May 21, 1907 (Tuesday)

RUSSIA THREATENS TO ARREST LENIN: Today's New York Times says a warrant has been issued for Nikolai Lenin, who leads a faction that's attending the Social Democratic Congress in London. The warrant reads: Valdimir Ulianoff, alias Lenin." The charge is high treason. Russian authorities say he will be arrested if he returns to Russia. The article says, "Lenin is regarded by the police as being the most dangerous and most capable of all the Revolutionary leaders. He is well known as a writer on Economic subjects."

PACK JOURNALISM IS NOTHING NEW, or HOW TO AVOID REPORTERS (I): William Ellis Corey, president of US Steel, (shown here in 1908) and wife No. 2, actress Mabelle Gilman, landed at Cherbourg yesterday after crossing the Atlantic on the Kaiser Wilhelm II. Here's a glimpse, in the words of today's New York Times, at the cat-and-mouse game Corey played with the members of the press:
A small army of newspaper men boarded the Kaiser Wilhelm II when she put into Plymouth this morning, each bent on having a heart-to-heart talk, first with Mr. Corey and then with Mrs. Corey. Thy did not get within easy megaphone distance of the bridal pair. At the foot of the stairs leading to the Captain's suite they encountered a big German bouncer, and none of them could get by him. In fact, none tried to get by, for he looked altogether too fierce to trifle with. He and another terrible giant had held the stairway against all comers ever since the boat left New York.
A few of the reporters had the exquisite pleasure of catching a glimpse of Corey as, clad in pajamas, he came on deck in order to receipt for some registered letters brought aboard by the Plymouth mail carriers. An instant more, and the press photographer who caught Miss Marie Corelli the other day [see April 28]would have had a snapshot of Corey in his costume de nuit. A stupid reporter spoiled everything by shouting, "Hello, Mr. Corey!"
It did not take Corey long to get back to his prison and slam the door.

PACK JOURNALISM IS NOTHING NEW, or HOW TO AVOID REPORTERS (II): Lawyer Abraham Hummel, of the notorious Howe and Hummel law firm, began a stint in cell No. 23 yesterday at New York's Blackwell's Island Penitentiary. He starts a "one year term for conspiracy in the Dodge-Morse divorce case," according to today's New York Times. He cleverly AVOIDED REPORTERS on his way to jail.
<There was only one thing that Hummel begged hard for, and that was to be spared from the newspaper reporters and artists. [The illustration here is from The Daily Graphic, in the 1870s.] Before he was put on the defense of himself he had faced batteries of cameras and had talked to hundreds, if not thousands, of interviewers. Yesterday, on his way to prison, his little fringe of hair cropped to the roots and his upper lip cleanshaven, it was a different matter. He sought as best he could o escape from his house without being interrupted or his picture snapped.
As reporters and photographers camped in front of his house, a large car pulled to the curb and a man rushed out of the house. As the car sped off, many reporters followed it -- but the man who rushed into the car was Hummel's nephew. The car returned and parked a distance from the house. Then the real Hummel darted up from a basement entrance to his house with a large white handkerchief over his face. He ducked into the automobile and raced away, pulling away from reporters who had hired cabs for a chase. He lost all reporters so he could get to his 2 p.m. rendezvous with a deputy sheriff at 24 West 45th Street.

May 20, 1907 (Monday)

IMPORTANT MOMENT IN IMMIGRATION HISTORY: GIRLS ARRIVE IN BOXES: There's some stunning news out of Port Townsend, Wash., (shown in the late 1890s).
Six young Japanese girls were found INSIDE PINE BOXES in the hold of a ship named the Oanfa (shown), which arrived recently at Victoria, B.C. I think it's best to just let the story unfold, as told in The New York Times (which misspells the ship's name):
Small pox broke out on the Canfa [sic] on the ship's last previous trip from the Orient, and on reaching Victoria on the present trip the entire steerage was fumigated. The hatches were battened down and a large quantity of sulphur was ignited below.
Soon violent sneezing was heard in the freight compartment. The compartment was was hurriedly opened, officers of the ship fearing that a pet cat had been imprisoned. Instead they heard a chorus of sneezes and frantic scratching from the six heavy boxes. On opening the cases an almond-eyed girl was found in each. A supply of food and water had been ingeniously placed in each box, which was fitted like a toy room.
The young girls, and the man they were consigned to -- K. Sesookien, a steerage passenger -- will be returned to Japan soon. Sesookien is thought to be Taki Kaijoro, who two years ago was deported from San Francisco. In some news articles, he is referred to as a "procurer."

A FALSE ALARM CAUSES SOME HARM: Audience members at a Yiddish theater on Eldridge Street in Manhattan rushed for the exits last night amid cries of "Fuer" of "Politzi". The fear that the theater was on fire drove people into the streets and police rushed to the scene. On the advice of an usher, the police arrested Joseph Feldman, 21, because he was evidently the first one to cry "fire" in the crowded theater. Once it was determined that there was no fire, people returned to their seats and the show continued. This, of course, brings to mind Oliver Wendell Holmes often-misquoted comment: "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic."
This is eerily similar to some news from April 15 of a year ago.

May 19, 1907 (Sunday)

ATTORNEY STRIKES BALANCE BETWEEN A FAIR TRIAL AND A FREE PRESS:Journalists are breathing a sigh of relief over a ruling in Boise, Idaho, that their efforts to secure and print an interview with star witness Harry Orchard (pictured) was not worthy of contempt of court charges. In the case, which deals with the assassination of former Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg, County attorney Koelsch blamed newspaper reporters for putting too much pressure on authorities to grant the interview. However, he acknowledged that the efforts were of noble intent. Here's how an article in today's Boston Globe puts it:
[Koelsch] says he finds after examining the newspaper representatives who made the trip to the penitentiary with the governor that they were actuated only by the desire for news, and had no intent to influence the jury or to interfere with justice. He also finds that the intent of the men who permitted the interview was as innocent as that of the newspaper men, since no one had any desire to affect the judgment of any juror.

IT'S NOT QUITE SCALPING: A curious article appears in today's Boston Globe -- out of Atlanta. Mrs. M. Hatchett was hauled into court after a police office accused her of charging a NICKEL to people and allowing them to stand in her yard and watch baseball games at Piedmont Park through holes in the fence. The star witness was a little boy who said he paid Hatchett's daughter a nickel and then got his money back because he was dissatisfied with the location of the hole he was given.
The CURIOUS thing about the article is that it says the court hearing was YESTERDAY. Well, the SAME ARTICLE was in the Washington Post on April 28. It, too, said the hearing was "yesterday," meaning April 27. (To add to the intrigue, an identical story will appear in the Stevens Point, Wisconsin, newspaper on Aug. 21, 1907.) That certainly raises questions about the reliability of some of the articles in these old newspapers.

IT'S NOT EXACTLY A FLYING PIG, BUT IT LED TO A LAWSUIT: Recently, near a place called Circle Center, a hunter named Woodridge Shanks spotted an eagle flying through the air. It held a small creature in its claws. Shanks aimed and fired. He hit the eagle, prompting it to drop what it was holding. It happened to be a small pig that it had grabbed from a nearby farm. That pig tumbled through the air just as the British-born Betterman Kriggle was riding along in a horse-drawn cart. The pig smacked Kriggle in the head, and he tumbled from the cart. The horses bolted and it took the driver some time to get them under control. Eventually, Kriggle, who cares nothing about hunting, found out the cause of the accident, knowing full well that pigs don't fly, He sued Shanks in circuit court for damages of $5,000 DOLLARS. To defend himself, Shanks hired four lawyers. The trial lasted three days. According to the St. Louis Republican. The key issue was THE IDENTITY OF THE PIG, which for some reason had not been turned into bacon or ham. The jury deliberated 19 hours. The jury ruled against Shanks and in favor of Kriggle. It awarded him $1.

May 18, 1907 (Saturday)

ATLANTIC CITY HOTEL TELLS PROMINENT JEWISH WOMAN 'WE DON'T ENTERTAIN HEBREWS': Mrs. Bertha Rayner Frank, sister of U.S. Senator Isidor Rayner of Maryland, has packed up her trunks and left the Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel, which hovers over the beach at Atlantic City. She left because she heard that the hotel did not desire Jews as guests. Here's what she says happened according to a statement printed in today's New York Times:
I inadvertently [checked into the hotel]... when I came to Atlantic City from Lakewood on Friday of last week. A few days later I asked for accommodations for the two young ladies [her nieces].
I was asked, "Are they Hebrews?"
I replied, "Yes. Why?" and was told, "We don't entertain Hebrews."
That got her packing her bags -- or a servant, anyway. The Times says that Mrs. Frank "is a member of every non-sectarian charity in Baltimore, and is a woman of exceptional culture and wide acquaintance, received and welcomed by people of the highest social positions in this country and Europe."
Mrs. Frank gave a parting zinger to an employee at the hotel: "You seem to entertain a very mixed assemblage of people, many of whom I should not care to meet and certainly not to know."

HISTORIC CARGO ARRIVES IN BOSTON: Insurance agents in Boston can rest easy. The ship Loch Garry arrived from Melbourne yesterday with its full cargo of 8,003 bales of Australian wool. The shipment is worth $1,152,832 according to today's Boston Globe. That makes it the MOST VALUABLE CARGO every brought into Boston harbor on a sailing ship. The ship, helmed by Capt. James Horne, was due to arrive at the beginning of May. There was no word of its whereabouts, so local underwriters began to look more like local undertakers. The tug Orion won the race out to meet the ship, thereby earning a large fee for the captain of that tug. The captain blamed the delay on light winds in the South Atlantic. The ship left Melbourne on Feb. 9 and passed the Horn on March 9. Among the crew of 25 are two Bostonians: Lawrence H. Perry and William Stillingsworth. The Globe reports that there was "considerable dissatisfaction among the men regarding the quality of the food given them during the passage."

CHICAGOANS SAYS THEY HAVE THE SKULL OF THE APACHE KID. WHERE ELSE SHOULD IT GO BUT TO THE SKULL AND BONES SECRET SOCIETY AT YALE? The mysterious Apache Kid has turned up, if a report out of Chicago is true. People say the warrior was killed last September in a gunfight in the Sierra Madre mountains. An article in today's New York Times says, "The bullet which ended his life was fired by one of a party of prominent Chicagoans."
The article also describes the Kid as "the most notorious outlaw in the Southwest, a a murderer thirty times over, horse thief, raider and the terror of Arizona and New Mexico for the last twenty years."
Well, the news -- in addition to claiming that the man is dead -- is that his SKULL is now in a doctor's office in Chicago.
What to do with the skull? The owners plan to present it to the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale University. Not sure how this relates to the suppositions that in later years the society is thought to have possession of the skull of Geronimo -- another famous Apache warrior.

May 17, 1907 (Friday)

EVEN A GENERAL CAN'T FIND A MANEUVER TO AVOID BEING ASKED ABOUT AMERICAN WOMEN: Japanese Gen. Kuroki is touring this country. Yesterday the hero of the Russo-Japanese War (shown putting on his gloves) joined R.A.C. Smith of the New York Yacht Club on the Privateer for a trip up the Hudson River to West Point. It was only a matter of time before Kuroki was going to face THE BIG QUESTION. Here's how The New York Times put it:
Being a distinguished foreign visitor, the General must have known that, despite his few words, the time would come in New York when he would have to answer that momentous question: "What do you think of American women?"
For the record, and in the paraphrase of the Times, he said that "he just loved the American women. They were lovely, gracious, graceful, self-reliant, yet tactful, healthy, yet dainty and -- and -- he liked brunettes the best." The Times added this caveat: "That is, that's what Capt. Tanaka said he said."

GREAT MOMENTS IN IMMIGRATION:
GERMAN CAPTAIN ARRESTED FOR OVERFEEDING ITALIAN PASSENGERS: Capt. Bleeker, who's in charge of the North German Lloyd liners Kaiser Friedrich der Grosse, (shown above with a picture of F. der G.) arrived on the ship from Naples yesterday and said he had been arrested in Italy. Evidently, Italian law requires that immigrants heading to the U.S. be given meat twice a day in their meals. On a recent trip, Italian immigrants on his ship received meat THREE times a day. So Bleeker was arrested on his last trip to Italy. The Times explains:
The prosecuting attorney contended that the skipper's action tended to encourage a spirit of extravagance in the immigrants and for that reason he should be punished. The Judge looked at it differently, and the skipper was discharged.

PICKPOCKET'S ESCAPE WAS AIDED BY AN EARTHQUAKE: About two years ago, in Plymouth, Mass., George Mortensen was doing what he does best -- picking pockets. On this occasion he was doing it in a crowd of people who had come to Plymouth to catch sight of the Liberty Bell, which was on tour. Police picked him up and set bail at $1,000. When the court date came up, Mortensen didn't show up. According to today's Boston Globe, Mortensen was regarded as one of the "best-known and most clever pickpockets in the country." So, the police decided to pursue him with vigor. A Massachusetts state detective named Scott tracked him to San Francisco and had him arrested and thrown in jail. It so happened that the April 1906 earthquake struck just hours after Mortensen was jailed. The pickpocket escaped in the confusion. More than a year after that escape, he was arrested -- yesterday -- in Los Angeles. Scott hopes to head to Los Angeles as early as tomorrow.