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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 14, 1904)
Complexion and Insanity. OME3 interesting facts if they are facts have been gathered by a St Louis man who has been In vestigating the proportional num bers of blondes and brunettes In the insane asylums of the United States and Canada. If the St. Louis man Is to be credited only 703 pronounced blondes and stxty-six red-headed people were found In a total t 1(5,512 Inmates of Institutions which ha Investigated. In the state asylum of MIs sou.i the proportion was even smaller than that indicated. Only 3 per cent of the patients had light hair, and only 2 per cent blue eyes. It would have helped us to estimate the value of these figures If the St. Louis In vestigator had taken the trouble to ascer tain the relative proportion of blondes and brunettes outside of lunatic asylums. We know that dark-complexioned people are In a great majority of the population and that the true type of blonde la relatively rare. Hence the figures given by the St. Louis Inquirer may not be far from the normal proportion of brunettes and blondes among sane people. Another feature of the matter Is Inter esting. According to the gentleman from the World's fair city the percentage of In curably Insane is greater among the light complexioned patients than among the dark. The totals show that 81 per cent of the former and only 53 per cent of the lat ter are designated as Incurable, while of the sixty-six red-headed patients reported all but three were classified as hopeless. Balk il Corporation. ISS EMI LIE BREWER, sister of M Justice David J. Brewer of the United States supreme court, worsted the New England Tele phone company In Its attempt to plant a polo In front of the Brewer home stead at Stockbrldge, Mass. She camp d cut one night beside the hole with two ser vants, and was prepared to remain all sum mer, but the selectmen granted a new polo location, and Miss Brewer retired. When a gang of men approached and be gan digging the hole Miss Brewer pro tested, but to no effect, until tho men struck a rock and went away for blast ing materials. Then Miss Brewer placed a large chair over the hole, sat down and refused to move. Two servants remained clone at hand to take their employer's part should violence be offered her. The men argued until dark, but in vnln, and then went away, but Miss Brewer and the serv ants, fearing they would return, remained on guard nil night. Then tho selectmen came to Miss Brewer's relief. Pint LiiIt of Oklahoma. ROM Oklahoma comes another vin dication of woman. It has been said that the chief objection to her In business life Is her unwillingness to accept re fi-r sponsibility; that she would do work laid out for her, but seldom would she go be yond her allotted routine. Of course, that la all nonsense. But It remained for Mrs. Thomas B. Ferguson, wife of the versatile editor of the Ton kawa (Okl.) toews, to clinch the fact. The editor was rounding up delinquents when a telegram for him reached tha News office. Mrs. Ferguson was there. She had Just completed an editorial on "The Value of Marconi's Invention In the Event of a World War," and was thinking of lambasting the town council a few editorial licks, when she read the telegram, which conveyed the information that her hus band had been appointed governor of Ok lahoma, and would he accept? He would, and by a large majority. Mr. Ferguson did not send out a tracer for her editor husband. She grabbed up a Western Union blank, pursed up her pleas ant lips a bit, which is a woman's privilege when writing, and wrote a prompt accept ance, which was sent to Washington In a hurry. When Mr. Ferguson reached home he found he was a governor. Business matters had been so arranged as to cause him no Inconvenience, and Mrs. Ferguson had ordered her Inauguration gown. If the governor should die, or want a vacation, or find It necessary to again camp cn the trail of delinquent subscrib ers, you can bet that Mrs. Ferguson would run the territorial machine right up to the handle, and the voters would get to think ing that a woman governor, as a steady thing, wouldn't be a bad Investment. A Woman Sexton. Hewes, Sexton," is tho inscription upon a card affixed to one of the doors of St. Bartholomew's Epis copal church In Brooklyn, a pic turesque, Ivy-grown edifice in the Hill section. Inquire for the sexton, and a tall Scotchwoman appears and asks what sho can do for you. In this age women are mnklng their way In nearly every profession and trade, from lawyer to car penter; but the woman sexton is something of a novelty. But the spotless church, the dignity, strength and look of thorough reliability stamped on the face of thH feminine sexton impress the visitor nnd the well brushed pow cushions, the dustless book-racks, clean tesseiated pavement of the church and shining windows prove that she Is capable and Industrious und under stands her business. "Ye can see the buttons, can't ye?" she asked In broad Scotch, as tho visitor's eye glanced down admiringly at the pew cush ions. "That's what some people say about my cushions; it is na' that ye can't see tho buttons for the dust. I feel as if I was Just In my glory In this church; I love It', and I love to take care of It. How do I light it? With my long pole, all these gas-iors. I do It as handy as can bo. Thia Is a big church, for all people call it 'the Little Church on FaclAc Street.' There's 150 pews in It. It seats hundreds of peo ple. It's a fine church for a wedding party. It sort of decorates itself, nnd then it has such a fine aisle for tho penrty to walk in. Do I stay around by the door when the wedding pearties come in? Eh, of cooise. A woman can do mony things for a wedding peurty, such as setting the bride's train right. Just ns she goes up tho aisle, or helping the rest of the peartv. How do I do with funerals? I'm here, just the same. Sometimes It is funerals and weddings the same day. I had a wedding here last week and a funeral yesterday. A sight o' troublo some of the weddings make when tho Jardlne must be brought In the 'dishes' I call 'cm and some of the flowers has to be planted with, ground and some with water!" Mrs. Howes had been sitting in one of the pews wiUi her visitor wlUlo she chatted, and now she suggested an Inspection of the church. "I dlnna forgtt the first tlmo after I had cleaned this pavement," she said, indicat ing tle marble floor of the chancel, "how those who carry up the collection stood and looked down at It. They could see the pattern of the stones and they were men quite long In tho church, too, yet never had seen the pattern before." The sexton speaks In a dialect which at once Indicates her nationality, for she Is a Falsley woman, nnd In that Scottish town her twelve children were born. Brooklyn Eagle. Whrr Nervr" Are I'nUaotvn. iHK women of Japan, In contrast to their Occidental sisters, have long been noted for their perfect pouso and self-possession. Their pla clilify under what would ordi narily be considered trying circumstances has surprised American tourists. Patent medicines guaranteed to cure nervousness in Its many forms hove little sale In Japan. The meaning of the term "nervous pros tration" is unknown. Japanese physicians are rarely rich, says Robert Webster Jones In tho August Housekeeper. An explanation of this happy state of af fairs has been made by a returned traveler. "To begin with," says he, "there Is never any change In faphions, so the Japanese woman has no worries at all on that score. Then, housekeeping Is greatly simplified, so the Japanese housekeeper Is hurt by none of the Jars and frets that raz the nerves and prematurely ages her western sister. The Japanese house has no draperies, no dust traps in the shape of superfluous or naments. Teople all put off their shoes on entering the house, so no mud nnd dirt are brought In. Japanese women have no heart-burnings over euchre prize a and bridge stakes. They never have to com pose club papers on subjects concerning which they know nothing. They never sit up nights planning how they may outshlna their rivals In dress at some social uffalr. They do not bother their brains with schemes for marrying their daughters to rich foreigners. They never have to give eight-coin so dinners with two-courso pocketbooks. They live pimple, happy, peaceful domestic lives, und live them long." While we should bo sorry to see Amer ican women restrict their lives to the nar row sphere of the Japanese, there Is no doubt that three-fourths of their nervous worry Is caused by "trying to do too much." Simplicity is the keynote of sanity and health, and American men as well as women may well profit by the example of the happy Japanese. A Ilrave lilil, Indeed. HE bravest girl In the state of New Jersey on Uncle Sa's list of rural mall carriers Th Miss Villa Potter, of Willow drove. J. She carries the mail from Newtiold, Gloucester county, to I'orchtown and t he surrounding county, covering a route of twenty-nine miles, all told. Miss Potter has been an invalid for nine teen years, being a victim of typhoid fever when 13 years old. Her father, Michael Potter, was klllod In a well several years ago, and her brothor, Frank, died carry ing the mall. Then she determined to help her mother make a living. Every morning her mother wheels her out to the mail wagon and assists her to get In. The farmers all along the route build the boxes close to the roadside, so that the Invalid can deliver the mall with out getting out, for the cannot stand alone. Her mother takes care of three horses and two cows, and by the help of her daughter makes a comfortable living. Miss Potter's appointment two years ago was enthnslastlcnlly npproved by the pod. pie, who, she says, show her every pos sible kindness. 1W popularity Increase bocauso of her punctuality. Ar 14X1 She Acta as Qnecn. T THE age of 10G, Mm. Delphi Rogers, a colored woman whose snowy while hair betokens her years, was quoen of the Iowa no gro's emancipation celebration A held at C'laiiuda on tho 4th lust. This old colored woman, who now bear the distinction of being the oldest resident in the Mtate, Is quite feeble in years, but yet manages to bo nlout and looks ns though sl.e would live to see many mora emancipation celebrations. When n'ews was brought to her that she was to reign as queen of the carnival her dark face lighted up with a smile that would do flattery to a young girl and with a giddiness she rxprisscd her delight for thu opportunity to reign supreme on one day to offset the many years slie spent In actual slavery before the proclamation of Lincoln. Mrs. Rogers Is more notable thin for her nge, for her lather was the slave of George Washington, first president of lha United States. He, too, lived past the century mark und with a remarkably keen memory she recalls stories told her by him of his service for tho American states man and general. When he left the werv Ice of Washington nnd returned to his fam ily In Missouri he brought with him threa wornout suits of Washington's, which ha afterward sold for exhorhltant prices to white reoolo seeking them us relics. She was horn In Missouri, not far from Jefferson City, when her pnren's wera slaves of fleorge O.cson. Hrr parents wera born in old Virginia and afterwards movejl to Kentucky and thenee t Missouri. When but n young girl she was placed upon the auction block nnd with a natural modesty Is today proud that she brought one of tha biggest prices of the day. She hteame tha slave of one Jains Howe and it became her duty to ply the spinning wheel and work in hemp and flax. In the year she and her family wora plucked from the tcene of light and brought to Iowa by Union soldiers. The Clariiula Jubilee celebration was a notable event for the colored people of Iowa. It was advertised far und wide nnd an elaborate program, with band muslo and addresses, was rendered. Wlmt Wo n u-ii Are Piiliie. The closest re'ntlve of Oeorce Welling ton now alive is Mrs. Attilio Morosinl, tha wife of a New York lawyer, fcilio Is a. great-sreat-gramlaughtcr of Samuel Wash ington, a brother ol the first president. Miss Lee Kue, the Chinese vromm wins has bt-eome u cattle queen in Ailzonx, ar rived in San Francisco the other day en routii lor China, whither she is es-oiilng the ashes of her father, who died s.una time ago, leaving her heir to extensive ranches in the southwest. Ten dollars was the first fee Mrs. A. D. , T. Whitney and Mrs. Margaret Iceland re ceived from their writing, coming, In each Instance, without the slightest struggle on the author's port, und both, oddly euoagh, proceeding from poetic contributions rather than those ulong the Hues in which each, writer eventually won hliihest puhllc favor. In n effort to "Improve" their personal appearance some women of the smart eC In Iondon are having dimples cut in their cheeks nnd shoulders. One "dimple cutter" In the Wt End has lieen doing a Una business this season. Another and much more dangerous fad Is to wear what la called a correct on the nose for the pur pose of correcting a supposed malforma tion. Physicians jioiut out that prolonged pressure of this kind is quite likely to hava injurious results.