July 5, 1908 (Sunday)

COULD ENGLAND BE SHEDDING ITS PRUDISHNESS? Today's New York Times wonders if England is moving toward a "healthier and more honest state of public opinion." Part of the evidence lies in the recent public support for the acquisition of Velazquez' "Venus at Her Mirror" (above) for the National Gallery. In addition, the British Medical Association has refused to yield to pressure to remove statues of nudes on new buildings along the Strand.

CURTISS MAKES A GIANT LEAP IN HIS JUNE BUG AIRPLANE: Glenn Curtiss took his "June Bug" airplane aloft and covered about a mile yesterday at Hammondsport, N.Y. The plane covered about a mile and a half in about one minute and 42 seconds. The flight was the 16th made by the aircraft, according to Curtiss (who is pictured above at the controls in a photograph that was in today's New York Times.) The flight made history because it was the first pre-announced public flight. (The Wright Brothers did their work in secrecy.) Today's Times says, "Dr. Bell, President of the Aero Experiment Association, says that all doubts as to the feasibility of aerial navigation by heavier-than-air machines have been put at rest."

PARISIANS PICK LOCOMOTIVE AS THE GREATEST RECENT INVENTION: The Petit Journal newspaper in Paris recently asked 200,000 readers to name the most useful invention of "modern times." The answer, according to today's New York Times was THE LOCOMOTIVE.
Here's the top 12:
1. Locomotive.
2. Potatoes.
3. Vaccine.
4. Cure for hydrophobia.
5. Sugar.
6. Telegraph.
7. Matches.
8. Steam boiler.
9. Telephone.
10. Petroleum.
11. Sewing machine.
12. Soap.
The Times says that the bicycle, automobile and tramway were quite low on the list of responses. Others mentioned the artificial diamond.

July 4, 1908 (Saturday)

A NEW FLAG UNFURLS: Today's New York Times shows the new flag, which includes Star No. 46, which is for Oklahoma, which became a state on Nov. 16, 1907.

TAFT'S SON PLANS A RAUCOUS FOURTH: Ten-year-old Charlie Taft (shown at right in 1910 with his parents -- William Howard Taft and Helen Herron Taft), the son of the Republican nominee for the presidency, will be somewhat fortunate if he survives today's Independence Day celebrations. He brought a travelling bag to Hot Springs that could not be easily opened because he had jammed it full of stuff. When the bag burst open, the contents startled the observers, according to today's New York Times. Here's the list:
2 bundles of giant powder crackers;
1 package dynamite crackers;
3 packages giant torpedoes;
2 dozen torpedoes packed in sawdust;
2 boxes of "nigger chasers" [Yep, that's what they were called!!!]
1 box tooth-powder;
1 tooth brush;
1 clothes brush.
He acknowledged he was ready to celebrate. He added, "The tooth powder's mine, but the clothes brush is mamma's."

WASHINGTON OFFICIAL THINKS HE KNOWS HOW 'TO MAKE THE NEGRO WHITE': The Rev. Zed Copp, probation officer of the District of Columbia, says he has figured out how to solve the so-called "negro problem": by turning black people into white people. According to a four-paragraph story on the front page of today's New York Times, he plans to ask the Agricultural Department for help in "propagating a bacillus that will bleach the blackest negro."
The Times, paraphrasing the Rev. Copp, says the "wholesale bleaching will solve the race problem."
Here's something the man said in The Daily News (Frederick, Md.) on July 27, 1908"If we can prove the whitening of
negroes' skins in rare cases is caused by
a bacillus, it would be possible to cultivate
that bacillus and inoculate the negro
race with it."
Curious that there doesn't seem to be any impulse to find a bacillus that could render white people darker.

July 3, 1908 (Friday)

FILMING OF KIDNAPPING SCENE LEADS TO A REAL-LIFE ACCIDENT.... AND DIRECTOR KEEPS THE CAMERAS ROLLING AND COMES UP WITH AN EARLY 'REALITY' SHOW: A big crowd showed up yesterday at Ryker Heights Park in Brooklyn to watch filming of a movie picture being produced by the Vitagraph Company. The story line deals with a "gypsy leader" who abducts a woman and is chased -- by automobile -- by the girl's father and friends to the foot of Shore Road at Bath Beach where motor launches await.
But the action yesterday did not follow the script.
The abduction took place. And actor Arthur White (playing the gypsy) made his escape with the girl in a chauffeur-driven car. However, at Cropsey and 14th avenues, the driver lost control and the car flipped. The manager of the filming, Stuart Blackton (above) "saw the possibilities of the accident," according to today's New York Times. He kept the cameras rolling while he rushed to help the injured White and called for a doctor from the Norwegian Hospital.
The chauffeur was ARRESTED for driving without a license. The young woman -- the abductee -- was unhurt and "refused to tell the police her name."

BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL CONDEMNS.... COLORED SHIRTS: The high-minded medical journal The Lancet -- obviously an admirer of the WHITE LAB COAT -- has come out editorially against shirts and handkerchiefs that are colorful. The journal says a man who wears something that is NOT WHITE "can CARRY DIRT [emphasis added] for a little longer without giving offense than if he wore spotlessly white material." This is a HEALTH ISSUE. Here's the explanation, as quoted in today's New York Times:
"Materials which do not compel constant changes by becoming offensive to the eye, if ever so slightly soiled, are bound to be worn too long. Again, by wearing only religiously clean linen a man reduces the chances of picking up BACTERIA.

July 2, 1908 (Thursday)

MEDICAL JOURNAL CRITICIZES COLLIER'S 'SENTENCE OF DEATH': A painting by John Collier called "The Sentence of Death" (above) faces some fierce editorial criticism from The Inter-State Medical Journal, according to today's New York Times. The painting, on exhibit at London's Royal Academy -- according to the medical journal -- deals with the age-old question "as to whether or no a physician should tell a patient the truth in regard to the hopelessness of his case." (That's the painting above.) Here the doctor has evidently passed on that information to the young patient. The journal thinks this is often NOT the right thing for a doctor to do.
[NOTE: Collier also did a dreamy "Lady Godiva."]

IMMIGRATION-IN-REVERSE CONTINUES: The outflow of former immigrants continues, according to figures released for steamship companies. Here's how Gustav Schwab of the North German Lloyd Line described things yesterday, according to today's New York Times:
In the six months of 1908, 377,664 persons of the laboring force of this country left these shores for Europe, as against a total of only 186,586 who arrived from Europe.... During the first six months of 1907 the immigration reached 739,748, while for the first six months of this year, it is but 186,586."
Steerage traffic TO Europe was about 50 percent higher in 1908 than the first six months of 1907, he said. Schwab adds that the numbers indicate that there has been a total falling off in the "alien labor forces" since 1907 of about 775,000 workers.

July 1, 1908 (Wednesday)

YES, IT'S A NOISEMAKER, BUT... Today's New York Times has a one-column advertisement for new and used revolvers (above). It might leave some readers wondering about the connection with the upcoming 4th of July holiday. Why, specifically, would one need a revolver for the 4th of July -- notwithstanding the obvious connection with noisemaking and explosives.
Another ad -- touting a Pianola -- also tries to tap into the holiday spirit. It says,
Celebrate Independence Day
By Becoming Musically
Independent

YMCA GROUP TO STUDY IMMIGRATION: Six young college graduates are heading overseas to get a personal look at the conditions surrounding immigration, according to today's New York Times. The group, all of whom are connected with the YMCA, will leave for Europe today on board the Holland-America liner Rotterdam. They will conduct "a year of study in the countries of Europe from which immigration to this country is most marked.
They have pledged to spend five years -- upon their return to the U.S. -- working among foreign-born laborers in the anthracite coaling regions and manufacturing centers.
They will travel by foot and bicycle in Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, Southern Russia, Serbia and Italy -- under the leadership of Dr. Edward Steiner of Iowa College [which will become Grinnell College in 1909]. The students attended the Association Institute and Training School at Chicago, Pennsylvania, Oberlin, Iowa and Washington and Jefferson.
They will travel in steerage on the Rotterdam -- thereby NOT having access to some of the ship's finer rooms (above).