BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE: OCCUPATIONS #3

WEIGHING GOLD DUST
nDURING THE GOLD RUSH IN THE YUKON 
(Circa 1898)


“The trick for the weigher was to make some of that
dust stick to his own fingers. Some weighers cultivated
mandarin-length fingernails to collect the golden grains; 
others kept their fingers moist and dusted them off in 
the leather pockets of their trousers; still others wore 
their hair long and well-oiled, frequently running their
fingers through it and ending the night with a vigorous,
lucrative shampoo.”

John Burke. Rogue’s Progress: the Fabulous Adventures 
of Wilson Mizner (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1975)
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ELEVATOR OPERATOR

About Mathilda  who ran the elevator in 
Philosophy Hall  at Columbia University 
for over 20 years:

“I am not too sure she takes too seriously the books 
we write, the courses we give, or the courses students 
take; but I know that many of us take seriously the serene, unillusioned kindliness and friendliness with which she has learned in her car to survey the world. “I have seen
people go up and up,’ she once remarked; “I continue 
to go up and down.” And while doing so, she has found 
and communicated wisdom and peace.

 Irwin Edman. Philosopher’s Holiday (New York: 
The Viking Press, MCMXXXVIII

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DOCTOR

"I was born dead. Two doctors, that is to say, announced 
my death before they had the honour of announcing my birth;
 the nurse from whom I heard this story was furiously 
indignant; she prided herself on never losing a baby. 
Meanwhile my young mother was more dead than alive, and 
this alarming pair of doctors next proceeded into her 
 room, intent upon saving her life. Oddly enough, in 
view of so much bungling, they eventually succeeded."

Lady Eleanor Smith. Life's a Circus. New York: 
Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1940)

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POPULAR SONG WRITER IN RUSSIA


“For those who wonder what Russians sing besides the 
Volga Boatman and Ochi Chernyia, Vasili Pavlovich 
Solovyen-Sedoi, Russia’s top Tin Pan Alley man has 
the answer. Sedoi’s simple , easy-to-hum melodies flow constantly out of Russian radios. In restaurants and 
cabarets, couples sway nightly to such Sedoi hits as Nightingale, It’s Long Since We’ve Been Home. More 
important yet, Songwriter Sedoi manages to please 
Russia’s culture cops, who regard dzhaz as ‘vulgar 
musical stew.’ This year , Sedoi won his second Stalin 
prize.
   The Seeing Eye. Sedoi  scores his biggest hits with 
nicely blended combinations of patriotism, sentiment, 
wartime allusions and love. Like most U.S. tune-smiths,
he writes only the music, leaves the lyrics to more lyrical minds.”

Time. (July 27, 1947)
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BEAUTY PAGEANT CONTESTANT

“I wouldn’t normally enter a beauty pageant, but this one is special. It’s a battle for the title of Miss Ex-Yugoslavia, beauty queen of a country that no longer exists. It is due to
The country being ‘no more’ that our shoddy little contest is happening in Australia over eight thousand miles from where Yugoslavia once stood. My fellow competitors and I are immigrants and refugees, coming from different sides of the conflict that split Yugoslavia up. It’s a weird idea for a competition – bringing young women from a war-torn country together to be objectified but in our little diaspora, we’re used to contradictions.”

Sofija Stefanovic. Miss Ex-Yugoslavia. (New York: 
Atrria Books, 2018)

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PIRATE

"Sir Henry Morgan, (born 1635, Llanrhymney, Glamorgan 
[now in Cardiff], Wales—died August 25, 1688, probably Lawrencefield, Jamaica), Welsh buccaneer, most famous 
of the adventurers who plundered Spain’s Caribbean 
colonies during the late 17th century. Operating with 
the unofficial support of the English government, 
he undermined Spanish authority in the West Indies."

BRITANNICA.  Online edition)

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