Tag: 1911

Using Willpower to Improve Behavior

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

Wednesday, October 4, 1911: Had a clash with Ma this morning. I guess she thinks I am one terrible kid! I must bring about a reform if possible.

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

I wonder what Grandma did.  This entry seems to indicate that Grandma believed that she was in the wrong—and that if she will had enough willpower that she might be able to “reform” herself.

In 1911 willpower was considered an important precursor of good behavior:

The Power of the Will or Inhibition

The conduct of mankind is chiefly governed by the emotions, instincts, and impulses.  . . .

“I am, I ought, I can, I will” are the only firm foundation-stones upon which we can base our attempts to climb into a higher sphere of existence. The first impulse a faculty of introspection, the second a moral judgment, the third a consciousness of the freedom to act, the fourth a determination to exercise that power.

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

Hundred-Year-Old Paper Doll Pattern for a School Girl

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

Tuesday, October 3, 1911: Nothing really of any importance. Therefore, nothing worth writing about.

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much today, I’m going to tell you how to make a paper doll school girl using a  hundred-year-old pattern that I found in the February 1911 issue of Good Housekeeping.*

You (or a child you know) could make several dolls and pretend that the dolls were Grandma and her friends at school.

Supplies Needed to Make this Craft

Heavy stiff white paper

Colored paper

Pencil

Scissors

Paste or glue

Water colors, colored pencils or crayons

Directions

1. Click here for doll pattern, and then print. Cut the patterns out.

2. On the heavy paper draw a line around the edge of the pattern for the front and back of the doll. Color or paint the doll’s face and other features.

3. Cut the two parts of the doll out. (Be sure to make her feet as large as the feet in the pattern. It’s okay if her feet end up being even a little larger than the ones in the pattern. She will not stand if her feet are too small.) Glue the two parts together above the knees. (Do not paste the feet together.)

4. After the glue is dry, gently bend the doll’s feet apart and she will stand.

6. Fold colored paper in half. Put neckline of dress on fold. Trace around the dress, and cut out using care not the cut the front and back apart at the neckline. Cut a slit up the back of the dress, so that it is easy to dress the doll.

7. Make several dresses, so that the doll can wear different outfits to school on different days.

If you enjoyed this craft, you may also want to make other hundred-year-old paper crafts described in previous postings.

Paper swimming frog

Paper birds

Paper doll girl and her swimming ducks

* I’ve abridged and adapted the directions and the dress pattern.

Cold Storage of Winter Clothes

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

Monday, October 2, 1911: It is beginning to get cold. Am thinking about my hat and coat, which are in the store as yet, but it doesn’t do very much good anyway.

Photo source: Practical Cold Storage (1905)

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

A hundred years ago people sometimes took their winter coats, and other wool and fur garments, to a cold storage facility. This was done to help ensure that the clothes won’t be damaged by moths during the warm weather months.

I don’t understand exactly how cold storage rooms were kept cold, but the rooms probably were cooled by pipes filled with brine or ammonia. Compression machines may have been used.  There were a number of different methods described in a 1905 book, but a common method is described below:

In this system, the ammonia gas is driven off from aqua ammonia under pressure, by heating; the gas is liquefied by cooling, and the refrigerating effect obtained by expanding the liquid ammonia thus obtained though pipes surrounded by the medium to be cooled.

Practical Cold Storage by Madison Cooper

Definition of Outvie

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.

Went Shopping: Bought Toothbrush and Stockings

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

Saturday, September 30, 1911: Went to Watsontown this morning. Had to get a toothbrush and some stockings. Had to husk some corn this afternoon. It was my first attempt, so you see the piles of corn wouldn’t span out so rapidly. In addition to this I got stung by a bumble bee. How it did swell my thumb. Gee whiz!

Source: Ladies Home Journal (August 1911)

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

A hundred years ago people in rural areas generally did not have electricity; many did not have telephones, and there were outhouses instead of bathrooms. Cars were a rarity; and it was a huge process to do laundry.

Yet, surprisingly—at least to me—you could go into a store and buy a toothbrush and stockings in 1911.  Until I read this entry, I never thought about whether people had toothbrushes a hundred years ago, but I don’t think that I would have guessed that these consumer goods were commercially available.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

It’s only late September. I’m surprised that the corn was dry enough to husk.

There must have been more insects a hundred years ago. This is the third time since June that Grandma has mentioned a bee sting (see June 21 and July 8).

Holding Schools Accountable a Hundred Years Ago

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

Friday, September 29, 1911: Papa took us to school this morning. It was so rainy at noon it came down as if it meant business. Teacher has rearranged our classes, and now we’ll have the program every now and then to see where our class comes.

Recent rainy day at the school that once housed the McEwensville School.

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

How can you measure school quality? Is the school providing students with an adequate education? How does it stack up when compared to other schools?

These questions have been around for a long time. A hundred years ago people also wanted to know if students were learning what they were supposed to know.

This diary entry suggests that the teacher at McEwensville High School changed what he was teaching in response to some outside pressure. Maybe he used different books—or at least put more emphasis on different content– than he had previously.  It also suggests that the students were going to occasionally be assessed to see how they did compared to students in other schools.

Sound familiar–

Today we have No Child Left Behind—and students take statewide tests. Schools are held accountable if students don’t make adequate yearly progress.

Some issues and concerns never seem to change—though it sounds much  lower key a hundred years ago.

An Old Mental Math Trick

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

Thursday, September 28, 1911: With just about the same languor as last year, I pursue my studies. It is almost a review, nothing hardly new. Tomorrow we commence with mental arithmetic. Certainly is baby stuff, but we haven’t had it for two years and he thinks we need it. I am eager to take up something I haven’t yet had.

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

Grandma sounds bored. She must have been good at mental arithmetic and found it easy.

In the days before calculators it was important to know how to quickly do various math operations in your head—and students learned many math “tricks” and practiced mental math strategies.

Here is an example of a math trick that enables you to easily multiply certain two digit numbers together in your head:

To multiply together two numbers whose tens are alike, and the sum of whose units is ten.

RULE: Multiply the units together for the two right-hand figures of the product, and the remaining part of the multiplicand by the remaining part of the multiplier increased by 1.

Example: 64 X 66 =  ?

64

 66

4224

Solution: The 6 units X 4 units = 24 units which we write for the two right-hand figures of the product. Then 6 tens multiplied by 1 more than itself for the remaining figures. Thus, 6 X (6+1) = 42.

 Kimball’s Commercial Arithmetic (1911 )

Now you can try doing some mental math. Here are some oral exercises that were in the book:

Oral Exercises

1.  Multiply 25 by 25

2.  Multiply 35 by 35

3.  Multiply 75  by 75

4.  Multiply 17 by 13

5.  Multiply 43 by 47

6;  Multiply 56 by 54

7;  Multiply 15 by 15

8.  Multiply 22 by 28

9.  Multiply 65 by 65