April 18, 1909 (Sunday)

RED SOX PREPARE TO OPEN THE 1909 SEASON AT HOME: The Boston Red Sox will open its home portion of the American League season on Wednesday at the Huntington Avenue grounds (above, 1904). Gates for the game (against Philadelphia) will open at 1 p.m. The game will begin at 3 p.m.
Music will help fill the interlude, with a concert presented by Teel's Band to take place between 2 and 3 p.m.
Today's Globe presents the program (shown here), which is a FAR CRY from the "stadium anthems" of 100 years later.
Here is a closer look at the pieces and composers, with links gleaned quickly from the Web. I wish I could find an example of "The Red Sox March," which opens the program. Perhaps others can find it. That said, here's the line-up with some links to the music and the composers:
The Red Sox March (Teel)
Excerpts from Marcelle (Luders)
Take Your Girl to the Ball Game (Waltz by Cohan and Schwartz)
Idylle, The Glow Worm (Linke)
Gems from Little Nemo (Herbert)
Shine on Harvest Moon (Remick)
Make a Noise Like a Hoop and Roll Away (Helf and Hager)
I Wish I had a Girl (Remick) [NOTE: Not Henry Lee Summer's song of the same title!]
Don't Take Me Home (Van Tilzer)
Custer's Last Charge (Descriptive fantasia by Luders)
National Emblem, Finale (Bagley)

RECORD NUMBER OF RUNNERS EXPECTED AT TOMORROW'S MARATHON: More than 180 runners have indicated they will be at the starting line tomorrow at noon for the Boston Marathon. It's a large number, according to the Globe. The first race (in 1897) attracted 15 starters. Last year had 120 starters, and that seems to be the record. Three former winners are expected: Sammy Mellor 91902), Freddy Lorz (1904) and Tom Morrissey (1908). Lorz's winning time of 2:25:43 1-5 was about 1 minute, 18 4-5 seconds slower than Thomas Longboat's record time from 1907.

PALM READER TRIES HIS HAND AT POLITICAL PUNDITRY: For some reason, today's Globe presents a feature written by palmist S. Daoud. The piece is devoted to the PALM of President Taft. The reader makes some bold predictions. For one thing, Taft will be involved in a war toward the end of his first term. (That clearly didn't happen, unless you count a political war with his former mentor Theodore Roosevelt.) Daoud says Taft will not win a second term -- in 1912. Instead, he will lie low and then run again in 1916 -- and WIN.

April 17, 1909 (Saturday)

TAFT'S PRESENCE AT THE NORTH SHORE SENDS COST OF HOME RENTALS THROUGH THE ROOF: Word that President Taft will spend much of the summer in Beverly, north of Boston, has led home owners to raise the rents on homes in the neighborhood. According to today's Globe, "nearly all of the summer houses are taken." The paper adds "there has been a great demand for summer houses along the North shore by the wealthy people from all sections of the United States."
As demand rises, of course, prices follow. People offering $2,000 for a cottage for the season are having a very hard time finding something. (That's about $40,000 in 2009 DOLLARS.)The photo above shows a sweeping view of the house Taft will live in. For a closer look, go here.
A story surfaced yesterday that souvenir hunters had descended on the Woodberry point property that Taft has leased and have walked off with various items, including pieces of the fence at the property. Further investigation show that these stories are not true.
The secretary to the president, Fred Carpenter, has been looking for an office location near the railroad station. One in Beverly might fit the bill, at the corner of Broadway and Rantoul Street, which will become known also as Route 1A (see map at right).

ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN TURKEY: Two missionaries from the U.S. might have been killed in Turkey this week, according to today's Globe. They might have been caught up in "anti-Armenian riots" in Adana, but information is limited. What seems to be certain, according to the Globe, is that:
There seems to be little doubt that the Moslem fanaticism against Christians has taken a new lease of life under the present conditions of unrest in Turkey.
Reports are contradictory. One story says 60 Armenians were killed in the streets. Another report puts the number at 10. District missionaries are in Adana for a regular meeting. The U.S. ambassador has ordered John Deddas, American vice consul in Mersina, to go to Adana to find out what's going on.

HERE'S WHAT BOSTON IS READING: The weekly top-ten fiction bestsellers is in today's paper. At the top is one by Boston's own Robert Grant. Some information about him is here and here. The book in this list is "The Chippendales," which has nothing to do with these guys. One descriptions says it is a "saga of a Boston family coping with change at the turn of the century."
[Note: He will write one called "The High Priestess," which is about "the complications that result when a woman leaves her domain at home and her duties as a homemaker."]
The list also include "The Man in the Lower 10" by the prolific Mary Robert Rinehart (right).

AND YOU'RE WILLING TO MERELY CALL IT A 'STRAW HAT': At first glance, the hats in this ad might look identical. However, each style is a little different. Consider the names: Mozart, Erie, Norfolk, Knox. Frugal ones, of course, wear the Knox.

April 16, 1909 (Friday)

HEADLINE TELLS ONLY PART OF THE STORY OF WOMAN'S EFFORTS TO FREE THE MAN SHE LOVES: A curious case in Providence, R.I., made the front page of today's Globe, with the multi-deck headline shown above. The top deck ("Love Unlocks the Jail Door") is appropriate enough. And all the other elements are, indeed, true. The prisoner, Camillo Destino, has married the woman, teenager Christina Palmieri. He was in jail for shooting and wounding someone on March 8. After a quarrel, he fired three shots at the person. One hit that person in the BACK. That someone was Christina, who is now his WIFE.
The bottom headline -- "Providence Man Charged with Intent to Kill" -- neglects to mention WHOM he intended to kill. She has forgiven him, and it looks as though prosecutors will have to drop the case. Christina was the only witness to the shooting. As the Globe points out, "since her marriage to the defendent [sic], she cannot be compelled to testify against him."

IT'S ONE THING FOR A LAWYER TO BE THE BUTT OF JOKES, QUITE ANOTHER TO BE PUBLICLY WHIPPED: Jessie McClellan is expected to be arraigned today in Superior Court on charges of HORSEWHIPPED lawyer George Sweetser -- TWICE. The first time was on January 12. The second time was on March 8. What makes the recent one most interesting is that she mistook Llewellyn Pulsifer, a selectman of Natick, for Sweetser and whipped him on a train. She has pleaded guilty to three charges of assault and battery.
The Globe adds:
She has promised or will promise today that she will whip no more lawyers.

April 15, 1909 (Thursday)

'SUMMER WHITE HOUSE' WILL BE IN BEVERLY: Preparations are underway to get the Stetson cottage at Woodberry point ready for a lengthy visit in June by President William H. Taft. (That's the "cottage" in the postcard image above.) Today's Globe tells the story in a front page article in today's paper with the headline "PUTTING SUMMER CAPITOL IN SHAPE." The White House announced yesterday that the Tafts had leased the property for a lengthy stay. One of the big attractions is the nearby golf course at the Myopia Hunt Club.
Regarding Taft's enjoyment of golf (He's shown at left in Hot Springs, Ark., in 1908.), the Globe says:
The President is looking forward with pleasure to playing a great deal of golf on the fine links of the Myopia Hunt club at Hamilton. The praise he has heard of this course undoubtedly had something to do with the final selection of the cottage at Beverly.
It's expected that the Tafts will arrive sometime after the first of June.

THERE'S MORE NEWS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE ON THE NORTH SHORE, TOO: Noted Theosophist Katherine Tingley (left) recently bought "one of the finest estates on High st." in Newburyport. Today's Globe says she yesterday revealed her plan to establish a school for Raja Yoga [which the headline of the article renders "Raja Yaga"]. In addition,
In the fall she will go abroad and visit the schools of Theosophy in England, Ireland, Wales, Germany, France, Sweden and Denmark. She will also go to Constantinople, where she will be the guest of Edward H. Ozmun, the American consul general at Turkey.

April 10, 1909

FIVE ESCAPE JAIL AT CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD: Police in Boston and elsewhere are hunting down five U.S. Navy prisoners who escaped the prison at the Navy yard in Charlestown sometime between 6:30 and 7 p.m. yesterday. What police do know is that the prisoners left by way of "the old smelter route." They "scaled the navy yard wall near Chelsea bridge by climbing over the roof of an old furnace building and jumping the wall at the incline near the bridge," according to a story on the front page of today's Globe.
Officials say the escape "was in many details ONE OF THE MOST DARING PLANS executed at any prison in this vicinity in years" [emphasis added]. The prisoners cut through the one-inch soft-iron bars. They bent the bars, tied a 12-foot rope to the bars and squeezed through the opening, and slid down the rope.
The escapees were wearing the white duck working uniforms of the Navy, allowing them to blend into the surrounding area. They were seen running through the yard at a "dog trot," but suspicions were not raised because of their uniforms.
One of the prisoners, George Ross, is reported to have been charged with desertion SIX TIMES from various branches of the U.S., service


A POSSE HAS BEEN FORMED ... IN MAINE: A young woman was shot to death in Bingham, Maine, yesterday and about 40 citizens and sheriffs are looking for her husband, Herbert Nottage. They are serious. According to today's Globe, they are "armed with revolvers, rifles, axes and other weapons." No trace of the fugitive had turned up as of late last night.

TOWN TREASURER PLAYS A LITTLE JOKE ON FIRE FIGHTERS ON THEIR ANNUAL PAYDAY: The 40 firefighters in the 40-man Fire King engine company in East Douglas were paid their annual salaries recently.The pay came in the form of 32,000 copper one-cent pieces from Town Treasurer Walter Schuster. That covers the pay of each, who are paid $8 A YEAR for their work. Each man received 800 pennies in a bag -- weighing about 5.5 pounds. Some enjoyed the joke. Others, however, "did not take kindly" to it, according to today's Globe. The ones who really made out the best, evidently, were the children because the pay was tailor made for the penny-candy trade in the town -- a trade which, the Globe says, took "a decidedly 'bullish' turn.

April 9, 1909 (Friday)

GLOBE TEMPTS READERS WITH ART, MUSIC and FASHION: Today's Globe has a self-promotion that indicates that the paper was, indeed, flush but needed to scramble to promote itself. The ad above tries to inspire readers to "order the Easter Sunday Globe from [their] newsdealer at once." The pitch tells customers that the Easter issue will include a "Beautiful Art Print" of a work by Raphael (called "Madonna of the Chair") dating from 1510. It also includes an Easter song ("Hosanna"), a description of cotton mills of Japan and a piercing looks at women's fashion trends.
The ad notes that the Globe is the biggest Sunday newspaper published in New England.
It still is in 2009, but, as is well known, the circumstances are worlds (or globes) apart. Today, the Globe is, sadly, spinning toward trouble.
NOTE: A reader directed me to the painting, which can be found here.


WINDS WHIP THROUGH BOSTON: Today's Globe told readers what they already knew -- that a huge wind roared through Eastern Massachusetts on Wednesday night and during the day Thursday. What the readers might not have known was that the gusts reached 92 MPH on Blue Hill, the second highest reading in the 25-year history of the observatory. (It hit 100 in 1893.) The front page included this illustration, showing a woman struggling to keep her clothes from being whipped off her body. She says, "Oh! Dear! And I don't approve of Salome dances." The reference is to the provocative work by Strauss, based on a German translation of Oscar Wilde's story.

CHURCH GIVES MAN OR WOMAN A CHANCE TO CHANGE THEIR WAYS -- AND BE LESS GENEROUS: Globe readers likely got a kick out of a notice in today's paper with a Washington, Pa., dateline. The Rescoe [sic; likely meant Roscoe] Methodist Episcopal Church bought an advertisement that appeared in today's paper to let the community know that someone had dropped a $1000 BILL in the COLLECTION PLATE. The church wasn't bragging. Rather, church officials worried that someone had done this BY MISTAKE. After all that amount of money (about $20,000 in 2009 dollars) was about the same as an average year's worth of collections. The church offers to return the money if the owner wants it back and "can prove that he inadvertently dropped it on the plate."

April 8, 1909 (Thursday)

CARTOONIST TAKES HAT OBSESSIONS TO A NEW LEVEL: If you're wondering how important big hats are to women in 1909, this cartoon from today's front page reveals something. Their big enough to provide ammunition for a cartoonist who wants to show just how this naval arms race between Germany and Great Britain is getting out of hand. The "dreadnought race" will propel Europe and the world in an ugly direction.

April 7, 1909 (Wednesday)

THEY COULDN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THE WOMAN WAS SCREAMING ABOUT AS SHE POINTED INSIDE HER BURNING HOUSE; SO TWO DORCHESTER BOYS HEROICALLY RAN INSIDE....: About 11 a.m. yesterday, Mrs. Karalikas was working in the kitchen of her house on Melbourne Street in Dorchester. She noticed a fire. The flames became so aggressive that she barely managed to get out of the kitchen. When she got out on the street, "she made loud outcries," according to today's Globe. Two boys -- Edwin Farley of Mallet Street and Paul Benson of Roseland Street -- heard her screams. All they could tell was that somebody or something had been left behind in the dining room of the burning house. Understandably, they thought a child was in danger. They "rushed into the flame- and smoke-filled building," according to the paper. A few minutes later, they emerged -- with the only thing of value they could find in the dining room -- a pricey CANARY.

April 3, 1909 (Saturday)

POLICE MIGHT HAVE CRACKED A COLD CASE (from 1908): The lead story in today's Globe is distinctive for many reasons. First, it carries a byline (Edwin J. Park, who also had one on March 11). Second, it features a "flashlight photograph," which was taken last night at Police Station 4 in Cambridge. The two men being flashed are Dionisios Spiropoulos (Anglicized to James Mantir) and Peter C. Delorey. They have been connected with the stunning 1908 killing of a domestic servant named Annie Mullins.
Police say Mantir came to the U.S. a few years ago "on a mission of blood" -- meaning he was sent to take the life of another Greek. He is a little less than 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 145 pounds.
When Mantir was arrested yesterday about 2 p.m., he was initially told he was wanted on a charge of cruelty to animals.
The killing evidently took place along Marathon Street, which runs from Massachusetts Avenue to Broadway in Arlington (see map). The confession extracted from Delorey might be a bit suspect, but it's likely nobody will care. The article says he was put through "the third degree." Police questioned him from 4 to 6:45 in the evening, when "he suddenly weakened and, according to the officers, said that he would make a full breast of the story, whereupon his confession followed." Later, when referring to this questioning, the reporter wrote that Delorey spent "two hours and three-quarters on the gridiron."
Both men are charged with murder.
Evidently the two became the focus of suspicion because they had talked about the killing (in Squire's field in Arlington on March 27, 1908) BEFORE the body was found.
This was a particularly vicious killing, evidently. Her head was nearly severed. The crime was "looked upon as one of the most brutal murders ever committed in the vicinity" of Boston, the Globe reports.

April 2, 1909 (Friday)

NO, IT'S NOT AN UPSIDE DOWN WASTEBASKET; IT'S A FASHIONABLE HAT: Henry Siegel is selling at its store on Washington and Essex streets some $10 trimmed hats like the one above. A number of "exclusive styles" will be shown Saturday for the first time. Included will be 25 Leghorn hats. Those would be hats made from Italian wheat straw that's often shipped from Leghorn, the English name for Livorno.

THE RUSH OF IMMIGRANTS TO BOSTON CONTINUES: The month of April might establish a new record for immigrant arrivals, according to today's Globe. The past few weeks have seen a "marked increase in the number of aliens arriving"; future bookings are "heavy." For an example, the Globe offers the incoming Romanic, of the White Star Line. It left Naples Wednesday night with about 1,200 steerage passengers. At the Azores, she is likely to pick up 200 to 300 additional passengers. It carries about 175 passengers in saloon and second class and is expected to arrive in Boston on April 12.

IN OKLAHOMA, A WARRIOR PROVES ELUSIVE: Military authorities are still looking for Crazy Snake, the rough translation into English of Chitto Harjo. Even though he has apparently escaped it looks like a simmering uprising is winding down, according to an article in today's Globe. Many have called this the Crazy Snake Rebellion . The Globe notes that a Muskogee paper calls the "smoke beef rebellion." According to this source, that name surfaced because someone stole a thousand pounds of smoked bacon.

READS LIKE A SCENE RIPPED FROM "CSI" OR "LAW AND ORDER" or "NCIS" or....: At about 3 a.m. yesterday (April 1), the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig Krueger burned down. It was about a mile west of Toledo, Ohio. A search of the debris puzzled investigators, according to today's Globe. They found no sign of the couple, who were in their 60s. Authorities left the property unguarded, so a couple of boys poked their way through the rubble. One lifted a brick in the floor and came face to face with... THE FACE OF MRS. KRUEGER. More of the floor was then removed, exposing both bodies. They had been stabbed numerous times. The couple was last seen alive Tuesday evening. Police suspect robbery. It turns out that someone had recently paid the couple $2,000 as part payment for purchase of a farm.

April 1, 1909 (Wednesday) [3rd anniversary]

BOSTON MARATHON ORGANIZERS ARE WORRIED ABOUT ... DOPING; THEY ALSO DON'T WANT RUNNERS TO WEAR SHORTS THAT ARE ... TOO SHORT: Today's Globe reveals that organizers of the Boston Marathon intend to crack down on runners who use stimulants to boost their performance at the race, which will be held on Patriots Day. [The photo above shows a runner surrounded by bicyclists in the 1904 Boston Marathon.]
Here's the relevant passage in the article:
The officials of the race will exert more vigilance this year than ever before to see that competitors do not partake of drugs either before or during the running of the race, and a breach of this rule will operate as an absolute disqualification.
In years past there have been allegations made that runners consumed considerable "dope" during the race, notwithstanding the efforts made by the management to prohibit the use of drugs. However, no serious results have ever resulted from this practice, but it is with a view of putting an absolute stop to the use of stimulants that the athletic committee has taken the step.
In addition, the organizers won't accept any runner younger than 18.
And then there's the concern about "shocking" outfits. Each competitor will be required to wear "complete clothing from the shoulders to the knees" according to manager George V. Brown. According to the Globe, this rule is "intended to dispense with the so-called 'SHOCKING' appearance of some athletes who wear SHORT trousers" [emphasis added].

SOPRANO WOWS CROWD AT BOSTON THEATER: Luisa Tetrazzini had operagoers in the palm of her hand last night during the production of Verdi's "La Traviata." The reviewer in today's Globe called it "another Tetrazzini night." The writer compared her singing with that of other recent performers in this way:
Tetrazzini has thrilled Boston opera lovers as has no singer since Patti was in her prime. Neither Melba with her more golden voice nor Sembrich with her finer artistry ever stirred an audience here to such frenzied demonstrations of delight.
How different was the behavior of last night's audience from that of the equally large gathering of the previous evening when beautiful Mary Garden sang the brilliant music of Massenet's opera! There was appreciative applause for the latter, but not once an outburst of real enthusiasm. Last night every aria was instantly followed by a hurricane of applause, and each time the curtain fell Tetrazzini was recalled a dozen times or more.
I guess they liked her.

BOYLSTON STREET CLOGGED BY A 1909-STYLE TRAFFIC JAM: About 30 horse-drawn carriages and automobiles were caught in a traffic jam for about 30 minutes yesterday afternoon on Boylston Street, near the intersection with Tremont Street. The cause? Two horses attached to a "heavy dray" refused to keep moving forward when confronted by a strange-looking "black spot" in the middle of the street. The "black spot" was there because a large section of pavement had been filled in with asphalt, which, today's Globe explained, "before being pressed down is black." There was no way to move around the spot because half the street is being taken up by repair work. The reluctant horses had no room to walk around the spot and the backed-up traffic had nowhere to go. Eventually the horses moved. The article does not say what was done to budge them.

March 21, 1909 (Sunday)

SOME PEOPLE WANT AN ALL-WHITE VERSION OF BASKETBALL: The Wellesley YMCA basketball team was not allowed to start a left forward whose last name was Gray in its game yesterday against Rock Ridge School of Wellesley Hills. The reason: his color. His presence was "protested" by Rock Ridge Hall "because he is colored," an article says in today's Globe (above). As it turned out the YMCA team won 19-16. The substitute, Webster, scored two goals "from the floor" -- enough to provide the margin of victory.

March 20, 1909 (Saturday)

HARVARD PROFESSOR'S DEVICE COULD CAUSE SOME REAL PROBLEMS: Today's Globe includes a front-page cartoon that illustrates some of the imagined consequences of the lie-detecting research of Harvard's Hugo Munsterberg. It calls a device the professor claims to be developing "the Newest Terror." The cartoon ignores the possibilities in the area of crime-solving. Instead it looks at the consequences of lie-detection in everyday conversation.
They might be hard to read above, so here are some of the comments that might be called into question:
"Yes, Mildred; you are the only girl I have ever loved."
"Yes, I'm in favor of tariff reform."
"I've got an important lodge meeting tonight. Don't sit up for me."
"I'll pay you that ten next week old man."
Hmmmmm. Have times changed much?

WHAT ARE THEY READING IN BOSTON? HERE'S THE TOP-10 LIST FOR THE WEEK: Today's Globe includes a list of the city's best-sellers for the present week. It's shown at right. The top one is the work of one of the most interesting writers produced by the city. It's "Loaded Dice" by Ellery H. Clark. The author was a former Olympic athlete and is in the track and field hall of fame.
It also includes "54-40 or Fight" by Emerson Hough, who has an elementary school named after him in Newton, Iowa.
Another interesting author, who wrote "Peter," which is on the list, is F. Hopkinson Smith. Then again, there's "Perfume of the Lady in Black" by none other than Gaston Leroux, who will soon have another important book published -- "Phantom of the Opera."

"STEERAGE INDEX" INDICATES THE ECONOMY IS TURNING AROUND IN THE U.S.: Today's Globe notes that six steamers brought in 9,403 passengers to the port of New York yesterday. That number is significant because it is probably the biggest one-day influx since "the record-breaking days of 1906." Italians were the most numerous, followed by Russians, Germans and Austrians. As has been noted before, this could mean that confidence is growing overseas that the U.S. economy is bouncing back. The number might actually be a record, according to the article. Here's the last paragraph:
Immigration officials say that today may be the biggest single day in the history of the office, although they are inclined to think one day in 1906 surpassed it by a small margin.

March 19, 1909 (Friday)

SOMERVILLE JUDGE IS AT THE END OF HIS ROPE AND LONGS FOR THE DAY OF THE WHIPPING POST: For the seventh time in the past three years, Roger Sherlock has appeared in court. And for the SIXTH time, he has been charged with assault upon his wife, Nora. Yesterday, Roger Sherlock was sentenced in Somerville police court to three months in the house of correction. Judge L. Roger Wentworth is evidently sick of the accused's behavior and longs for the day of public punishment and public humiliation. He said, according to today's Globe, "It seems too bad that there is not a whipping post in Massachusetts."
[NOTE: The photo above shows a whipping post being used in Delaware in 1907.]

POLITICIANS FINALLY GIVE A NOD TO THE MAN WHO GAVE THE COD: Today's Globe takes a bit of a swipe at the state legislature with one of its brief "editorial points." Evidently, the august body has finally thanked John Rowe who made the motion to hang the state's famous sacred cod in the state house. The gift was evidently made in 1784. The formal thanks was evidently offered in 1909.
Here's the item in full:
John Rowe, who gave the sacred codfish to the state of Massachusetts, is taken out of the John Doe class by the resolution of thanks just adopted after 125 years of deliberation by the legislature.

ADVERTISING EXECUTIVES TRY TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO "BOOST" BOSTON AND NEW ENGLAND: The Ad Men's Club of Boston gathered last night for its monthly meeting at the Boston City Club. The members focused on trying to figure out how to best promote Boston. Here's what James T. Wetherald said:
"We need more boosting in Boston and less kicking about our limitations, for we have no limitations. We must down the western idea that Boston is a back number, living only on its glorious past. With its harbor and its great railroad facilities Boston should be at least the second largest American city."
Not there yet.

March 18, 1909 (Thursday)

AUTOMOBILE WILL BE PUT TO THE TEST -- 10,000 MILES WITHOUT STOPPING, OR BUST: At 10 a.m. today, someone will fire up a Maxwell automobile (30 horsepower; four-cylinder) and drive off from the Bay State Automobile Association headquarters. The car will be driven continuously for about 25 DAYS, 24 HOURS A DAY -- long enough so it can make a 10,000-mile nonstop run. The first week, the car will run between Boston and Worcester (back and forth and back and forth); the second week it will do the same between Boston and Providence; the third week it will travel between Newburyport and Boston. Speed is of NO INTEREST to the sponsors. The Globe says today,
There will be no effort made at speed, as such a thing would prove fatal to the chances of the car. The machine will just jog along day and night, if all goes well, until the run ends.
Interest in this is high, the paper says. "No car has ever made any such attempt in this part of the country," it adds.

BOSTON-MONTREAL EXPRESS TRAIN RAMS INTO MONTREAL'S WINDSOR STREET STATION, KILLING AT LEAST FOUR: A steam pipe evidently broke in the cab of the express train running from Boston to Montreal yesterday when the train was barreling along, five miles out of the Windsor Street Station in Montreal. The explosion threw the engineer out of the locomotive and forced the fireman to jump to safety. That left the train with nobody in control. The train plunged into the station, killing four and injuring several others. One of those, the engineer, is likely to die. The names are listed above. You'll notice that three of the dead are named Nixon. Consider these sad paragraphs near the end of the story. (The brevity of the passage is inversely related to the magnitude of the tragedy.):
The husband of Mrs. W.J. Nixon is a train dispatcher on the Canadian Pacific at Medicine Hat, Alberta. He had got leave of absence to come to Montreal to get his family and they were all at the station to greet him after six months' separation.
Nixon's train arrived a short time after the accident. The mangled bodies of his wife and children were lying on the platform when he stepped from the train.

March 17, 1909 (Wednesday)

CITY PLANNERS TRY TO UNSNARL BOSTON'S TRANSIT PROBLEMS: To help deal with its "transit problems," Boston has turned an ear to George S. Rice (right), chief engineer of the subway work in New York City. He submitted a report yesterday to the committee on metropolitan affairs of the legislature.
"On account of the location of Boston harbor and the Charles river the delivery of these passengers is confined to very narrow limits. These conditions require the adoption of some system by which the suburbs would be better accommodated and at the same time diminish the crowding in the congested district caused by the narrow streets peculiar to the city of Boston."

LEGISLATOR INVOKES NAME OF KILLER CHESTER GILLETTE IN DEBATE OVER DEATH PENALTY: The legislature of Massachusetts yesterday rejected a bill that would allow juries to qualify their verdicts of "guilty by murder in the first degree" by adding the phrase "without capital punishment". The debate lasted "several hours" in the legislature, according to a report in today's Globe. The vote was 154 to 62.
Mr. Pope of Leominster invoked the name of Chester Gillette, who was executed for the 1906 murder of Grace Brown. The Globe reported,
Speaking of Gillett's [sic] bearing going to the chair with a smile in the belief that he had arranged all with his Creator, he [Pope] said: "Capital punishment certainly did not punish him. While his minister says his soul will go to heaven, the state declares he is not fit to continue on the earth." He suggested that a more effective law would be our providing for life imprisonment at hard labor, with his leisure hours to be spent in solitary confinement.
Mr. Hobson of Palmer insisted that "he believed from the bottom of his heart, however, that the life of many a young girl has been saved because Gillett [sic] died."

SOME NEW ENGLAND REPRESENTATIVES MUST SIT IN CONGRESS' SO-CALLED "CHEROKEE STRIP": The biennial lottery of seats took place yesterday, and representatives to Congress from New England "fared well" according to today's Globe. It noted, however, that there were a few exceptions because several were "obliged to go to the Cherokee strip, as that most undesirable section of seats in the extreme southeast corner of the house is called." There's some confusion about about the real Cherokee Strip or Cherokee Outlet. There's also a Cherokee Strip connected to a two-mile wide stretch along to Oklahoma/Kansas border (above).

March 16, 1909 (Tuesday)

GLOBE IS PLEASED TO REPORT.... THAT IT'S "EXCLUSIVE" IN YESTERDAY'S PAPER IS, INDEED, TRUE: Celebrity-watchers can be pleased to know that, according to today's Globe, actress Ethel Barrymore, and Russell Griswold Colt were married on Sunday. The fact was confirmed last night, and the story appears on the front page of today's Globe (right). It turns out that the couple "was whisked away after the performance Saturday night" to the home of the John Fairchild family in Dedham. They spent the night there. AT 9:30 Sunday morning, Ethel and Russell and others were married in Hyde Park by the pastor of the Church of the Most Precious Blood. Yesterday, the couple returned to the Bellevue Hotel in Boston. In the wake of the article in yesterday's Globe, Ethel's manager acknowledged yesterday night that the marriage had, in fact, taken place.
The couple had taken out a license last week. One reason this escaped detection from reporters was that the bride used the name of "Miss Blythe," the last name under which she was born. The Globe says the family asked Town Clerk Henry Terry of Hyde Park to not make the plans public until after the ceremony. The Globe explains, "This, of course, he could not do, as the entry was a public record, but he agreed not to advertise the matter and he kept his agreement."
[NOTE: The picture above shows the couple and children, as they appeared in 1914.]

GLOBE POKES FUN AT A BRITISHER'S PEEK AT THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE: Even though the book was published in 1889, the Boston Globe tees off today on a British book called "Americansisms Old and New" by John S. Farmer. I guess it's newsworthy because it "has turned up in a Boston book collector's library." The article (which is quite long) mocks the Britisher's attempts to get a handle on American words and phrases. Among the "B" words, he gives "bum squabbled," "boneyard," "bull nigger," "bum," "bellybutton," "begosh" and, the Globe says, "a large number of words which cannot be printed in even an American newspaper, however much general and respectable usage employs them."
The Globe questions the man's method, saying he overemphasizes random expressions. For example,
"It's plum lucky for this country's reputation that he didn't happen to be around when some gum chewing high school freshman asked a friend, "Goin' t' grind 's'aft?" and the other answered, "Nit not til 's eve."

March 15, 1909

GLOBE FEATURES YOUNG BALLOONIST: Today's Globe has a photograph and short story featuring Natalie Forbes, who, at 12 years old, is the "youngest balloonist in America." She is shown seated in the basket of the balloon named "The Conqueror." She is the daughter of noted balloonist A. Holland Forbes, who was taught about ballooning in Pittsfield and North Adams, Mass., by Leo Stevens. Natalie is scheduled to take part in June's balloon race that will begin in Indianapolis. About 20 starters are expected in that race. Some of the balloons will be "operated by pilots known all over the world for their daring," according to the paper.

CELEBRITY CHASERS TRY TO TRACK ETHEL BARRYMORE AMID TALK OF A SECRET MARRIAGE: The front page of today’s Globe indicates that infatuation with the private lives of celebrities is alive and well in 1909. In this case, the focus of attention is actress Ethel Barrymore (shown above in 1896, at the age of 17). She and her fiancé Russell Griswold Colt “disappeared yesterday from the throng of the merry world.” This has led to some guesses that the two are planning to get married – secretly and soon. However, the Globe seems to be downplaying that notion, saying that a section of Saturday’s midnight train to New York was reserved for her, as usual. This indicates that her absence is simply part of her normal weekly routine. Her agent claims that the two plan to get married during Holy Week, and no sooner. She is expected back in time for a performance in Boston tonight. That said, the paper devotes quite a bit of space to some healthy speculation about the possibility that Barrymore and Colt were, indeed, married on Saturday. The Globe points out that a secret wedding is easier to pull off in Providence than in Boston.
The Globe reports that “a gentleman who professed to be a confident of some of Miss Barrymore’s friends… said there is NOT THE SLIGHTEST TRUTH in, or excuse for, the rumors which FLOATED THROUGH THE COUNTRY yesterday that the marriage was secretly performed during the day.”
This “gentleman” says a NEW YORK CITY WOMAN is being blamed for spreading the rumor. Colt is the son of Col. Samuel P. Colt. Barrymore -- of the famous acting family -- is the daughter of Maurice Barrymore and the sister of Lionel and “Jack” Barrymore. [Eventually, Ethel will be known as the great aunt of actress Drew Barrymore.]

NOT ALL ROMANCE ENDS HAPPILY; BASEBALL PLAYER FORCES WIFE’S LOVER TO CONFESS TO HIS DEED, THEN HE KILLS HIM: A story, with a dateline of March 14 and Fort Worth, Texas, briefly tells a story of love gone wrong and of a fatal encounter between a baseball-playing husband and vaudeville singer. The article, as many news stories do, presents the facts pretty clearly right in the beginning. Here goes:
Fred Morris, a baseball player, last night shot and instantly killed Otto H. Meyer, a vaudeville singer, in a room at a local hotel, after having secured a written confession that his relations with Mrs. Morris were improper.
There you have it in all its simplicity: who, what, when, where and even why.
The HOW comes four short paragraphs later, quoting what Morris told police:
”Meyer extended his arms and told me to shoot him through the heart so that all would be over at once. I did as he suggested, and would have followed him beyond the grave except for the fact that I have a little boy who I think needs me to look out for him.”

March 14, 1909 (Sunday)

IS THIS THE WIRELESS EQUIVALENT OF SPAM, VIRUS or HACKING? Today's Globe features this cartoon on its from page, titled "Troubles of the Wireless Oeprator." This shows how some amateur wireless operators (clockwise from the upper left, a young boy, a sewing machine operator, a poker player and a cook) get their messages in the way of the work of a professional who is handling a message from someon on a ship that has been involved in a collision at sea.

'STEERAGE INDEX' POINTS TO HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR THE U.S. ECONOMY: The White Star's Romanic left Pier 44 in the Hoosac docks at 2:30 p.m. yesterday and headed for the Azores and the Mediterranean. The ship had 200 passengers. The Globe points out that this "was a noticeable decrease in the number of steerage" compared with the totals on outgoing steamers leaving Boston for Southern Europe during the past year. The Globe says [emphasis added] this "clearly indicates that the Italians and Portuguese are not remaining in this country IN EXPECTATION OF BETTER TIMES."

March 13, 1909 (Saturday)

QUESTION FROM "A TALL COLORED YOUTH" LEADS TO A HUGE HEADLINE ABOUT TR's FUTURE: Today's Globe includes a huge headline on an inside page that Theodore Roosevelt -- less than a month into his life as a private citizen -- might, indeed, run for president again.
The comment sprang from a question that came NOT from a reporter but from a "tall colored youth" who was part of a group of New Yorkers who were greeting Roosevelt. If you can't read the exchange (shown at right), it went:
A tall colored youth was one of the first to come along. He remarked to Mr. Roosevelt:
"I've carried the Roosevelt banner in two campaigns and I hope I shall have the honor of doing so again."
To this Mr. Roosevelt replied, smilingly: "Time alone will tell whether you are to be afforded that opportunity."
As it turns out, time did tell.


MARBLEHEAD ADOPTS A NEW SEAL: Today's paper includes the news that Marblehead has adopted a new seal for the town. The seal (shown above as it appeared in the Globe today) has lasted.
A paint-by-number version (right) appears in the left column of the town's home page. According to the Globe, the designer was William J. Bixbee, "a local artist." Some complained that the image shows a dory "is of too recent model" to accurately portray the time when Marblehead fishermen were fishing from such craft on the Grand Bank. Others thought the seal should show the word "Mass." on the boat and should include the date on which the town was incorporated (May 2).

March 12, 1909

OH OH! IT LOOKS LIKE THE SLIDE TOWARD THE PAPARAZZI HAS BEGUN: Today's Globe (published on a Friday) offers a photograph showing the recently-replaced-as-President Theodore Roosevelt glad-handing a well wisher on the streets of New York City. The photo was taken WEDNESDAY, when Roosevelt commuted to an office in Manhattan from his Oyster Bay, Long Island, home. An article about his trip to town was printed THURSDAY in the Globe. And now -- a day later than that -- a photograph catches up with the news. The people identified in the caption are (from left) Douglas Robinson, TR, L.F. Abbott and "The Friend Whom He Greeted."
This sent me scurrying to the Web.
Douglas was TR's brother=in-law (the husband of his sister Corinne Roosevelt -- and, by extension, grandfather of columnists Joseph and Stewart Alsop). L.F. Abbott was Lawrence F. Abbott, an author and editor. Alas, "the Friend Whom he Greeted" is unidentified, but the grammar -- proper use of "whom" -- is correct.
The article in yesterday's Globe that described TR's trip to the city said he visited the Robinsons' home and then spent about three hours in the editorial offices of the The Outlook, which is edited by Abbott's father, Lyman Abbott. For the record, he used public transportation. That's why yesterday's article carried the headline, "Literary Man, Strap Hanger."
[NOTE: Many pin the beginnings of the paparazzi to the 1950s. The use of the word with this connection is usually linked to a certain film.]

March 11, 1908 (Thursday)

TOP GLOBE WRITER MERITS A BYLINE FOR STORY ON SHIP COLLISION: Early in the morning yesterday [March 10] the coastal steamer Horatio Hall (right) was heading on its way from Portland, Maine, to New York, running through thick fog in the Pollock Rip Slue off Chatham on Cape Cod. Meanwhile, the steamship H.F. Dimock of the Metropolitan steamship company was heading in the other direction -- through the same thick fog -- on its way from New York to Boston.
The Dimock rammed the Hall in its midships, and the story and photos filled much of the front page of today's Globe.
The story credited the captain of the Dimock with his decision to refrain from backing his ship out of the guts of the Hall, which would have led to its sinking. Instead, he threw his ship in forward and drove it into shallow water to beach it.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the coverage (which led to no deaths among the passengers -- five on each ship -- and crew is that the story has a BYLINE. This is rare for the Globe. The credit goest to "Edwin J. Park."
I checked the Globe's archives and found more than 280 references with his name, beginning in 1886. Also, I found his obituary (from July 1912). I loved the description of this man, who worked 13 years as a reporter and editor for the Globe. One of his great accomplishments was securing an interview for the Globe with Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy in her home in Concord, N.H., in 1907.
Here's a section of the obituary, which included the photo at right:
Mr. Park had, too, the art of writing "human interest" stories -- stories in which he would work out the happenings in some little every-day incident in such sympathetic, truthful way that a little news incident became more interesting than a piece of clear-cut fiction.
Then he had a vein of peculiar humor with which he could fairly saturate a story with laughs. His was good-natured, inoffensive and thoroughly enjoyable humor. His "cross-section" stories of events in Reno before and during the Jeffries-Johnson fight two years ago [meaning 1910]were admirable specimens of another style of newspaper writing of which he was a past master.