Cartoon Making Fun of Suffragettes

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

Friday, March 14, 1913: Nothing doing.

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll share an old cartoon about suffragettes that appeared in the April 4, 1914 issue of the Watsontown Record and Star.

Today it’s hard to perceive why anyone would think that women shouldn’t have the right the vote—it’s interesting to get a sense of the opposite perspective from this cartoon.

The Watsontown Record and Star is a long defunct newspaper from a town very near to where Grandma lived. I’ve only ever seen a few issues of it. But it probably was a newspaper that Grandma regularly read, and it probably reflected commonly held opinions in her community.

We’ve come a long way!!

Divorce Rate: 1913 and 2013

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

Thursday, March 13, 1913: Nothing doing.

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much a hundred years ago today, I’ll go off on another tangent–

I’ve been reading some Edith Wharton books from the early 20th century—and one of the themes in her writing is unhappy marriages and the role of divorce. This made me wonder if divorce rates have changed much across the years.

The divorce rate was 0.9 per thousand population in 1913. It peaked at 4.6 in 1993; and decreased to 3.6 in 2013.

For those of you who care about the source of the data–The historic data is from Infoplease, and the data for the current year is from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If data for the exact year were not available, I used data from the nearest available year (typically the first year of the decade–for example, I used 1910 data for 1913).

Here are links to some previous posts on statistics that you might enjoy:

Average Height for Males and Females in 1912 and 2012

Infant Mortality Rates: 1912 and 2012

Are You Obese? 1911 and 2011

Life Expectancy—1911 and 2011

Median Age at Marriage—Then and Now

Writing Another Essay

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

Wednesday, March 12, 1913: Am trying to write my essay.

Lewis Hine's picture of child coal miners (Source: Wikimedia Commons) — Lewis Hine’s picture of child coal miners (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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

Hmm… Did Grandma have to write another essay?

During much of February she was working on an essay about the Revolutionary War. Her teacher was going to give the student who wrote the best Revolutionary War essay a two and a half dollar gold piece. . . Grandma hasn’t mentioned it in the diary in quite awhile. I suppose she didn’t win the coin.

What was this essay about? . . .

I find that I want to ask myself: If I lived a hundred years ago, what would I have enjoyed writing an essay about? I know that the lens is all wrong, but here are some topic ideas that I think would have been interesting.

Should child labor be banned? — Child labor was very controversial in 1913. There were many coal mines in the southeastern part of the county where Grandma lived that used a lot of child labor, so this might have made a good essay topic.
The reasons why women should have the right to vote—It seems obvious today, but women’s suffrage was an arguable point in 1913.
The problem of adulterated foods—This was just a few years after the publication of Upton Sinclair’s book, The Jungle—and many people were very worried about the chemicals put into processed foods.
Should alcohol be prohibited? The prohibition movement was gathering steam in 1913, and taking either side of this issue would have made a good essay topic.
Planting trees on clear-cut land to improve the environment. People were worried about the environment in 1913. One concern was all of the erosion that was occurring due to the clear-cutting of old-time forests.

Chose a Date for the Play

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

Tuesday, March 11, 1913: We decided tonight to have our play on the fifth of April.

The play was probably was held at the McEwensville Community Hall. The same building has served as the town’s community hall for more than 100 years.

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

The previous evening Grandma did not go to play practice because it was raining. Probably the practice was canceled on the 10th and moved to the 11th due to the inclement weather. In general it seemed play practice only took place once—or maybe twice–a week.

Grandma had been going to play practices since January 27. She had the role of Chloe, the servant. It seems somewhat surprising that the date of the play was only now selected. The cast probably wanted to be confident that they knew their lines and were ready for the play before choosing a date.

I suppose there was no need to rush to select the date since the play was probably the only upcoming event in the small town of McEwensville–and nothing else was vying for the venue.

Didn’t Go To Play Practice

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

Monday, March 10, 1913: It rained tonight so we didn’t go up to practice.

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

Grandma was in the class play. Did some of the cast members show up for practice? . . or did everyone independently decide that the weather was too bad?

Today we’d text, email, or call if we couldn’t get to a play practice or meeting. A hundred years ago, did people just use their own judgment to determine whether an event was probably canceled due to weather?

Wooltex Spring Coat Advertisement

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

Sunday, March 9, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. It was so nice out. Felt most too warm with my jacket on going up.

Wooltex

The W. BLACK COMPANY

Designers

Wooltex Coat $15.00

Model 2249

An Extraordinary

Demonstration of Wooltex Value.

A handsomer coat for general service could scarcely be designed at any price than this model, No. 2249. It comes in whip cords, diagonal worsteds, find fancy diagonals, and a variety of fancy worsteds. Trimming is with inserts of self or contracting color broadcloth, and with buttonholes and invorine buttons to match inserts. Price but $15.00.

There are a few woman in every city who are always “well-dressed”.

They are not always the richest.

Go see the Wooltex spring models and know why so many of them wear Wooltex coats and suits.

The Store That Sells Wooltext Coats, Suits, Skirts

(Source: Ladies Home Journal, April, 1913)

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

The online Weather Channel forecast for McEwensville for today is a low of 31° and a high of 52.° Sounds like a nice day—though still jacket weather. It may have been a just a little bit nicer on this date a hundred years ago.

How to Wash Hair Brushes and Combs

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

Saturday, March 8, 1913: It was kind of dull here today. Nothing much of anything doing.

In Front of the Mirror by Georg Friedrich Kersting (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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

Hmm—What boring chores did Grandma need to do on a dull Saturday in March? ’

When I was a child, a weekly Saturday chore was to wash all the hair brushes and combs. I wonder if Grandma also did this when she was young,

I think that the reason we washed the brushes and combs was to have clean ones after we washed our hair. (We only washed our hair once a week back then.)

Here’s how to wash brushes and combs:

Add two or three tablespoons of baking soda to a small pan filled very hot water. (I use very hot tap water.) Swish the brushes and combs through the water—and “comb” the brushes with the combs. This cleans both the brush bristles and the comb teeth. Rinse with cool water. Lay on counter to air dry.

My sense is that people brushed their hair a lot more in the old days—and that brushing was one way to distribute, or remove, the oil and dirt between washings.

I can remember those old luxurious boar hair brushes that we used to have. Can you still buy them?