Aug. 1, 1906 (Wednesday)

SOCIAL CLIMBER CLIMBS ALL OVER PHOTOGRAPHER: Henry Symes Lehr got into a scuffle in the streets of Newport yesterday. The day before, a photographer tried to take Lehr's picture when he and Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish were getting out of a carriage. Newport's chief of police stepped in just in time and foiled the photographer.
Yesterday, it got serious.
The photographer tried to take Lehr's picture as he walked out of a jewelry store in front of the Newport Casino. The photographer snapped a picture.
Lehr became enraged. He pulled the photographer inside the store. Then he thought better about it, realizing he had just technically committed assault. He returned the camera and paid the man $25 to cover the cost of the plate that held the negative.
Lehr has made his mark on Society. Evidently, Mrs. Fish and Lehr make quite the pair in Newport. It's funny that Lehr doesn't seem to pay much attention to his wife. The picture in the upper left is from their wedding. The picture at the right is a detail from a full length portrait of the terminally-ignored wife, Elizabeth Wharton Drexel. (The portrait was done in 1905 by Giovanni Boldini.) When she gets a chance, I'm sure Mrs. Lehr will have some tales to tell.

JUSTICE MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN BLIND, BUT IT WAS BLINDINGLY FAST: Guess how much time elapsed between the swearing in of the jury and the hanging of Allen Mathis near Mayfield, Ky. It took 55 MINUTES. Mathis, a black man, was accused of assaulting a white woman. The final sentence of the article in The Washington Post said, "The trial and execution, though swift, lacked no essential of justice to the accused." That said, it's important to note that, in a somewhat prejudicial act, the gallows had been built the day before.

NOW THAT'S A SHORT STORY: In this little item, a writer from The New York Times avoided the pyramid style -- of giving the important information first. Instead, the "important" information comes at the end. Here's the tale, under the headline "Caught Dog in a Basket." (WARNING, from the Veterinary Surgeon General: Dog lovers might not appreciate the ending.):

The heat or something affected "Teddy," a small black mongrel, in a boarding house at 134 West Thirty-fourth Street. It chased the cook into a china closet yeesterday morning, and the boarding house mistress ran to the upper regions of the house to escape him. The dog then ran to the street and fled up Broadway to Thirty-fourth Street.
Policeman O'Gorman was ready for "Teddy" when the dog came in his direction pursued by a crowd of children. The dog made several attempts to bite the policeman, but he succeeded in keeping out of danger. A grocer's boy who was looking on loaned the policeman his basket. This O'Gorman slipped over the dog's head. A minute later a little puff of smoke from the policeman's pistol marked the end of "Teddy."

July 31, 1906 (Tuesday)

LESS SCRUBBING AT BELLEVUE: The resident staff at New York City's Bellevue Hospital (above, as it looked in the late 1870s) will have to make do with less soap and fewer towels. The order was issued yesterday. The weekly rations for each member of the staff from now on is two towels and one piece of soap. Evidently, the news spread like cholera, and, The Times reports, "There was indignation in the hospital." A surgeon drew up a petition which was directed toward Superintendent Samuel T. Armstrong. The Times summarized the main points of the petition, saying it protested the order and added that "the staff could not look clean and neat if the order was not repealed."
This provides a nice contrast to an item that I didn't mention that was in yesterday's Times. The South Omaha (Neb.) packing houses will begin clothing its workers in white duck clothing beginning on Wednesday. The 7,000 white suits are to be provided free of cost to the workers. Employees will have a fresh, clean suit every morning, and the packing house will do the cleaning.
So, the packing houses are moving toward cleanliness, and one of the nation's most famous hospitals is moving away from it. Hmmmm.

SCAM ARTIST MAKES WAVES IN NEWPORT: The coming and going of the cruiser Des Moines at Newport yesterday might have given a swindler an idea about making some cash -- fast -- from the well-heeled residents of Newport. A man posing as Lt. Townsend of the Navy went around soliciting money for a building that sailors of the fleet could use while visiting Newport. To boost his cause, he forged the name of Sen. George Peabody Wetmore who himself owns one of the great mansions in Newport, and put him down for a $500 donation. He also forged the name of a rear admiral. An article says the imposter "had no trouble in securing money" but nobody knows how many people he fooled. She probably isn't happy about it, but Mrs. Harold Brown was named as one of the donors who was fooled.

July 30, 1906 (Monday)

ROUND AND ROUND HE GOES: Polo player and clubman Harry K. Vingut won a $1,000 bet yesterday at Belmont Park (which was founded in 1905 and is shown above in an undated post card). He had bet broker Edward L. Norton that he could ride a horse 100 miles in less than 24 hours. It was really no contest. Including stops for breakfast and lunch, he covered the distance in 12 hours and 39 minutes. That averages about 8 miles an hour. (That's a little slower than the riders of the flash-in-the-pan Pony Express, but those riders couldn't pause from 6:50 to 8:20 a.m. for breakfast and a shave, as Vingut did.) Counting riding time only, he did it in 9 hours, 9 minutes -- which comes to about 11 miles an hour. (For the record, The Washington Post says Vingut was on the track riding for 9 hours 23 minutes.) He used a number of horses, named Jingle, Flushing, Red Buck, Bob White and Fox Brush. He began the ride at 4:42 a.m. and finished it in a driving rainstorm. According to The New York Times, a lightning bolt struck the three-quarter mile pole just as he passed it in his final lap. He finished his ride -- which covered an additional half mile or so -- at 5:21 p.m., leaving time for a dinner at the New York Racquet and Tennis Club. With his victory, he certainly earned enough to buy plenty of oats and carrots for those who did all the work -- the horses.

ARCHAEOLOGIST WANTS POPE TO DO SOME DIGGING: The Freeman's Journal of New York published yesterday an open letter to Pope Pius X (right) that calls for him to open the tomb of St. Peter to see if the saint's remains really are there. The letter is signed "Marcellus of the Old Stones." The word is that the writer is a leading Italian archaeologist. He says he speaks for leading archaeologists of Europe and says opening the vault is the only way to settle the ongoing dispute about the existence of Peter's remains. It must be fascinating down there. I wonder if anyone will try and get to the bottom of this.

July 29, 1906 (Sunday)

SHOCKING TALE! HOW A WOMAN TRICKED A SALESMAN, FOOLED AN ALIENIST AND STOLE $10,000 WORTH OF DIAMONDS! A Washington Post story with a Madrid dateline describes what has to be one of the more clever diamond heists imaginable. (If the story isn't true, it's still worth reading.) Here's the sequence of events:
One day recently, a woman visited with Dr. Arno, a well-known alienist, and represented herself as a woman of wealth. She told the doctor that her husband was showing signs of going insane. Dr. Arno agreed to see the man the next day.
Shortly before that scheduled appointment, the woman hired a nice carriage at a livery stable and headed to Goldsmiths & Silversmiths, one of the leading jewelers of Spain. She examined diamonds and chose an assortment of the best. The gems cost a total of about $10,000.
She then told the principals of the store that she was the wife of Dr. Arno. She begged them to allow one of the store's owners to accompany her to her house -- with the diamonds -- so she could show the stones to her husband. She told them that Dr. Arno would pay for them on the spot if he liked her choices.
Eager for such a sale, one of the owners climbed into the carriage, with the jewels. The jeweler and the woman rode to Dr. Arno's house, which is also where he sees patients. The woman asked the jeweler to wait in the anteroom while she showed the jewels to the doctor. When she got them in her hands, she walked into the doctor's office and closed the door. She emerged after a minute or two, and told the jeweler that her husband had approved of her choices and was ready to pay for the diamonds. She then asked the jeweler to step into the office and get his money.
Dr. Arno and the jeweler then had an interesting discussion about diamonds and money. All the while, the alienist thought he was talking to a "patient" who really was insane. He was, after all, talking about being paid for some diamonds that Dr. Arno knew nothing about. By the time they discovered what had happened, the woman -- thought to be an American with a perfect command of the Spanish language -- had a 10-minute head start -- with the diamonds.

THE WATCH OWNER MUST HAVE BEEN REALLY TICKED OFF: During an amateur vaudeville competition in Lancashire, England, Thomas Marsden tried to dazzle the crowd with what The Washington Post calls a "sleight-of-throat performance." In this case, he meant to swallow an enameled watch that an audience member donated for the occasion. The trick, of course, required that he disgorge the watch and return it to its owner. But he only carried out half the trick. The lady was quite upset and requested that Thomas stand on his head against a wall for 10 minutes. But the watch remained in him. And he has become quite sick. The headline calls him an "Amateur Hermann." I'm assuming the headline writer was trying his or her own hand at magic -- by making an "R" disappear from the man's name, because this is likely referring to magician Alexander Herrmann one of the great conjurers of the last century. That's him in the picture, on the right.

JAPANESE STATESMAN DIES: Today's New York Times has a lengthy tribute to Japanese statesman and general Kodama Gentaro(right). It's written by war correspondent Richard Barry who was with Kodama at the siege of Port Arthur in the Russo-Japanese War. Barry laments that people here know so little about the man. He writes, "Self-absorbed New York, which pauses in child wonder at the most superficial doings of the most superficial of European monarchs, barely noted the passing of one who was guiding the destinies of the Far East."

KING ARRANGES FOR SMALL-AND-TALL EXHIBITION: King Edward has arranged for a showing in the Crystal Palace of another pair of extremely tall and extremely short men. The two are shown at right, with a man of typical height for comparison. The big one is Henri Cot, who stands 8 feet 7 inches. He is reportedly the first giant to come out of France in 200 years. The short man is Peter Colibri, who stands less than 2 feet tall and weights a mere 8 and a half pounds. The duo is expected to come to the U.S., also. Colibri has already been here but most people might have missed him.

July 28, 1906 (Saturday)

CONFEDERATE VETERANS WANT THE SOUTH -- NOT THE CURTAIN -- TO RISE AGAIN: Some in Nashville, Tenn., applaud actress Agnes Lee's refusal to participate in a production of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," (promoted in the 1880s with the poster above) which is scheduled to run in that city next week. Among her supporters are members of the Frank Cheatham Bivouac, United Confederate Veterans. (That's Cheatham at the right.) Lee, from Nashville, says the play is offensive to her and to those who raised her, according the article in The Atlanta Constitution. It was a front-page story in Atlanta. I haven't seen any reference to this news item in any other paper.

FORGET BURNING BRAS; FIRST BURN THE PETTICOATS: The dean of women at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Abby S. Mayhew (left) presented her ideas of the good and bad elements of fashion for ladies. On the bad side, she lists peek-a-boo waists and petticoats. On the good side, she put large shoes, low necks and round garters. Then she made a comment that people might do well to remember, oh, say, about 100 years later:
We are never going to be free so long as we wear petticoats. Women will never have perfect freedom unless she wears a gymnasium-like costume. I am not advocating this for the present day, but perhaps in a century we shall grow to it.

MEET A SURGEON WHO REALLY TRUSTS HIS ASSISTANTS: Baron Anton von Eiselsberg (left), a noted surgeon connected to the University of Vienna, hadn't been feeling too well over the past couple of weeks. He thought he was experiencing the symptoms of appendicitis. He was right. On the night of the 26th, he suffered an "alarming attack." So, he showed up at the hospital yesterday morning determined to be operated on. However, he discovered there were two patients who desperately needed to be operated on themselves for appendicitis. He performed those two operations. Then, to the surprise of his assistants, he told them to clean off the operating table and get ready for another operation. He was to be the patient. They were to operate on him. The operation was successful, according to a news report out of Vienna. (Note: Articles in the U.S. were likely to spell his name "Eiselberg," without the second "s.")

BASEBALL UMPIRE FACES BETTING CHARGE: Umpire Clarence "Brick" Owens is in trouble in Minneapolis. He is charged with placing bets on the Minneapolis-Columbus games in the American Association -- hoping that the Ohio team would win. Three well-known gamblers have filed affidavits. This comes after "riotous demonstrations" at league games in Minneapolis last week..

July 27, 1906 (Friday)

COULD THIS PUNISHMENT HAVE BEEN MORE CRUEL AND UNUSUAL? As mentioned yesterday, William Lee, a 17-year-old black boy also known as George Scott, was hung until he died Thursday morning on a marshy shore of Smith Island in Somerset County at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. (Smith Island is southeast of Solomon's Lump Light (right).) The Washington Post called the hanging "a spectacle unique in the execution of the death penalty." Lee, who was convicted in Baltimore of assaulting two white women in Somerset County, was returned to Somerset County by steamer so the death sentence could be carried out near the scene of the crime. Because officials were worried that a mob would grab Lee and burn him, they decided to bring a gallows on the boat and hang the boy secretly in that county. The ship anchored in Kedges Strait about a quarter mile off shore. Then, Lee had to watch workers row the scaffold to the shore and build it there. When it was built, they brought Lee ashore. Then they discovered that someone had left some straps on the ship. So Lee had to sit in the shadow of his own gallows as someone rowed back to the steamer for the straps. Furthermore, the ship's iron ladder -- which was brought ashore -- was not tall enough to reach the platform of the gallows. So, deputies had to pull him up by his handcuffed wrists so he could reach the platform. They dropped his body at 8:25 a.m. He was declared dead 18 minutes later.

A COURTROOM SCENE TO REMEMBER: During a wife-beating trial in East St. Louis yesterday, Magistrate McKane grew annoyed by a conversation being held by two spectators. They were evidently speaking about music because the judge noticed quite a bit of humming. The judge then called the hummers -- Silas Chapin and Alexander Flannigan -- before him. He demanded an explanation. Flannigan told the judge that the two men were recalling some of their favorite tunes from their church-choir days. The judge ordered them to PROVE TO THE COURT that they could actually SING church hymns, or else he would charge them with contempt of court. The duo then turned and sang "Shall We Gather at the River" the "In the Sweet Bye and Bye" and a doxology. The article in The Atlanta Constitution ends with this statement: "The court being satisfied of their musical abilities purged them of contempt and told them to sing outside of the court room." Evidently nobody raised any of those nettlesome church/state issues.

SISTER VISITS CHESTER GILLETTE: Chester Gillette, who's accused of killing Grace Brown in Big Moose Lake, was visited yesterday by his younger sister, Hazel. She heard about the case on Tuesday while visiting in Connecticut and came to Herkimer, N.Y., as soon as possible. She is on her way to Chicago and might go to Colorado to visit their mother. She is finishing her final year in high school. Chester reportedly told her, "Go back to school. Don't worry on account of me. Don't tell mother anything about the case." The illustration of Chester shown here is pieced together from a couple of torn pages. The sketch is by Victor Lambdin.

CHECK, MATE: Get a load of this suit. The ad in today's Post-Standard is a bit ambiguous, but this one might cost $9.50. That's anywhere from $3 to $6 off the regular price. These suits are available worsteds, cheviots, serges and other cool summer fabrics. It might be good for vacation wear, the ad says. Or not. In any case, if you get a bit bored, at least you can take the jacket off, spread it on the floor and play a game of checkers. The store also has 21 dozen straw hats on hand. They cost 48 cents each.

July 26, 1906 (Thursday)

THEY'LL HANG HIM LEGALLY -- TO PREVENT HIM FROM FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF THE LYNCH MOB, WHICH WANTS TO KILL HIM ILLEGALLY: William Lee was taken from jail in Baltimore yesterday and put on board the steamer Governor R.M. McLane (named for Robert Milligan McLane) of Maryland's "oyster navy." Lee, who is black, faces a death sentence because he assaulted two white women in Somerset County. He was taken to the safely of Baltimore after his arrest because a crowd threatened to lynch him. He was convicted in Baltimore and sentenced to die. But he is supposed to be executed in Somerset County. Authorities fear that a mob will prevent that from happening. Many people in Somerset County want to kill him in their own special way. So, police have put an entire gallows, a coffin and other material needed for a hanging on board the ship. As soon as it crosses into the waters of Montgomery County, the captain will look for a secluded spot on shore for the hanging. That will probably be early tomorrow morning.

THEY THINK THEY HAVE FOUND GOSLIN IN PARIS: Alfred R. Goslin, noted scam artist, might have turned up in Paris. It turns out a Wall Street investigator who was sent to Paris to try and find Goslin traveled on the same steamer as a stenographer whom authorities have long suspected knew more about Goslin's whereabouts than she let on. And who was waiting on the wharf at Le Havre to meet the steamer? Goslin! She and Goslin are living with his mother. Evidently the mother and son have reconciled since his first gambit -- when he chloroformed her and stole her jewelry many years ago. Goslin's tale was told at length on April 8 in the Times. It seems that the authorities are trying to keep this new development somewhat secret. One interesting part of today's front-page story in the Times lies in this sentence:
He will hardly be aware that his hiding place is known until it is too late for him to execute one of his famous disappearances for which he has been famous in the police traditions of half a dozen cities on this side of the water.
So, we wouldn't want something printed in The New York Times that would tip him off, now, would we?

HIGH-FLYING DOCTORS: About 5,000 people showed up yesterday to watch two physicians, Samuel Ottinger and T. Chalmers Fulton, go up in the balloon Orient so they could monitor how each other's heart, lungs and blood operated at various altitudes. They said they reached a height of 20,000 feet, which is apparently quite a feat. The doctors said, it was the greatest height ever attained in the skies above American soil. It's about as high as Mt. McKinley (Denali).

July 25, 1906 (Wednesday)

MYSTERY OF THE MISSING BABY LIONS: The two baby lions have been accounted for -- about two weeks after they disappeared mysteriously from an exhibit at Paragon Park (above), which is on Nantasket Beach -- shown here in the photograph at right of an area at the mouth of Boston Harbor. It turns out that a 12-year-old boy smuggled the two animals out of what's called an "animal kindergarten" exhibit and tried to keep them in a shed at the summer colony at Point Allerton (which is at the elbow at the upper end of the peninsula). The boy says he tucked them under his shirt and walked out. His parents found out about this when one of the lions died. The boy confesses. The parents have come forward and returned the living lion. The father also offered to pay any damages -- to avoid persecution (and, presumably, having his son's name published in the paper). The lions' owners settled on $175. Among the other animals in the exhibit are a monkey, two dachshunds and two rabbits. That has all the makings of a nice all-you-can-eat buffet for the returning lion (after he or she grows up a bit).

YOU MIGHT BE BETTER OFF AT THE BATES MOTEL: Anna Nolan, a worker at the Lauderdale Springs Hotel, which is 40 miles north of Meridian, Miss., has been arrested. Police say she tried to poison the hotel's proprietor, some guests and fellow workers. Allegedly, she added something called Rough On Rats to the coffee that was served on the evening of July 23. The poison didn't do as much damage as she thought it might. Only two guests became ill. Those two unfortunates must have been the only rats in the group.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Dol gone it, why don't you fellows look out! You'll hurt somebody some day!" -- That's what farmer James Garth, 70, of Webster Groves, Mo., reportedly yelled at a train crew after he was hit by an engine and tumbled 15 feet down an embankment. The crew had stopped the train and offered to help him. He declined their offer. After the train took off, Garth continued his walk -- right down the middle of the train track.

July 24, 1906 (Tuesday)

WOMAN RECALLS KINDNESS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON: About 15 years ago, Henry Ide was U.S. commissioner in Samoa. At the time, author Robert Louis Stevenson (right) lived there. One day Ide's daughter, Annie, complained to the author about that fact that she was born on Christmas Day and wished she had another day for a birthday. The author promptly wrote up a legal-sounding document whereby he transfered to Annie his rights to his own birthday, which was on November 13. The document was recently quoted in The Philadelphia North American -- and reprinted in at least one newspaper today -- because Annie Ide will shortly become the wife of Congresman Bourke Cockran of New York. The document written up by Stevenson is one one Ide's treasured possessions. I don't have room to quote it all, but it's really quite humorous. At one point, Stevenson says, "And considering that I, the said Robert Louis Stevenson, have attained an age when we never mention it, and that I have now no further use for a birthday of any description..." It's worth reading in its entirety. Before you start thinking that Stevenson was really, really old when he did this, he was only 40 years old at the time. His letter is dated June 19, 1891. He died in late 1894.

ROOTING FOR THEM DOWN THE HOME STRETCH: The Italian steamer Alberta Treves limped into the lower bay of New York harbor yesterday and shut down its engines and waited for the tugs America and Ferguson to push it into a berth. The ship left Almeria, Spain, on July 4. It turns out that the trip across the Atlantic was so long and difficult that the ship ran out of coal for fuel. After burning all the wood and lumber on board (including deck chairs) for fuel, the captain had to search the cargo for something that could produce enough power -- any power -- to get the ship to NYC. The crew broke into the cargo and pulled out 10 large bales of licorice root (right). That's what got them as far as the lower harbor.

HALT! THIS IS THE POLICE! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR! STEP ... SLOWLY ... AWAY ... FROM THE DICTIONARY! About 790 candidates recently took an examination for a spot on the Chicago police force. The test asked the candidates to define certain words that might come up during a police officer's career. Here are some of the definitions:
HOMICIDE: Leaving wife or children under 10 without a home.
ALIBI: An additional name to a person.
GAMING: Killing game without a license.
PERJURY: Unjustly defaming the character of another.
Needless to say, The New York Times was happy to put this on its front page.

A KING'S GOTTA DO WHAT A KING'S GOTTA DO: The recently married King Alfonso XIII of Spain has evidently lost none of his boyish inclinations. A report with a Berlin dateline indicates that the king recently rode a horse up the stairs of the palace in Madrid and clop-clopped into his mother's drawing room. She was reportedly so surprised that she fainted.

July 23, 1906 (Monday)

FINANCIER DIES: Russell Sage (right), a fabulously rich financier and former Congressman died yesterday at his summer home on Long Island. He's the one whom Henry P. Norcross tried to assassinate in 1891. An article in today's paper said Norcross walked into Sage's office in New York City and demanded $1.2 million. Sage refused. Norcross then dropped a bomb on the floor. It "blew Norcross to atoms" and badly injured Sage. Sage was one of those men who began their careers at the bottom (in his case, it was as a grocery clerk) and rose to the top of the money-making pile. People estimate that his estate is worth $80 million or more. Many wonder what will happen to his money -- whether it will be used for good causes or not.

GORKY SPEAKS OUT: Appleton's magazine receently included some words from Russian Maxim Gorky. An excerpt appears in today's Post-Standard. It's noticable in light of the news of Sage's death. Here's a portion of what Gorky had to say:
America, you who astound the world with your millionaires, look first to the children on the East Side [of Manhattan], and consider the menace they hold out to you! The boast of riches when there is an East Side is a stupid boast.