Fun Fact from a Hundred Years Ago: Short Skirts Are Healthier

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

Friday, September 27, 1912: Nothing to write.

1912 dress — “Short” skirt for walking (Ladies Home Journal, July 1912)

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share some fun information I found in a hundred-year-old book about how short skirts—that is skirts which were five inches from the ground—were healthier. Who would have guessed?

The present vogue of having the walking skirt five inches from the ground is an excellent one, as it not only considerably diminishes the weight of the skirt, but it interferes much less with the forward swing of the leg in walking.

The chief exertion in walking is caused by the raising of the foot and lifting it to the point at which it goes forward and downward. By any artificial shortening of the step, such as is caused, for instance, by long skirts, it requires much more muscular effort to walk the same distance. Besides which, there is the additional friction of the skirts, which is increased by the slightest wind.

Another most important reason for not wearing long dresses on the street is that they stir up the dust and collect microbes, and thus contribute materially to the dissemination of the germs of disease and subject the wearer and her family to the risk of infection.

Personal Hygiene and Physical Training for Women (1911) by Anna M. Galbraith

Several Variations of an Old Saying

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

Thursday, September 26, 1912: Excuse me, but you know there is an old saying: Don’t talk when you’ve nothing to say, so I’ll just change it to: don’t write, when you’ve nothing to write.

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

To keep with the theme—

Don’t blog when you’ve nothing to blog. 🙂

Bad Grade in Geometry

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

Wednesday, September 25, 1912: Was rather surprised at the mark I made yesterday. Didn’t think I would hardly get that. Twas the kind that dummies get.

What did Grandma consider a bad grade? . . . D? . . . F?

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

Whew, I’m surprised that Grandma did poorly on this geometry test. She never worried about the upcoming test during the days preceding the test, and the previous day she’d merely written, “I had a test in geometry.” and then moved on to other topics.

Usually Grandma had a pretty good sense of how she was doing in classes, and if she needed to study—though sometimes she never actually got around to studying.

Two Old Mental Math Tricks for Adding Fractions

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

Tuesday, September 24, 1912: It is raining now. I guess or was. Had an exam in Geometry. Took up Arithmetic today. Didn’t have to but I chose to do so.

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

High school courses apparently were only a month of so long a hundred years ago.

I wonder why Grandma decided to take Arithmetic if it wasn’t required. Maybe she enjoyed doing mental math.

Here are two mental math tricks for adding fractions that I found in a hundred year old textbook:

Example 1: Add two fractions whose numerators are 1.

Solution: Add the denominators, and place the sum over the product of the denominators.

Example 2: Add two fractions whose numerators are alike and greater than 1.

Solution: Add the denominators and multiply the sum by the numerator of either of the fractions, and write the product over the product of the denominators.

Source: Kimball’s Commercial Arithmetic (1911)

If you like math, you might also enjoy these previous posts:

An Old Mental Math Trick

Odd, Unusual, and Strange Math Problems

More Odd, Unusual, and Strange Math Problems

Cube Root Word Problems

1911 Algebra Problems: The Lusitania and Molasses

Old Math Problems

Building the Brick Road Between Watsontown and McEwensville

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

Monday, September 23, 1912: Walked the muddy way to school this morning. Don’t have much to write these days.

Recent photo of the road that went between McEwensville and Watsontown in Grandma’s day. . . Once dirt, then brick, and now paved. . .

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

With all the mud, it’s a good thing that Grandma got new rubber overshoes the previous Saturday. September, 1912 must have been a rainy month. On September 18 Grandma also wrote about the muddy walk to school.

1912 was the last year that Grandma had to walk the entire way on dirt roads. She lived between McEwensville and Watsontown, and a brick road was apparently under construction that would replace the old dirt road.

According to George Wesner in History in McEwensville (1976):

The brick road leading from McEwensville to Watsontown was one of the first of its kind to be built in Pennsylvania. Construction was begun at McEwsville in 1912 and completed the following year. . .

It was built by the construction firm Fiss and Christiana of Shamokin, Pennsylvania. In grading, the ground was moved by horse-drawn dump wagons which were loaded by manual labor. While some local people were employed most of the laborers were Italian immigrants. Very few could speak English. They were quartered in a labor camp which was located in a ravine on the farm of Isiah Elliot, now owned by Samuel Raup. All the materials, sand, gravel, brick and cement were hauled by teams and horses. The only mechanical equipment used was a steam roller. . .

On an occasion when a period of bad weather had caused the operation to run behind schedule, the contractors, in an effort to catch up, requested that they work on Sunday. . . .

I wonder if the wet days that Grandma wrote about during September 1912 were when the road-building crews got behind schedule.

Grandma would have walked this road to school every day while it was being transformed from a muddy dirt road to fancy brick one. It sounds like a major activity to me, yet she never thought it worth mentioning in the diary. Sigh. . .

How Does Catechize Differ From Catechism?

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

Sunday, September 22, 1912: Went to S.S. this afternoon and attended Catechize.

Recent photo of the site where the McEwensville Baptist Church once stood.

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

When I read this diary entry, I got stuck on a simple vocabulary question. I remember going to “catechism” class when I was in middle school. How does “catechize” differ from “catechism”? Is it a different part of speech?

The Free Online Dictionary defines catechize as “to teach the principles of Christian dogma, discipline, and ethics by means of questions and answers.”

While catechism is “a book giving a brief summary of the basic principles of Christianity in question-and-answer form.”

Grandma was 17-years-old when she wrote this entry. I’m surprised that she hadn’t completed catechize and joined the church when she was in her early teens.

Mother Remodeled Skirt

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

Saturday, September 21, 1912: Ma made over a skirt for me. Got a pair of rubbers today.

wils36346.i — From Bedell Company advertisement in November, 1912 issue of Ladies Home Journal.

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

I guess that Grandma’s mother was trying to save about $1.98 by making over the skirt. I can’t remember the last time I remodeled a skirt . . . or dress. (Actually, I don’t think that I’ve ever remodeled one.) Yet, Grandma and her mother did it regularly.

On June 3, 1912, Grandma wrote:

I am trying to remodel a skirt which was once the property of the benevolent Ruthie. I’ll know whether I’ll wear it or not after it’s finished.

And, on February 24, 1912 she wrote:

I fixed over a dress for myself this afternoon. It was one of my Aunt Annie’s cast-offs. I had one trying time a getting the waist and skirt together. I have it fixed now and tried it on to see the result. I’m not so much pleased with my sewing. It seems rather short in the back.

Grandma sounded like she wasn’t very satisfied with either of her remodeling efforts, but she didn’t express any similar qualms about the skirt her mother remodeled. Apparently her mother was more proficient at sewing than she was.

—-

On September 18, Grandma mentioned walking to school through the rain and mud—hopefully her new rubber overshoes made the trek slightly less arduous the next time it rained.