Aug. 14, 1909 (Saturday)

SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO READ MORE THAN THE HEADLINE: Not to worry. This headline from today's paper must be taken in context. The subhead, which I have artfully omitted, reads, "Great War Game to Test Adequacy of Coast Defences Has Begun." War games begin today that are designed to show whether or not Massachusetts, and especially Boston, is "sufficiently protected against a foreign foe." The Globe devotes plenty of space to this, including cartoons. The one at right shows a woman telling her temporary soldier-husband, "Don't get killed any more times than necessary, will you dear."
Authorities are already certain that no hostile navy could "successfully run the gauntlet of the forts defending Boston harbor." Today's war games will demonstrate whether or not the city can survive an invasion from a foreign foe that lands on the southern coast and makes an attack from the rear. To the great comfort of all, this exercise will likely settle the additional question of whether or not there's a real threat in case Rhode Island rises up.

ALABAMA TRIES TO KEEP LIQUOR UNDER CONTROL -- EVEN WANTS TO CURTAIL THE USE OF THE WORD "SALOON": The Alabama house yesterday "made violent assault on the sale of intoxicants of all kinds," according to today's Globe. The members passed the Fuller Bill, which is considered "beyond question the most drastic ever offered in the south."
Among the provisions:
No liquors can be sold;
No advertisements for liquor may appear in any newspaper or on any billboard;
No train can leave a car on a track that contains liquor;
No place of business may be called a "saloon".
Nobody can use the word "saloon";
Any place where there is "frequent assembling may be raided on suspicion;
All corporations, when a charter is issued, must vow not to bring in liquors of any kind;
The article adds that "a hard but losing fight was made to exclude the newspapers from the bill."
Google Books has a copy of the Acts of the General Assembly of Alabama (1909, page 63 ff).
Here's what the text says about the advertising:
Any such advertisement containing the picture of a brewery or a distillery or bottles, jugs, keys, barrels or boxes, represented as containing whiskey, beer, or other prohibited liquors and beverages shall be within the inhibition of this section.

IN PAINFUL CIRCUMSTANCES, SOMETIMES LIQUOR IS WELCOME: Despite the ban in Alabama, some in the South see a positive use for alcohol. Consider this touching scene after a train wreck in Bristol, Va., on the evening of Aug. 12, 1909 -- and as reported in today's Globe, based on the reports of passengers who arrived in Atlanta yesterday. They talked about the bravery of engineer Samuel Bush of Knoxville, who died the day after the wreck from his injuries.
Passengers described how Bush tried to extricate himself from the wrecked engine -- scalded and "frightfully bruised." Some passengers began to hunt for whisky to stimulate him and broke into suitcases looking for some liquor. They offered some to him. He, in turn, asked them to look after any passengers who were injured. When told that none of the passengers were hurt, he said,
"That's good. but before I take this whisky I want you men to smell my breath and testify if need be that I had not been drinking when this happened."
Although suffering horrible agonies, the brave engineer would not touch the stimulant until four of the men had smelled his breath and promised to bear witness to his sobriety.

Aug. 13, 1909 (Friday)

FARMER IS CAPTIVATED BY NEW PENNY -- OFFERS $1 APIECE: The new Lincoln cents have really gotten the attention of a farmer named Ephraim Baldwin of South Egremont in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. According to today's Globe, Baldwin told local youngsters that he would give them one dollar for each new Lincoln cent (right) they could get ahold of. The penny-hunters scoured the village and came up with 28 cents, for which Baldwin paid the handsome price of $28.

In Pittsfield, Mass. -- also in the western part of the state -- a business took the opposite approach. In an attempt to build traffice, it sold two Lincoln pennies for one cent as part of an advertising scheme.

The Baldwin price of $1 for each coin was, of course, quite high. Today that dollar would be worth about $20. The coins? Well it looks as though they have jumped in value far faster than inflation. I think many of the 1909 issues (not, of course, the VDB minted in San Francisco) can be bought for between $6 and $10. However, the Baldwin price looks very good 100 years down the road when you look at this offer from Home Shopping Network.

Aug. 12, 1909 (Thursday)

N.Y. YACHT CLUB RUNS INTO A "SNORTER": Sailing craft from the New York Yacht Club left Newport, R.I., on Monday for a run to Bar Harbor, Maine. The ships, however, ran into some trouble on Tuesday, according to today's Globe (right). The problem was the weather. The article calls it a "SNORTER," one of the more descriptive weather terms that we wish was still used by forecasters on television. For context, the article says, referring to the ships of the New York Yacht Club, Not all of those now at anchor sought refuge in time from the cape [sic] Cod "snorter" that took possession of the seas Tuesday night.

One yacht, the schooner Corona, collided with the Pollock rip lightship and was towed into Boston harbor. At least two 57-footers are not accounted for. One captain who found refuge in Portland called the waves "little mountains." The arrival of the yachts from New York is a high point of the summer in many coastal towns. The scene above shows a crowd at Marblehead admiring the fleet probably around 1906.

Aug. 11, 1909 (Wednesday)

GLOBE PRINTS DEEPLY PERSONAL INFORMATION ON PRESIDENT TAFT.... HIS GOLF RESULTS: The Globe's sports page featured a big story about President Taft's golf game yesterday at the Myopia course in Beverly. Taft complete the round in about 90 minutes. But, as you can see from the chart above, he averaged more than a stroke a minute. That's a pretty fast pace.
He insisted that no photos be taken of him playing golf.
The secret service man was very nice about it, too, except that he thought that Boston was like a certain place in the south where photographers lurked in the long grass and did all the things with the camera that they had been asked not to do. The secret service man sat on the camera of the Globe man...."
Unlike yesterday, Taft evidently allowed himself to be quoted. At the 11th, according to the Globe writer, Taft "putted strangely on the sloping green." Then the writer added a quote from the president: "Pshaw! I did not hit the ball right."
The Globe printed his score for the 18 holes. He shot a 107 and logged three 8's (e.g., "snowmen").
The article was written by Ralph Cracknell, the golf editor of the Globe. His picture is at right. The photo appeared with his obituary; he died June 24, 1913. The obituary had this to sayt about him:
He was a fine "desk man," an excellent reporter and a specialist of the highest order in sports. He was practically the dean of the newspaper men of America who interested themselves in golf when the game was new and young, and he could play the game proficiently. He knew it, "root and branch," and those who love the game had the greatest respect for Ralph Cracknell.

BOSTON PREPARES FOR WAR GAMES AND APPLAUDS THE 10TH U.S. CAVALRY: There's a big war game scheduled in Plymouth County next week and the widely known 10th U.S. Cavalry (shown above) was honored as it marched through various Massachusetts towns on its way to the "front." The Globe's headline described the reception with this front-page headline: "Negro Cavalry Is Welcomed." The article described the reception for the 10th, which historically was part of the famous "Buffalo Soldiers." The soldiers will camp in Milford.

FAMILY IN MAINE KEEPS GROWING; NOW IT INCLUDES 21 CHILDREN: Today's Globe has an article about the Dickey family of Canaan, Maine. Why are they in the news? Well, Mrs. Dickey recently gave birth to the couple's 21st child. The children range in age from 27 years to 2 weeks.
Mr Dickey had some statistics ready for the Globe reporter:
How many potatoes does it take to feed the family a year? 115 bushels.
How much wood does the family burn in a year? 23 cords of hard wood.
How much flour does it take to feed the family each year: 14 barrels.
Mr. Dickey isn't as rich as some people but he doesn't seem to mind.
He told the Globe: "The only difference between me and John D. Rockefeller is that John D. Rockefeller has all the money and I have all the babies."

Aug. 10, 1909

PRESIDENT SETTLES IN AT SUMMER WHITE HOUSE ON BOSTON'S NORTH SHORE; AMONG THE WEIGHTY ISSUES HE TACKLES IS GOLF: Today's Globe reports that Taft, who just arrived in Beverly for a vacation, will be spending much of his time on the golf course (He's pictured above in 1908 at Hot Springs.) The Globe unabashedly refers to Taft's girth and weight. Some examples, in the first four paragraphs of the front-page story:
One of the President's chief sources of worry is his avoirdupois. To keep down his weight he denies himself many things he likes in the food line. Liquors are also debarred by him because they have a tendency to put on flesh....
The President says that playing golf does not reduce one's weight, but that it helps keep one down to normal condition.....
The secret of keeping down one's flesh, he says, is to know what to eat and when to stop eating. The President's friends here say that he has mastered all the details and knows all the secrets of the art of reducing flesh.
One odd sequence in the article demonstrates the reluctance of news reporters to QUOTE the PRESIDENT DIRECTLY. The section is sub-titled "Talked with Reporters". It goes in this way:
The President sent word through Sec. Carpenter that he would see the newspaper men at his cottage at 3 p.m. Promptly at that hour the President was on hand to keep his appointment, having returned from the golf links a few minutes before. He shook hands with the score or more reporters who are assigned to "cover" him while he is here.
He hadn't any news, but he chatted pleasantly for 15 minutes with them, called those whom he knew personally by their first names, patted on the back others who sought to get him to talk politics and laughed off their questions and "jollied" one of the Washington correspondents about the lack of harmony between the shade of his hosiery and necktie.
Fifteen minutes of conversation... and... no direct quotation.

GLOBE DESIGNATES CROOK AS WORLD'S MEANEST MAN: The back page of today's Globe has a stunning headline. It reads:
MEANEST MAN ON
EARTH, THIS THIEF
That's making quite a claim. The label is NOT attached to a named person. Instead, it goes to the unknown thief who yesterday stole the clothing of David Faye Whitcomb, who had drowned in Brookside Pond, which is in or near Great Barrington, Mass.
Whitcomb's clothes and effects had been taken to the home of Frank Eisner, who lives near the pond. The dead man's belongings -- and about $250 worth of jewelry belonging to the Eisners -- were taken from the home. For this act, the perpetrator "has earned for himself the distinction of the meanest man on earth."
Not surprisingly, the article says, "a clew [sic] points to the perpetrator having been with a circus." What did he leave behind? A clown's wig?
But the MEANEST MAN????? What about King Leopold?

TARBELL'S OIL FIGHT PAYS OFF: I thought one of the brief editorial statements in the Globe was pretty clever. It reads, "Miss Ida M. Tarbell has been made a doctor of literature, an honor which is thoroughly deserved. It pays to burn the midnight oil." [Emphasis added.]
Her "The History of the Standard Oil Company" (published in McClure's Magazine in 1902-1904) is considered by many to be among the top five works of journalism in the 20th Century.