Dec. 30, 1906 (Sunday)

AN ARTIST ASKS, WAS THAT NEW YEAR'S BABY YOU WANTED OR NEW YEAR'S BABE? Here's an end-of-the-year design that was in some papers today. It's unclear what the message is. Is this simply a woman celebrating the change of the year? Or does she embody the youthfulness of the New Year? You can judge for yourself.

EXCITEMENT BUILDS FOR THE ROPE-A-DOPE-AH IN TONOPAH: Joe Gans (left) and "Kid Herman" are preparing for a New Year's Day lightweight championship boxing match in Tonopah, Nevada. Evidently small betters are putting their money on Kid Herman while the big betters ($1,000 or more) like Gans, who is a 2-1 favorite right now. If you go, you might want to sit up close. These men are small. Gans is about 5 feet 6 inches; Herman is 5 feet 3 inches.

BASEBALL SALARIES DESCRIBED AS 'PRINCELY': It's time to complain about the high salaries of baseball stars, according to an article in today's Syracuse Herald. One of the headlines sets the shocking tone of the story: "Some Ball Tossers Have Signed Contracts Calling for More Than $1,000 Per Month." You read that right....$1,000 PER MONTH!!! Some examples: Cleveland will pay "that great sphere swatter" Nap Lajoie $25,000 for THREE YEARS!!! Jack Chesbro, "the star spitball artist" receives about $8,000, or $200 PER GAME!!! (For 2006 totals, multiply by 20.)

THERE'S ANOTHER SIDE TO THE STORY OF LITTLE BIG HORN: Curtis W. Lindley of South Dakota, while visiting friends in Auburn, N.Y., took some time to describe to a Post-Standard reporter some aspects of the battle that led to the death of Gen. George A. Custer – from what he has learned from Indians at the battle. Lindley lived with Indians for years and learned to speak the language of the Sioux. One of the rumors he heard from the Indians is that Custer ended his own life by shooting himself in the brain. Lindley said Chief Gall (right) was one of the main strategists and made a vital decision when he noticed that the Indians did not have enough horses. He directed warriors to make attacks designed to allow them to take control of horses of the white men, which were then used by the Indians. Lindley said that Indians advancing up the hill toward Custer's men, sang a war song, which, translated into English, said, "I am the last to die."

Dec. 29, 1906 (Friday)

THIEF BETRAYS HIMSELF BY SHOWING HE KNOWS TOO MUCH ABOUT ARREST PROCEDURES: John Moon, who also goes by John Wilson, might have gotten away off lightly after Newark police arrested him in the act of opening a mail box. However, when the officers brought him to police headquarters, he climbed onto the small oak measuring table and lifted his left foot so his right foot could be measured. Then, anticipating the next step, he bent his right arm at the elbow -- without waiting to be asked to do so by the police. At that point, the prisoner realized he had given himself away, showing that he was all too familiar with the Bertillon system (shown at right) of identifying criminals. Police quickly discovered he had served three years in the Minnesota Penitentiary, nine years in the Missouri Penitentiary, five years in the Cherry Hill Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. Each time, he was in prison for stealing from mail boxes. Today's New York Times says, "Then the police looked up his record and found that they had in custody one of the most famous mailbox thieves of the world." He is wanted in many cities in America and Europe.

HEADLINE WRITER BORROWS FROM BRITISH POET: George W. Hick of Syracuse left about nine years ago for Alaska, hoping to get rich in the Klondike gold fields. After about two years, he and his wife, the former Alice Main, lost touch. He returned recently and found that she had remarried and was now Mrs. James Yale Burch. She thought her husband had died. Hick has since gone on to his native England. Assuming that readers of The Post-Standard were familiar with a certain poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (right) a headline writer wrote that Hick "Re-enacts the Role of Enoch Arden."

INVESTIGATION INTO RACE RIOTS SAYS BLACKS WERE INNOCENT: A report by businessmen who investigated September's riots in Atlanta concludes that all 12 blacks who were killed were innocent of any wrongdoing. The businessmen are clearly worried about the way the riot sullied the city's reputation, saying "the toughs have crucified Atlanta in the eyes of the world and shocked the moral sense of our own people." The report is quoted in part on the front page of today's New York Times. It says, "It is clear that several hundred murderers or would-be murderers are at large in this community."

Dec. 28, 1906 (Friday)

HERE'S WHY A BLACK MAN ON A BICYCLE, HOLDING A RIFLE, PEDALED FURIOUSLY TOWARD PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S TRAIN: Late yesterday morning, a Washington, D.C., policeman notice a black man pedaling a bicycling really fast -- while carrying a RIFLE. The police officer, Patrolman Shelby, hopped on his bike and pursued the man, trying to give him a ticket for exceeding the speed limit for bicycles. The black man never slowed down. He headed straight for Pennsylvania Station. The rifle-carrying Jackson pedaled right into the trainshed, with Shelby right behind him. Both were heading right toward the special car being used by President Roosevelt and his family, who were about to leave for a long weekend at Pine Knot (right) in southern Albemarle County, Virginia. Jackson jumped off his bike and began to climb into the car when the policeman grabbed him by the collar. As the men tussled, joined by the Secret Service, the president appeared on the platform and asked what the problem was. That's when things got cleared up. Jackson, it turns out was on the White House staff. Roosevelt had sent him back to the White House because TR realized his son Archie had forgotten to bring his hunting rifle. So, Jackson had broken the speeding law while obeying a presidential order. Roosevelt commended the police officer and asked Shelby to parole him into the custody of the President, who promised to present him to the police at a suitable time. The presidential train pulled out at 11:25 a.m. yesterday.

COMPLAINING ADOPTIVE MOTHER WANTS TO RETURN BABY TO ORPHANAGE: In September, Mrs. Bessie Beuhler of 2215 Locust St., St. Louis, lost a child. So, earlier this week, she was able to pick up a young child of her own at the Foundling Home in that city. She took the baby home for one night. But now she wants to return the child to the home. The reason? It cried. She said the people at the home had "guaranteed" her that the baby would be quiet. She even went to the police at Four Corners to make her complaint. I like the headline in The New York Times: "Baby Broke Guarantee."

Dec. 27, 1906 (Thursday)

VOICES IN INDIA CLAMOR FOR INDEPENDENCE: About 10,000 delegates at the Indian National Congress yesterday cheered Dadabhai Naoroji (left) who opened the congress with a demand that Indians be allowed to govern themselves, as British subjects. He noted that the Boers now had self-government in South Africa. Meanwhile, the Indians, who helped the British Army subjugate the Boers, had NO self-government. He asked that delegates raise money to take the case to Great Britain and to help educate people in India about the matter.

WIDELY KNOWN ARTIST IS DEAD: Walter Appleton Clark, one of the premier illustrators in this country, died early today at 31. Appleton (shown at right in a portrait) was born in Worcester, Mass. His most recent work appeared in Percy Mackaye's version of "The Canterbury Tales." The item on the front page of today's New York Times says, "Mr. Clark's work had a beauty of conception and a technique which made them masterpieces in their line, and won for him awards in competition against the best illustrators here and abroad."

AN INCREDIBLY SAD TALE OF A DOUBLE DROWNING: Yesterday afternoon, John Arke, 8, was skating with some other boys on the frozen surface of the grist mill pond on the Rockaway River in the area of Morristown, N.J. At one point, John broke through the ice and called for help. The other boys ran to a nearby house, and George Davis and his wife rushed to help the youngster. Mrs. Davis tied a clothes line around her husband's waist, and he headed toward the hole. He slipped into the water and grabbed John. However, he could not hoist the boy up onto the ice. He tried repeatedly. Soon, he tired. He called to his wife to pull him out. She and the other boys tugged on the rope. IT SNAPPED. George Davis and John Arke slipped under the ice. The Times has a sentence about the accident that puts a chilling tone on the story: "Although several men had been attracted by the cries of the woman, they stood on the banks like statuary."

Dec. 25, 1906 (Tuesday)

YES, ANTHONY, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS: New York's Postmaster William R. Wilcox received a letter addressed to Santa Claus from a young man in Wilcox's former hometown, somewhere in Upstate New York. The letter had this note attached: "Mr. Postmaster: Mama says that Santa Claus lives in New York. Please give him this letter. Anthony, aged 8."
Here's the letter, as printed in today's New York Times:
Dear Santa Claus: My name is Anthony. I am 8. I want you to bring me a blackboard and some colored chalk. My sister Ruth is 3. She wants a doll and trunk to keep the doll's clothes in. My other sister wants a doll that shuts its eyes and a carriage. We all want candy, and oranges and nuts. The baby died last week, so don't bring him anything. I don't know what my mama and papa, Oscar Loomis, want. Good-bye. From Anthony, aged 8.
The postmaster was moved by the note. He wrote a letter to a friend of his who still lived in the town and asked him to get ahold of a burlap bag and fill it with the material Anthony requested and deliver it to the family. Last night, Wilcox received this telegram from his friend:
Bill: Hard time getting that burlap bag but O.K. Mr. Claus on way there now. Tom


LOOKING FOR AN EASY BUCK: "Brewster’s Millions" is playing at the Wieting Opera House in Syracuse. The producers came up with a way to get people to the opera house and distributed cards with words in red ink. The cards said, "I have One Million Dollars to Spend. Help Wanted. Apply to Montgomery Brewster, Wieting Opera House." Lots of people are unfamiliar with the play’s storyline – about a man who tries to give away money — and have shown up at the opera house looking for a chance to get some money. Today's Post-Standard says, "The applicants not only consist of men and boys in straitened pecuniary circumstances, but several women, many of whom are well dressed and apear to be in an apparently comfortable condition, are eagerly looking for the pseudo millionaire." (At the right is a poster for an Australian production of the play in 1908.)

COL. PEPPER DIES: Col. James E. Pepper, one of the nation's best known distillers and horseman died yesterday at the Waldorf hotel in New York City. He fell heavily on a slippery sidewalk and fractured his leg. Pepper owned a distillery near Lexington, Ky., that had been founded by his grandfather in 1780. Col. Pepper is credited with popularizing the Old Fashioned cocktail, bringing it to New York City from the Pendennis club in Kentucky.

Dec. 24, 1906 (Monday)

CHURCH SERVICE PROVIDES COVER FOR JAIL BREAK: Nine prisoners escaped from the Hamilton County Jail in Cincinnati yesterday -- a Sunday -- DURING THE CHURCH SERVICE. The escapees sawed their way through a window and scrambled across from the cell block to a one-story structure -- thanks to two ladders spliced together with bed clothing. A boy spotted the men when they jumped 20 feet to the ground and ran off. One of the escapees is named Clarendon Henri, who was arrested recently in New York and convicted of stealing the picture "Girl Knitting" from the Cincinnati Art Museum. I think it's this one on the right, by Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen. He cut the picture from its frame. It's worth about $750. (Multiply by 20 for 2006 dollars.)

AFTER 15 DAYS, MINER IS RESCUED FROM HIS TOMB: A 15-day drama ended shortly before midnight on Dec. 22, when rescuers finally pulled Lindsay B. Hicks from a "tomb" inside Granite Mountain near Bakersfield, Calif. He had been caught in a cave-in while building a tunnel for the Edison Power Co. Others died. Somehow he survived -- thanks largely to a large car that prevented some heavy timbers from falling on him. He told his tale and a lengthy story is on the front page of today's New York Times and many other papers. For days he survived on milk that was sent down to him through a long iron tube. The Times article ends with a comment by the man who led the remarkable rescue: "You have been a most faithful man, Hicks. You have been on duty for fifteen days and nights and never asked for a day off. You have been drawing pay all the time." Speaking of money, Hicks -- who was in remarkably good physical shape -- says he has received offers, adding, "I do not deny that I consider making some easy money" in the wake of this ordeal.

THE BEST HEADLINE EVER: Today's New York Times has a wonderful one-column headline for a two-paragraph story out of London. Here it is: "BIG EARTHQUAKE SOMEWHERE." That, of course, was the point of the article. Seismographs at the Isle of Wight, Bologna and Florence registered a shock that lasted about three hours on the night of Dec. 22. However, the instruments gave no indication WHERE the earthquake was located. It might have been in Turkestan. The article cites a dispatch from Kopal that tells of a shock in that region.

FOR THE WANT OF A PENNY, A HUSBAND KILLS HIS WIFE, AND HIMSELF: Teamster William Woodrich wanted a beer yesterday. He demanded that his wife find him the money. She searched their Chicago house but could find only four cents. She offered them to him. He knocked them from her hand, yelled at her, followed her into their bedroom and SHOT HER DEAD. Then, he KILLED HIMSELF. Two of their daughters were in the next room.