April 18, 1909 (Sunday)

RED SOX PREPARE TO OPEN THE 1909 SEASON AT HOME: The Boston Red Sox will open its home portion of the American League season on Wednesday at the Huntington Avenue grounds (above, 1904). Gates for the game (against Philadelphia) will open at 1 p.m. The game will begin at 3 p.m.
Music will help fill the interlude, with a concert presented by Teel's Band to take place between 2 and 3 p.m.
Today's Globe presents the program (shown here), which is a FAR CRY from the "stadium anthems" of 100 years later.
Here is a closer look at the pieces and composers, with links gleaned quickly from the Web. I wish I could find an example of "The Red Sox March," which opens the program. Perhaps others can find it. That said, here's the line-up with some links to the music and the composers:
The Red Sox March (Teel)
Excerpts from Marcelle (Luders)
Take Your Girl to the Ball Game (Waltz by Cohan and Schwartz)
Idylle, The Glow Worm (Linke)
Gems from Little Nemo (Herbert)
Shine on Harvest Moon (Remick)
Make a Noise Like a Hoop and Roll Away (Helf and Hager)
I Wish I had a Girl (Remick) [NOTE: Not Henry Lee Summer's song of the same title!]
Don't Take Me Home (Van Tilzer)
Custer's Last Charge (Descriptive fantasia by Luders)
National Emblem, Finale (Bagley)

RECORD NUMBER OF RUNNERS EXPECTED AT TOMORROW'S MARATHON: More than 180 runners have indicated they will be at the starting line tomorrow at noon for the Boston Marathon. It's a large number, according to the Globe. The first race (in 1897) attracted 15 starters. Last year had 120 starters, and that seems to be the record. Three former winners are expected: Sammy Mellor 91902), Freddy Lorz (1904) and Tom Morrissey (1908). Lorz's winning time of 2:25:43 1-5 was about 1 minute, 18 4-5 seconds slower than Thomas Longboat's record time from 1907.

PALM READER TRIES HIS HAND AT POLITICAL PUNDITRY: For some reason, today's Globe presents a feature written by palmist S. Daoud. The piece is devoted to the PALM of President Taft. The reader makes some bold predictions. For one thing, Taft will be involved in a war toward the end of his first term. (That clearly didn't happen, unless you count a political war with his former mentor Theodore Roosevelt.) Daoud says Taft will not win a second term -- in 1912. Instead, he will lie low and then run again in 1916 -- and WIN.

April 17, 1909 (Saturday)

TAFT'S PRESENCE AT THE NORTH SHORE SENDS COST OF HOME RENTALS THROUGH THE ROOF: Word that President Taft will spend much of the summer in Beverly, north of Boston, has led home owners to raise the rents on homes in the neighborhood. According to today's Globe, "nearly all of the summer houses are taken." The paper adds "there has been a great demand for summer houses along the North shore by the wealthy people from all sections of the United States."
As demand rises, of course, prices follow. People offering $2,000 for a cottage for the season are having a very hard time finding something. (That's about $40,000 in 2009 DOLLARS.)The photo above shows a sweeping view of the house Taft will live in. For a closer look, go here.
A story surfaced yesterday that souvenir hunters had descended on the Woodberry point property that Taft has leased and have walked off with various items, including pieces of the fence at the property. Further investigation show that these stories are not true.
The secretary to the president, Fred Carpenter, has been looking for an office location near the railroad station. One in Beverly might fit the bill, at the corner of Broadway and Rantoul Street, which will become known also as Route 1A (see map at right).

ANTI-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE ERUPTS IN TURKEY: Two missionaries from the U.S. might have been killed in Turkey this week, according to today's Globe. They might have been caught up in "anti-Armenian riots" in Adana, but information is limited. What seems to be certain, according to the Globe, is that:
There seems to be little doubt that the Moslem fanaticism against Christians has taken a new lease of life under the present conditions of unrest in Turkey.
Reports are contradictory. One story says 60 Armenians were killed in the streets. Another report puts the number at 10. District missionaries are in Adana for a regular meeting. The U.S. ambassador has ordered John Deddas, American vice consul in Mersina, to go to Adana to find out what's going on.

HERE'S WHAT BOSTON IS READING: The weekly top-ten fiction bestsellers is in today's paper. At the top is one by Boston's own Robert Grant. Some information about him is here and here. The book in this list is "The Chippendales," which has nothing to do with these guys. One descriptions says it is a "saga of a Boston family coping with change at the turn of the century."
[Note: He will write one called "The High Priestess," which is about "the complications that result when a woman leaves her domain at home and her duties as a homemaker."]
The list also include "The Man in the Lower 10" by the prolific Mary Robert Rinehart (right).

AND YOU'RE WILLING TO MERELY CALL IT A 'STRAW HAT': At first glance, the hats in this ad might look identical. However, each style is a little different. Consider the names: Mozart, Erie, Norfolk, Knox. Frugal ones, of course, wear the Knox.

April 16, 1909 (Friday)

HEADLINE TELLS ONLY PART OF THE STORY OF WOMAN'S EFFORTS TO FREE THE MAN SHE LOVES: A curious case in Providence, R.I., made the front page of today's Globe, with the multi-deck headline shown above. The top deck ("Love Unlocks the Jail Door") is appropriate enough. And all the other elements are, indeed, true. The prisoner, Camillo Destino, has married the woman, teenager Christina Palmieri. He was in jail for shooting and wounding someone on March 8. After a quarrel, he fired three shots at the person. One hit that person in the BACK. That someone was Christina, who is now his WIFE.
The bottom headline -- "Providence Man Charged with Intent to Kill" -- neglects to mention WHOM he intended to kill. She has forgiven him, and it looks as though prosecutors will have to drop the case. Christina was the only witness to the shooting. As the Globe points out, "since her marriage to the defendent [sic], she cannot be compelled to testify against him."

IT'S ONE THING FOR A LAWYER TO BE THE BUTT OF JOKES, QUITE ANOTHER TO BE PUBLICLY WHIPPED: Jessie McClellan is expected to be arraigned today in Superior Court on charges of HORSEWHIPPED lawyer George Sweetser -- TWICE. The first time was on January 12. The second time was on March 8. What makes the recent one most interesting is that she mistook Llewellyn Pulsifer, a selectman of Natick, for Sweetser and whipped him on a train. She has pleaded guilty to three charges of assault and battery.
The Globe adds:
She has promised or will promise today that she will whip no more lawyers.

April 15, 1909 (Thursday)

'SUMMER WHITE HOUSE' WILL BE IN BEVERLY: Preparations are underway to get the Stetson cottage at Woodberry point ready for a lengthy visit in June by President William H. Taft. (That's the "cottage" in the postcard image above.) Today's Globe tells the story in a front page article in today's paper with the headline "PUTTING SUMMER CAPITOL IN SHAPE." The White House announced yesterday that the Tafts had leased the property for a lengthy stay. One of the big attractions is the nearby golf course at the Myopia Hunt Club.
Regarding Taft's enjoyment of golf (He's shown at left in Hot Springs, Ark., in 1908.), the Globe says:
The President is looking forward with pleasure to playing a great deal of golf on the fine links of the Myopia Hunt club at Hamilton. The praise he has heard of this course undoubtedly had something to do with the final selection of the cottage at Beverly.
It's expected that the Tafts will arrive sometime after the first of June.

THERE'S MORE NEWS OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE ON THE NORTH SHORE, TOO: Noted Theosophist Katherine Tingley (left) recently bought "one of the finest estates on High st." in Newburyport. Today's Globe says she yesterday revealed her plan to establish a school for Raja Yoga [which the headline of the article renders "Raja Yaga"]. In addition,
In the fall she will go abroad and visit the schools of Theosophy in England, Ireland, Wales, Germany, France, Sweden and Denmark. She will also go to Constantinople, where she will be the guest of Edward H. Ozmun, the American consul general at Turkey.