Bassetts Scrap Book, Vol 4, No 1
Articles in this issue
- p. 2
A poem by Strickland W. Gillilan praising the man with few friends — tactless, blunt, and poorly understood — arguing that such a man often conceals depths of worth that make the popular man's crowd of admirers seem worthless by comparison.
- p. 1
A March 1906 miscellany of quips noting that a new magazine has borrowed the Scrap Book's name ('imitation is the sincerest flattery'), that saints are now so rare we no longer miss them, and that pretty women are best seen in plain dress.
- p. 3
A botanical description of the authentic Irish shamrock — a tiny indigenous clover trailing low in meadow grass, far smaller than anything grown in America — tracing its name to the Arabic word 'shamrakh' meaning trefoil.
- p. 4
A poem meditating on the irony of the simple life: if money grew on trees and bills were never due it would indeed be simple, but nature insists that men must toil for her bounty, and fate makes life necessarily complex.
- p. 4
A historical essay arguing that the oldest trade routes were opened for salt traffic, that salt forced humans to settle near sources of supply and thus began maritime commerce, and that salt preservation of food made long voyages — and world exploration — possible.
- p. 7
An etymological note tracing the American 'johnny cake' to the frontier term 'journey cake' — a batter baked before a camp fire — itself from the French 'journée' meaning a day's travel from sunrise to sunset.
- p. 5
A mock-inspirational poem celebrating the joys of early rising while conceding that the morning air is equally fresh at nine as at five, the sun just as bright at noon as at eight, and any hour feels early to the naturally slothful.