Feb. 14, 1907 (Thursday)

CAPTAIN'S COURAGE QUESTIONED: Today's Post-Standard includes a wonderful map (above) that shows the spot at which the liner Larchmont collided with the schooner Henry Knowlton. Now that the few survivors have thawed out from the chill of the 50 mph winds, one is talking about the cowardice of the captain of the Larchmont. Evidently, he was on the lifeboat that was the first one to leave the sinking ship. The critic is 18-year-old Fred Hiergesell. Others are saying the captain behaved well after the collision. Beforehand, it looks as though each captain was at fault in the disaster.

A NEW LOOK AT WORDS: He it's not be as clever as the work of Ambrose Bierce, but it's still worth checking out excerpts from a "dictionary" of sorts by Wex Jones, as printed in the New York Journal. Here are some of his words and definitions:
COAST, noun -- The rim of a country, devoted to bathing, drowning, flirting and being bombarded.
COAST, verb -- To hit an old gentleman in the slats with a sled.
FURS -- The only overcoats which cost more second than first hand.
SUN -- The street-cleaning department.
TURTLE -- The only thing that looks happy in the soup.

ASTRONOMER WORRIES ABOUT SUN SPOT: Astronomer John A. Brashear (shown above with children) of the Allegheny Observatory announced yesterday the discovery of a massive SUN SPOT that's about 3.5 million square miles in area (about the size of BRAZIL). He thinks some electrical disturbances will surface sometime tonight. Other astronomers aren't so sure.

FANS IN CHICAGO TO BECOME WELL-INFORMED: The Washington Post has a notice in today's paper that indicates that more baseball fans will be able to learn umpires' decisions more quickly. The Chicago White Sox plan to install an electrical scoreboard that will be operated from a spot near home plate. It will let people know about balls and strikes and decisions at the bases. If this works and if other parks follow suit -- St. Louis already has something similar -- then umpires won't have to try and duplicate the activity of "Silk" McLaughlin, "whose inimitable manner of pronouncing decisions has made him the most popular diamond judge in America," according to the Post. This will work, so long as the SUN SPOTS don't interfere with the electricity.

Feb. 13, 1907 (Wednesday)

DISASTER OFF RHODE ISLAND: About 150 people on board the passenger steamer Larchmont died after their ship collided with a schooner between Block Island and Fisher Island. The Larchmont was on an overnight trip from Providence to New York. Here's how an article begins, with a Block Island dateline of Feb. 12:
A marine disaster with an appalling loss of life and entailing suffering almost beyond the limit of human endurance came to light today when a lifeboat of the Joy line steamer Larchmont, bound from Providence to New York, drifted into Block Island harbor.
In the boat were several bodies of men who had died from the effects of long hours of exposure to a death-dealing temperature. In the boat were also eleven men whose suffering was so intense that they semed oblivious to the fact that death was with them and that they had escaped only by virtue of their ability to withstand the rigor of zero weather in an open boat at sea.
I like that dramatic beginning better than the lead of the story in today's Washington Post, which had a more traditional -- less descriptive -- approach. It goes:
About 150 persons went to ther death in Block Island Sound last night as a result of a collision between the three-masted schooner Harry Knowlton and the Joy Line steamer Larchmont....
The disaster is a dramatic tale.

THIS HAS ALL THE MAKINGS OF A SIT-COM -- SOME CLEVELAND COPS WILL WEAR SKIRTS: The word is out in Cleveland. A special squad of police detectives has been earmarked for special duty. Three pair of detectives will fight crime DRESSED AS WOMEN. One pair will pose as GRASS WIDOWS, which are defined in today's Washington Post as "women on the right side of 30 possessed of good looks and lots of 'go'." Another pair will dress and act as "real widows." The third pair will be "matrons." The latter will serve as decoys for purse snatchers and that ilk.
Chief Kohler knows there's some work to do. "These men must be trained how to wear women's togs, how to talk like women, and how to walk. When they learn this and get to work there won't be a masher in the city of Cleveland.
The Post's article concludes by saying, "A teacher has ben found and the work of teaching six policemen just how to don feminine lingerie and display real feminine curves has begun."

Feb. 12, 1907 (Tuesday)

IS THE COVERAGE OF THE THAW TRIAL TOO HOT FOR THE MAILS? Federal District Attorney Henry L. Stimson (right)has issued a warning to newspapers, likely sparked by recent coverage of the trial. He wants the papers to be aware of federal laws against the distribution of obscene matter through the mails. Not sure what kind of chilling effect this will have on coverage, but here's his statement, as reported by The New York Times:
Information having been brought to me indicating that some of the newspapers of the city, UNDER THE GUISE OF REPORTS of the pending Thaw trial, have been sending through the United States mails LEWD, LASCIVIOUS and OBSCENE MATTER, in violation of section 3,893 of the revised statutes, I beg to advise you that the mere fact that such matter purports to be an account of a judicial proceeding furnishing no excuse for a violation of the stature in question in regard to the mails, and that I propose to bring before the Federal Grand Jury of this district for criminal prosecution all such violations which may occur.
This is the same point the White House made yesterday in an effort to close the mails to information regarding the details of the Thaw trial. The president wants the Postmaster-General to decide whether or not the postal service can deny the circulation of "the full disgusting particulars of the Thaw case."

WHITE SOX TO PLAY IN MEXICO: The defending world champions, Chicago White Sox, will begin a trip to Mexico on March 5 or 6. Plans call for exhibition games against two teams from Mexico leagues in the "City of Mexico" (as the Washington Post puts it) on March 11 and 12. After that, the Sox play in Vera Cruz.

Feb. 11, 1907 (Monday)

MEET THE AMAZING "LIVING TORSO": A performer who goes by the name of Randion (often, it's spelled Randian) is being exhibited at a store next to a theater in Syracuse. He is also known as the "Living Torso." From the British West Indies, he was born with no arms or legs. Here's an explanation in today's paper: "In the place of hands and arms Randion uses shoulders, chin, lips and teeth and manages to do many surprising things, including shaving himself, rolling cigarettes, threading needles and making kites." To see him LIGHT A CIGARETTE, go here.

WHO WANTS YESTERDAY'S PAPER? Here's an item in today's Post-Standard (with a byline of P.M.P.) that expresses something I'm noticing, in terms of the valuable information in OLD NEWSPAPERS.
There may be a commercial future for an intelligent and painstaking person who will buy old papers by the ton and sell their selected contents by the column to all who want to know the latest gossip of Mars, Byzantine art, whooping cough, whisky, Rockefeller, Moses, prison reform, gardening, theology or pure food, The demand for information along these lines is very strong, as all newspapers know.

THOMAS EDISON IS READY FOR A CHANGE: Inventor Thomas Alva Edison turns 59 years old today, according to an article in today's Washington Post. The article says he thinks it's about time to slow down a bit. (NOTE: Reference books say he was born in 1847, which would mean he turns 60 on Feb. 11, 1907.) When a reporter went to visit the "wizard of West Orange," Edison explained that he had worked about 45 years to push the commercial side of electricity. Now, he says, he longs to "play" with the stuff. When a reporter visited Edison's home, he heard the overcoat song from "La Boheme" playing on a phonograph. I liked Edison's comment:
Yes, we have a phonograph in the house. I am getting almost too deaf to hear it, but the rest of the family are afflicted to satisfy my whim. One of the first things I hope to do in the near future is to perfect my phonograph.... I want to tinker with my phonograph WHILE I CAN STILL HEAR IT."

Feb. 10, 1907

TAYLOR WOWS 'EM IN NYC:The great John Baxter Taylor of the University of Pennsylvania won an exciting 600-yard race yesterday in New York City. Taylor (who's on the far right of the second row in the team picture above) won a thrilling race by 4 INCHES in Madison Square Garden. He covered the distance in 1:14, equalling the indoor record, according to today's New York Times. Taylor would go on to become the FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN athlete to win a GOLD medal in the Olympics. Less than five months after that, he was dead.

MORE ON THE THAW TRIAL: A lengthy description of Evelyn Nesbit Thaw is in today's Syracuse Herald. It's written by Frederick Boyd Stevenson (who was, is and/or will be the Sunday editor of the Brooklyn Eagle). I liked the lead-in:
Evelyn Nesbit Thaw is the woman in the case. Here is a little bunch of femininity tipping the scales at something less than 110 pounds -- a fuss of feathers, a hank of hair, a frivolity of fringe, a pair of big eyes, such as artists like, and a SMILE THAT MEANS EVERYTHING OR NOTHING. (Capitalization added.) Brilliant. In the article he says that Evelyn "became the subject of Charles Dana Gibson's 'The Eternal Question,' which is said to be one of his great triumphs." (It's here, at the right, with the "hank of hair" forming the key punctuation mark.)

Feb. 9, 1907 (Saturday)

WISCONSINITES MIGHT HAVE TO HEAD TO MINNESOTA IF THEY WANT TO SEE AN ACTRESS IN TIGHTS: Theatrical productions in Wisconsin could have a very different look, if Assemblyman Hughes, editor of the Reesville Independent, has his way. He says NO ACTRESS should appear on stage in the Great Dairy State in tights, unless she wears skirts that extend at least FOUR INCHES BELOW THE KNEE. Here's the text of the bill:
No actress or other female person shall appear on the stage of any theatre or any circus or traveling show in tights unless properly covered by skirts which shall extend at least four inches below the knee.
This is a direct response to the news coverage of the Thaw trial in New York. Hughes said, according to a front page article in today's New York Times, Recent revelations as disclosed in the Thaw trial show a tendency on the part of the theatre to cater to depraved tastes. More modest wear is required to elevate the moral tone of the state and the public.
What about men in tights (right)? And, what would he think of the Cheeseheads at the Packer games?

HONOR THY ENEMY: A report out of Manchuria says that Japan is building two monuments on Peropelochny Hill in Port Arthur to commemorate the Japanese and Russian soldiers who died in the siege of that city during the Russo-Japanese war. The inscription for the Russian soldiers will read, translated into English, "In memory of the heroes who met their death in defense of Port Arthur." Japanese war hero Count Nogi Maresuke (right)is one of the main supporters of the idea.

KAISER AGREES TO SHARE THE SOUND OF HIS AUTOMOBILE: A "special dispatch" to The Washington Post passes on the news that Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany has granted permission to the crown prince to use on his automobile a horn that makes the same sound as the Kaiser's car horn. It's a double-note "Honk Honk." Now the sharp-eared German public will know at once when a Royal Automobile is approaching. France probably wishes it had a similar warning in August 1914.

FINALLY BASEBALL FANS CAN FIND OUT WHETHER A PITCH IS A BALL OR A STRIKE: According to an article in today's Post-Standard, numerous umpires and baseball players are taking credit for coming up with the signals that Ban Johnson recently proposed so people in the stands have some idea of what's going on at home plate or at any of the bases. The article says, "The information is to be difused through a system of arm signals."

A 32nd-DEGREE BIGAMIST IS FOUND: A report out of Detroit indicates that Dr. A. Reider (aka Dr. George Wityhoff) has 32 WIVES. The odds were good that eventually at least ONE OF THEM would talk, and that one is Mrs. Jeanne Reider of Logansport, Ind. The good doctor was arrested in New York City in August of last year and charged with bigamy, but he got away. One question: Why make it EVEN MORE difficult to remember a wedding anniversary?

Feb. 8, 1907 (Friday)

MORE STAGE DRAMA IN NEW YORK: On the heels of the dispute over the production of "Salome," now New York faces the prospect of having another racy stage production. Today's New York Times says that a new play by Italy's Gabriele D'Annunzio (right) is on its way to Manhattan. Sothern and Marlow will present "The Daughter of Jorio," translated into English. The headlines in the Times will raise the alarm for some people. Here they are:
NEW D'ANNUNIO PLAY MAY ASTONISH NEW YORK
A Poetic Drama Dealing with Unpleasant Things
HORRORS IN STAGE FORM
Parricide, Sex Relations, and Italian Peasant Customs Dealt with Frankly by the Dramatist.

EVELYN NESBIT TELLS HER STORY: This is the BIG DAY in the news reporting of the Thaw murder trial. Yesterday, Harry K. Thaw's wife, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw told the story of her treatment at the hands of architect Stanford White, whom Thaw shot to death last summer. The defense wanted her to explain how her descriptions of White's actions drove Harry Thaw to do his evil deed.
The jurors did their best to maintain a poker face, according to the Times: "Not a man of the twelve showed a crinkling of the eyelids, a deepening of the lines from the nose to the chin, a bit of moisture at the lashes."
Amazing that they could remain so calm. After all, Evelyn's tale mentioned "SHORT DRESSES." However, that phrase means something different these days. Again, from the transcript, with Evelyn speaking the "A" part:
Q: You still wore short dresses?
A: Yes, but not very short; they were up to my shoetops.
The lawyer did not ask HOW FAR UP her shoetops went.
Later, the discussion turned to the notorious love chamber maintained by Mr. White. Evelyn describes one distinctive feature of the room:
Then we went up two more flights of stairs and got into another room, and in this room there was a red velvet swing, and Mr. White put us in this swing and we would swing up to the ceiling.
Q: By that you mean yourself and this other young lady?
A. Yes, turn about.
Q: And he would swing you?
A: Yes. We would swing up to the ceiling. They had a big Japanese umbrella on the ceiling, so when we were pushed up very high our feet passed through it.
That's the red velvet swing that is part of the title of a movie inspired by this trial (right).

Feb. 7, 1907 (Thursday)

WASHINGTONIANS TURN OUT FOR ART EXHIBIT:A huge crowd showed up for an art show at the Corcoran Gallery in D.C. to see the work of American artists. The most popular one was a piece called "A May Night" by Willard Metcalf. Not all the pieces in the exhibit were by Americans. One feature was a collection of European masters owned by Sen. William A. Clark. President and Mrs. Roosevelt were there. Today's Post mentioned that their visit was "unostentatious and democratic," meaning "few in the gathering knew of [their] presence." No word about the Secret Service.

ANOTHER OFFICER IMPERSONATOR: Remember the German cobbler who fooled a town by impersonating an army officer? Well, in Chicago, 18-year-old William A. Kappen somehow got ahold of a lieutenant's uniform and parleyed that into getting a room at the Victoria Hotel and cashing a check at Marshall Field. He posed as Lt. W.A. Blue of Fort Sheridan. He told police that he had gotten the idea from the news stories out of Germany in October.

TWO GROUPS THAT BLOW THE IDEA OF A NUCLEAR FAMILY TO SMITHEREENS:Today's Post lists some strange family relationships. One deals with a Utah clan named the Damms. You might have heard the phrase "the whole Damm Family" (above). The phrase is likely linked to this group, the Post says. The five Damm brothers married ONE WOMAN successively. The men, named Arthur, Harper, Harry, Chester and Billy B. Damm, eventually all became married to the same woman. That made each man the brother-in-law of each of his brothers. And EACH was HIS OWN brother-in-law.
Another example: A man in Minnesota married the SISTER of his GRANDSON'S WIFE. So, here's a description: The grandson was the brother-in-law of his grandfather AND the uncle of his father's brother. He was also his OWN UNCLE and his OWN NEPHEW, the BROTHER of his GRANDMOTHER and, therefore HIS OWN GRANDUNCLE. Then, the writers of the Chicago Tribune (from whom the Post took the information), gave up: "The relationship between the children of the two marriages would puzzle the man that perfected logarithms."

Feb. 6, 1907 (Wednesday)

WOMAN LEAVES THE ALTAR AND RUNS OFF WITH .... THE GROOM'S FATHER! A report out of Spearfish, S.D. has plenty of people scratching their heads. According to an article on the front page of today's Washington Post, Miss Jessie McFarland deserted her fiance, Donald Jenkins, at the altar. She ran off with the groom's FATHER. The wedding had been set for 8 p.m. Feb. 4. However, Miss McFarland, who's described as "a good looking woman of 28," never showed up. During the courtship with Edward, she saw a lot of Edward's father because the father and son lived together in the hills south of Spearfish. (The town is shown on the map at right, on the northern edge of the Black Hills and right on the western border of the state.) Late in the afternoon of the scheduled wedding day, she and Charles Jenkins (Ed's father) left by train for the East. The article says, "It is supposed that they have been married by this time."
The talk-show producers must be DROOLING over this one.

THAW TRIAL DOMINATES THE NEWS: There was some intense cross-examination of expert witnesses at the murder trial of Harry K. Thaw yesterday. Meanwhile, Thaw continues to make his daily trip from his cell to the courtroom over the famous Bridge of Sighs (right) in New York City. The press is all over the case. Here are some sample comments from various papers (printed in today's Post-Standard):

New York Commercial
"Mmmmm, is there going to be a war?" asked Willie, as a great regiment marched down the avenue.
"Nonsense, child," said his mother, "those are merely reporters going to the Thaw trial."

New York Press
And when it is all over what will be left but a vast and inconglomerated collection of newspaper portraits of the Thaws -- no two alike and none like the principals.

Washington Post
The "unwritten law" may be part of the Thaw defense, but if those 238 newspaper men and women know their business nothing also about the case will remain unwritten.

THIS IS A PLAYER WHO CAN UNDERSTAND THE MONEY SIDE OF THE GAME: Arthur "Circus Solly" Hofman (right) is disappointed with the contract he's been offered by the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs have offered him $2,400 for 1907 -- the same amount as his 1906 contract. He's not sure he's going to take it. After all, he's pretty good with numbers and money. In the off-season, he's a "high class bank clerk," according to today's Washington Post. The bank he works for, the National Bank of Commerce, wants Hofman to quit baseball and work at banking full time.

Feb. 5, 1907 (Tuesday)

HIS FRIENDS CALL HIM 'GOOGLE': Above, I've put a wonderful image from an advertisement in today's Washington Post. The advertiser is "The New International Encyclopaedia." The line under the picture is The World Makes Way for 'The Man Who Knows." It adds In every big business house, when a perplexing question arises, there is some man who is sent for as the man who knows. It may be worth thousands of dollars to you to be that man in your house.
In this picture, the leaders who've been puzzling over an unknown "perplexing question" are all MEN. So, too, is the encyclopedia-reading know-it-all. One wonders about the question. Maybe, "Hmmm, when did George Washington die? Let's get Google in here and ask him if he knows."

ROOSEVELT DUCKS OUT ON SECRET SERVICE: President Roosevelt fooled the Secret Service yesterday evening and went out for a four-mile walk in the city of Washington. Alone. His 90-minute tromp, through the falling snow, took him to the Washington Monument, around the speedway and toward Georgetown. He did it without an overcoat and wearing his "Rough Rider" hat (That's him in his rough Rider uniform at right.) that he likes to wear when on a hunting expedition. He started his walk right after the "secret service men" left for home and returned about 8:20 p.m., "his face aglow as a result of his brisk tramp."