Feb. 29, 1908 (Saturday)

BIDDER THINKS KING HENRY V's CRADLE ROCKS! It's really little more than a battered wooden box that hangs from two carved posts. But it sold yesterday at an auction in London for... $1,500 (multiply by about 20 for 2008 dollars). The value is there because the little royal body of Henry V evidently dozed inside that box. The final bidder was the King's armorer, Guy Laking (right). The word is that the box will become a national possession of Great Britain. (NOTE: Laking's name has since surfaced amid speculation of the parenthood of Norway's King Olaf V.]

FEMALE DEBATER BECOMES FRONT-PAGE NEWS: The editor's of today's New York Times thought the performance of a female member of the debating team at Cornell University merited a prominent spot (at the top, in the center) of the front page of today's paper. The headline is a bit misleading. It says "Co-Ed Debater Loses." Actually the team of which Elizabeth Cook was a member lost to the Columbia University team, by a score of 2-1.
The Times says "it was not her fault."
Rather, she:
displayed remarkable nerve, coolness and self-possession. Her arguments were given logically, in forcible and convincing language. At the close of her address she won rounds of applause from the audience.
Here's the debate topic:
"Resolved, that, aside from any question of constitutionality involved, Congress should require all corporations engaged in inter-State business to take out a Federal license."
Cornell, taking the negative position, had a tougher task.
Of note, Wellington Koo (shown at left in later years) was the second speaker for Columbia. Koo, called "the son of a Chinese mandarin, "surprised the audience by his mastery of English."
Columbia initially balked at debating a woman in competition, as mentioned on Jan. 22.

FANNY AND WILLIAM WORKMAN WRITE ABOUT CLIMBING NEAR THE ROOF OF THE WORLD: A new mountain-climbing book by Fanny Bullock Workman (right) has just been published, according to an item in today's Times. It's called "The Ice-Bound Heights of the Mustagh," with her husband William Workman listed as co-author. The title must refer to these mountains. The book describes two seasons of the couple's climbing in the Himalayas. Fanny set a record for high mountain climbing by women by reaching 22,568 feet. The book has nearly 200 photographs. The book is likely to be "of rare interest to mountain climbers and to all lovers of travel and of adventure," according to the Times.