Sept. 28, 1907 (Saturday)

BLACKBALLED BECAUSE OF A HIGHBALL: Vice President Fairbanks (shown in a photograph, and in a series of drawings in a recent New York Times that offers various ideas about what he should do about his HAIR, or lack of it))yesterday failed to win election as a lay delegate to the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which will gather in Baltimore in May. It’s quite a blow to a sitting VP. The snub is linked to the story that Fairbanks (who spurns liquor himself) served COCKTAILS last Memorial Day at his home during a visit the president made to Indianapolis. The Times explains:
The Prohibition delegates defeated Mr. Fairbanks because they said they would not vote for a man who served cocktails no matter how prominent a Methodist he might be.
Those who support Fairbanks’ bid for the presidency fear this is a deathblow to any national campaign he could run. The Times’ correspondent in Washington, D.C., tracked down some of his supporters. Here’s what Col. Charley Edwards of Texas said:
”I knew from the first that the attempt was hopeless. The mediaeval bigotry of narrow-minded sectarians was sure from the beginning to copper, if I may so express myself, any attempt to land one of us a high post.”
Another supporter, named George Drewry, put the defeat in a historical context:
Daniel Webster, in many respects the precursor of Fairbanks, lost the Presidency because of his findness[sic] for punch. John Randolph cast it up to Henry Clay that he occasionally joined in a game of poker with the boys. [Andrew] Johnson lost a second term because he sometimes hit it up. We could have looked for nothing else.

SECRECY SURROUNDS HIGH-PROFILE TENNIS MATCH: President Teddy Roosevelt and London’s Bishop Ingram squared off in a doubles match yesterday at the White House tennis court. The results are clouded in secrecy, but today’s New York Times – turning to unofficial sources -- announced in a front-page headline that “President’s Tennis Beats Lord Bishop’s”.
Roosevelt played with Assistant Attorney General A.W. Cooper and the bishop teamed with Secretary of the Interior Garfield. The match was not visible to the public but there was plenty of interest among government workers. The Times says,
From the top floor of the State, War and Navy Buildings excited and amused Government clerks watched the match to the end. These watchers declare victory finally perched on the President’s side of the net. The Lord bishop of London is a courtier. If he won he’ll never tell. If the President won, he won’t dare to tell, because that would sound like gloating, and the Bishop is his host’s guest.
From information gleaned from the rooftop viewers, the Times concludes there was a definite trend in the balls hit by the two principals, who are pretty good players. When they erred, the president was likely to hit it LONG and the bishop was likely to hit it WIDE.
Buried in the article is an intriguing fact about the bishop’s game:
The Bishop, though, played his racket with EITHER HAND, and that helped his game wonderously.

Sept. 27, 1907 (Friday)

A STRANGE MESSAGE FROM A DEAD PITTSBURGH MILLIONAIRE: WANT TO INHERIT PART OF A MILLION DOLLAR ESTATE? START MAKING SOME BABIES: The will of millionaire art collector Paul H. Hacke was filed yesterday. The document is, according to The New York Times, "as remarkable a document as was Hacke a remarkable man." Hacke, a bachelor who died a few weeks ago, says his only remaining two male relatives can inherit his entire fortune of more than $1 million on one condition: They must have BABIES.
The relatives are his nephews, Paul and William George. They are 21 and 18 years old. If they do not procreate, the money will be shared by the Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg and the St. Paul's Orphan Asylum in Butler and the Grace Reformed Church in Pittsburgh.
Now that this is public, it shouldn't be too hard for Paul or George to get a date.

A NARROW ESCAPE ON LONG ISLAND INDICATES THAT NORTHERNERS CAN THIRST FOR A LYNCHING, TOO: Yesterday, 18-year-old Lillie Koch was attacked and left unconscious yesterday in a rural section of Nassau County on Long Island, New York. Two boys who heard the young woman's cries scared off the attacker. The boys ran to a farmer's house to get help. Eventually a posse of 20 men gathered to track down the man who attacked the woman -- who was on her way to the Mineola Fair. The group trudged through cornfields and potato patches for more than a mile. When a small group of the hunters approached a bridge near the fair grounds, someone noticed a black man sleeping on the bridge. Someone in the group yelled "There is your man."
They surrounded the man, who immediately protested his innocence. The rest of the posse gathered, and, as the New York Times reports, "there was talk of lynching." The paper adds, "At the first threat the negro became panic stricken and began to pray."
Fortunately for the captive, Sheriff Gildersleeve threatened to shoot anyone who atempted to harm the prisoner. They took him to a tent at the fairgrounds and awaited Miss Koch, who had evidently recovered sufficiently from the attack. They showed the man to her. After taking a "long look at the prisoner," she said, "He is NOT the man."
The prisoner, named Frank Spencer, was allowed to go free.
Meanwhile, the sheriff learned that a man matching the attacker's description was spotted boarding a train for Manhattan late in the afternoon.

BE CAREFUL, MR. PRESIDENT; THE BISHOP HAS A 'DEADLY SERVE': The upcoming (Saturday) tennis match between the Bishop of London (shown) and the President of the United States continues to attract the attention of journalists. There's a follow-up today to the story from Sept. 25. An unidentified English tennis player has issued a warning to President Roosevelt. He tells a London-based journalist that Roosevelt should be "extremely watchful of the Bishop's service." (Presumably, the Bishop's God is also watchful of the man's service....) Although his serves are "not very fast" they are "very deadly," according to the report.
Here's a longer quote from the tennis player:
I also advise the President not to try a net game unless he is a Doherty. [Meaning, Reggie or Laurie.] If he does he will find Dr. Ingram's placing is a little too good for him. The way to tackle the Bishop is to play a back-of-the-court game, as he does himself with great success.
I remember playing five hard sets with and against the Bishop, who had cycled ten miles to the court and was perfectly fresh at the end of three hours' hard play."

Sept. 26, 1907 (Thursday)

AWOL PRINCESS TIES THE KNOT: The New York Times continues to report on the marital escapades of the former Crown Princess of Tuscany (shown). Evidently, she has finally married the Italian pianist with whom she has been travelling. (See Sept. 17.) The wedding took place in London -- in what the Times calls a "dingy little registry office." The couple tried to keep everything secret and are attempting to keep the Royal Family of Saxony from plucking away from them the girl who is presumed to be the present king's daughter, Princess Monica. The love-hate relationship that the famous and quasi-famous have with newspapers is illustrated by the post-wedding behavior of the new husband, Toselli. Here's how the Times describes it:
Although the reporters were told that the Tosellis left London immediately after the wedding, they were still here late last afternoon, when Toselli was seen walking in the corridor of one of the leading hotels.... [T]he music master steadfastly REFUSED TO SAY A WORD on the subject of the wedding, referring the only questioner who got close enough to him to be able to enter into conversation to a friend who was hardly more communicative.
Toselli was, however, apparently GREATLY EXCITED and ANXIOUSLY SCANNED THE COLUMNS OF THE EVENING PAPERS TO SEE WHAT THEY HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE WEDDING.
The couple has hired FOUR DETECTIVES and TWO MAIDS to guard the little girl.

NEW YORK SCHOOLS CONSIDER BRINGING BACK CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: The principals in New York City's public schools have had it. School commisioners say that fully 75 percent of the principals cannot keep order in their schools -- TWO YEARS after corporal punishment was banned. Three members of the board of education will study the matter. Even those on the board who are against corporal punishment and favor "moral suasion" indicate they are willing to investigate the matter. Commissioner Jonas of Brooklyn introduced the measure. He says that the ban on corporal punishment has not reduced rowdiness, according to today's New York Times. Since the ban, he says, "complaints have been received from MANY PRINCIPALS, saying that they have been UNABLE TO CONTROL their pupils who have indulged in UNSEEMLY ACTIONS. No member of the board can rightly object to inquiry into these conditions."

COULD THIS WATER SLIDE BE PART OF A THEME PARK? IF SO, CALL IT "SEWERLAND": At one point Tuesday afternoon -- during a heavy rainstorm -- Bureau of Sewers employee John Hoffman was hanging over a sewer drain on Third Avenue near 128th Street. The rope snapped, and down he went -- into a five-foot sewer. He shot through the sewer and was flushed into the Harlem River, near 131st Street. His co-workers saw him drop, and they ran to the opening at the Harlem River -- getting there just in time to see Hoffman, 55, shoot out of the pipe. He splashed into the water near a dock and scrambled to safety. Everyone thought he was going to die. He had other ideas. According to today's Times, he said,
"I went through that hole like a cannon ball. I kept my head above the water all of the time and that saved my life."

Sept. 25, 1907 (Wednesday)

BIG TENNIS MATCH IS SCHEDULED AT THE WHITE HOUSE: President Teddy Roosevelt's reputation as a top tennis player is on the line Saturday, when he faces London's Bishop A.F. Winnington Ingram on the White House court. (The illustration here shows the Divine Racket Swinger as he appeared in Vanity Fair in 1912.) Today's Times reminds readers that the First Tennis Player has already defeated the French ambassador (Jusserand), a German representative (von Sterburg) and Lawrence Murray of the Bureau of Commerce and Labor. The Times says the bishop, who's in town for the laying of the cornerstone of the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in D.C., has "an enviable record as a tennis player."

PROFESSOR USES CHEMICALS TO PRODUCE LIFE: A French professor, whose last name is De Page, makes the front page of today's New York Times for his work in "the chemical development of life" in his laboratory in Brittany. There, he evidently put UNFERTILIZED eggs of the sea urchin and starfish in some sea water and added a solution of sugar with a small amount of ammonia and tannin. The eggs eventually produced larvae. Most died, but De Page says he produced two starfish and four sea urchins. The Times says these experiments go beyond those of Prof. Jacques Loeb (shown) of the University of California at Berkeley, "where he proved that it was possible to perform by chemical or mechanical means MALE FUNCTIONS in the propagation of life."
If that's the case, this news might provide yet more motivation to grant FEMALES the RIGHT TO VOTE -- before MALES are rendered unnecessary and, therefore, expendable.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "You don't know what a woman can do until you give her a chance. None of these women are especially robust. I'll venture to say that any of the anaemic looking stenographers and typewriters you'll find working in a small room on the eighteenth floor of an office building could do the same thing if she believed she could at the start." -- Dr. Charles J. Shaw of Philadelphia, after a three-month hiking trip in the "unpathed" Selkirk Mountains, which has some gorgeous scenery. He was part of an nine-person party that included FOUR WOMEN.
(The picture here shows Rogers Pass in the range.) The group was lost for 13 DAYS in a snowstorm. Shaw was impressed with the strength of the women, who were "clad in corduroy skirts" -- in addition, presumably, to other raiment.