March 10, 1909 (Wednesday)

BOYS SAY THEY LEARNED FROM A MOVIE HOW TO BREAK INTO A HOUSE IN WEST QUINCY; COULD THIS BE AN EARLY EXAMPLE OF THE COPYCAT EFFECT? Yesterday, some boys broke into James Wastson's house at 4 West Street, West Quincy, and stole $60 [about $1,200 in 2009 money]. Police apparently found the guilty boys fairly easily. Here's how the Globe described the thought process:
... police were notified. They learned that a boy who had been before the court recently on a larceny charge had been seen going to Boston on a train with two other boys. Acting inspector Goodhue got hold of this boy, and he admitted going into the house.
The boys told police they had KNOCKED on the DOORS of the house and discovered that NOBODY WAS HOME. They then FORCED OPEN a BULKHEAD DOOR and entered the basement. Then they climbed to the upper floors and found the money.
Police say the boys had a "novel excuse" for breaking the law.
Here it is, as described by the Globe (with emphasis added):
They said they had seen a house entered in a moving picture exhibition by men who first KNOCKED AT THE DOORS and then TRIED THE CELLAR BULKHEAD with success. They followed the line suggested by the pictures, also with success.
The headline writer tried to capture this by writing: "Taught by Picture Machine".
It's not as creative as the "Twinkie Defense" that was recently -- and somewhat erroneously -- emphasized in "Milk." But you have to give the boys credit for bringing attention to the great powers of suggestion offered by this new medium of the moving pictures.

DEFENSE LAWYER SAYS 'UNWRITTEN LAW' CAN PROTECT SOMEONE WHO KILLS A JOURNALIST .... WHO HAS OFFENDED HIM IN PRINT: General M.H. Meeks spent about FIVE HOURS in a Nashville courtroom yesterday claiming that the "unwritten law" protects the three men accused of killing former U.S. Sen. E.W. Carmack (right) in
the shooting of Carmack on Nov. 10, 1908.
Today's Globe says Meeks' "invocation was sprung during Gen. Mills' speech to the jury. The article quoted him at length:
You talk of the liberty of the press. Why, gentlemen, no man lives who believes more firmly in the liberty of the press than I do. But, when a man in an editorial position turns the liberty of the press into license and undertakes to defame and defile you and your family, what are you going to do? The prosecution will tell you you have your recourse in the courts. Yes, and you get a judgment for $25,000 against a man not worth the price of a plug of tobacco. Is that satisfaction?
O, gentlemen, I tell you that the streets of this, our city, have run red before with the blood of men who improperly used other men's names in public prints."

March 9, 1909 (Tuesday)

NUNS HELP 345 STUDENTS FLEE FIRE IN BROCKTON SCHOOL: Thanks to the iron discipline of some nuns and the unquestioning obedience of the students, everyone escaped alive from the blaze that ripped through the French Catholic school on Court Street in Brockton yesterday [March 8, 1909]. Chillingly, this blaze erupted almost exactly a year after the horrible fire in Ohio in the Collinwood school (infamous for its inward-swinging doors). [That fire was covered in papers on March 5, 1908, and March 6, 1908.]
People were, obviously, more fortunate in Brockton. The fire was spotted in the basement by a student named Albert Bilodeau, who was down there getting some water. Here's how the Globe describes the CALM way he and others handled the situation:
Bilodeau hurried back to the classroom and gave the alarm to sister St. Catherine. Charles Simoneau was dispatched upstairs to notify the teachers in that part of the building. The little fellow kept his head remarkably well. Going to sister St. Sallet, a teacher, he whispered, "The school is on fire downstairs; sister St. Catherine says get the children out at once."
Somehow, the nuns got all 345 children (ages 5 to 17) out of the building by the time firefighters had arrived. The building was gutted.
The students were clearly geared to OBEY, and that likely helped a lot. Here's what a "little girl of about 5 years" said:
"I heard the sister say to climb out the window, and I did. I shouldn't have gone out that way, only we are taught to do as we are told without asking questions."
The Globe reporter added, "The little girl's words revealed how well the sisters had the school in hand."
The reporter also described a heroic act by 17-year-old Albert Deschamps ("whose father is one of the prominent men of the parish"). One of the nuns asked Albert to retrieve money and "valuable papers" on the third floor of the building. The Globe says, "The boy was almost overcome in so doing, having to crawl along a corridor that was filled with smoke. He made his way out safely and brought the money and papers with him."

"STEERAGE INDEX" POINTS TO A BETTER ECONOMY, THANKS TO A BULGING ROMANIC: The White Star liner Romanic (above) arrived yesterday [March 8, 1909]in Boston Harbor, ending a snappy run from Naples that took 11 days, 8 hours and 53 minutes. It carried 1,500 passengers, which was the LARGEST number of one-ship arrivals in Boston since November 1907. The steerage was filled with Italians who were returning to this country. I call this the STEERAGE INDEX for the nation's economy. The Globe explains the significance of the number, saying that the returnees are:
principally men who returned to their old homes a year ago on account of hard times. Reports in Italy of a big business boom in this country is sending thousands of Italians back to America.
The ship brought 1,120 Italians, 267 Portuguese, 20 Greeks and 11 Spanish in steerage.
Capt. Hugh F David now commands the Romanic.

March 8, 1909 (Monday)

COULD THIS BE A "SEPARATED AT BIRTH" THING? The Globe appears to be quite attracted to the new president, William Howard Taft. The paper's mascot and the president certainly seem to share a rotund body type. And they both evidently share OPTIMISM about the future, as this promo shows in today's paper.

WONDER WHAT THE GLOBE MASCOT AND TAFT THINK ABOUT THIS REPLACEMENT FOR LARD?: Today's Globe includes this tasteful advertisement for Cottolene (shown at right) The stuff sat at the intersection of two waste products -- cotton seeds and beef tallow. This advertisement raises the great questions about LARD. (For example, "If you knew that lard was unhealthy, would you still eat lard-soaked food?") This product, supposedly, "contains no hog fat." And it asks, "Why take chances with swine fat?" Why, indeed.

March 7, 1909 (Sunday)

HARVARD PROFESSOR WORRIES ABOUT THE DAY WHEN COAL AND OIL ARE USED UP: I loved the first paragraph of a story headlined "Alcohol for Oil and Coal" in today's Globe. The article reports on a lecture made last evening at Harvard Medical School by a prominent scientist. It goes:
Those who are afraid the coal supply will give out and that John D. Rockefeller's oil wells will run dry should have heard Dr. Lawrence J[oseph]. Henderson's lecture on "Glucose" in the Harvard medical school course last evening.
Glucose is a good source of alcohol, Henderson (right) says and, in words paraphrased by the Globe, he says "the use of this alcohol s a force for light, heat and energy is in its infancy. When the use of this alcohol is better understood, he said, we can grow our fuel every year with a crop of starch or glucose. The article ends with this quote from Henderson:
"With this in sight, no one need fear about the supply of coal giving out, nor the supply of petroleum. This alcohol will take the place of both."
[No mention of Saudi Arabia, of course; that oil source awaits.]
Someday, maybe. There's been progress in this area, as illustrated in the chart above from this site.

FOR THOSE TO BUSY TO READ AN ENTIRE BOOK...: Today's Globe devotes a full page to "The Water Witch" by James Fenimore Cooper. The urge to save time and money is nothing new. I have no idea how good a job they did in the condensing the book -- squeezing 34 chapters into one newspaper page. Sorry, but the image above is not readable. You can read the entire text here. If you don't have time for that, this appears to be a summary of the story.

March 6, 1909 (Saturday)

THERE'S PLENTY OF REASON TO THINK THINGS HAVE CALMED DOWN IN THE WHITE HOUSE: This two-panel cartoon printed in today's Globe sums up the likely change from chaos-to-calm in the White House -- thanks to the transition on March 4 from a frenetic Theodore Roosevelt (bottom) to the sedentary William Howard Taft (top).

IF YOU THINK YOUNGSTERS ARE CRAZY IN 2009, TRY CONVINCING ONE TO RUN A "BENDIE": Ten-year-old John Sexton (who goes to the McKinley School in Revere) nearly drowned yesterday afternoon in the ice-covered pond at Paul Revere Park.
He and his family can thank a trio of ninth graders -- William Leonardt, Robert Ignico and Charles Finley -- for plucking him from the water after he broke through. The older boys -- risking their own safety -- helped pull him out thanks to a life preserver and a plank.The headline (above) says John was "running bendies." The term is explained in the article:
The boys were playing on the thin ice. The Sexton Boy tempted fate by running across a spot where the ICE BENT UNDER HIM, forming a "BENDIE." After a few tests the ice gave way and threw him into water over his head in depth.
The term shows up in the Dictionary of American Regional English:

March 5, 1909 (Friday)

TAFT COMES IN ON THE HEELS OF A MARCH BLIZZARD: Meteorologists predicted that the weather Inauguration Day on March 4 in Washington, D.C., would be "fair and somewhat cooler." Well, a massive blizzard struck the city overnight, leaving a huge amount of snow -- disrupting many of the plans for the swearing-in of William Howard Taft. The storm was so big, that it "seemed to threaten a repetition of the great blizzard of March 12, 1888," according to a story on the front page of today's Globe. The bad weather forced the authorities to move the ceremony from the east wing of the Capitol to the Senate chamber, where the Hefty One weighed in with his inauguration speech. [The photo above shows the president-elect and his wife, Helen Herron Taft -- a distant relative, on the way to the swearing-in.] Today's Globe included this weather-related exchange in the breakfast room between the incoming Taft and the outgoing Theodore Roosevelt:
"Mr. President, even the elements protest."
"Mr. President-elect," quickly rejoined Mr. Roosevelt, "I knew there would be a blizzard clear up to the minute I went out of office."
"I always knew it would be a cold day when I was made President of the United States," was the laughing remark of Mr. Taft.

A HEADLINE THAT SOME SEE ONLY IN THEIR DREAMS: The Globe's headline for the weather story (shown above -- "Washington is Wiped Off Map") clearly overstates the situation. But it's a vision that appeals to many, right?
In any case, it means that the city was "wiped off" the communications map for quite a time during the storm. The story says
For eight hours Washington, the central point in America for the time being, was completely isolated, and at a late hour tonight [March 4] the only means of communication between the capital and the outside world was over three crippled telegraph wires -- one to New York, one to Atlanta and a third to Charlottesville, Va.

FIRST BASEMAN SAYS BASEBALL WILL CONTINUE TO GROW IN JAPAN: With the opening of the 2009 World Baseball Classic at hand, some 100-year-old comments by Red Sox player Harold Danzig, quoted in the Globe of March 5, 1909, are intriguing. Over the winter, Danzig had visited China and Japan. Globe sportswriter T.H. Murnane writes that Danzig's "experience with the Chinese and Japanese are worth listening to." Then comes the relevant point:
He was delighted at the deep interest the foreigners took in baseball, and predicted they will soon be playing up-to-date ball in Japan.
[Note: Despite having the nickname of "Babe," Danzig's career was quite brief.]

March 4, 1909 (Thursday)

REMARKABLE PHOTO COLLAGE SUMS UP 11 YEARS OF ROOSEVELT'S PUBLIC LIFE: It's a bit hard to read in this reproduction, but this six-column photograph includes dozens and dozens of small images of Theodore Roosevelt, who leaves office as president today. The Globe calls this "the most remarkable combination photograph in the world." The image has a copyright of 1908 by Underwood & Underwood.

CARTOON FROM SPRING TRAINING PORTRAYS SEGREGATION IN HOT SPRINGS, ARK.: Today's Globe printed another large cartoon sent in from the Red Sox spring training camp in Hot Springs, Ark. One portion of it gives a long-range view of the ball park. Watching the action -- from the outside and from afar -- are three small animals and three people. All three are black, with the tall one saying "Golly".

SPORTSWRITER FINDS SOMEONE WITH A GOOD EYE FOR TALENT: The Globe's T.H. Murnane, who is with the Red Sox in Hot Springs writes in today's paper came across someone who is very impressed with a youngster named Joe Wood (right), who turns 20 in October. Here's Murnane's analysis:
Joe Wood, the Kansas City pitcher, reminds me very much of Charley Nichols, who by the way picked up the business in Kansas City. Wood is a rather slight, tall young fellow, already down to weight....As good a judge as George Tebeau says that young Wood will become one of the real major league stars, as he has speed and a fast raise ball that will bother the big stickers in major league company.
As it turns out, the prediction turned out to be pretty sound, given Wood's career statistics.

March 3, 1909 (Wednesday)

"CORSET NIGHT" DRAWS A CROWD TO HORTICULTURAL HALL: Nearly 1,000 women showed up last night at Horticultural Hall to hear "Madame White" talk about the best use of corsets. One highlight was furnished by "very stout model" who provided an opportunity to show the proper method of getting into corset (as illustrated above). Here's a description:
After accomplishing the bewildering task of pulling up 15 yards of string behind her back, she was given a gown with [sic] Mme. White wore last year. The struggle with the strings was nothing compared with the hunt for matching hooks and eyes, but the difficult labor was finally accomplished, and the woman stood before the admiring spectators, a really beautiful figure, with heavy tawny hair, and the fine gown of old-blue silk, which fitted her in an amazing way.
Mme White offered this advice: "To be well dressed one must not look dressed." She also thinks women should have two or three corsets and should change them every second day, which enables the woman to be "an entire new person."
The article was illustrated with a handful of drawings, including the humorous one at right, which showed "men reporters" trying to catch a peek of the proceedings through a window. The caption says, "The men reporters were 'in bad'." The words in the cartoon bubble -- spoken by the reporter who is bent over and providing support for the window-peeper -- are "Gee, but this is a tough job."

CABINET MEMBER (WITH THE MIDDLE NAME OF "ACHILLES") DESCRIBES HOW HE LEARNED LATIN AND GREEK: Today's Globe includes a charming notice about the new Secretary of the Interior, Richard A. Ballinger (right). He describes how he came to learn classical languages (Latin and Greek) while living in Kansas. He said:
"When I was 15 years old -- in 1872 -- my father removed from Virden, Ill., to Larned, Kan., and as that was in the center of the cattle country I soon was a cowboy.
"While I was on the range I rode SEVEN MILES every Sunday to recite Latin to the steward at Fort Larned, where several companies of soldiers were stationed. I was grateful for this assistance and also for the interest taken in my by a minister who lived THREE MILES or more from our ranch and who was willing to impart to me his smattering of Greek."
Ballinger went to college at the University of Kansas and Washburn College, eventually getting a degree from Williams College, where he was part of the same class as President James A. Garfield, graduating in 1884.
This was a benign way for him to get in the news. More publicity awaits, thanks to the so-called Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy. Maybe as a youngster, Ballinger should have ridden his horse seven miles for instruction in ETHICS.