April 20, 1908 (Monday)

A BIG QUESTION -- SHOULD WOMEN WEAR BIG HATS IN CHURCH? Yesterday's Easter holiday brought out women in their best clothes, including the oversized hats that some favor ((such as the one above, worn by a woman at a millinery convention in 1906). Today's New York Times carries a couple of stories on its front page that present wildly different conclusions about whether or not women should wear such "Merry Widow" hats in church.
BIG HATS ARE GOOD: During a Sunday service at St. John's Catholic Church in St. Louis, some paper lilies adorning the altar caught fire. Even though the fire "blazed fiercely" the parishioners remained calm, with heads bowed in prayer. How on earth could that happen. Well, evidently, the people couldn't SEE the altar. The sightlines for anyone peeking during prayer were blocked by the large hats of women sitting in the front rows, according to the news report. This kept the churchgoers from panicking. A priest and two altar boys put the fire out. The article adds,
Father J. Stepan declares the women's VANITY which makes the wearers of the hats of GREATEST MAGNITUDE seek places in the front of the church where they could be seen to the best advantage, probably SAVED SCORES FROM INJURY.
BIG HATS ARE EVIL: Some churches in Burlington, N.J., have proposed to BAN the wearing of BIG HATS in church. One reason, ushers say, is that pews that are normally large enough to accommodate six people can only hold four when women are wearing hats that are TWO or THREE FEET in DIAMETER. Some pastors say they will ask women to check their hats in the cloakroom. The Rev. M.H. Armor threatened yesterday that "women who wear big hats in the front pews will have to answer for more than one man starting on the downward path." Unless, of course, they are in the front rows at St. John's Catholic Church in St. Louis.

BACKERS OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MAKE SOME NOISE IN BROOKLYN: Yesterday afternoon, a large group of women gathered in the assembly room of the Long Island Business College in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Today's Times says, "The men came in for a good share of criticism throughout the meeting." Here's a little rhyme that the Times presents:
For the long work day,
For the taxes we pay,
For the laws we obey,
We want something to say.

April 18, 1908 (Saturday)

ROOSEVELT CALLS INDIANS "THE OLDEST AMERICANS OF ALL": Some members of the Tulsa [Oklahoma] Commercial Club dropped in on the White House yesterday to meet with President Roosevelt. Not too surprisingly, the members told the president that they were in favor of the removal of Indians from some of their land. Here's something Roosevelt told the visitors (emphasis added):
You cannot afford in your own interest to do less than justice to the INDIAN. After all, HE IS THE OLDEST AMERICAN OF ALL OF US, so give him a fair show; give him a chance.
He also talked about attitudes toward Indians and his notion of their needs:
I have no sympathy with that maudlin sentimentalism about the Indian which is most intense the further you get away from where the Indian is. The Indian who needs to be brought along for a decade or two needs to be educated and trained until he can stand entirely on his own feet, should have your help."
[Grammar note: There was no comma after the "Indian" in that last sentence. I suspect there should have been one, indicating that TR thought all Indians need to be "brought along for a decade or two."]
[Note: The photo above shows President Roosevelt reaching over the rail of a speaking platform to greet a chief in Glenwood Springs, Colo., in 1905.]

NY TIMES HAS A FEW WORDS OF ADVICE FOR GERMAN NOBEL PRIZE WINNER WHO TRIES TO ELUDE THE PRESS IN THE U.S.: Since his arrival recently in the United States, noted German scientist Robert Koch (left) has tried to stay out of the limelight, showing some disdain for the newspaper reporters who have been trying to interview him, according to today's New York Times. The paper, in an editorial, says it understands why Koch would prefer a quiet vacation touring the U.S. and why he would bristle at "finding himself everywhere pursued by reporters eager to get interviews worth printing." But what did he expect would happen? The Times says [emphasis added]:
For years and years past he has been doing things to make his name familiar all over the world among those appreciative of real achievement, and the newspapers DESPITE THE FREQUENT CHARGES THAT THEY CARE FOR NOTHING EXCEPT CRIMES AND SCANDALS, have long been the industrious heralds of all he did -- and just to show their goodwill, of a few things done by others and ascribed to him because the names of the other fellows had been forgotten. How, then, can he be surprised, and why should he be offended that his arrival has been treated as something of an event....?
The Times then offers some advice to the famous:
Fame is sweet, but it has its penalties -- penalties which a famous man, if he be also a wise one and something of a philosopher, will endure as patiently and as graciously as a not too strict regard for his own life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness will permit.

SCIENTIST CLAIMS HE KNOWS WHY FAT MEN WALK A CERTAIN WAY AND WHY THEY SEEM TO GAZE FIERCELY: In a speech before the French Academy of Sciences, a Professor Robinson dealt with a weighty issue: the gait and appearance of fat men.
First, the proud carriage: According to a summary in today's Times, the walk or strut has a "highly technical explanation." Briefly, "the repletion of the stomach has the effect of drawing up the diaphragm and shortening the base of the thorax thus lengthening the waist. The mechanical effect of this is that the stout, well-fed man is forced to strut."
Second, the gaze: Robinson is quoted as saying, "A very stout person is inclined to have a fierce look in his eye because the socket in which the eyeball moves is encumbered with adipose tissue."
Does that explain the cheery-looking fat guy on the left?

April 17, 1908 (Friday)

HARVARD'S PRESENT CONTINUES TO TACKLE THE ELUSIVE SUBJECT OF FOOTBALL: Charles W. Eliot (right), the president of Harvard, has labeled football as the "least useful of all the games" (evidently he didn't include Russian roulette in his list). His chief complaints are that relatively few people can play it, nobody can really enjoy playing the game when their college days are over and the kind of toughness it breeds is "not the kind of toughness which is most profitable in after life." In addition, he lists baseball, basketball and hockey as the "violent sports" -- saying they, too, should be limited. (The photo above shows the Harvard team practicing in 1905.) Here's a key passage tin Eliot's report, which was released today and is commented on in today's New York Times:
"Every intelligent youth ought to cultivate sports that he knows will serve him until he is old, rather than those he cannot keep up after he leaves college. The moderate, generally available, and long available sports are also much more wholesome than the violent sports, which only a few can endure and these few only while they are young."
The Times concludes that all signs point to GOLF as the best sport of choice, saying, it benefits an athlete because "it may be pursued with increasing zest and skill until he has passed his seventieth year."

WHITE STAR LINE SELECTS NAME FOR HUGE SHIP; MIGHT BUILD A SECOND: The 1,000-foot-long steamship that's on the drawing board at the White Star Line now has a name. It will be called the Olympic. Construction is expected to begin later in the year at the great Harland & Wolff yard in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It will be designed exclusively for the Southampton-to-New York trade.
It's also possible, today's Times notes, that the folks at White Star are considering building a second similar boat. Wonder what they will give her for a name?

April 16, 1908 (Thursday)

GROUP OF DEDICATED MAN-SPURNERS LOSES A MEMBER TO CUPID: The domain of women who of sworn off men has been "invaded" by Cupid, according to today's New York Times. The paper, which refers to the group's sanctuary as an "ADAMLESS EDEN," reports in an article on today's front page that Miss Susie Carter has abandoned the anti-male vows of the group, known as the Sanctified Sisters among other things. She has married a Philadelphia hotel clerk named B. Franklin Hoover. This group, now based in Washington, D.C., was founded in Texas by Martha McWhirter about 30 years ago. According to the article, she was said to "have left her husband because he would not give her $1.25 with which to buy shoes for their child." She began a colony in which the women do all the work. The Times sums up the group bedrock belief in this way:
The chief tenet of the cult is that MAN IS VILE, and while he may be tolerated on occasion, he must not b e associated with. So rigid have been the rules that there have been very few desertions. The sisterhood now owns a house [in D.C.] and a farm in Maryland, both of which are maintained by the women. There are about twenty members of the sect.
[NOTE: A Dr. Diane Howard portrays McWhirter in re-enactments (see photo above). For details go here.]

OPERA STAR IS LUCKY SHE HASN'T ABANDONED MEN -- BECAUSE ONE SAVES HER FROM BEING CRUSHED BY A FALLING CURTAIN: The prima dona Geraldine Farrar (above, in "La Traviata") narrowly escaped injury last night at the Lyric Theatre in New York City. At the close of the final act of "La Traviata," Farrar stepped far forward toward the footlights -- to give a bow to the audience. She didn't know that the drop curtain, which is heavily weighted, was coming down -- faster than usual. When the curtain was barely inches from her head, Signor Scotti jumped forward and pulled her back. The bottom of the curtain slammed into her hair and knocked off her tiara, which was smashed. She was not hurt, in fact she was in good enough health to scramble all over the stage and gather up the sparkling stones -- presumably diamonds -- that had burst from her tiara.

April 15, 1908 (Wednesday)

ADVERTISERS MUST HAVE MADE THEM AN OFFER THEY COULDN'T REFUSE: The focus of most of the front page of today's Boston Globe is the recent fire in nearby Chelsea, Mass. In addition to the lead news story, there are, amazingly, seven advertisements that deal with the plight of the residents of Chelsea or feed on the fears of others. One ad touts the "Clinton Fireproof System" which is used in reinforcing concrete floors and roofs. The ad brags that "75% of all fireproof buildings erected since San Francisco Fire" [in 1906] use the Clinton Electrically Welded Fabric. Also, one bank notes that its safe deposit vaults are "in a low, thoroughly fireproof building." And the Vose and Sons Piano Co. offers piano-playing residents of Chelsea an opportunity to have any outstanding bills considered paid in full if any of the company's uninsured pianos were destroyed in the fire. This offer is presented "as an expression of sympathy to the stricken people of Chelsea."

SPEECH BY OHIO SENATOR DRAWS THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE FROM BLACKS IN SENATE GALLERIES: U.S. Sen. Joseph B. Foraker (right) made his long-awaited speech on the Brownsville Affair. Foraker's address was designed to appeal for his bill that demands the reinstallation of the men of three companies of the 25th Infantry who were discharged in what the New York Times says -- in quotation marks -- was the "shooting-up" of Brownsville, Texas, in August 1906.
Here's part of his plea on behalf of the soldiers:
"They are typical representatives of a race that has ever been loyal to America and American institutions; a race that has never raised a hostile hand against our country's flag; a race that has contributed to the Nation tens of thousands of brave defenders, not one of whom has ever turned traitor or faltered in his fidelity.
"Faithfully, uncomplainingly, with pride and devotion, they have performed all their duties and kept all their obligations. They ask no favors because they are negroes, but only for justice because they are men."
When Foraker was done, the demonstration in his support was "a scene that seldom has been witnessed in the Senate Chamber," the Times reports. "The negroes in the galleries started wild applause. Foraker's admirers stood on chairs to clap their hands."

JAPANESE JOURNALISTS DISCUSS GOVERNMENT PROGRAM DESIGNED TO HELP NATION'S CITIZENS GROW TALLER: Representatives of Japanese newspapers visited the offices of the New York Times yesterday. The visiting editors say that rigorous exercise programs started in Japan a few years ago have contributed to the INCREASED PHYSICAL STATURE of men and women in Japan. One of the spokesmen was K. Aishima, general manager of the Osaka Mai Nichi, or "Daily News of Osaka." He is quoted this way in today's Times:
"The attention of the Government was called about fifteen years ago to the fact that the Japanese as a race were not as tall as they might be. So the Government decided to add a few inches in the stature of her sons and daughters. The Government instructed the heads of the schools to see to it that the students stood up as much as possible, as the discovery had been made that one cause of the short stature of the average Japanese was 'too much sitting down.' It also built gymnasiums and ordered a regular course of physical culture in the schools."
He says that "two inches have been 'added' to the height of many Japanese men and women and another two inches may be added in another generation or two."
The Times notes that a Japanese newspaper such as Osaka Mai Nichi requires a bout 300 typesetters because there are so many characters in the alphabet -- about 3,000. The paper, with a circulation of about 270,000, has about 60 reporters on staff.

April 14, 1908 (Tuesday)

SHOCKED FANS IN ENGLAND SWARM WRESTLER, WONDERING HOW HE COULD HAVE LOST: Wrestler George Hackenschmidt arrived at Plymouth yesterday after a trans-Atlantic trip on board the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. He was met by fans who were eager to hear about his defeat in the U.S. at the hands of wrestler Frank Gotch. Here's how today's Times quotes "Hack":
"The real fact of the match, however, is that Gotch was SOAKED IN OIL, and I could not grasp him, much less use my favorite rips and locks. I think he must have begun to oil himself at least four months before the match. His FINGERNAILS had been permitted to grow as long as claws, and they cut me like knives. This would not have been allowed by a fair referee. I wanted a New York referee all the time, but the Chicago people insisted on a Chicago man, and I had no alternative."


YOUNGSTERS SHOW UP AT POLICE STATION AFTER DEVASTATING FIRE IN MASSACHUSETTS: The Chelsea cleanup has uncovered dozens of unclaimed BABIES, accoding to a report in today's Ne York Times. More than 50 unidenified babies were picked up by police, firefighters and citizens and brought to the polcie station during the afternnon and evening of the fire. The children were between the ages o 2 months and 5 years. One boy borught in a 6-month-old baby whom he had spotted in the gutter. A woman brought in young male twins babies. Here's how that happened:
She said that a frantic mother had thrust the babies into her arms as she stood on the street, saying: 'Here, hold these; I've got to get the others.'
Nobody knows yet what became of that mother.
some of the chldren were claimed yesterday. Others remain with the police.

April 13, 1908 (Monday)

FIRE RAVAGES CHELSEA, MASS.: A massive blaze yesterday destroyed much of the Boston suburb of Chelsea. Initial reports indicate that 13 churches, five banks, the City Hall and numerous factories and tenements were destroyed. In addition, about 10,000 people were left homeless. (The photo above shows the ruins of City Hall and two churches.) It will become known as The Great Chelsea Fire of 1908. Investigators think the fire originated in the back of the Boston Blacking Company's operations near the Everett city line. Employees were drying rags. The fire spread fast, according to today's New York Times:
A terrific gale from the northwest, which at times had a velocity of sixty miles an hour, carried burning shingles, embers and myriads of sparks to a score of buildings, most o f them of cheap wooden construction.
By midnight, four unidentified bodies had been taken from the ruins. About 500 people were either injured or painfully burned.
The Times reports that at least TWO CHILDREN WERE BORN during the fire. One of the mothers had the very appropriate last name of ... SMOKE.

SOUTHERN RAILROAD TAKES "EQUAL ACCOMMODATION" IN THE REVERSE DIRECTION: The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway is taking steps to deal with the criticism from President Roosevelt that the railroad did NOT offer equal accommodations to whites and blacks. An editorial in today's New York Times quotes from what it says is a "dispatch from Nashville":
The Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway is complying with the recent order from Washington to furnish the same accommodations to white and negro passengers, resulting from a suit brought by a negro to whom soap and towels were not furnished. The railway HAS TAKEN ALL SOAP AND TOWELS FROM THE TOILET ROOMS so that both white and black passengers have only drinking water.
So, the railroad evidently intends to pursue the "equal accommodation" requirement by eliminating some of the amenities offered to white passengers.

ASSASSIN STRIKES DOWN GOVERNOR IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: The governor of Galicia, Count Andreas Potocki, was assassinated yesterday in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary, by a student named Mieroslap Sziczynski. The student is Ruthenian, which has nothing to do with a certain baseball player. The governor was killed while he was giving an audience to a delegation of students.
Ruthenian students have been making trouble in Lemberg recently, according to today's New York Times:
Ruthenain students a year ago demolished several lecture halls of the Lemberg University because the use of their mother tongue was forbidden them. the murderer of to-day participated in these riots.
Today's New York Times carries this dire description:
The assassination is causing a terrible impression. Lemberg's streets are occupied by a great multitude. Thousands are assembled in front of the government palace. Men and women are to be seen there crying an uttering dire threats against the Ruthenians.