Bassetts Scrap Book, Vol 2, No 6
Articles in this issue
- p. 2
A lighthearted poem celebrating the pleasure of walking out with Dolly on a summer's day, sheltered from the torrid sun under her silk parasol, as the perfect alternative to envying those who have gone out of town.
- p. 2
A physician's argument against food fussiness, citing cases of neurotic people who refuse to eat fat, claiming they dislike it, when fat is precisely the nutrient their bodies most need.
- p. 2
Three accounts of secretly conducted burials of historical figures — Alaric the Goth buried in the bed of a river, Attila the Hun in a triple coffin on a plain, and Hernando de Soto sunk in a midnight coffin at the bottom of the Mississippi.
- p. 5
A historical account tracing the buckboard wagon to Dr. Buck, a military storekeeper who solved the problem of wagons overturning on rough Tennessee roads in the 1820s by placing long boards directly on the axles.
- p. 3
A comic anecdote of a chairman at a Scottish agricultural dinner whose toast to Queen Victoria slides imperceptibly into a rhapsody about his prize cow, much to the amusement of the assembled company.
- p. 4
A note on the grammatical ambiguity of the verbs 'rent' and 'marry', both of which can apply equally to the person giving or the person receiving in a transaction, making statements involving them impossible to interpret without context.
- p. 5
A short prose poem by William Henry Channing describing a philosophy of quiet, graceful living: to seek elegance rather than luxury, to study hard, act frankly, and let the spiritual grow unconsciously through the common life.