1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation;
grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit;
make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts;
pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the
obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.
2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any impost
or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary
for executing its inspection laws; and the net produce of an duties and
imposts laid by any State on imports or exports shall be for the use of
the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to
the revision and control of the Congress. No State shall, without the
consent of the Congress, lay any duty of tonnage, keep troops or ships
of war in time of peace, enter into any agreement or compact with
another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless
actually invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
Article II.
SECTION I.
1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United
States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four
years; and, together with the Vice-President chosen for the same term,
be elected as follows:
2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof
may direct, a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators
and representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress;
but no senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust
or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.
3. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by
ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant
of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the
persons voted for and of the number of votes for each; which list they
shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of government of
the United States, directed to the President of the Senate. The
President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House
of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then
be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the
President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors
appointed; and if there be more than one who have such a majority, and
have an equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall
immediately choose, by ballot, one of them for President, and if no
person have a majority, then, from the five highest on the list, the
said House shall, in like manner, choose the President. But in choosing
the President the votes shall be taken by States, the representation
from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist
of a member or members from two-thirds of all the States, and a majority
of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after
the choice of the President, the person having the greatest number of
votes of the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should
remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from
them, by ballot, the Vice-President.
4. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and the
day on which they shall give their votes, which day shall be the same
throughout the United States.
5. No person, except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United
States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be
eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be
eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of
thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United
States.
6. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death,
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of said
office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-President; and the Congress
may, by law, provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or
inability, both of the President and Vice-President, declaring what
officer shall then act as President; and such officer shall act
accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be
elected.
7. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a
compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the
period for which he shall have been elected; and he shall not receive
within that period any other emoluments from the United States, or any
of them.
8. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the
following oath or affirmation:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the
office of President of the United States; and will, to the best of my
ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
States."
SECTION II.
1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the
United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called
into the actual service of the United States. He may require the
opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive
departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective
offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for
offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present
concur; and he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate, shall appoint embassadors, other public ministers and
consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the
United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for,
and which shall be established by law. But the Congress may, by law,
vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in
the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of
departments.
3. The President shall have power to fill all vacancies that may happen
during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall
expire at the end of their next session.
SECTION III.
1. He shall, from time to time, give to the Congress information of the
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures
as he shall judge necessary and expedient. He may, on extraordinary
occasions, convene both houses, or either of them; and in case of
disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he
may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper. He shall receive
embassadors and other public ministers. He shall take care that the laws
be faithfully executed; and shall commission all officers of the United
States.
SECTION IV.
1. The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United
States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction
of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Article III.
SECTION I
1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one
Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as Congress may from time to
time ordain and establish. The judges both of the Supreme and inferior
courts shall hold their offices during good behavior; and shall, at
stated times, receive for their services a compensation which shall not
be diminished during their continuance of office.
SECTION II.
1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity
arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and
treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority; to all
cases affecting embassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to all
cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which
the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more
States, between a State and citizens of another State, between citizens
of different States, between citizens of the same State claiming lands
under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens
thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects.
2. In all cases affecting embassadors, other public ministers and
consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court
shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases mentioned, the
Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and
fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress
shall make.
3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by
jury, and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crime
shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the
trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have
directed.
SECTION III.
l. Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war
against them or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and
comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony
of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason;
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or
forfeiture, except during the life of the person attainted.
Article IV.
SECTION I.
1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public
acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other State; and the
Congress may, by general laws, prescribe the manner in which such acts,
records and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
SECTION II. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.
2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime,
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall, on
demand of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be
delivered up to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the
crime.
3. No person held to service or labor in one State under the laws
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any laws or
regulations therein, be discharged from such service or labor; but shall
be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may
be due.
SECTION III.
1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no
new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any
other State, nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more
States or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures of
the States concerned, as well as of Congress.
2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful
rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property
belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall
be so construed as to prejudice any claim of the United States, or of
any particular State.
SECTION IV.
1. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a
republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against
invasion; and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive
(when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence.
Article V.
1. The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both houses shall deem it
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution; or, on the
application of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States,
shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case,
shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of this Constitution,
when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several
States, or by conventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the
other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided,
that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight
hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth
clauses in the ninth section of the fifth article; and that no State,
without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the
Senate.
Article VI.
1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into before the adoption
of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States under
this Constitution as under the Confederation.
2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be
made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be
made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law
of the land; and the judges of every State shall be bound thereby,
anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary
notwithstanding.
3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of
the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers,
both of the United States and the several States, shall be bound by oath
or affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall
ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under
the United States.
Article VII.
1. The ratification of the convention of nine States shall be sufficient
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so
ratifying the same. Done in convention by the unanimous consent of the
States present, the seventeenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have
hereunto subscribed our names.
GEORGE WASHINGTON,
President, and Deputy from Virginia.
AMENDMENTS.
Article I.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievance.
Article II.
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free
state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be
infringed.
Article III.
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house without
the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be
prescribed by law.
Article IV.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated; and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported
by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be
searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Article V.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous
crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in
cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in
actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be
subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or
limb, nor shall be compelled, in any criminal case, to be a witness
against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without
due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use,
without just compensation.
Article VI.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have
been previously ascertained by law; and to be informed of the nature and
cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against
him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,
and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Article VII.
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved; and no
fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined, in any court of the
United States, than according to the rules of the common law.
Article VIII.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor
cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.
Article IX.
The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Article X.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people. [The preceding ten amendatory articles were proposed
to the legislatures of the States by the first Congress, September 25,
1789, and notification of ratification received from all the States
except Connecticut, Georgia and Massachusetts.]
Article XI.
The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend
to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the
United States by citizens or subjects of any foreign state.
[Proposed by the Third Congress, and Congress notified of its adoption
January 8, 1798.]
Article XII.
1. The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by
ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall
not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. They shall name
in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct
ballots the person voted for as Vice-President; and they shall make
distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons
voted for as Vice-President; and of the number of votes for each; which
lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of
government of the United States, directed to the President of the
Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate
and House of Representatives, open the certificates, and the votes shall
then be counted. The person having the greatest number of votes for
President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the
whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority,
then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three,
on the list of those voted for as President, the House of
Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But,
in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the
representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this
purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the
States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice.
And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President
whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth
day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as
President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional
disability of the President.
2. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President
shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole
number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then
from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the
Vice-President. A quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of
the whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall
be necessary to a choice.
3. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President
shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United Stales.
[Proposed by the Eighth Congress, and declared adopted September 23,
1804, by proclamation of the Secretary of State.]
Article XIII.
1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for
crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist
within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
[Proposed by the Thirty-eighth Congress, and declared adopted December
18, 1865, by proclamation of the Secretary of State.]
Article XIV.
SECTION I.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State
wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States,
nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process or law, nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
SECTION II. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several
States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number
of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the
right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President
and Vice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress,
the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the
legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United
States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or
other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the
proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the
whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.
SECTION III. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress,
or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or
military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having
previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of
the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an
executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution
of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion
against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof; but
Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such
disability.
SECTION IV. The validity of the public debt of the United States,
authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and
bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall
not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall
assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or
rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or
emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims
shall be held illegal and void.
SECTION V. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate
legislation, the provisions of this article.
[Proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress and declared adopted by concurrent
resolution of Congress, July 21, 1868.]
Article XV.
SECTION I.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States, or any State, on account of race,
color or previous condition of servitude.
SECTION II.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
[Proposed by the Fortieth Congress, and declared adopted by proclamation
of the Secretary of State, March 30, 1870.]
WORKINGMEN EASILY GULLED.
Who fought for King George in 1776? Working people.
What interest did they have in being ruled by him? None.
Why, then, did they risk their lives for him? Because he hired them.
Where did the king get the money to pay them? By taxing them.
Then they really paid themselves for fighting? Certainly.
In every war ever fought the working people paid the expenses.
"WHAT constitutes a state?
Men who their duties know,
But know their rights, and, knowing,
Dare maintain."
--Jones.
JEFFERSON'S POLITICAL POLICY.
1. Legal equality of all human beings.
2. The people the only source of power.
3. No hereditary offices, nor order of "nobility," nor title.
4. No unnecessary taxation.
5. No national banks or bonds.
6. No costly splendor of administration.
7. Freedom of thought and discussion.
8. Civil authority superior to the military.
9. No favored classes; no special privileges; no monopolies.
10. Free and fair elections; universal suffrage.
11. No public money spent without warrant of law.
12. No mysteries in government hidden from the public eye.
13. Representatives bound by the instructions of their constituents.
14. The Constitution of the United States a special grant of powers
limited and definite.
15. Freedom, sovereignty and independence of the respective States.
16. Absolute severance of Church and State.
17. The Union a compact--not a consolidation nor a centralization.
18. Moderate salaries, economy and strict accountability.
19. Gold and silver currency--supplemented by treasury notes bearing no
interest and bottomed on taxes.
20. No State banks of issue.
21. No expensive navy or diplomatic establishment.
22. A progressive or graduated tax laid upon wealth.
23. No internal revenue system. A complete separation of public moneys
from bank funds.
PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES.
Declaration of Independence July 4th, 1776
General Washington, first President. 1789 and 1793
John Adams 1797
Thomas Jefferson 1801 and 1805
James Madison 1809 and 1813
James Monroe 1817 and 1821
John Quincy Adams 1825
General Andrew Jackson 1829 and 1833
Martin Van Buren 1837
General William Henry Harrison (died 4th April) 1841
John Tyler (elected as Vice-President). 1841
James Knox Polk 1845
General Zachary Taylor (died 9th July, 1850) 1849
Millard Fillmore (elected as Vice-President) 1850
General Franklin Pierce 1853
James Buchanan 1857
Abraham Lincoln (assassinated 14th April, 1865) 1861 and 1865
Andrew Johnson (elected as Vice-President) 1865
General Ulysses S. Grant 1869 and 1873
Rutherford B. Hayes 1877
General J. Abram Garfield (died 19th September, 1881) 1881
General Chester A. Arthur (elected as V. Pres.) 1881
Grover Cleveland 1885
Benjamin H. Harrison 1889
Grover Cleveland 1893
William McKinley (elected) 1897
(Re-elected) 1901
(Assassinated September 14, 1901)
Theodore Roosevelt (elected Vice-President) 1901
(Became President September 14) 1901
Theodore Roosevelt (elected) 1905
Wm. H. Taft 1909
FACTS ABOUT THE LIBERTY BELL.
Cast by Thomas Lester, Whitechapel, London.
Arrived in Philadelphia in August, 1752.
First used in statehouse, Philadelphia, Aug. 27, 1752.
Twice recast by Pass & Snow, Philadelphia, to repair crack, September,
1752.
Muffled and tolled Oct. 5, 1765, on arrival of ship Royal Charlotte with
stamps.
Muffled and tolled Oct. 31, 1765, when stamp act was put in operation.
Summoned meeting to prevent landing of cargo of tea from the ship Polly
Dec. 27, 1774.
Summoned meeting of patriots April 25, 1775, after battle of Lexington.
Proclaimed declaration of independence and the birth of a new nation at
great ratification meeting July 8, 1776.
First journey from Philadelphia made in September, 1777, to Allentown,
Pa., to escape capture by the British; returned June 27, 1778.
Proclaimed treaty of peace April 16, 1783.
Tolled for the death of Washington Dec. 26, 1799.
Rung on the fiftieth anniversary of the declaration of independence July
4, 1826.
Last used in tolling for the death of John Marshall July 8, 1835,
Principal tours: To New Orleans in 1885; Chicago, 1893; Atlanta, 1895;
Boston, 1902; St Louis, 1904.
HOW THE PRESIDENTS DIED.
George Washington's death was the result of a severe cold contracted
while riding around his farm in a rain and sleet storm on Dec. 10, 1799.
The cold increased and was followed by a chill, which brought on acute
laryngitis. He died at the age of 68, on Dec. 14, 1799.
John Adams died from old age, having reached his ninety-first milestone.
Though active mentally, he was nearly blind and unable to hold a pen
steadily enough to write. He passed away without pain on July 4, 1826.
Thomas Jefferson died at the age of eighty-three, a few hours before
Adams, on July 4, 1826. His disease was chronic diarrhoea, superinduced
by old age, and his physician said the too free use of the waters of the
white sulphur springs.
James Madison also died of old age, and peacefully, on June 28, 1836.
His faculties were undimmed to the last. He was eighty-five.
James Monroe's demise, which occurred in the seventy-third year of his
age, on July 4, 1831, was assigned to enfeebled health.
John Quincy Adams was stricken with paralysis on Feb. 21, 1848, while
addressing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, being at the
time a member of Congress. He died in the rotunda of the Capitol. He was
eighty-one years of age.
Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845, seventy-eight years old. He
suffered from consumption and finally dropsy, which made its appearance
about six months before his death.
Martin Van Buren died on July 24, 1862, from a violent attack of asthma,
followed by catarrhal affections of the throat and lungs. He was eighty
years of age.
William Henry Harrison's death was caused by pleurisy, the result of a
cold, which he caught on the day of his inauguration. This was
accompanied with severe diarrhoea, which would not yield to medical
treatment. He died on April 4, 1841, a month after his inauguration. He
was sixty-eight years of age.
John Tyler died on Jan. 17, 1862, at the age of seventy-two. Cause of
death, bilious colic.
James K. Polk was stricken with a slight attack of cholera in the spring
of 1849, while on a boat going up the Mississippi River. Though
temporarily relieved, he had a relapse on his return home and died on
June 15, 1849, aged fifty-four years.
Zachary Taylor was the second President to die in office. He is said to
have partaken immoderately of ice water and iced milk, and then later of
a large quantity of cherries. The result was an attack of cholera
morbus. He was sixty-six years old.
Millard Fillmore died from a stroke of paralysis on March 8, 1874, in
his seventy-fourth year.
Franklin Pierce's death was due to abdominal dropsy, and occurred on
Oct. 8, l869, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.
James Buchanan's death occurred on June 1, 1868, and was caused by
rheumatic gout. He was seventy-seven years of age.
Abraham Lincoln was shot by J. Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater,
Washington, D. C., on April 14, 1865, and died the following day, aged
fifty-six.
Andrew Johnson died from a stroke of paralysis July 31, 1875, aged
sixty-seven.
U. S. Grant died of cancer of the tongue, at Mt. McGregor, N. Y., July
3, 1885.
James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2. 1881. Died
Sept. 19, 1881.
Chester A. Arthur, who succeeded Garfield, died suddenly of apoplexy in
New York City, Nov. 18, 1886.
Rutherford B. Hayes died Jan. 17, 1803, the result of a severe cold
contracted in Cleveland, Ohio.
Benjamin Harrison died March 13, 1901. Cause of death, pneumonia.
William McKinley was assassinated Sept. 14, 1901.
Grover Cleveland died on June 24, 1908, of debility, aged 71.
WHO IS THE AUTHOR?
The following literary curiosity found its way recently into the query
column of a Boston newspaper. Nobody seems to know who wrote it:
O I wish I was in eden
Where all the beastes is feedin,
the Pigs an cows an osses.
And the long tale Bull wot tosses
the Bulldog and the Rabbit,
acaus it is his habbit;
Where Lions, Tigurs, monkees,
And them long-ear'd things call'd Donkeys,
Meat all together daylee
With Crockedyles all Skaley,
Where sparros on the bushis
Sings to there mates, the thrushis,
an Hawks and Littel Rens
Wawks about like Cocks and Ens,
One looking at the tuther
for all the World like a Bruther.
Where no quarlin is or Phytin,
its tru wot ime aritin.
O for a wauk at even,
somewhere abowt 6 or 7,
When the Son be gwain to bed,
with his fase all fyree red.
O for the grapes and resins
Wot ripens at all seesins;
the appels and the Plumbs
As Big as my 2 thums;
the hayprecocks an peechis,
Wot all within our reech is,
An we mought pick an heat,
paying nothing for the treat.
O for the pooty flouers
A bloomin at all ours,
So that a large Bokay
Yew may gether any day
Of ev'ry flour that blose
from Colleflour to rose.
THE ART OF NOT FORGETTING.
A Brief but Comprehensive Treatise Based on Loisette's Famous System of
Memory Culture.
So much has been said about Loisette's memory system, the art has been
so widely advertised, and so carefully guarded from all the profane who
do not send five or many dollars to the Professor, that a few pages,
showing how man may be his own Loisette, may be both interesting and
valuable.
In the first place, the system is a good one, and well worth the labor
of mastering, and if the directions are implicitly followed there can be
no doubt that the memory will be greatly strengthened and improved, and
that the mnemonic feats otherwise impossible may be easily performed.
Loisette, however, is not an inventor, but an introducer. He stands in
the same relation to Dr. Pick that the retail dealer holds to the
manufacturer: the one produced the article, the other brings it to the
public. Even this statement is not quite fair to Loisette, for he has
brought much practical common sense to bear upon Pick's system, and, in
preparing the new art of mnemonics for the market, in many ways he has
made it his own.
If each man would reflect upon the method by which he himself remembers
things, he would find his hand upon the key of the whole mystery. For
instance, I was once trying to remember the word "Blythe." There
occurred to my mind the words "Bellman," "Belle," and the verse:
"---- the peasant upward climbing
Hears the bells of Buloss chiming."
"Barcarole," "Barrack," and so on, until finally the word "Blythe"
presented itself with a strange insistence, long after I had ceased
trying to recall it.
On another occasion, when trying to recall the name "Richardson," I got
the words "hay-rick," "Robertson," "Randallstown," and finally
"wealthy," from which, naturally, I got "rich" and "Richardson" almost
in a breath.
Still another example: Trying to recall the name of an old schoolmate,
"Grady," I got "Brady," "grave," "gaseous," "gastronome," "gracious,"
and I finally abandoned the attempt, simply saying to myself that it
began with a "G," and there was an "a" sound after it. The next morning
when thinking of something entirely different, this name "Grady" came up
in my mind with as much distinctness as though someone had whispered it
in my ear. This remembering was done without any conscious effort on my
part, and was evidently the result of the exertion made the day before
when the mnemonic processes were put to work. Every reader must have had
a similar experience which he can recall, and which will fall in line
with the examples given.
It follows, then, that when we endeavor, without the aid of any system,
to recall a forgotten fact or name, our memory presents to us words of
similar sound or meaning in its journey toward the goal to which we have
started it. This goes to show that our ideas are arranged in groups in
whatever secret cavity or recess of the brain they occupy, and that the
arrangement is not an alphabetical one exactly, and not entirely by
meaning, but after some fashion partaking of both.
If you are looking for the word "meadow" you may reach "middle" before
you come to it, or "Mexico," or many, words beginning with the "m"
sound, or containing the "dow", as window, or "dough," or you may get
"field" or "farm"--but you are on the right track, and if you do not
interfere with your intellectual process you will finally come to the
idea which you are seeking.
How often have you heard people say, "I forget his name, it is something
like Beadle or Beagle--at any rate it begins with a B." Each and all of
these were unconscious Loisettians, and they were practicing blindly,
and without proper method or direction, the excellent system which he
teaches. The thing, then, to do--and it is the final and simple truth
which Loisette teaches--is to travel over this ground in the other
direction--to cement the fact which you wish to remember to some other
fact or word which you know will be brought out by the implied
conditions--and thus you will always be able to travel from your given
starting-point to the thing which you wish to call to mind.
It seems as though a channel were cut in our mind-stuff along which the
memory flows. How to construct an easy channel for any event or series
of events or facts which one wishes to remember, along which the mind
will ever afterward travel, is the secret of mnemonics.
Loisette, in common with all the mnemonic teachers, uses the old device
of representing numbers by letters--and as this is the first and easiest
step in the art, this seems to be the most logical place to introduce
the accepted equivalents of the Arabic numerals:
0 is always represented by s, z or c soft.
1 is always represented by t, th or d.
2 is always represented by n.
3 is always represented by m.
4 is always represented by r.
5 is always represented by l.
6 is always represented by sh, j, ch soft or g soft.
7 is always represented by g hard, k, c hard, q or final ng.
8 is always represented by f or v.
9 is always represented by p or b.
All the other letters are used simply to fill up. Double letters in a
word count only as one. In fact, the system goes by sound, not by
spelling, For instance, "this" or "dizzy" would stand for ten; "catch"
or "gush" would stand for 76, and the only difficulty is to make some
word or phrase which will contain only the significant letters in the
proper order, filled out with non-significants into some guise of
meaning or intelligibility.
You can remember the equivalents given above by noting that z is the
first letter of "zero," and c of "cipher," t has but one stroke, n has
two, m three; the script f is very like 8; the script p like 9; r is the
last letter of "four;" l is the Roman numeral for 50, which suggests 5.
The others may be retained by memorizing these nonsense lines:
Six shy Jewesses chase George.
Seven great kings came quarreling.
Suppose you wished to get some phrase or word that would express the
number 3,685, you arrange the letters this way:
3 .. 6 .. 8 .. 5
a m a sh a f a 1
e e j e v e
i i ch i i
o o g o o
u u u u
h h h h
w w w w
x x x x
y y y y
You can make out "image of law," "my shuffle," "matchville," etc., etc.,
as far as you like to work it out.
Now, suppose you wished to memorize the fact that $1,000,000 in gold
weighs 3,685 pounds, you go about it in this way, and here is the kernel
and crux of Loisette's system: "How much does $1,000,000 in gold weigh?"
"Weigh-scales."
"Scales--statue of justice."
"Statue of Justice--image of law."
The process is simplicity itself. The thing you wish to recall, and that
you fear to forget, is the weight; consequently you cement your chain of
suggestion to the idea which is most prominent in your mental question.
What do you weigh with? Scales. What does the mental picture of scales
suggest? The statue of Justice, blindfolded and weighing out award and
punishment to man. Finally, what is this statue of Justice but the image
of law? And the words "image of law," translated back from the
significant letters m, g soft, f and 1, give you 3--6--8--5, the number
of pounds in $1,000,000 in gold. You bind together in your mind each
separate step in the journey, the one suggests the other, and you will
find a year from now that the fact will be as fresh in your memory as it
is today. You cannot lose it. It is chained to you by an unbreakable
mnemonic tie. Mark that it is not claimed that "weight" will of itself
suggest "scales," and "scales" "statue of Justice," etc., but that,
having once passed your attention up and down that ladder of ideas, your
mental tendency will be to take the same route, and get to the same goal
again and again. Indeed, beginning with the weight of $1,000,000, "image
of law" will turn up in your mind without your consciousness of any
intermediate station on the way, after some iteration and reiteration of
the original chain.
Again, so as to fasten the process in the reader's mind even more
firmly, suppose that it were desired to fix the date of the battle of
Hastings (A. D. 1066) in the memory; 1066 may be represented by the
words "the wise judge" (th--1, s--0, j--6, dg--6; the others are
non-significants); a chain might be made thus:
Battle of Hastings--arbitrament of war.
Arbitrament of war--arbitration.
Arbitration--judgment.
Judgment--the wise judge.
Make mental pictures, connect ideas, repeat words and sounds, go about
it any way you please, so that you will form a mental habit of
connecting the "battle of Hastings" with the idea of "arbitrament of
war," and so on for the other links in the chain, and the work is done.
Loisette makes the beginning of his system unnecessarily difficult, to
say nothing of his illogical arrangement in the grammar of the art of
memory, which he makes the first of his lessons. He analyzes suggestion
into--
1. Inclusion.
2. Exclusion.
3. Concurrence.
All of which looks very scientific and orderly, but is really misleading
and badly named. The truth is that one idea will suggest another:
1. By likeness or opposition of meaning, as "house" suggests "room" or
"door," etc.; or, "white" suggests "black"; "cruel," "kind," etc.
2. By likeness of sound, as "harrow" and "barrow"; "Henry" and
"Hennepin."
3. By mental juxtaposition, a peculiarity different in each person, and
depending upon each one's own experiences. Thus, "St. Charles" suggests
"railway bridge" to me, because I was vividly impressed by the breaking
of the Wabash bridge at that point. "Stable" and "broken leg" come near
each other in my experience, as do "cow" and "shot-gun" and "licking."
Out of these three sorts of suggestion it is possible to get from anyone
fact to another in a chain certain and safe, along which the mind may be
depended upon afterwards always to follow.
The chain is, of course, by no means all. Its making and its binding
must be accompanied by a vivid, methodically directed attention, which
turns all the mental light gettable in a focus upon the subject passing
across the mind's screen. Before Loisette was thought of this was known.
In the old times in England, in order to impress upon the mind of the
rising generation the parish boundaries in the rural districts, the boys
were taken to each of the landmarks in succession, the position and
bearing of each pointed out carefully, and, in order to deepen the
impression, the young people were then and there vigorously thrashed--a
mechanical method of attracting the attention which was said never to
have failed. This system has had its supporters in many of the
old-fashioned schools, and there are men who will read these lines who
can recall, with an itching sense of vivid impression, the 144 lickings
which were said to go with the multiplication table.
In default of a thrashing, however, the student must cultivate as best
he can an intense fixity of perception upon every fact or word or date
that he wishes to make permanently his own. It is easy. It is a matter
of habit. If you will, you can photograph an idea upon your cerebral
gelatine so that neither years nor events will blot it out or overlay
it. You must be clearly and distinctly aware of the thing you are
putting into your mental treasure-house, and drastically certain of the
cord by which you have tied it to some other thing of which you are
sure. Unless it is worth your while to do this, you might as well
abandon any hope of mnemonic improvement, which will not come without
the hardest kind of hard work, although it is work that will grow
constantly easier with practice and reiteration. You need, then:
1. Methodic suggestion.
2. Methodic attention.
3. Methodic reiteration.
And this is all there is to Loisette, and a great deal it is. Two of
them will not do without the third. You do not know how many steps there
are from your hall door to your bedroom, though you have attended to and
often reiterated the journey. But if there are twenty of them, and you
have once bound the word "nice," or "nose," or "news" or "hyenas," to
the fact of the stairway, you can never forget it.
The Professor makes a point, and very wisely, of the importance of
working through some established chain, so that the whole may be carried
away in the mind--not alone for the value of the facts so bound
together, but for the mental discipline so afforded.
Here, then, is the "President Series," which contains the name and date
of inauguration of each President from Washington to Cleveland. The
manner in which it is to be mastered is this: Beginning at the top, try
to find in your mind some connection between each word and the one
following it. See how you can at some future time make one suggest the
next, either by suggestion of sound or sense, or by mental
juxtaposition. When you have found this dwell on it attentively for a
moment or two. Pass it backward and forward before you, and then go on
to the next step.
The chain runs thus, the names of the President being in capitals, the
date words or date phrases being inclosed in parentheses:
President Chosen for the first word as the one most apt to occur to the
mind of anyone wishing to repeat the names of the Presidents.
Dentist President and dentist.
Draw What does a dentist do?
(To give up) When something is drawn from one it is given up.
This is a date phrase meaning 1789.
WASHINGTON. Associate the quality of self-sacrifice with
Washington's character.
Morning wash Washington and wash.
Dew Early wetness and dew.
Flower beds Dew and flowers.
(Took a bouquet) Flowers and bouquet. Date phrase (1797),
Garden Bouquet and garden.
Eden The first garden.
Adam Juxtaposition of thought.
ADAMS Suggestion by sound.
Fall Juxtaposition of thought.
Failure Fall and failure.
(Deficit) Upon failure there is usually a deficit
Date word (1801).
Debt The consequence of a deficit.
Confederate bonds Suggestion by meaning.
Jefferson Davis Juxtaposition of thought.
JEFFERSON.
Now follow out the rest for yourself, taking about ten at a time, and
binding those you do last to those you have done before, each time,
before attacking the next bunch.
JEFFERSON
Judge Jeffreys
(bloody assize)
bereavement
(too heavy a sob)
parental grief
mad son
MADISON
Maderia
frustrating
first-rate wine
(defeating)
feet
toe the line
row
MONROE
row
boat
steamer
side-splitting
(divert)
annoy
harassing
HARRISON
Old Harry
the tempter
(the fraud)
painted clay
baked clay
tiles
TYLER
Wat Tyler
poll tax
compulsory
(free will)
free offering
burnt offering
poker
POLK
end of dance
termination "ly"
(adverb)
part of speech
part of a man
TAYLOR
measurer
theodoilte
(Theophilus)
fill us
FILLMORE
more fuel
the flame
flambeau
bow
arrow
PIERCE
hurt (feeling)
wound
soldier
cannon
BUCHANAN
rebuke
official censure
(to officiate)
wedding
linked
LINCOLN
civil service
ward politician
(stop 'em)
stop procession
(tough boy)
Little Ben
Harry
HARRISON
Tippecanoe
tariff too
knapsack
war-field
(the funnel)
windpipe
throat
quinzy
QUINCY ADAMS
quince
fine fruit
(the fine boy)
sailor boy
sailor
jack tar
JACKSON
stone wall
indomitable
(tough make)
oaken furniture
bureau
VAN BUREN
rent
link
stroll
seashore
take
give
GRANT
award
school premium
examination
cramming
(fagging)
laborer
hay field
HAYES
hazy
clear
(vivid)
brightly lighted
camp-fire
war-field
GARFIELD
Guiteau
murderer
prisoner
prison fare
(half fed)
well fed
well read
author
ARTHUR
round table
tea cup
(half full)
divide
cleave
CLEVELAND
City of Cleveland
two
twice
(the heavy shell)
mollusk
unfamiliar word
dictionary
Johnson's
JOHNSON
son
bad son
(thievish bay)
dishonest boy
(back)
Mac
McKINLEY
kill
Czolgosz
(zees)
seize
ruffian
rough rider
rouse
ROOSEVELT
size
heavy
fat
TAFT
It will be noted that some of the date words, as "free will," only give
three figures of the date, 845; but it is to be supposed that if the
student knows that many figures in the date of Polk's inauguration he
can guess the other one.
The curious thing about this system will now become apparent. If the
reader has learned the series so that he can say it down from President
to Taft, he can with no effort, and without any further preparation, say
it backwards from Taft up to the commencement! There could be no better
proof that this is the natural mnemonic system. It proves itself by its
works.
The series should be repeated backward and forward every day for a
month, and should be supplemented by a series of the reader's own
making, and by this one, which gives the numbers from 0 to 100, and
which must be chained together before they can be learned:
0--hoes
1--wheat
2--hen
3--home
4--hair
5--oil
6--shoe
7--hook
8--off
9--bee
10--daisy
11--tooth
12--dine
13--time
14--tower
15--dell
16--ditch
17--duck
18--dove
21--hand
19--tabby
20--hyenas
22--nun
23--name
24--owner
25--nail
26--hinge
27--ink
28--knife
29--knob
30--muse
31--Mayday
32--hymen
33--mama
34--mare
35--mill
36--image
37--mug
38--muff
39--mob
40--race
41--hart
42--horn
43--army
44--warrior
45--royal
46--arch
47--rock
48--wharf
49--rope
50--wheels
51--lad
52--lion
53--lamb
54--lair
55--lily
56--lodge
57--lake
58--leaf
59--elbow
60--chess
61--cheat
62--chain
63--sham
64--chair
65--jail
66--judge
67--jockey
68--shave
69--ship
70--eggs
71--gate
72--gun
73--comb
74--hawker
75--coal
76--cage
77--cake
78--coffee
79--cube
80--vase
81--feet
82--vein
83--fame
84--fire
85--vial
86--fish
87--fig
88--fife
89--fib
90--piles
91--putty
92--pane
93--bomb
94--bier
95--bell
96--peach
98--beef
97--book
99--pope
100--diocese
[Transcriber's note: Items 21, 19, 20, 22 are shown as printed.]
By the use of this table, which should be committed as thoroughly as the
President series, so that it can be repeated backward and forward, any
date, figure or number can be at once constructed, and bound by the
usual chain to the fact which you wish it to accompany.
When the student wishes to go farther and attack larger problems than
the simple binding of two facts together, there is little in Loisette's
system that is new, although there is much that is good. If it is a book
that is to be learned as one would prepare for an examination, each
chapter is to be considered separately. Of each an epitome is to be
written in which the writer must exercise all of his ingenuity to reduce
the matter in hand to its final skeleton of fact. This he is to commit
to memory both by the use of the chain and the old system of
interrogation. Suppose after much labor through a wide space of language
one boils a chapter or an event down to the final irreducible sediment:
"Magna Charta was exacted by the barons from King John at Runnymede."
You must now turn this statement this way and that way; asking yourself
about it every possible and impossible question, gravely considering the
answers, and, if you find any part of it especially difficult to
remember, chaining it to the question which will bring it out. Thus,
"What was exacted by the barons from King John at Runnymede?" "Magna
Charta." "By whom was Magna Charta exacted from King John at Runnymede?"
"By the barons." "From whom was," etc., etc.? "King John." "From what
king," etc., etc.? "King John." "Where was Magna Charta," etc., etc.?
"At Runnymede."
And so on and so on, as long as your ingenuity can suggest questions to
ask, or points of view from which to consider the statement. Your mind
will be finally saturated with the information, and prepared to spill it
out at the first squeeze of the examiner. This, however, is not new. It
was taught in the schools hundreds of years before Loisette was born.
Old newspaper men will recall in connection with it Horace Greeley's
statement that the test of a news item was the clear and satisfactory
manner in which a report answered the interrogatories, "What?" "When?"
"Where?" "Who?" "Why?"
In the same way Loisette advises the learning of poetry, e. g.:
"The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold."
"Who came down?"
"How did the Assyian come down?"
"Like what animal did?" etc.
And so on and so on, until the verses are exhausted of every scrap of
information to be had out of them by the most assiduous
cross-examination.
Whatever the reader may think of the availability or value of this part
of the system, there are so many easily applicable tests of the worth of
much that Loisette has done, that it may be taken with the rest.
Few people, to give an easy example, can remember the value of the ratio
between the circumference and the diameter of the circle beyond four
places of decimals, or at most six--3.141592. Here is the value to 108
decimal places:
3.14159265.3589793238.4626433832.7950288419.7169399375.1058209749.-
4459230781.6406286208.9986280348.2534211706.7982148086 plus.
By a very simple application of the numerical letter values these 108
decimal places can be carried in the mind and recalled about as fast as
you can write them down. All that is to be done is to memorize these
nonsense lines:
Mother Day will buy any shawl.
My love pick up my new muff.
A Russian jeer may move a woman.
Cables enough for Utopia.
Get a cheap ham pie by my cooley.
The slave knows a bigger ape.
I rarely hop on my sick foot.
Cheer a sage in a fashion safe.
A baby fish now views my wharf.
Annually Mary Ann did kiss a jay,
A cabby found a rough savage.
Now translate each significant into its proper value and you have the
task accomplished. "Mother Day," m--3, th--l, r--4, d--l, and so on.
Learn the lines one at a time by the method of interrogatories. "Who
will buy any shawl?" "Which Mrs. Day will buy a shawl?" "Is Mother Day
particular about the sort of shawl she will buy?" "Has she bought a
shawl?" etc., etc. Then cement the end of each line to the beginning of
the next one, thus, "Shawl"--"warm garment"--"warmth"--"love"--"my
love," and go on as before. Stupid as the work may seem to you, you can
memorize the figures in fifteen minutes this way so that you will not
forget them in fifteen years. Similarly you can take Haydn's Dictionary
of Dates and turn fact after fact into nonsense lines like these which
you cannot lose.
And this ought to be enough to show anybody the whole art. If you look
back across the sands of time and find out that it is that ridiculous
old "Thirty days hath September" which comes to you when you are trying
to think of the length of October--if you can quote your old prosody,
"O datur ambiguis," etc.,
with much more certainty than you can serve up your Horace; if, in fine,
jingles and alliterations, wise and otherwise, have stayed with you,
while solid and serviceable information has faded away, you may be
certain that here is the key to the enigma of memory.
You can apply it yourself in a hundred ways. If you wish to clinch in
your mind the fact that Mr. Love lives at 485 Dearborn Street, what is
more easy than to turn 485 into the word "rifle" and chain the ideas
together, say thus: "Love--happiness--good time--
picnic--forest--wood--rangers--range--rifle range--rifle fine
weapon--costly weapon--dearly bought--Dearborn."
Or if you wish to remember Mr. Bowman's name and you notice he has a
mole on his face which is apt to attract your attention when you next
see him, cement the ideas thus:
"Mole, mark, target, archer, Bowman."
MEMORY RHYMES.
The Months.
Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
But February, which has twenty-eight alone.
Except in leap-year; then's the time
When February's days are twenty-nine.
Birthdays.
Monday for health,
Tuesday for wealth,
Wednesday best of all,
Thursday for crosses,
Friday for losses,
Saturday no luck at all.
The lines refer to the days of the week as birthdays. They are, in idea,
the same as the more familiar lines:
Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is merry and glad,
Thursday's child is sorry and sad;
Friday's child is loving and giving;
Saturday's child must work for its living;
While the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is blithe and bonny and good and gay.
Short Grammar.
Three little words you often see
Are Articles, a, an, and the.
A Noun's the name of any thing,
As school, or garden, hoop, or swing.
Adjectives tell the kind of noun,
As great, small, pretty, white, or brown.
Instead of Nouns the Pronouns stand--
His head, her face, your arm, my hand.
Verbs tell something to be done--
To read, count, laugh, sing, jump or run.
How things are done the Adverbs tell--
As slowly, quickly, ill or well.
Conjunctions join the words together--
As men and women, wind or weather.
The Preposition stands before
The noun, as in or through the door.
The Interjection shows surprise--
As Oh! how pretty, Ah! how wise.
The whole are called nine parts of speech,
Which reading, writing, speaking teach.
To Tell the Age of Horses.
To tell the age of any horse,
Inspect the lower jaw, of course;
The six front teeth the tale will tell,
And every doubt and fear dispel.
Two middle "nippers" you behold
Before the colt is two weeks old,
Before eight weeks will two more come;
Eight months the "corners" cut the gum.
The outside grooves will disappear
From middle two in just one year.
In two years, from the second pair;
In three, the corners, too, are bare.
At two the middle "nippers" drop;
At three, the second pair can't stop.
When four years old the third pair goes;
At five a full new set he shows.
The deep black spots will pass from view
At six years from the middle two.
The second pair at seven years;
At eight the spot each "corner" clears.
From middle "nippers" upper jaw,
At nine the black spots will withdraw.
The second pair at ten are white;
Eleven finds the "corners" light.
As time goes on, the horsemen know,
The oval teeth three-sided grow;
They longer get, project before,
Till twenty, when we know no more.
Bees.
A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a fly.
The Cuckoo.
May--sings all the day;
June--changes his tune;
July--prepares to fly;
August--go he must.
Rules for Riding.
Keep up your head and your heart,
Your hands and your heels keep down,
Press your knees close to your horse's side,
And your elbows close to your own.
HAPPINESS DEFINED.
Wanting nothing and knowing it.
The mental sunshine of content.
A "will-o'-the-wisp" which eludes us even when we grasp it.
Excelsior! The ever-retreating summit on the hill of our ambition.
The prize at the top of a greasy pole which is continually slipping from
one's grasp.
The only thing a man continues to search for after he has found it.
The bull's-eye on the target at which all the human race are shooting.
The goal erected for the human race, which few reach, being too heavily
handicapped.
A wayside flower growing only by the path of duty.
A bright and beautiful butterfly, which many chase but few can take.
The interest we receive from capital invested in good works.
The birthright of contentment.
A treasure which we search for far and wide, though oft-times it is
lying at our feet.
The summer weather of the mind.
APPALLING DEPTHS OF SPACE.
Distances that Stun the Mind and Baffle Comprehension.
"The stars," though appearing small to us because of their immense
distance, are in reality great and shining suns. If we were to escape
from the earth into space, the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and eventually the
sun would become invisible. Mizar, the middle star in the tail of the
Great Bear, is forty times as heavy as the sun. To the naked eye there
are five or six thousand of these heavenly bodies visible.
Cygni is the nearest star to us in this part of the sky. Alpha Centauri,
in the constellation of Centaur, in the Southern Hemisphere, is the
nearest of all the stars. The sun is off 93,000,000 miles; multiply this
by 200,000, and the result is, roughly speaking, 20,000,000,000,000; and
this is the distance we are from Alpha Centauri. At the speed of an
electric current, 180,000 miles per second, a message to be sent from a
point on the earth's surface would go seven times around the earth in
one second. Let it be supposed that messages were sent off to the
different heavenly bodies. To reach the moon at this rate it would take
about one second. In eight minutes a message would get to the sun, and
allowing for a couple of minutes' delay, one could send a message to the
sun and get an answer all within twenty minutes. But to reach Alpha
Centauri it would take three years; and as this is the nearest of the
stars, what time must it take to get to the others? If, when Wellington
won the battle of Waterloo, in 1815, the news had been telegraphed off
immediately, there are some stars so remote that it would not yet have
reached them. To go a step further, if in 1066 the result of the Norman
Conquest had been wired to some of these stars, the message would still
be on its way.
SENATOR VEST'S EULOGY ON THE DOG.
"Gentlemen of the Jury: The best friend a man has in this world may turn
against him and become his enemy. His son and daughter that he has
reared with loving care may become ungrateful. Those who are nearest and
dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name,
may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has he may
lose. It flies away from him when he may need it most. Man's reputation
may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who
are prone to fall on their knees and do us honor when success is with us
may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its
cloud upon our head. The one absolutely unselfish friend a man may have
in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that
never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is the dog.
"Gentlemen of the jury, A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and
poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground,
when the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may
be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to
offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounter with the
roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if
he were a prince.
"When all other friends desert, he remains, when riches take wings and
reputation falls to pieces he is as constant in his love as the sun in
its journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an
outcast into the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks
no higher privilege than that of accompanying him, to guard him against
danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all
comes and death takes his master in its embrace and his body is laid
away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their
way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head
between his paws and his eyes sad, but open in alert watchfulness,
faithful and true even to death."
HEALTH AND BEAUTY
WOULD YOU BE BEAUTIFUL?
In womanly beauty the excellences expected and looked for are faultless
symmetry of form and feature and a complexion varying in hue as the mind
is affected by internal emotion, but with an expression of purity,
gentleness, sensibility, refinement and intelligence.
Moore, the poet, has given expression to his ideal of beauty in the
following lines:
"This was not the beauty--Oh, nothing like this,
That to young Nourmahal gave such magic bliss;
But that loveliness, ever in motion, which plays
Like the light upon autumn's shadowy days.
"Now here and now there, giving warmth as it flies
From the lips to the cheek, from the cheek to the eyes;
Now melting in mist, and now breaking in gleams
Like the glimpses a saint has of heavenly dreams."
Wordsworth expressed himself in the following lines:
"He was among the prime in worth,
An object beauteous to behold;
Well born, well bred; I sent him forth
Ingenuous, innocent, and bold."
Perhaps you ask how you can attain beauty if you do not possess it; or,
if you have some of its qualities, how you may get those you are
lacking. If you will practice the following rules you will grow more and
more beautiful in the eyes of others, even if age does bring gray hair
and a wrinkled skin:
First.--Cleanliness is next to godliness. Practice it in every feature
of your daily life.
Second.--Have some purpose to achieve and steadfastly work to attain it.
Third--Cultivate self-discipline; be master of your passions, under all
circumstances.
Fourth.--Study to know the laws of life that yield harmony and good
health and obey them. Look on the bright side of life always.
Fifth.--Avoid intemperance in all things.
Sixth.--Cultivate every mental and bodily quality that will make you
firm in goodness, strong and physically able to be useful to your kind,
generous and broad-minded, self-sacrificing, and you will daily and
hourly be lovely and grow into the beautiful.
CARE OF THE SCALP AND HAIR.
Beautiful hair, beautiful skin and a beautiful form are the three graces
which are the birthright of every woman, but which, through lack of good
judgment and common sense, or through thoughtlessness on the part of
mothers of growing children, comparatively few possess.
Beautiful hair is one of nature's greatest gifts, and yet we never seem
to appreciate it until there is danger of losing it, or until it becomes
faded and lusterless because we have not used the right means for
preserving it.
The beauty and continuance of the hair depend upon its proper
nourishment, gained by the circulation of blood through the scalp, and
this must be maintained to keep the hair in good condition.
The structure of the hair is very beautiful, and each hair is contained
in a delicate sheath which fits into a slight depression in the skin
called the follicle, and around the base of the hair nature has provided
glands to secrete oily matter, the purpose of which is to keep the hair
glossy.
In early maturity the hair reaches the state of greatest beauty, and at
this time the greatest care should be given it, feeding and nourishing
it as we would a plant--giving it plenty of air and sunlight, carefully
shampooing at least once in ten days. Massage the scalp to keep it loose
and flexible. Use electricity, a good tonic, and occasionally singe the
split ends.
If this process is commenced at the right time, the result will be fewer
cases of baldness in men and thin, poor hair in women.
The hair should also be worn loosely, forming a soft frame for the face,
which is always more becoming than tightly drawn hair. Many women drag
their hair out by the roots by tying back too firmly.
CARE OF THE SKIN.
A beautiful skin is smooth, soft and clear; the color varies in
different individuals. In perfect health it is moist and with the
delicate shading of a flower--climate, hair and eyes, of course,
determining the color, and the continued beauty of it depending upon
pure blood, fresh air and sunlight, also perfect cleanliness and care.
The pores should always be kept free from obstruction and extremes of
heat and cold avoided as much as possible. In health, the care of the
skin is a simple matter, massage being a great factor, assisted always
by the use of pure creams. A good cleansing cream is a great necessity,
as it enters the pores and frees them from dirt, leaving the skin soft
and pliable, in which condition it is ready to absorb the skin food when
the finger massage is given, making it possible for the gentle electric
current to force the ointment into the deeper layers of the skin, thus
effecting the removal of moth patches, tan, freckles and other
discolorations and imperfections. The vibratory massage should follow,
the purpose of which is to stimulate the tissues, throwing off worn-out
particles and increasing the circulation of the blood by giving proper
exercise to the facial muscles, thereby restoring and preserving the
color and contour, making the skin beautiful, clear, eradicating and
preventing wrinkles.
The use of a pure face powder is absolutely necessary. Best results are
obtained by using a blended powder, as the skin tint is thus assured.
TO DEVELOP THE BUST.
A beautiful bust is the desire and admiration of every woman. If nature
has not been kind in this respect, any woman can develop a beautiful
bust by exercise, bathing and gentle massage with a good bust ointment
or skin food.
Electric massage is very beneficial, and if properly given, brings quick
and sure results.
Swimming and deep breathing are great aids.
CARE OF THE HANDS.
A study of the hand is very interesting, and if mothers understood more
of its beautiful construction many of the little accidents which result
in deformed finger nails could be avoided. Mothers should attend most
carefully to the early cultivation of their children's finger nails, as
the habit of biting them is so easily formed and is sure to permanently
destroy their beauty.
A perfect hand is rounded and plump, soft, white and dimpled, with
tapering finger tips and filbert-shaped nails, snowing the little
half-moon.
It is possible for any woman to have such a hand if she is willing to
take time once a week to have the nails treated and to give them a
little personal attention each day. Great care should be taken in
washing the hands. A mild soap should be used, and particular attention
paid to the thorough drying of them, after which a good cuticle cream
should be applied and well rubbed in. The same cream may be used to
loosen the cuticle at the base of the nail, when it can be gently pushed
back, thus keeping the half-moon exposed. An orange-wood stick should
always be used to clean the nails.
Massaging the hands at least once a month aids wonderfully in making
them symmetrical and keeping the joints flexible and the skin free from
dark spots and wrinkles.
INFANT FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT.
It is of prime importance in feeding an infant to do this at regular
intervals, since during the first three months of its life the feeding
habits of the child should be established, and if care be used in this
regard the child will wake of its own accord at the proper time. The
last meal at night should be at 11 p. m., and if the child is healthy
and will sleep it need not be fed until 3 to 5 a. m. the following
morning. In both breast and artificial feeding the above applies, and
the same method should be employed; namely, the child should be held in
the arms during the meal, which should last from ten to fifteen minutes.
Both in breast and artificial feeding it is possible to overfeed the
child. Many infants are systematically overfed. The young mother should
understand how small an infant's stomach is. At birth it will hold a
little more than an ounce of fluid, or two tablespoonfuls, and at the
end of two months only three ounces. If, therefore, the mother persists
in trying to give the child four ounces of food, the child will suffer
from an excess. Many children during the first few mouths of life bring
up their food, and the mother fears that there is some inherited
tendency to weak digestion. It is wrong to feed a child simply because
it cries, as very frequently it is not a cry of hunger, but one caused
by indigestion from overfeeding.
If the child is being fed with the bottle it is important that the food
be given at a temperature of 100 deg. F., or as nearly that as possible;
never over; and if the child be fed out of doors in its carriage it is
well to have a flannel bag of some kind to slip over the bottle to keep
it at the same temperature until the meal is finished. Many cases of
colic are caused by inattention to this point.
It is a common mistake that when a child cries it needs additional food.
There are many cases where a little drink of water is the prime need of
the child, and great care should be taken that this is heated to the
proper temperature, and especially that no water be given to the child
except that which has been boiled. A few teaspoonfuls should be given to
the child, therefore, several times a day, but aside from that he should
have nothing but his regular food until he is at least a year old. For
the same reason, therefore, if a child be fed by the bottle, the water
used in preparing the food should have been previously boiled, and care
should be exercised not to expose the food to the air during or after
its preparation. It should be remembered that the food of a child must
be nutritious, and that in this food, especially when at the proper
temperature for the infant, bacteria from the air will flourish
wonderfully fast, and therefore the food should not be exposed to
possible contamination.
It is of very great importance that the feeding-bottles be always clean
and sweet. It is an advantage to have several bottles on hand, and also
two or three brushes for cleaning. Keep a special vessel, with water in
which there is a little bicarbonate of soda, so that the moment the
bottle is used it may be thoroughly washed and kept in the water. Do not
use a nipple with a rubber tube, but the short, black rubber nipples,
which fit over the mouth of the bottle. Do not enlarge the hole in the
nipple, so as to make it too easy for the baby to draw its food,
otherwise the food being taken so rapidly into the stomach will often
cause pain or vomiting. In washing the nipples turn them inside out and
see that they are as thoroughly cleaned as possible, and keep them for
use in a bottle filled with boiled water with a pinch of boric acid
added.
The First Nursing.
It is very important that the child should be put to the breast
immediately after it is washed. This is very necessary, both for the
mother and the child, and prevents subsequent troubles. The fluid
contained in the breast is at this stage called colostrum, and is
intended by Nature to act upon the child as a laxative. This first
nursing stimulates the secretion of the milk and causes uterine
contraction, which is very much needed at this time. It is well to wash
the infant's mouth out with sterilized water every time it feeds. For
this purpose use clean water which has been boiled and allowed to cool,
or a solution of boric acid in boiled water--5 grains to the ounce of
water.
Infants, as a rule, should be bathed once a day, but never immediately
after being nursed or fed. In very warm weather a child may be sponged
in the evening as well as in the morning. The water for the bath of a
young baby should be warm, and the temperature can be judged by testing
it with the elbow, which is more sensitive than the hand. Lay a small
blanket on the lap, cover the child with a flannel and sponge it under
the clothes. This prevents it from taking cold from exposure, The room
should not be cooler than 68 deg. F., and the door must be kept closed
to avoid drafts. Use only pure white soap, and a soft cloth is better
than a sponge. The body should be carefully dried and lightly powdered
to absorb any moisture that may remain.
THE NAMES OF THE MONTHS.
THE DERIVATIONS OF THE NAMES OF THE MONTHS.
January.--The Roman god Janus presided over the beginning of everything;
hence the first month of the year was called after him.
February.--The Roman festival Februs was held on the 15th day of this
month, in honor of Lupercus, the god of fertility.
March--Named from the Roman god of war, Mars.
April.--Latin, Aprilis, probably derived from aperire, to open; because
spring generally begins, and the buds open in this month.
May.--Lat. Maius, probably derived from Maia, a feminine divinity
worshiped at Rome on the first day of this month.
June.--Juno, a Roman divinity worshiped as the Queen of Heaven.
July (Julius)--Julius Caesar was born in this month.
August.--Named by the Emperor Augustus Caesar, B. C. 30, after himself,
as he regarded it as a fortunate month, being that in which he had
gained several victories.
September (septem, or 7).--September was the seventh month in the old
Roman calendar.
October (octo, or 8).--Eighth month of the old Roman year.
November (novem, or 9).-November was the ninth month in the old Roman
year.
December (decem, or 10).--December was the tenth month of the early
Roman year. About the 21st of this month the sun enters the Tropic of
Capricorn, and forms the winter solstice.
DAYS OF THE WEEK.
Sunday, (Saxon) Sunnandaed, day of the sun,
Monday, (German) Montag, day or the moon.
Tuesday, (Anglo-Saxon) Tiwesdaeg, from Tiw, the god of war.
Wednesday, (Anglo-Saxon) Wodnesdaeg, from Odin, the god of storms.
Thursday, (Danish) Thor, the god of thunder.
Friday, (Saxon) Frigedaeg, day of Freya, goddess of marriage.
Saturday, the day of Saturn, the god of time.
The names of the seven days of the week originated with the Egyptian
astronomers. They gave them the names of the sun, moon, and five
planets, viz.: Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.
WHAT HOUSEKEEPERS SHOULD REMEMBER.
That cold rain water and soap will remove machine grease from washable
fabrics.
That fish may be scaled much easier by first dipping them into boiling
water for a minute.
That fresh meat beginning to sour will sweeten if placed outdoors in the
cool air over night.
That milk which has changed may be sweetened or rendered fit for use
again by stirring in a little soda.
That a tablespoonful of turpentine boiled with your white clothes will
greatly aid the whitening process.
That kerosene will soften boots and shoes that have been hardened by
water and will render them as pliable as new.
That thoroughly wetting the hair once or twice with a solution of salt
and water will keep it from falling out.
That salt fish are quickest and best freshened by soaking in sour milk.
That salt will curdle new milk; hence, in preparing porridge, gravies,
etc., salt should not be added until the dish is prepared.
That one teaspoonful of ammonia to a teacup of water, applied with a
rag, will clean silver or gold jewelry perfectly.
That paint stains that are dry and old may be removed from cotton and
woolen goods with chloroform. It is a good plan to first cover the spot
with olive oil or butter.
That clear boiling water will remove tea stains. Pour the water through
the stain and thus prevent it spreading over the fabric.
That charcoal is recommended as an absorbent of gases in the milk-room
where foul gases are present. It should be freshly powdered and kept
there continually, especially in hot weather, when unwholesome odors are
most liable to infect the milk.
That applying kerosene with a rag, when you are about to put your stoves
away for the summer, will prevent them from rusting. Treat your farming
implements in the same way before you lay them aside for the fall.
That a teaspoonful of borax, put in the last water in which clothes are
rinsed, will whiten them surprisingly. Pound the borax so it will
dissolve easily. This is especially good to remove the yellow that time
gives to white garments that have been laid aside for two or three
years.
That a good agency for keeping the air of the cellar sweet and wholesome
is whitewash made of good white lime and water only. The addition of
glue or size, or anything of that kind, only furnishes organic matter to
speedily putrefy. The use of lime in whitewash is not only to give a
white color, but it greatly promotes the complete oxidation of effluvia
in the cellar air. Any vapors that contain combined nitrogen in the
unoxidized form contribute powerfully to the development of disease
germs.
CHARACTER AS SEEN IN FACES.
Thick lips indicate genius and conservatism. Large dilating nostrils are
a sign of poetic temperament and a sensitive nature. A long forehead
denotes liberality. Arched eyebrows, good ancestry and amiability. A
bold, projecting Roman nose indicates enterprise. Delicate nose, good
nature. A large nose, strength of will and character. An eye that looks
one cheerfully and frankly in the face shows honesty and faithfulness.
Lips slightly curved upward at the ends indicate a fine sense of humor.
Soft round cheeks denote gentleness and affection; dimples in the
cheeks, roguery; in the chin, one who falls easily in love. A broad chin
denotes firmness. Straight lips, firmly closed, resolution. Large ears
denote generosity.
BELL TIME ON SHIPBOARD.
Time on shipboard is divided into periods of four hours--from midnight
to midnight--and the lapse of every half hour is marked by one or more
strokes of the bell--from one stroke for the end of the first half hour
to eight strokes or, in nautical language, eight bells, for the end of
the fourth hour. Thus 12:30 a. m. is 1 bell; 1:00 a. m., 2 bells; 1:30
a. m., 3 bells; 2:00 a. m., 4 bells; 2:30 a. m., 5 bells; 3:00 a. m., 6
bells; 3:30 a. m., 7 bells; 4:00 a. m., 8 bells. Then 4:30 a. m. is
indicated by 1 bell; 5:00 a. m., 2 bells, etc.; 8 bells being sounded at
8:00 a. m., 12:00 m., 4:00 p. m., 8:00 p. m. and 12:00 p. m.
Four to 8:00 p. m. is divided into two "dog watches" called "first dog
watch" and "last dog watch," so as to change the watches daily;
otherwise starboard or port watch would be on deck the same hours day
after day.
QUEER ANALOGIES IN NATURE.
The cocoanut is, in many respects, like the human skull, although it
closely resembles the skull of the monkey. A sponge may be so held as to
remind one of the unfleshed face of the skeleton, and the meat of an
English walnut is almost the exact representation of the brain. Plums
and black cherries resemble the human eyes; almonds, and some other
nuts, resemble the different varieties of the human nose, and an opened
oyster and its shell are a perfect image of the human ear. The shape of
almost any man's body may be found in the various kinds of mammoth
pumpkins. The open hand may be discerned in the form assumed by
scrub-willows and growing celery. The German turnip and the eggplant
resemble the human heart. There are other striking resemblances between
human organs and certain vegetable forms, The forms of many mechanical
contrivances in common use may be traced back to the patterns furnished
by nature. Thus, the hog suggested the plow; the butterfly, the ordinary
hinge; the toadstool, the umbrella; the duck, the ship; the fungous
growth on trees, the bracket. Anyone desirous of proving the oneness of
the earthly system will find the resemblances in nature a most amusing
study.--Scientific American.
MODERN FABLES.
Luxury.
Of two cats, one, thinking to be very fine, hunted only humming birds,
and the other hunted only mice. The first had to hunt much longer than
the other, because humming birds were scarce, so that it spent nearly
all its life in getting food, while the other had little trouble to get
all it wanted. "How unfortunate it is," said the first cat, "that I have
formed my liking for what is so hard to get and is so little when I have
it."
Fastidiousness.
A fastidious ox would not drink while standing in the water with his
head turned down stream lest he should soil the water with his feet. But
once when drinking with his head turned up stream he saw a whole drove
of hogs washing in the water above him.
Attracting Attention.
A flea, which saw many people trying to get the attention of a king and
waiting long for that purpose, said: "Though I am but a little thing, I
will get his attention." So he jumped up the throne until he got on the
king's head. Here he received recognition from the king by a slap, and
when he boasted to a dog of his success, the latter said: "Some get
attention by their merit, others by their demerit. In making yourself a
nuisance you get recognition before the lords of the realm, but only as
a flea."
Gambling.
A monkey playing with a steel trap got his tail cut off. He went back
the next day to get his tail, when he got his foot cut off. "Now," he
said, "I will go back and get both my foot and my tail." He went back,
and the third time he got his head cut off, which ended his monkeying
with the trap.
Mugwumpery.
A mule on one side of a fence was discontented because he was not on the
other side. He finally jumped over, when he was equally discontented
because he was not back again. "Which side of the fence do you want to
be on?" asked a horse. "It does not matter," replied the mule, "provided
I am on the other side."
The Non-Partisan.
A dog, running about in an irregular way, was asked where he was going.
"I am not going anywhere," replied the dog, "but only running about to
learn where to go."
Partisanship.
The swans, wishing to drive the peacocks from a park, procured a law
against big feet. The peacocks retaliated by getting a counter law
against big necks. Soon one side could see nothing but ugly feet, and
the other nothing but long necks. At last they came to think peacocks
were all feet and swans all neck.
NUMBER OF MILES BY WATER FROM NEW YORK.
To Amsterdam, 3,510;
Bermudas, 660;
Bombay, 11,574;
Boston, 310;
Buenos Ayres, 7,110;
Calcutta, 12,425;
Canton, 13,900;
Cape Horn, 8,115;
Cape of Good Hope, 6,830;
Charleston, 750;
Columbia River, 15,965;
Constantinople, 5,140;
Dublin, 3,225;
Gibraltar, 3,300;
Halifax, 612;
Hamburg, 3,775;
Havana, 1,420;
Havre, 3,210;
Kingston, 1,640;
Lima, 11,310;
Liverpool, 3,210;
London, 3,375;
Madras, 11,850;
Naples, 4,330;
New Orleans, 2,045;
Panama, 2,358;
Pekin, 15,325;
Philadelphia, 240;
Quebec, 1,400;
Rio Janeiro, 3,840;
Sandwich Islands, 15,300;
San Francisco, 15,858;
St. Petersburg, 4,420;
Valparaiso, 9,750;
Washington, 400;
around the Globe, 25,000.
BUSINESS LAW IN BRIEF
It is a fraud to conceal a fraud.
Ignorance of the law excuses no one.
A contract made on a Sunday is void.
A contract made with a lunatic is void.
The act of one partner binds all the others.
An agreement without consideration is void.
The law compels no one to do impossibilities.
Agents are liable to their principals for errors.
Principals are liable for the acts of their agents.
A receipt for money paid is not legally conclusive.
Signatures made with a lead pencil are good in law.
The seal of a party to a written contract imports consideration.
A contract made with a minor cannot be enforced against him. A note made
by a minor is voidable.
Each individual in a partnership is liable for the whole amount of the
debts of the firm.
A note which does not state on its face that it bears interest, will
bear interest only after due.
A lease of land for a longer term than one year is void unless in
writing.
An indorser of a note is exempt from liability if notice of its dishonor
is not mailed or served within twenty-four hours of its non-payment.
In case of the death of the principal maker of a note, the holder is not
required to notify a surety that the note is not paid, before the
settlement of the maker's estate. Notes obtained by fraud, or made by an
intoxicated person, are not collectible.
If no time of payment is specified in a note it is payable on demand.
An indorser can avoid liability by writing "without recourse" beneath
his signature.
A check indorsed by the payee is evidence of payment in the drawer's
hands.
An outlawed debt is revived should the debtor make a partial payment.
If negotiable paper, pledged to a bank as security for the payment of a
loan or debt, falls due, and the bank fails to demand payment and have
it protested when dishonored, the bank is liable to the owner for the
full amount of the paper.
Want of consideration--a common defense interposed to the payment of
negotiable paper--is a good defense between the original parties to the
paper; but after it has been transferred before maturity to an innocent
holder for value it is not a defense.
Sometimes the holder of paper has the right to demand payment before
maturity; for instance, when a draft has been protested for
non-acceptance and the proper notices served, the holder may at once
proceed against the drawer and indorsers.
Negotiable paper, payable to bearer or indorser in blank, which has been
stolen or lost, cannot be collected by the thief or finder, but a holder
who receives it in good faith before maturity, for value, can hold it
against the owner's claims at the time it was lost.
If a note or draft is to be paid in the State where it is made, the
contract will be governed by the laws of that State. When negotiable
paper is payable in a State other than that in which it is made, the
laws of that State will govern it. Marriage contracts, if valid where
they are made, are valid everywhere. Contracts relating to personal
property are governed by the laws of the place where made, except those
relating to real estate, which are governed by the laws of the place
where the land is situated.
THE RIGHT OF DOWER.
Dower is one-third of the husband's estate, and in general cannot be
destroyed by the mere act of the husband. Hence, in the sale of real
estate by the husband, his wife must, with the husband, sign the
conveyance to make the title complete to the purchaser. In the absence
of such signature, the widow can claim full dower rights after the
husband's death. Creditors, also, seize the property subject to such
dower rights.
The husband in his will sometimes gives his wife property in lieu of
dowry. In this case, she may, after his death, elect to take either such
property or her dower; but she cannot take both. While the husband lives
the wife's right of dower in only inchoate; it cannot be enforced.
Should he sell the land to a stranger, she has no right of action or
remedy until his death.
In all cases the law of the State in which the land is situated governs
it, and, as in the case of heirship, full information must be sought for
in statute which is applicable.
MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.
Marriage may be entered into by any two persons, with the following
exceptions: Idiots, lunatics, persons of unsound mind, persons related
by blood or affinity within certain degrees prohibited by law, infants
under the age of consent, which varies in the different States, and all
persons already married and not legally divorced.
The causes for which a divorce may be obtained vary greatly in the
different States. In South Carolina only fraud and force are recognized
as invalidating the marriage tie, this State having no divorce law. In
the District of Columbia and all the other States with the exception of
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia, cruelty is a statutory
cause, and desertion in all but New York. In most of the States neglect
is also recognized as a valid cause. Imprisonment for crime is a cause
in all except Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.
Physical inability is a cause in all the States except California,
Connecticut, Idaho, North Dakota and Texas. Intemperance, in all but
Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakotah, Rhode Island,
Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia. The time of residence required to
secure a divorce varies from 6 months in Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada and
Texas to 3 to 5 years in Massachusetts. In most States it is one year.
Remarriage is permitted in all the States having divorce laws except
Georgia, and alimony is also provided for in all these States.
RIGHTS OF MARRIED WOMEN.
Any and all property which a woman owns at her marriage, together with
rents, issues and profits thereof, and the property which comes to her
by descent, devise, bequest, gift or grant, or which she acquires by her
trade, business, labor, or services performed on her separate account,
shall, notwithstanding her marriage, remain her sole and separate
property, and may be used, collected and invested by her in her own
name, and shall not be subject to the interference or control of her
husband, or be liable for his debts, unless for such debts as may have
been contracted for the support of herself or children by her as his
agent.
A married woman may likewise bargain, sell, assign, transfer and convey
such property, and enter into contracts regarding the same on her
separate trade, labor or business with the like effect as if she were
unmarried. Her husband, however, is not liable for such contracts, and
they do not render him or his property in any way liable therefor. She
may also sue and be sued in all matters having relation to her sale and
separate property in the same manner as if she were sole.
In the following cases a married woman's contract may be enforced
against her and her separate estate: 1. When the contract is created in
or respecting the carrying on of the trade or business of the wife. 2.
When it relates to or is made for the sole benefit of her sole or
separate estate. 3. When the intention to charge the separate estate is
expressed in the contract creating the liability.
When a husband receives a principal sum of money belonging to his wife,
the law presumes he receives it for her use, and he must account for it,
or expend it on her account by her authority or direction, or that she
gave it to him as a gift. If he receives interest or income and spends
it with her knowledge and without objection, a gift will be presumed
from acquiescence.
Money received by a husband from his wife and expended by him, under her
direction, on his land, in improving the home of the family, is a gift,
and cannot be recovered by the wife, or reclaimed, or an account
demanded.
An appropriation by a wife, herself, of her separate property to the use
and benefit of her husband, in the absence of all agreement to repay, or
any circumstances from which such an agreement can be inferred, will not
create the relation of debtor and creditor, nor render the husband
liable to account.
Though no words of gift be spoken, a gift by a wife to her husband may
be shown by the very nature of the transaction, or appear from the
attending circumstances.
A wife who causelessly deserts her husband is not entitled to the aid of
a court of equity in getting possession of such chattels as she has
contributed to the furnishing and adornment of her husband's house. Her
legal title remains, and she could convey her interest to a third party
by sale, and said party would have a good title, unless her husband
should prove a gift.
Wife's property is not liable to a lien of a sub-contractor for
materials furnished to the husband for the erection of a building
thereon, where it is not shown that the wife was notified of the
intention to furnish the materials, or a settlement made with the
contractor and given to the wife, her agent or trustee.
The common law of the United States has some curious provisions
regarding the rights of married women, though in all the States there
are statutory provisions essentially modifying this law. As it now
stands the husband is responsible for necessaries supplied to the wife
even should he not fail to supply them himself, and is held liable if he
turn her from his house, or otherwise separates himself from her without
good cause. He is not held liable if the wife deserts him, or if he
turns her away for good cause. If she leaves him through good cause,
then he is liable. If a man lives with a woman as his wife, and so
represents her, even though this representation is made to one who knows
she is not, he is liable the same way as if she were his wife.
THE LAW OF FINDING.