Aug. 6, 1909 (Friday)

A TIP OF THE HAT TO TENNYSON: Today's Globe notes the 100th anniversary of the birth of poet Alfred Lord Tennyson with a photo, words of praise and brief quotations from some of the poet's works. The list of "some of the most commonly read and heard quotations from the works of Tennyson" does NOT include anything from his "Charge of the Light Brigade." It includes three snippets from his "Locksley Hall", including:
In the spring, a livelier iris changes on the burnish'd dove;
In the spring a young man's fance lightly turns to thoughts of love.
The final quotation is most appropriate, from "The Brook":
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.

THE ANNIVERSARY PROBABLY PASSED QUIETLY AT HARVARD SQUARE: Aug. 5, 2009 marks the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the DIGGING of the subway entrance at Harvard Square, Cambridge. The Globe of Aug. 6, 1909 noted the event with a photograph (above). The Globe explains that the picture shows "the scene when the first actual work of excavating at the Harvard Sq. section, Cambridge for the new subway." The work began Aug. 5, 1909. It points out that the work is being done "near the statue of Charles Sumner" (visible to the right).

THANKS TO HIS MATTRESS, HE SURELY RESTED EASY DURING THE PANIC OF 1907: Today's Globe has a three-paragraph story about the estate of the "eccentric old policeman" named Daniel Appelgate (or Applegate?), who died recently in New Jersey. Relatives were at his house in Brooklyn the other day, going through his effects so they could settle the estate. They thought the man's mattress was unusually heavy. They ripped it open and found $17,000 in double eagles (above) stored in the bottom of the mattress. (The coin was worth, I think, $20; this means there were about 850 of the coins in the bed.)
The story explained:
" 'Dan' Appelgate [sic] had no faith in savings banks and changed his pay into double eagles every month. Nobody lived in his home with him, and he did his own housework. The money found will be divided among his sons and daughters."
[For a hint at the value of that money in 2009, it comes to about $340,000.]