In 1912 rockets were fired for many reasons: signals between ships of the same shipping line, courtesy signals, recall signals for dories fishing around ice floes, and other nonemergencies. Only after the Titanic’s sinking did the conservative use of pyrotechnics become well defined.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I graduated from high school the year you were born.. You must have grown up with a mother who liked to read. I don’t remember when my mother DIDN’T read to us. Sure made me a lover of reading - even today I must have several books going at the same time...kitchen table, dining room table, bedroom, living room....
Your post made me remember that I have a book from my mother..”Eastman’s Chestnuts” full of jokes/stories. It was published by the American Agriculturist and copyrighted 1940. That was a magazine we got on the farm where I was raised. According to info online, it’s been around since 1842. I think there was another one also that we got in the mail but I don’t remember the name - Farm Journal maybe?
Cornell University had a “Farm and Home Week” every year and our dad took us - Mercy!! How boring!!! I’ve been gone from there a lot of years but maybe still ongoing but probably still boring to youngsters or maybe the “lib” disease infiltrated there also like it has the entire city of Ithaca. Maybe “Farm and Home” aren’t cool anymore!
LOL...now that’s a great kids’ poem! I read it all the way through. Mr. Newell was quite creative. Enjoyed it a lot. Thanks for posting.
A penny-liner, Abram Stout,Note Newell's use of "Flemington" for the typewriter. That got me to wondering if that was a transcription typo or intentional ("Remington" was a popular typewriter at the time). All the references I found indicate he wrote "Flemington" maybe to avoid legal problems.Was writing a description.
"The flame shot up," he pounded out—
Then threw a mild conniption.
For through his Flemington there shied
A rocket, hot and mystic.
"I didn't mean to be," he cried,
"So deuced realistic!"
That, in turn, got me to wondering about a "penny-liner." A “penny-liner” in 1912 is practically the great-grandparent of today’s content-churning “influencers” flooding the web with clickbait and monetized drek. Both hustle for pennies (or likes) per word, view, or click, almost always prioritizing quantity over quality.
It’s like Abram Stout’s “Flemington” typewriter got upgraded to a smartphone, but the game’s still the same—churning out “hot and mystic” content to grab attention!
If Newell were writing today, he’d probably have a rocket crashing through a TikTok vlogger’s ring light.
Very cool, and the illustrations as well. Today’s crap is all about how boys are girls and girls are boys and you can identify you are a squirrel.
Thanks for formatting and posting the wonderful story.