Happy Halloween!  Please enjoy sharing these historical articles for the holiday.

Coloring pages for Trick-or-Treaters
 
All Hallow's Eve (1895)
http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/all-hallow-eve-1895.html

A Supernatural Swindle (Fiction—1896) http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/a-supernatural-swindle-fictionmdash1896.html

The Children of Arachne: European Spiders (1889)
Great Grandma's Hallowe'en (Poem —1887) http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/great-grandmas-halloween-poemmdash1887.html

Mourning and Mourners (1888) http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/mourning-and-mourners-1888.html
Victorian Halloween
Merchandise

Painting by Brunner František Dvořák

​"In his love for knowledge and familiarity with books a man may find his happiness and usefulness increased a hundred fold."
—Walter R. Houghton, 1889.
American Etiquette and Rules of Politeness. 1889, p. 33-34.

Sarah's Books
I'd be honored if you would ask your community to choose one of my books as a "Community Reads" or "One Book" topic.  Check with your local library to find out how books are chosen to be Community Reads in your local area.  If your library gives you a chance to vote for a specific book, please do so!  
Here's some information about other Community Reads projects which have been done with various books:
http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0601/cfb.html

First Wheel in Town

Love Will Find A Wheel

A Rapping At The Door A Trip and a Tumble

Delivery Delayed Quotations of Quality

A Bouquet of Victorian Roses

Love's Messenger

The following are all words that come up in Three Women Awheel, Book VI of the Tales of Chetzemoka.  Addie has to negotiate some prices in one scene, so there are quite a few words from the Chinook trade jargon, a jargon shared by a number of Aboriginal tribes around the Puget Sound area which borrowed words from different tribes as well as from French and English.

This glossary appears at the end of the book, after a collection of 19th-century recipes for all the foods mentioned in the story.  Enjoy!

Glossary of Terms
[Taken from the end of Three Women Awheel]

Chatelaine pocket: A waist-hung purse.

Chik'-a-min: Metal.  Chinook jargon.  Source: Gibbs, George. A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863, p. 2.
 
Cotton wool: Minimally processed cotton used for packing delicate and fragile objects.  Still used in pill bottles to minimize breakage of the product in shipping.
 
Dirt:  Polite euphemism for feces.
 
Dragon: Chaperone.  Nineteenth-century college girl slang.  Source: Champney, Elizabeth W., Three Vassar Girls in France, Estes & Lauriet: Boston, 1888, p. 22.
 
Hyak: Swift, fast.  Chinook jargon.  (This has become the name of one of the Washington state ferries.)  Source: Gibbs, George. A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863, p. 5.
 
Ikt: One.  Chinook jargon. Source: Hale, Horatio, M.A., F.R.S.C., An International Idiom: A Manual of the Oregon Trade Language or Chinook Jargon, London: Whittaker & Co., 1890. p. 13.
 
Hyas: Very.  Chinook jargon.  Source: Gibbs, George. A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863, p. 5.
 
Iktah okook?: What is that?  Chinook jargon. Source: Gibbs, George. A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863, p. 19.
 
Kiu'-a-tan: Horse.  Chinook jargon.  Source: Gibbs, George. A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863, p. 37.
 
Kla-how-ya: Standard greeting in the Chinook trade jargon.  "It originated from the Indians hearing Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Douglas address his second in command with "Clark, how are you?"" Source: Roper, Edward, F.R.G.S., By Track and Trail: A Journey Through Canada. London: 1891. p. 205.
 
Klone: Three.  Chinook jargon. Source: Gibbs, George. A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863, p. 10.
 
Lakit: Four.  Chinook jargon. Source: Hale, Horatio, M.A., F.R.S.C., An International Idiom: A Manual of the Oregon Trade Language or Chinook Jargon, London: Whittaker & Co., 1890. p. 13.
 
Mash / to have a mash on someone: A romantic crush.  19th-century slang.  Source: McIlvaine, C.W. "Censor" The Nassau Herald.  Princeton College, 1878, p. 60: "Boys, you know Miss B… I took her to a cotillion one evening and got a terrible mash on her."

Moxt: Two.  Chinook jargon. Source: Hale, Horatio, M.A., F.R.S.C., An International Idiom: A Manual of the Oregon Trade Language or Chinook Jargon, London: Whittaker & Co., 1890. p. 13.
 
Mute: Owl scat.
 
O'koke: This, that.  Chinook jargon. Source: Gibbs, George. A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863, p. 19.
 
Sleeve: Gun.  Old West slang.

Image courtesy https://unblinkingeye.com/Guns/Colt1877DA/colt1877da.html

Wake: No.  Chinook jargon. Source: Gibbs, George. A Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, New York: Cramoisy Press, 1863, p. 28.
 
Wrapper: Also called a house dress or a tea gown.  An unfitted, one-piece dress for casual lounging and house work.

Get Three Women Awheel on Amazon!

Don't forget to look for fabulous Tales of Chetzemoka merchandise —book bags, mugs, and more, on Zazzle!

Get this image on a card, poster, bag, mug or special Halloween mug

​Great-Grandma's Hallowe'en
By Helen Chase
Good Housekeeping. October 29, 1887, p. 300.
​ ​October days were almost done;
The red leaves strewed the garden,
The dahlias bent their splendid heads,
And seemed to ask our pardon
For leaving us; the cricket sang
A plaintive little ballad
Among the grasses, while, above,
The blackbird —saucy dallard!--
Chattered and crooned from out an ash,
Aflame with scarlet berries,
While idly drifted, in the wind,
The thistle's fairy wherries.
 
All Hallowe'en was almost here;
Great-grandma —dainty maiden*--
In lilac print, was stepping round
Her store-room, richly laden
With golden pies and 'lection cake,
And luscious tarts and crullers,
And apples —stored with nectar—each
Aglow with gorgeous colors;
For such a party as was set
For Thursday night, why, never
Had Middlesex been bidden to,
In cold or summer weather.
 
And Lois Brown would bring with her
Her cousin "'way from Bostin;"
While Persis Drake, the old Squire's son,
Would have Alphonso Austin,
Just home from foreign parts, where he
The Queen, in her young beauty*,
Had seen in London town!  Each maid
Felt it her bounden duty
To don her finest gown, and strive,
With purpose sweet and hearty,
To show the strangers "how to hold
A Hallow Even party."
 
At last it came —the fateful night!
Great-grandma —like a picture,
In peach-blow silk, and bodice trim--
Received her guests.  The mixture
That's sacred to all Hallowe'en--
"Snap-dragon" —crowned the buffet;
The hickory logs blazed merrily,
While Ruth and Simon Luffet
Led off and named the chestnuts brown,
And set them wildly snapping,
And swung the finger-rings, to tell
Your fortune by their tapping.**
 
"Oh, who will try the lonely walk
Around the garden, holding
A looking-glass, as backward she
Steps slowly?  None?"  Then, folding
A kerchief round her dainty neck,
Great-grandma bravely started
Adown the path, while silently,
The girls all stood—faint-hearted.
"What's that?  A shriek?"  All sought the door.
There stood Great-grandma, blushing,
And by her side, a gallant youth,
Her sudden tumult hushing.
 
"Good friends," he said, "my ship rides yon,
At anchor in the harbor,
And with dispatches, as I rode,
I halted at the arbor
To hear your merriment, when sped
A maiden down the border,
And" —(here the gallant stranger smiled)--
"She deemed me a marauder!
But if her gentle heart can prompt
Her to forgive my daring,
I vow she never shall regret
Her deed of sweet forbearing."
           
Great-grandma smiled, and held her hand
Out toward the handsome stranger,
And over it he bowed.  Alas!
Her lovers each saw danger
To all their schemes in that caress!
And—well, within the harbor,
A ship long tarried, and next June,
When roses decked the arbor,
A bride across the old oak hall,
All swept and garnished duly,
Stepped softly to the stranger's side,
And vowed she'd love him truly!

​
*Note that the poem was written in 1887, but tells of an old woman reminiscing and waxing nostalgic about a much earlier time.  The reader is cued in to this when Great Grandma is called "dainty maiden" —i.e., when the story takes place, she is still a young, unmarried woman.  The line "the Queen, in her young beauty" is a reference to the early days of Victoria's rule: she took the throne in 1838.

**For details of old fortune-telling techniques which help the reader understand this poem, please see this piece from 1895: All Hallow Eve

Victorian Hallowe'en Bags and more printed with 19th-century images from our private archive

Other pieces of special interest for October:

All Hallow Eve (1895)
The Autumn Woods (Poem—1888)
In Nutting Time (Poem—1890)
​Mourning and Mourners (1888)
October (Poem—1888)
Song for October (Poem—1888) ​​
​The Children of Arachne: European Spiders

Back to Historical Articles Index

A Rapping At The Door:
A Victorian Cycling Club Suspense Story
        When the delivery of a mysterious letter to Silas Hayes' mansion is followed by the arrival of a beautiful young woman who claims she can communicate with the dead, Nurse McCoy sniffs trouble in the wind. It's obvious to her that the newcomer is after Silas' fortune, but he is helplessly in awe of the medium's eerily intimate knowledge of his past and her seemingly supernatural abilities. Meanwhile, Kitty Brown's yearning to reach out to the departed spirit of her first love is making her push away her new husband, just when she needs him the most. The whole situation is a dreadful mess, and McCoy's got to straighten it all out before Silas' nephew and his bride come back from their honeymoon. Honestly, she doesn't know how any of the fools in this world would get along without her…
Buy the book
​on Amazon!
​For Tales of Chetzemoka merchandise —cards, posters and more— click here!