Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1889-04-17
ThinhIes and Thinlhse HEakars.

/ Thiinbles and Thlnib5e-Hz akcrss
Tn these days, whafi everything We
aee, hear aud touch is supposed TO haYs
d history, 1t is humiliating TO have to
confess that the thimble truly femi-
nine article, is absolutely without any
account OF its origin or shape or use in
early days.
The first mention we get Of it il III
the twelfth century, but this In no
sense helps us to its origin. It occurs
/ in the election OF words of CT mnaon
things, written ont by Hildegarde, ard
therefore we gather that it must have
! been in daily use in her time.
We have some little guide as to the
] shape OF the thimble in tho twelfth
century by looking at the one dug out
i Of the Burg Tannenberg in the Berg
stras % at Darmstadt.
4 The burg itself was destroyed in
1899, and never bnilt up aga n; there
/ fore, this thimble, which is now to DO
seen. in the museum at Darmstadt,
must have been in use before the de-
struetion OF the burg.
The shape is somewhat similar to
ours; it is q very well-made bronze
/ thimble.
AS far as we can be certain OF any
i thing, the thimble is to be traced to
the inventive and ingenious arts ms OF
Nurnberg, who were the acknowied Jed
1 manufacturers Of it in the fourSesnsh
1 century.
/ 1t was not, however, until 1884 .that
/ the thimble makers became what is
called corporate body, although FOR q
whole century previously the Nurnberg
merchants had carried thimbles with
them for sale on their yearly exp -di-
tions to the great fairs of Leipsic, Ham
burg and Lubbock
It seems that up to the end of the
seventeenth century the til ,mble was to
be found in few places outside OF Nurn-
berg, Cologne and Holland.
There were at that time double
/ thimbles, Of which the under one wis
quite smooth and g.lded, while the up
per one was of silver and entirely
| pierced through.
In consequence of the Nurnberg Coun-
Gil issuing SO many prohibitive laws,
the thimble-making craft were unable
to hold their own; they could neither
make use of their own Intentions, nor
could they employ machinery; and
they were soon surpassed by those Of
Aix-la- Chapelle and other places,
where restrictions had no power to
prevent the employment Ct machines
put in motion by water.power.
Thimbles seem to have Ieen intro
duced into England as articles of com
| mon use by man named John Lofting,
who came over from Holland at the
end of the seventeenth century, and
established thimble factory at ISL
| ington.
The word thimble is said to be de-
| rived from the Scotch thummel or
thumb-bell, q sort of shield originally
worn on the thumb. Golden Days.
A Criminal Family.
From an article written by DR..
Green, giving the history of wild
Maggie, the mother of criminals"
She was the leading one of six moo
rious sisters. The history, says DR..
Green, is traced backward six genera
tons. A long black line of crime and
debauchery. One hundred and sixty
four of these generations were fallen
| women, 76 convicted criminals, 142
paupers, lis indictable crimes, 166
years of imprisonment, 734 years Of
pauperism. The country has paid out
its hundreds of thousands of dol
lars to attend to those criminals and
paupers; but what triHe it all is COM
pared to the moral damage, the suffer
ing, and ignorance, and degradation
which have been sown like thistle-seed
all over that region? 1t was not that
wild Maggie" and her sisters were
worse than other women that the rec
ord was SO fearful. The ancestral
breeding spot was forest-covered and
rock-sheltered seclusion. Here the
children were born, and lived in novels
of an atmosphere of evil. Here they
grew up together, fostering in crime
and vice, an ulcerous sore upon the So
cial organism. In such q leprous en-
vironment it was impossible for the
young life to be uncontaminated.
The writer has touched the bottom
of the evil, viz, environments. He
sees that roses can not grow on thistle
stalks, nor lilies in bramble and net
tie hedge. How much more reasonable
the argument that il you would re-
move sin, remove its causes; if you
would have clear stream, purify the
fountain; than the everlasting wall
over abhorent results, and prayers that
some unseen force would remove the
leprosy from bodies whose blood was
poisoned for generations by vice grown
on poyerty's fruitful upas tree. DIR.
Green says further:
wild Maggie" was left an orphan
at an early age; she was sent adrift;
no one cared for her soul or body; not
even an almshouse to shelter her, and
no warm Christian home opened its
doorway to the strong-framed young
orphan. She brought herself up, but
the community paid dear enough for
her training, dieting, and clothing
Chicago cypress.
Rirds in the HnuSe