1913 Victor-Victrola Advertisement

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

Wednesday, February 5, 1913: Nothing very much for today. Went up to practice this evening.

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

Grandma was going to be in her class play, and went back into McEwenville in the evening for play practice. (She probably had to come home after school to help milk the cows.)

Grandma obviously appreciated whatever culture was available in her small rural community. I recently found this advertisement for Victor Victrola’s in the March 15, 1913 issue of a farm magazine called Kimball’s Dairy Farmer.

If there is any place where a Victor-Victrola is needed and sure to be appreciated, it is in the homes of the farmers—in your house.

You haven’t the opportunities city people have for attending the theatre, opera, and musical concerts—and yet you have real need of such entertainment to rest body and mind after your day of toil.

And you can have it with a Victor-Victrola in your home. You can enjoy the world’s best music, sung and played by the same great artists who entertain the large city audiences.

You can hear whatever kind of music you like right now.

You don’t have to wait until you feel you can afford a $100 or $200 instrument—any Victor-Victrola you choose as the instrument for your home will play every record in the Victor catalog, and will give you almost as perfect music as the Victor- Victrola XVI, the instrument by which the value of all musical instruments in measured.

Any Victor dealer in any city in the world will gladly demonstrate the Victor-Victrola to you and play any music you wish to hear.

Write us for the handsome illustrated Victor catalogs.

Victor Talking Machine Co., Camden, N.J.

Berliner Gramophone Co., Montreal, Canadian Distributors

Victor-Victrola XVI, $200, Mahogany or quartered oak

Victor-Victrola X, $75 Mahogany or oak

Victor-Victrola VI, $25, Oak

Victor-Victrola IX, $50, Mahogany or oak

Other styles $15, $40, $100, $150

Victor: “His Master’s Voice”

Hope to Win 2 1/2 Dollar Gold Piece

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

Tuesday, January 28, 1913: Our teacher made such a wonderful proposition today. It was made to our class. The one who writes the best essay on a given subject is to receive a two dollar and a half gold piece. Margaret G. came home with me to stay till tomorrow. We had a dandy time this evening, although I am afraid our lessons suffered some. Rufus made candy. And so the evening went.

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

Grandma—I’m keeping my fingers crossed that you write the best essay and get the gold piece. I think you have a chance since you sound so hopeful.

I wish you’d told us the topic so that I could vicariously “help” you write the essay a hundred years later.

—

I’m not sure who Margaret G. was, but it sounds like the girls had a wonderful time. Rufus refers to Grandma’s sister Ruth.

1913 Broadway Plays

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

Monday, January 27, 1913: We went to town this evening to practice for our play.

broadway.3 — Nearly Married at the Gaiety Theatre on Broadway in New York City

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

Grandma wrote the previous Monday that she was going to be in a her class play. This was the first play practice.

In my imagination I see a member of the cast saying, “If we practice hard, I bet our play will be as good as a Broadway play.”

Here’s what the November, 1913 issue of Dress and Vanity Fair magazine had to say about several Broadway plays that were playing in New York a hundred years ago:

In a Lighter Vein on Broadway

The Marriage Market at the Knickerbocker Theatre

In this picture from The Marriage Market the small but sweet voice of Mr. Donald Brian is being lifted up in a duet with Miss Venita Fitzhugh. Until this moment when he has just taken her hand she had not recognized him once since the first act. She met him as a cowboy then and married him in a fit of pique. Since that time he has been disguised as a common sailor on her father’s yacht, but she did not recognize his face at all, and now that he looks so stunning in evening clothes and a clean shirt she cannot believe that it is really he.

Who’s Who at the Criterion

Mr. Richard Harding Davis’s’ comic mystery play Who’s Who finds Mr. William Collier and his adopted son William Collier, Jr. The youngster has a savings bank in his hand with which he is constantly blackmailing the villagers in his bland and child-like way. Mr. Collier who has been held up by the child is expostulating vigorously, paternally, almost expletively.

Dress and Vanity Fair (November, 1913)

Old Cross-Stitch Examples

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

Sunday, January 26, 1913: Went to Sunday School this afternoon. Besse was out.

Source of Pictures: Ladies Home Journal (May, 1913)

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

Grandma’s sister Besse was married and lived in nearby Watsontown. Sometimes Besse brought needlework or sewing along when she came to visit. For example, on August 9, 1912 Grandma wrote:

We had sort of s sewing bee here today. Besse was out and brought some of her stuff along.

On this January day, a hundred years ago, perhaps the sisters did cross-stitching while they chatted.

Cross-stitch and crochet work using same rose pattern

Thumb Still Sore

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

Saturday, January 25, 1913: I have a sore thumb although I do not think it is as bad as it was several days ago.

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

Poor Grandma—She sure seemed to get a lot of illnesses and injuries.

It sounds like she hurt her finger again (though I suppose that she possibly was still complaining about her December injury). On December 16, 1912 she wrote:

. . . We killed some pigs and I took a slice off the end of my thumb. Oh sad the day, for I don’t care anything about having a sore thumb . . .

1913 Welch’s Grape Juice Advertisement

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

Thursday, January 23, 1913: Bout the same as ever.

The

Healthful Beverage

Welch’s is the drink for youth and age. It tastes good, satisfies thirst and is healthful. It contains all the health-giving qualities of the finest Concord grapes. It is a splendid temperance beverage for the home. It adds a touch of cheerful hospitality to all formal and informal affairs.

Welch’s

“The National Drink”

To maintain the high quality of Welch’s we pay from $7 to $9 per ton over the market price, thus securing only the choicest of the luscious Concords grown in the Chautauqua Grape Belt.

Welch Punch

For a dainty, unfermented punch, take the juice of three lemons, juice of one orange, one pint Welch’s Grape Juice, one quart water and one cup of sugar. Add sliced oranges and a pineapple and serve cold. Order a case and have a supply in the house.

If unable to get Welch’s of your dealer we will ship a trial dozen pints, express prepaid east of Omaha, for $3. Sample 4-oz bottle, mailed 10¢. Write for our free booklet of recipes.

The Welch Grape Juice Co.

Westfield, New York

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

Since Grandma didn’t write much, I’ll share old ad I found in the February, 1913 issue of National Food Magazine.

1913 Shredded Wheat Advertisement

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

Tuesday, January 21, 1913: Nothing to write.

Source: National Food Magazine (January, 1913)

Advertisement Text:

The Call of the Bell

It is music to Johnny’s ears if he starts the day with a warm, nourishing breakfast of Shredded Wheat

–and it’s so easy to get him off to school without fuss or worry because it’s ready-cooked and has in it everything he needs for study or play. It’s the whole wheat, cooked, shredded and baked to a crisp, golden brown.

Simply heat the biscuits in the oven a few moments to restore crispness, then pour hot milk over them adding a little cream and salt, or sweeten to suit the taste. A muscle-making, brain,-building food for children and grown-ups, for athletes and invalids, for outdoor men and indoor men, for workers with hand or brain.

The Only Breakfast Cereal Made in Biscuit Form.

Made only by

The Shredded Wheat Company

Niagara Fall, N.Y.

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

Since not much happened a hundred years ago today, I’ll share a 1913 advertisement I found for Shredded Wheat in National Food Magazine.

Back then you were supposed to heat the biscuits and then pour hot milk over them. Strange. . but I decided to try it.

The result—

I ended up with a hot, soft, mushy cereal. I had a difficult time getting past the texture—which was so very different from the crispiness of cold shredded wheat—but it warmed my tummy on a cold winter day.