Sept. 22, 1906 (Saturday)

PEOPLE FACING TROUBLE IN THIS COURTHOUSE CAN HAVE SOME BIG SHOULDERS TO CRY ON: The cornerstone was laid yesterday for the Cook County Courthouse in Chicago. When done (above), the building will be the largest courthouse in the world. Vice President Fairbanks helped with the ceremony.

UPDATE FROM HONG KONG: Additional information has come in about the devastating typhoon that struck Hong Kong. Now, the death toll has risen to an incredible 10,000. Furthermore, the entire Hong Kong fishing fleet is devastated. People are rallying to aid the city. Here's how one article describes it: "The Chinese are evincing the most remarkable spontaneity in subscribing to relief funds for the typhoon sufferers. A remittance o $10,000 has been received from the Chinese in San Francisco -- a city that was itself devastated last April.

ANOTHER CONSPIRATOR DIES: One of the many Lincoln conspirators, 72-year-old Samuel Bland Arnold died yesterday in Baltimore. He insisted the conspirators had no intention of killing the president. The group accused of working with John Wilkes Booth really wanted just to kidnap Lincoln and hold him in the South, he said -- adding that Booth had no accomplices.

Sept. 21, 1906 (Friday)

TRAGEDY STRIKES OHIO FAMILY ONCE MORE: J.G. Schmidlapp (right) and his daughter Charlotte of Cincinnati were in a bad auto wreck in Provence in France yesterday, according to a report out of Marseilles. Charlotte's injuries were fatal. Mr. Schmidlapp will recover. They were driving a car that belongs to Charles Schwab. This is not the first accident to strike the family. Mr. Schmidlapp, a multimillionaire, was very interested in the economic activity of the French peasant, how they save money and the speed with which the country rebounded from the effects of the Franco-Prussian War. The Schmidlapp family supported many institutions in Cincinnati, and there's a child-care center at the university named for Charlotte.

STONE LAID FOR VERDI STATUE: A chorus of 300 children sang at Sherman Square in New York yesterday to mark the laying of the cornerstone for a statue of Giuseppe Verdi (right). Sixteen brass bands were on hand. The monument will be unveiled on Oct. 12. This is the third statue that Italians have given to the city of New York: Columbus at the 57th Street Circle and Garibaldi at Washington Square.



GEORGE ADE TELLS HOW A CHILD EXPOSED HIS FATHER'S DOUBLE STANDARD: The Newark News has published a little story that humorist George Ade (right)told at a dinner given by a women's club. He told the women about a man who tends to be a roaring, snarling beast at home but a mild puppy in public. He illustrated the point by describing something he said he overheard at a restaurant. The tale:
"I was lunching one day at a crowd restaurant. A man and his little son sat at a table near me. They sat there nearly an hour, and still their order was not taken.
"The boy twisted and squirmed. The father tried to soothe him. Then I saw the little fellow look up in a surprised way, and I heard him say: 'Hey, father, how is it you don't kick up a great big fuss the same as you do at home?'"

Sept. 20, 1906 (Thursday)

PEOPLE IN NEW YORK ARE A BIT MORE CASUAL ABOUT GOLD SHIPMENT THAN PEOPLE IN LONDON: The greatest delivery of gold in one ship ever delivered to New York City arrived yesterday on board the Cunard liner Carmania, which is shown above. The gold is worth about $10.3 million. It's about 82,000 pounds, in about 275 boxes, weighing between 250 and 300 pounds apiece. It came from London. On board, there were round-the-clock guards. The article in today's New York Times says, "New York took the great gold shipment less seriously." The shipment was taken from the docks on ordinary two-horse trucks, guarded by private citizens, whose only hint of an ability to protect the gold came from "significant lumps in the region of the hip pocket." There's more: "The boxes might have been filled with iron washers for all the signs of caution in evidence."

TWAIN SETS THE RECORD STRAIGHT: Many newspaper editors and publishers gathered last night at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City -- as part of a gathering of The Associated Press. One of the speakers was Mark Twain, who was introduced by the AP's general manager, Melville E. Stone.
The AP man mentioned in the introduction that Twain was "the inspiration of the first press club in America."
Here's Twain's response: "That is the first inaccurate statement I ever heard Mr. Stone make. The truth is that the inspiration was due to a jug that some one carried in. That club is still running."

Sept. 19, 1906 (Wednesday)

TYPHOON DEVASTATES HONG KONG: On Sept. 18, a storm struck Hong Kong and hurled numerous boats and ships on shore. Preliminary estimates indicated that 100 people were killed. That includes about 20 French sailors who were reportedly killed when a tramp vessel collided with the French torpedo boat destroyer Fronde. The illustration at right shows how the storm destroyed a Chinese junk in the harbor. One report says the storm did $1 million damage during its two hours of fury. A report from Manila says Hong Kong was unaware of the danger. Before the storm, the barometer was low, but there was nothing that indicated hurricane-force wings were coming. The storm struck when regular work was being done in the harbor. Ocean liners, junks, sampans and ferryboats were piled into the streets of the city.

CARD SHARPS TRICK WEALTHY CLUB MEN: Pittsburgh clubmen are more than a little embarrassed by the way various card sharps -- newcomers in town -- have tricked them out of money during poker games. One man, W. Joseph Johnson, was pulled by police from the famous Americus Club on charges of swindling. One of the devices he used was a mirror ring (similar to what's shown at right). Players use it when dealing -- with the dime-size mirror facing up from the palm side of the hand, pointing up at the card about to be dealt. A quick glance by Johnson gave him a look at each card being dealt. Lots of money was at stake in some of these games. In one game, a judge and a bank president were in a game with nearly $50,000 in the pot. That was won by a short-term member who has since left town. Police think members might have been fleeced of as much as $1 million.

Sept. 18, 1906 (Tuesday)

SOMETIMES, THE SHOW MUST NOT GO ON: There was plenty of drama last night at the new Astor Theater at Broadway and 45th Street. A crowd of about 1,500 was on hand for the opening of the theater. The show was supposed to open with "A Midsummer Night's Dream." However, mischief reigned, instead. The city fire department refused to allow the show to go on because the water pump did not produce enough pressure to properly fight any fire that might break out in the building. It was supposed to have 250 pounds of pressure. The theater owners claimed it could generate 450 pounds. A last-minute test revealed a 60-pound reading. This marks the third delay for the opening of the theater. The first was Aug. 28; the second was Sept. 12. The show features Annie Russell as Puck (there she is at the left in that role). She was the one who created the role of Barbara Undershaft in George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara."

GUNNING FOR SOME ATTENTION IN IOWA: Word has just filtered east about a sham battle that nearly turned deadly last Thursday or Friday at the county fair in Grundy Center, Iowa. Part of the festivities included a battle between militiamen and veterans -- using blank cartridges. Evidently, not enough veterans were on hand, so authorities recruited some young society men from Grundy Center to grab some firearms and join in the fun. After a few shots, Capt. Whipple of Company G of the militia fell to the ground, wounded in his knee. Then Lt. Sanders, Corporal Clark and some privates fell to the ground and cried out that they had been wounded. The "society men" recruits kept firing until their guns were taken from them, and cooler heads prevented a bayonet charge by the real soldiers. An investigation has begun. The preliminary word is that the young men of Grundy Center were pretty upset that the uniformed militiamen -- from the town of Vinton -- had received too much attention from the young women of their town. They figured one way to get even: Load their shotguns with real powder and shot.

Sept. 17, 1906 (Monday)

TRUTH IN LABELING: Journalists in London are evidently getting a big kick out of a report from Brooklyn. Evidently, an entrepreneur is making some good money by selling colorful destination labels that are slapped on the side and top of traveling trunks as passengers move from place to place throughout the world. The labels give the impression that the trunk -- and, by extension, the owner of the trunk -- has participated in numerous grand tours. Hypothetical examples offered by London papers are a label for the Hotel Ritz in Jerusalem for $2 and a nice set of labels from India for $5 and an assortment of railway and hotel labels from Japan for $4.

A LITTLE DEFERRED MAINTENANCE CAN BE A GOOD THING or HOW A YOUNG BOY SAVED A STORE FROM DESTRUCTION BY THROWING A BRICK THROUGH A WINDOW: A fire broke out last night in George Rupp's grocery store at 826 Second Ave. in New York City. His entire stock might easily have been destroyed. However, a couple of days earlier, a young boy had thrown a brick through one of the windows of the store. The boy was never caught. The window was not fixed. And through that hole in the glass, enough smoke escaped to attract the attention of Policeman Boerm of the East 51st Street Station. He turned in an alarm and alerted tenants on the three stories above the store. Firefighters broke into the store and brought the fire under control. It did about $300 in damage. Lots of what was burning consisted of pepper and spices. The Times says the firefighters were delayed in their work because they were sneezing so much. The cause of the fire? The paper leaves it to the reader's imagination: "It was thought mice, matches and a pile of old newspapers caused the fire."