July 13, 1907 (Saturday)

AN AD TO REMEMBER: Here's an ad in today's Boston Globe that touts the weight-loss program of F.J. Kellogg of Battle Creek, Mich. (That refers NOT to the better known Kelloggs of Battle Creek but to Frank Jonas Kellogg.) He calls this a "Safe Fat Reducer" and his company is worth reading about.
Curiously, an article on the same page as this ad has this headline: "Fat Men Gather." It's a humorous tale about a gathering of heavy men in Concord, N.H. It might be a bit sobering 100 years later to read some of the weights that earned men membership in "the New England fat man's club." The man who won the "all-round blue ribbon" weighed 285 pounds, with second place going to someone weighing 271. The running race was won by A.H. Steele of Concord. He weighs 208 pounds. One of the speeches was titled "Our Fat Brothers in the Commercial Circle."



HERE'S A HEADLINE YOU DON'T SEE OFTEN: Imagine that: "Cat Is Cause of a Murder." Well, here goes: Charles J. Reed of Watertown was shot dead last night, according to today's Boston Globe. Police have arrested a man, Michael Angelo. It seems that Mr. Reed had shot a neighbor's cat because the hungry feline had developed a taste for some chickens belonging to Mr. Reed. The cat belonged to Mr. Reed's neighbor, who is a sister-in-law of Mr. Angelo. Police said the accused killer was motivated by revenge for the shooting of the cat. Legal observers doubt whether Mr. Angelo can make effective use of the "unwritten law" and "higher law" defenses mounted by other killers -- the Bowies, for instance (see below).

PROSPECTIVE GROOMSMEN, BEWARE! JURY FREES KILLERS, SAYING THEY WERE JUSTIFIED IN SHOOTING MAN WHO BACKED OUT OF A WEDDING: Chalk up another courtroom victory for the "unwritten law" -- an angle on justifiable homicide that continues to be trotted out to rationalize a host of killings, including lynching. In this case, a mother and her son were declared not guilty yesterday in Maryland. Their defense lawyer, Sidney E. Mudd, brought men and women to tears, according to an account in today's Globe. Here's a glimpse:
Mr. Mudd cited a dozen cases in which avengers of the ruin of sisters, daughters and wives were acquitted, emphasizing particularly the Sickles case.
"Never since the formation of this government down to the present instant of time has there been tried before a jury of American citizens a single case of murder following wanton seduction on which the verdict has been anything other than instantaneous acquittal."

July 12, 1907 (Friday)

WRONGED WOMAN TAKES THE STAND IN MARYLAND: Today's Boston Globe printed the picture of Priscilla Bowie, the Maryland woman who planned to get married last November to Hubert Posey. Well, Posey backed out and Priscilla's mother and brother SHOT HIM DEAD. Taking a page from the "Don't Make a Promise You Can't Keep," Mrs. Bowie told the court in La Plata, Md., what happened. According to today's New York Times, here's what she said:
I told him that if he did not marry my daughter I would shoot him. And I did shoot him. He said he was not going to marry her, and I shot. Before I shot him, I had him by the coat, and he jerked away from me and was running away when I fired.
Also facing charges is Priscilla's brother, Henry. Here's what he said:
He ruined my sister and my mother and I shot him because he promised to marry her and would not do it.

FOURTEEN JAPANESE SNEAK THROUGH THE BORDER; SOME WORRY ABOUT SLAVE TRAFFIC IN THE U.S.: Authorities in Philadelphia lost track of 14 Japanese laborers, and now officials think the men are somewhere in the United States -- illegally. They arrived on the ship called Erskine M. Phelps, presumably named after one of the principals of the shoe company known as Phelps, Dodge & Palmer. The laborers walked through a loophole. They were not under the control of immigration authorities because they told them they intended not to try and enter the U.S. but to sign up for work on another ship. Meanwhile an organized complaint has been filed by the Japanese and Korean Exclusion League. The group believes numerous "Japanese slave girls" are scattered in cities throughout the Northwest and at many mining and logging camps. With this "exclusion league" in mind, don't hold your breath waiting for a Statue of Liberty-type monument on the West Coast.

DEATH COMES QUICKLY TO A MAN ABOUT TO WALK THROUGH A SUBWAY ENTRANCE IN MANHATTAN: About 6 p.m. yesterday, manufacturer Samuel Cohen was waiting to enter the Bleecker Street station of the New York subway. At about that time, bits of paper fluttered before the eyes of a horse attached to a wagon at the corner of Greene and Bleecker streets. The horse was startled and bolted. The jolt snapped the king bolt, and the front wheels and shaft broke from the main part of the wagon. As the horse ran down the street, its driver and a policeman tried to grab the reins and control the horse. They failed. As the horse swerved to a curb, the broken shaft swung toward Cohen. The jagged end smacked into Cohen's head and "almost tore the top of the man's head off," according to today's New York Times. Police let the body stay on the sidewalk for nearly an hour until the coroner gave permission to move it.

July 11, 1907 (Thursday)

THINK THEY CAN FIGURE OUT HOW TO HOOK IT UP TO THE ESPRESSO MACHINE? An article in today's Boston Globe says, "One of the disagreeable features of the grocery business has been the arm method of grinding coffee."
It seems that Frank and Fred Mahern, who work at Baker's grocery store on Court Street in Dedham, Mass., have come up with a way to ease some of the disagreeable method of converting hard beans to flowing grounds. Frank Mahern, a "devotee of the wheel," conceived of the idea of using leg power in stead of arm power. He and his brother figured out a way to connect the COFFEE GRINDER to a BICYCLE, so they can grind coffee by pedaling. They removed the front wheel of a bicycle and lined up the rear wheel with the machinery of the grinder. This story and photo appears in today's Boston Globe.
The article says this is a fine example of the principle that "the head should save the heels." The paper calls this an "old adage." I'd really like to know when an "adage" is considered "new."

UNWRITTEN LAW CONTINUES TO GET PLENTY OF INK: Another murder defense has trumpeted the so-called "unwritten law," which allows some to take the law into their own hands. In this instance, Mary Bowie and her son Henry face murder charges in La Plata, Maryland. The trial began yesterday. They are accused of killing Hubert Posey. Essentially the Bowie's wanted a shotgun wedding between Posey and Priscilla Bowie -- the daughter and brother of the defendants. Posey demurred; Mrs. Bowie pulled a trigger. The defense attorney, who is expected to tout the importance of the "unwritten law" is Congressman Sydney Emanuel Mudd. Priscilla is expected to take the stand at some point -- bringing to court something that might be considered Exhibit D: the CHILD of whom the dead man, Posey, is said to be the father.

July 10, 1907 (Wednesday)

BEFORE A SIX-STORY CRASH, A QUICK-THINKING ELEVATOR OPERATOR SAVES A FEMALE PASSENGER AND HIMSELF, IN THAT ORDER: Edna Faxon, whom The Boston Globe calls "pretty," can thank one man that she is alive today: Robert L. Thompson, whom the paper calls "colored." At about 2:15 p.m. yesterday, Faxon called for an elevator to come get her on the third floor of the MacDonald Building at 48 Winter St. in Boston. (That's the same street address as the Mojitos Lounge.) The elevator operator Thompson brought the half-ton car up, and she got on. Thompson then took the car up another floor, to respond to a request from another person. However, just before the car reached the fourth floor, Thompson heard a click. He knew something had broken. Soon, the car rose to the top of the shaft, at the fifth floor. There, it paused -- caught briefly by the safety clutch. Thompson opened the door and shoved Faxon out into the corridor. He followed her with a leap. The Globe says "the next moment," the elevator fell six stories to the basement and became a "mass of tangled steel." (The Globe's diagram and photos are shown at right. They appeared on Page 8.)
Miss Faxon was shaken and thanked the elevator operator profusely. He replied, as he did to all who praised him (according to the Globe), "I only did my duty. I happened to be just quick enough. I am glad we both escaped."
(NOTE: The hero shows up in the pages of the Globe in December -- and it's tragic. I will try to remember to include it in the blog on that day.)


SIX BANGOR YOUTHS DROWN WHEN BOAT CAPSIZES: The city of Bangor, Maine, has been plunged into mourning with news of the deaths of six young men who drowned yesterday in Penobscot Bay. The boys recently had gone to the Universalist Church's Hersey Retreat on Sandy Point (shown here) for the summer. One boy invited six others to sail with him on his sloop, the Ruth E. Cumnock (The Times has Cummock.) of Brooksville, to Islesborough. When the boat was off Castine, a sudden squall capsized it. One boy was able to stay alive for more than half an hour until he was rescued by the tug Bismarck.. None of the bodies had been rescued by the end of the day, according to today's New York Times. For more details, here's a complete story.

KING PARDONS MAN WHO FOUGHT FOR BOERS IN IRISH BRIGADE: Just as he is preparing to visit Ireland, King Edward has pardoned Col. Arthur Lynch. Lynch was convicted of high treason in 1903 for fighting on the side of the Boers in the South African war (or Boer War). His death sentence was commuted. Lynch was born in Ballyrat, Victoria, Australia, but spent much of his growing-up years in Ireland. After the Boer War, he was elected to Parliament as a representative of the Galway area. When he landed in England to take a spot in that legislative body, he war arrested and convicted. This was a front page story in today's Boston Globe. In the New York Times, it appeared on Page 2.

TRAFFIC TIE-UP IN MANHATTAN: There may not be many internal-combustion vehicles in Manhattan, but a traffic jam does happen. Consider yesterday afternoon. NINE PAIRS OF HORSES were pulling a wagon with a 75-FOOT-LONG, 16-TON STEEL GIRDER down Broadway. Everything was going well until the driver tried to make a turn on 31st Street, toward 6th Avenue. The wheels of the wagon got stuck in the tracks for trolley cars. Southbound trolley cars were backed up for A MILE AND A HALF as workers struggled to move the wagon. Things got really complicated when the pole of the truck broke. It took about a half hour to move the girder, which is destined for use in the Pennsylvania tunnel.

July 9, 1907 (Tuesday)

VICE PRESIDENT PREVENTS A DROWNING AT YELLOWSTONE: V.P. Charles W. Fairbanks probably thinks he helped his chances at getting the presidential nomination for 1908 with a dramatic rescue of a drowning waitress at Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming yesterday. (Here, he's shown with Roosevelt in a 1904 campaign poster.)
Fairbanks and the manager of the Lake Hotel (above) at Yellowstone Park were having a conversation on the plaza of the hotel when they heard some shrieks from the shore. They noticed someone struggling in the water. According to today's New York Times, Fairbanks "ran at top speed toward the lake." Fairbanks jumped into the lake and caught hold of the woman's clothing. By that time another person had jumped in, too and both of the rescuers hauled the young woman, Lena Wallace, to land, where she was revived. The article says,
Mr. Fairbanks worked energetically over the half dead woman till evidences of returning life were manifested, and then, almost exhausted, he urned his charge over to the care of others.
Wallace had served Fairbanks' table earlier in the day.
We're hoping this wasn't some kind of campaign stunt.

MUSEUM HEAD DISPUTES STORY OF SEARCH OF MORGAN'S YACHT: Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke says he doubts that Italian authorities searched J.P. Morgan's yacht, the Corsair, in Venice harbor -- searching for pieces of art. That search was reported on July 5. According to today's New York Times,
Mr. Morgan's reputation, Sir Purdon said, was too highly appreciated in Italy for the customs authorities to make any such minute search as had been described. Mr. Morgan was prepared to purchase works of art and pay high prices for them, but the Italian authorities knew he would not be guilty of smuggling. The incident of the return of the Ascoli cope, which had been purchased in good faith, would satisfy the most suspicious.

ROCKEFELLER ROLLS UP HIS PANT LEGS AND FOLLOWS TWO GOLFERS AROUND THE COURSE: Industrialist John D. Rockefeller drew a crowd yesterday in the Cleveland area when he trudged along the grounds of the Euclid Club to watch a match between Walter Travis (above) (a golfing legend) and W.C. Fownes (whose name is linked to one of the nation's great golf courses, Oakmont). Travis and Fownes who were competing for the Olympic Cup. Here's what he told a reporter during the match, according to today's New York Times:
You know I believe golf is the best of our American games. There is more health-giving exercise in it than any outdoor sport ever devised. I know it promotes the truest sportsmanship among the players, and after all this is the one trait we should all try to develop. Absolute fairness is the dominant feature of the real golfers.
I have been playing recently at Pocantico with a good player. We had many splendid times. I liked him very much because he was a broad-minded man. Only broad-minded men make successful golfers.
The Times noted that Rockefeller "did not seem a bit put out by the fact that more attention was paid to him than to the players."

DREYFUS IS SET TO RETIRE: Reports out of Paris indicate that Major Alfred Dreyfus is planning to retire and accept a pension. Poor health is being cited as the reason, according to a notice in today's New York Times.