Oct. 21, 1909 (Thursday)

EXPERTS TRY TO PUT SEX (EDUCATION) ON THE TABLE: The Massachusetts state conference of charities met in Ford Hall last night. Sex hygiene was the topic. the topic was NOT the evils of sex. The concern are "the evils arising from IGNORANCE among the youth of both sexes," according to today's Globe.
Here's how the Globe summarizes the remarks of Charles Eliot (right), former president of Harvard:
"Dr. Eliot said that the policy of this part of the world has been one of complete silence in regard to questions of sex, but that the danger of such a policy has become too great to allow of its continuance."
The story offers a direct quote, which resonates a hundred years later:
"We have been putting our children, uninformed, in contact with danger, but the policy of trusting to ignorance to preserve their integrity has failed."
Dr. Marshall Bailey of Harvard said, "The public prejudice against the necessary instruction must be banished."
Maud E. Miner, a probation officer in the night court in New York City drew applause by saying (in a paraphrase in the Globe) "that there must be a revolution i the teaching of men, as well as of women, and that there should be the same standard of morality for men as for women." The paper says it was "the heartiest applause of the evening."


GOVERNMENT TURNS TO SMUGGLING -- TO SECRETLY DEPORT LEPER: Consider the tale of Antonius Freisa (or Freiss?). According to a story on page 8 of today's Globe, the Greek immigrant was "smuggled aboard" a steamer in New York late on the evening of Oct. 20 and --- by the time Globe readers were learning of it, he was on his way. The article says, "The greatest secrecy was necessary to keep the facts from the passengers."
Freisa was brought to New York from the leper colony on Penikese Island in Massachusetts, which sits on the east coast of Buzzard Bay. That's where Massachusetts set up a treatment center for lepers, which is described here by Ken Hartnett. The first lepers were brought there on Nov. 18, 1905.
The patient was transported on the schooner Andrew J. Pierce, under the eye of New Bedford's Capt. Jesse smith and a surgeon from the U.S. Marine Corps and and immigration officer.
Here's the description of Freisa's situation:
"Freisa is far advanced in the disease. He has been in the leper colony 18 months and in this country less than three years, so that his deportation by the government presented no legal difficulties. The partitions constituting his room in the schooner's hold have been torn down and burned, the vessel disinfected and her captain paid a handsome charter fee."
Not sure what happens to the patient once he gets to Genoa. Genoa? Well, maybe not. The article says he's on his way to Genoa. However, the last thing the government would want to have happen is that readers would let passengers heading on a ship to Genoa know by wireless en route. Remember, the government is interested in secrecy. So. it's not surprising that "Genoa" does not show up in the list of destinations that The New York Times printed on Oct. 20, 1909 (shown at right).
Not sure if the same mechanisms will be used when/if an illegal/undocumented immigrant is found with H1N1 flu.

October 20, 1909 (Wednesday)

A NEW YORK NEWSPAPER DECIDES NOT TO PRINT THE NAME OF ONE OF THE CANDIDATES FOR MAYOR: After hearing some gripes from the Obama Administration about the political leanings of Fox news, an editorial titled "Anonymous Personalities" in today's Globe helps put some of the dispute in a historical perspective. It summarizes the use of "acrimonious invective" that editors in Dickens' time would draw upon "to maul, claw and scratch" opponents -- both personal and political. The editorial particularly points out the skills that "the elder Bennett" used in this regard.
It adds,
"Editors in those days regarded their newspapers as their big stick wherewith to smite, not alone a hostile political party, but their personal foes."
Some tactics remain, although they are "devoid of the vitriolic diction of ancient times."
The editorial looks at the 1909 election for mayor of New York City. It points to an unidentified newspaper in New York that REFUSES TO PRINT THE NAME of William Randolph Hearst (shown above), one of the major candidates for mayor. When the paper reports about the race, it uses a phrase such as "a certain independent candidate for mayor" even though a speech of the candidate might be printed in full. I like the subtle dig the Globe uses the same tactic in writing the editorial -- NOT NAMING the offending newspaper. But I wish it had.
Think Fox will take the same route and start referring to Obama only as "one of the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue"? Of course not!
[Incidentally, the winner of the 1909 election -- William Gaynor -- nearly lost his life in 1910, when he was struck in the throat by a bullet in an assassination attempt. The moment (shown at left) was captured by news photographer William Warnecke of the New York World. The shooting took place on Aug. 9, 1910, on board the SS Kaiser Willhelm Grosse, which was docked at Hoboken, N.J. Gaynor died three years later -- with the bullet still lodged in his body.]


HIGH SCHOOL KICKERS THWARTED BY UPRIGHT: The charming illustration above gets right to the heart of the matter, in the wake of yesterday's 5-5 tie football game between Boston Latin and Newton. Each team scored a touchdown (worth five points). And each team's kicker clanged the extra-point attempts off the left upright -- "almost exactly" at the same point on the pole, the Globe reports. The illustration was three columns wide and reveals a welcome attention to high school sports.