http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35179269?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook

Ancient DNA sheds light on Irish origins

Science editor, BBC News website

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Scientists have sequenced the first ancient human genomes from Ireland, shedding light on the genesis of Celtic populations.

The genome is the instruction booklet for building a human, comprising three billion paired DNA "letters".

The work shows that early Irish farmers were similar to southern Europeans.

Genetic patterns then changed dramatically in the Bronze Age - as newcomers from the eastern periphery of Europe settled in the Atlantic region.

Details of the work, by geneticists from Trinity College Dublin and archaeologists from Queen's University Belfast are published in the journal PNAS.

Team members sequenced the genomes of a 5,200-year-old female farmer from the Neolithic period and three 4,000-year-old males from the Bronze Age.

Opinion has been divided on whether the great transitions in the British Isles, from a hunting lifestyle to one based on agriculture and later from stone to metal use, were due to local adoption of new ways by indigenous people or attributable to large-scale population movements.

The ancient Irish genomes show unequivocal evidence for mass migration in both cases. 

Wave of change

DNA analysis of the Neolithic woman from Ballynahatty, near Belfast, reveals that she was most similar to modern people from Spain and Sardinia. But her ancestors ultimately came to Europe from the Middle East, where agriculture was invented.

The males from Rathlin Island, who lived not long after metallurgy was introduced, showed a different pattern to the Neolithic woman. A third of their ancestry came from ancient sources in the Pontic Steppe - a region now spread across Russia and Ukraine.

"There was a great wave of genome change that swept into [Bronze Age] Europe from above the Black Sea... we now know it washed all the way to the shores of its most westerly island," said geneticist Dan Bradley, from Trinity College Dublin, who led the study. 

Daniel Bradley, Trinity College Dublin

Excavated near Belfast in 1855, the Ballynahatty woman lay in a Neolithic tomb chamber for 5,000 years

Prof Bradley added: "This degree of genetic change invites the possibility of other associated changes, perhaps even the introduction of language ancestral to western Celtic tongues."

In contrast to the Neolithic woman, the Rathlin group showed a close genetic affinity with the modern Irish, Scottish and Welsh.

"Our finding is that there is some haplotypic [a set of linked DNA variants] continuity between our 4,000 year old genomes and the present Celtic populations, which is not shown strongly by the English," Prof Bradley told BBC News. 

"It is clear that the Anglo-Saxons (and other influences) have diluted this affinity."

Barrie Hartwell

A reconstruction of the Ballynahatty Neolithic skull

Today, Ireland has the world's highest frequencies of genetic variants that code for lactase persistence - the ability to drink milk into adulthood - and certain genetic diseases, including one of excessive iron retention called haemochromatosis.

One of the Rathlin men carried the common Irish haemochromatosis mutation, showing that it was established by the Bronze Age. Intriguingly, the Ballynahatty woman carried a different variant which is also associated with an increased risk of the disorder.

Both mutations may have originally spread because they gave carriers some advantage, such as tolerance of an iron-poor diet.

The same Bronze Age male carried a mutation that would have allowed him to drink raw milk in adulthood, while the Ballynahatty woman lacked this variant. This is consistent with data from elsewhere in Europe showing a relatively late spread of milk tolerance genes. 

Prof Bradley explained that the Rathlin individuals were not identical to modern populations, adding that further work was required to understand how regional diversity came about in Celtic groups.

"Our snapshot of the past occurs early, around the time of establishment of these regional populations, before much of the divergence takes place," he explained.

"I think that the data do show that the Bronze Age was a major event in establishment of the insular Celtic genomes but we cannot rule out subsequent (presumably less important) population events contributing until we sample later genomes also."

Follow Paul on Twitter.

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Have You Ever Heard The Term...?

http://theriflebird.com/people/have-you-ever-heard-the-term-piss-poor-i-had-no-idea-it-comes-from-this-fascinating/

Have You Ever Heard The Term ‘Piss Poor?’ I Had No Idea It Comes From THIS! Fascinating!

We can learn a lot about ourselves by looking to the past. History not only provides us with a nostalgic glimpse at how things used to be — like with these classic childhood toys — but its lessons can still teach us things today.Many of us fondly refer to “the good old days” when times were purer and life was simpler. 
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot. Once a day it was taken and sold to the tannery.

If you had to do this to survive, you were “piss poor.”

But worse than that were the really poor folks who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot. They “didn’t have a pot to piss in” and were considered the lowest of the low.
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.

However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.

Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water.

The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children. Last of all the babies.

By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!”
Houses had thatched roofs with thick straw-piled high and no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof.

When it rained, it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed.

Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the term, “dirt poor.”

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing.

As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.

Hence, “a thresh hold.”
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day, they lit the fire and added things to the pot.

They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day.

Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off.

It was a sign of wealth that a man could “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests, and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death.

This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust.”
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.

Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.

They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up.

Hence the custom of holding a “wake.”
In old, small villages, local folks started running out of places to bury people.

So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave.

When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside, and they realized they had been burying people alive.

So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.

Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (“the graveyard shift”) to listen for the bell.

Thus, someone could be “saved by the bell,” or was considered a “dead ringer.”

Now, whoever said history was boring?

Source: Littlethings.com

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http://embracinghomemaking.net/2015/04/200-things-to-throw-away/

200 Things to Throw Away

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Living with less isn’t about the number of things you get rid of it’s about living with enough to be content and getting rid of the rest.  The rest is just clutter, unnecessary, energy-draining clutter.

Here is a list of 200 Things to Throw Away.  This list isn’t a list of things that I have gotten rid of myself but of things that I want to will get rid of!

I’ll be tackling this list ten or so items a week and I look forward to a less-cluttered house at the end of it.

As you look ahead at this list I want you to remember two things:

1.) Remember you can sell, donate, recycle or throw away.  Knowing that I’m allowing someone else to enjoy my things makes it easier for me to let them go.

2.) Keep things that make you feel good.  If it doesn’t make you feel happy when you look at it, get rid of it quickly.  Surround yourself with things you enjoy.

Now on to the list:

1.  Old product boxes (Apple products, TV, etc.)

2.  Hangers from the dry cleaners

3.  Plastic hangers from the store

4.  Expired make up

5.  Half-finished projects…you know the one!

6.  Magazines

7.  Old emery boards (buy a nice glass one and be done with those scratchy things!)

8.  Old paint (Visit Earth911.com to find a place to dispose of it safely)

9.  Ugly undergarments you hate to wear (You have those “just in case” pairs too, right?)

10.  Bills, taxes, paperwork over 7 years old

11.  Socks with holes or without mates…also those lonely socks that have holes too. 

12.  Extra cups and mugs – How many does your family use in a regular dishwasher load?  Add a few more for company and be done with the rest.

13.  Books you’ve never read or will never read again

14.  Old technology (8 tracks, floppy discs, VHS tapes w/o a player, etc.)

15.  Unloved toys

16.Cleaning rags – You only need a few before you’ll wash them again, right?

17.  Tea light candles – Use them or lose them.

18.  Take out menus you never look at

19.  Old greeting cards (Save the super sentimental ones and recycle the rest)

20.  Outdated over the counter drugs and vitamins

21.  Old sneakers (Recycle through Nike)

22.  Plastic cutlery

23.  Old spices – Spices don’t actually spoil but they lose their potency.  A good rule of thumb is 1-2 years for seasoning; 1-3 for herbs and ground spices; and up to 4 years for whole spices.

24.  Duplicate power cords (USB, etc.  We have 3 vTech ones for the kiddos’ toys but only need one)

25.  Bobby pins

26.  Games with missing pieces

27.  Dried up nail polish bottles

28. Video games you’ll never play again

29.  Recalled baby items (carseats, cribs, etc.)

30.  Jewelry you don’t wear

31.  Expired food in your freezer/pantry

32.  Rugs or home decor you haven’t used since you redecorated

33.  Unused perfumes and cologne

34.  Old towels that make you cringe when you look at them

35.  Extension cords (Am I the only one who has a bazillion of these?)

36.  Extra sets of bed linens – two per bed tops

37.  Unused plastic containers – especially those without a lid and those old plastic containers. Avoid containers with recycle codes 3 or 7 as they may contain BPA.

38.  Old bills (Switch to online banking and stop the clutter before it comes in your home)

39.  Paychecks older than 2 years

40.  Stretched out hair ties

41.  Matches you never use (Maybe save a few in case of a power outage)

42.  Old newspapers

43.  Expired Rx meds (Visit fda.gov for proper ways to dispose of them)

44.  Extra pillows

45.  Ticket stubs (Sentimental like myself?  Store in a scrapbook or fill a mug with old stubs)

46.  Make up you’ll try “one day”  If you’ve owned if for more than 2 weeks without trying it, toss it.

47.  Clothes that are more than 2 sizes too small.  Don’t give up on your weight loss dream but WHEN you do lose that weight go and buy new clothes to reward yourself.

48.  Things you’ve bought have haven’t returned yet (Return them, sell, or donate them)

49.  White-out bottles – You know you don’t need it!

50.  Unneeded notebooks

51.  Pens and pencils – Keep your favorites and let go of the rest

52.  Little shampoo bottles from a hotel you went to 5 years ago

53.  Knick knacks that don’t make you smile every time you see them

54.  Cords that don’t belong to anything you currently own

55.  Lose screws, nuts, bolts, etc. unless you happen to be a handy man who would actually reuse them one day

56.  Kid’s old art projects (I have an upcoming post with loads of ideas on this so for now just set them aside)

57.  Old party supplies

58.  Old wedding favors (Keep a few, toss the rest)

59.  Old Christmas cards of your family (Save a few, recycle the rest)

60.  Holiday decor you never remember to set out (Thanksgiving turkey Aunt Sue gave you)

61.  Holiday decor that you use once a year (ex. Easter deviled egg tray that collects dust 364 days of the year!  Buy a lovely one that you can use for other holidays too.)

62.  Cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, shampoo that you used once and didn’t like.  Donate to a local shelter.

63.  Flower pots.  Plant a flower or toss the pot.

64.  Watering cans if you don’t have flowers.

65.  Too small kid’s clothing.  Only save favorites if you’re saving for another child.  Sell the rest while they’re still in style.

66.  Extra buttons (If you don’t sew, toss them all.  Reduce your supply if you will use a button in the next few months)

67.  Old calendars

68.  Unidentified frozen objects (Label ya’ll!  Keep a Sharpie by the freezer for quick labeling)

69.  Movies you’ll probably never watch again

70.  Bags from the mall you might use one day (Keep only 1 if you must)

71.  Multiple pair of scissors (One or two tops, right?)

72.  More ear buds than you’ve got family members

73.  Curling irons, crimpers (ha! flash back), or straighteners you don’t use

74.  Highlighters unless you’ve used one in the past month, then save only that one

75.  Travel mugs that leak, or are ugly, or that you don’t use because you have to hand wash it

76.  Boxes – shoe boxes, diaper boxes, cereal boxes.  Recycle and be free.

77.  Samples of any kind – Use, donate, or trash.

78.  Games you haven’t played in the last year

79.  Tape measures – You know the rule, keep one and toss the rest.

80.  Old phone covers, styluses, screen protectors, etc.

81.  Misc. ribbons or string

82.  Expired coupons

83.  Organizers you bought to get organized that didn’t work

84.  Belts that no longer fit, are worn, or are out of style

85.  Duplicate kitchen utensils – Have you ever used three wisks at the same time before?  Me neither.

86. Cookie cutters unless you’ve used them in the past year and foresee using them again

87.  Rarely used cake pans – Our bakery supply store rents them for $2 a day.  I no longer need to keep any on hand for those rare occasions I bake.

88.  Old teeth whitening trays or strips.  Use ’em up or toss ’em out.

89.  Hard candy that you’re not sure where it came from or how long it’s been there

90.  Unloved stuffed animals

91.  Half used chap stick containers – Buy a new one! I LOVE my new EOS one with coconut milk.

92.  Duplicate measuring cups and spoons

93.  Old day planners (and current ones if you don’t use them!)

94.  Candles – If it’s not lovely to look at and you’ll never burn it, let it go.

95.  Mason jars (or baby food jars, spaghetti sauce jars, etc.) that you won’t use

96.  Expired sunscreen

97.  Staple remover – unless you can make a very compelling argument to keep yours.

98.  Travel alarm clock – We have phones now.

99.  Stress balls

100.  Plug in air fresheners without a refill

101.  Unloved dog toys

102.  Extra USB flash drives – How many does one family need?

103.  Promotional swag

104.  Key chains you don’t use

105.  Recipe books you don’t ever use

106.  Push pins in the junk drawer just waiting for unsuspecting fingers

107.  Keys that you don’t know what they go to

108.  Lanyards, name tags, bags, etc. from previous conferences

109.  Carabiners – Unless you rock climb, trust me, you won’t use them.

110.  Lotions, face washes, serums that you don’t use

111.  Random batteries you’re not sure where they came from

112.  Multiple book marks – Unless you’re a book worm…you know what to do, toss them.

113.  Combination locks – Chances are slim you’ll use one again but if you do, they’re cheap to replace.

114.  Paper weights

115.  Near empty bottles of bubbles or little numbs of side-walk chalk

116.  Completed coloring books

117.  Markers without lids and lids without markers

118.  Goodie bag toys from previous birthday party celebrations

119.  Empty bottles of anything

120.  Puzzles

121.  Old invitations

122.  Travel brochures

123.  Tissue paper/gift bags

124.  Unused sticky notes

125.  Extra shoe laces

126.  Sticker’s from a precious yard sale

127.  Hair products you don’t use

128.  Take out chopsticks – Buy a reusable pair if you use them a lot

129.  Old prescription glasses – Great donation for the Lions Club.

130.  Old sunglasses – The cat eye is coming back but definitely toss those purple hued ones.

131.  Worn out flip flops.

132.  Magnets – Unless they are lovely or useful, discard.

133.  Posters you’ll never display again

134.  Excess decks of cards

135.  Phone books

136.  Broken Christmas lights

137.  Notes/gifts from old romances

138.  Hats you don’t wear or that look like you shouldn’t

139.  Extra bubble wrap (or am I the only one who has a supply?)

140.  Twisty ties (another one that hits close to home!)

141.  Chip clips

142.  Craft supplies for a project that has already been completed

143.  Paper plates – Use them up!

144.  Loyalty cards – use the key ring version or enter your number for even less clutter

145.  Gift cards – go and enjoy them!

146.  Touristy knick knacks

147.  Business cards – Keep an electronic record

148.  Puzzle books you don’t use

149.  Old textbooks

150.  Unused vases

151.  Stockings with runs in them

152.  Fancy serving bowls you haven’t used in the last year – Use them or sell them.

153.  CDs unless you use them regularly

154.  Old boombox

155.  Piles of “scrap paper”

156.  Purses/dufflebags/old luggage you don’t use

157.  Catalogs

158.  Christmas ornaments that aren’t lovely or sentimental

159.  Instruments you’ve given up on mastering years ago

160.  Clothes that make you feel ugly

161.  Instruction manuals – Most are online now.

162.  Calculators – Phones have replaced these for most people.

163.  Remotes that have no purpose

164.  Emergency sewing kits – I own many and have never used one even once.

165.  Dry erase markers without a board and a board without markers (or both if you don’t use it!)

166.  Extra pencil sharpeners – Only one is needed

167.  Rusty tools you’ll never use again

168.  Lawn and garden pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers you won’t use

169.  Fireworks that are unused (Am I the only one?) – They can be soaked in water overnight then disposed of in a plastic bag.

170.  Dried up super glue

171.  Old and ugly t-shirts

172.  Hair accessories you don’t use

173.  One orphan earring

174.  Dried flowers

175.  Extra photo prints

176.  Gifts you don’t love

177.  Scarves you never wear

178.  Damaged/stained clothing

179.  Plastic children’s plates/cups that they’ve outgrown

180.  Junk mail

181.  Address labels – Do you ever really use them?

182.  Extra folders, binders, labels, etc.

183.  Old cell phones – Recycle!

184.  Old fortune cookie fortunes (Someone else keeps the good ones too, don’t they?)

185.  Used ink cartridges – Recycle them for a little money back

186.  Use Unroll.me to rid yourself from pesky email subscriptions (It’s free but I would pay for this fabulous service!!)

187.  Outdated computer software

188.  Old wallets

189.  Dull or duplicate pocket knives

190.  Spare change lying around – Take it to the bank!

191.  Unused picture frames

192.  Old baby gear that you no longer need – Great donation item if you don’t want to sell it!

193.  Kitchen knives no one uses

194.  Old sports equipment from days gone by

195.  Broken clocks

196.  Coasters that go unused

197.  Plants – Yes, plants that don’t brighten your spirits.  Buy ones that do!

198.  Hole punch you never use

199.  Place mats, napkins, table cloths that never get displayed

200.  Ruled notebook paper – I hate to throw it away but I never use it.  Donate it!

Don’t be afraid to let it go. You can do this!!!

What items did I leave off this list that should be included?

Check out the rest of our Live With Less series too!

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http://www.businessinsider.com/signs-youre-going-to-be-successful-2015-5

9 signs you're going to be extraordinarily successful

Getty Images/Andreas Rentz

LinkedIn Influencer Jeff Haden published this post originally on LinkedIn.

It's not that hard to be successful. But it is hard to be extraordinarily successful.

Yet we all hope to achieve exceptional success (something we all define differently — and should define differently).

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet. There is no one-size-fits-all prescription.

But there are certain qualities that incredibly successful people share ... especially those who also make a significant impact on the lives of other people.

See how many apply to you:

1. You find happiness in the success of others.

Great business teams win because their most talented members are willing to sacrifice to make others happy. Great teams are made up of employees who help one another, know their roles, set aside personal goals, and value team success over everything else.

Where does that attitude come from?

You.

Every successful person answers the question, "Can you make the choice that your happiness will come from the success of others?" with a resounding "Yes!"

(Here's more on that.)

2. You relentlessly seek new experiences.

Novelty seeking — getting bored easily and throwing yourself into new pursuits or activities is often linked to gambling, drug abuse, attention deficit disorder, and leaping out of perfectly good airplanes without a parachute.

But according to Dr. Robert Cloninger, "Novelty seeking is one of the traits that keeps you healthy and happy and fosters personality growth as you age ... If you combine adventurousness and curiosity with persistence and a sense that it's not all about you, then you get the creativity that benefits society as a whole."

As Cloninger says, "To succeed, you want to be able to regulate your impulses while also having the imagination to see what the future would be like if you tried something new."

Sounds like every successful person I know.

So go ahead. Embrace your inner novelty seeker. You'll be healthier, you'll have more friends, and you'll be generally more satisfied with life.

3. You don't think work-life balance — you just think life.

Symbolic work-life boundaries are almost impossible to maintain. Why? You are your business. Your business is your life, just like your life is your business — which is also true for family, friends, and interests — so there is no separation because all those things make you who you are.

Incredibly successful people find ways to include family instead of ways to exclude work. They find ways to include interests, hobbies, passions, and personal values in their daily business lives. If you can't, you're not living — you're just working.

Flickr / Drew Coffman

4. You're incredibly empathetic.

Unless you create something entirely new — which is really hard to do — your business or profession is based on fulfilling an existing need or solving a problem.

It's impossible to identify a need or a problem without the ability to put yourself in another person's shoes. That's the mark of a successful businessperson.

But exceptionally successful leaders go a step further, regularly putting themselves in the shoes of their employees. (Here's what that looks like in practice.)

Success isn't a line trending upwards. Success is a circle, because no matter how high your business— and your ego — soars, success still comes back to your employees.

5. You have something to prove — to yourself. 

Many people have a burning desire to prove other people wrong. That's a great motivator.

Incredibly successful people are driven by something deeper and more personal. True drive, commitment, and dedication spring from a desire to prove something to the most important person of all.

You.

6. You ignore the 40-hour-workweek hype. 

Studies show that working more than 40 hours a week decreases productivity.

OK ...

Successful people work smarter, sure, but they also outwork their competition. (Every successful entrepreneur I know who reads those stories probably thinks, "Cool. Hopefully my competitors will believe that crap.")

The author Richard North Patterson tells a great story about Robert Kennedy. Kennedy was seeking to indict Teamsters head Jimmy Hoffa (who some still believe is hanging out in Argentina with Elvis and Jim Morrison).

One night, Kennedy worked on the Hoffa case until about 2 a.m. On his way home, he passed the Teamsters building and saw the lights were still on in Hoffa's office, so he turned around and went back to work.

There will always be people who are smarter and more talented than we are. Successful people simply want it more. They're ruthless — especially with themselves.

In short, they work smarter ... and they also work harder. That's the real secret of their success.

7. You see money as a responsibility, not a reward.

Many entrepreneurial cautionary tales involve buying 17 cars, loading up on pricey antiques, importing Christmas trees, and spending $40,000 a year for a personal masseuse. (Wait — maybe that's just Adelphia founder John Rigas.)

Successful people don't see money solely as a personal reward; they see money as a way to grow a business, reward and develop employees, give back to the community ... in short, not just to make their own lives better but to improve the lives of other people, too.

And, most important, they do so without fanfare, because the true reward is always in the act, not the recognition.

8. You don't think you're special.

In a world of social media, everyone can be their own PR agent. It's incredibly easy for anyone to blow their own horn and bask in the glow of their insight and accomplishments.

Truly successful people don't. They accept their success is based on ambition, persistence, and execution ... but they also recognize that key mentors, remarkable employees, and a huge dose of luck also played a part.

Exceptionally successful people reap the rewards of humility, asking questions, seeking advice, and especially recognizing and praising others because ...

9. You realize that success is fleeting, but dignity and respect last forever.

Providing employees with higher pay, better benefits, and greater opportunities is certainly important. But no level of pay and benefits can overcome damage to self-esteem and self-worth. (Here's a heartbreaking story that illustrates the point.)

The most important thing successful people provide their employees, customers, vendors — everyone they meet — is dignity.

And so should you ... because when you do, everything else follows.

More from Jeff Haden:

• The Strange, Difficult Questions CEOs Ask In Job Interviews
• Better Brainstorming For People Who Hate Brainstorming
• 7 ways highly successful people achieve more

Read the original article on LinkedIn. Copyright 2015. Follow LinkedIn on Twitter.

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3 Pioneering Women in American Business— Martha Coston, Hetty Green, and Madam C.J. Walker

http://fee.org/freeman/3-pioneering-women-in-american-business/

3 Pioneering Women in American Business

Each week, Mr. Reed will relate the stories of people whose choices and actions make them heroes. See the table of contents for previous installments.

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Culture isn’t always pretty, and like almost everything else in human life, it evolves. At one time or another in every corner of the planet, almost every imaginable grouping of people has faced unfairness, unequal treatment, legal and institutional discrimination, or outright persecution. As we learn to reject the unwarranted prejudice that springs from collectivist stereotypes or primitive dogmas, we recognize that every individual is unique. He (or she) deserves to be judged by the content of his character and to pursue his dreams in the marketplace of free exchange.

America in its first century offered more liberty to more people than any other place in the world, but there was still plenty of room for improvement. It took decades, but we eventually ended the ancient evil of race-based slavery. Decades later, Jim Crow laws were abolished. Pick any immigrant group — Catholics, Irish, Chinese — and to a considerable extent, we’ve come to see that once-widespread prejudice against them prevented everyone else from enjoying the benefits of their productivity. We’ve made progress, lots of it, toward the ideal of unshackling peaceful people from the chains of injustice and intolerance.

The philosophy of liberty appeals to me because it says to all people, regardless of race, religion, place of birth, or sex, “If you want to dream, create, build, own, grow, or improve, go for it!”

FEE’s founder Leonard Read expressed the credo of a free society when he called for “no man-concocted restraints against the release of peaceful, creative energy!”

In this Real Heroes essay, I turn our attention to three pioneering women in American business. Each was born into a culture that assigned the “fairer sex” to home and family life. They couldn’t vote because they were female. They weren’t supposed to engage in business because, well, that was regarded (as it had been everywhere for centuries) as a “manly” pursuit.

These three women — Martha Coston, Hetty Green, and Madam C.J. Walker — each possessed a spirit to break barriers. They achieved success and respect in private enterprise. They opened doors for millions of other women to enter the marketplace and compete with men in the creation of wealth.

Martha Coston

“We hear much of the chivalry of men towards women; but let me tell you dear reader, it vanishes like dew before the summer sun when one of us comes into competition with the manly sex.” — Martha Coston 

“Extreme” describes the highs and lows in this remarkable woman’s life. Widowed with five children at the age of 32, Martha Coston was just beginning to recover from the unexpected loss of her husband when two of her children and her mother died. Depressed and penniless with three surviving children facing a bleak future, she managed to turn adversity into success through sheer pluck and willpower.

Coston was born Martha Jane Hunt in Baltimore in 1826 but moved to Philadelphia with her mother a decade later when her father died. When she was 16, she eloped with 21-year-old Benjamin Coston, a nautical engineer and promising inventor. His work in pyrotechnics and on early gas lighting earned him notable attention, but his life was cut short by a combination of pneumonia and chemical poisoning. Poring over his papers, Martha discovered drawings for a pyrotechnic signal (or “flare”) that would allow ships to communicate with the shore or with each other at night or in fog. Benjamin had labored over the idea while at the Washington Navy Yard but never progressed beyond plans on paper.

For 10 long years, Coston worked to perfect her late husband’s work, including the proper “recipe” for flares that burned red, white, and blue and then a system (a sort of “Morse code”) that would permit messaging by flare. In her own words,

It would consume too much space, and weary my readers, for me to go into all the particulars of my efforts to perfect my husband’s idea. The men I employed and dismissed, the experiments I made myself, the frauds that were practiced upon me, almost disheartened me; but despair I would not, and eagerly I treasured up each little step that was made in the right direction, the hints of naval officers, and the opinions of the different boards that gave the signals a trial.

On April 5, 1859, she presented her results to the world: a pyrotechnic signaling flare and code system. It worked beautifully. Reliable ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications were possible for the first time.

Inventing something useful, however, doesn’t translate into money unless the invention can be marketed, and Coston had no prior experience in business. That didn’t stop her from starting her own company, one that lasted for more than 125 years.

To the amazement of many, the widow and unexpected inventor blossomed into a successful and wealthy entrepreneur. At first, she felt the need to downplay her gender, even using a man’s name in initial communications to improve the chance that men would be willing to do business with her. In her autobiography she wrote, “We hear much of the chivalry of men towards women; but let me tell you dear reader, it vanishes like dew before the summer sun when one of us comes into competition with the manly sex.”

With the coming of the Civil War, Coston found a large and ready market by selling her signaling flares to the US Navy. She traveled around Europe, securing customers in both the government and private sectors. In the late 1860s, she struck a lucrative deal with the United States Life-Saving Service, which made her product standard equipment at its lifeboat stations.

Her biggest disappointment in business involved one of her biggest customers, one that took advantage of her good will and patriotism. To help the Lincoln administration’s war effort, Coston sold her flares and signaling system at below cost and sometimes accepted nothing more than a government IOU as payment. Washington ripped her off through its Civil War greenback inflation, eventually compensating her, in real terms, at about a quarter on the dollar. Had it not been for her skill at marketing elsewhere, she would have been bankrupt by war’s end.

When Martha Coston died in 1902, she was widely honored as a great inventor, a competent capitalist, and a model citizen. She overcame huge challenges and proved that a woman could be just as good in business as any man — and far better than those who defrauded her with their depreciating paper money.

Hetty Green

As Hetty Green’s riches grew, so did the attacks of the envious. 

Martha Coston was rich by any measure, but by the late 19th century, the title of “richest woman in the world” belonged to Henrietta Howland Robinson Green, known widely as simply Hetty Green.

Born to a Quaker whaling family in 1834 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Hetty Robinson learned a lot about money long before she ever married a man whose last name was, at least for Americans, its most familiar color. By the age of six, she was regularly reading the financial papers to her father and grandfather. “In this way I came to know what stocks and bonds were, how the markets fluctuated, and the meaning of bulls and bears,” she later recalled.

When her parents died in the 1860s, Hetty inherited a fortune of about $6 million (about $120 million in 2015 dollars). What she did with it made her a legend in her own time as one of the savviest investors and independent financiers ever. Combining a conservative approach with a canny sense of timing, she bought and sold bonds, railroad stocks, and real estate and parlayed her inheritance over 30 years into what would be well over a billion dollars today. She was her own adviser, her own bank, and what one biographer would later call “a one-woman Federal Reserve.” In an arena dominated by men like J.P. Morgan, she dazzled the financial world with her golden touch.

Green loaned so much money to so many people, companies, institutions, and municipalities that headlines would announce “Hetty Cuts Rates” or “Hetty Raises Rates” with regularity. The City of New York on numerous occasions asked her for loans to keep the city from going broke. During the Panic of 1907, she wrote a check to the Big Apple for $1.1 million and took her payment in short-term revenue bonds.

Green kept debtors honest. “She would travel thousands of miles alone — in an era when few women would dare travel unescorted — to collect a debt of a few hundred dollars,” writes one observer. Her collection efforts included churches, to whom she often loaned money at below-market rates as a charitable contribution. But when the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago defaulted on a $12,000 loan and the pastor tried to shame her into forgiving the debt by publicly denouncing her as a ruthless capitalist, she told him to pay up or she would foreclose — and that’s exactly what she did. Other pastors came to her defense — one of them declaring, “To expect the holder of a church mortgage to cancel it upon the grounds of Christianity, after the money has been lent in good faith, is nothing less than a hold-up.”

As Green’s riches grew, so did the attacks of the envious. Because she always wore black, she was derided as “the Witch of Wall Street.” Rumors of her miserliness circulated widely but were largely debunked in later years by her own family and by the many people and organizations that generously benefited from her quiet charity.

As she explained in a 1913 magazine profile,

One way is to give money and make a big show. That is not my way of doing. I am of the Quaker belief, and although the Quakers are about all dead, I still follow their example. An ordinary gift to be bragged about is not a gift in the eyes of the Lord.

Next to her extraordinary skill at creating wealth, Green’s personal lifestyle fascinated people then and biographers to this day. She was the opposite of ostentatious. Her frugality was astonishing in a day when her great wealth could have bought her anything. Home was never more than a small, modest flat in New York City. When she traveled, she stayed in cheap boarding houses. She lived the way she wanted to and never bent to any custom of modernity she didn’t like. She was, in every sense of the phrase, “her own woman.”

When Hetty Green died at the age of 81 in 1916, the New York Times editorialized in a way it’s tough to imagine the same “progressive” paper would today upon the death of a wealthy person:

If a man had lived as did Mrs. Hetty Green, devoting the greater part of his time and mind to the increasing of an inherited fortune that even at the start was far larger than is needed for the satisfaction of all such human needs as money can satisfy, nobody would have seen him as very peculiar — as notably out of the common. He would have done what is expected of the average man so circumscribed, and there would have been no difficulty in understanding the joys he obtained from participation in the grim conflicts of higher finance. It was the fact that Mrs. Green was a woman that made her career the subject of endless curiosity, comment and astonishment.… Probably her life was happy. At any rate, she had enough courage to live as she chose and to be as thrifty as she pleased and she observed such of the world’s conventions as seemed to her right and useful, coldly and calmly ignoring all the others.

Christ’s famous Parable of the Talents is found in Matthew 25. Three people are entrusted with significant sums of money. Later, what they each did with it is assessed. The one who invested it well and earned the greatest return is regarded in Christ’s story as the hero to be rewarded. That one could just as well have been Hetty Green.

Madam C.J. Walker

Millions of black women were inspired by her example and tens of thousands were directly empowered by working for the company she founded. 

When, in December 1867, Sarah Breedlove was born the sixth child of parents who had been slaves a few years before, Martha Coston and Hetty Green were already wealthy Americans ensconced in business. But this enterprising black woman came on fast and strong as a wealth creator before she died at the young age of 51 in 1919. Biographer John Blundell, in his book Ladies For Liberty: Women Who Made a Difference in American History, says, “It is reliably claimed she was the first woman ever to make a million without an inheritance, husband or government intervention. She did it on her own.”

Orphaned at seven, married at 14, then widowed at 20 with a young daughter in tow, she was determined that her daughter A'Lelia would get a good, private education. “I got my start from giving myself a start,” she later said. Employed as a washerwoman for about a dollar a day, she worked long and hard and saved enough to actually make that dream a reality. She later took the name “Madam C.J. Walker” (derived from her second husband, Charles James Walker).

Growing up, every day was a “bad hair day” for Walker. Because of poor diet, infrequent washing and damaging hair products, her hair had thinned dramatically by the time of her second marriage. She realized at the same time that the market for quality hair products for black women was nonexistent. She decided to do something about it.

Learning everything she could about hair and its proper care, she experimented with various concoctions of her own making. In 1905, she formed the Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company, selling a line of hair care products and cosmetic creams. She assigned daughter A'Lelia to run the mail order operation out of Denver while she and her husband traveled the country recruiting saleswomen.

Eventually, after a stint in Pittsburgh, Walker settled in Indianapolis in 1910, where she built her headquarters, a factory, a laboratory, a hair salon, and a beauty school to train the company’s sales agents. By this time, her business was selling products in virtually every state as well as throughout the Caribbean. Her vision was to cure scalp and hair problems and empower black women with both beauty and economic opportunity.

Walker’s most famous formula included a shampoo and a pomade that “transformed lusterless and brittle hair into soft, luxurious hair.” The women she employed wore uniforms of white shirts and black skirts and carried black satchels of product samples as they made house calls all over the United States and the islands of the Caribbean. Her name and image were well known to women both black and white. John Blundell writes,

With wealth she became an active serious philanthropist for charities from Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute to the NAACP, but her philosophy was very much self-respect through self-support, a hand-up not a hand-out. She believed in entrepreneurial, bottom-up, self-help economics. At the end of her hair care sales training lessons she showed future agents photo slides of great African-American entrepreneurs to educate and enthuse them.

While she left her corporate headquarters and plant in Indianapolis, she finally moved to 108/110 West 136th St. in New York City where she had a salon larger than those of Helena Rubinstein or Elizabeth Arden. She had a six-figure income, 10,000 agents, new ventures in the Caribbean and Central America, and was hailed as the “World’s Richest Negress.”

Walker died of hypertension in 1919, but left behind a legacy of economic success, generous philanthropy, and political activism on behalf of equality before the law. Millions of black women were inspired by her example and tens of thousands were directly empowered by working for the company she founded.

Though widespread discrimination against both blacks and women taint stories of life in America early in the 20th century, Madam C.J. Walker’s story stands out as a remarkable testament to the spirit of the great civil rights anthem of later years, “We Shall Overcome.” She surely did, by any measure.

For further information, see:

• Virginia G. Drachman’s biographical anthology, Enterprising Women
• Martha Coston’s autobiography, A Signal Success
• Janet Wallach’s biography, The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age
• Charles Slack’s biography, Hetty: The Genius and Madness of America’s First Female Tycoon
• John Blundell’s biographical anthology, Ladies For Liberty: Women Who Made a Difference in American History

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