Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1896 — Flat-Irons and House Numbers. [ARTICLE]

Flat-Irons and House Numbers.

It needs but a backward glance to assure the veriest grumbler that, so far as the conveniences of life are concerned, he lives In a day of privileges. What housewife would now satisfy herself without flatirons for smoothing and glossing her linen? IJer ancestress, even as late as the time of Elizabeth and James 1., had to be content to use large heated stones. These were inscribed with texts of Scripture, and were as well recognized household articles as are our own smoothing irons. In an article in Notes and Queries is found a quotation from an old English book which says, “She that wanteth a sleek-stone to smooth her linen will take a pebble.” It is a big ste.p forward when these smooth stones were superseded by boxirons. The box held charcoal, and not heated irons, such as were used much later. But if we should And it troublesome to get along without flatirons, we should be yet more so if deprived of some of our other privileges, such, for example, as the numbers on city houses. Think of having to look for a “Mr. Jones, in Whitechapel, not far from the Blue Boar." There were days when the house number was an unknown thing, and only-business signs, coats of arms, and house names marked the different buildings. Berlin is about to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the house number. It was in 1795 that the city was first numbered. Did these good old German innovators put odd numbers on one side j)f their streets and even numbers on the other? No. They started from the Brandenburg gate and numbered straight ahead, taking' no account of change of street. As they proceeded the numbers grew higher, the height to which they attained being limited ,only by the supply of houses. The first house they numbered was number one, the last—the number that betokened the total number*of houses In the city. Not the best method of numbering, Jt»ut Infinitely better than no method at all. When a girl writes a letter to another girl, she thinks she is bound by courtesy to extend an invitation to make her a visit Ah actress is "a charming young actress” until she is fifty-five.