Monday, February 26, 2007

The Civil War changed funeral customs

The exhibit displays the Account Book of Lyman Hoyt, General Household Merchandise and Undertaking.
In urban communities at the time of the Civil War, customs and requirements regarding removal, preparation, and burial of the dead began to change. Formerly, funerals were handled by family, close friends, or fraternal associates. Advances in embalming utilizing formaldehyde and rail transportation facilitated the shipment of both mortuary supplies and bodies. The significant rise in deaths due to disease and war casualties expedited the emergence of a profession known as undertakers. Most proprietors of these establishments combined undertaking with selling of household goods, furniture, china, upholstery, and chair rentals.
Included in the entries of the account book is one dated 4 November 1863, made out to Mrs. Frederick Peck. These are the funerary service expenses for her son Theodore H. Peck. He served as a private in Company A, 28th Regiment Connecticut volunteers. Stricken with fever during the campaign on the Mississippi River, he somehow managed to return home. After lingering illness he died at the age of twenty-seven years. Thus it obliged his widowed mother to make the arrangements.
Editor's Note: from Lyman Hoyt's Son & Co. as of 1892 it seems that Lyman Hoytwas in the undertaking business as early as 1837.
© Stamford Historical Society

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Misc Story Notes

ODB Dec. 18 devotion, Jan 11 07 Jan 17, Jan 18 2007-02-14
Heaven is the heart’s true home.
When my traveling days are over . . .
God uses illness to draw you closer to Him.
One day, when your Lord comes for you, He will heal all your cancer.
You may forget God, but He will never forget you.
Life expectancy in 1901 was 49 years.
The biggest thing to improve life expectancy was clean water. Chlorine as a disinfectant. Waterborne diseases included cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery. Could wipe out entire communities. (the rule of 3 . . .)
Sodium bicarbonate when heated gives off CO2 which makes cakes and cookies rise during baking.
When we free ourselves from all the things that encumber us, we can begin to build a relationship based on being partners and not a relationship based on dominance or fear.
In 1901 the life expectancy was 49 years. The biggest thing to improve the life expectancy was clean water. Chlorine as a disinfectant was first used in ___________. Waterborne diseases include cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery. They could wipe out entire communities.
“Whenever science makes a discovery, the devil grabs it while the angels are debating the best way to use it.” -- Alan Valentine.
You win a heart by outshining the competition, not by being jealous.
When people are told something they don’t want to know, they often resent the messenger.
Depression is anger turned inward.
Dead Ringer—The definition of ringer, from which this phrase comes, is “substituted racehorse.” Unscrupulous racehorse owners have a fast horse and a slow horse that are nearly identical in appearance. They run the slow horse until the betting odds reached the desired level, then they substitute the ringer, who can run much faster. Dead in this case means abrupt or exact, like in dead stop, or dead shot.
Dead Ringer—Gangsters with contracts on their lives might hire a person who looked similar to them, a ringer, to appear in a public places. The lookalike would often be convincing enough to fool the contracted killers, you can guess the part about dead.
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. ~ Cicero
Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
About 1888, the Office Specialty Manufacturing Co. introduced its Rapid Roller Damp-Leaf Copier which used pressure supplied by rollers to copy letters onto a roll of dampened paper. After copies were pressed onto the paper, the paper entered the cabinet under the copier, where it dried on a large roller. Copies could be made more quickly with a roller copier than with a letter copying press. Roller copiers also competed with carbon paper. A roller copier could make a half dozen copies of a typewritten letter if the letter was run through the copier several times.

HOW TO WRITE GOOD IN 50 WORDS OR LESS by Scott Nicholson

HOW TO WRITE GOOD IN 50 WORDS OR LESS
By Scott Nicholson
Maybe you've been wanting someone to learn you how to write good. Don't listen to all those crusty old salts whose brains are addled by the constant clack of falling typewriter keys. They will tell you to write and rewrite and then repeat as needed for at least ten years. Well, who's got time for that? There are a lot of shortcuts to the bestseller list. Some people will try to sell you books on the subject. But the best things in life are free, and worth what you pay for them. Let me learn you how.
Start by throwing away the rules of thumb. Every person who ever facilitated a writing workshop has echoed the mantra, "Write what you know." That is the worst piece of advice possible in a field where any advice is dubious except mine. I say, write what you DON'T know.
Let's face it. If you're spending two to four hours a day at your word processor, you can't have much of a life to share with you readers. Plus, if your highway of life is like mine, it's pretty boring to everyone but the person in the driver's seat. So the best angle is to lie like the devil and his Hollywood agents.
Only by repeating the lies of others can you become a big-time writer. Just go down to the supermarket and look at the paperback rack. Read the jacket copy. If you find a single original work of fiction on the top shelf, let me know so that I can be the third person to borrow the plot.
You'll have to steal in other areas as well. There's no copyright on stock characters, whether they be spies, glamorous heiresses, or well-meaning lawyers who have a penchant for being swept into widespread conspiracies. Lasso yourself one of them leather-faced hombres in the white hats for your western. Team a wise-cracking dweeb with a tough dame who looks good in suits and have them hunt aliens for the FBI. And there's always that tried-and-true favorite, the ex-cop who finds himself drawn into a perplexing case after bumping into an old love interest who just happens to be a forensic psychologist.
So much for ideas. Now for the nuts and bolts. The last sentence in the preceding paragraph is a run-on sentence. That means you just keep throwing words out there in no order whatsoever but if you're lucky they will fill up the page and maybe the next one and before you know it, you've thrown in a punctuation mark which gives you an excuse to stretch the sentence out a wee bit longer as Hemingway rolls over in his grave until finally you are reluctantly forced to stop and figure out what you just said. Because somewhere, sometime, some editor is going to ask for a rewrite.
My next advice: never rewrite. What the heck do editors know about writing, anyway? They're readers, for the most part. And if you think of all the slush that has flooded their mailboxes, you know their reading experiences haven't always been growth-inspiring. Multiply your own rejections by those of the 100,000 or so other writers, and you'll see why the editor is a gibbering imbecile who long ago lost all grasp of coherent English. In fact, she would quit right now, except she has a three o'clock appointment with her marketing department to explain why publishing a self-help book by Dr. Kevorkian was not an error in editorial judgment.
(I'm disorganizing this article in a precisely illogical order so that some editor's blood pressure will rise ever so slightly. And I know you're still reading, Ms./Mr. Editor, because I am a writer of about 400 words so far, and you probably have a meager 30 years' worth of publishing experience. Plus, because I am a writer, my time is more valuable than yours.)
Another nut (or nougat, if you prefer): Extend those metaphors. This gives the same effect as the run-on sentence. If you have feinted, parried, and thrust with your reader over the course of many pages, you have succeeded in sinking the foil as if it were a hook. You may be out standing in your field of rye. A man may try to catch a fish. With any luck, your words will be pondered over in literary circles. If it is confusing enough, your work may be anointed as "required reading," which promises steady sales at least throughout the tenure of the current crop of English professors. Astute writers will cleverly pre-anoint their own manuscripts until the pages are downright unctuous.
The mixed metaphor is also a useful weapon in making readers think you are a literary genius. Make your buxom heroine passionately pant like a locomotive in an elevator. Dare to let your steely-eyed detective exhale his cigarette smoke as if he were panting like a passionate heroine. Have your writer-protagonist drink like a preacher on shore leave while desperately decrying the stereotyping of both.
Don't you just feel yourself becoming a better writer as your steely eyes scan the page as if it were a horizon? Can't you just see your horizons expanding on out there, just like the unforgettable who's-it-face in LOST HORIZON? (Literary allusion is also a good device. It gives you all the anointment of famous literature with none of the messy bother of having to get out the oil.)
Now you're ready for the next bold step, as I walk you down the plank over the sea of clichés. A good cliché is worth its weight in return postage. Let your misunderstood monster nibble on bones of contention. A character's knock at death's door may be answered by a man named Death. No romance writer worth her salt will pass up an opportunity to have bosoms heaving and manhoods swelling at every turn of the hands of time.
But nothing wows 'em like style. Style is what separates Joe Bricklayer from W. Wallace Wordsmith. Don't spend years at the craft trying to develop a style. Good style is like good breeding: somebody has it, and it ain't you. The secret to style is PRETENDING like you have it. The best trick is to use all three or four of your names as a byline, and toss in a couple of gold-plated initials. If that fails, a juicy nom de plume is inexpensive and sometimes serves as an effective tax dodge.
Uh-oh. I see I've learned you how to write good already. And I ain't even done no double negatives nor dangled a participle out to the edge contemporaneously, or shown you how to have your character's flesh described as being the color of a flesh-colored crayon. Or how to make the gun so small in the criminal's large hand that it seems like a slightly smaller gun.
I know I promised you 50 words or less, but writing good is no piece of cake that you can also eat. Most editors pay by the word, anyway. So take this advice all the way to the bank. If the editor doesn't commit suicide before signing your check, that is.
"Wait a minute," I hear you say. "Is it really this simple? I can pretend just like you do, and call myself a writer?"I'm afraid so.
-Copyright 1998 by Scott Nicholson. Contact for reprint permission.

Writing How Tos - by Scott Nicholson

The Joy Of Telling Lies
By Scott Nicholson
If you are a new writer, or early in your career, you might feel that you have to produce highly-polished literary work, in which each metaphor drips with timeless truth. You may have been taught there's only one field worth seriously pursuing, and that is the angst-ridden type of modern fiction where you exorcise your demons and translate them into a universal experience. Perhaps you have heard that you are worthless as a writer unless your material is getting published in The New Yorker, or at least in the little publication produced by the English Department at the local university. This may be especially true if you take college writing classes or attend a certain brand of popular but expensive workshop.
All that may be fine, if that's what makes you happy. But don't turn your eyes and keyboard and heart away from other fields which are ripe with opportunity: those of speculative fiction. What I call "speculative" fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror) is usually called "genre" fiction by others, but to my mind every work can be forced into a genre. Indeed, a genre may well be nothing but the Twentieth-Century creation of publishers who needed marketing categories for their books.
My dictionary defines "speculative" as "giving a wide perspective or view; prying; inquisitive; curious." In other words, the kind of stuff that a lot of people are interested in reading. Several hundred people may read and drool over your work in that little literary magazine, but the magazine is more likely to end up as a blotter down at the coffee shop. Meanwhile, several hundred thousand people bought magazines that same month in order to visit Titan, look a ghost in the vacant eyes, or cavort with elves in a strange land.
For those readers who are pooh-poohing me and brushing speculative fiction off as kiddie stuff that a writer is supposed to outgrow, let me assure you that you can be just as literary with the unreal as you can with the real. I submit for your approval Ursula K. LeGuin and Edgar Allan Poe, whose sentences weep with craft and beauty. I dare any literary writer to "outwrite" Ray Bradbury.
"Oh, but those stories are all plot and no theme, and the plot is predictable, at that," go the nay-sayers. Allow me to point you toward Orson Scott Card and Arthur C. Clarke, who can speak entire volumes about the human condition in the space of a single book. If you want character, read a few paragraphs of Stephen King and see if you don't know those two-dimensional people.
"But I'll be pigeonholed," comes the now-smaller but still-uneasy chorus. "I'll never be able to write the Great American Novel if I'm cranking out commercial work." Shirley Jackson could (and did) write both humorous parenting guides and bone-chilling, haunting work that will resonate for centuries. William Faulkner survived "A Rose For Emily" just fine. Mark Twain didn't mind taking the devil's viewpoint.
"What's in it for me?" grumble the last few unconvinced, who are clinging to composition books and tattered copies of James Joyce decoder manuals. Well, (excuse me while I grin, because this is my favorite part) what's in it for you is money.
Collective gasps. A coffee mug shatters on the floor. Somewhere, an old master rolls over in a forgotten grave.
Money. That bane of all serious writers, that enemy of beauty and angst and poetics, oh my.
Yes, money. Don't get me wrong here. Any writing career hobbles forward on a long and painful road, and the odds are against you no matter the route you tread. I'm serious when I advise writers not to quit their day jobs, and I take my own advice to heart. Don't suffer for art to the point of starvation.
But the speculative fiction fields feature at least fifteen different magazines that pay a minimum professional rate, and probably a hundred more that offer a token payment of a penny a word. At any given time, a dozen different anthologies are in the works and in need of stories. Oh, and for those with patience and persistence, you might be glad to know that speculative fiction novels are purchased at a steady rate, and you usually don't need an agent to submit them for you.
Another benefit is that you don't have to follow the time-honored but dubious rule of "writing what you know." Most of us have not been abducted by aliens, poltergeisted, or forced to endure the blazing halitosis of a dragon. But each of us has dreamed, imagined, heard that magical phrase "Once upon a time." We all know how to lie, even if we profess not to practice that particular sin in our daily dealings.
When you sit down to write a speculative story, the keyboard or page is as wide as eternity. Paint the canvas as black as your worst nightmare, or be a little bold and go beyond that nebulous border. Instead of recalling the map of veins on your dead uncle's hand and reproducing it in painstaking exactitude, stick a sword in the old boy's hand and let him quest about for a chapter or two. Who cares if he was a stubborn cuss in real life? You now have permission to lie, and absolutely no one is looking over your shoulder (unless it's a horror story and the fellow's ghost is hanging around), so make him heroic enough to rival Sir Lancelot or Bilbo Baggins.
In case the evidence is not yet compelling enough, let me add that speculative fiction editors have a reputation for seeking out and nurturing new talent. They are hungry, and so is their audience, for fresh names, fresh ideas, and fresh product. They compete to get certain writers in their stables, and, believe it or not, there's always a shortage of people who are reliable, can write effectively, and have the stamina to keep churning out stories.
You will also be invited into some close-knit and welcoming communities. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Horror Writers Association, and Mystery Writers of America are glad to open up their ranks to new members. Various on-line newsgroups and bulletin boards help you keep in touch, pick up on market news, and watch for emerging trends. In this electronic age, you can learn of a market, send a submission via e-mail, and have your acceptance in the space of three days or less. If you submit to some of the many speculative fiction webzines that are burgeoning in cyberspace, you might even see your work published within hours of its acceptance.
So come and join us, the dreamers, the pretenders, the enemies of sleep. Tell us a lie, give us a person with an unbelievable problem, and don't be afraid to take us away from this familiar, everyday world. Make it up as you go along. You might be surprised where you wind up.
RESOURCES
An excellent place to start your journey into speculative fiction is to enter the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. There's no entry fee, and the only requirement is that you have three or fewer professional stories in print. With prizes ranging from $500 to $5,000, you may get a boost to your pocketbook as well. For contest rules, visit http://www.writersofthefuture.com/ or write for details at PO Box 1630, Los Angeles CA 90078.
Two market magazines give out sample copies. Speculations and Hellnotes, both distributed in electronic form, will each give you a no-cost look at what they offer. You can request Speculations at PMB 400, 111 West El Camino Real, Suite 109, Sunnyvale CA 94087-1057 or by sending an e-mail to kent@speculations.com. Jobs In Hell is geared toward horror writers, while Planet Pulp focuses on professional publishing information, such as interviews with agents and editors, rather than story markets.
Free on-line market listings and webzines are so numerous that you can spend weeks clicking through them. Some of my favorites are Spicy Green Iguana, Paula Fleming's List, and Ralan's Webstravaganza.
--copyright 2001. Originally published in Writer's Journal, March 2001. Contact for reprint permission.

Writing How Tos -- Writing Rules

TEN OR FEWER WRITING RULES
Or: Writing Mistakes That Can Be Avoided (Such As Passive Tense And Verbose Subtitles)
By Scott Nicholson
First, get out while you can.
Second, nobody knows more than anybody else.
Except me.
So I'm going to give you some rules to live by, some rules to write by. Some rules to break, if you find better ones.
Because nobody knows nothing, especially me.
Our rule of law shall be:
Clarity.
Say what you mean. Tell what happens, then what happens next. Tell it that way until the story ends, then stop.
Anytime you can say the same thing in fewer words, do it. In other words, fewer words is best.
Master punctuation. It's a shame that possessive "its" is so often saddled with the evil apostrophe. Simple rule of thumb: say "it is" or "it has" in your head anytime you write the apostrophed version.
Don't make any comma interruptions, unless necessary, but it’s (it is) often better to rewrite the sentence. The reader has a rough enough road without your tripping act.
Use the words "lithe" and "serpentine" as often as needed, which means once a lifetime.
By the fourth paragraph, establish character and conflict and engage at least three of the senses.
Never use the word "very," unless you're using it for a very special effect, unlike this example. Sometimes it can be used in conversation to identify a character who is "very boorish."
Don't think of paragraphs as those bulky, four-sentence things you used in term papers. Think of them as "idea blocks," whether the blocks take twelve sentences or three words.
Or a space.
Because every pause, every carriage return, every comma, every word matters. Especially every word.
Word is your currency.
Spend it wisely.
(Copyright 2003. Contact Scott for reprint permission)

How to write short stories

Don't Sweat The Short Stuff
By Scott Nicholson
Most writers are notorious procrastinators, and besides Kevin J. Anderson, Mary Higgins Clark, and Stephen King, many of them would rather be doing anything besides sitting at a computer and looking for truth, beauty, and elegant grammar. So how does your average writer overcome the invisible barriers that make "The End" seem like a faraway dream?
I’ve been fairly productive, though much of my output can be attributed to consistency rather than anything approaching genius. When I tackle a short story, I plunge in heart first and ride a rocket to the end. I’m not the only writer who believes a story should take only one or two sittings and a small handful of hours. But others who have been far more successful take a more steady approach to the story at hand, honing each detail until the product sparkles. It all depends on the individual writer, the degree of perfectionism, and the particular subject matter, but we all set our different courses by the same stars.
Ideas are the easiest pieces of the puzzle. At the annual Writers of the Future workshop, one of the exercises involves taking an ordinary object in the room and writing a story about it during the week. At the 1998 workshop, Amy Sterling Casil was assigned an Altoids breath mint box. Over two days, Casil wrote "Mad for the Mints," a novelette based around Mad King George, a talking horse, and aliens, all inspired by the advertising copy "by order of His Majesty in 1775." The workshop leader, Dave Wolverton, had tears of laughter rolling down his eyes when he read it, and said, "There’s no editor on Earth that would not buy this story."Casil’s novelette made the cover of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Because of her teaching commitments, Casil relies on bursts of high productivity for her fiction. She once wrote a 16,000 word novella in one sitting, live on the Internet as an "electronic storefront" project.
Mark McLaughlin is one of the most prolific short story writers in speculative fiction. He’s published hundreds of stories, in addition to writing poems and articles and tackling various editing tasks. He usually carries a pad with him and writes in longhand at a coffee shop, drawing inspiration from the activity around him.
Sometimes McLaughlin thinks up a funny title and then works backward, creating a story line to fit the name. Some examples include "Attack of the Fifty-Foot Prison Bitch" and a tale of ancient, eldritch rabbit gods, "The Hopper in the Hayfield." He also disproves the proverb of brevity being the sole of wit by employing a title like "Dead Cat Matches Wits with Ratnarokh, the Ultimate Sentient Super-Computer, on the Blood-Red Planet of the Porn-Bots."
"I do write regularly," McLaughlin said. "That’s important. And I let a story sit a few days before I send it out, so that I can come back to it and see if it needs any further editing. While I’m letting a story sit, I'll usually work on another story. Or two. Or three."
James Van Pelt also uses daily discipline to pile up the credits. Since his first story sale in 1991, he’s sold 46 stories to professional magazines and another 30 to semi-pro publications. Most of those have come in the last few years, along with numerous accolades and "Year’s Best" listings.
"Since Sept. 20, 1999, I have written at least 200 words a day without missing a day," Van Pelt said. "Two-hundred isn't a bunch, but never missing piles them up pretty quickly. Also, lots of days I do more than 200, but 200 is the bar I have to clear."Van Pelt usually works on one story at a time, but also has an "idea file" for which he jots notes. By the time he gets around to the next story, he has had time to think about it. Very rarely does he finish a story in one sitting. Most take a week or two and get sent through a critique group before hitting the mail.Michael Bracken may the ultimate role model for short story productivity. He’s published works in almost every genre, under a variety of pen names, in everything from "True Confession" magazines to mystery and science fiction publications. He’s written over 800 short pieces, four novels and four collections, and edited five anthologies. This versatility has helped him gain a realistic view of the publishing industry."Persistence is probably the single most important trait I have as a writer," Bracken said. "I keep manuscripts circulating until they sell, and some of them don't sell until years after they were written. There's no such thing as writer's block. If I'm working on a project and find myself stumped, I immediately switch gears and work on another project."Bracken usually has at least 30 different stories and a novel or two in progress, working on his writing career every day. He aims for the best-paying markets, but money isn’t the sole reason he’ll try a specific editor. He also explores overseas publications and is a promotional consultant. When he’s not at the keyboard, he’s doing a book signing, researching new story markets, or mailing out publicity materials. This year, he made the move to full-time freelance writing and editing.Other writers find ways to hang around the written word for a steady income even if they are not yet able to live off their story and novel sales. Van Pelt teaches college and high school English, Casil teaches writing for colleges and online workshops, and McLaughlin works in advertising, graphic design, art, and marketing, which are handy if not essential skills for the modern writer. I work as a newspaper reporter, where facts are the meat and potatoes but real human behavior proves itself to be an unfailingly unpredictable spice.Research is an important tool not only for adding veracity to a tale, but for spawning new story ideas. Casil revised her "Mad For The Mints" using period historical detail, and over the past few years has increasingly relied on research to produce accurate backgrounds and settings. Van Pelt has researched everything from the tunes that ice cream trucks play to what the world was like on Nov. 26, 1942. I once wrote two stories using the set of events from different viewpoints, based on personal accounts and court martial reports of prisoner mistreatment at the Civil War camp in Andersonville. One sold on its first submission and the next sold on its second submission, both to professional markets.Most prolific authors tend to have awe-inspiring stacks of rejection slips. A Van Pelt story was rejected 48 times before a pro magazine took it, and the story ended up getting an honorable mention in a "Year’s Best" anthology. Van Pelt carefully tracks all his submissions, but McLaughlin discards his rejection slips immediately, figuring there’s no point in dwelling on the negative. Casil said, "They pile up with other unfortunate mail and get thrown out periodically." My own pile measures in the hundreds, and one of my stories found a pro market on its 20th trip through the postal system.It’s easier to locate the right market or editor for a specific story after you’ve been around the block a little. McLaughlin now targets his stories to markets he thinks will fit, so he has a high percentage of acceptances. Bracken keeps all his rejection slips, but now sells most of what he writes, though not always on the first try. 2002 was the first year he received more acceptances than rejections. And it only took him 20 years to get there."What rejections help me do is improve my marketing skills," Bracken said. "If an editor provides a personal note or checks something on a checklist, it helps me learn what that editor likes and dislikes about my work. Sometimes I learn to submit a different type of story, sometimes I learn the market is completely inappropriate for my work, and sometimes all I learn is that an editor is overstocked and that I should wait a few months before sending another manuscript to that market."Van Pelt admits the process looks pretty simple to those who see only the long bibliography of accepted stories and not the daily acts of discipline. He added, "What you don't see is the hours hunched over the keyboard while my fingers do nothing and my forehead is as furrowed as a Kansas cornfield."My most successful stories have been written on automatic pilot, and I can’t recall any short story that has taken me longer than a week. Most are done in a single day, because the emotion is often more important than logic to me, and stories by their nature should be limited to a single conflict. I can’t say I’m a top example of the craft, but I have won a few awards and manage to get published fairly steadily. While I wouldn’t become an editor at gun point, Bracken’s experience as an editor has taught him even more appreciation of the craft, and he’s discovered a probable secret to long-term sanity in a business that offers no guarantees."I learned a long, long time ago that there are only two people I have to please with my writing: myself and one editor," Bracken said. "I have to like what I write well enough that I'm willing to spend money to mail it to someone else. And one editor has to like that manuscript well enough to devote part of her publication to my words. If I please anyone else in the process, it's pure gravy."Sure, we’ve all heard the story of how Ernest Hemingway rewrote the last line of a novel thirty-something times before he was satisfied, but I’d bet you the line he ended up using was remarkably similar to his first try. Besides, he blew his own brains out with a shotgun. So whether you get keyboard blisters from rapid-fire verbal regurgitation or prowl the dusty columns of a thesaurus seeking the perfect word, remember that the end goal is the same. Get it done, and get it out there.
(Originally appeared in Hellnotes, April 2004. Copyright 2004 by Scott Nicholson)

How to write -- another Scott Nicholson article

Nurture Your Inner Hack
By Scott Nicholson
Most aspiring writers, and even all those millions who are going to get around to being writers someday, have the idea that the Great American Novel is sleeping in their brains and all they need to do is sit down and type. Or maybe they’ll wait for voice recognition software to advance far enough that they can babble it out while they drive to New York to pick up their checks. Even Europeans and South Americans want to write the Great American Novel, because nobody has a better chance to win the Nobel Prize for Literature than a foreigner who writes a Great American Novel. Hollywood might even buy it, sight unseen, if enough people who haven’t read the book start talking about it.
The only fly in this ointment is all those maggots out there who could care less whether you win big literary prizes. For most readers, your being compared to Faulkner and Gunter Grass are actually turn-offs rather than selling points. As hard as it is to believe, not everybody analyzes the New York Times Book Review for hip clues about what to stick on the shelves. And the highbrow Fifth Avenue secret is not all that many people buy these intelligent books. The secret is now being exposed by BookScan, which reports the actual number of sales with the precision of a computer rather than with the exuberance of an in-house publicist.
What does this mean to you as a writer? Or, for those few of us who still crack a book now and then rather than leave it on the coffee table as a trendy conversation piece, what does it mean to you as a reader?
It means keeping it simple, stupid. Around the campfire, you have the advantage of no electricity, no satellite television, no Internet access, and usually an ice chest full of beer to help keep your audience’s attention, although you may have to roast a cell phone or two. You are also relaxed and spontaneous and can pour out your tale in a straightforward manner. “Here is what happened, and here is what happened next.” You don’t have time for any high-falutin tricks or your audience members will decide they’d rather take their chances with poison ivy in the dark, or go to their tents and play shadow games with flashlights.
It means you’d better learn how to tell a story. And you need to be a hack. I say “hack” with all due reverence, and I believe it is the highest literary ambition possible. The popular image of a hack is someone who grinds out cheap paperbacks every three months, writes in multiple genres, and borrows and steals from every cliched plot possible. To me, a hack is someone who is writing so freely and unself-consciously that the material is flowing from some deep inner fountain, a place where true beliefs and feelings dwell. Such a story will automatically have resonance if you have learned enough of the basic writing skills to communicate your soul.
In journalism, reporters are taught to get to the four W’s right away: who, what, when, where. That’s good advice for fiction as well. As you grow more sophisticated, you can sneak in some “why” here and there, but first you have to hook the reader. They won’t care what happens to your characters if they know nothing about them. Conversely, if your characters aren’t in the middle of doing something when the reader meets them, the reader may not stick around long enough to make an emotional investment. “When” and “where” should be revealed in tiny doses while the characters are engaged in the business of the plot.
Yes, the successful writer must do all of these things at the same time. The good news is, it’s the most natural form of storytelling. If you can avoid the grammatical bog of trying to wow English professors with your sentences, then you’re well on your way to getting the reader to turn one page and then the next. If you’re slamming a thesaurus over the reader’s head with every paragraph, a lot of your books will go in the recycling bin, no matter how heavily the publisher promotes them. Not that you shouldn’t occasionally challenge the reader, but most of us work plenty hard enough at our day jobs and the last thing we want is to sweat blood during our leisure time.
One high-profile literary novel got a lot of attention last year mostly due to the fact that the author was fairly young and fresh out of medical school. The book was of the sort that Robert Redford will probably adapt into a vapid movie. Out of curiosity, I read an excerpt that was posted online. The author used a strange third-person omniscient viewpoint that had little consistency.
n the first couple of paragraphs, the main character meets a secondary character and an entire paragraph is devoted to describing the secondary character’s appearance and dress, presumably through the main character’s eyes. Several paragraphs later, the secondary character is mentally describing the main character’s appearance and dress with hardly a speed bump to note the point-of-view transition. The author made much of the secondary character’s mustache, and for the next two pages, which is as far as I cared to read, the fellow could hardly speak without his mustache twitching or curling. We knew the characters’ sartorial and hirsute habits, but didn’t learn a thing about their feelings.
Okay, I’ll admit I am jealous, because this author is younger, richer, and better looking than I am. He has some talent for stringing words together. But he broke what to me is the most basic rule of all: don’t confuse the reader. I would assume any book receiving a six-figure advance would be carefully edited by an experienced professional. But most editors I know would have rejected this book after that first clumsy transition, which reflects that this celebrated author has not mastered one of the core elements of storytelling. And, as a reader, I rejected it the minute my curiosity was satisfied.
Pick up any popular hack novel, and I need not mention any names, because there are probably several dozen in your immediate vicinity. Open it and read the first page. By the third paragraph, something is happening. Nine times out of ten, it is something important, life and death, love or loss, something that makes you want to know more. Something that makes you—GOTCHA—turn the page.
As writers, we are often tempted to impress other writers with our stylistic genius. Believe me, I’m still enough of an average reader to know that we don’t care about your genius. We want a story, we want it fast, and we want it to teach us something about being human. We don’t care what you mean to New York. All we care about is what your story means to us. The greatest form of genius is that which isn’t noticed. We want a hack, and if you deliver the goods, we’ll keep coming back to gather around your campfire again and again.
And we may even keep the flames roaring with some of those oh-so-smart hardcovers that tried to be the Great American Novel.
(Scott Nicholson is the author of four novels, a story collection, three screenplays, and over 40 short stories. His website at www.hauntedcomputer.com contains news, writing advice, and interviews. Originally published in Writers Journal, Vol. 25, No. 5. Copyright 2004)

Writing How Tos: Choices

Ask Nicholson: Choices
By Scott Nicholson
(Ever wanted to be a writer? Sign up for my free occasional newsletter and learn the good, the bad, and the ugly. My writing advice is free and worth what you pay for it. Just send an email to hauntedcomputer-subscribe@yahoogroups.com, then reply to the initial message. This is an example of one of the topics.)
Choices.
Do you make them, or do they make you?
Every story, or any work of art, or any human undertaking, is nothing more than the sum of a series of choices. Often, our most significant life choices are not the result of measured consideration; instead, they are the haphazard impulses that doom or save us--the love letter never sent, the spontaneous affair, the one drunken time that "safe sex" seems too restrictive, the trip not taken, the reckless financial gamble, the passionate moment of violence, the decision to go an extra five miles per hour on an icy road, the blinding tantrum that compels us to walk away from our jobs or families.For the author, the choices usually begin with the idea. Since the universe is brimming with ideas, the problem is not in finding them but in selecting one, or combining two or three, and committing to their development. After that, the characters are built and set in motion. While the author is making decisions about these characters, they are also bringing themselves to life, spawning their own motivations, and blazing their own trail so that even the most diligent outliner can be surprised or ambushed by their own plot. Simultaneously, the author is making hundreds of structural and grammatical choices, settling on specific words that mark the author's "voice" or "style." Most of these decisions are subconscious--the worst writers rely on a thesaurus and use words beyond their understanding rather than go for the common language of their own lives and hearts.
Just as a fool "goes for it" when under the bizarre delusion of love at first sight, or the zealot with blind faith, the author is wire-walking without a net, building a new reality underfoot with each step. The sum of the choices builds that fictional world, and those who trust their instincts will almost always find solid ground. It doesn't matter whether the choices are the will of the author or imposed by some aloof Muse, whether the characters take turns in the driver's seat or whether a "formula" provides a map.
In the end, the choices will not only make the story, they will be the story. A story is simply a person with a problem. If you have a problem, you have a choice to make. If you make a choice, things happen and other things don't happen. While things happen, other choices become necessary. Really, when you think about it, the wonder isn't that there are so many plot possibilities; the wonder is that anyone can ever type "The End."

How to write mystery and horror

Spirited Inquiry: Where Mystery and Horror Meet
By Scott Nicholson
(Ever wanted to be a writer? Sign up for my free occasional newsletter and learn the good, the bad, and the ugly. My writing advice is free and worth what you pay for it. Just send an email to hauntedcomputer-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. This article is free and uncopyrighted, meaning you can publish it in your blog, journal, newsletter, webzine, etc., as long as you include my byline and web address.)
The connection between the genres of mystery and horror has always been strong, appealing to the inquisitive and the thrill seeker alike. The genres are closely linked in virtually every aspect except the actual marketing and bookstore shelving. While the spectrum is broad, with Rita Mae Brown and Agatha Christie on one end, and Skipp and Spector and Edward Lee on the other, the emotional territory is often similar. Even the coziest mystery usually involves a death, and sometimes a haunting supernatural novel contains no more bloodshed than your average Tupperware party.
Two of the hallmarks of mystery are the puzzle and its subsequent solution. Usually, the reader and writer need a sleuth as a viewpoint character, someone to assemble the different clues and filter the actions and behavior of the other characters. In the good stuff, there is a rise in tension as the story progresses, until the perpetrator is revealed in a surprising and satisfactory manner. And, unless the author has pulled off a miracle in cliché-busting deception, it had better not be the butler.
The hallmarks of horror are the emotional and psychological overtones. Many readers, those who don’t believe in ghosts, read a supernatural work as a psychological allegory. A haunted house is a symbol for the troubled human mind. A spirit is a living reflection and projection of the one who is witnessing the phenomena. A demon or devil is the personification of despair or lost faith.
The genres would probably be joined in their proper union if not for the publishing practices of the last century. Indeed, ghost and detective fiction were often lumped together in the pulp magazines under labels such as “suspense” and “terror.” As publishing became a big business, and the mass market reached a critical mass, marketing experts moved in and decided that the products would be simpler to match with the intended consumer if a set of stereotypes could be imposed. It was cheaper and easier to sell an entire category of books than it was to promote a single book or single author.
Most authors defy the labels but get stuck with them anyway. As proof, one need look no further than the venerable personage of Edgar Allan Poe. He is widely regarded as one of America’s finest horror writers, on the strength of stories of claustrophobic terror like “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.” He embraced the supernatural in such work as “Annabel Lee” and “The Black Cat.” Alternately, he is credited with the invention of the modern detective story by penning “Murders in The Rue Morgue” and “Mystery of Marie Roget,” the latter apparently inspired by an actual case.
The Mystery Writers of America adopted Edgar as the namesake of its annual awards and uses his trademark forehead, curly hair, and mustache in its logo, and the Horror Writers of America would almost certainly have named its own awards for the absinthe-swilling genius if that claim hadn’t already been staked.
Above all else, Poe took advantage of the psychology of terror and mystery. And that psychology, the frailty of the human mind and strength of the human heart, the wonder of language and the shortcomings of communication, the miracle of thought and the fallibility of emotion, is a dark cavern mined by the best explorers in both fields.
Numerous works have crossed the lines or walked the gray shadow land between the two genres: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” Ed McBain’s “Ghosts,” Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca,” William Goldman’s “Magic,” even titles in the Nancy Drew, Hardee Boys, Scooby Doo, and Goosebumps series. Authors such as Ira Levin, Barbara Michaels, Rudyard Kipling, Sharyn McCrumb, Ed Gorman, Michael Slade, Edo van Belkom, Douglas Clegg, and Tom Piccirilli have worn the skins of both beasts. Phil Rickman coined the term “spiritual procedural” to describe his series featuring a Diocesan Deliverance Consultant. Most notably, Dean Koontz has blended many of the elements of mystery and horror (and a few other genres as well) into a compelling and best-selling mix.
My twenty-pound dictionary lists as the first definition of mystery, “Something that has not been, or cannot be, explained; hence, something beyond human comprehension; a mysterious sacred thing.” Sounds like a pretty good definition of supernatural horror fiction to me. The dictionary was published in 1934, so its definition for “horror” fails miserably, as least in the way horror is now regarded as a genre. After some archaic references to “horror” as a corporeal medical state between rigor and algor, the final definition comes close: “Awe; fear mingled with reverence.”
Reverence.
Horror isn’t about scaring readers any more than mystery is about solving crimes. It’s all about the people. It’s about the emotional stakes, the spiritual implications, the bizarre antics of the human race. It’s about us.
At the scene of every real crime is a motive that is often beyond belief to the average person. Every haunted structure has a mystery surrounding the dead people who allegedly pay those afterlife visits, as well as the living people who “see” them. Fiction is one way we face these unexplainable sacred things, and the written word provides a safe place in which to vent our awe and fear. Fiction is the lie that speaks a greater truth.
The real mystery resides in the human soul.
The real horror resides in the human soul.
Open your soul and read on.
(Scott Nicholson is the author of seven books, including the recently released The Farm and They Hunger in April, 2007. He is a freelance editor as well as a published writer. Email him at harvestbook AT yahoo.com to inquire about his editing services. His web site is http://www.hauntedcomputer.com)

words to google for pictures

Yoke
Broom making
Wheelwright
Draft horse
Timber frame
Animal logging
Ox driving
Maple sugaring
Soap making
Woodstove cooking
Beekeeping
Blacksmithing
Coopering
Butter churns
Cart wrighting
Wooden wheelbarrows
Hitching post
Harness
Ox drover
Barn raising
Pike pole
Oak pegs
Willow tree
Tragic
Sensitive
Nurture
Relationship
Anoint
Friendship
Promise
Walking
Roaring fire
Recognition
Appreciation
Candlelight dinner
Fortune teller
Seer
Childhood
Porcelain doll
Rag doll
Exhort
Culprit
Oak tree
Gunsmith
Tinsmith
Hanging rope
Noose
Hanging tree
Bank teller
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Silky
Stalker
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Perfect victim
Long legs
Brutal
Web of deceit
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Inflation calculator

The inflation calculator at http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ will calculate prices for the years 1800 through 2006.
What cost $100 in 2006 would cost $4.62 in 1888.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 1888 and 2006, they would cost you $100 and $2164.02 respectively.
What cost $.50 in 2006 would cost $0.02 in 1888.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 1888 and 2006, they would cost you $.50 and $10.82 respectively.

My Life In The War

by Scott Nicholson
My first taste of battle left me largely disoriented, but at least I was still standing at the end, though I lost my pencil along the way.
Tudd Dean, a member of the Blue Ridge Living History Society and one of the organizers of the Stoneman’s Raid Civil War re-enactment, recruited me to join the fun. I was to play a civilian reporter during the event held at the Horn In the West grounds in Boone, NC, last weekend.
Tudd and another soldier loaned me clothes from the period, a top hat and top coat and cotton shirt and pants. My only nods to the 21st Century were the rubber soles of my shoes and the rayon in my shoelaces.
My role in the event was as a local reporter in the town where the "battle" was taking place. This year, the event was staged as a battle centered around Westchester, Virginia. Since that town changed hands more times than a utility infielder, the script could take many different directions.
When I asked Tudd what I was supposed to do, I learned that there actually was no script. Over a hundred troops in both blue and gray, more than a dozen horses, a large contingent of civilian women and children, and one reporter were taking the field with only the vaguest notion of what would happen.
I asked Newland’s Tim Townsend, who was depicting a Sergeant in the Watauga Home Guard, what I should do. He said I should get out of the way when the action started, to run in the cabin and get captured along with the women and children.
"I won’t lie to you," he said. "This is a dangerous hobby."
That’s when I realized that I was going to be the only unarmed male in the battle, a cowardly reporter who runs around with a pencil and a piece of paper. This is a role I was born for. Whoever said, "The pen is mightier than the sword" was probably never in a duel.
Tim and I worked up a little scenario where I would come down during the drill and ask him how the "boys" were doing, what the state of the war was, and if the Yankees would ever show up here. Warming up, I tipped my hat to the ladies and engaged in polite conversation, not an unpleasant job by any means. The Union cavalry rode into town before I had a chance to deliver my lines to the Sergeant, though.
When the firing broke out from replica powder rifles, I gentlemanly assisted the women and children into one of the cabins. I watched from the safety of the back porch as the Union troops drove back the home guard.
One of the first Rebel casualties fell about fifteen feet from where I was hiding. He was a television news cameraman in his day job, and I’d talked with him earlier. I fought down an impulse to go out and help him, especially as a horse trampled excruciatingly near his head. But that would not have fit my role. No civilian alive back then, even a reporter, would be dumb enough to run between two battle lines.
The Union soldiers drove back the Boys in Gray, and Yankee foot soldiers stormed the cabin and captured us. On the front porch, the soldiers began robbing the women and menacing the children. When one got overly aggressive while taking a cup from a woman, I was driven to defend her honor and have it out with the blue-belly.
The soldier got a little enthusiastic, shoving me around with his rifle, and I hit the deck and lost my wonderful top hat. I stood up and delivered my best line of the day: "Don’t you mess with my hat."
As we prisoners were shepherded to another cabin, some of the children were crying, frightened by the realism of the event. Rigged blasts from cannon went off every couple of minutes, and the ladies pelted the Yanks with pine cones, shouted insults, and cheered the Rebel counterattack.
Meanwhile, our captors called us "traitors" and worse, though the language was generally kept in check for the benefit of the several hundred people in the audience. A couple of the soldiers wore big grins despite their "wounded" condition, and most of the victims managed to prop themselves against trees or fall out of the way of the cavalry.
The air was thick with powder smoke, the smell of horses, and noise of gunfire and shouts. As the Rebs began to push back the invaders, the prisoners were released, and I counted Yankee bodies. I reported 25 casualties to the Sergeant, who asked, "Are they all dead?" I answered something like "Not enough of them, sir."
I "interviewed" one wounded soldier who said he was gut shot and could do with a pint of whiskey. I told him he was done for anyway, so he might as well enjoy himself. I’d seen the staged field hospital, and there were far too many bloody limbs lying around to afford much hope.
I rolled another soldier out of the way so the captured Yankees could be collected and marched through town. Another of my lines, perhaps spawned by bravery in the face of victory, was to shout at the Yankee prisoners, "You shoulda stayed in New York."
"We’re from North Carolina," one of them answered, while my rifle-shoving friend pointed his finger at me in a "I’ll get you next time" gesture. Too bad for him he was marched to the Confederate military prison in Salisbury, where his chances of surviving disease were much lower than his chances of dodging bullets in combat.
Then the war was over, the crowd came down to take pictures, historians brushed off the dust and collected their weapons, and the Yankees and Rebels headed for the camps for a little relaxation and food together before the next event.
I was most impressed by the camaraderie among the re-enactors, and their mutual passion for history. Most of the re-enactors have the equipment and uniforms to switch sides and fight for either army. In the Civil War, "neighbor against neighbor" was too often true, but not in the modern version of it.
While I am ashamed to say that I discovered a streak of stubborn Rebel pride coursing through my veins, the real lesson I learned was that it’s not about us and them. Because, back then as now, it’s all us.
--copyright 2001 by Scott Nicholson

Monday, February 19, 2007

Totally random thoughts

Heaven is the heart’s true home.

When my traveling days are over . . .

God uses illness to draw you closer to Him.

One day, when your Lord comes for you, He will heal all your cancer.

You may forget God, but He will never forget you.

Life expectancy in 1901 was 49 years.

The biggest thing to improve life expectancy was clean water. Chlorine as a disinfectant. Waterborne diseases included cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery. Could wipe out entire communities. (the rule of 3 . . .)

Sodium bicarbonate when heated gives off CO2 which makes cakes and cookies rise during baking.

When we free ourselves from all the things that encumber us, we can begin to build a relationship based on being partners and not a relationship based on dominance or fear.

In 1901 the life expectancy was 49 years. The biggest thing to improve the life expectancy was clean water. Chlorine as a disinfectant was first used in ___________.
Waterborne diseases include cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery. They could wipe out entire communities.

“Whenever science makes a discovery, the devil grabs it while the angels are debating the best way to use it.” -- Alan Valentine.

You win a heart by outshining the competition, not by being jealous.

When people are told something they don’t want to know, they often resent the messenger.

Depression is anger turned inward.

Dead Ringer—The definition of ringer, from which this phrase comes, is “substituted racehorse.” Unscrupulous racehorse owners have a fast horse and a slow horse that are nearly identical in appearance. They run the slow horse until the betting odds reached the desired level, then they substitute the ringer, who can run much faster. Dead in this case means abrupt or exact, like in dead stop, or dead shot.

Dead Ringer—Gangsters with contracts on their lives might hire a person who looked similar to them, a ringer, to appear in a public places. The lookalike would often be convincing enough to fool the contracted killers, you can guess the part about dead.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. ~ Cicero

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. ~ Henry Ward Beecher

About 1888, the Office Specialty Manufacturing Co. introduced its Rapid Roller Damp-Leaf Copier which used pressure supplied by rollers to copy letters onto a roll of dampened paper. After copies were pressed onto the paper, the paper entered the cabinet under the copier, where it dried on a large roller. Copies could be made more quickly with a roller copier than with a letter copying press. Roller copiers also competed with carbon paper. A roller copier could make a half dozen copies of a typewritten letter if the letter was run through the copier several times.

Aspects of the Antebellum Christmas

By 1860 many of the elements of our modern “traditional” Christmas were easily discernible. Although some customs found during the antebellum era have long since vanished, many more may be recognized instantly. Some, such as the use of a christmas tree, were in their nascent stages, while others, like the concepts of gift-bringers, were in mid-passage. No matter what stage of development, the modern reveler transported to antebellum America would be able to look upon familiar scenes. For, as one source contends, Santa Claus and ornamented trees were becoming more common “to the whole country.”1
Perhaps the most important of the changing elements was the country’s attitude toward Christmas. By the coming of the Civil War the antipathy shown toward the celebration by some religious groups and like-minded individuals was rapidly softening. Indeed, “by 1859, the general attitude towards Christmas had changed sufficiently for the Sunday School Union” to accept the holiday to such a degree that it published hymns and accounts of celebrations.2 This was emblematic of a general acceptance of Christmas by many denominations. This changing of views combined with another ongoing force to further shape and help define the American Christmas.
The continuing popularity of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and its “carol” philosophy added yet another element by synthesizing “certain religious and secular attitudes... into a humanitarian pattern.” Its assertion that brotherhood, kindness, and charity should be a part of life—especially at Christmas—was quickly accepted and added to American tradition.3
It was within such an atmosphere that Christmas as we know it began to manifest itself. This essay will look at various aspects of Christmas celebrations during the 1830-1860 period, both those that reach down to us today and those which are but memories.
The Christmas TreeThe Godey’s Magazine publication, in 1850, of an article and illustrations depicting the British royal family’s celebrating around the christmas tree is generally seen as a seminal event in the ultimate American adoption of this German (Prince Albert, of course, was German) custom. Although the article did much to popularize the use of trees, it must be said that it was a custom that had already begun to take root across the United States. In fact, some historians argue that American adoption of the Christmas tree predated that of the British.4 There would seem to be support for this assertion. Successive waves of German immigrants probably packed in their cultural baggage the custom of adorning their homes with a small tree. As they spread through the nation, so too did the decorated tree.5
Some sources credit Hessian mercenaries with the introduction of the tree during the Revolutionary War.6 However, as there is no direct, extant evidence to prove this oft-told tale, it may be apocryphal. The likely source was probably a now forgotten German immigrant seeking to recreate a bit of his homeland in his new surroundings. No matter the originator, the christmas tree graced more than a few homes prior to 1850 and nearly every area was witness to its use.7 Perhaps the first American illustration of this was seen in an 1810 Krimmel painting executed in Pennsylvania.8 The Dictionary of Americanisms’ (1828) inclusion of a definition of “christmas tree” and the publication of Kris Kringle’s Christmas Tree in 1845 are indicative that the custom was more widespread than previously thought.9
With this background it is not surprising that the tree had become established by 1860. So established, in fact, that a “German tree” was placed at the White House by President Franklin Pierce in 1856.10 Whether the tree was placed upon a table as German customs prescribed or on the floor as Americans were wont to do is uncertain. Trees of the period were decorated with various edibles and home-crafted ornaments, but by 1860 glass trinkets made in Germany were becoming available to adorn the branches. Most, however, were decorated with fruits, strands, and candles. Although, some people were more creative, like the German immigrant in 1847 Ohio who had the local blacksmith pound out a metal star for his spruce, where it was placed alongside paper decorations.11
MusicMusic exclusively associated with Christmas was added to songbooks during this period. Caroling became increasingly practiced. The type of music, however, belied the burgeoning secularization of the season, as most of it was of a “sacred” nature or rampant with allusions to Christ’s birth. “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” 1851), “See Amid the Winter’s Snow” (also 1851), “There Came A Little Child to Earth “ (1856), and “We Three Kings of Orient Are” (1859) all were composed before the Civil War.12
Legal RecognitionGovernments recognized the growing importance of Christmas by dealing with it as they knew best: by passing a law. The first state to make Christmas a legal holiday was Alabama in 1836. Between 1850 and 1861, fifteen states (including Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Minnesota) followed suit.13 A significant result of this “legislation” was the states’ recognition of December 25th as Christmas Day. This helped standardize the date for celebration. Previously, celebrations took place at varying times during the month (particularly December 6th, St. Nicholas’s day), or on January 6th, Epiphany. Thus, events during the period helped cement the date used today.14
The original impetus for legal recognition seems to have come from the business community. The initial legislation forbade the collection of promissory notes on Christmas day and some judicial activities were suspended. Provisions for the closing of schools, banks, and government offices generally did not appear until after the Civil War.15
Christmas CardsOne modern element all but unknown during this period was the christmas card. They were relatively well-known in England by 1860, but the custom had yet to make inroads on this side of the Atlantic. The first such Christmas greetings in the United States are thought to be those issued by a New York engraver in 1851. Richard Pease printed cards, showing a family dinner scene, that read “A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year, to: From: .”16 However, it was not until Louis Prang of Boston introduced a line of cards in 1875 that they became widely used. 17
CommercializationAnother “tradition” rapidly coalescing during the period—and decried still—was the commercialization of the holiday. As early as the 1830s newspapers were filled with blandishments designed with “Christmas shoppers” in mind.18 Every thing from raisins for baked goods to pianofortes for the parlor to uplifting books for the mind and soul were pushed via the papers.19 Merchants were quick to realize the potential of the gift-giving season and capitalize on the growing importance of Christmas. Santa Clauses had begun to appear on street corners and in stores by 1850. Philadelphia storeowners were among the first to offer seasonal employment to those willing to impersonate Santa.20
The trend did not go unnoticed. A Terre Haute (Ind) newspaper editor commented on the frivolity associated with the 1855 season. He was bemused by the “gambol,” gift exchanges, and the person of “Santa Clause” that seemed to dominate the holiday. He wondered if such behavior was the proper way of celebrating the birth of Christ. In a telling comment, he noted that it was probably already too late to change things, as the trend was already well established. 21
Bearers of GiftsA major difference between the antebellum celebration and that of today was the variety of gift-bringers dotting the landscape. Of varying ethnic or national backgrounds, they scurried across the land on their mission to reward or punish. Already by 1860, though, one was beginning to overshadow the others. With the coming of the war and the enlistment of Thomas Nast to his side he would come to dominate, but in pre-Civil war America he had competition.
Santa ClausThe greatest of all modern Christmas icons, Santa Claus, was evolving during the period. Although it was to be several years before Nast was to give the jolly, round one his most enduring form, “Santa Claus” of 1860 would be easily recognizable to the modern child. “Santa,” of course did not spring full-blown upon America, but was born of legend and centuries of permutation. He was the amalgamation of the traditions of gift-givers of many cultures, a bishop legendary for his kindness, and the pens of several early 19th-century American writers.
His most likely ancestor was St. Nicholas, a 4th-century Bishop of Myra in Asia Minor. Hard facts about Nicholas are difficult to come by (not even a Papal Council could burn away much of time’s fog), but over the centuries the legend of this kindly, charitable man grew apace.22 By 1,000 c.e. Nicholas was arguably one of the most important and beloved saints in Christendom, having become the patron saint of people as diverse as pawnbrokers and spinsters in search of husbands. Most of all, he became identified as the patron of children.23
Nicholas first became associated with Christmas during the Middle Ages. An agent of this transformation may have been a 13th-century French nun who left gifts for the poor on the eve of St. Nicholas’ Day (December 6th). Thus he became linked to gift-giving.24
Not even the Reformation’s hostility toward Catholic saints could dim Nicholas’ luster in the eyes of his followers. Children still looked forward to his gifts, or dreaded the switches he might leave behind to punish transgressors. As the latter indicates, the Nicholas legend also had its darker side. As an arbiter of behavior he could reward or punish. It is likely he was used a weapon by parents in the age-old struggle of wills. Eventually, these disciplinary duties fell to a companion, known variously Knecht Ruprecht, Schwarze Peter (Black Peter), Krampus, or Belznichol. This bearer of punishment was usually portrayed as a shaggy, dark-visaged bogeyman.25
St. Nicholas’ first appearance in the New World was in 1492, when Columbus named a bay after him.26 Times became rather lean for the saint after that, partly because America’s mainly Protestant settlers disdained saints and the rituals associated with them. Doubtless, private celebrations based upon the Nicholas legend occurred, usually among Moravians or Dutch settlers. The fact that laws were passed prohibiting is evidence enough. the above notwithstanding, St. Nicholas entered a quiescent period that was to last until the 19th century.27
The Nicholas who reemerged in the early 19th century was soon transformed into a secular saint who was to play a central role in what was to become a folk festival instead of a purely religious occasion. This revitalization came through the confluence of American literary efforts and the increased immigration of Germans and others wont to celebrate Christmas.
John Pintard, his brother-in-law Washington Irving, Clement Moore, and the anonymous author of Kriss Kringle’s Book were the literary pioneers who helped establish Santa Claus. Pintard, an early light in the in the New York Historical Society, was among the first to resurrect Nicholas, who was to become the patron saint of the society. At a society dinner in 1810 Pintard unveiled a broadside showing Nicholas, two children, and stockings hung from a fireplace. Beneath those now familiar elements of the Christmas story was the phrase “Sancta Claus, Goed Heylig Man” (Saint Nicholas, Good Holy Man).28
Irving was the next to take up Nicholas’ cause and his inclusion (twenty-three times) of him in Knickerbocker History did much to bring the old saint before the public. Clement Moore’s now universal “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (“The Night before Christmas”) was published in 1823. Its synthesis of many elements of the legend was a boon to the Christmas celebration and the exaltation of Nicholas. Another major influence was Kriss Kringle’s Book, offered in 1842. The book told of St. Nicholas, or Kris Kringle, a “nice, fat, good humored man” who brought gifts for good children.29 The descriptions of Santa Claus in these and other books and the illustrations of Robert Weir, brought about the change in image from a thin ascetic to a robust character.
As is clear from the above, St. Nicholas, Kris Kringle, and Santa Claus had all become synonymous by mid-century. As such, it is appropriate to discuss the evolution of terms. Santa Claus is, of course, a corruption of St. Nicholas. Popular thinking has it that the Dutch were responsible for this alteration, but this appears to be untrue. Linguists view it as having originated in Switzerland where such phonetic changes were consistent with normal usage. The analogue Dutch term “Sinterklaes” postdates the original corruption.30 Kriss Kringle was a corruption of Krist-Kindl, or Christ-Child (see below), that came to be associated with the jolly, fat man instead of a cherubic child.31 Exactly when these variations occurred is impossible to pinpoint, but they were well in place by 1860.
Santa Claus, then, was well with us by 1860. A thin, ascetic saint had added much poundage, undergone a secularization process, and a name change. In the process he was becoming the center of a folk festival that was to overawe all others.
WeinachtsmannBut there were still other contenders about. The Weinachtsmann was a German secular version of St. Nicholas who had made his appearance by 1800. He, too, travelled about on Christmas Eve, walking from place to place with a sack or basket of gifts. Though usually viewed as of kindly disposition, he also carried in one hand sticks meant for bad children. He was normally portrayed as a thin, stooped old man. He made a minor appearance in America among the Pennsylvania Dutch.32
Father ChristmasFather Christmas was the English equivalent of Santa, with some differences. He was not descended from the Nicholas tradition, but filtered from the pagan mists as the descendant of a character from a medieval mummers’ play. Initially, he was more concerned with wassail and mistletoe than gifts for well behaved children. However, he grew into the role of kindly gift-giver. He was transplanted to America by British immigrants. By this period he had come to more closely resemble Santa Claus in attitude and bulk.33
Pere NoelPere (Papa) Noel was a French gift-giver who showed up in America, mainly in Louisiana, during the period. He was a version of Santa Claus with a Gallic twist—especially among the Creole. Often he had the same fat stomach, but with the addition of a twinkling wit and an eye for the ladies. He would arrive at celebrations, joke with all present, and hand out small gifts (New Years was the time for major gifts).34
Krist-Kindl, or Christ-ChildThe concept of the Christ-Child as a gift-giver evolved in Germany. The Krist- Kindl appeared as a substitute for St. Nicholas partially because, some historians argue, the old gent was too redolent of Rome for some Protestant reformers.35 At any rate, the Krist-Kindl was portrayed as a cherubic child (boy or girl) who travelled by mule carrying gifts. Children set out a basket, filled with hay for the mule, to receive their gifts. The Krist-kindl concept was adopted by some Pennsylvania Germans.36 By 1860, however, he/she was rarely a part of Christmas; the role having been overtaken by the jolly elf who had appropriated the name.
Timothy CrumrinHistorianConner Prairie
Notes
1. Time-Life Book of Christmas, (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1987) p.7.
2. James Barnett, The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture, (New York: Arno Press, 1976), p.7; see also Katharine Rockwell, How Christmas Came to the Sunday-schools, (New York: Dood, Mead, 1934).
3. Barnett, p.4.
4. Barnett, p.11.
5. F.X. Weiser, The Christmas Book, (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1953), pp.120-121..
6. Ken Brooks, “How Christmas Traditions Began,” Friends (Dec., 1979).
7. Barnett, p.11; Philip Snyder, December 25th, (New York: Dood, Mead, 1985), pp.121-132.
8. Irene Chalmers, The Great American Christmas (New York: Viking Press, 1988), p.22.
9. Alfred Shoemaker, Christmas in Pennsylvania, A Folk-Cultural Study, (Kurtztown, PA: Pennsylvania Folklore Society, 1959), pp.43,56.
10. Karen Cure, An Old Fashioned Christmas, (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1979), p.127.
11. WPA, Ohio Guide, p.161.
12. Snyder, pp.172-181; Rockwell, p.143; William Henry Husk, Songs of the Nativity, (London: John Camden Hotten, 1868).
13. Barnett, pp.19-20.
14. Barnett, pp.11.
15. Barnett, pp.19-20.
16. Snyder, p 256.
17. Lynne Cheney, “You can thank Louis Prang for all those cards,” Smithsonian, (December, 1977), pp.120-126.
18. Barnett, pp.187-189.
19. See, for example, Indiana Journal, (December 3, 20, 1841).
20. Shoemaker, p.46.
21. Wabash Express, (December 26, 1855).
22. Snyder, pp. 210-211.
23. Brian McGinty, “Santa Claus,” Early American Life (December, 1979), p.50.
24. E. Willis Jones, The Santa Claus Book, (New York: Walker & Co., 1976), p.6.
25. Snyder, p.212.
26. McGinty, p.51.
27. Snyder, pp.211-212; McGinty, pp.51-52.
28. McGinty, p.53; Charles W. Jones, “Knickerbocker Santa Claus,” The New York Historical Society Quarterly, (October, 1954), 370-371.
29. Shoemaker, pp.43-47.
30. Jones, P.366.
31. Shoemaker, 43.
32. Shoemaker, 213.
33. Snyder, p.213; Gerard and Patricia Del Re, Christmas Almanack, (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1979), pp.69-70.
34. Harriet Kane, The Southern Cristmas Book, (New York: Bonanza Books, 1968), pp.222-229.
35. William Sanson, A Book of Christmas, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968), 105.
36. Shoemaker, p.43; Barnett, p.11.

1888 Blizzard

Blizzard of 1888Dec 3, 1888
The “Blizzard of ‘88” began without warning on March 12, 1888. March 10 had been warm and sunny, and on Sunday, March 11, rain fell in New York City, but around midnight the rain changed to heavy snow, which then fell uninterrupted for the next 36 hours. Many early commuters were caught, unaware that they were heading into the teeth of a storm that would last for two more days. Across the Northeast trains became trapped by the increasingly heavy snow, which knocked down power and telegraph poles by the score. Passengers were trapped in the railroad cars. With the shutdown of the railroad, many towns soon ran out of coal, their primary heating fuel. The storm put its heaviest load in the Hudson River Valley, where a swath from Saratoga and Hudson, New York to Bennington, Vermont received nearly 50” of snow. New Haven, Connecticut, too, got nearly 50”. Western Massachusetts was also hard hit, with Pittsfield receiving 36” of snow. The total in Worcester, east of the Connecticut River, was 32”. New York City was hit with 50 mph winds which swirled and drifted the 21” if snow. All of the towns and cities of the Northeast suffered similar fates: the snow lay 8’ deep in the main street of Northampton, Massachusetts. So many power poles were knocked down that after the storm many cities on the East Coast made a concerted effort to bury those lines. Overall, 400 people died during the three days of the storm, 200 in New York City alone, and at sea, nearly 200 vessels were forced aground, were sunk, or had to be abandoned due to storm damage.
Angus Macdonald, a telephone lineman, worked through the blizzard of 1888 to keep open the only long distance telephone circuits between New York and Boston.
Nearly a hundred years ago . . . ... a tradition so evident in Pioneering was born when the outdoor plant of our infant telephone industry met and passed its first service test. “The Spirit of Service” commemorates that historical event. It was during the great blizzard that began in New York before dawn on March 12, 1888, when all other means of communication failed between Boston and New York, that the toll line remained in service, thanks to the foresight of the builders and the courage and dedication of the men who watched over it. The storm was the worst to hit this nation in a century. It paralyzed the Northeast, piling drifts as high as houses, blocking every highway, knocking out all telegraph and train service, and almost—but not quite -eliminating telephone service. These, of course, were the days of open wire construction, when the telephone system was subject to the worst the elements could offer. The telephone industry was inits infancy—Bell had invented the phone just 12 years earlier.
Angus Macdonald was a 23-year-old lineman in 1888. He was part of a crew that worked through that blinding storm—patrolling the lines and repairing breaks wherever they found them—to keep open the last remaining long distance line between New York and Boston.
Thanks to the dedication of Macdonald and his fellow workers, New York was never without at least some long distance telephone service. But, for several days, the telephone was New York’s onlymeans of communication with the rest of the world.
Because of his part in this historic event, Macdonald was asked to pose for the painting that was commissioned in honor of the dedication of those brave workers. It would come to be known as”The Spirit of Service” and would serve as a tribute to generations of dedicated telephone people. Macdonald was an active Telephone Pioneer as well as a dedicated telephone man. In fact,he, along with Alexander Graham Bell and 243 other telephone people, attended the very first Pioneer meeting in Boston in 1911. Macdonald retired from the Long Lines department in the ‘30s after more than 48 years of service. He belonged to the Life Member Club of the Edward J. Hall Chapter in New York at the time of his death in 1958 at age 94.

Whereas today a blizzard means school closings and overtimes for the plow drivers, in the 19th century blizzards were often deadly, burying houses, catching people suddenly who had no means of getting quickly to shelter. Livestock froze to death where it stood in the stockades, and sub-zero temperatures meant frostbite and the loss of toes, fingers, noses, and more. Long periods of isolation also took their toll, with some families being buried to subsist on stored fuel and goods for weeks or even months before they could leave their homes. Of these privations, running out of food or fuel meant certain death and was the most dreaded. While there was certainly winter recreation as there is now (skating, sledding, building snow forts, hockey, and tobogganing were as popular then as they are now), most winter activities in places as remote as Minnesota beyond the few cities involved hunting and ice-fishing ~ which were simply things vital to survival. People who survived hard winters were rightly proud of their adaptability and their ingenuity.

The "From Hell" Letter of 1888

The “From Hell” Letter postmarked 15 October 1888.
The reason this letter stands out more than any other is that it was delivered with a small box containing half of what doctors later determined was a human kidney, preserved in alcohol. One of Catherine Eddowes’ kidneys had been removed by the killer. Medical opinion at the time was split on whether the kidney was likely to have been the same as the one taken from Eddowes. Some officials thought the organ could have been acquired by medical students and sent with the letter as part of a hoax.
The text of the letter reads:

From hell.
Mr Lusk,SorI send you half the Kidne I took from one woman prasarved it for you tother piece I fried and ate it was very nise. I may send you the bloody knif that took it out if you only wate a whil longersignedCatch me when you can Mishter Lusk

The original letter, as well as the kidney that accompanied it, have subsequently been lost along with other items that were originally contained within the Ripper police files. It is possible that one or both was kept by an official as a souvenir of the case. The image shown here is from a photograph taken before the loss of the letter.

Devotional

Heartlight Daily Verse by Phil Ware
January 17
Philippians 2:14-16Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.
Thoughts on today’s verse
Stars. They’ve always been a source of constant hope for God’s people. “Your descendants will be like the stars,” God told Abraham. “When I see the stars, what is man that you are mindful of him?” the Psalms ask. The Wisemen from the East followed a star to Jesus. Luke reminds us that Jesus was a bright star come to us from heaven to shine God’s light to those in darkness. And now, we’re stars. God’s points of light in the dark sky of the universe. So let’s make today a day where our light shines God’s glory to a dark world around us.
Prayer: Almighty God, the incredible expanse of your universe, with its billions of stars, exceeds my limited comprehension. But I thank you for calling me to be a light in the dark world around me and I pledge to shine your light today in the lives of all those I can. Through the name of the Bright and Morning Star I pray. Amen.

After receiving his shiny new Bible, my son headed back to the pews. For the next thirty minutes, he admired his Bible; he held it close to him; he caressed it; he flipped through all the pages looking for pictures of the Bible stories he knew about; and he even kissed his Bible over and over. Later that day, he picked up his Bible and said, “Mom, did you know that I have God’s holy word right here in my hands?”
My son reminded me just how precious God’s word should be to us, and I was almost envious of his genuine love for the most holy book of all. Although he is too young to understand all of the lessons that the Bible teaches us or what that book will eventually mean to his spiritual growth, he knew in his innocent little heart just how precious God’s word really is.
One method I use to discover the treasure in my personal trials is to write on a piece of paper a list of my past trials and what possible benefits have come from each of them.

Talk the Talk: Film Crew Speak

If you’ve ever sat through a movie’s closing credits, you know that film crews have their own funny language. Credits are filled with mysterious job titles like “best boy,” “key grip” and “gaffer.”
Visit a movie set, and you’ll be even more confused. It seems like movie people have an odd name for every worker, piece of equipment and shot involved in film production.
Here are a few of our favorite film crew words:
Dolly: A wheeled cart that rides on tracks (basically, miniature railroad tracks). The camera crew uses the dolly to move the camera carefully through the scene, creating a smooth motion shot. The dolly carries the camera, the camera crew, and sometimes even the director.
Grip: Anybody in charge of adjusting or maintaining production equipment, especially camera equipment, such as dollies. The “key grip” is the leader of a group of grips.
Best Boy: The second-in-command for a particular technical team. For example, the Best Boy Grip is the second in command for a grip team. The term comes from early sailing and whaler speak - sailors would often get extra work setting up rigging and building theater sets, and they brought their special language with them.
Squib: A tiny explosive, generally used to represent a bullet hitting something. The special effects crew has to time squib detonations precisely so they correspond with the action in the scene. Squibs are sometimes combined with packets of fake blood to create gory gunshot wounds.
Gaffer: The head of the lighting/electrical crew. The term comes from the natural lighting system used in many early silent movies. In those days, the film crew would adjust lighting by opening and closing large flaps over skylight windows. They used long sticks, called gaffs, to adjust the flaps. Sailors, working as stagehands, took the term from a type of pole used on ships.
Boom Microphone: A microphone connected to a long pole. The boom operator holds the boom microphone over the actors in a scene to record the dialogue. A good boom operator will hold the boom microphone just out of view of the camera. Every once in a while, you’ll see a film flub where the boom microphone dips into the scene.
Swing Gang: The team that builds and demolishes sets.
Dailies: Rough film prints, developed quickly after filming a scene. The director, crew and actors will watch dailies to make sure the acting and camera work were good in each shot.
Cowboy Shot: A shot showing an actor from mid-thigh up, commonly used in cowboy gunfight standoffs.
Breakdown Script: A list of every single actor, crew member, piece of camera equipment, costume and prop needed for a particular day of shooting.
Call Sheet: A list of all the actors required for each movie scene, with an estimate of when the director will need them.
Foley Artist: A sound mixer who records basic film sound effects, such as creaking doors, footsteps, and punches. The foley artist has to find a way to recreate each sound in the recording studio and then synch the sound effect with the action on the screen.

Google + wireless = God?


From Thomas Friedman’s New York Times op/ed today:


Says Alan Cohen, a V.P. of Airespace, a new Wi-Fi provider: “If I can operate Google, I can find anything. And with wireless, it means I will be able to find anything, anywhere, anytime. Which is why I say that Google, combined with Wi-Fi, is a little bit like God. God is wireless, God is everywhere and God sees and knows everything. Throughout history, people connected to God without wires. Now, for many questions in the world, you ask Google, and increasingly, you can do it without wires, too.”

In other words, once Wi-Fi is in place, with one little Internet connection I can download anything from anywhere and I can spread anything from anywhere. That is good news for both scientists and terrorists, pro-Americans and anti-Americans. And that brings me to the point of this column: While we may be emotionally distancing ourselves from the world, the world is getting more integrated. That means that what people think of us, as Americans, will matter more, not less. Because people outside America will be able to build alliances more efficiently in the world we are entering and they will be able to reach out and touch us—whether with computer viruses or anthrax recipes downloaded from the Internet—more than ever.

Link to NYT column (registration required), Discuss

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:27:46 PM permalink Other blogs’ comments

Honoring Your Wife...

”Husbands should realize that the words they speak to their wives have awesome power to build up or tear down emotionally. Affirming words are like light switches. To speak a word of affirmation at the right moment is like lighting up a whole roomful of possibilities.”

- From “It Takes Two to Tango” by Gary and Norma Smalley

All excerpts from “It Takes Two to Tango” are copyright 1997 Gary and Norma Smalley.

Find more relationship resources at http://www.smalleyonline.com

Devotional

In Touch Daily Devotional—by Dr. Charles Stanley
January 17, 2007
Failing to Accomplish God’s Plan
Matthew 10:17-31
Through the Holy Spirit’s guidance and wisdom, we are capable of achieving the work that the Lord desires for us to accomplish.
But fear can cause us to stumble and fail. For example, fear of criticism will often make us drag our feet and cause us to worry about others’ opinions. Instead, we should be placing a priority on pleasing God.
Fear of making mistakes may prevent us from either starting a project or changing our behavior. As believers, we must remember that we live the Christian life by depending on God, who promises to provide us with our needs as we obediently follow Him.
Fear of having our weaknesses exposed causes us to worry about our appearance, which leads to disobedience. It’s important to stay in God’s Word so we can gain a biblical perspective on our fears and think accurately and positively about the future.
Doubt is another reason for failure. Many of us have trouble believing in our God-given abilities, or we question whether we deserve the Lord’s plans for our lives. The antidote to doubt is increased trust in God, which we can gain by meditating on His characteristics and His promises.
God expects us to operate according to His timetable, not our own. So watch out for procrastination, which can derail success. It may be the result of a rebellious spirit which does not want to be told what to do, even by the Lord.
God promises victory through Jesus Christ. What’s holding you back?

Innovations of the 19th Century

The 19th century was a time of tremendous development from a technological perspective. Tools and many of the daily items we take for granted today were new and innovative to the 19th century generations.
You may be surprised at the extent of inventions that were created during a one-hundred year period. We can truly appreciate the visionary minds of the individuals who have made day-to-day living easier.
Years 1800-1820
1800
Battery
1801
Gaslighting. By 1807, London had gas streetlights.
1803
Steel pen
1812
Storage battery
1814
First locomotive in the U.S. and the steam-powered rotary printing press in London
1816
Camera
1818
Blood transfusion. Although discovered, physicians of the time did not understand blood transfusion and thus was not really used until the 20th century.
1819
Stethoscope. The first stethoscope had a wooden tube.
Years 1821-1840
1821
Electric motor
1827
Matches. However, these worked rather poorly. The phosphorous match replaced these type in 1836.
1830
Food canning, which would become a very important technology. In addition, the portable steam fire engine and the first steam locomotive, the Tom Thumb, raced against a horse-drawn railcar in Baltimore.
1831
Chloroform was discovered. This would become a critically important invention, particularly on the battlefield.
1834
McCormick reaper (would change agriculture forever!) and refrigeration!
1837
The Telegraph, which was demonstrated by Morse. The telegraph would be the first step in revolutionizing communication. The first message was sent in 1844 in Morse code. It was: “What hath God wrought?”
1839
Daguerreotype (photograph)

1841-1860
1842
The player piano.
1843
Typewriting machine. (Consider: this would be the first step of a journey to the computers of today.)
1846
Lock-stitch sewing machine. This invention would change the way clothes would be sewn!
1847
Chloroform used in surgery.
1860
Can opener, the internal combustion engine.
1861-1880
1864
Rubber dental plate.
1868
First practical typewriter, plastics.
1876
Telephone. By the year 1900, there would be 1.4 million telephones in the United States.
1877
Phonograph, gas engine.
1881-1899
1884
Motor car, airship, fountain pen, steam turbine.
1885
Motorcycle
1886
Aluminum
1890
Rubber tires used on bicycles.
1893
Carburetor, diesel engine.
1895
X-ray
1896
Radio
1899
Aspirin

Frontier Days misc. notes

A Cowboy’s Boots
Boots were an important item in a cowboy’s wardrobe. The boot typically was black and had a stovepipe upper, wide-squared toes, and low heels. Boots could be purchased for as little as $2.75 a pair from Montgomery Ward and Company. If a cowboy wanted to purchase a better made pair of boots, the leather uppers were attached to the soles by hardwood pegs. These types of boots were more expensive, each pair costing between $7.00 - $15.00. If a cowboy wanted the top of the line, he could arrange for made-to-measure boots instead of ready-made boots. The boot heel would change by the 1870s, becoming higher to accommodate narrower stirrups. In this way, the cowboy could more easily clear his foot through the stirrup. Leather loops were also added to the sides of the boots. This additional design allowed the boot to be slipped on with ease. By the 1880s, cowboy boots became more stylish. Fancy stitching was added to the boot uppers.
Education & Frontier Schools
In the Old West, literacy was not a luxury that most adults enjoyed. In fact, many adults couldn’t read or write, particularly during the first half of the nineteenth century. By 1870, educational opportunities were improved by the employment of organized school districts.
The Schoolhouse
The early schoolhouse was the family cabin using whatever education materials were at hand. In most homes, the Bible was the text for learning to read and write. Frontier educators, usually the children’s mother or a literate neighbor, used the dirt floor of the cabin for a blackboard. Children could learn the letters of the alphabet and math problems using a stick to write in the dirt.
To employ a teacher and build a schoolhouse for the children of the area depended on one thing: financial resources of the residents. Donation of land and assistance in constructing a schoolhouse cabin was a community effort.
Inside the Schoolhouse
Wood burning stoves (like the one in the photograph) were placed inside the schoolhouse to ward off the cold of winter. The distribution of heat was uneven to say the least. Students seated closest to the stove could get quite warm while those furthest away may feel a chill. Despite the less than perfect environmental conditions by today’s standards, students attended school to learn.
Common Textbooks of the 19th Century
McGuffey’s ReadersYouth’s CompanionDictionaryAlmanac
The materials available for students varied. Most had a spelling book and the teacher had several books available for teaching. Students were required to supply their own slates, tablets, rulers and pencils.
Transportation to School
Attendance by students to school depended on weather and time of year, particularly in farming communities. Rarely did parents accompany their children to school. Students either walked, rode one of the family’s horses or drove a team and wagon. The schoolhouse was usually centrally located so it was accessible by the children of the community.
REFERENCES
Everyday Life in the Wild West: From 1840-1900Candy MoultonWriter’s Digest Books, 1999
Is There A Doctor in the House?”
The 21st century equivalent of medical assistance out West during the 19th century simply did not exist. Although a trained physician might be located, it was more likely that families relied on the knowledge obtained through hard experience or from others. The townspeople might consider it a blessing if a physician decided to set up his medical practice in their town.
The Doctor Comes to Town
If a town was fortunate, a medically trained doctor settled in the area and established a practice. In some regions, a doctor was required to register with the local county clerk prior to settling in a practice. However, this was not enforced until late in the century.
Establishment of a medical practice was straightforward for the doctor. He simply moved into town, opened an office and hung up his sign. Sometimes he ran an ad in the local newspaper to announce his arrival. In a small town, word-of-mouth was likely the best source of advertisement.
Some physicians set up their practice in a drug store or pharmacy owned by another doctor.
Active in Town Jobs
Medically trained doctors were held in higher esteem in the towns of the West. Their participation in many other responsibilities was common, particularly because they were better educated than some of the citizenry. The town physician may also own a store, bank, or freighting company. Whatever their tasks, the physician of the town was an important part of the community.
“That will cost you one pig or two chickens...”
Payment for services rendered was not always in currency. Often a patient would repay the doctor by labor or tangible goods such as garden produce. Chickens, cows and horses would be readily accessible in farming communities to give the doctor for medical services. In lieu of cash, an individual or family would utilize whatever was available at the time to pay the doctor for his medical service.
Traveling to the Patient
Enjoying the benefits of having a medically trained doctor in town was one thing. Getting access to the physician in time of need was another. Until the telephone was invented, summoning the doctor could be a time consuming or difficult feat depending on distance and time of year. The person sent to notify the doctor would either run or ride a horse to the doctor’s home or office. In turn, the physician would have to travel to the patient.
In the West, doctors typically rode a horse (if a distance outside of town) to reach their patient. When it became possible, a doctor utilized a wagon or buggy for transportation. This form of transport allowed greater comfort and more space to carry medical supplies, lantern, shovel and wire cutters to pass through fencing.
Were all Doctors, Doctors?
One might think that all doctors in the West were medically trained, but this was not always true. In fact, any person could be a “doctor” whether he received formal medical training or not. A medical practice law was not established in California until 1866. The first state to create a board of medical examiners was Texas in 1873.
Sufficed to say, although a physician might move into town and set up shop, the townspeople would have to hope he was medically trained.
REFERENCES
Everyday Life in the Wild West: From 1840-1900Candy MoultonWriter’s Digest Books, 1999
May I Offer You A Drink?
Would you be surprised to know that infants and children drank beer, whiskey and wine in the Old West?
Why would a child be permitted to drink such beverages? The reality was that beer actually contained a low alcoholic content. In addition, water supplies were seldom untainted. The possibility of obtaining a waterborne disease was very high. Drinking plain water could be down right dangerous to your health!
Coffee and tea were other beverages that were commonly consumed. Coffee became the preferred drink by 1830. It is interesting to note that many frontier families actually made their coffee from a variety of grains in lieu of the coffee bean.
REFERENCES
Everyday Life in the Wild West: From 1840-1900Candy MoultonWriter’s Digest Books, 1999
Ranching: The Cattleman’s Branding Iron
Branding was the way the owner of the cattle could be identified. The brand, which took for form of a symbol or letters, was produced by a hot iron forged with the appropriate brand and then burned onto the animal’s flesh. The brand design was registered with the county prior to branding the owner’s cattle.
The location of the brand was usually on the left hind and fore quarters. Cattle were generally branded when they were young.
The First Cattle in America
The Spanish conquistador, Hernando Cortes, brought the first cattle to the New World in the 16th century, around 1540. The brand Cortes used was three crosses.
The Maverick
The term “maverick” means an adult animal that is not branded. This word was derived back in the 1840s when a Texas cattle rancher named Sam Maverick “refused to brand his herd.” His cattle roamed about the range without a brand, and he soon discovered that the neighboring ranches claimed the cattle as their own.
Ranchers were quick to brand their cattle for fear of losing them should they stray from the herd. Rustlers were particularly adept at altering a brand to cover up their rustling.
The Cattle States Were...
Western & Southwestern States: Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas.
Other Cattle Ranching States: Colorado, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
REFERENCES
Discovering America’s Past: Customs, Legends, History, and Lore of Our Great Nation, Reader’s Digest, 1993
Collier’s Encyclopedia, Volume 4Collier’s, 1995
Stagecoach Travel & Etiquette
Traveling by stagecoach in nineteenth century America was an arduous undertaking for the passenger. Road conditions were generally poor. Although major thoroughfares were slightly better, secondary and rural roads promised muddy, rutted roads sprinkled with horse dung. Drivers were known for their drunkenness. Combining a driver’s impatience and bad roads, passengers undertaking a long trip would expect the stagecoach to turnover at least once.
The Omaha Herald, 1877, provides some interesting commentary into stagecoach etiquette. The Omaha Herald advised that the best seat inside a stagecoach was next to the driver. The passenger would experience less bumping and jarring. Travelers should get out and walk about when so instructed by the driver without complaint. Passengers should not complain about the food at the stations, keep the stage waiting, smoke a pipe in the early morning, swear nor fall on your neighbor’s shoulder while sleeping.
Politics and religion should not be discussed. It was also recommended not to jump out of the coach when a team ran away. The passenger faced greater danger from leaping from the stagecoach then taking his chances by remaining seated.
The Cowboy
The cowboy was truly the Frontiersmen of the west. The type of men attracted to the arduous work of a cowboy were independent and self-reliant men. These men also required courage, spirit, and grit determination to handle the hard work that was a part of their daily life.
The Idealized Cowboy
The life of a cowboy has been idealized and romanticized in Hollywood and fiction. The reality of the life of a North American cowboy was often monotonous, dangerous, and hard work. Most of the time, these men of the west were poorly paid for their work.
The Cattle Boom
The cattle boom of North America was between 1866 and 1887. Cowboys were a breed apart and were needed by the ranchers to run their stock. It was at this time that the cattle barons made their mark in history. The cattle boom didn’t last long, however, as the price for cattle stock collapsed, farmers fenced in the open land, which impeded cattle drives. In addition, the winter of 1886-1887 was so severe, many ranchers lost cattle.
Who Were the Cowboys?
Most of the cowboys were young, most being Anglo-American. Other cowboys were Mexican, African, and Native American.
Up until around 1885, most cowboys were viewed as wild and drunken men who were generally poor. When the profession of “cowboy” died away, thanks to writers and Hollywood, the romanticized cowboy was born.
The Tools of the Cowboy Trade
A Cowboy’s “Hoss”
Origin of “mustang”
From the Spanish word, mestena for horse herd.
A cowboy’s horse was their transportation and way of making a living. Most of the horses were mustangs, a “descendant of runaway Spanish Andalusians” that had bred in the wild. Mustangs were hearty animals who moved well and quick among the cattle. A cowboy could trust his horse to keep him moving among the dangers of the cattle drive.
Did you Know?
It was the landowning Charros and their Vaqueros (cowboys) that first began cattle ranching in Mexico as early as the 1500s. The skills and procedures followed in cattle ranching was later used by the cowboys in North America.
The Saddle
A cowboy spent hours in the saddle, sometimes as much as 15 hours a day. The saddle was a critical piece of equipment owned by a cowboy. A fine saddle could cost as much as a month’s wages, but was the most important item owned by a cowboy. A well-made and cared for saddle could last a cowboy thirty years. Now, that’s a long time!
Origin of the saddle
The saddles utilized by North American cowboys originated from the 16th century Spanish war saddle. A saddle form was made of wood and covered with wet rawhide. The saddle contains three primary components:
Pommel: the horn and fork at the front of the saddle
Seat: the place between the pommel and cantle where you sit
Cantle: the raised part of the seat at the back
The cowboy has become a legend in America today. Their hard work, determination, and courage make them a romantic hero both in real life and fiction.
REFERENCES
“Cowboy”, by David H. MurdochAlfred A. Knopf, New York, 1993
The Journey West
The 1800s were a time for adventure and opportunity. Traveling out west was a place for the restless, poor, or ambitious men and women to make a new life. Making the decision to cross the hundreds of miles of open prairie was indeed an arduous one. Transportation consisted of putting your supplies, possessions and family into a wagon and taking the trek westward.
The Oregon Trail
Groups headed out west by following specific routes, the most well known route being the Oregon Trail. The route led to Oregon’s Willamette Valley with one section directed to California. The route commenced in Missouri and the pioneer traveled over 2,000 miles arriving in Oregon about four months later.
The Oregon Trail’s earliest travelers were adventurers, missionaries, and fur traders.
Pioneers began using the Oregon Trail in the early 1840s. Nearly 14,000 people had made the trek west by 1848. Groups continued to travel west through the 1860s. By the time the railroad was installed in 1869, travelers could travel west in comparative ease and comfort.
REFERENCES
West By Covered Wagon, Dorothy Hinshaw PatentWalker & Company, New York, NY, 1995
The Western Frontier Woman
The Benefit of Marriage for the Frontier Man
Marriageable females were as valuable as gold to the western male. The men that traveled west were anxious to find a wife for a variety of reasons. A companion to share conversation and the challenges of the rugged open spaces was one reason men wed. The laws also promoted the state of marriage and the expansion west.
The Donation Land Act of 1850 in the Oregon Territory provided a husband and wife with more land than a bachelor would receive. In addition to being a helpmate for the arduous labor of day-to-day living, children could come from the union. Commencing at an early age, children were put to work doing chores around the family homestead. In a word, a woman fulfilled her traditionally stated role as spouse, companion, mother and homemaker.
The Wedding
Women brought the ceremony and social interaction of weddings to the West. The wedding gave women the opportunity to join together for a social event. The relative isolation and daily grind of hard work did not allow for the frequent social calling done back East.
By the late 1890s, the wedding ceremony had taken on a more standard proceeding. A couple had their wedding in the local church decorated with flowers, ribbons and an organist. Upon receiving their marriage certificate, it would be displayed in the home. Some marriage certificates could be quite fancy. Photographs of the bride and groom could be placed on the certificate, colored flowers and pictures might also adorn the certificate.
The Challenges for a Frontier Wife
The challenges facing a frontier wife were numerous. A woman might be separated from her family and friends. Isolation was a common circumstance. Children were born at home, sometimes without the support of another woman. The children that survived to the age of schooling did not have access to schools and churches. The frontier wife battled the ever-changing weather conditions (droughts, blizzards, dust storms, and heat) in conjunction with the backbreaking work.
Some of the chores for a frontier wife would include sewing, cooking, washing, feeding the chickens, tending the garden, and being a mate to her husband and mother to her children.
In general, the frontier wife took the demands of her life in stride. There was no time to consider your labor nor was it proper to drown in self-pity.
Folk Remedies
Mosquitoes: Vinegar and salt were blended into a paste. This smelly concoction kept the mosquitoes away.
Salt: Salt could be used as a toothpaste.
Gunpowder: Warts were combated by applying gunpowder to the area.
Goose grease/skunk oil/lard: These items were utilized as liniments.
Home Cures for Illness
The woman of the frontier had to become knowledgeable in medicinal care for her husband and children. Doctors might not be accessible nor may they have any additional knowledge than their patient. In some circumstances, a woman recalled the folk wisdom of her youth and employed the “cure” to her own family.
Historians have found remedies for a number of ailments written in the diaries of frontier women. By today’s standards, the cure was worse than the affliction. Rattlesnake bites could be attended to by drinking a teaspoon of ammonia diluted in water. A sore throat would be soothed by dampening a teaspoonful of sugar with turpentine.
REFERENCES
The Old West: The WomenText by Joan Swallow ReiterTime-Life Books, Alexandria, Virginia, 1978
Wagons of the Frontier
The Covered Wagon was the common form of overland transportation in the Old West. It comprised of an undercarriage with front and back wheels made of wood with iron rims. Long curved wooden pieces called bows were connected to the sides of the wagon so that a heavy canvas could be put into place. The canvas was treated with linseed oil to ensure its water-resistant quality.
Who were the wagon builders?There were three primary wagon builders during the Old West.J. Murphy CompanySt. Louis, Missouri
Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing CompanySouth Bend, Indiana
Peter SchuttlerChicago, Illinois
The animals used to pull the Covered Wagon varied. A settler could use a team of oxen, mules or horses. Oxen traveled at a slower pace while mules possessed greater endurance than horses. The benefit of using a team of oxen was their stamina and they grazed off the land. Mules and horses traveled faster, but grain was required as a supplement to their grazing diet.
Other Wagons of the Frontier
There were a variety of other wagon types the people of the Old West used.
Buckboards and Buggies: These types of wagons were offered in a variety of styles and types. The wagons were typically lightweight. Some were as simple as two-wheeled carts while others were fancier surreys with coverings. (Remember in the musical Oklahoma and the song, “...the surrey with the fringe on the top?”)
Celerity Wagons: These wagons were lighter weight stagecoaches. They had canvas roller flaps that covered the windows. The canvas covers could easily be rolled back so passengers could view the scenery during travel.
Chuck Wagon: The chuck wagon is a familiar “prop” in movies and stories. Chuck wagons were used on cattle trails and on ranches after 1866. The chuck wagon was used to hall water, tools, and the important utensils the cook used to cook. The Studebaker Company eventually began to build chuck wagons and charged from $75 to $100 per wagon.
REFERENCES
Everyday Life in the Wild West: From 1840-1900Candy MoultonWriter’s Digest Books, 1999
Weather & Frontier Life
Weather conditions faced by frontier families:
FloodsCold weather in the winterBlizzardsScorching heat in the summerDroughtsFireInsects
The weather on the frontier dictated the actions of the men and women who toiled on the prairie. Weather influenced what they wore, where they lived, how successful their crops were, and if they would fair well for the coming season.
Facing A Fight
The settlers of the prairie knew they could not stand against Mother Nature without making plans for when her fury was released. Storm cellars were built to protect themselves from tornadoes and cyclones. Some of Mother Nature’s natural disasters could not be thwarted.
A devastating grasshopper infestation occurred in Kansas and Nebraska in 1873, 1874 and 1893. A story in the Homesteader printed in July 1874 stated that the “air is filled with them, the ground is covered with them...” The reporter mentioned that individuals could not walk the street without a grasshopper flying into your face.
Blizzards of the 19th Century
Blizzards could be particularly deadly for the prairie settler. Several blizzards in the late 19th century are recorded in their severity to both human and animal life.
The first is the “Great Die-Up” blizzard of 1886-1887. Heavy snows and frigid temperatures followed by warm weather then cold created ice ranges buried in snow. The name “Great Die-Up” was given because “hundreds of thousands of head of cattle perished on the open ranges from Canada to Texas.”
A second blizzard known as the “School Children’s Blizzard of 1888” struck the Northern and Plains regions of the United States. The storm came suddenly with no warning. Some children and teachers remained at school while others tried to find safety in haystacks. There were some that never found shelter and died.
It is interesting to note that the “first use of the word ‘blizzard’” was written on March 14, 1870 in an Iowa newspaper.
A Deep-Boned Determination
The settlers of the 19th century had a deep-boned determination to carve out a life for themselves despite the challenges wrought by Mother Nature. We can learn a lesson by their example. They had a dream and overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve it.