16-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Sunday, October 1, 1911:
Can the beauty of October be rivaled,
And the glories of summer outvie,
And the scenes of the Autumn forgotten,
Because they are doomed to die.
Oh you dreary days of autumn. It rained almost all afternoon. Papa and Ma went away visiting this morning. Took Jimmie along to be sure. Went to Sunday School this morning. Carrie was over this afternoon.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
On the first day in each month Grandma included a poem. This poem suggests that summer must be a better time of the year than October (autumn).
Today I learned a new vocabulary word. Outvie means to be more of a rival than another.
Some words that were commonly used a hundred years ago are now seldom used or in some cases are even archaic.