It All Adds Up

This past summer we bought a lot of books at an auction. There were some keepers, but this one, a geometry book from 1909, just isn't one of them.  In an ideal world, I'd have enough space to hoard all of the neat old things we find, but we don't have that kind of room.

This book still held some fun. Like many old textbooks, the previous owner(s) wrote in the neat old-time script, and added a few non-math-y notes.

I love the script.

My favorite is "A NEW ARITHMETIC" pasted inside. I'd always assumed that way back when, people simply didn't know the dangers of smoking. I was proven wrong earlier when I read in our history studies about King James (I think) ranting on about the evils of tobacco. Then this little treasure shows that others in our country also had a clue.

Practical math--sorry if it's tough to read. I'm no photographer.

I am not one to tell others they can or can't smoke; I did enough begging my parents in my younger years to know you can't persuade somebody to stop smoking, not even with a cute little ditty like this. I just can't handle the smoke myself; after living in clouds of it in my growing up years with no problem, I am now nauseated every time I get a whiff. I'm just hoping my children won't start. Perhaps seeing their grandmother with COPD and all it's accompanying limitations will be enough to keep them from picking up the bad habit.