Dec. 23, 1906 (Sunday)

A PERFECT CASE FOR CSI: PHILADELPHIA: Mrs. Bridget Carey (shown at right in an illustration in today's Syracuse Herald) is being held in Philadelphia for the deaths of two boarders, her husband and two of her children. Her husband died about 10 months ago. Then, boarder Cecilia Cook died on Aug. 14. This was followed by the death of boarder Patrick Coyle on Sept. 17. Daughters May, 8, and Anna, 6, died on Nov. 17. She nearly got a "hat trick" on her children, but 3-year-old Edward was taken away from the home by an aunt after he became seriously ill on Nov. 16. One break in the investigation surfaced when police discovered that Mrs. Carey had bought rat poison with an unusually large dose of arsenic. Then there were those insurance policies Mrs. Carey had taken out for her husband ($250), the children ($200 each) and all the boarders in the house. Great suspicion surfaced when the two children died the same day. At first, this was attributed to "bad candy." However, tests of candy at local stores indicated that was not the problem. The authorities quietly exhumed the bodies and found large quantities of arsenic in the children's stomachs. Things look bad for the mom, even though neighbors vouch for her. One, pursuing a bit of circular reasoning, said Mrs. Carey couldn't be as evil as the police say. After all, one of the boarders "had so much confidence in her that he had his insurance policy made out in favor of her." OK. I think that's what worries the police.

BOSTONIANS CAN DRINK MORE LIQUOR, LATER AT NIGHT -- THANKS TO THE REPEAL OF THE 'SEMI-COLON LAW': Voters in Boston this week backed an extension of the day's drinking by one hour, from 11 p.m. to midnight. This, in effect, "blue-pencils" the famous semicolon in the liquor law that kept the hotel dining rooms from serving liquor after 11 p.m.
The offending SEMI-COLON is at right, as printed in The New York Times on Dec. 6, 1900. It goes like this:
No sale of spirituous liquors shall be made between the hours 12 at night and 6 in the morning; nor during the Lord's Day, except that if the licensee is also licensed as an inn-holder he may supply such liquor to guests who have resorted to his house for food or lodging.
In the 1880s, the "12" was changed to "11." If there had been a COMMA after "6 in the morning" -- as it was in the original 1875 statute -- then everything would have been OK. However, the SEMI-COLON appeared in 1881. Nobody noticed. It was passed with that punctuation. And, in 1900, the Supreme Court ruled that the hotels could not sell liquor between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Dec. 22, 1906 (Saturday)

A LYNCHING THAT WAS RIGHT UNDER THE NOSE OF THE STATE GOVERNMENT: Some of this morning's papers include a horrifying tale of a lynching in Annapolis, Md. Prisoner Henry Davis, who was black, was snatched from a 100-year-old prison that's about 500 yards from the executive mansion and statehouse (right).
Davis was in the jail because he was charged with criminally assaulting a woman named Mrs. John Reid.
This report says the lynchers gathered first at Senior Hall at St. John's college campus. They met about midnight and blackened their faces. Some put on masks. On the way to the jail they tried to break into the city's gas plant. Some think they did that so they could extinguish the city's street lamps. They dragged the prisoner about a quarter of a mile to a spot on College Creek (right, in 2000). He was hung from a tree limb and six bullets were fired into his body for good measure. According to the report, one person yelled, "Another white woman is avenged."
They left his body there. During the day hundreds of spectators came out to take a look.
The article in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette says, "Little or no resistance was offered to the men by the officers at the jail."

BROWNSVILLE IS EMINENTLY DEBATABLE: A lively, formal debate took place yesterday at Syracuse's St. Phillips Episcopal Church, which was "crowded with colored people." The debaters and judges -- all of whom were black -- debated this: "RESOLVED: That President Roosevelt was justified in dismissing the colored troops of the Twenty-first Infantry." This referred to the president's actions after a fatal race-related disturbance at Brownsville, Texas, over the summer. Debaters were told that "sentiment was to be set aside." The judges favored the Negative, 6 points to 4 points.
In related news, one of the discharged soldiers, Mingo Sanders, is seeking to re-enlist. Today's New York Times points out that Sanders fought with Theodore Roosevelt at Santiago in the Spanish-American war and he shared his company's rations with the Rough Riders at Roosevelt's request. Now, Sanders is one of the men whom Roosevelt ordered to be dishonorably discharged because of the Brownsville "affray."

CHEMICALIZED STEAM HELPS A TRAIN STAY CONNECTED: A bit of communications history was made yesterday on a train that was going about 20 mph east of Louisville, Ky. This was the site of what's thought to be the first successful test of someone making a telephone call from a moving train. The machinery was invented by Dr. A.D. Jones of Louisville. He connected the phone on the train to a device on engine. That device emitted a "stream of chemicalized steam" at two wires stretched alongside the track. He connected successfully to Louisville. A connection from there to The Associated Press in New York failed because of heavy weather, according to an article in today's Times.

ROOSEVELT INHERITS A COUPLE OF CATS -- FROM A WOMAN WHO COMMITTED SUICIDE: Lulu Grover committed suicide in Manhattan on Dec. 8 by drinking chloroform. Police found a letter and a will. She left everything to President Roosevelt -- including her two Angora cats. The U.S. District Attorney Henry L. Stimson (left, in 1929) announced yesterday that the president declined the estate but has welcomed the two cats to the White House. Stimson explained, "Of course if any of the woman's relatives turn up and claim the cats, President Roosevelt will hand them over."

Dec. 21, 1906 (Friday)

IT'S NO iPod, BUT IT'S A PRETTY NEAT WAY TO LISTEN TO MUSIC: Sometimes it's hard to find some entertainment during the cold winter nights of Upstate New York. People in Oswego County thought they had a solution, thanks to the TELEPHONE. For a number of weeks now, people have started a fire, poured a cup of cider, taken the phone off the hook in their living room and settled into an easy chair -- to listen to MUSIC.
A barber and a tinsmith in the village of Central Square came up with a device (made of tin and rubber) that connected a phonograph to the mouthpiece of a telephone. Forty-three families are on the line and at 8 p.m. each day, each family takes the phone off the hook and settles in to listen to a concert. A typical playlist? How about a Strauss waltz, "Why Don't You Try," "So Long Mary" or something along the lines of "I Found a Lemon in the Garden of Love."
Everything was going fine until an unidentified businessman needed to make a call one evening, picked up his phone and heard music.
He hung up and waited. Then he picked it up again and heard more music.
The next day he sent a letter to the manager of the telephone company.
Now an edict has been issued by the phone company. The over-the-wires community concert will be ended after New Year's Day.

SOPRANO TAKES A TUMBLE: On Wednesday night's performance of "Aida" at the Manhattan Opera House, soprano Giannina Russ took a bad fall and now she is covered with bruises. In the third act, the baritone threw her to the floor in such a manner that her face became discolored with bruises yesterday. A doctor promises that Russ' face will be in good enough shape for Sunday's performance.

WRITER IS FED-UP WITH ONSTAGE VIOLENCE: "An Eye Witness," a humorous show, opened last night at the Bastable Theater in Syracuse. A note in this morning's paper suggests that it's a welcome change from the usual "blood and thunder drama." The show resembles more the "old school than the present day thriller in which," the article says, "it is considered necessary to devise some new deviltry and to kill a half dozen or so in each act."

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Today's Washington Post has an article about a rare sight in Paris: a female cab driver. She is Mme. Lutgen, who also goes by the Countess de Pin de la Gueriviere. She says female drivers (cochers) will be superior to males. Here's her comment: "Women cochers will be much unlike a majority of the present male cabmen. They will be civil, sober, will not rob their passengers, and will treat their horses kinder."

Dec. 20, 1906 (Thursday)

RACE-FIXATED SCHOOL BOARD FLUSTERED WHEN IT CAN'T SEE EVERYTHING IN BLACK-AND-WHITE: Here's a challenge that the school board in Washington, D.C., faces: Should a student from the Philippines go to a white school or a colored school. A major in the U.S. Army named Waltz says his 22-year-old Filipino servant should be able to go to school in D.C. Waltz says he tried to enroll him in Atlanta schools earlier, but that didn't work because of "the prevailing race feeling." The school board simply couldn't decide. It referred the matter to the committee on teachers and janitors for additional discussion.

THERE COULD HAVE BEEN A LUNCH-COUNTER DEMONSTRATION: The race issue surfaced yesterday in the Senate restaurant, too. According to a "Heard at the Capitol" notice in The Washington Post, two blacks -- a young man and a young women -- dined in the restaurant. It was noteworthy because it was the first time "IN MANY YEARS" that a black person has been in the Senate restaurant -- except as a waiter. Some people got up and left when the couple arrived. Others turned on their heels at the doorway when they spotted them. The couple was not identified in the article. Here's one reaction from a member of the restaurant staff: "What can we do? If colored people really insist upon coming in here we can hardly keep them out. Of course we do not want their patronage, for it hurts our business severely, but if we should refuse point blank to serve a negro we might have to pay a heavy fine besides having the restaurant privilege taken away from us by the Senate."

PRESIDENT SUPPORTS SHERIFF WHO FOUGHT OFF LYNCH MOB: Today's Washington Post included an interesting letter from President Roosevelt to Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte. Roosevelt released it perhaps to counter criticism that has erupted from his discharge of black soldiers en masse after the Brownsville Riot. In fact the letter is on Page 5, the same page that includes his lengthy defense of the discharge -- presented as a message to Congress. Anyway, the letter seemed interesting in light of race relations of the day. Here it is:
Dec. 17, 1906
Dear Mr. Bonaparte:
Some three years ago Sheriff J.L. Merrill of Carroll County, Ga., lost his chance for re-election by his action in beating off a mob of several hundred white people who were trying to take a negro out of jail and put him to death. Sheriff Merrill and his deputies fired on the mob, killing and wounding several men and beating the others off. Because of this he was defeated for re-election. Congressman Adamson brought the matter to my attention, saying that he hated to see a man who had done such a service as a public official defeated because of the very fact that he had rendered the service. He told me that Gov. Terell had offered Merrill a place -- the best he had to give -- which carried a salary of $50 per month. I told the Congressman I thought I could beat that, and got him a place at $1,200 a year as custodian of the grounds of the federal prison in Atlanta (above). I hear he has done well. If he has done well, can't we give him a promotion? Sincerely yours, Theodore Roosevelt.

Dec. 19, 1906 (Wednesday)

VICTORIA LUISE IS A TOTAL LOSS: An Associated Press reporter yesterday visited the scene of the wreck of the tourist steamer Victoria Luise (right), which is being pounded by waves while wedged on a rocky ledge off the coast of Jamaica. She is "impaled on rocks amidships." There's evidently nothing that can be done. Evidently, Captain Brunswig mistook the lighthouse at Plumb Point for the light on the western point of Port Royal. He turned his vessel sharply to the north, moving ahead at 14 knots an hour. At that speed, the ship easily climbed onto the rock ledge, where it will likely be broken to pieces eventually. As noted yesterday, Brunswig killed himself after the accident. Today's report helpfully points out that "the back part of Captain Brunswig's head had been completely shattered by a rifle bullet."

CONTEMPT CASE AGAINST JOURNALISTS ENDS QUICKLY: There was a quick end yesterday to the contempt-of-court proceedings that Judge Devendorf initiated against three New York City journalists for their writing during the recently concluded Gillette murder trial in Herkimer, N.Y. One of the journalists is referred to as W.B. Masterson of the New York Telegraph, and that appears to be Bat Masterson. He and one other paid a $50 fine, and the case against the third was dismissed. It's not clear what the fuss was about but the judge did not like articles that appeared to complain that Gillette wasn't getting a fair trial.

SEN. HALE WORRIES ABOUT THE HIGH COST OF THE MILITARY: A discussion about the increased expenses for the Army and Navy filled the chamber of the U.S. Senate yesterday. After one senator pointed out that there are "three guns to every man" [not to be confused with Surf City, where there are "two girls for every boy."] Sen. Eugene Hale of Maine interrupted by saying, "The Senator ought to have added that we have no enemies." Hale said he did not like the Army's constant complaint "that you could not have an army without guns, and when the guns are supplied they turn about and say what is the use to have guns and fortifications without men? It is a constant pressure on the part of the army to aggrandize itself, first for men, and then for guns. There is no end to it." He acknowledged that the Navy is the same way. Then he added, according to a report in today's Post-Standard: "I don't suspect the people of the counry apppreciate it, I don't know that the Senate does, that two-thirds of the revenue of the country to-day are devoted to the payment of the burdens of PAST WARS, like pensions, and expenditures in view of FUTURE WARS."

GOLD FINDS ARE OVER THE TOP DOWN UNDER: A place called Tarnagulla (or "Sandy Creek") in Australia popped onto the front page of today's New York Times. Recently some diggers found huge gold nuggets near the village. Two were found Dec. 17 weighing 967 and 873 ounces. These are reportedly the biggest ones found in Australia in 40 years.

Dec. 18, 1906 (Tuesday)

LUXURIOUS VICTORIA LUISE IS ON THE ROCKS OFF JAMAICA: The tourist steamer Prinzessin Victoria Luise (above) was driven onto a rock ledge off Jamaica by Capt. H. Brunswig, who was following an erroneous course and working without a pilot. With difficulty, all passengers were rescued by other ships as the Victoria Luise remained wedged on the rocks. People connected with the Hamburg-American Line were shocked that the captain would do such a thing because he has one of the best reputations in the fleet. He had commanded numerous tours, including trips to the Orient and the Greek islands. As it turns out, he was the only casualty. He was so distraught by what he had done that he blew his brains out. Today's New York Times says "The oficers of the ship and the German Consul here [Kingston, Jamaica] made ineffectual eforts to hush up the news of his suicide."

BY IMITATING THE SPEAKING VOICE OF THE PRESIDENT OF YALE, CROOKS MANAGE TO SWINDLE A GROCER OUT OF $40: The telephone continues to open new vistas of crime for the crooked. One recent victim was Arthur Twining Hadley president of Yale University. Here's what happened.
Sometime last week, when the president was not at home, a man (Crook 2) knocked on the door of the Hadley house. He told the servants that he was an agent of the telephone company and needed to use the phone. They let him in and showed him the phone. Meanwhile, a co-conspirator (Crook 1) entered the store of the family grocer, Robert H. Nesbit. He was dressed well and, posing as the nephew of President Hadley, asked the grocer to cash a $40 check. Here's how the conversation went:
CROOK 1: "I'm Raymond Sheldon, President Hadley's nephew. Just call my uncle by telephone and inquire."
NESBIT: "You call him."
CROOK 1: "Give me No. 600."
Nesbit knew this was Mr. Hadley's phone number and took the phone.
NESBIT: Is this President Hadley?'
CROOK 2: "Yes."
NESBIT: "A young man who says his name id Raymond Sheldon and that he is your nephew wants me to cash a forty-dollar check for him."
CROOK 2: "It's all right. He's my nephew, and you will accommodate me by cashing the check."
He did cash it.
Yesterday, the check was returned, stamped "No Good," according to today's New York Times. When Nesbit called President Hadley's house, he discovered that Hadley had been out of town and that he had been talking to an imposter. This was a significant amount of money. For 2006/7 dollars, multiply by about 20.

MORE ON THE SHOOTING OF THAT GROOM IN VIRGINIA: Today's Washington Post presents further details of the shooting of groom William F. Bywaters (in Culpeper, Va.) Some of yesterday's papers had sketchy accounts of the killing of Bywater, who was widely known as a breeder and trainer of hounds and horses. Early reports indicated that he was "shot to pieces" on Saturday Dec. 15 by the brothers of his bride when he tried to leave the bride's family home after the wedding. It appears there's another side to the story, which says that Bywaters was shot BEFORE trying to escape. There are as many holes in the story as there were in Bywaters. Hopefully future news accounts will clear things up.

Dec. 17, 1906 (Monday)

COACH COLE WILL BE A MERRY OLD SOUL: The word out of Nebraska is that the football coaching of Amos Foster was not up to snuff. He was only 6-4. Now officials have their eye on W.C. "King" Cole (right), who just finished coaching at Virginia. A story in today's Post-Standard says, "He is in demand at Virginia for next season, and it is doubtful he will consider the Nebraska offer unless there is a fat salary attached."
Well, that's not too much to ask -- not then, and not now. Take a peek and see where Cole coaches in the fall of 1907 and see how he fits in with the other coaches at the school.

WILL SOMEONE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THOSE CRAZY CAR CODES? The American Automobile Association is hoping that 1907 will bring some progress in the incredible BALKANIZATION of state automobile laws, according to an article in today's Post-Standard. Drivers who want to leave their home state face some daunting challenges. For example, in New Jersey, a driver from another state can't even drive there for ONE DAY without risking ARREST. The state law requires that the New Jersey registration be shown prominently on the car. Also, in Massachusetts, which granted TWO WEEKS of free touring about two years ago, has now reduced that to SEVEN DAYS. A car ride from Maine to Washington, D.C., might require 10 or so separate state registrations.
Hopefully Judge W.H. Hotchkiss of Buffalo, who is the next president of the American Automobile Association, can help deal with this. He has long advocated having some kind of Federal law that can supersede many of the state laws and allow

Dec. 16, 1906 (Sunday)

A JOURNALIST PREFERS PHLEGMATIC to FRANTIC.: A writer who goes by the name of "M. Clam" and is said to be a "renowned Parisian journalist" has written about "American Problems." The article is in today's Syracuse Herald. Regardless of what you might think of the French, you might find the perspective interesting, in 1906 or 2006. Here's how the article begins:
The people of these United States are in agitation -- always in agitation. It is their pleasure to have many mighty questions which threaten disaster unless they are solved instantly. These eager Americans are so different from people of Phlegmatic France. Stagnation is the death. Excitement is the life. Variety is most necessary.
He has some devastating things to say about the attitudes towards blacks in the North and the South. Here goes:
I know not if the South or the North is a greater friend of those blacks. In the South, they may work but those politicians will not let them vote. In the North, they may vote but those unions will not let them work. The South says, "We understand the black. Leave him to us." So they lynch him. The North says, "We do not hate the black as the South does." So they invite him to lunch, and then lynch him."

YALE IS EAGER TO SELL SITE OF DEFUNCT WOMEN'S COLLEGE: The first chartered university exclusively for women, Ingham University (above), is on the auction block. It was opened in 1837 in Leroy, N.Y., which is near Rochester. After it closed in 1891, it eventually came into the possession of William Lampson who left it to Yale when he died in 1897. Yale's treasurer, Lee McClung, says he's willing to let it go for a cheap price, according to today's New York Times. He also thinks he can sweeten the pot for a prospective buyer, saying, "If it may prove an incentive to the consummation of the deal, I would be very much pleased to throw in a cemetery which is located on the grounds."
He's obviously dying to sell it.
In honor of the school colors of the seller, let's call this one a "BLUE-LIGHT SPECIAL."

LOTS OF MONEY IS EMIGRATING OVERSEAS: Today's papers report that there's a staggering amount of holiday money orders sent from new citizens to relatives in Europe. Three steamers now en route across the Atlantic carry about $2 million worth. The largest amount, $905,000, is on the Celtic. About 30 percent of that is going to Great Britain. (For 2006/7 dollars, multiply by about 20.)

CONNECTICUT TAKES TO THE HIGH SEAS: The battleship U.S.S. Connecticut (right) left the Brooklyn Navy Yard yesterday and headed for Hampton Roads to become part of the North Atlantic Fleet. This marks the first time in the history of the U.S. Navy that a ship that's armed and ready for service has entered the fleet directly from the builders care -- without a sea trial. Things looked good yesterday. The man who oversaw the building, Navy Constructor Baxter, rattled his saber a bit with a comment in today's New York Times:
I know enough about the condition of the Connecticut to say that, after some necessary practice with her guns, she will be in shape to ship any battleship afloat.