complaint? Where there are the most flies.

Where are the most flies? Where there is most filth.

Is the presence of flies, therefore, an indication of nearby filth? It most certainly is, and that is disgraceful.

How may we successfully fight the fly? By destroying or removing his breeding place, the manure pile; removing all garbage and making vaults flyproof and by keeping our yard and alley clean, by screening the house and by the use of the wire swatter and sticky fly paper.

**********

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) May 23, 1917

Swat the Fly, Iowa

GET AFTER THE FLIES.

That fly on your plate didn’t wipe his feet when he came in.
The chances are his last walk was in the filth of the street or the garbage pail.
Pleasant, isn’t it?
Then why put up with flies?
Keep flies out of your home.
Don’t trade at stores that tolerate flies.
Don’t eat at restaurants in which there are flies

**********

Protect the Sleeping Baby.

WHEN your children are out of doors and awake the fly is not so dangerous. You will very rarely see a fly on the face of a child walking or playing, but if your baby sleeps outdoors that is the danger time. He must be carefully covered with mosquito netting to protect him from the poisoned kiss.

**********

Swat! Swat! Swat!

When you wake up in the morning
And a fly is buzzing near
And you know he’ll soon be horning
Into your defenseless ear,
Wait awhile until you spot him,
Till you know he’s off his guard;
Then lift up your hand and swat him —
Swat that buzzer good and hard!

When within your office busy
You try hard to do your work
And a fly makes you so dizzy
‘Neath your desk you long to lurk,
Pause until in range you’ve got him,
Steel your heart, though mercy pleads.
Take the office clock and swat him
Right where Mary wore the beads!

There is lots of satisfaction
In the course that I suggest,
With each victim nerved to action
To abate this insect pest.
When you see a fly just pot him,
Nail him as, of course, you should;
Grab a baseball bat and swat him —
Swat him while the swatting’s good!

**********

STARVE THE FLY.

STARVING the fly was added to the swatting of it in Paterson, N.J. The board of health set apart a day for householders to wrap up their food so that the housefly will fail of sustenance.

It was even asked that all refuse food be well wrapped before it is put in the garbage cans.

In addition, every one of the 125,000 residents who was able to swat was asked to kill 200 flies.

**********

THINK OF IT!

Flies and dirt double the amount of sickness among New York city’s babies. This statement, made public by the department of social welfare of the New York Association For Improving the Condition of the Poor, is based on a two years’ investigation in more than a thousand families.

Don’t let that fly get away!

Kill him now!

**********

REALIZE YOUR DANGER,

SWAT THE FLY!

If you were to walk into a room and then be told that in it there were 7,000,000 chances of catching a deadly disease, how long would you linger? The chances are 100 to 1 that you would get out as quickly as possible. According to scientists and doctors, a fly may carry as many as 7,000,000 germs on its feet. Typhoid and tuberculosis are the most common of these germs.

Kill the murderous insect.

**********

Kill the murderous fly!

When we dwell on the great war in Europe words fail us.

Yet statistics show that disease transmitted by the housefly kills more than armies!

Swat the fly!

Starve the fly!

Adams County Free Press (Corning, Iowa) May 23, 1917

Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam

Image from Wind Turbine Syndrome

UNCLE SAM OUR LEADER.

(Tune, “Baby Mine.”) [also called “Crawdad Song“]

Hark! I hear our Chief a-coming,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam;
And the bells are all a-ringing,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Comes a shout from o’er the main,
Glorious Chief is the refrain,
And they shout it once again,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Uncle Sam.

We will lift a million praises,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Till the vault of heaven raises,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Till the world rings out the note
As if from a single throat,
“May your flag forever float,”
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
“May your flag forever float,”
Uncle Sam.

When we hear our country calling,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
From the ranks will none be falling,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Rich and poor, like soldiers true,
We will all be proud of you,
Chief who dares to think and do,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Chief who dares to think and do,
Uncle Sam.

You have writ a golden page,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
In this busy, bustling age,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
And the nation’s grand advance
You will mightily enhance,
Giving every man a chance,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Giving every man a chance,
Uncle Sam.

A good, solid working place,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Counting neither caste nor race,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Your bright flag we’ll ever see
Floating o’er this land so free,
Glorious home of liberty,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Glorious home of liberty,
Uncle Sam.

Foe to none on land or sea,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Save to foes of liberty,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Smite der kaiser’s warlike mien,
Smash his hellish submarine,
Give this world a brighter sheen,
Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam,
Give this world a brighter sheen,
Uncle Sam.

— B.J. Price, a Former Oshkosh Man.

The Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) Jul 18, 1917

Image from The Long and Short of it All