Bibliophagist

Sep
21st

Mon

“The People’s Theatre.”

Across the room, and in front of the bar, stands a novel gambling-instrument. It is a small brass cannon, from which balls are projected, probably by a spring, and entering a curtained aperture a few feet distant, descend by an inclined plane, on which stand small wooden pins. Ten tickets are given out, say at three cents each. The holder representing the ball that upsets the largest number of pins, wins twenty cents—the balance of the stakes, one third of the whole, going into the pocket of the proprietor. This machine was surrounded by as many lads as could see it, and the betting was as constant as the machine could be made to work. The spirit of the gambling-hells at Homberg and Baden-Baden was in full play in these young scape-graces, and the foundations laying of desperadoes—and this on the Sabbath!

— The Sunday Liquor Traffic … Document No. V. of the New-York Sabbath Committee (New York, 1859).

Sep
19th

Sat

The Kawgooshkawnick Antiquarian Society may wish to take note.

The demise of an erstwhile village on Governors Island. Further coverage here.

Updated with a lead from Laura Fisher, F.K.A.S., pointing to excellent photos and an account of a visit to the site.

Sep
18th

Fri

Out behind the book shop on a September morning.

Sep
17th

Thu

At what point in American culture did recreation become an excuse for casting off genteel attire?

Sep
15th

Tue

National Punctuation Day bake-off.

We plan to make a whole bunch of apostrophe cakes and then throw over half of them away as unnecessary.

BACKGROUND: The vertical strabismus manifested by Abraham Lincoln has been noted. This article reviews the historical findings and provides a specific diagnosis.

— Goldstein JH, Department of Ophthalmology, State University of New York, Brooklyn, USA
(This portrait a detail from a cabinet card studio portrait of a couple taken in Lake Odessa, Mich.)

BACKGROUND: The vertical strabismus manifested by Abraham Lincoln has been noted. This article reviews the historical findings and provides a specific diagnosis.

— Goldstein JH, Department of Ophthalmology, State University of New York, Brooklyn, USA

(This portrait a detail from a cabinet card studio portrait of a couple taken in Lake Odessa, Mich.)

Sep
14th

Mon

Further proof that our trade has fallen from its glorious estate.

Not only are all the good books gone (a hoary chestnut oft voiced by the croaking old-timers) but new evidence tends to suggest that the optimal means of transporting those books has also disappeared from use.

An ad from a ca. 1899 cook book jointly offered by the Ladies’ Auxiliary to the Order of Railway Conductors and the Order of the Eastern Star (a gender-inclusive Masonic order).

Sep
11th

Fri

“But it may be asked, what are the evils which accrue from dirty houses, &c? I answer, 1st. If a gentleman or lady visit you, they have no appetite to eat or drink in your houses; and what are your feelings when you are certain of your cause? 2. The can have no satisfaction in your beds, that smell so offensive, and are so infested with hungry night walkers, which thirst for human blood. 3d. The very disagreeableness of the air causes them to wish to make their escape, lest the should be seized with putrid or malignant fevers, which might terminate in death.”

Lorenzo Dow, Reflections on Matrimony.

“But it may be asked, what are the evils which accrue from dirty houses, &c? I answer, 1st. If a gentleman or lady visit you, they have no appetite to eat or drink in your houses; and what are your feelings when you are certain of your cause? 2. The can have no satisfaction in your beds, that smell so offensive, and are so infested with hungry night walkers, which thirst for human blood. 3d. The very disagreeableness of the air causes them to wish to make their escape, lest the should be seized with putrid or malignant fevers, which might terminate in death.”

Lorenzo Dow, Reflections on Matrimony.