Fire extinguishers: 1668

How to make dainty sport with a Cat.

"Dainty"; this should be nice.

If you will have some sport with a Cat, then get a little Bell, such as the tame Hawkes have at their legs, and tye the Bell something hard...

Uh oh!

...at the end of the Cats taile, and let her go, the feeling, of her tail smart, and hearing of the Bell gingle, she will run up and down as if she were mad, flying against the walls and windows...

Okay, that was pretty awful.

Some have shod a Cat round, with putting melted Pitch into four Walnut-shels, and placing her feet therein, and she will make pretty sport.

Oh My God!

I was told of a merry Fellow that came into an Ale-house in cold weather, and finding but a reasonable Fire, said, He would make the Cat piss it out, and watching his oppertunity, he getteth his Hostesses Cat, putting her head betwixt his thighs, and holding her four feet fast in one hand, and with the other hand held up her taile near the fire, and did piss such aboundance that she quite quenched the same.

Ha!

--From A Rich Cabinet--

Time for reflection

Do cats care when a new decade arises? No, and why should they. Every day is the beginning of a new ten year period. But human minds seem to find some special fascination with the end of each year, decade, or century. Not that this is wrong, per se. What bothers me, is that people wait until the end of these periods to reflect on the past, when they should be reflecting on the past every day of their lives.

Evidence of cause and effect doesn't just make itself shown at the end of years or decades, it's much more elusive than that; sometimes easily visible, and sometimes popping up at odd intervals. Look for it at only certain times, and you may never see a thing, or lack the abilities to see anything useful.

Lose weight fast!: 1898

--From The Black Cat--

See how women have advanced? In the past something like this would be in the back of a magazine. Now it's on the front cover with an incredibly thin celebrity.

Cats: 1893

The violent lyrics of today's music is without precedent. (I almost can't believe that song is from 1893.)

Pet food : 1847

"If you wish to teach the Birds airs, or artificial notes of any kind, they must hear nothing that can in any way distract their attention. Every time you enter the room, the oftener the better, and especially when you feed them, whistle, or play on a flute or flageolet, the tune you wish them to learn. Whistle or play that, and no other. Repeat, and repeat, and repeat, until they can pipe it correctly."

People would capture wild birds of all kinds and either teach them human songs or raise them with nightingales so they would have a nightingale's song. Some people even sold birds that had been trained this way. But getting food to feed the birds could be troublesome:

"Take some meat, or fish, or a dead cat, rat, or dog, and hang it in a shady place until it is well fly-blown or maggoty. Then place it in a large box half full of earth, and cover. In the course of a week or ten days the maggots will bury themselves in the earth, and may be dug up, if the box is kept in a cold place, at leisure."

I wonder if the cats and dogs just happened to be dead, or were killed specifically for this purpose.

--From Manual of Cage-birds, British & Foreign--

YouTube, 1894 edition

2008 version: