Saturday
150 Years Ago
Washington’s birthday: The Red Jacket Club No. 1 will give a ball at their hall in Genoa, Feb. 22.
140 Years Ago
Part IV: Mark Twain and Dan DeQuille — Dan’s Coup D’état: A brand from the campfire was seized and Dan yelled “hold on” and he rammed something into the mount of the piece and said, “turn’er loose. “What in h — did you put in asked Mark. “A column of solid nonpareil and a couple of sticks of your spring poetry.”
Typographical Terrors and the Final Shot: For the last time the howitzer belched its typographical compliments to the advancing foe. The two men ran over the field and counted 56 Indians lying in heaps. Their bodies were mutilated with nonpareil, long primer, two-line pica, bourgeois, “caps.,” misere dashes and unassorted pi. Ten days later the two journalistic tramps reached Virginia City and decided to secure a place on the Enterprise…
Twain Remembers the Dead: “Dear Dan: I send you the congratulations of the new year… If you can spare the time, I wish you would make a pilgrimage to that historic spot (in Mendocino County), gather the ghostly relics together and plant a tablet to the memory of the departed… Yours, Mark Twain… P.S. send me a thigh bone of the fallen chief by next express… Dan will attend to the matter in the spring. The old howitzer used on the occasion is still in his possession.”
130 Years Ago
Waiting for graves: Mack, the grave digger, informed the Appeal that on account of the drifting of snow at the cemetery, it was impossible to dig graves until the storm is over.
70 Years Ago
Classified ads: “For rent — Sleeping rooms $6 and $7 a week, 810 Curry.
60 Years Ago
Gemini test successful: Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young began preparing for the first U.S. two-man space flight following the success of the final unmanned launching in Project Gemini. They have an April date with the stars where they will take a three-orbit, five-hour ride to check spacecraft systems.
Sunday
154 Years Ago
Language of the handkerchief (in part):
Drawing across the lips — Desirous of an acquaintance
Drawing across the eyes — I am sorry
Taking the center — You are too willing
Dropping — We will be friends
Twirling in both hands — Indifference
Drawing across the cheek — I love you…
145 Years Ago
Séance: Dr. Slade, the medium, was at the Arlington House when the Appeal reporter met asked him for a séance. The medium asked me to sit down at the table and turned it upside down to inspect it. I found it to be an ordinary pine table.
The first raps: The medium was seated at the corner of the table. I took the other side. As soon as we were seated, several raps were heard under the table. Just then the raps were distinctly felt on the reporter’s chair and proceeded from a wood box ten feet from Dr. Slade.
The slate test: Dr. Slade asked that I examine the slates and wipe them clean. He laid one of the slates on the table and bit off the end of a slate pencil and put the piece, the size of a pea, on the slate and put the second slate over the first, then pressed them firmly together placing them on the reporter’s arm and under his nose. Immediately the scratching of the pencil could be heard on the slate without mistake. This lasted three minutes and stopped when the slates were opened. It said, “Dear friends: You must not doubt your future or the doctrine of immortality. Your lives and actions on earth are watched by those who love you and who are now in the world of spirits… Yours very sincerely, John Bourne (the writer was a stranger to both of us…)
135 Years Ago
All sorts: Miss Clapp of Reno will take a hand in the Women Suffrage legislation.
70 Years Ago
Hungry? Try this sandwich: The New England Pizza Shoppe featured the “Nautilus, an atomic submarine sandwich.” It has four kinds of Italian meat, provolone, cheese/lettuce, tomato, onion, anchovy, cherry peppers, pimento, green peppers… and is served on a 16-inch loaf of Italian bread — cost $1.25.
60 Years Ago
Gail Sawyer: Gov. Grant Sawyer’s legislative program is opposed by his 16-year-old daughter who does not approve of lowering the voting age to 18. Twenty-one is a good age to start. She says, “Some kids think they’re ready just because they’ve had a civics course.”
Monday
154 Years Ago
Insane asylum: The directors of the California’s Insane Asylum have requested our Secretary of State to remove Nevada’s indigent insane from their institution and notified them that they will not receive any more Nevada patients.
145 Years Ago
Disembodied spirits: Gov. Kinkead and Judge Leonard had one of Dr. Slade’s seances. “My friends: Spiritualism is like food to the hungry; like light and color to the open vision to the blind… it supplies a void in the human soul yet unsatisfied … and never will be by any “ism’ but ‘spiritualism.” It brings nourishing food to the soul which nothing else can bring. I am the spirit of S.D. King.”
A deed we all endorse: The most skeptical person on earth cannot deny that the spirits are capable of doing some good. While the governor was present at the séance, Dr. Slade took a small accordion and held it under the table with one hand. It played a few tunes correctly… suddenly there was a terrible commotion. The accordion was ripped to pieces and scattered over the floor; keys were scattered to the four corners. The accordion will never play again. The satisfaction of those present was unbounded. If spirits will only keep up the good work of disintegrating accordions, there are few people on earth who will refuse to join the ranks of the spiritualists.
135 Years Ago
All sorts: Toupin has fixed up extensive club rooms in connection with his saloon and invites visiting lawmakers to sample the accommodations.
Presbyterian Church services, 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. Morning subject: “The Slaughter of the Children.”
70 Years Ago
War dance to win water: The Navajo tribe counted on the revival of their ancient war dance to induce Congress to provide them with lifegiving water from the Colorado river. They danced for an hour before an audience of 2,000. The last time the dance was performed was 87 years ago before signing a peace treaty with the U.S.
60 Years Ago
Advertisement: Carson Theater — ‘Roustabout with Elvis Presley.
Tuesday
154 Years Ago
Legislative recommendation: Mr. Manning, assemblyman from Lander County, made this communication the subject of a concurrent resolution calling for a joint committee… to inquire into the expediency of removing the orphan children from the State Orphan’s Home to the Nevada Orphan Asylum at Virginia (City) and converting the Orphan’s Home building into an insane asylum. Mr. Williams of Storey said that it had become necessary for the state to make provision for the care of its indigent insane, but that for reasons obvious, the Orphan’s Home building would not do… he thought the best thing to do would be to purchase the homestead of the late Sandy Bowers, in Washoe Valley. Physicians recommended the locality highly on sanitary grounds.
145 Years Ago
Leap Year party: The air is thick with rumors of a Leap Year party. The ladies are canvassing the proposition the likes of which was never seen in this section of the hemisphere.
135 Years Ago
All sorts: Miss Kate Fox, the typewriter, is now located in the Governor’s Office Capitol Building, and is ready to do all kinds of type writing artistically and expeditiously.
70 Years Ago
Advertisement: “Carson Theater — ‘The Magnificent Obsession’ in technicolor with Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson and Barbara Rush; Cartoon — News.”
60 Years Ago
World mourns Winston Churchill: Winston Churchill died from a stroke two months after his 90th birthday. He was the greatest Englishman of modern times. He is survived by his wife, a son and two daughters.
Sue Ballew is the daughter of Bill Dolan, who wrote this column for the Nevada Appeal from 1947 until his death in 2006.