Oct. 13, 1908 (Monday)

INTERVIEW WITH BRITISH NEWSPAPER MAGNATE PROMPTS TIMES TO VENT: Todays' New York Times tees off on
Lord Northcliffe's analysis of how American newspapers have covered an ongoing crisis in the Balkan region. The editorial refers to an interview printed on Sunday, in which Northcliffe said,
"Your newspapers get dispatches from your correspondents and print them. In England, on a matter of this importance, we get two sets of dispatches from our correspondents -- one for publication and the other a private set for the guidance of the editors-- and before we print anything, we know we are right."
Here's what the Times says today, with a strong statement about full-disclosure:
The old journalism, like the old diplomacy, went on the principle that there is much which it is well the people should not know until what is considered by their betters a fitting time for them to know it, and not a little which they should never know. We still have some lingering notions to that effect ourselves, but they are disappearing fast, and in exact proportion to their waning their passes away the system of two sets of dispatches to which Lord Northcliffe referred. It is only occasionally, most often in wartime, that American papers recognize an obligation to suppress real news that is of moment as well as of interest to the people at large, and they find that on the whole the habit of refusing to suppress facts has good results, however much it may interfere with the efforts of diplomats to enhance their own importance by working in the dark."
The Times objects to suppression of news, adding "Half a story is always a false story, and it is apt to be resented more than an out-and-out misstatement, since the narrator of the half story assumes a superiority which subsequent events may prove him to be without."
(NOTE: The interview published on Sunday included a comment from Northcliffe that sounds applicable a hundred years later: "What is the worst feature of American newspapers? The exaggeration of the unimportant and the hiding of the important.")


CONNECTICUT MAN PAYS A HIGH PRICE FOR KISSING HIS WIFE: On a trolley car running from Bridgeport to Waterbury late in the evening on Oct. 11, passengers were SHOCKED by something Dennis Burns did. They were so upset that they had the car stopped at Naugatuck. Burns was arrested and was charged, according to today's New York Times, "under an old blue law which says a MAN MAY NOT KISS EVEN HIS WIFE in such a public and ostentatious manner." The Times reports that Burns "insisted on hugging and kissing the woman dramatically to the disgust of the passengers."
The judge evidently didn't want to deal with a charge of wife-kissing on a Sunday, so he fined Burns for disorderly conduct. The kissing cost Burns $20. (That's about $400 in 2008 dollars.)
Burns' reaction: "I love my wife dearly and have a right to kiss her, law or no law."

Oct. 12, 1908 (Monday)

THEY'RE LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES -- IN THE WAVES AT BRIGHTON BEACH: Today's New York Times reports today that a new kind of power plant is being planned at Brighton Beach, N.Y. (shown above in 1901) The plant is expected to furnish LIGHT, HEAT and POWER directly FROM THE SEA. The plant is expected to harness wave power using four wave turbines, each one weighing 61 tons. The power-plant plan is part of a huge project at the resort, including a 200-room casino and new boardwalk.

ROOSEVELT TRIES HIS HAND AT CLEANING UP THE WRITING OF A DISTINGUISHED PLAYWRIGHT: Today's Times takes a poke at President Theodore Roosevelt in an editorial titled "Our Literary Arbiter." It appears that Roosevelt was invited to attend a performance of a new play called "The Melting Pot" by Israel Zangwill. Evidently, Roosevelt loved the play. Well, almost all the the play. He objected to a statement made by one of the main character (Vera). She declared that she had great respect for the state of marriage and backed up her point by saying,
"We are not native-born Americans; we hold our troth eternal."
Roosevelt told the playwright that he thought this was too anti-American.
So, Zangwill has since changed it to,
"Not being members of the Four Hundred, we hold even our troth sacred."
As the Times points out, this removes the stigma "from all the American people except an unimportant few, and the literary quality of the play has been lifted to the Presidential standard."
They are, of course, being sarcastic. The editorial writer said Roosevelt was offended by the original statement because he is "the custodian of the good repute of all native-born Americans, and as an acute critic of dramatic literature and foe of hyperbole."
The Times, it is noted declined to name the playwright in the report "in order that no collusion with the press agent shall be suspected."

Oct. 11, 1908 (Sunday)

NEW YORK TIMES COUNTS ON ARTISTIC AND LITERARY KNOWLEDGE OF ITS READERS: One of cartoonist Hy Mayer's weekly "Some Impressions of the Passing Show" includes this image of William Jennings Bryan wrapped in the agony of yet another presidential campaign. It's titled the "Nebraskan 'Laocoon'" and it shows three Bryans labeled with 1896, 1900 and 1908 -- for each campaign year.
Laocoon is best known for his warning to Trojans -- advising them to be cautious about Greeks bearing gifts. He was talking of the "gift" of the Trojan Horse. Bryant, too, was known for his words -- especially those warning of dire developments ahead.
His death was captured in the statue at right, call "Laocoon and His Sons."
Any images of Obama or McCain that are linked to classical images?
(NOTE: To hear Bryan speak -- reading his "Cross of Gold Speech" in 1921, about 35 years after he originally delivered it, you can go here.)

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE 'ROUGHEST GAME' IN THE HISTORY OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Union and Wesleyan colleges played to a 0-0 tie yesterday in Schenectady, N.Y. The game made the front page of today's New York Times. The article gives the reason in its first sentence, calling it a "football game which for its exhibition of roughness has perhaps NEVER BEEN EXCEEDED in the history of college competitions" (emphasis added).
By the time the game was over SEVENTEEN PLAYERS had been injured and FIVE were taken to the hospital. The Times lists the players who were carried from the field:
Union: Capt. Potter, broken shoulder blade; Brown, kicked in head.
Wesleyan: Capt. Hammond, slight concussion of the brain; Harmon, wrenched left ankle and bruises; Wright, "general breakdown".
In a nice touch, the Times mentioned in the opening sentence of the nine-paragraph story that this was a game between two "METHODIST COLLEGES."

Oct. 9, 1908 (Friday)

HUGE CROWD SEES CUBS WIN PENNANT: The headline at right hasn't appeared too often since, but it's worth enjoying it. The Cubs defeated the New York Giants yesterday at the Polo Grounds, before about 40,000. The one-game playoff gave the Cubs the National League pennant. (The picture above shows a crowded game between the Cubs and Giants at the Polo Grounds in 1908, but it likely was not yesterday's game because, I think, the so-called "straw hat season" ended in mid-September.)
One of the stories in today's New York Times, written by W.J. Lampton, included a wonderful phrase. The weather was spectacular. He called it a "policeman day." He explained it this way:
The view from Coogan's [Bluff] was gorgeous in the extreme and beggared description. The day was one of those PERFECT OCTOBER DAYS which SO SELDOM COME WHEN YOU WANT THEM -- a POLICEMAN DAY, so to speak..." [emphasis added].
About 1,500 followed the game away from the stadium -- not from the Web or radio or TV, none of which have been invented. They stood in from of the three big window bulletins at the New York Times building watching someone post the inning-by-inning runs. The crowd was so big that seven police officers were needed -- to keep the trolley tracks clear.