Bassetts Scrap Book, Vol 2, No 8
Articles in this issue
- p. 1
A comic Irish poem in which a suitor woos Nora entirely through familiar proverbs — 'every Jack has his Jill', 'love like smoke can't hid', 'silence gives consent' — and wins her agreement to marry him.
- p. 2
An October editorial noting the great anniversaries of the month including the Battle of Agincourt, Columbus Day, the Chicago Fire, and Hallowe'en, while praising October's golden days and luminous hazel light.
- p. 2
A physiological note pointing out that while the average breath exchanges only 20 cubic inches of air, deep breathing can theoretically increase this to 140 cubic inches — yet few people ever double their lung capacity.
- p. 6
A mathematical puzzle challenging readers to pick up 100 stones placed a yard apart and carry them one by one to a basket in under an hour, demonstrating through calculation that it would require running at nearly six miles an hour and is practically impossible.
- p. 6
A medical anecdote about a mother whose bow-legged little boy was completely cured by riding a velocipede, combining pleasure with treatment in what the editor calls a pleasant, inexpensive remedy worth trying.
- p. 4
Edward Everett Hale's argument that military preparedness is a false economy because every weapon used in 1865 was obsolete by 1898, and the current generation's battleship will be junk within thirty-five years.
- p. 3
A long anonymous poem from the Edinburgh Guardian depicting a golden heaven whose chorus of 'Evermore' greets the weary slave, the bereaved mother, and the desolate wanderer equally with the promise of freedom and reunion.