April 12, 1908 (Sunday)

COLLEGE STUDENTS PUT POSSIBLE DONATION IN JEOPARDY BY EXPERIMENTING ON A CERTAIN BELOVED CAT: Unidentified students at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., captured a cat recently and DISSECTED it in the school's vivisection class. One big problem is that the creature was the PET CAT of Miss Margaret Van Deusen, who lives in a "handsome mansion" next door to B.R. Raymond (left), the president of the university. Today's New York Times says Miss Van Deusen is angry and she wants the wrongdoers prosecuted. One worry to the school is that the woman is part of Middletown's elite families, and she has no close relatives. "It was thought that she would leave part, at least, of her estate to the university."

April 11, 1908 (Saturday)

LEADER OF NEW YORK-TO-PARIS AUTO RACE FINDS ALASKA IS IMPASSABLE: After being carried by ship from San Francisco to Valdez, the Thomas car (above) has run into a roadblock, apparently thwarting plans to follow the mail trail to Nome.
The crew -- led by driver George Schuester -- has decided to load the car back onto the steamer Bertha and head to Seattle. The plan then calls for finding a way to ship the car across the Pacific to Vladivostok, to continue the New York-to-Paris race.
If the car had tried to follow the trail a month ago, it might have worked. But "the early thaw has ruined all opportunity for the present season. The frozen crust of the snow that was depended upon to support the machine, has been dissipated by the unprecedented early season, and the machine could not advance a mile on the surface of the huge drifts that are now daily melting in the sun," according to today's New York Times.

TIMES EDITORIAL CONFRONTS A PROBLEM THAT REALLY DOESN'T SEEM TO EXIST ANYMORE -- IS IT POSSIBLE TO READ TOO MANY NEWSPAPERS IN ONE DAY? I missed the letter in yesterday's Times from someone who signed it "J.W.E." In the letter, Mr. E. said that he bought THREE MORNING PAPERS, TWO EARLY-AFTERNOON PAPERS (to help him get through lunch) and TWO MORE PAPERS for careful reading in the evening. He wrote to say that a friend told him he was reading TOO MANY newspapers, and upon reflection Mr. E. thinks that the newspaper reading has, indeed, forced him to cut back on his book reading. So, the Times asks, "How many papers should a man read who doesn't have to count his pennies too carefully, and who wants to keep himself well posted on the events of the day?" The Times waffles on the answer, saying it lies between ONE and ALL.
Here's a conclusion:
The man who reads only one paper, even the best, will occasionally "miss something" of interest or importance, but at worst it will be only for twenty-four hours, and the chances are that some kind friend will tell him about it long before the day is up. On the other hand, it is probably better to read too many papers than none at all.
Cheers to that.

April 10, 1908 (Friday)

A SMALL ILLUSTRATION OF A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NEWS AND ADVERTISING: Yesterday about 5,000 spectators showed up to watch 70 automobiles race up Fort George Hill in New York in what today's New York Times calls "the most notable hill-climbing contest ever held in America." The best time was turned in by Walter White, driving a 30 hp steam car over a course of 1,900 feet, with a 10 percent grade. He covered it in 32 1-5 seconds. Disaster was narrowly avoided.
The White performance was notable in every sense, and thrilling enough to give hundreds a scare as the car veered from side to side up the winding hill, narrowly missing the spectators at each turn when it skidded to one side or the other.
Buried in the article was a notice (right) that the Corbin car "won both classes for cars costing between $2,000 and $3,000, J.W. Swan driving both times and making 42 4-5 seconds in his best trial."
That's the way the newspaper handled it as news.
The Corbin Motor Vehicle Company used an ad to trumpet the car's performance. I thought it was great that such an advertisement would actually present fresh news. It notes something the news article did not mention. It lists the cars that placed BEHIND the Corbin (e.g., the Renault, six-cylinder Stearns, Simplex, six-cylinder Stevens-Duryea, Pops-Hartford, Hotchkiss and Oldsmobile).

ART RESTORER REPORTEDLY FINDS A REMBRANDT UNDER ANOTHER PAINTING, BRINGING WINDFALL TO BRITISH COLLECTOR: Mr. Thomas Humphry Ward of England has, for years, bought old pictures and had them restored. Not long ago, he paid 250 POUNDS (about $1,200) for a portrait by an unknown artist. Ward sent it to Prof. Alois Hauser, Director fo the Royal Gallery in Berlin, to restore the piece. Hauser discoverd that another painting lurked behind that portrait. Whe it was uncovered, "it turned out to be a full-length portrait of a young man of vacant, almost idiotic, expression," according to today's New York Times.
Hauser was startled by what he saw; he consulted Max Friedlander in Berlin and others. They agree: The uncovered portrait was done by Rembrandt (that's a self-portrait by the artist, above). Hauser immediately sent a letter to Ward, who was in America at the time. The next day, Hauser sent a cable, saying that a wealthy steel manufacturer, Privy Councilor Koppel, had made an offer.
By yesterday, a deal was struck. Koppel bought the painting for 6,250 POUNDS, giving Ward a profit of about $30,000.
[NOTE: Ward is the husband of the novelist Mary Ward, who wrote as "Mrs. Humphry Ward" and who is remembered in London in the form of the Mary Ward Center, London's Adult Education College.]

April 9, 1908 (Thursday)

BRITISH ENGINEER SAYS THE TYPICAL AMERICAN BOY IS AHEAD OF EUROPEAN BOYS BY TWO YEARS -- MENTALLY: The former president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in England says it's difficult, or close to impossible, to compare the methods of TECHNICAL EDUCATION in England and America. The conditions in the school are totally different, said Sir William Henry Preece (right) in a paper he gave before the Royal Society of Arts. His paper was titles "Technical Education in America."
He's quoted this way in today's New York Times:
"The American boy possesses the energy and smartness of a new race, and the European boy mentally is two years behind him. This would count for the difference in curricula and papers set for examination."

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TAKES A STAND ON "JIM CROW" ACCOMMODATIONS ON TRAINS IN THE SOUTH; NO, HE DOESN'T WANT TO STOP IT; HE WANTS TO PERFECT IT: It looks like President Roosevelt is finally doing something about the Jim Crow separate-but-equal accommodations on the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Company. What bothers him, however, is not the SEPARATE but the EQUAL. Today's New York Times printed an excerpt from the letter Roosevelt sent to the railroad. Here's part of it:
From time to time various complaints have been made to me by reputable colored people to the effect that the accommodations furnished to colored persons on certain railways are filthy and inadequate, compared to the same accommodations furnished to white passengers paying the same fare.
The solution?
That where separate accommodations are provided for white and colored passengers the accommodations for colored passengers shall be as good as those furnished to white passengers for the same money.
There it is, in black and white. Teddy Roosevelt thought the Jim Crow set-up was just fine. No wonder thousands of blacks hissed Roosevelt's name in late March.

April 8, 1908 (Wednesday)

HALF A MILLION SPECTATORS TURN OUT FOR PARADE OF AUTOMOBILES: Anyone doubting the growing interest in automobiles might change their mind when they consider the massive turnout yesterday in Manhattan for an automobile parade that marked the TENTH ANNIVERSARY of the automobile trade in New York City. About 1,500 autos were in the parade, which stretched over FIVE MILES of city streets. About 500,000 people filled the sidewalks. According to today's New York Times, it took 90 MINUTES for the cars to pass one point in the parade route.
One of the features was Mrs. Andrew Cuneo, "the racing automobilist whose keenness for the sport has won her tremendous popularity." She drove a Mora, which was decorated with lilies.
[NOTE: The auto shown above is an Isotta Fraschini, in 1907.]

LETTER WRITER INVOKES THE NAME OF MACROBIUS IN ORDER TO COMPLAIN OF ROUGH TREATMENT OF HUNGRY AND JOBLESS: A letter published in today's New York Times complains about the "brutality of New York and Chicago policemen" who dealt harshly with demonstrations by "the hungry and out of work." The writer, signed only S.A., tries to bring to readers' minds a voice from antiquity -- or about 450 A.D. He called it "the famous saying of Macrobius" that relates to "ancient uprisings in Greece and Rome in behalf of the oppressed." The writer quoted Macrobius as saying, "The more slaves -- the more enemies." He or she closes with this admonition: "Dead civilizations send you back that warning."
The quote is excellent, but it's probably best NOT to attribute it to Macrobius. Consider the context in this book, in which Macrobius calls it an "oft-quoted and arrogant proverb":
As late as the fifth century, an author like Macrobius had to repeat Seneca's reproof, with explicit reference to the proverb (and quoting Seneca nearly verbatim): "What do you suppose was the origin of that oft-quoted and arrogant proverb which says that in every slave we possess we have an enemy?...."
It might be a bit out of context, but the classical reference is impressive.

April 7, 1908 (Tuesday)

AFTER 45 YEARS, WOMAN'S PICTURE FOUND ON BODY OF CIVIL WAR SOLDIER IS IDENTIFIED: At one point in the Civil War, a soldier in the Thirteenth New Jersey Volunteers named N. Barnes was captured by the Confederate Army. While a prisoner, a Confederate soldier handed him a photograph, saying it had been taken from a DEAD UNION soldier at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863 (The picture above of the battle is by artists Kurz and Allison.)
Written on the back of the photo was "John Rawson and Nellie Augustin Nettleton." The photo was in a case, which included a needle, a piece of thread and a lock of hair.
The photo eventually came into the hands of Edgar Whritenour of New Jersey -- the son in law of N. Barnes. Today's New York Times says Whritenour BEGAN his search for the woman pictured in the daguerreotype 33 YEARS AGO. He contacted EVERY Grand Army of the Republic post in the nation. Finally, he tracked down a Mrs. T.W. Stowe, in Milford, Conn., who, it turns out, was the Nellie Augustin Nettleton in the picture. He sent her the picture recently. Mrs. Stowe wrote to Whritenour yesterday, saying:
I wish I could make good to you all the expense you have gone to to find the owner. I am thankful that this little bit of my life's history has been handed down to me over the silence of so many years, and I admire your perseverance under such almost insurmountable obstacles.


DID THE TIMES GIVE ANARCHISTS A RECIPE FOR BOMB-MAKING? Today's New York Times has a brief interview with Selig Silverstein, the man who is accused of making -- and exploding -- the bomb that exploded in Union Square, as reported on March 29. He is in Bellevue Hospital, without hands and enduring a 104 temperature. He spoke to police last Friday, describing how he made the bomb. The Times -- perhaps inadvertently helping readers who might someday want to make such a bomb -- prints his description of the ingredients. Police asked him what his bomb was made of and how it exploded prematurely. Here's what he said:
"The top of a brass bedstand. I bought a quarter of a pound of nails and broke them in half. I put nitro-glycerine on top of them, and on top of the nitro-glycerin some gunpowder. When I got to the park I saw a policeman there who had beaten me. I put the fuse in the bomb and walked over to the fountain. I had a lighted cigarette in my hand, and I tried to touch off the fuse, but in my excitement, I put the cigarette in the wrong hole, causing the explosion.