Blue highlighting indicates verbs that were changed from the original.
Anyone who participates in meetings run by an organization or club is likely to be familiar with Robert's Rules of Order. Since this book was first published in 1876, it has gone through three editions and has sold three million copies. Henry M. Robert (1837-1923) was an army engineer who was very active in a number of organizations. Once asked to lead a meeting, he became frustrated when he did not know how to conduct it properly. The existing manuals on running meetings were of little help, so Robert began to write his own. His military duties gave him little time to work on his book. But in 1874, ice held up engineering work on Lake Michigan, and he had three months to complete the book. His wife, who was active in several organizations, assisted him writing the book. The first printing was for just 4,000. Today his book is the bible for almost every educational, charitable, labor, business, and cultural organization in the United States.
Tuberculosis killed millions of people in the nineteenth century. Until recently, most people thought of the disease only in historical terms. TB seemed as old-fashioned as horse-drawn carriages, oil lamps, and stiff collars. TB, or consumption as it was known in the past, was given an almost romantic treatment in old movies showing young composers like Chopin coughing blood.
But TB is back, and doctors find nothing romantic about it. This disease, once thought eradicated, has returned in a virulent form that resists treatment. Unlike AIDS, TB can be spread through casual contact, especially if a patient's throat is involved. A simple cough can infect a half dozen people in a crowded elevator.
Theda Bara created the image of the "vamp" in 1920s movies. She wore heavy eye makeup, scanty costumes, and exotic jewelry when she played mysterious seductresses. Women moviegoers denounced her as an immoral husband-stealer and wrote her hate letters and defaced her posters. Theda Bara cultivated her image carefully. Bara, fans learned, was the word "Arab" spelled backwards. In fact, her name was an anagram for "Arab Death." Her press agents told the story that she was born in an oasis near the Sphinx. Even people who knew the truth preferred to believe the legend of this actress who played evil and very sexual women when Hollywood portrayed females as either helpless virgins or meek wives.
In reality, Theda Bara was Theodosia Goodman, daughter of a Jewish tailor in Cincinnati. Having made $4000 a week in the 1920s, she was able to retire at forty. Unlike her vamp character, she dedicated the rest of her life to her family.
Return to the English 24 website.