AUTOGRAPH BOOKS In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries both men and women made books to fill with the tokens of friends and relatives. It was a popular social pastime to have an autograph book in which to collect aphorisms, sketches and verses provided mainly by one's friends, relatives and associates. The practice is not nearly so prevalent now, and the ones produced, particularly in the first half of the 20th Century, provide a fascinating comment on the social mores and conventions of the time. Individuals would sign each other's books and leave a sentimental phrase, a poem, small sketches, calling cards, pictures, or stickers. They could easily now be considered as maudlin, romantic and too sweet for modern tastes, but they, nevertheless, retain much charm and give an insight into the lives of people at the time. I reproduce below some of the sketches and aphorisms collected from such autograph books in my own family.

	_____________ _____________ _____________ _____________ 'Just a few lines from a would-be poet'		Beware sweet maid when men come to thee And say they seek their soul's affinity When all they want, the base espousers, Is someone to sew buttons on their trousers.
It's very hard to find a friend When your heart is full of hope. It's harder still to find a towel When your eyes are full of soap.	F.Currie	In ascending the hill of prosperity May you never meet a Friend
	It's not the one that knows the most That has the most to say. Nor yet the one that has the most That gives the most away.		Love is like a mutton chop Sometimes cold - Sometines hot Whether cold or whether hot It's not a thing to be forgot.
'Taint what we have, But what we give, 'Taint what we are, But how we live, 'Taint what we do, But how we do it, That makes life worth Going through it.		Make new friends but keep the old, One is silver, the other gold; Cheeks may wrinkle, hair grow grey, But friendship never knows decay.
	When the golden sun is sinking, When your time from care is free, When of others you are thinking, Will you sometimes think of me?		Written in faltering, scratchy handwriting This is a damned bad pen you've given me!

THOUGHT for the DAY From an article by Beryl Bainbridge in the 'Daily Mail' 25th May 1996 For two years I went to the woods every night. I made a little shrine out of that spot and kept my slippers and his letter there. I read a lot of books while thinking about him, in particular one by Hazlitt, which I didn't fully understand, but which gave me melancholy pleasure. Three lines I learnt by heart, reciting them over and over, as the light began to fade and my childhood with it: "Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck by the difference between what things are and the way they might have been."

	DIVISIBILTY ... and the Number -
There are tests for the divisibility of big numbers by most of the numbers from 2 to 12. Some of these divisibilty tests are fairly obvious. We know that all even numbers are exactly divisible by 2. (Don't we!?). And, for example, most people could say straight away that 1,245,572,675 is divisible by 5. If you are asked whether 9 will divide exactly into a huge number, you do not need to do the division. Just add up the digits, and if the total of the digits comes to 10 or more, then add up the digits from that total. And so on, until you end up with a single digit. This is the digital root of the big number. If the digit is 9, the original huge number can be divided exactly by 9. If it is 1, 2, 3 or anything up to 8, then that would be the remainder from dividing the original number by 9. The test for divisibility by 3 is similar. As with the test for 9, add up the digits of the number you want to test. Keep on adding the digits in subsequent answers. If the final, single digit is 3, 6 or 9, then the big number is divisible by 3 with no remainder. A less common test is for divisibility by 11. To test a number, take its digits from right to left, alternately subtracting and adding. Can the result be divided by 11? (Zero is divisible by 11 for the purposes of this test. So is minus 11, minus 22 and so on.) If so, then the original number is divisible by 11. Example: is 2,783 divisible by 11? Calculate: 3 - 8 + 7 - 2 = 0. Answer: YES. Seven is the most magical and mysterious of numbers (Seven Wonders of the World, Seven Deadly Sins, etc). No one has yet found a quick way of testing whether or not a number can be divided exactly by seven. But, there is a good trick to be done with 7. Ask someone between the ages of 10 and 99 to write down their age 3 times in a row. (A 13 year old would write 131,313. Tell them that, without a doubt, this number is exactly divisible by 7. When they check, they will find you are always right!!! Now why is that?

HAIKU ... by Shuson Kato I kill an ant; and realize my three children have been watching To find out more about HAIKUs ... Enter the Secret Garden of HAIKU

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