Aug. 7, 1906 (Tuesday)

HEADING FOR A SEPARATION: Paris is roiled by the divorce proceedings of Major John MacBride and Maud Gonne MacBride (right), the woman who has been one of the great influences on W.B. Yeats. One headline calls her the "Irish Joan of Arc." She and Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Its not known who will win custody of the couple's son, Sean MacBride.




MORE LYNCHINGS IN NORTH CAROLINA: Intitial reports from North Carolina indicate that five negroes were tortured with knives, hung and riddled with bullets (That's a picture of the results at the right; there were reports that residents of the area cut off fingers and other parts of the bodies to keep as souvenirs.) yesterday in Salisbury, N.C. They had been jailed after being accused in the slaying of members of the Lyerly family three weeks ago. A crowd of 2,000 was held back only briefly by the mayor and sheriff. The arrival of an additional 500 men from Whitney seemed to transform the crowd into a mob. The names of those lynched were Neuce Gillespie, John Gillespie, Jack Dillingham, Henry Lee and George Irwin.

SIRIO INVESTIGATION IS FULL SPEED AHEAD: More information has surfaced about the sinking of the Sirio off the coast of Spain. For one thing, authorities think the ship was motoring close to shore because it was conducting a clandestine trip with illegal emigrants. Early reports indicated that Capt. Giuseppe Paradi committed suicide. But he survives. He might wish he hadn't. The authorities and relatives are upset. It seems about 300 died. The Times lists survivors: 348 Italians, 40 Spaniards, 14 Arabs, 10 Austrians,6 Orientals, 4 Argentines, 4 Brazilians, 4 Montenegrins and 11 whose nationality is not known.

HIGH TEMPERATURES WEAR OUT NEW YORKERS: The heat really took a toll in New York City yesterday. Fourteen deaths are blamed on the weather, which brought the highest Aug. 6 temperature in 24 years. Thousands of New Yorkers slept out doors. A breeze, which moved at from 10 to 14 miles per hour helped a little. But, as a reporter for The New York Times writes, "It blew from the south and west, however, and there aren't any icebergs in either of those directions now."

Aug. 6, 1906 (Monday)

DISASTER OFF THE COAST OF SPAIN: The Italian liner Sirio, filled with about 800 emigrants heading to South America, was wrecked yesterday off the coast of Spain -- near Cartegena. About 300 people killed in the wreck of the ship, which is shown before (left) and after (right) its encounter with the Hormigas shoals. Initial reports indicate some tales of heroism, particularly by rescuers. Passengers, on the other hand, don't come off looking too well. A correspondent for the Daily Telegraph based in Madrid says that many passengers drew knives and commandeered lifeboats. There will be an investigation. Officials wonder why the captain was sailing out of normal shipping lanes and was too close to the coast. There's some thinking that his ship had pleny of illegal emigrants on board. Singer Lola Millanes (the spelling's unclear) went down with the ship. The Sirio was built in Glasgow in the early 1880s. Now it's in a warmer place.


TAKING STOCK OF COMSTOCK: The anti-nude raid in New York City that was in the papers on Aug. 3, has drawn plenty of comments in newspapers. Here's a sampling:
Utica Press: When a man or group of men aren't good for anything else, they start some society for the prevention of something and under the forms of law proceed to "tear things up." That's what Anthony Comstock, founder, secretary, special agent and chief jackass of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, is doing in New York City.

IT WILL BE HARD TO TRANSMIT FROM A SECRET LOCATION: The Army, eager to figure out how to use the up-and-coming wireless technology, plans a full test of a mobile unit at some military maneuvers at Mt. Gretna, Pa. The equipment weighs about 300 pounds. That doesn't include the "sectional mast." That hard-to-conceal 60-foot-tall item weighs another 50 pounds. The mast can be raised from the ground a section at a time. This modern device will use some old-fashioned, tried-and-true locomotion. This exciting piece of modern technology, geared to the fast-moving world of communication can be moved from place to place. . . . on the backs of two mules.

Aug. 5, 1906 (Sunday)

TRYING TO KEEP THE LINE MOVING:Today's New York Times takes a close look at a proposal that could help ease some of the pedestrian congestion during rush-hour on the Brooklyn Bridge. It's headline reads "Novel Use of the Screw as a Means of Rapid Transit." The illustration that goes with it (above)shows that it's similar to an amusement park ride. These cars don't stop. Pedestrians have to step on them as the cars slide by. The entry points will be about a quarter mile apart, and the speed will average 16 miles an hour. It won't surprise New Yorkers that a plan for a public-works project has a BIG SCREW underneath.

FOR SOME REASON THEY CALLED IT SMITH & WESSON, NOT HORACE & DANIEL: The final half of the double-barrel Smith & Wesson duo has died. Daniel Wesson, who began making weapons in the early 1850s with Horace Smith, died in his home in Springfield, Mass., yesterday after a four-year illness. (His weapons-making colleague died in 1893.) Wesson was born poor in Worcester and had a home in Northborough, Mass., that will likely last a while. The pair (Horace and Daniel) worked out the principles that another manufacturer turned into the Winchester rifle. Later, Horace and Daniel built a factory in 1860 that employed 600. Their timing was excellent. The Civil War treated them well.

THEY'D LOVE TO WATCH THIS KID ON SATURDAYS IN COLUMBUS: A 10-year-old saved the day yesterday in Cleveland when he tackled a crook who had taken off with more than $2,600 from the Banca Italiana on Orange Avenue and East 14th Street. The crook, a 33-year-old waiter, grabbed the cash and ran. The bank's owner ran after him and fired a pistol three times -- missing with each shot. The youngster, Sebastian Liotta, took off after the crook. He caught up to him, dove, and grabbed him by an ankle. He brought the older man in an alley and held on for dear life until help arrived.

Aug. 4, 1906 (Saturday)

COMSTOCK'S RAID SPARKS SOME RAGE: Reaction to the raid yesterdayby Anthony Comstock on the Art Students League has been extensive in the art community. Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke of the Metropolitan Museum says he is stunned by the attack on the artistic depictions of nudes. He says he wouldn't be surprised if Comstock decided to swoop down on the Met to confiscate some of the museum's most famous exhibits. He's quoted as saying, "A nude figure isn't indecent unless it is made nude with the object of offending public morals."
Anna Robinson, who was arrested two days ago at the League's offices, was back in her office. But she was wearing a shawl instead of her usual peek-a-boo waist. As soon as she got to work, she ordered 200 yards of opaque fabric so workers could cover a herd of pink (and nude) cows that are being exhibited at the League. For some reason, one reporter chose to refer to Robinson as "statuesque."

MEATPACKING BACKLASH SWIPES AT HARVARD: Harvard University might come out on the short end of the ongoing tainted meat controversy. Nelson Morris recently told friends that he had bought the house of John Harvard (in statue form at left) in Stratford-on-Avon (right) with the full intention of donating it to Harvard. However, Morris has decided not to make the donation because of the prejudice that has surfaced against American meat packers. He said his company has lost 400,000 pounds in the wake of the meat scandal.

CAN'T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE TREES: Settlers in Nebraska are quite upset that they are prevented from settling in an area designated as the "North Platte forest reserve." The President had evidently been convinced to remove this area from settlement because it was supposedly covered with trees. Once it got the "forest reserve" designation, the area was promptly leased to cattlemen. A report from Omaha says that people are just learning that the area, one of the largest forest reserves in the West, has 100 trees -- a few box elders and cottonwoods that grow near some water tanks. According to The New York Times, this area covers 300,000 acres. Now, additional areas in sparsely settled counties are also candidates for this kind of "forest" designation. These are equally barren of trees.

Aug. 3, 1906 (Friday)

NUDES IN THE NEWS: The censorious Anthony Comstock is at it again. Yesterday, he and an assistant, on behalf of the Society for the Suppression of Vice (or something like that), breezed into the office of the Art Students League of New York on West 57th Street and seized magazines that the narrow-minded Comstock thought were "indecent." While they were at it, they arrested Miss Anna Robinson, bookkeeper for the society.
The Protectors were especially interested in the 2,500 copies of the June issue of The American Art Student, which included reproductions of students' work from a May exhibition. Here's how The Times described Comstock's approach:
Mr Comstock turned over the pages of The Art Student. At page 161 he stopped and looked hard; at page 168 he stopped again.
"Yes, it is true," he said to [his assistant Charles] Bamberger. "These pictures are improper and immoral. They are hurtful to the rising generation."
One suspects that -- in his quest to rid the world of poor, defenseless nudes -- Comstock would love to get his hands on the Venus de Milo (right).

CHATTANOOGA SURE LOVES ITS LYNCHING SHERIFF: The lynching of Ed Johnson in Chattanooga, in defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court, continues to make news -- and the matter is not going to go away. The sheriff, Joseph Shipp (right) -- the key man ignoring the court, was just re-elected by a large majority. The New York Times says "practically the only votes against Shipp were cast by negroes." This Shipp case will not go away. The sheriff, a former Confederate soldier, has been cited for contempt and is supposed to appear before the Supreme court in connection with the lynching. Discussions about this will surely continue.


BRASS BAND TURNS TUBAS INTO FOG HORNS: Some members of the championship brass band called the Besses o' th' Barn (above) went above and beyond the call of duty on Tuesday as the White Star liner Majestic tried to make it safely through fishing grounds off Newfoundland. The fog was so dense that the captain asked band members to play music so any craft nearby would know a ship was passing through. Thanks to the musical fog horns, there were no collisions. The band is the oldest brass band in Great Britain and it's primarily made up of "Manchester workingmen." It has just begun its first world tour. The band also played yesterday as the ship docked in New York. The musicians are preparing for concerts at Asbury Park tomorrow and Sunday. As wonderful as those concerts might be, they might not be as important as the one the band gave for the fishing fleet -- and those brass-loving mackerel.

Aug. 2, 1906 (Thursday)

MY LORD! A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY: Police in Asheville, N.C., recently contacted the police of Portland, Maine, and told them that an American bigamist named "Lord Douglass" was probably in southern Maine. The Portland police tracked down someone who had rented a cabin on Sebago Lake under the name of "G.S. Douglas." He was there with his wife and son. So, they arrested him. Now, they aren't so sure they did the right thing. They are awaiting word from England, but they apparently arrested Lord George Sholto Douglas. His father was John Sholto Douglas, who sponsored the rules of boxing now known as the Queensbury (or Queensberry) Rules. Another son is the more famous Lord Alfred Douglas, a longtime intimate friend of Oscar Wilde. (In the picture, that's Alfred on the left, with Wilde.) Alfred's father was the one who sparked the downfall of Wilde -- sparked by a memorable libel proceedings.

NO LONGER GRINDING IT OUT: The man who's thought to be the country's richest organ grinder, Meicher Wideman, died yesterday at the age of 76. For about 28 years, he perched himself at the entrance to the popular Glen Island resort in New Rochelle (pictured at right in the 1880s) and played doleful religious songs such as "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" and "Rock of Ages". Wideman, who was blind, took in up to $25 a day in nickels and pennies, with the help of his wife, who died two years ago. He spurned numerous requests that he liven things up a bit with some ragtime. (He did add the somewhat upbeat "Onward Christian Soldiers" to his repertoire about five years back.) Several times, the millionaire owner of the Glen Island resort, John H. Starin, tried to get the grinder removed from the area, but Wideman had a permit and was on city property. It's rumored that Wideman died with an estate of about $50,000. He had no children. It will probably go to the Roman Catholic Church.

COULD HIS REACH EXCEEDS HIS GRASP? A small item in today's New York Times bears watching. The Czar Nick (aka, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias) has authorized an American syndicate, represented by the Baron Loicq de Lobel, to begin working on a "Trans-Siberian-Alaska" railroad project. The Czar, who has plenty of other things (e.g., Sveaborg) to worry about, likes the idea of building a railroad from Siberia to Alaska, using bridges and tunnels to cross the Bering Strait (above). The capitalization is expected to be between $250 million an $300 million. This is an idea that has circulated for some time. But there'll probably be more talking than digging in the future.

SPARKS WILL FLY IF THERE'S A BREAKOUT: Warden Charles Rogers has a plan to improve the security of the Middlesex County jail in New Jersey. He will install a grid of electric wires covering the roof of the prison. This will shock anyone who tries to break out of the jail by busting a hole in the ceiling of a cell. A prisoner will have to cut wire -- and get electrocuted -- before making a hole big enough for a human body. The Times says, "It is figured that it will be cheaper to repair the wire than to put big patches on the roof and spend a lot of money chasing prisoners."