18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Monday, June 2, 1913:  About the same as any other day. Didn’t do anything of note.

SIGN BALKAN WAR TREATY

Delegates of Turkey and the Allies in Accord

London, May 31.—The preliminary treaty of peace was signed at St. James palace by the delegates of all the Balkan allies and of Turkey.

Sir Edward Grey, the British foreign secretary, presided at the conference as he did at the previous debates, in the capacity of honorary president, and opened the proceedings with an explanation of Europe’s attitude and of the necessity of insisting that there be no further delay.

The powers will not, however, be able to indulge in unalloyed self congratulations as the outlook in the Balkans is marred by the reports of continued warlike measures and even of conflicts between the allies. A dangerous temper is prevailing both in Servia and in Bulgaria.

All the efforts of Russia to bring about peace between Bulgaria and Servia apparently have failed, and the worst is still feared. Meanwhile the quarrelsome allies are throwing enormous bodies of troops into Macedonia for the purpose of occupying disputed territory.

Bulgarian artillery at Prava opened fire on the Greek positions in the directions of Eleuthera, according to the Exchange Telegraph company’s representative in Athens.

The Bulgarian commander refused to enter into negotiations with the Greek commander to stop firing. Owing to this clash a part of the Greek fleet has been sent to Eleuthera.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Grandma’s world often seems so small.  The diary provides little evidence that she was aware of happenings across the US and around the world.

But the newspaper that Grandma would have read, the Milton Evening Standard, regularly reported national and world events.

For example, the previous day  the paper contained the above article about a peace treaty–it’s called a war treaty in the headline, but the text says it’s a peace treaty– that was signed by the Balkan countries and Turkey.

The article indicates that the treaty may not have been totally successful—and obviously over the longer run it failed since World War I began a little over a year later due to continued unrest in the Balkan countries.  The war was triggered when Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated in Sarajevo, Serbia on June 28, 1914.

An aside—it’s interesting how the spelling of several cities and countries have changed across the years. In the old article:

–Serbia was spelled Servia.

–Prague was spelled Prava.

–And, I’m not quite sure what Eleuthera referred to in the article (“. . . the Greek fleet has been sent to Eleuthera”), but I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t the island in the Bahamas.  🙂

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Saturday, May 24, 1913:  Went to Sunday School this morning. Was rather lonesome this afternoon.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

Did Grandma ever play with her 8-year-old brother Jimmie when she was feeling bored?

Did Jimmie have a play room filled with his toys? . . . or (and I know that it’s a stretch) maybe a play house?

There was an article on “New Ideas in Children’s Playhouses” in the  June, 1913 issue of Ladies Home Journal.

A little latticed playhouse covered with a grapevine which keeps it cool.

This is what it looks like inside. What a delightful place to play school!

A portable playhouse that may be moved from one part of the yard to another, so that when it is too sunny in one spot it may be moved into the shade.

18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today: 

Thursday, May 22, 1913:  Went to Watsontown this afternoon. It was rather muddy, and my shoes were a sight.

Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:

It must have recently rained. A hundred years ago, you couldn’t instantly get good weather information via the internet or television—but accurately predicting the weather was important for farm families.

Did Grandma use old weather proverbs and sayings to forecast the weather?

Here’s what a 1913 article in her local newspaper had to say about weather proverbs:

OLD PROVERBS ON WEATHER ARE TRUE

Ancient Sayings Based on Experience Are Approved by Uncle Sam’s Scientific Investigators

The idea that old weather proverbs and traditional natural signs are of no value in these days of scientific weather forecasting is not sustained by such an eminent authority as W.J. Humphreys, professor of meteorological physics in the United States Bureau.

He gives credit to the weather prescience of farmers, fishermen, woodsmen and others who make a practice of depending on natural signs to give them knowledge of impending weather changes.

Quoting the jingle about a sailor’s warning and a sailor’s delight, Professor Humphreys says:

“If the evening sky, not far up but near the western horizon, is yellow, greenish, or some other sort wave-length color, then all the greater the chance for clear weather, for these colors indicate ever less condensation and therefore drier air than does red.”

Professor Humphreys says a good word for such old-time proverbs as:

Frost year, fruit year

Year of snow, fruit will grow

A year of snow, a year of plenty

“That these and similar statements commonly are true,” he writes, “is evident from the fact that a more or less continuous covering of snow, incident to a cold winter, not only delays the blossoming of fruit trees until after the probable season of killing frosts but also prevents that alternate thawing and freezing so ruinous in fruit. In short, as another proverb puts it, a late spring never deceives.

The appearance of the moon depends upon the conditions of the atmosphere. Clear moon, frost soon, and moonlit night has the heaviest frosts and others of this class are true enough he says, because on the clearest nights the cooling of the earth’s surface by radiation is greatest, and hence most likely to cause, through the low temperature reached, precipitation in the form of dew or frost.

Milton Evening Standard (June 21, 1913)