I had read something once before saying...... "Nobody wants to die, they just want the pain to stop."
"half of your beauty comes from the way you speak"
𝙊𝙝𝙞𝙤 𝘽𝙞𝙜 𝙁𝙤𝙤𝙩 𝙂𝙞𝙧𝙡
Fanny Mills was born in Pullborough, Sussex in 1860, to George Mills and Sarah Ansell. In 1861 the family were living in Mace Hill, in the village and her father was working as a grocer. She had two older siblings, Fred and Henry. In 1871 George was absent from the household. Sarah was head of the house, she is listed as a pauper (grocers wife). They have had two more children, Albert and Frances. Also living with the family was Sarah's father William and her brother Clement.
The family emigrated to America in June 1871. They arrived in New York and made there way to Ohio, where they settled in Perkins, Erie, Ohio. On the 1880 census her father was now working as a dairyman. One thing stands out on the record, that is, the fact it says 'Deformed feet' next to Fanny's name. She began to display symptoms of Milroy’s Disease, a condition which primarily affects women causes swelling in the lower limbs.
In 1886 Fanny married William Brown.
In 1899 the Hartlepool Northern DailyMail wrote, "The Big-Footed Woman - One of the most interesting cases of the rise of a freak from poverty to affluence is that of Fanny Mills, the big-footed woman, who was discovered by Frank Stone, the Boston showman. He heard of her through the postmaster Sandusky, Ohio, and after a little correspondence determined to go out and see if she was all that she was represented to be."
"The farm on which she was living with her parents was found to be the most miserable place imaginable, the house and building out of repair, the ground poor, and very thing indicating hard struggle for bare existence. The girl herself was half-clothed and fearfully thin and worn-looking. Her work was to milk the cows and then carry the milk for distance of five miles to the houses along the road. She carried two large pails slung on yoke across her shoulders, and with her huge feet the daily toil was severe that, coupled with miserable food, it had worn her almost to a skeleton."
"Mr. Stone took her to Boston on salary of £2O week, and billed her the big-footed woman from Chicago.” She created great sensation, and was a drawing card for a long time. When she arrived she had on her feet pair of boots that showed how primitive bad been her mode of life. They were made throughout of the tops of farmers' heavy cowhide boots, and had been manufactured at home cutting out of combined bootlegs a piece large enough for the sole, and then sewing more bootlegs over from side to side until the foot was covered. A shoe-dealer took these boots to place in his window as an advertisement, and in return made for her two of the finest pairs that he could turn out."
"Fanny’s salary was steadily increased as it became evident what drawing card she was, and when she left Mr Stone was to fill an engagement at £1OO a week. She was simple and careful in her manner of living, and in fact her living expenses were just about paid by what she made through the sale of her pictures. She went back to Sandusky as soon she had made enough money, bought the finest farm all that part the country, and is the entire support her parents."
Other accouts say she was known primarily as the "Ohio Big Foot Girl" and that she toured the East Coast with her sister-in-law Mary Brown who assisted her wherever she went. She toured between 1885 and 1892, and could sometimes earn $150 a week, the equivalent of $4000 today.
Fanny died on the 3rd of May 1899, aged 39.
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.” Khalil Gibran - The Prophet, 1923.
Joseph Lorusso - artist
☞Whoa Nellie!
☞ 159 years ago, Thursday, May 5, 1864, pioneering American female journalist, industrialist, & charity worker Elizabeth Jane Cochrane (1864-1922), better-known as Nellie Bly, “The Mother of Investigative Journalism,” was born at the town of Cochran’s Mills in Burrell Township of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania.
☞Note: The town of Cochran’s Mills was founded by Nellie Bly’s father, Judge Michael Cochran (1810-1871).
☞Cochrane originally intended for her pseudonym to be Nelly Bly, after the Stephen C. Foster minstrel song of that name, but her editor wrote “Nellie” by mistake, & the error stuck.
☞Cochrane became famous for her exposé of the New York City Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. In 1887, she feigned insanity in order to have herself declared insane & committed to the asylum to investigate reports of brutality & neglect of the inmates. Cochrane’s account of her experiences as an inmate in a lunatic asylum was recorded in her 1887 book “Ten Days in a Mad-House.”
☞On November 14, 188+19, Cochrane began a solo trip around the world in emulation of the fictional character Phileas Fogg from the 1873 Jules Verne novel “Around the World in Eighty Days” -- completing her trip on January 25, 1890 in the record-breaking time of 72 days, six hours, 11 minutes & 14 seconds.
☞In 1895, Cochrane married millionaire industrialist Robert Seaman (1822-1904), who was 40 years her senior. She retired from journalism & became the president of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Company, which made steel containers such as milk cans & boilers. In 1904, Robert Seaman died & Nellie took over the operation of the Iron Clad Company -- becoming one of the leading female industrialists in the United States until embezzlement by employees led her into bankruptcy, after which she went back to her career as a journalist.
☞It is curiously interesting that on December 26, 1905, Nellie Bly received a U.S. Patent for the invention of the 55-gallon steel oil drum, which 42 years later in 1947 was first made into the chromatically-pitched percussion musical instrument known as the “steel-pan” or “steel drum” on the Caribbean Island of Trinidad.
☞The left-hand photograph depicts an undated portrait of Nellie Bly. The right-hand photograph depicts an illustration entitled “An Insanity Expert at Work,” from her 1887 book “Ten Days in a Mad-House.” In the illustration, Nellie Bly is being examined by an “insanity-expert” doctor at Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum.
There's many a lender I fear, Who brush off requests with a sneer. Except for Van Gogh, Who didn't say nogh, When asked if he'd please lend an ear.
"The beginning of their words is folly, and the end of their talk is utter madness; yet fools multiply words." Qoheleth
Water Witching 💦
Water Witching is a form of dowsing that uses divination to locate underground water. Most “water witches” or dowsers use the traditional forked stick, which may come from a variety of trees, including the hazel, willow, peach, and ash. Sometimes the sticks are straight; other times they are forked. Some dowsers use items including keys, wire coat hangers, wire rods, or pendulums for divination.
💦 Method With the classic method of a forked stick, one part of the fork is held in each hand with the palms upward. The bottom or butt end of the "Y" is pointed skyward at an angle of about 45 degrees. The “water witch” then walks back and forth over the area to be tested. When he or she passes over a source of water, the rod pitches and moves in the dowser’s hands.
💦 “Water witches” practice mainly in rural communities where homeowners are pressed to afford the cost of drilling a well for water only to find it dry. They turn to water witching for advice beforehand. The thing is, water exists under the Earth's surface almost everywhere, so the likelihood that the “water witch” will be successful is pretty much guaranteed.
🙂 Dowsing is used to find other items underground including water, oil, and gemstones. When dowsing is used to find oil, it’s called doodlebugging!!! 💜
—Water Witch (1942) George Casely using a hazel twig to find water on the land around his Devon farm.
In the spring of 1862, 23-year-old Robert Smalls was working as a pilot in Charleston harbor aboard a Confederate steamer called “the Planter.” The ship’s three officers were white. The other seven crewmen, including Smalls, were slaves.
Despite Confederate orders requiring officers to always remain aboard their vessels, the officers on the Planter often went ashore at night to spend the night with their families, leaving only the enslaved crew on the ship. Whether they did so because they trusted Smalls, or doubted his courage and ability, either way they made a big mistake. Smalls recognized the opportunity their negligence presented, and he resolved to act on it.
First he had to convince the other crew members. Escaping out of the heavily guarded harbor would be risky and dangerous. But Smalls’ charisma, confidence, and the prospect of liberty overcame whatever fears or doubts they may have had. Smalls set his plan in motion.
Next he had to convince his wife Hannah. What will happen if we are caught? she asked him. “I shall be shot,” Smalls replied, adding that Hannah and the children would possibly be punished and separated. Without hesitation Hannah answered, “I will go. For where you die, I will die.”
In the predawn hours of May 13, Smalls hoisted the Confederate and South Carolina flags and the Planter got underway, with Smalls standing on the deck, impersonating the captain by wearing his hat. He steamed the vessel past sentries who had no reason to doubt the ship was acting under orders. Had the ruse been detected, the steamer would have been easily blown out of the water.
Smalls guided the ship to a wharf where Hannah was hiding and waiting, along with their four-year-old daughter and infant son, together with six other enslaved family members of the crew. Once the women and children were on board and safely below deck, Smalls turned the ship toward the mouth of the harbor, which was guarded by Fort Sumter.
As the Planter approached the fort, Smalls pulled the chord on the ship’s whistle, giving two long blows followed by a short one—the signal to pass. While everyone else was below deck on their knees praying, Smalls boldly steered the ship past the fort’s guns. “Blow the damned Yankees to hell!” a Confederate sentry shouted as he steamed by.
Once past the fort, Smalls turned his ship toward the Onward, the closest of the Federal blockade ships. As they drew near, the crew ran down the rebel flags and hoisted a white bedsheet. Suspicious, an officer aboard the Onward shouted out, “Stop, or I will blow you out of the water!” Smalls slowly drew alongside the federal ship and yelled out to it, “Good morning, sir! I have brought you some of the old United States guns taken from Fort Sumter!”
The daring escape made Smalls an instant hero in the North. He went on to serve in the United States Navy, bought his old master’s home at a tax sale after the war, served in the South Carolina legislature, and was elected to one term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He died in South Carolina in February 1915, at age 75.
Robert Smalls and his crew commandeered the Confederate steamship Planter and delivered it to the U.S. Navy on May 13, 1862, one hundred sixty-one years ago today.
“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”