Dec. 23, 1908 (Wednesday)

TEENAGE ROWER FOUND SHOT TO DEATH ON ICE OF LAKE QUINSIGAMOND: Today's Globe has the stunning news of the shooting death of Francis E. Jones, a 16-year-old, who was shot and killed while he was ice fishing on Half Moon Pond on Lake Quinsigamond. The first words of the first sentence of the story described the gruesome scene:
With a gunshot wound three icnhes in diameter in the left side of his head and the skull fractured into many places, the body of Francis E. Jones, aged 16, son of Herbert A. Jones of Shrewsbury, a former mail carrier in the Worcester post office, was found frozen into the ice of Half Moon Poond at the south end of Lake Quinsigamond today [meaning Dec. 22].
The killing also rated a front-page spot on the New York Times, which called Jones "one of the crack scullers" on the lake. (No, they didn't mean to say "skull crackers"; it means he was a great oarsman.)
The body had to be cut from the ice, where Jones had opened a number of holes for fishing. Police have no strong suspect as of now.

BROCKTON AND FIGHTING CERTAINLY FIT; BUT, BROCKTON AND POLO? The headline "Two Fights in Polo Game" snagged my attention, especially when I noticed the Brockton dateline (right). The Brockton team beat Providence, 6-3. The article noted this was a rough game, which included a tussle between Brockton's Lacy and Providence's Miller. They ended up on the ground, with Miller applying a "half-nelson" to Lacy's neck. A little reading (and research) revealed that this "polo" is horse-less polo, a sport that's very similar to ice hockey. Here's a description of ICE POLO from the "hockey" entry of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica:
Ice Polo, a winter sport similar to Ice Hockey, is almost exclusively played in the New England states. A rubber-covered ball is used and the stick is heavier than that used in Ice Hockey. The radical difference between the two games is that, in Ice Polo, there is no strict off-side rule, so that passes and shots at goal may come from any and often the most unexpected direction. Five men constitute a team: a goal-tend, a half-hack, a centre and two rushers. The rushers must be rapid skaters, adepts in dribbling and passing and good goal shots. The centre supports the rushers, passing the ball to them or trying for goal himself. The half-back is the first defence and the goal-tend the last. The rink is 150 ft. long.
(A closeup of some players from the school that would come to be known as the University of Connecticut is at right -- taken from this UConn site).

Dec. 22, 1908

WILL THE NAME OF PARK SQUARE BE CHANGED? Boston's board of aldermen heard a proposal from
Alderman Parker yesterday to change the name of Park Square to Lincoln Square "as a tribute to President Lincoln" who has a 100th birthday looming (on Feb. 12). A statue showing Lincoln stands in the square (above). The statue is the work of Thomas Ball and was given to the city by Moses Kimball. It was dedicated on Dec. 6, 1879, as described by the Globe in an article printed that day (shown at right). The bronze statue is a duplicate of the "Freedmen's Memorial Statue" in Washington, D.C.
You can find here the pamphlet that was printed in conjunction with the dedication.
Neither the pamphlet nor the news article note the controversies surrounding the statue and a coolly balanced view of Lincoln's attitude toward blacks, as stated by Frederick Douglass when the original statue was dedicated in D.C. in 1876:
Viewed from the genuine abolition ground Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined. Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery.

CSI: BOSTON -- WHY THEY DUG UP THE BODY OF CATHERINE KELLEHER IN ARLINGTON: Shortly after 6 a.m. yesterday, a Globe reporter was in St. Paul's Cemetery in Arlington to watch grave undiggers exhume the body of Catherine Kelleher, the last of Mary Kelleher's children to die. The reporter and Inspectors Carter and Damery of Somerville were the only witnesses to the digging. The task was done at that hour because "it was so dark they could not be seen from the street." The body was taken to the morgue on Medford Street, and an autopsy was performed between 11 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. Undertaker William Flaherty was on hand, with a bottle of the embalming fluid used on the body in July. That fluid will be tested to see if it includes any arsenic. Some of the girl's organs were sent to Harvard Medical School to help in determining whether or not the child died of natural causes. the body was back in the ground after about six hours.

Dec. 21, 1908 (Monday)

THIS IS A HO-HO-HO-HO-HOLDUP: Today's Boston Daily Globe included this unusual image of a pistol-packing Santa Claus (above) on the front page today. Pity the family man who is struggling to find some cash to satisfy the appetite of the gift-giving elf. This is, obviously, not a new concept!

FEDERAL REPORT SAYS AMERICANS EAT HALF THEIR WEIGHT IN SUGAR EACH YEAR: The U.S. Bureau of Statistics report that the U.S. has a massive sweet tooth. The bill for sugar costs about a MILLION DOLLARS a DAY. That paid for about 2 billion pounds a year, which equals to about half the body weight of each person. An article in today's Globe says the report "reads more like popular fiction than the ordinary government report." Unfortunately, the article didn't from the report.

CANADIAN ROBERT LEACH TURNS TO RHODE ISLAND COMPANY TO HELP HIM BOUNCE OVER NIAGARA FALLS IN A DOUBLE RUBBER BALL: Robert Leach of Niagara, Ontario, says he plans to go over Horseshoe Falls (above) in June inside a rubber ball. An unnamed firm from Bristol, Rhode Island, is making the ball. Actually it's two balls. The outer one is 13-feet across; the inner one, which will hold Leach, is 11 feet in diameter. Some spiral springs will be inside the balls. And oxygen will be pumped into the inner ball to keep Leach alive in case something goes wrong. Leach has already survived a ride through the Whirlpool Rapids in the Niagara River.