March 15, 1908 (Sunday)

CHANGE IS IN THE WIND IN NEWPORT: Today's New York Times devotes some prime real estate for news coverage (right-hand column on the front page) to a story that proclaims "Newport Reforms, No More Freak Fetes" (right). Evidently, the "older set" intends to "plan a season of dignity." That means "quiet luncheons, dinner dances and old-fashioned picnics" will hold sway. That menas there will likely be no repeat of the famous "monkey dinner" put on by Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish at Crossways (above), in which a circus monkey named Consul was the guest of honor. The Times reminds readers of the "rag doll" episode, which "lingers in the minds of the Newport Summer colony. This refers to the time that Mrs. Fish, a Mrs. Oelrichs and the prankster Harry Lehr visited the Casino one day carrying an "old-fashioned rag doll." This was supposedly a minor little private joke among friends. However, a photographer "happened" to be nearby. The Times says the photographer "with a camera concealed in his pocket and with the lens exposed through a hole caught the 'rag doll' trio. This photograph was reproduced far and wide." Truly scandalous.

PRIEST-KILLER TRIES TO ESCAPE DENVER JAIL: Giuseppe Alia, the man accused of shooting to death Father Leo Heinrichs at the communion rail in a Denver church, slashed a fellow prisoner's throat with a razor yesterday and tried to escape his cell on death row. Alia was convicted of the killing Thursday. His act, noted here, has been remembered in writing by the Archdiocese of Denver -- or rather, the priest is remembered.

TIMES NOTES THE EFFICIENCY OF THE WIRELESS TRANSMISSION OF NEWS: Inventor Guglielmo Marconi spoke March 13 to the Royal Institution in London and pointed out that the wireless communication across the Atlantic has been almost uninterrupted since the commercial connection was established last Oct. 17. He said land wires were responsible for many of the delays. The speed and efficiency will likely grow, he added. As part of his address, Marconi read a wireless dispatch he had received on March 13 from The New York Times -- with the greeting of "To William Marconi." The newspaper told the inventor that since the October launch, "The Times has received from its correspondents in England and on the Continent news dispatches toalling 68,404 words promptly and efficiently transmitted by your system."
Marconi noted that there are some time periods during which transmission is particularly difficult -- in the morning and evening.

JUDGE WHO FINED STANDARD OIL FOR $29 MILLION GOES IN THE OTHER DIRECTION BY LEVYING A ONE-CENT FINE ON A LABORER: In Chicago, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis -- known for imposing a whopping fine of $29 million on the Standard Oil Company -- showed that he can be quite flexible in his fining yesterday. He levied a ONE CENT fine on a laborer named George Miller.
Evidently Miller had tried to collect a $2 debt from Dr. D.Wilkins. After numerous attempts, he decidced to write a post card to Wilkins. According to the Times, Miller was "not choice in the words he used." Wilkins was offended, so he had him arrested. But things didn't turn out as Wilkins might have wished. The Times says Wilkins "had an unpleasant quarter of an hour before Judge Landis. Here's how the verdict went, according to the Times:
"The maximum penalty in this case," said Judge Landis, "is five years impresonment." Then, as Miller trembled, the Judge added, "but I will fine you 1 cent and you need not pay the costs."

NEW YORK TIMES TIPS ITS HAT TO LONDON -- BUT NOT TO ITS PUBLIC STATUES: Today's Times notes that there's a certain amount of controversy brewing over plans for a "world tribute" to William Shakespeare to be erected on the north end of Portland Place. The Times is not a fan of a plan to do a statue and thinks the tribute should "take some other form." Its reasoning follows:
A sightly statue in a London street is generally an accident.
But buried in the editorial is this sentence, which refers to London:
It is still the FIRST CITY OF THE WORLD, as Shakespeare is the first poet of the world, and it is his city, the scene of his trials and triumphs.

March 14, 1908 (Saturday)

STAR PLAYER COMES TO CONTRACT TERMS WITH THE TIGERS: The word out of Augusta, Georgia, is that baseball great Ty Cobb has ended his holdout and signed a ONE-YEAR contract with the Tigers for $5,000 [NOTE: multiply by about 20 for 2008 dollars.] Cobb reportedly wanted a three-year deal at that same annual amount. According to the news report in today's Boston Globe, "He stated that he was pleased with the contract offered." (In the photo above, that's Cobb on the left, signing his 1908 contract.)
Does this mean that Cobb is a 25 percent better ball player that the not-so-legendary Tommy Leach? The "tiny outfielder" for Pittsburgh signed a contract for $4,000 a year "after four hours of wrangling," according to a news story. This marks a 15 percent raise from last year.
Meanwhile Pittsburgh officials visited with "Dutch" Wagner (left) at his CHICKEN FARM yesterday. He told them he did not want to play this year. It seems that he used a prop to tell the team that he didn't really need the money. An article said, "Wagner received his guests sitting in his new $5,000 automobile." In other words, it looks as though Cobb was willing to play for a year for the price of a luxury automobile.

GLIDDEN MAKES MEMORABLE ENTRY IN JERUSALEM: Mr. and Mrs. Charles Glidden of Boston drew plenty of attention in Jerusalem yesterday. They drove to the city from Haifa, Syria, in a MOTOR CAR. This was the FIRST automobile ever to be seen in Jerusalem. According to today's New York Times, the appearance "created a sensation among the populace."

JOHN BROWN'S WAGON MEETS A FIERY END IN IOWA: The wagon of abolitionist John Brown was destroyed by fire in Iowa City yesterday, according to today's New York Times. This is evidently the same wagon that he used to make "many pilgrimages during his crusade against slavery," the article said. Brown left the wagon in Iowa City 48 years ago and it has been preserved since then by Herbert S. Fairall, a newspaperman in that city.
[NOTE: Brown couldn't have left it there 48 years ago, in 1860, because he was executed in December of 1859. But it's close enough, I guess. But Brown did spend some time in Iowa.]

March 13, 1908 (Friday)

NEW YORK CITY OFFICIALS ACCUSE SING SING PRISON OF THEFT: Years ago, New York City allowed SING SING PRISON officials to build two 6-inch pipes so the prison could receive water from the nearby Croton conduit. The pipes were metered. Sing Sing got a bill every year. In 1905, the bill was $1,754; in 1906 it was $1,515; in 1907, it was $1,607. Sing Sing officials were evidently upset that the water bill went up nearly $100 between 1906 and 1907, so -- as good stewards of the state's money -- they complained. New York City's water department obligingly sent up an inspector, Mr. Hannan. He checked the pipes and the meters. To his surprise, he discovered that the PRISON had installed an ILLEGAL, UNMETERED 8-INCH PIPE capable of delivering from $50,000 to $100,000 worth of water every year. The $100 increase suddenly doesn't look so bad to the Sing Sing officials -- who now face a huge jump in costs for the water they use at the prison.

BOSTON GETS READY FOR THE CHANGE IN SEASONS: A Boston Globe cartoonist presents a happy look at the "signs of spring." The cartoonist eschewed robins. Instead, the focus was on overcoat, baseball, ice skating, naps and a walk in the Common. The man wearing the hot stove on the upper left is blowing some steam. The caption reads, "How that fur-lined coat felt yesterday."

A LETTER THE TIMES WAS PLEASED TO PRINT: Today's New York Times includes a note from a man named Horatio N. Drury, who lives in Cortland, N.Y. He praises the newspaper in glowing terms. Mr. Drury -- who noted the Times' recent announcement that it had passed the circulation mark of 1 million per week -- presents a description of wise journalism that should echo loudly a century later:
The almost unassailable accuracy of the news stated as facts or actual happenings indicates regard for "truth and truth's sake." Up here when we read something in The Times we do not feel it is to be taken "cum grano salis."
Temperateness without smugness, independence without resort to vilification, and a certain open-mindedness as pleasing as it is unusual, to me give your paper an especial value in a day when popular judgment swings from one extreme of the pendulum-sweep to the other.
Wonder which news sites could earn such praise nowadays. Is the Times still worthy?

THEY DON'T WANT ANY MORE PRETTY NURSES SENT TO THE CANAL ZONE: Enough is enough! Miss Helen Varick Boswell, who organized women's clubs on the Isthmus of Panama, met with members of the Portia Club yesterday at the Hotel Astor in New York. She said that it's "impossible to keep a woman single" in Panama, and the hospitals are suffering. Between April and June, 17 nurses got married. The hospitals "sent word up to the States that they positively would not take YOUNG NURSES, and VERY PLAIN ONES must be sent."
Men in Panama make twice the money they would here for the same work, she said, and there's no place to spend it. "It is a very good place to save," Miss Boswell said.

March 12, 1908 (Thursday)

OLD SOLDIERS, OTHERS HONOR A CIVIL WAR LAUNDRESS-TURNED-NURSE: There's a funeral today for Mrs. Mary Ann Sanford, who died yesterday at the Manhattan (N.Y.) State Hospital. Today's Times says, "She will be buried with honors for the patriotism she displayed during the civil war when she followed her husband to the front and went with him through all the battles in which the Duryee Zouaves participated."
The Times says only 100 Zouaves returned and that "not one of its members [is] left to follow the body to its last resting place." [Although the link above says one Zouave lived through the 1930s.]
Mrs. Sanford was with the troops at battles of Cedar Mountain, Thoroughfare Gap (above), the second battle of Manassas and Chantilly.
The article says she "performed excellent service nursing the wounded soldiers at the battle of Antietam, although she accompanied the regiment as a laundress." That means, presumably that at least her bandages were clean.

FIRST-PLACE AUTO CROSSES NORTH PLATTE ON THE ICE: The New York Times keeps plugging away with front-page articles about the fantastic New York-to-Paris auto race, of which the newspaper is a co-sponsor. Four cars remain, the Thomas Flyer, Zust, De Dion and Protos. They are spread out from Bitter Creek, Wyoming, to Cedar Rapids Iowa. The leader (the Thomas Flyer) is more than 1,000 miles ahead of the last place car. Crossing the North Platte River was a bit of a challenge. Should they cross the river on the railroad bridge and hope a train doesn't come, or scamper over the ice and hope the frozen water holds? One of the Thomas drivers, E. Linn Mathewson, described it this way:
"The river here is 15 feet deep and the wagon bridge is down. There were two ways open, the railroad bridge (shown above) or the ice. Our first plan was to run down the line of the railroad to the bridge and cross, taking a chance on flagging off all trains, but the dispatcher informed us that the woods were full of passenger trains at that time in the morning, and following our usual system of taking no chances on piling this Paris Limited up in the ditch we decided to take a flyer at the ice."
The ice -- eight inches thick -- held, and the car climbed out of the river bed at Fort Steele.
[For a YouTube promo of a documentary of the race, go here.]

March 11, 1908 (Wednesday)

\ON THE HIGH SEAS, A WIRELESS OPERATOR IS CHARGED WITH PIRATING THE NEWS: A little while ago, the Ottawa correspondent of The London Standard newspaper sent a wireless message to his newspaper in England. The story dealt with the Japanese Exclusion bill in British Columbia. As the wireless crackled its way eastward across the Atlantic, the signal was picked up by a man named Stickrath, the Marconi operator on board the North German Lloyd liner Kronprinzessin Cecilie (above). Stickrath snagged the information out of thin air, and part of the piece was published in The Daily Bulletin on board the ocean liner.
When the ship docked at Bremen, Stickrath faced the wrath of the Marconi Co. He was discharged for "pirating" news. The captain of the ship has sent a message to the office of the Marconi Co. in Brussels and asked that the manager reinstate Stickrath, according to the article on the front page of today's New York Times.

SPEAKING OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, NIKOLA TESLA OFFERS A FAR-REACHING VISION FOR THE INNOVATION: Inventor Nikola Tesla was one of the guests of honor last night at a dinner presented by the Entertainment Club at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. He offers these predictions, as quoted in today's Times:
"Mankind will eventually harness the waterfalls and transform this enormous pressure into energy, and this will simplify warfare. Aerial vessels of war will be used to the exclusion of ships, and with 10,000,000 tons of energy this country will be equipped to rout the civilized world.
"I consider the greatest achievement of humanity will be WIRELESS TELEPHONY, which may be operated throughout the globe. This will solve a thousand intricate features of our civilization. It is scientifically possible, and it will gradually become an actuality."

SWARTHMORE'S BOARD CAN BE BOUGHT, BUT THE PRICE HAS TO BE HIGH: On Feb. 13, The New York Times reported that Swarthmore College was considering abandoning its sports programs so it could qualify for a $1 million gift from someone who had attached that particular string to the money. A little more research on the part of the school has led to a totally different set of facts. The gift from Anna T. Jeanes, which was based on the school ending "participation in intercollegiate athletics, sports and games," has been rejected by the school's Board of Managers. Intelligently, the school formed a committee to discover just how much the gift was worth. In this case, the committee did its work well. The total value of the gift -- which included some property whose possession might be disputed in court -- was worth between $24,000 and $47,000. Original estimations of the value of her estate -- guesses, really -- were in the $2 million to $3 million category. She died in September. That month marked the beginning of football season. And football will continue at Swarthmore this September.

READERS DEFINE A "MATINEE IDOL" FOR THE CALL OF SAN FRANCISCO: The Call newspaper asks readers an "impertinent question" every Wednesday. The answers must be original and witty -- and "the briefer the better." Last week's question was "What is a matinee idol?"
Today's Call prints the answers that the judges liked the best. The winner -- which earned the writer $5 -- was:
-- "Once in a while he's an actor."
My favorite, which earned a $1 prize:
-- A man, deep of chest, long of limb, with a light in his eyes that lies in his soft brown eyes, and lies, and lies, and lies.

March 10, 1908 (Tuesday)

HUGE SHIP WILL FEED JAPAN'S THIRST FOR OIL: The Standard Oil Company has hired the monstrous sailing ship Preussen to come to New York harbor from Hamburg and load 200,000 cases of petroleum for Japan. This cargo will include 2 million barrels of oil. This will net the ship about $36,000 in freight money according to an article in today's New York Times. The five-masted ship is propelled entirely by canvas. She is 408 feet long and has a sail area of 68,000 feet, according to the article. Her crew numbers 58. This will be her first trip to New York.

CINCINNATI'S MAYOR FUMES ABOUT WOMEN DRIVERS: The other day Louis Kline, a city official in Cincinnati, Ohio, was run down by an automobile driven by a woman, Mrs. Charles Haas. The accident evidently caught the attention of the city's mayor, Col. Markbreit. In a message to the city council yesterday, he laid out his idea for preventing women from working as chauffeurs, according to today's New York Times. The paper quotes the mayor as saying,
"I do not believe the running of an automobile is the proper sphere for women and would prohibit their doing so if I could have my way. The ONLY PROPER MACHINE for a woman to run is a SEWING MACHINE."
[NOTE: We're not sure if many women chose to DRIVE to his FUNERAL (pictured above), which will be held in 1909.]

March 9, 1908 (Monday)

FORMER STANFORD FOOTBALL STAR SHIPS OUT AS OILER ON A STEAMER -- AND IT'S FRONT-PAGE NEWS: On Thursday, according to The Call of San Francisco, former Stanford football star George C. Beckley shipped out as an oiler on the steamer Maunekeia [spelling is unclear] of the Interisland Navigation Co. (whose flag is at right), which serves the Hawaiian Islands.
The ship was built at the Union Iron Works under the direction of Beckley's father. The younger Beckley is working as an oiler in the engine room, overseeing the machinery that he helped build while the ship was under construction. Beckley's football heroics are mentioned in the front-page article. The high-water mark of his play at Stanford was evidently in a freshman game against California. (Some action during a 1904 varsity Cal-Stanford game is pictured above.) Here's how one play is described; it's kind of hard to understand exactly what he did, though:
In 1897 [the number is unclear] when a member of his freshman team, Beckley executed a sensational play which has become famous in the football annals of the Pacific coast. Crawling on his hands and knees, he broke through the California line, intercepted a long pass of the blue and gold backs, put the pigskin under his arm and made a 50 yard run for a touchdown for the cardinal. The feat won the game for his team and Beckley became famous here.
The next time ESPN pulls out a list of the supposed "greatest college football plays," you can bet that this one, unfortunately, will be missing.

A BOLD PLAN BY THREE CONVICTS IN MONTANA GOES AWRY: Three convicts were led yesterday into the office of Frank Conley, warden of the Montana Penitentiary (shown at right) in Deer Lodge. They were escorted by Assistant Warden John Robinson. The trio had been called into the office because of some minor infraction at the prison. Punishment of some sort awaited them.
As soon as Robinson closed the door to the office, one of the prisoners, George Rock, turned, drew a pocket knife, and drove the blade into the throat of the assistant warden -- killing him. Meanwhile, one of the three prisoners ran out of the office, and prisoner W.P. Hayes drew a knife and went after the warden. Before Warden Conley could draw his pistol, Hayes slashed the warden's throat. Although he was bleeding, Conley managed to pull his revolver out and put three bullets into his attacker. When Rock lunged at the warden, Conley stopped him with one bullet. Both convicts and the warden are expected to recover.
Prison officials are not sure how the inmates got ahold of the knives. However, and this is the clever part of the plan, the article in today's New York Times carries this speculation:
It is believed that the infraction of the rules had been planned in order to reach the Warden's office, whence the convicts would have a better chance to escape.
[NOTE: Now the prison is the home of the Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation.