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Fatal Rencontre
We learn from the Yeoman, the particulars of a melancholy affray which took place in Scottsville, Allen county, Ky., on the 9th instant. It appeared that a man named Borden had put in circulation disreputatable reports concerning a woman of that town, in consequence of which he was called upon by David A. Porter and his three sons, to give him the alternative of signing a retraction, or of leaving the town.

On his refusing to do either, they assaulted him, but were prevented from doing injury, and left him. On meeting him in the street, subsequently, one of them armed with a pistol, and the others with clubs and stones, they again assaulted him. The old man and one of the sons struck him, upon which he discharged a pistol with which he had armed himself previously, which took effect, lodging three balls in the old man’s breast, who died in two minutes. Borden fell at the same time, and after he was so severely beaten that his scull was fractured in several places. Hopes of his recovery were entertained.
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We have before published poisons and antidotes; but we find, in Mrs. Hale’s “Household Receipt-Book,” directions so plain and short that we are induced to give them again. In fact, they cannot be published too often.

NOTE: These are from an 1854 publication and should not be used without first consulting with a physician – if at all.

Acids — These cause great heat, and sensation of burning pain, from the mouth down to the stomach. Remedies, magnesia, soda, pearlash, or soap, dissolved in water; then use stomach-pump or emetics.

Alcohol — First cleanse out the stomach by an emetic, then dash cold water on the head, and give ammonia (spirits of hartshorn).

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Black journalist Philip Alexander Bell was born in 1808 in New York City and cut his political teeth in early abolitionist politics in the Northeast.  Bell attended Colored Citizens Conventions as early as 1830 and established his first newspaper, the Weekly Advocate, in 1837 after working for William Lloyd Garrison’s Liberator.  After migrating to San Francisco, California in 1860, Bell maintained his connections with important abolition leaders such as Garrison and Frederick Douglass by reporting on black political and economic opportunities in the West.  (Source: Bell, Philip Alexander (1808-1889) – The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed)

We are happy to have the full series of  the Weekly Advocate and its successor, The Colored American in our African American Newspapers Collection.

Weekly Advocate Masthead

The Weekly Advocate’s motto was Established for, and devoted to the moral, mental, and political improvement of the people of color and when it became The Colored American its motto became Righteousness Exalteth a Nation and the paper was “…designed to be the organ of Colored Americans—to be looked on as their own, and devoted to their interests—through which they can make known their views to the public—can communicate with each other and their friends, and their friends with them; and to maintain their well-known sentiments on the subjects of Abolition and Colonization, viz.—emancipation without expatriation—the extirpation of prejudice—the enactment of equal laws, and a full and free investiture of their rights as men and citizens...”

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One of our newest collections is The Civil War Part VI: Northeast Regimental Histories.  These volumes were written while many of the members of the various regiments were still alive and able to recall specific events, stories, and places that shaped their lives during the war years.

While these books contain many somber passages, including lists of the dead and wounded, they also record stories like the one below that sheds some light on an individual member of the 12th Regiment – New Hampshire Volunteers.

Experiences, Anecdotes, and Incidents

One of the sergeants of Company H, whose first name is Alma, was a great lover of doughnuts, and different from most of young husbands he thought his wife could make quite as good or better doughnuts than his mother. So he wrote home to her from Point Lookout for a recipe how to make them. (more…)

From Health Department – By Jno. Stainback Wilson, M.D. in the November 1861 issue of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

Godey’s Lady’s Book was one of the most popular lady’s books of the 19th century. Each issue contained poetry, beautiful engraving and articles by some of the most well known authors in America.

The magazine was intended to entertain, inform and educate the women of America. In addition to extensive fashion descriptions and plates, the early issues included biographical sketches, articles about mineralogy, handcrafts, female costume, the dance, equestrienne procedures, health and hygiene, recipes and remedies and the like.

Health Department

A distinguished physician who died some years since in Paris declared:—

“I believe that during the twenty-six years I have practised my profession in this city twenty thousand children have been carried to the cemeteries, a sacrifice to the absurd custom of exposing their arms naked.∞ I have thought, if a mother were anxious to show the soft, white skin of her baby, and would cut out a round hole in the little thing’s dress, just over the heart, and then carry it about for observation by the company, it would do very little harm; but to expose the baby’s arms, members so far removed from the heart, and with such feeble circulation at best, is a most pernicious practice.

“Put the bulb of a thermometer to a baby’s mouth; the mercury rises to 99 degrees. Now, carry the same bulb to its little hand; if the arms be bare and the evening cool, the mercury will sink to 40 degrees. Of course all the blood which flows through these arms and hands must fall from 20 to 40 degrees below the temperature of the heart. Need I say that when these cold currents of blood flow back into the chest the child’s general vitality must be more or less compromised? And need I add that we ought not to be surprised at its frequently-recurring affections of the lungs, throat, and stomach? I have seen more than one child with habitual cough and hoarseness, or choking with mucus, entirely, permanently relieved by simply keeping its arms and hands warm.” (more…)