Sept. 14, 1907 (Saturday)

THOSE WHO SAFELY MADE IT PAST THE 13TH CAN LOOK BACK WITH A SMILE: Today's Boston Globe printed a large cartoon that summed up some of the attitudes Hub residents have with the much-maligned Friday the 13th, which just passed. The panel shown here says, "Every accident that happened yesterday was blamed to the calendar."

ENGLAND FINDS A CLEVER WAY TO BLAME AMERICA FOR APPENDICITIS: Here's something worth digging into -- English attitudes about the appendix. Today's New York Times provide an update about some strange attitudes about APPENDICITIS coming from England. British authorities continue to consider it "an evil American invention," the Times says. Evidently, some are "looking into food products imported from America to find the cause of the 'American' malady."
Some researchers thought for a while that appendicitis was caused by the RED RUBBER BANDS which are used to seal many bottles and jars that come from America. A more recent SUSPECT are the "minute particles of STEEL that might be in American flour made by the roller process." The Times adds,
not only are English surgeons spreading the belief that we are thus diffusing our miserable appendicitis all through innocent Europe, but the dear old Lancet treats the idea much as if it were a demonstrated fact.
The New York Medical Journal has taken this issue up and tried to show the errors.

THE AUTOMOBILE DRIVERS ARE GETTING OUT OF HAND IN PITTSBURG: Pittsburg's superintendent of police, Thomas A. McQuaide, says he is totally fed up with automobilists in his city, saying they have become "SPEED CRAZY." He says, according to today's New York Times, that there are two types of drivers in the city: Speeders and those who try and get out of the way of speeders. He cited one businessman who was unfazed after paying a fine for speeding:
"When he left my office he got into his automobile and started out the Boulevard at a speed of FORTY MILES AN HOUR [emphasis added]. The city is auto crazy, that's all."