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Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Clara Morris
Clara Morris - a terrible surgical operation - The wonderful surgical operation performed on the person of Clara Morris, the well known New York actress, in Paris, is described in a letter from a friend of that lady. "Miss Morris’ disease was curvature of the spine.Treated years ago, it could probably have been arrested, but it was a crisis in her profession, and upon success in surmounting many obstacles, her whole future seemed to depend, and she could not spare time for a medical treatment.
A sea voyage failed entirely to produce any change for the better, and a list of the highest medical authorities abroad confirmed her worst fears and condemned her to a horrible operation, the same which Charles Sumner submitted to, for the cure of the same disease. Its main feature is the burning of the flesh of the back from the neck down to the waist with red hot irons.
The operation was performed in Paris, in the presence of Mrs. Worthington, Miss Gabrielle Greeley and Sir William Belmore, the attending physician. Miss Gabrielle Greeley also writes a letter to a New Yorker in which she says "Poor Clara was obliged to sit on a low chair with her back bared, and she went through the operation with her face pale and rigid as marble. Dr. Belvin lit his furnace, and the roaring of the flames that was to heat the iron to a white heat in a few seconds was dreadful to hear, and while this was going on Professor Ball marked with a pencil the line the iron was to follow on either side of the spine.
Every touch of the pencil sent a thrill through the delicate frame of the poor victim, but the Professor had scarcely ended making the penciled marks when with a flash the iron was applied. It was dreadful. The white point seemed to sink an inch into the quivering form, and it was all over. The doctor said it was a wonderful exhibit of nerves."
Gazette & Courier - Monday, September 20, 1875
Obituaries
Died, in Vernon, Vt. Aug. 12, John Stebbins Esq., aged 81. He was the son of Eliakim and Rebekah Hawks Stebbins, and the grandson of Col. John Hawks, formerly of Deerfield, Mass., who was known to history as the "hero of Fort Massachusetts" [located in North Adams], from the fact of his having [?] two soldiers in the Indian Wars of 1746, and successfully defended it for 48 hours, against a combined force of 800 French and Indians, who surrounded and sought to take it. Mr. Stebbins represented his native town in the Legislature 4 years, and held the office of Justice of the Peace and other positions for a great many years.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 30, 1875
The rage for short dresses
A song which Mme. La Mode is at present much engaged in singing is:
"If your foot is pretty, show it".
[OK I can’t resist sharing one verse of this wonderful 1857 ditty "sung by W.N. Smith, the great bone-player of Bailey’s Circus"
If your foot is pretty, show it,
No matter where, or when;
Let all fair maidens know it:
The foot takes all the men:
The face, so fair and lovely,
May charm the gazer’s eye,
But if the foot is homely,
He’ll quickly pass you by,
He’ll quickly,--He’ll quickly,
He’ll quickly pass you by.
See the rest of the lyrics at the Library of Congress’s American Memory site].
Dresses are growing shorter and shorter in front; to that extent it is almost as impossible not to know what sort of hose a lady wears. I cannot speak enthusiastically of this fashion. A woman’s charms are hightened [i.e. heightened] by their partial concealment, not their full exposure, and the poet who sang of a lady whose name I forget:
"Her feet beneath her petticoat
Like little mice stole in and out"
or words there or thereabouts, would perhaps have considered the lady’s feet regular full grown rats if he’d had a square look at them. [;-) ] And modesty - how about that? I remember at the time the short skirts, disclosing the very tops of boots, were worn in Paris. Eugenie, the lovely Empress, and Napoleon III went to pay a state visit to the sovereigns of Austria.
When Napoleon and Eugenie arrived at Vienna, they found Franz Joseph and the beautiful Empress Elizabeth awaiting them at the railway depot. Eugenia wore a delicious little short costume, in which she looked "ravissante", of course, but the Empress Elizabeth, unaffected by the latest French mode, wore the usual long dress of women. Eugenie sprang into the imperial carriage, making a display so lavish and beautiful of sky-hued hose of symmetrical proportions that such another would have secured an engagement to any ballet dancer on the spot, and then the lovely Elizabeth gathered up her skirts and placed her feet upon the carriage step.
Instantly Franz Joseph drew her drapery from her hand, and passing it closely about her, exclaimed "Take care, your Majesty, you might show your feet". Rather a smart speech, but I have often wondered whether such underhanded or underfooted slaps at guests were considered the correct thing in the Viennese code of gentility.
There’s no telling what Franz Joseph would say if he could see some of the women who prance up and down Long Branch piazzas. Might show their feet indeed! They do. And more. The first glance at these women with skirts so curiously short in front gives one an erroneous impression. Who says there’s danger of the American population fading out before the foreign cohorts’ prolific hosts, when __? Oh, no, quite the wrong tack - that’s the way they wear the dresses now. pardon, Madame! (Olive Logan’s Long Branch Letter).
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 30, 1875
Shelburne Falls
(Shelburne Falls) Mon. the following accidents occurred in this place: Mr. Lupear, a Frenchman from Griswoldville, badly fractured and dislocated the elbow of his right arm. Walter Winslow had the misfortune to badly injure one of his fingers, while at work in H.S. Swan's furniture establishment. Both the accidents were cared for by Dr. Charles M. Wilson.
Sat., the 21st, was pay day for part of the railroad help, which, as a natural sequel, was followed by a row, in which one man received a bad injury in the face from a stone thrown by one of the parties engaged in the fracus [i.e. fracas]. The injured man was attended by Dr. C.M. Wilson.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 30, 1875
News of the week
Tom Thumb has a rival in Admiral Tom Trump, a Dutchman of 26, who is 6 inches shorter than the American dwarf and weighs but 26 pounds. He is very intelligent, and speaks 5 languages fluently, English, French, Dutch, German and Italian.
[See more in the Aug. 23, 1875 article entitled "A rival of Tom Thumb" in the New York Times Online Archives].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, August 9, 1875
A French view of Waterloo
Long article from the 8th volume of the "Correspondence de P.J. Proudhon". [See the New York Times online index of June 10, 1875. Unfortunately the scanned PDF file for this article is very poor, atypical for the NYT].
Gazette & Courier - Monday, July 26, 1875
Turners Falls
The logs are beginning to run in considerable numbers, and there is a big jam at the "French King" some 4 or 5 miles up the River. The Turners Falls Company are removing the rocks thrown into the log way last winter, by the blasting for the fish-way, as the drivers threatened to send their logs over the dam, if the "way" was not cleared.
A widow named Domine has just died in the department of Gironde, France, at the age of 107, leaving two sisters, one of whom is 103, and has a daughter age 80, and another is 101, having a son 71 years old.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 14, 1875
News about home: Greenfield items
A strolling band of French Canadians have been excursioning in this vicinity the past week, a la Gypsies, swapping horses, selling baskets, telling fortunes, or doing anything to turn an honest or a dishonest penny.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 14, 1875
A lunatic asylum in Nice was recently burned
A lunatic asylum in Nice was recently burned, and the inmates went wild with delight. They walked into the flames whooping and hurrahing like young revelers at a banquet. Several were burned to death before they could be rescued.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, June 14, 1875
Deerfield
The old Ware store and lot which has been in the Ware family for more than 70 years, has recently been purchased by George Sheldon for the purpose of securing an eligible site for a Memorial Hall for the P.V.M. Association. This store stands upon a spot of high historical interest. It is located on the south east corner of the home lot granted Rev. John Williams, the first minister of Deerfield, by the town in 1686. On this spot he was living on the memorable 20th of Feb. of 1704, whence he and the surviving members of his family were dragged into a terrible captivity. His house, which was burned, stood about 6 rods in the rear of the store, the common being at that date 20 rods wide.
/ Major Elijah Williams, son of Mr. Williams, succeeded his father in the possession of the homestead, and from 1740 until his death, he kept a store on this spot. During the French and Indian wars, he was commissary for the military forces of this region, and from this store most of the scouting parties of the Upper Conn. Valley were fitted out, as well as the troops that marched to the front in the Canada campaign. On the death of Major Williams, the property passed to his son John, "Esquire John" as he was usually called. He continued in trade here with his sister and other partners until about 1802, when he sold the store to Orlando Ware, having previously sold the rest of the house and rest of the lot to Thomas Dickinson or his son Consider.
/ The Registry of Deeds for the northern Hampshire district was in this building as early as 1791. Esq. John, George Ephraim Hoyt and Elijah Williams (Uncle Josh) were successively Registers of Deeds here. Esq. John administered justice. And here were several lawyers' offices, and the social library was kept here many years. It is to be hoped a complete history of this spot will be given by the President of the P.V.M. Association, who is now occupied in selling off the stock in the store, preparatory to the transfer of the property to the Antiques.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 31, 1875
Horrible disaster
Church burned at Holyoke; frightful loss of life; 79 people burned to death - The most terrible disaster in the history of Western Massachusetts, save the Mill River flood of last May, and one of the worst ever known in New England, occurred in Holyoke Thurs. eve. The French Catholic Church at South Holyoke caught fire about 8 o'clock, while a large congregation was attending the evening services, and so rapidly did the flames spread that a number of people were unable to make their escape, and 66 persons, men, women and children, were burned to death, and a no. of others were fatally burned or wounded, so the total loss of life will reach at least 75.
/ The audience in the church was large. Thee were 700 or 800 people at the service, a very large proportion being women, with but few children and not many men. The vesper service was nearly through, and it was as the priest, Father Dufesne [i.e. Father Dufresne], turned to the altar to consecrate the host that the tragedy began, lightly - as such tragedies do, and at the moment no one who looked on thought of danger. The censer of incense [i.e. censor] kept burning in the shrine of the Virgin at the side of the chancel; by some unkindly current of air flamed up and caught the lace or muslin drapings around the arch enclosing the sacred effigy. A young woman, Ellen or Lend Blair [i.e. Lena Blair], rose in her pew close beside the shrine, and with her fan beat the flames, in a vain endeavor to extinguish them.
/ The flimsy draperies were choice food for the fire which rapidly reached upward to the top of the shrine, caught eagerly at the light pine ceiling, and in a mere moment wrapped the roof above in fringing flame jets and gnawed hungrily along the light galleries. Then all was panic. The assault was instantaneous; it gave no time to deliberate, no time to appreciate the fearful scene http://www.holyokemass.com
b_fire/images/insidechurchlast3.jpg . The survivors of the disaster hardly knew what happened. It was all too swift for thought. The flame ran along the tinder roof as quick as a man could run. Hardly one was there who did not obey the blind instinct of self preservation.
/ In the gallery on the western side, many leaped from the windows upon the scaffolding of the new brick church building beside the old one, and most of the people on the floor chose windows or the inside front doors to escape. All those in the western gallery did escape, for the stairway heading thence to the vestibule was direct and easy. The unfortunate men and women in the eastern gallery had a far different task. The windows were a sheer descent, not only of their height above the floor, but of the embankment on which the church stood, and then the way thence to the vestibule, instead of a straight stairway, was around a sharp double angle. And here, in their hot haste, the unfortunate creatures tripped and fell, one upon another, until the hall beneath was choked with a desperate, struggling, writhing mass of humanity http://www.holyokemass.com
b_fire/images
blood_03.jpg . Meanwhile some had passed toward the rear door that led to the priest's house in the rear, but that too, was speedily invaded by the flames.
/ It took but two minutes. The engines were on hand then, and no time was lost in getting streams of water on the flames, which then encompassed all the sanctuary and burst from the front windows and doors. Then the work of extricating from the burning building the dead and dying began. The firemen, while water poured in above, entered the vestibule, and, covered by the descending torrents, rescued the bodies from the horrid sepulchre before the eastern door and at the foot of the stairs, which formed the death trap of that gallery.
/ The heap of human forms was too high to see the top of it from the doorway, and their struggles and their efforts had ceased. to all appearances there was nothing to save of life, yet the faithful firemen drew forth blackened and unrecognizable forms, scarce bearing the semblance of humanity.They came across occasionally a breathing form, and laid upon the earth nearby, who survived but a few seconds, nor revived to consciousness; stiffened and blackened, their spark of life was not strong enough to last. But most of the bodies were lifeless, and disguised by suffocation or by the fire that charred their garments and their flesh out of all resemblance to what they were.
/ The catastrophe was so sudden, so swift, so pauseless, that few were cool enough to observe its minutiae. The ruins of the church lie now a heap of charred timbers and arches over a hidden floor quite untouched by fire. The priest's house adjoining it in the rear, a mere shell, stands to mark more emphatically the spot. The whole no. of persons known to have lost their lives is 79, nearly all of them mill operatives. Nearly all those who were not burned to death before they were reached, were so severely scorched that they died within a few minutes; 20 so died after being taken out from the ruins. http://www.holyokemass.com
b_fire/images/monats-100dpi.jpg Out of the whole no. only 7 men are known to have perished. Most of the victims were young women from 15 to 25 years old, though some were old women. [See the New York Times article entitled "The Holyoke Disaster", From May 29, 1875. Also known as the Precious Blood Church fire http://www.holyokemass.com
There is to be a resurrection of our cheese factory, Milton M. Mowry is to be the cheese maker, and he has proved himself one of the best at that. How often have I been chagrined at being asked "Why do not you Leyden farmers run your cheese factory?"...Now the advantage of the cheese factory aside from relieving our women of the hard toil of skimming and scalding and salting and spanking [OK, here's a segue. They spank the cheese! This reminds me of playing Farmer in the Dell when I was a kid. After the stanza "The rat takes the cheese" and before "The cheese stands alone", we had a stanza saying "We all pound the cheese", and all the kids pummeled the poor cheese a bit. However I see that this is traditionally not the case - I find only a very few references to "pound the cheese" on the Web. There's a few "beat the cheese" floating around. Wikipedia gives the French version of "le fromage est battu", which means "the cheese is beaten". Go figure!], and many other wearing and annoying things which none but overworked women can appreciate, it takes our milk right into its hospitable embrace just as the hot weather comes on (making good butter making more difficult), enabling the dairymen and dairywomen too, to enjoy a sort of holiday while their principal business keeps right steadily along with undiminished profit, entirely independent of the low prices invariably ruling the butter market at this season and the following 3 months...Anyone who contributes milk can have the whole of his portion in cheese...We have facilities for working 5000 pounds of milk daily, so you need not be afraid of filling us up at once. Caseine.
Gazette & Courier - Monday, May 31, 1875
News of the week
The no, of suicides in the German Army amounted in 1874 to 193, which gives the proportion per 1600 men, of 0.51 annually. This proportion is, in the Austrian Army, 0.85; in the French army, 0.51; in the Belgian 0.45 and in the English Army, 0.38.
Died - on the 17th of April, 1875, at Menton, France, Joseph Bellamy Monroe, aged 18 years. Many friends of the dear boy who has left us have heard with pain that he died in a foreign land, far from home and kindred...Bellamy was a rare boy, so kind and gentle and tender to all he knew, with a love of the beautiful seldom seen in one so young - a true artist born...His remains reached Greenfield on Mon. and were interred in Green River cemetery, by the side of his sister on Fri., with appropriate religious ceremonies.
Rev. Dr. D. Ives, we understand, is remodeling in part the "old homestead" of his wife's childhood, the "Arms Place", putting on a new French roof, etc. This, together with the previous repairs by "Uncle Elijah", will make it most attractive; also by its beautiful location, be a quiet retreat, a temporary rest for the good doctor from his long and arduous labors of a successful ministry. He is now about 72 years of age.
Dr. Wheeler's lectures furnished a fine entertainment to large audiences for 5 evenings. It is seldom our town is favored with a treat of this kind, so attractive and amusing, and yet so full of invaluable instruction. The Doctor's method is that of "object teaching", which renders his lectures especially interesting and useful to children and youth. He has spared no expenses in procuring apparatus for illustration and very few lecturers are as well equipped.
/ Many have declared that a look at his paintings, models and manikin is worth more than the cost of a full course ticket. The latter is a wonderful piece of mechanism which Mr. W. imported from France at an expense of from one to two thousand dollars. Any part or organ of the body, internal or external under consideration, can be taken from this quasi man and when returned seems as well as ever. While instruction is the chief end in these lectures, they are sufficiently well spiced with humorous anecdotes, amusing incidents and sharp and truthful points and hits to give them relish and insure good digestion.
/ Many useful and sensible hints are interspersed respecting diseases and their treatment. We understand the doctor will spend the summer in Leyden, and though being otherwise employed mostly, will do a limited amount of practice. He has several calls to deliver lectures in this vicinity, notwithstanding it is rather out of season.
- Sun, Feb 21, 2010
