generation. He was presented to the son of the son of the son of the
son of the son of the son of the son of the son of the son of his son!
Ah-Kwei lived in the Golden Age of Happiness. And when the Emperor
of China was searching for the happiest man in his Empire, the Kansu
patriarch was brought before him.
Ah-Kwei had 130 living
great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren in 1790.
_Ref.: “A China Jubilee,” by Robt. K. Douglas._
* * *
THE OLDEST PARENTS IN THE WORLD
Margaret Krasiowna, of the village of Konin, Poland, died in 1763, aged
108. The following extraordinary circumstances are stated by Eaton as
connected with the life of this woman:
“At the age of 94 she married her third husband, Kasper Raycol, age
105, of the village of Czywuszyn. During the 14 years they lived
together she bore him 2 boys and a girl.
“The three children from their very birth, bore evident marks of
the old age of their parents--their hair being grey, and a vacuity
appearing in their gums, like that which is occasioned by the loss
of teeth, though they never had any. They had not strength enough,
even as they grew up, to chew solid food, but lived on bread and
vegetables. They were of the proper size for their age, but their
backs were bent, their complexions sallow, with all the other
external symptoms of decrepitude.”
“Though most of these particulars,” adds Eaton, “may appear fabulous,
they are certified by the parish registers. The village of Czywuszyn is
in the district of Stenck in the palatinate of Sandomierz.”
Kasper Raycol, the father, died soon after, aged 119.
* * *
THE GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GREAT-GRANDMOTHER!
Speaking of descendants let me quote a verse on the tombstone of the
famous Lady of the Dalburg Family who saw her descendants to the sixth
generation. She was a great-great-great-great-grandmother.
“The Mother to her daughter spake:
‘Daughter,’ said she, ‘Arise!
Thy daughter to her daughter take,
Whose daughter’s daughter cries.’”
* * *
THREE CHILDREN IN THREE CENTURIES
Pierre Defournel, of Barjac Vivarais, was the father of three children
each born in a different century! The first boy was born in 1699, the
second son was born in 1738, and the third was born in 1801. Each child
was a boy, and each was born of a different wife. Defournel married his
third wife when he was 120 years old and she was only 19. He died in
1809 at the robust old age of 129. The “Magasin Pittoresque,” May 1877,
has a reprint of the original birth certificates of the three children.
* * *
THE MOTHER OF 69 CHILDREN
Mrs. Bernard Scheinberg died at the age of 56 after giving birth to
69 children. This remarkable mother lived near the German border of
Austria and passed away about 20 years ago.
Not one was a single birth. Mrs. Scheinberg had quadruplets 4 times,
triplets 7 times, and twins 16 times.
Mr. Bernard Scheinberg is still alive and married again, and what is
more, he has had 18 children by his second wife who is also still
alive. Scheinberg is hale and hearty and 77 years old and has 67
children living around him. He was the father of 87 sons and daughters.
* * *
The wife of Matthew Bauer, a farmer living near Nagykikinda,
Jugoslavia, has given birth to a child each year for the last 28 years.
All the children are alive and healthy. Twelve are married and 16 are
still under the paternal roof.
* * *
BUSINESS FOR THE PIED PIPER
In the quaint old town of Hameln, famous for the legend of the Pied
Piper who enticed away all the children, there is an old house bearing
a tablet telling of one Anna Roemer who made a lot of trouble for him.
It records that:
ANNA ROEMER
GAVE BIRTH HERE
TO
7
CHILDREN
2 BOYS AND 5 GIRLS
ON JANUARY 9, 1600
* * *
The largest family on record was that of Lukas Tchaffen, of
Arlberg, Germany, (1612-1679) who left 1,091 direct descendants
when he died. Herr Tchaffen had 5 children, 87 grandchildren, 446
great-grandchildren, 553 great-great-grandchildren.
* * *
The family of Thomas B. Parker of New York City who died at the age
of ninety leaving a family of 658 relatives, is noteworthy. Mrs.
Margaret Sanger, the birth-control advocate, cites the huge family of
descendants of Jukes, who had 1,200. Among them, according to Mrs.
Sanger, were 130 paupers, 50 prostitutes, 60 thieves, 130 felons, and 7
murderers. _Nize babies!_
* * *
THE PROGRESSIVE MOTHER
Madame de Maldemeure (Maldemeusre) gave birth to one child the first
year, twins the second year, triplets the third year, quadruplets the
fourth year, quintuplets the fifth year, and the sixth year the good
woman bore six children. A total of 21 children in 6 years. She died as
a result of her last confinement.
Madame de Maldemeure was the wife of Pierre-Roger, Squire of
Maldemeure, a little village in the parish of Seaux near Chambelay,
France. The first of their 21 children, Sieur de Maldemeure, afterwards
became a notorious swashbuckler, courtier, and henchman of King Henry
IV.
Dr. Ambroise Paré, the Father of Modern Surgery, is the authority for
the above statements. He was the obstetrician at the birth of the
sextuplets having been called into service by no less a personage
than King Henry II, who had become interested in Mme. de Maldemeure’s
ever-increasing family.
_Ref.: “Des Monstres,” by Ambroise Paré, volume XXV of his “Oeuvres,”
chapter 5, and “Maldemeure,” by Jean Cassaque._
* * *
YOU CAN’T BEAT THE DUTCH
Here is a translation of an inscription to be found in an abbey near
The Hague, in Holland:
MARGARET, DAUGHTER OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS LORD FLORENT, COUNT
OF HOLLAND, AND OF MATHILDE DAUGHTER OF HENRI, DUKE OF
BRABANT, SISTER OF WILLIAM, KING OF GERMANY, BEING FORTY-TWO
YEARS OF AGE, WAS DELIVERED ON THE FRIDAY BEFORE EASTER,
AT 9 OF THE CLOCK IN THE MORNING, IN THE YEAR 1276,
OF
THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE BABES
MALE AND FEMALE
WHICH (IN THE PRESENCE OF SEVERAL GREAT LORDS AND GENTLEMEN) WERE
ARRANGED IN FRONT OF THE FONT AND WERE ALL BAPTIZED BY A BISHOP,
THE MALES BEING CHRISTENED THE SAME NAME, NAMELY, JEAN, AND THE
FEMALES ELIZABETH.
ALL DIED SOON AFTER, AS DID THE MOTHER,
AND ALL WERE BURIED IN THE SAME SEPULCHRE.
* * *
THE LARGEST NUMBER OF CHILDREN A WOMAN EVER HAD
I have been asked to state the largest number of children a woman could
give birth to or ever gave birth to. A similar question was asked of
the Editor of the _Journal of the American Medical Association_, and we
reprint here the answer:
“Boer, and later V. Valento, reported a case in which eleven labors
yielded thirty-two children. The patient was one of quadruplets and
the husband one of twins. Berger (Halban) reported a patient who in
twenty-five years had thirty pregnancies yielding thirty-six children,
of which twenty lived. There were four twins and one triplet birth.
The patient herself was one of twins. Burdach reported a case of
twenty-seven labors with forty-nine children, of which there were
six twins, seven triplets and four quadruplets. In a case reported
by Küster there were forty-four children; in the first marriage, of
twenty-two years, thirty children; in the second marriage, of three
years, fourteen children (triplets, quintuplets and sextuplets).
Geissler reported the case of Dr. Mary Austin, who in thirty-three
years had forty-four children (thirteen twins and six triplets). She
was an active War Nurse and had time to acquire a medical degree, too!
A sister had twenty-six children and another sister had forty-one
children. In Italian literature a case is reported of a woman who
had thirty-three pregnancies with fifty-three children, and a
forty-year-old woman who had forty-two children. A Brazilian woman is
said to have had forty-four children, all singles, and her one daughter
had nineteen and another eighteen children.”
These seem to be authenticated cases but as the Editor remarks, even
these seemingly authentic cases are doubtful, for it is hard to
count sheep without a sheep-counter. The human memory is notoriously
treacherous in such matters.
* * *
There are about 40,000 direct descendants of Confucius (551-478 B.C.)
living in China at the present time.
* * *
Gorgias, of Epirus, was born in a coffin in which his mother lay dead
for two hours.
* * *
Babou, Count of Abensberg et de Roye, had 32 sons serving in the army
of Henry II of Germany at the same time.
* * *
Stephen Pó̈ździoch was the father of 7 children--each one born in a
different country.
* * *
Marie Therese, Empress of Austria, was the mother of 16 children, of
whom 2 became emperors and 3 became queens.
* * *
Niels Paulsen, of Upsala, Sweden, died in 1907 at the age of 160 and
left two sons—one 9 years old and the other 103 years of age.
* * *
Bishop Heinrich of Luttich, Belgium (1281) was the father of 61
children.
* * *
Madame Jacqueline Montgaste, of Paris, is the mother of 17 children by
14 different husbands.
* * *
Hieronymus, of Rome, married 21 women--his twenty-first wife had had 20
husbands before him.
* * *
King Alphonse of Spain was born a king. He received the oath of
fidelity at the age of one month.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: AN INDIAN JUGGLER]
AN INDIAN JUGGLER’S REMARKABLE FEAT
The following account of a Hindoo who actually lifted a basket of
snakes with his eyeballs was written by a young English army officer
stationed in Deolai in the Bombay Presidency. He supplemented
his letter with several small snapshots of the feat which was
unquestionably an authentic performance.
“On my way out to India I heard of many strange and almost
unbelievable tricks and feats which the native jugglers were alleged
to be able to perform. Needless to say I took every possible
opportunity of watching them at work, and saw many things which I
could neither understand nor explain.
“I was stationed at Deolai, and shared a tent with Lieutenants Le
Mare, of the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers, and R. MacDonald, of the
Yorkshire Regiment. To us there came one day a slim young native
accompanied by a grey-bearded assistant, carrying a couple of baskets
of snakes and magic paraphernalia. After the ordinary stock of
tricks had been performed, such as the basket, mango tree, vanishing
ball, etc., the juggler said in his broken English, ‘Sahibs give two
rupees, I show good thing.’ When the rupees were produced the juggler
took the larger of the two baskets, containing the python, and placed
it upon a large cloth, the four corners of which he knotted together
with a strong thin rope. At the end of this rope were affixed two
little hollow leaden cups.
“These cups the man placed over his eyeballs in such a manner that a
vacuum was created; then he shut his eyelids firmly over the outside
of the cups, and, rising up from his former squatting position, he
lifted the heavy basket containing the snake by the grip of his
eyelids and the suction on his eyeballs alone.
“After the feat was finished and the cups had been removed, to the
accompaniment of a horrid sucking sound, I examined the man’s eyes,
which were horribly bloodshot; moreover, he seemed to have difficulty
in seeing for a few minutes, and the tears streamed down his cheeks.
“I have never heard of this feat being performed before or since but
I vouch for its authenticity, for both Mr. Le Mare and I took several
snapshots which I enclose.”
* * *
“WORDS, WORDS, WORDS”
Hamlet, Act II, Sc. 2
The English language is quite frugal with the letters of the alphabet
as compared to the prodigality of foreign tongues. How the Germans do
squander the alphabet!
What is the longest word in the English language? Who knows? Here are,
however, a few that have posed for the time being as the longest words
in the language.
The word most frequently cited is _honorificabilitudinity_, which is to
be found in Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labor Lost,” act 5, scene 1, line 44.
To the Puritan divine Byfeld we owe _incircumscriptibleness_. Doctor
Benson is credited with _antidisestablishmentarions_. To William E.
Gladstone we owe _disestablishmentarianism_.
An examination of any treatise on chemistry will reveal
several like these: _paraoxymentamethoxyallylbenzene_, and
_tetrahydroparamethyloxyquinoline_.
Among modern German words of cumbersome formation is
_Schützengrabenvernichtungsautomobile_, which contains thirty-six
letters to express what the English indicate by the word “tank” in its
military sense.
There is also the “Turkish Association of Constantinopolitan
Bagpipe Makers,” which is designed in German by
_Constantinopolitanischedudelsackspfeifenmachergesellschaft_.
Bismarck always spoke of a druggist as _Gesundheitswiederherstellungs-
mittelzusammenmischungsverhältnisskundiger_. When he was angry he
vented his spleen with this expletive--_Himmelherrgottkreuzmillionen-
donnerwetter!_ _Damenmantelschneiderinnungskrankenkassenhauptvor-
standsmitgliederversammlung_ is a nice German way of saying
“Assembly of the all-highest direction of the sick fund of the union
of female cloak tailors.” And there is a club of Vienna called _Donau-
dampfschifffahrtselectricitaetenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtenge-
sellschaft_, which contains 81 letters.
You can give your tongue a rest by pronouncing this little Czech
phrase--_Strc prst skrz krk._ That twister is literally translated into
“thrust finger through neck.”
This one should be easy for you--_Chrzaszcz szumi w trzcinie._ It is
the Polish way of saying that “the bug buzzes in the reeds.”
* * *
Here is the longest 12-word telegram. It won a prize in London in 1904:
_Administrator-General’s counter-revolutionary intercommunications
uncircumstantiated Stop Quartermaster-General’s disproportionableness
characteristically contradistinguished unconstitutionalist’s
incomprehensibilities Stop._
* * *
A Revenue Agent in Germany is called by this name
_Obertranksteuerdonativcautionszinsgelderhauptcassir_ which may be
literally translated “First Main Cashier of Duty on Drinks and Bail
Rent Moneys.”
* * *
Madame Schwartz, of Berlin, could understand a speech with the words
pronounced backwards.
* * *
There is a river “Aa” in Pas de Calais, France. There is a lake called
“Oo,” and a town called “Oo” in the Dept. of Haute Garonne.
* * *
HINTERLADUNGVETTERLIGEWEHRPATRONENHÜLSENFABRIKARBEITERVEREIN
“Society of workers in the factory of bullet cartridges for back
loading Vetterli rifles.”
* * *
“PARAMINOBENZOYLDIAETHYLAMINOAETHANOLUMPHYDROCHLORICUM”
--ought to be in every medicine chest. Advertisement in a French
newspaper.
* * *
Mons. Wzs is a native of the village of Ws, in France.
* * *
THE 1792 FAMILY
1792 is not a number but a name. The 1792 family is living in
Coulommiers, France. There are four sons--and each is named after the
months. January 1792, February 1792, March 1792, and April 1792.
March 1792 died in September 1904.
* * *
EPIGRAM UPON NOTHING
U O A O but I O thee,
O O no O but O O me;
Let not my O a mere O go,
But O my O I O thee so.
You sigh for a cipher but I sigh for thee
O sigh for no cipher but O sigh for me;
Let not my sigh for a mere cipher go,
But sigh for my sigh, for I sigh for thee so.
_Composed by Rev. R. Egerton, Warburton._
* * *
CAN YOU PUNCTUATE THIS SENTENCE?
That that is is that that is not is not but that that is not is not
that that is nor is that that is that that is not.
That, that is, is; that, that is not, is not; but that, that is not,
is not that that is; nor is that, that is, that that is not.
* * *
“THAT” WORD USED 7 TIMES IN SUCCESSION
It is true for all that, that that that that that that signifies, is
not the one to which I refer.
* * *
Enough of that.
* * *
Can you put a comma between--“The king and and and and and Queen”?
* * *
IT’S THE KATZ
The oldest surname in the world is KATZ (the initials of the two
words--Kohen Tsedek). Every Katz is a priest, descending in an unbroken
line from Aaron the brother of Moses, 1300 B.C.
* * *
Short sentences containing all the letters of the alphabet:
A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
* * *
_Machoumearobilengmonoolemongametsoarobilengmonoolemong_ means “99” in
the language of the Bassoutos tribe of Africa.
* * *
[Illustration:
HERE IS THE WORLD’S LONGEST CUSS WORD!
Next time you get mad, say:--
HIMMELHERRGOTTKREUZMILLIONENDONNERWETTER!]
* * *
The longest name yet wished on a helpless infant was bestowed some
years ago upon the little daughter of Arthur Pepper, a Liverpool
laundryman. The child’s initials exhausted the alphabet, and her
christening occupied half a day. They called her Anna Bertha Cecilia
Diana Emily Fanny Gertrude Hypatia Inez Jane Kate Louise Maud Nora
Ophelia Prudence Quince Rebecca Sarah Teresa Ulysis Venus Winifred
Xenophon Yetty Zeno Pepper. She was usually called Alphabet Pepper for
short.
* * *
Ed Ek, of Brockton, Mass., owns the shortest name in the United States.
* * *
There is a city called “A” in Sweden, and a city in Wales called
_Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgerychwyrndrobwllgerdysiliogogogoch_. I have
been in a bay called “Y” in the Zuyder Zee, and on a Lake called
_Chargoggagoggmanchaugagoggchaubunagungamaug_ in Connecticut--which
means in the Indian language, “You fish on your side, I fish on my
side; nobody shall fish in the middle.”
* * *
THE LONGEST WORD IN THE WORLD CONTAINS 184 LETTERS
This word is found in Aristophanes, Ecclesiazousae 1169. It means
“hash.”
_Lepado-temacho-selacho-galeo-kranio-leipsano-drim-hypotrimmato-
silphio-karabo-melito-katakechymeno-kichl-epikossypho-phatto-perister-
alektryon-opto-kephallio-kingklo-pepeio-lagoio-siraio-baphe-tragano-
pterygon._
* * *
THERE ARE 58,366,440 DIFFERENT WAYS OF SPELLING THE WORD
“SCISSORS”--(PHONETICALLY)
The vocal (phonetical) value of the word scissors is S-I-Z-E-R-S.
There are 17 ways to spell the sound S in English.
„ „ 36 „ „ „ „ I „
„ „ 17 „ „ „ „ Z „
„ „ 33 „ „ „ „ E „
„ „ 10 „ „ „ „ R „
„ „ 17 „ „ „ „ S „
On this basis it is merely a question of mathematics to arrive at the
stupendous number of 58,366,440 possible ways of spelling the word.
You will find “all the justifiable forms” of reproducing the 6 sounds
S-I-Z-E-R-S in the _“Plea for reformed spelling” pages 35-39 by
Alexander John Ellis_.
* * *
THE AUTHOR WHO NEVER READ A BOOK
Pierre Loti, on the occasion of his initiation ceremony as a member of
the French academy in 1892, addressed his fellow members as follows:
“_Je n’ai jamais rien lu. Par paresse d’esprit, par une frayeur
inexpliquée des choses avant d’avoir commencé je n’ai jamais rien
lu._” (I have never read anything. Through laziness of the spirit,
an unexplained fright of things before I start, I have never read
anything.)
When interviewed by a representative of the “_Revue des deux Mondes_”
in 1900 he reiterated this statement and called it “the only truthful
one of all legends connected with my person.”
[Illustration:
H.B. APPLEGATE
--of Ogallala, Neb.
ANCHORED HIS BOAT AT ONE POINT
IN THE SAN JUAN RIVER AND
FISHED IN 4 STATES,
UTAH--COLORADO--ARIZONA--NEW MEXICO.
A COMPLETE COPY
OF “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”
⁵⁄₁₆ OF AN INCH SQUARE
owned by
P.S. LONG
New York
SOVESKI
of Stanford U.
PITCHED A
NO-HIT GAME
AGAINST
THE UNIVERSITY OF
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
--BUT LOST.
March 29, 1928
SULTAN
HAMENGKOEBOEWONOSENOPAITINGALGONGABGURRACHMANSAYDINPANOTAGOMODE!
IS THE NAME OF THE SULTAN OF DJOCJOCKARTE]
* * *
AN AMERICAN PALINDROME
N O M A D
O C A N A
M A D A M
A N A C O
D A M O N
Doc. Applegate.
* * *
ANTIPERICATAMETAPARHENGEDAMPHICRIBRATIONES
Is the title of a book by Rabelais.
“_Aldiborontephoscophornio_, where left you _Chrononhotonthologos_?” is
a burlesque pomposo in Henry Carey’s farce.
When traveling in Argentina, I met a man in Buenos Aires whose name was
Señor Don Juan Iturriberrigorrigoicoerotaberricooechea.
Pe Maung, in his “The Glass Palace Chronicle of
the Kings of Burma,” mentions the name of King
Siritaribhavanadityapauaraanditasudhammarajamahadhipatinarapatisithu.
His subjects were compelled to pronounce the entire 69 letters whenever
they were permitted to address him.
The thirteenth holder of the title of “Living
Budha,” or Dalai Lama, of Lhassa, Tibet, was called
“Ahwangloputsangtoputanchiatachichiawangchuchuehlelangschieh.” This
name was comparatively easy for his worshipers as it only contains 58
letters.
Mark Twain speaks of a Holy Man in Benares, India, who had 109
names--the last of which contained 58 letters. He writes it this way
Sri 108 Matparamahansaparivrajakacharyaswamibhaskaranandasaraswati.
* * *
A little Honolulu lady bears this appellation: Miss Kalani
Kaumehamehakahikikalanynakawahinekuhao.
The late Western Empress Dowager, of China, that ancient Dame who
hated the “Foreign Devils” with such celestial severity, was named:
Tzu-hsi-tuan-yu-kang-hsi-chao-yu-chuang-cheng-shou-kung-chin-hsien-
chung-hsi-huang-tai-hou. A careful count reveals 72 letters--all
important.
If the old Chinese Empress possessed the longest appellation, then
just as surely does one of her many millions of subjects possess the
shortest of all names. Meet Mr. “I,” of Hangchow, China. Philologists
all declare this name the shortest as it is only one letter long and
that letter displaces less space than any other in the alphabet. Mr. I
is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore.
[Illustration: ELIJAH--GAON of VILNA]
THE MENTAL MARVEL
Elijah, the Gaon, Chief Rabbi of Lithuania, possessed such a prodigal
memory that he never forgot a book once he read it. Prof. Graetz, noted
contemporary historian, states that the Gaon committed to memory 2,500
volumes. He knew by heart the Bible, Midrash, Mekilta, Sifre Tosefta,
Seder Olam, the Talmuds (Babylonian and Jerusalmi), the Zohar, the
Code, Rashi, Rambam, etc. and could quote any passage at will.
This venerable scholar resided in Vilna, the ancient capital of
Lithuania, which at the time was the largest Jewish settlement in
the world. His memory is revered to the present day by the Jews of
Eastern Europe, and the above ancient print of the Gaon is prominently
displayed on the Eastern wall of almost every orthodox dwelling.
[Illustration]
HOT LIPS
Beauty, of course, is a matter of personal opinion, but surely
nowhere in the world do people have stranger opinions than among the
Saras-Djinges in Africa. The distorted lips of these Central-Africa
belles are one of the most astonishing customs in the world. Their lips
are pierced with wooden discs of increasing size until the lower lip is
distended to such an extent that 14-inch soup plates can be worn. The
enormous overgrowth of lip makes chewing of food impossible, so these
women must live almost entirely upon a liquid diet. Speech is almost
impossible and so difficult that they do not make anything but the most
necessary splutters.
When a girl is about four years old her future husband makes a hole in
the centers of her upper and lower lips with a rough knife and small
pegs of wood are placed within. Gradually the size of the wooden pegs
are increased until by the time she has reached womanhood her lips are
things of beauty and a joy forever.
At night the Djinges wife sleeps with her huge lower lip on her
husband’s shoulder. This enables him to feel sure that his wife is with
him, that she has not been stolen, or run away from him in the darkness.
* * *
PILLAR SAINTS
A man may be too foolish for his own good--but not for mine. Their
folly is my fortune. I’ll get rich off the ridiculous yet. As long as
they have ‘Bunion Derbies,’ Marathon Dances, Non-Stop Coffee Drinkers,
and Pole-Sitters, the “Believe It or Not” business will prosper.
For instance, if someone had told you some time ago that a man in his
right mind would climb a pole and sit on top of it for more than two
weeks without once descending you most likely would not believe it.
Of course you know better now. You have grown accustomed to that
particular and peculiar swarm of Koo-Koo birds who have been infesting
the flag poles of our nation for some time past.
“Shipwreck” Kelly began it with a well-sat record of 12 days and
12 hours. “Spider” Haines clambered up a pole in Denver and stayed
there four days longer than “Shipwreck Kel.” Soon all the available
flag-poles in the country were inhabited. The city of Los Angeles was
topped by a girl--even the air is elevating out there. Miss Bobby Mack,
age 21, perched herself aloft for nearly three weeks.