Consuming (and Not Consuming) Pills

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

Tuesday, March 14 , 1911:  I received two handkerchiefs today. There were supposed to be a birthday present, but they happened to be a week ahead of time. Anyway they will answer the purpose. Today was a  bit like yesterday. Nothing of interest transpired. I am so tremendously sleepy. Rastus is asleep, I believe, for those bewitching eyes of hers are closed, and she herself is the very image of innocence and gentleness, when asleep, but the image of a thunderstorm when awake. I bought her a box of pills today, but she had to pay for them. It would be a great economy if she would only buy a bbl. Or even a hhd. of pills, for she can and does consume them in large quantities, and mother does also, but I don’t.

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

I flip through a current Marth 2011 issue of Time magazine. It’s chock full of ads for medicines that will help those who are depressed or nervous, can’t sleep, have diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol. Some ads mention possible dependency issues—and the potential need to be weaned off the drug.

Have times changed in the past 100 years? In 1911 newspapers and magazines were also filled with ads for medicines that were supposed to cure lots of problems. However,  there was a lot of concern that patent medicines were either worthless or dangerous. 

A hundred years ago laws were just being put into place that regulated drug sales. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was created in 1906. The Harrison Act, which regulated opiates, wouldn’t be passed until 1914.  

In this entry diary Grandma seems be aware of the dangers of drug use—and proud that she doesn’t consume pills like her mother and sister.

An interesting–though unsettling quote–from a 1910 magazine article that supported drug regulation said:

The report [i.e., the proceedings of a conference on Opium submitted to the U.S. Department of State] shows an enormous growth of the vice in rural districts, especially among wives of farmers, caused mainly by the lack of social diversion. It is said that a large percentage of this class who have a sincere objection to the use of alcohol have become morphine fiends.

“The Move Against Opium”, National Foods Magazine (June 1910)

6 Rules for Mental and Physical Beauty

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

Monday, March 13, 1911:  Alas and alack, things are getting so dry in this diary. What I did today was so unimportant that I will not take the time and trouble to write it down.

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

I picture Grandma allowing her shoulders to droop dejectedly, while feeling that nothing exciting was happening in her life. . .  Maybe she should have tried to follow the rules in the March 15, 1911 issue of Ladies Home Journal:

Now girls, a direct word to you—I mean you girls who think you are the only ugly girls in the world, and who grow morbid and sensitive and allow your shoulders to stoop dejectedly . . . Do you not know that if you follow daily half a dozen simple hygienic rules, in six months the effect on you—both mental and physical—will be so great that you will forget that you ever yearned for the impossible and life will seem after all a very pleasant thing?  But you must have the will power to keep them up, and the earnestness to believe in their ultimate good.

Here are the rules:

First: A daily bath in the tub or with a sponge, with a good, brisk rubbing afterward.

Second: Five minutes spent in deep breathing exercises.

Third: Five minutes’ exercises for the liver.

Fourth: Eight glasses of water a day: two when you get up, two during the morning, two during the afternoon and two before you go to sleep.

Fifth: Seven hours of sleep in a room with open windows.

Sixth: Persistent cheerfulness.

“Other Girls are Pretty: Why Can’t I Be?” Ladies Home Journal, March 15, 1911

In case you aren’t familiar with liver exercises, here’s how they are done:

The exercise for the liver are simple enough and soon become habitual. Girls are very incredulous when I tell them that it is an inactive liver which causes many a complexion trouble. There is something very coarse and unromantic to the average girl about this vulgar allusion. With arms hanging at the sides, bend the body sideways, first to the right and then to the left. Repeat six times. Stand with the heels planted firmly together and the arms hanging at the sides; then lift the right leg until it is as nearly as possible at right angles to the body. Practice six times and repeat with the left leg.

 “Other Girls are Pretty: Why Can’t I Be?” Ladies Home Journal, March 15, 1911

Role of Churches in Rural Revitalization

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

Sunday, March 12, 1911:  Tweet slept with me last night. I was rather restless. Don’t know whether she was the cause or not. This afternoon I went to Sunday school and church, staid for catechize. Besse and Curt were out this afternoon. I guess they just happened to come because we had some ice cream left from dinner.  

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

Grandma faithfully attends Sunday school in the diary. I’m still trying to figure out why the Baptist Church in McEwensville which Grandma apparently attended closed and vanished from the scene a few years later (See February 5 entry).

The Baptist church building was demolished years ago, but it was located somewhere in this section of Main Street.

There were many different denominations and ethnically-based churches scattered across rural America a hundred years ago. And memories were still strong of the ancestors who had migrated to the United States for religious reasons.  Those who traced their ancestry to Germany often attended a Lutheran or Baptist church. The Scot-Irish generally were Presbyterian and so on.

There were a number of church closures early in the 20th century and the McEwensville Baptist probably was caught up in those closures. As the older generation  passed on–and the differences across the various protestant denominations seemed less clear to younger people–many tiny, struggling rural churches closed.

Also, in 1911 national leaders in the United States believed that there was a “rural problem” because so many rural youth were migrating into the cities. The Country Life Commission published a plan for revitalizing the countryside a hundred years ago. The Commission believed that little rural churches with few social activities and members who bickered with members of neighboring churches were part of the problem with rural life—but that churches had a role in revitalizing rural America. (I’ve heard elderly people say that in the old days you knew people didn’t get along if there were more churches in a town than bars.)

The present system of little struggling churches involves great financial and moral waste, divides rural people instead of uniting them. . . Still, federation and cooperation embody the dominant spirit of the age we are now entering . . .

If the church is to play any important part in rural reorganization, it must evolve a program for social betterment and make its ministrations such as will enable it to render effective social service. Only a giving church is a growing church. There are many real needs of rural people which today call for ministration, and the church should set itself the task of finding these and trying to serve them.

Rural Life and Education: A Study of the Rural-School Problem as a Phase of the Rural-Life Problem (1914) by Ellwood Cubberley

That said, in 1911 the McEwensville Baptist Church seems to be meeting Grandma’s needs. She mentions attending church or Sunday school every week in her diary.

Nicknames

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

Saturday, March 11, 1911:  I had to bustle around and do some work today. I did most of it this forenoon and too a rest this afternoon. Helen Wesner alias Tweet was coming down to go along with Rufus to a play at W. tonight and I poor kid had to stay at home.

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

This is the first time in the diary that Grandma referred to Helen Wesner as Tweet—though she’s previously mentioned her. (And, be sure to see the Tweet ‘Tweeting’ posting.)

Grandma calls her sister Ruth Rufus in this entry. Both Ruth and Helen were three years older than Grandma. W. probably refers to the nearby town of Watsontown.

Watsontown Brick Company

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

Friday, March 10, 1911:  Pulled a girl’s ears at school. It was her birthday. Will be glad when mine comes along. Hope tomorrow will prove more stirring than what today had been.

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

Grandma’s sixteenth birthday will be on the first day of spring—March 21. It sounds like she’s already looking forward to it. This is the second time that pulling ears on someone’s birthday has been mentioned in the diary.

____________________

On days when Grandma writes little of interest, I always wish that she’d described her daily routines more. For example, what time did school start each morning? And when Grandma walked to school each morning were there men going in the opposite direction towards jobs in Watsontown?

The road Grandma walked to school each morning. It would have been dirt (or mud) in 1911.

Raymond Swartz, Grandma’s classmate at McEwensville High School and future husband, wrote a short family history many years later. He mentioned working in the Watsontown Brick Plant a few years after he graduated from McEwensville High School.

The next five years I spent working for father on the farm with the exception of three months in the winter of 1918 when I worked at the Watsontown Brick Plant. To do that, it was necessary to get up at four o’clock in the morning in order to get some of the morning chores done on the farm and then leave home to drive a horse and buggy to work about six-fifteen. Work at the plant started at seven o’clock and lasted until five o’clock. Then I drove home and helped with some of the chores in the evening. We worked five hours on Saturdays. For the three months work I received $228.00 which was good wages in those days.

Raymond Swartz

Watsontown Brick Company was founded in 1908, and a hundred years ago other strong young men were probably making the daily trip on the road from McEwensville to Watsontown to earn a good wage for a hard day’s work.

Bricks are still produced in Watsontown and sold nationally. The town is famous for its clay soils that make excellent bricks.

Causes of Catarrh (Colds in the Head)

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

Thursday, March 9, 1911:  I have cold, and a sore nose, but my nose was worse than my cold. I just had to keep rubbing at it all day. It is a beautiful pink now. I didn’t feel very good today. Well who would with a sore nose and a blistered hand.

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

Grandma’s just having a bad week. See yesterday’s post  for more details about Grandma’s blistered hand.

A hundred years ago there a basic understanding that germs caused colds—but the focus was on keeping resistance high so that the germs wouldn’t take root and cause the cold.

CATARRH, COLD IN THE HEAD

Cause—There are many causes of catarrh; sudden change of temperature, too light clothing, sitting in a draught, chilly atmosphere, or anything that will cause a cold in the head. Exposure to cold lowers the resistance of the body to infection, and, what is more interesting still, it has been proved that in regard to various diseases which are known to be caused by micro-organisms, and especially in regard to pneumonia, we may carry the organisms about with us and not suffer, and yet that exposure to cold may at once enable the microbes to take root.

Compendium of Every Day Wants (1908)

Treatments for Scalds and Burns a Hundred Years Ago

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

Wednesday, March 8, 1911: I arose with the feeling this morning that things were sure to go wrong today and they certainly did this forenoon. I had the misfortune to scald my left hand this morning. Be told, if you weren’t careful you had to suffer surely enough. Oh how my hand did burn this morning. I was in agony nearly all forenoon, and then we had examinations too, but every day brings some new pleasure in life to balance with the pain.

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

I guess that Grandma was a bit of a klutz. This is the second time in five weeks that she burned her hand—the previous time was on February 6 when she burned it on the wood or coal stove at school while horsing around. And, on February 19 she’d cut her finger while doing dishes.

Recommended treatments for burns have changed over the past hundred years. The Compendium of Every Day Wants  recommended:

SCALDS AND BURNS

Treatment No. 1.—A good remedy to apply to burns is a mixture of equal parts of linseed oil and lime water. This is shaken and applied by saturating cloths and placing them over the burned places, and over the cloths place cotton batting or flannel. Secure the whole with a light bandage. The air must be kept from all burns. This is of primary importance and they must also be kept warm.

Treatment No. 2.—Burns may be treated with fresh lard, lard oil, sweet oil, vaseline, cold cream or olive oil. Wrap in cotton batting or flannel.

Treatment No. 3.—Carbonate of soda is the best of all remedies in cases of scalds and burns. It may be used on the surface of the burned place, either dry or wet. When applied promptly the sense of relief is magical. It seems to withdraw the heat, and with it the pain, and the healing process commences.

Treatment No. 4.—A coating of wheat flour or cornstarch can be used if the soda is not handy, but if the skin is open, better use linseed oil, olive oil, or vaseline.

Compendium of Every Day Wants (1908)