Dec. 1, 1906 (Saturday)

VIRGINIA MUST SCURRY TO SOLVE PROBLEM: Problems lurk in the Capitol in Richmond (above, designed by Thomas Jefferson). The problem? Mice. According to a report from the Richmond Times-Dispatch that was reprinted in today's Post-Standard in Syracuse, mice have destroyed almost all of the commonwealth seals (right) in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth. Plus they have started destroying some of the record books stored in the offices of the public printer. It looks as if the state is about to place traps in all the offices in the building. Those who have built a better mouse trap are falling all over themselves to beat a path to the door of the government, which is willing to pay top dollar for their wares. Where's the Pied Piper when you need him? Of course, it should go to the low bidder -- someone who can toss some cats in the building.

WOMEN TURN ATTENTION TO GERMAN IMPOSTER: Remember the account William Voigt, who was arrested for posing as an Army captain and duping officials in Koepeneck? He faces trial today. People have sent him about 700 marks. Furthermore a woman in England sent him a cake; boarding-school girls in Switzerland sent marmalade; and a woman in Paris sent a dummy clothed in an army uniform.

JAILBREAK TURNS OUT TO BE KIDS' STUFF: Ten men escaped from the Queens County Jail in New York City yesterday between the hours of 2 and 8:30 a.m. They sawed their way through three bars of soft steel. Some of the guards were shocked that the contractor who built the place used soft steel instead of "chilled steel." Others were stunned that the inmates would show such ingratitude so quickly after the Sheriff had given them a "splendid Thanksgiving dinner." But the way the saw was smuggled in is likely more shocking. It didn't come inside a baked cake or loaf of bread. Not even close. The authorities think the SAW was SMUGGLED in on Thursday in the folds of a BABY'S DRESS.

FINALLY, A WARNING TO LOUD-MOUTH NEWSPAPER EDITORS: Col. Max Frost, the editor of the Santa Fe New Mexican, is going to have to have his jaw set in plaster. He fractured it on Thanksgiving Day while working in the newsroom. It happened when he was yelling at an office boy. Frost, who happens to be blind, kept yelling. And yelling. And yelling. The office boy never showed up. It turned out that the young man was at home enjoying a Thanksgiving meal. Eventually, Frost's false teeth fell out during one yell and he snapped his jaw bone with such force that he broke it. A doctor discovered a compound fracture.

Nov. 30, 1906 (Friday)

J.P. MORGAN GRIEVES AT DEATH OF RAILROAD HEAD: Samuel Spencer, the president of Southern Railway was one of the eight people killed in a train wreck near Lynchburg, Va., at the break of day yesterday. Also killed were three of his guests, who were accompanying Spencer on a hunting trip.
Financier J.P. Morgan heard the news after he left church yesterday after a Thanksgiving Day service. A reporter met Morgan and had the foresight to bring with him a copy of an afternoon newspaper that carried the news. Here's how the interview unfolded, according to an article in today's New York Times. :
"You have heard of the death of Mr. Spencer?" questioned the reporter.
"The what?" exclaimed Mr. Morgan. He reached for the paper and as his eyes caught the headlines he stopped short in consternation. The blood left his face, and as he fumbled for his glasses he stammered: "My God! Sam Spencer killed! This is horrible. Where did it happen?"
His friends crowded round him and he kept repeating to them, as though he could find no other words to express his grief: "Sam Spencer's killed! Sam Spencer's killed!"
"Let me see the paper again," he said. As he read, tears rolled down his cheeks and he passed out, crushed and bent by the shock with all the gladness taken out of the festival.
The reporter helped him to his carriage and as the door closed he said: "Give me the paper. I want to read that. This is awful, awful! Oh I have no words to say. I am grieved, grieved, indeed!"
He might have had "no words to say," but the reporter did a great job capturing Morgan's feelings.

ARTISTIC TREASURE IN CENTRAL ASIA: Word from Bombay tells Americans that Dr. Albert von Lecoq, a German explorer, might have made a spectacular archaeological find in Central Asia. (The picture at right could be von Lecoq, from this Web site.) He has arrived in Kashmir with a collection of paintings and a group of manuscripts in ten different languages, one of which is an unknown tongue to the Western world. Today's New York Times says this could be the greatest find since the days of Sir Henry Rawlinson (1810-1895) and Sir Austen Layard (1817-1894). (Here's a look at Layard's passport.

Nov. 29, 1906 (Thursday)

OPERA LOVERS GREET CARUSO WITH APPLAUSE: Enrico Caruso made his first public appearance last night since he was convicted of annoying women at the Monkey House in Central Park. He was where people expect him to be -- on stage at the Metropolitan Opera House. He sang Rodolfo in "La Boheme." The Times today says, "For the first time in the history of grand opera in this city every box was filled when the curtain went up at 8 o'clock." At that point, Caruso was on stage, with his back to the crowd, looking through a window, across the roofs of Paris. The crowd erupted in applause; some hisses were drowned out. Meanwhile, the identity of the woman who accused Caruso has been revealed. She is evidently Mrs. Adam Stanhope, the wife of a professional baseball player.

BURGLARS HARNESS THE POWER OF TELEPHONE TECHNOLOGY: About $10,000 worth of gems were stolen last night from a boarding house on 22nd Street in Manhattan. The dollar amount makes the burglary noteworthy. But the manner in which the crooks pulled it off is probably what put it on the front page. The Times said this was "an entirely new game." Here's what happened:
While the boarders were gathered for an evening meal in the dining room, someone knocked at the door. At that point the hallboy, Julius Henry (whom the Times points out is "colored") went to the door. While he was talking with the man, the telephone "rang violently." Henry went to the phone, talked with the person and discovered that the caller had dialed the wrong number. By the time Henry returned to the door, the man was gone. After dinner, two of the women in the house went up to their rooms. That's when they discovered that the gems were gone.
The police have arrested Henry.