Bassetts Scrap Book, Vol 3, No 1
Articles in this issue
- p. 4
An editorial announcing the Scrap Book's new compact format for Volume 3 — smaller and fatter, easier to slip in a pocket — while assuring readers that the content and the man behind the pen remain unchanged.
- p. 5
A poem by Frank L. Stanton describing the first intimation of spring heard in the sparrows chattering under the eaves, calling on spring to return with birds and blossoms and light that wraps God's love around the world.
- p. 6
A comic anecdote of a coachman who, when told his horse died suddenly on arrival, replies that the horse actually died two miles back at the top of the hill, but he wasn't going to let him down before reaching the regular stopping place.
- p. 7
An extract from a 1650 London circular promoting the new drink coffee as a medical cure for dropsy, gout, scurvy, running humours, and sore eyes, representing one of its earliest appearances in British public life.
- p. 7
A Scottish dialect poem in which a household calls in vain for young Mary to come and make the tea, while she slips off through the bracken to meet a boy who is whistling for her — youth and romance triumphant over domestic duty.
- p. 4
A curiosity about a travelling businessman who wore a pair of spectacles during sleep on night trains to block out light, and the stranger-than-fiction methods some people devise to overcome insomnia.
- p. 4
A brief satirical note comparing Italy, Britain, and Germany's request that America collect Venezuelan debts to the fable of the monkey using the cat's paw to pull chestnuts out of the fire.