Sifting Through the Sands of Time
from the Courier Archives
140 Years Ago August 2 21, 1869
Beware of Circular Saws
while in Motion
On Monday last Mr. Merritt Miller, of Katonah, had one of his thumbs very badly cut, at the Plaining Mill and Machine Shop of Chadeayne and Lyon, by bringing it in contact with the circular saw while in motion. On Tuesday the machinist and engineer, Humphrey Mead, had a
thumb severed from the hand in the same shop.
90 Years Ago 2 August 22, 1919
Don’t Kill Snakes
There are few farmers hereabouts who look upon snakes as friends and object to having them killed. Now the United States Department of Agriculture experts are asking the people to refrain from killing harmless snakes… In New York City a Reptile Study Society has been organized for the same purpose of being kind to mankind’s legendary worst enemy…The reason is that the snakes eat various and sundry enemies of man, or rather, enemies of his food supply. They feed on insects, slugs, snails, as well as rats, mice and such.
“Kill a snake”—this is one of the aphorisms of the Reptile Study Society and is supported by the Government—“and you destroy 100 pounds of wheat, because the number of rats and mice that would eat that much wheat in a year are just the number one snake would itself eat.”
80 Years Ago 2 August 23, 1929
Worcestor Annoyed by
Exuberence of Youth
One has but to delve into biography to discover that even the great were beset with human frailties just like less famous mortals. The daughter of the poet Longfellow, in her memoirs, tells how the children kept the community on edge. Longfellow’s neighbors did not invariably share his indulgence toward his children.
The lexicographer, Worcester, was a next door neighbor in Cambridge. A little pond, where the children skated, lay between the two places. The boys, of course, were noisy, which was not minded at home. But dictionary making is not like poetry and the dignified Worcester, disturbed, frequently came down and chased the children off his end of the pond, ordering them, in words not to be found in his dictionary, to keep their racket at home.
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