Dec. 15, 1906 (Saturday)

GERMAN SCIENTIST HAS VISION; WHAT'S THE GERMAN FOR 'CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?' A wireless telephone test conducted by the German Society of Wireless Telegraphy has some far-reaching implications, says Professor Adolf Slaby (right). In an interview, he called a recent wireless communication by telephone between Berlin and Nauen (24 miles) was quite successful. Slaby says the limit of distance is not known. According to a news report on the front page of today's New York Times, "He sees no reason to set any limit, and believes that the time is coming when a man will be able to speak wirelessly with a friend in any part of the world." Again.... "speak wirelessly with a friend in any part of the world." Imagine that. We're glad that SOMEBODY thought it could be done. Now, about those overages....

CARNEGIE HALL FILLED FOR REFUGEE FROM RUSSIA: About 5,000 people filled Carnegie Hall last night for a stirring address by Gregory Gershuni. (The Times spells it Gerschunin.) He is the man who escaped the "quicksilver mines at Akatui, Siberia" by being stuffed in a sauerkraut barrel. He came to the U.S. via Japan. He spoke for two hours -- in Russian and Yiddish. Editor Edward Cahan introduced Gershuni, calling him the Russian Lincoln." Referring to the cross that has become the symbol for the followers of Christ, he suggested that a BARREL become the symbol "of the supreme martyrdom of the Russian revolutionists." Somehow that never got traction. A "barrel and sickle" or "hammer and barrel" just never did cut it, I guess.
Today's Times noted an especially poignant moment in the evening when Gershuni, also known as "Grisha," asked those present to stand in memory of the "dead and fallen fighters."
Everyone stood. Silence reigned. Then, "as a faint echo from afar" a bugle started playing the notes of "Taps." One would think the acoustics of Carnegie Hall drew the most out of the sound. The reaction:
...as the bugle note ended sobs were heard and handkerchiefs were busy in every part of the hall.

Dec. 14, 1906 (Friday)

BREAKING (BONE) NEWS FROM THE SIX-DAY BICYCLE RACE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN: This morning's New York Times has a front page report of a nasty collision that hapened about 2:30 a.m. today during the marathon bicycle race at Madison Square Garden. Seven riders were thrown; the race was stopped for more than an hour. Evidently, rider Joe Fogel caused the problem when he fell from his bike. He fell right in front of (Arthur?) Vanderstuyft (left), who shot right into the stands and fell into the lap of a woman at ringside. Not surprisingly, the woman fainted. Vanderstuyft was unconscious and might be badly hurt. Others tumbled, too, causing a big mess at the track. This is the eighth time Fogler or his partner, Root, have fallen in the race -- nullifying gains by other riders. Sounds like some good ol' boy NASCAR tactics to me. Some of the people in the crowd were so mad at Fogel that "they wanted to mob him," the Times says.

A NEW COLLEGE IS IN THE WORKS FOR WOMEN: The trustes of Hobart College have decided to accept a plan to establish a women's college, thanks to an endowment of $475,000 in money and real estate, from William Smith (left). (The New York Times uses a smaller figure -- $350,00 -- than The Syracuse Herald.) The new college will have five members on the board; two must be WOMEN. Work on the buildings should begin in early 1907. Now, the schools are quite closely linked, as Hobart and William Smith Colleges. (It might sound like it required a fairly small amount of money -- $475,000 -- to secure naming rights for nearly a century, but you must remember to multiply the number by about 20 for 2006 dollars.)

Dec. 13, 1906 (Thursday)

JUDGE TAKES A LEGAL SWING AT "BAT" AND TWO OTHERS: Three journalists connected to coverage of the Chester Gillette murder trial were arrested yesterday in New York City.They were William Lewis and Henry Cary of the New York Morning Telegraph and "William M. Masterson," a U.S. deputy marshall and writer for the Telegraph. The latter must be Bat Masterson (right). They are expected to appear at some time before a police judge in Herkimer County. These are the journalists who, Judge Devendorf says, both exagerated and fabricated material in their coverage of the trial. A news account of the arrests in today's Post-Standard says they were "charged with criminal contempt of court in circulating false and grossly inaccurate reports of the trial of Chester Gillette at Herkimer."

NOW IT'S A KILLING: Former U.S. Sen. Arthur Brown of Utah died at midnight, a little more than four days after he was shot by a woman whom he had bedded and since scorned -- Mrs. Anna M. Bradley. She will likely proclaim that she was justified thanks to the "unwritten law." That might be thin ice. The phrase is subject to some very wide interpretations. Some -- including Ida B. Wells -- say that lynching is justified by that same thing -- an "unwritten law." In other words, a so-called "justifiable homicide."

NEW YORK SUN SHEDS LIGHT ON TACTICS OF BASEBALL OWNERS: The New York Sun warns baseball fans not to be tricked by owners of teams who claim they are REALLY TRYING HARD to spend a lot of money to acquire GREAT PLAYERS for their team so they can CONTEND FOR A TITLE. Here's an example, according to the Sun. Imagine an owner lets it be known that he offered $25,000 to Barney Dreyfuss (owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates) for the rights to star player Honus Wagner (right). Dreyfuss would, of course, refuse this, prompting the owner to say, for publication, "Well, I did my best to strengthen the team by offering $25,000 in spot cash for Wagner, but Dreyfuss would not have it. The other clubs have combined against me and we will have to do the best we can."
Dreyfuss can then brag to his fans that he is so desirous of winning that he turned down a huge amount of cash for the player.
Here's the Sun's conclusion:
It is a play that works both ways and the magnates have been working it for years. Consequently when big offers for star players are made with reckless abandon nowadays they should be taken by the baseball public with plenty of salt.

HERE'S HOW FRANK BRENNER'S REALLY BAD NIGHT GOT WORSE: Pity Frank Brenner of Bay Shore, Long Island, N.Y. Early on the morning of the 12th, he was poking around the house of Henry Hillen, a wealthy resident of Amityville. This awakened Hillen, who, suspecting a burglary, grabbed his RIFLE. He opened his window and shouted, trying to scare the person off. He saw a shadow and fired his gun THREE TIMES. According to The New York Times, Hillen heard some groans, then everything got quiet so he "retired and went to sleep." Well, all three bullets hit Brenner -- in the head and lungs. He staggered to a neighbor's house, where he entered the side door. This woke up Albert J. Burton. He, suspecting a burglary, headed downstairs and flicked on a light. He saw a strange man so he grabbed a CLUB and beat him. Eventually Brenner cried "Don't hit me. I'm shot." Burton sent for a doctor and now Brenner is at Nassau Hospital -- clinging to life.

AN ABOUT FACE FOR ROOSEVELT'S PORTRAITS IN RICHMOND: Some blacks in Richmond, Va., are showing their dislike for President Theodore Roosevelt in a distinctive way. They are upset that he discharged colored troops after the Brownsville riot in August. In some social clubs and public buildings, people have turned portraits of the president so that he is FACING THE WALL. That's being done in some homes, too. They are coming up with some replacement images, too. Especially popular are pictures of Sen. Joseph Benson Foraker of Ohio (right, about 1888), who has been critical of Roosevelt's decision.

Dec. 12, 1906 (Wednesday)

ESCAPE FROM SIBERIA LEADS TO ONE QUESTION: COULD HOUDINI DO THAT? Gregory Gershuni (left), a Russian Jew who was exiled after officials linked to to the failed plot to kill Russian premier Stolypin, arrived in this country a couple of weeks ago. He's in the Syracuse paper because the Jewish Bund will bring him to Syracuse for a speech. One topic is likely to be his escape. According to news reports he left Vladivostok while hidden INSIDE A BARREL OF SAUERKRAUT. Friends filled the top and bottom of the barrel with the vegetable product and squeezed Gershuni into the area between. They punched a couple of holes in the wood to give him air to breathe. He took a small amount of food and water.The barrel was put on board a ship.. He arrived in San Francisco several weeks ago.

SHOOTING DEATH OF A BAR OWNER REVEALS "CUNNING" and "SCHEMING": The shooting death of Salvatore Svelazo has New York's finest a bit perplexed. He was shot early yesterday morning in his saloon on Forsyth Street in Manhattan. The killers were determined. They figured they would have a clear shot at him from their perch by the window in the back. However, they also know that a bullet might have to travel through a window and two doorways before hitting the bar owner. One big question: What to do if one of the doors was CLOSED. Here's where the -- in the Times' words -- "desperate cunning and fiendish scheming" really seems to play into this.
Police found on one door a chalk mark of a circle bisected by two lines of a cross. Around that circle, the killers drew a larger circle -- about a foot across. A bullet going through that cross would likely kill a man standing at the spigot, pouring a beer for someone. As it turned out, the door was not closed, and the bartender was seating in one of his rooms. The deadly bullet's journey from the barrel of the gun to the body of the barkeeper was unimpeded.

IMAGINE THAT! VOTING MACHINES FAILED TO WORK: The state is continuing its investigation into the problems with voting machines used in Elmira, N.Y. In an Assembly race, the Republican won by 41; the Republican won the county treasurer race by 2. One machine had 20 votes recorded for each party but only 2 were recorded for the Democrat. The Republican candidate also had fewer than 20 on the machine, but the recorded total wasn't as low. The article says, "Every machine used in the city is to be opened."

BROWNSVILLE DISPUTE LINGERS: Gilchrist Stewart, who represents the Constitutional League and 145 soldiers of the all-black 125th infantry, says he has plenty of evidence that the men were set up in the disturbance at Brownsville, Texas in August. He says some evidence indicates that whites might have impersonated soldiers at Brownsville in the crisis, which led to the wholesale discharge of the entire 125th. Stewart and others want a Congressional investigation.

Dec. 11, 1906 (Tuesday)

YOU MIGHT WANT TO POSTPONE THAT TRIP TO TANGIER: According to a brief article on the front page of today's New York Times, trouble is continuing to brew in North Africa. The headline reads "Rais Uli Wants Holy War." Here's the article in its entirety.
TANGIER, Dec. 10 -- Rais Uli to-day informed the Moorish officials here that after conferring with the mountain tribes he was prepared to march upon Tangier at the head of 15,000 armed Moors and drive into the sea and massacre every Christian in the place.
He quoted the Koran to prove that even if a successful European invasion were to follow they would have carried out the commands of God.
Rais Uli or Raisuli (variously known as a bandit or freedom fighter) (right) pops up often in the news and had a bit of a run-in with President Roosevelt in 1904. Here's a place to go for information about Roosevelt and Raisuli. The Roosevelt-Raisuli conflict is touched on in "The Wind and the Lion", a 1975 film. Raisuli is portrayed by SEAN CONNERY, in a stunning bit of cross-ethnic, cross-cultural and cross-eyed casting.

JUDGE MIGHT GO AFTER SOME JOURNALISTS: Chester Gillette was sentenced yesterday to die in the electric chair sometime during the week of Jan. 28. Appeals will likely delay that, but that's the way things stand now in the case that will form the inspiration for Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy." It appears that Judge Devendorf, however, thinks the trial has been "A Journalistic Tragedy." Yesterday, he led some people to believe that some newspapers in the state of New York will have to face some serious questions about the FAKE ARTICLES that were printed about the trial. An account in today's Post-Standard says there's a rumor that a grand jury will hear evidence about the situation. No papers are mentioned by name in today's article in The Post-Standard.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT WINS PEACE PRIZE: The Parliament of Norway yesterday named U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. The main reason he won the award, according to Gunnar Knudson, the president of the Norwegian Parliament, was the work he did to end the bloody Russo-Japanese war. The prize money comes to about $37,000, which the White House says will be used to support an "industrial peace" committee in this country, presumably to help smooth differences between employees and employers. The New York Times thought so highly of this award that it put the story on PAGE FIVE. That might be because it was included in reports in yesterday's afternoon papers.

COACH WARNER "POPS" OFF: Cornell football coach Glenn "Pop" Warner (shown at right in 1892) said yesterday he thinks the new football rules, which allow for the forward pass, are good for the game, but he would like to see 12 PLAYERS on the field, presumable for both Cornell and its opponent. Here's what he said:
Each time I had a play figured out, it failed to please me, for it seemed that there was always one player missing.
That EXTRA MAN rule likely won't happen, but he does seem to have a pretty good idea about the forward pass. Here it is in his words:
I would like to see all restrictions removed from the forward pass. The rule giving the ball to the other side when it hits the ground has made teams afraid to employ it, while to limit of its use to two times and compelling it to be passed five yards from center have kept the play from being developed to its fullest extent.
Again, under the current rules, the BALL CHANGES POSSESSION when a pass FALLS INCOMPLETE. On that one, it looks like he has a good point.