Come! We must find the pin head!
March 10, 2013 5:23 PM   Subscribe

A Mind Reader, A Pin Head, and a Fool; The Story of "Professor" Johnstone's Visit to Wind Cave [previously].
When they [the search party] arrived in that portion of the cave two members of the party were insensible. I was raving and Moore was the only man in his right mind. He had me down on the floor of the cave, my throat clutched with his hand while in the other hand he held a Colt revolver. We had had nothing to eat for five (sic) days and four nights. McDonald dies soon after that, one of the party was adjudged insane and taken to the asylum. I was almost blind and it was necessary to have an operation performed on my eyes.
posted by unliteral (8 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Fix for the broken links on that previous post: The diary of 17 year old Alvin McDonald.
posted by unliteral at 6:04 PM on March 10, 2013


If he succeeds in this, we are of the opinion that for his next Herculean task he should undertake to find the pocket in a woman's dress.

A different time.
posted by arcticseal at 6:25 PM on March 10, 2013


That's a great story, thanks for linking it.

Can someone explain the pocket metaphor? It's completely over my head.
posted by codacorolla at 6:57 PM on March 10, 2013


Can someone explain the pocket metaphor? It's completely over my head.

Women's dresses are traditionally short of pockets?
posted by qwip at 7:11 PM on March 10, 2013


Wind Cave is amazing. It is ridiculously large and has some great structures / features, such as 90% or so of the worlds known boxwork ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boxwork.jpg ).

There are over 120 miles of explored cave so far and it is estimated that is about 2.5% of the total or so.

Hi-res Photos.
posted by killThisKid at 7:50 PM on March 10, 2013 [2 favorites]


That is curious codacorolla, a quick google turns up quite a few other instances of it being used:
The Statesman, March 12, 1885 — "The woman suffragists want more liberty for women. How much liberty do they want? There is no liberty lying around loose that a woman wont take hold of if she needs it. She takes the liberty of going through a man's pockets when he is asleep, and he can't retaliate, for a man never lived who could find the pocket in a woman's dress."

The Morning Bullletin, October 26, 1897 — "THAT POCKET AGAIN The man's wife had asked him to go upstairs and look in the pocket of her dress for a key she thought was there, and being a man willing to accommodate he had done so. It was a long time until he returned, and when he did there was a peculiar look in his eyes.
"I can't find any key in the dress of your pocket," he said, with a painful effort. "Why," she retorted sharply, "I left it there."
"I say I can't find any dress in the pocket of your key," he said, doggedly. His tone seemed to disturb her. "You didn't half look for it," she insisted.
"I tell you I can't find any pocket in the key of your dress," he replied, in a dazed kind of way. This time she looked at him.
"What's the matter with you! she asked nervously. "I say," he said, speaking with much effort, "that I can't find any dress in the key of your pocket."
She got up and went over to him. "Oh, William," she groaned, "have you been drinking ?" He looked at her leerily. "I tell you I can't find any pocket in the dress of your key," he whispered.
She began to shake him. "What's the matter? What's the matter?" she asked, in alarm.
The shaking seemed to do him good, and he rubbed his eyes as if he were regaining consciousness. "Wait a minute," he said, very slowly, indeed. "Wait a minute. I can't find any dress in—no, I can't find any key in the dress of—no, that's not it—any—any—any pocket. There, that's it." And a flood of light came into his face. "Confound it, I couldn't find any pocket." Then he sat down and laughed hysterically, and his wife, wondering why in the name of goodness men raised such a row over finding the pocket in a woman's dress, went upstairs and came back with the key in two minutes."
Seems like it was some sort of running joke that men are confused about how women's clothing works.
posted by unliteral at 7:55 PM on March 10, 2013 [5 favorites]


Wow.

Just wow.

I will remember this when I belabor myself for ill-advised schemes.
posted by Samizdata at 4:22 AM on March 11, 2013


I have tried to reach for what I thought was my wife's pocket, only to meet with thin air. Truly a mystery that links all men as brothers.
posted by The Hyacinth Girl at 5:46 AM on March 11, 2013


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