The Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions

" This stuff is more than just fancy pranks. It's Americana. Never has nonsense been taken so seriously...This book is a fascinating, appetite- whetting glimpse for the, if you'll pardon the expression, uninitiated. " -David Copperfield, from the foreword At the beginning of the twentieth century, 40 percent of American men belonged to a lodge, and they were hazing their newbies with cigar- smoking camels, spankers, and even fake guillotines. Nearly all their prank devices came from the same pla