The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-10-05
PINS.
From the Youths Companion.

From the Youths Companion.
Visiting one day the court house in
Salem, the city once so famous for its
witches, We were shown small bottle
containing pins, which were said to have
been extracted from persons tortured by
the witches We notice nothing at all
remarkable about these pins, but we
afterwards saw it stated in the news
paper that they could not be the wisch's
instruments of torture, since pins of their
date were made in two pieces,while these
consisted of only one.
Up to the year 1924, pins were go man
utactured that, like men in former times
they were liable to be beheaded. An
English act of Parliament was passed in
l542, fOrbidding the sale of these articles.
excepting ''onclie such as shall be double
headed, ana have the heads soudered
taste to the shanke of the pynne, we'll
swethed," sc. A single pin used to pass
through fourteen pairs of hands before It.
was ready for the lady's. Adam Smith
tells Of q small mandatory where ten
men did all the operations, and yet they
could produce upwards of forty-eight
thousand pins in day.
In 1924. an American, named Wright,
invented a machine which produced q
perfect pin In one turn OF single wheel,
and which is still used. This man Wright
deserved to be called the pin wright.
1t astonishing how many of these lit
tie things are lost. What becomes Of
them all ? 1t is calculated that in Eng
land alone, fifteen millions are used every
dry. 1t is we'll they ale so cheap. They
were not always so. Among the expenses
of the wife OF Henry VII, we find twelve
pence paid for three hundred pins, at
four pence the hundred A penny in
those days was a large sum compared
with its present value.
Some persons have undertaken to pick
up and preserve the pins they have found
One Kitty Hudson, of Nottingham, i,
SAID to have stored in her mouth all the
pins she found in cleaning the pews and
a1Sles Of the church. At last she could
neither eat, drink, or sleep without .
m0uthful Of them. Of course she swallow
ed some and they did not agree with her
She had to be taken to the hospital and
operated upon, when great number OF
! pms and needles were extracted from
various parts Of her body. She had pre-
vIously been liable 10 numbness, and TIE
feeling called 'pins and needles" in hsl
limbs. Still, though she bcwltched her
self In this way, she lived 10 be married
and have seventeen children.
In some parts of Eng land, the people
spin their faith" on what are called pm
wells, into which passsers by drop pin
as they go,ln order to propitlate The fairy
Of the waters Que we'll IN Wales is dsd
icated to the Virgin Mary, and here the
pms have 10 be cooked though what
the Virgin can want with cooked pins 1t
is hard to tell.
1t is supposed by some that pins were
Invented by the Dutch, as well as the
thimbie, which they call a finger hat.
The name, however, appears to be
WEIGH. Qn the Swedish language, a
porcupine is called a pin-swine.) They
are certainly Ut very ancient date.
British barrows Cor tombs) have been
opened, in which were found numbers of
neat little ivory pins used in arranging
the grave clothes of the dead. 1t is
probable most OF the original pins were
made Of ivory, bone and wood, though
sometimes OF golG and silver They have
always been held cheap, SO that to ex-
press unconcern people have said, 81
don't care pin !" all the more surprising
then it is, the ladies require SO many
dollars for what they call their "pln
money"