A Cold Dose of Reality

Posted on January 8, 2007 by lmharnisch


Jan. 8, 1907
Los Angeles

Perhaps Mayor Arthur C. Harper and the incoming slate of officials are focused on how they will divide the spoils of the city and assign patronage jobs, although the mayor says the “last seat at the pie counter” was taken days ago.

The average Angeleno is more worried about getting even a bit of coal for the furnace. Conditions in Pasadena have been so dire that people are going to the coal yards with wheelbarrows in hopes of getting enough to scrape by. The Times notes that throughout the city, people are rummaging through attics and basements looking for anything that might be burned for a little heat.

Today, an anonymous writer provides a humorous look at trying to get some coal.

“I am a prominent citizen of Los Angeles,” he says. “I state the bald fact because my book of press notices has gone. We threw it into the dying stove immediately following the burning of the family photograph album. Unless we get fuel today, the baby’s cradle follows the book of press notices.”

“We breakfasted in furs. We had cold milk and doctor somebody’s breakfast food, which latter is a poor substitute for sofa stuffing.”

Coal was apparently being rationed in Los Angeles, five sacks to a customer, and the buyers had to go down to the coal yard and get it themselves. “Sixty cents a sack and 5 cents apiece for the sacks, and you do your delivering. Best we can do,” says a clerk.

In the rain, the writer says, he found an express man willing to get the coal and bring it to the house. Normally, the deliveryman might charge $1 ($20.52 USD 2005) for a four-hour job, but now he wanted 75 cents an hour.

“I gave him the money to buy the coal and saw him disappear in the drizzle,” the writer says. “I hurried off home as fast as I could to revive the flagging spirits of my family….

“In just a little while, I told them, we would be sitting by the side of a cheery, crackling blaze.”

Hour after hour, and no coal.

Finally the deliveryman arrived. With an empty wagon.

“Say mister,” he said. “Honest I didn’t have the nerve to stay there any longer and use up your money. You won’t never get no coal.”

“No coal,” I echoed.

“Sure not. When I went down there I found nearly 30 wagons lined up there at the yard waiting to get coal. And the fellows shoveling it out weren’t in any hurry, either. When I came away, there were at least 30 or 40 more wagons waiting behind me. The coal yard looked like a country fair.

“I waited four hours and I didn’t seem much nearer the coal than when I started. I thought you might need a little of your money yourself. So I gave it up and came back.”

The writer concludes: “I have paid $3; I have wasted a day telephoning to people who laughed at me. I have probably sacrificed my immortal soul.

“But I haven’t got any coal.”

The precise reasons for the “coal famine” would take a bit too long to track down for today’s post. From late 1906 to early 1907, The Times is full of stories about coal shortages throughout the U.S., complicated by allegations of price fixing, trusts, trade restriction and diversion of coal shipments to other cities, such as San Francisco, that were also out of fuel.

One news story sums it up nicely: “Has the coal famine become widespread? Listen to an old-timer on the market: ‘The only place that hasn’t complained for the lack of coal is hell.’ ”

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TLC

Posted on January 7, 2007 by lmharnisch


Jan. 7, 1907
Long Beach

Elizabeth Mahler, a dainty brunette with a “sunny and jolly disposition,” is one of the bright spots at Long Beach Hospital. She had many male suitors and a few a months ago became engaged to a young man from Rialto whose last name was Kingman.

In tending to the afflicted of Long Beach, however, she became well-acquainted with Lynn E. Babcock, the business partner of one of her patients, Jay Cooke.

Although Mahler was already engaged, Babcock courted her ardently, provoking jealousy from her fiance. On Christmas, both men presented her with gifts and Kingman (who is not otherwise identified) insisted that she reject Babcock’s gift.

Mahler refused and the engagement was broken.

“This was Babcock’s opportunity and he was quick to ask Miss Mahler to become his wife, and was made happy by an acceptance. Miss Mahler sent in her resignation to the hospital and is now busy with her dressmaker preparing her trousseau,” The Times says.

Some might end the story here with a rosy, romantic fadeout, but let’s check with Proquest. Oh my. The record is incomplete, but messy.


Nine years later, there’s a nasty pair of divorce cases working their way through the Long Beach courts. Mrs. Fannie Wildrig accuses her husband, Henry, of extreme cruelty stemming from his infatuation with Mrs. Elizabeth Babcock. Mrs. Babcock, in the meantime, is accusing her husband, Lynn, of cruelty.

Here, The Times becomes a bit enigmatic: “Justice Underwood of Long Beach was a witness in Mrs. Wildrig’s suit and testified to the arrest of Mr. Wildrig in the Babcock case. He said the charge of misconduct was dismissed for the sake of the children of the couple.”

The Times notes that the court battle between the Babcocks will constitute an effort by Elizabeth “to clear her name of the imputation cast on it.”

Unfortunately, no further entries can be found. Such are the rewards and frustrations of research.

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Architectural Ramblings

Posted on January 6, 2007 by lmharnisch
A Trip to Oxford Avenue

Here’s an interesting contrast: Oxford Avenue between Washington Boulevard and the Santa Monica Freeway and Oxford Avenue north of Washington. South of Washington, Oxford seems a bit wider and the land between the curb and the sidewalk is fairly generous. Not so north of Washington and the lots seem a bit smaller. Wide strips of land between the curb and the sidewalk (more than the 5 feet that is common in much of Los Angeles) were one of the points urged by Charles Mulford Robinson in his “city beautiful” proposal.

Bonus fact: Robinson also said Angelenos should plant lots of jacaranda trees along the streets, so you can thank him for all those purple blooms.

First of all, here’s our featured house at 2045 S. Oxford Ave. from 1907. Note the stucco.




And here are some of the neighboring homes:

Note: More stucco!



All things considered, I’d have to say this stretch of Oxford is a one of the more interesting areas that I’ve visited. The neighborhood is mostly intact and there’s a 1920s-style church at the end of the block next to the Santa Monica.

Now for one of the homes in the 1700 block of Oxford Avenue, which is a little funkier. Recall that the precise address listed in The Times couldn’t be located.

And for the vehicle of the week, here’s a stretch limo I saw at the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia:


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Engine Co. 10 Weeps

Posted on January 6, 2007 by lmharnisch


Jan. 6, 1907
Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Fireman’s Relief Association is staging a benefit for the young widow of ladderman Adolph Hermansen, who plunged out a window and fell five stories while fighting a spectacular blaze that destroyed the new Cohn and Goldwater Building at 216 S. Los Angeles St.

According to some accounts, Hermansen was struck by a blast of water from a fire hose that knocked him out the window, while others say he stumbled or was knocked backward while moving a hose. He fell to the street and although he wasn’t killed, doctors said he was paralyzed below the waist and had a 1 in 100 chance of survival.

Hermansen lingered for about a day, with his new bride “waiting for the dying man’s last word,” as fellow firefighters from Engine Co. 10 visited his hospital room, The Times says.

“The accident is one of the saddest in the history of the Los Angeles Fire Department,” The Times says. “Hermansen was much esteemed by his superiors. He was relief driver of Engine Co. 10, as well as ladderman.”


Each fire company sent two men in uniform to accompany his casket, which was escorted by every man from Engine Co. 10. There were so many flowers at his funeral that two wagons were needed to carry them all to the cemetery.

Placed on Hermansen’s casket was a floral reproduction of Fire Alarm Box 39, “in answer to whose call Hermansen had met his death,” The Times says.

Cohn and Goldwater announced that they would rebuild the destroyed structure.



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Speaking of City Hall

Posted on January 5, 2007 by lmharnisch

Here’s one of my favorite views of Los Angeles: City Hall at night with the Lindbergh Beacon.
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A Fatal Can of Beans

Posted on January 5, 2007 by lmharnisch

Jan. 5, 1907
Los Angeles

Charles Edward Abbott, 23, of Artesia had lived his entire life in California without seeing snow except on faraway mountains and suggested that Mabel Carter, 28, and her father, Henry, 63, join him on a trip to Cucamonga Canyon.

The Carters, who once owned a grocery story at 10th Street and Alvarado before moving to Ontario, and Abbott went to Cucamonga, expecting to spend several days there.

During their stay, they ate a can of pork and beans that had been purchased in September and stored with other provisions in a commissary box under an orange tree in the yard outside the cabin.

Henry Carter was the first to fall ill. Assuming some other cause, he encouraged his daughter and Abbott to take a hike while he stayed behind. They were too ill to go far, however, and returned to the cabin, where they ate another can of pork and beans.

The three victims returned to the Carter home in Ontario. Mabel Carter was the first to die, tended by Abbott, who was next, followed by Henry Carter.

Four physicians attending the victims were unable to explain what killed them. “The case has different features than any they have yet dealt with,” The Times says. The victims complained of “double vision, numbness of the limbs and a paralysis of the tongue. A few hours before death the eyelids closed and it was impossible for them to open them. None of the three experienced any pain and the case throughout is most puzzling.”



A triple funeral was held at First Methodist Church of Ontario. The Carters were buried at Bellevue Cemetery in Ontario while Abbott was buried in Artesia.

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The Mayor Departs From His Prepared Remarks

Posted on January 4, 2007 by lmharnisch

Jan. 4, 1907
Los Angeles

Mayor-elect Arthur C. Harper stood before 200 members of the Municipal League and their friends in a dinner at Levy’s who were eager to hear what he planned for his incoming administration.

Harper took his typewritten speech from his pocket, showed it to the crowd, and laid it aside. Harper said he changed his mind “and would wait a little longer before telling the public exactly what he intended to do,” The Times says.

In brief comments, Harper promised to look at every department in city government and said he had complete faith in the Owens River project.

Niles Pease, the incoming president of the City Council, was likewise evasive. “He said that he could not tell what the council would do and he doubted if anyone in the world could predict that body’s actions,” The Times says. “He declared that good men had been elected and prophesied a careful, businesslike administration.”

The star of the evening was William Mulholland, the moving force behind the Los Angeles Aqueduct, who received a five-minute standing ovation.

J.A. Anderson, head of the Board of Public Works, pleaded for unity among the branches of government, while City Auditor W.C. Mushet urged the council to study accounting systems of other cities and adopt one of them to ensure better financial reporting.

“He said that he had found in a slight examination of the books of the city that practically nothing except a daily cash book had been kept as a record of the business done. He explained that there were no arrangements for accounting for liabilities or assets of the city and that the expenditure of $100,000 ($2,052,357.03 USD 2005) for any one purpose would appear only as a disbursement with no other record kept of the sum.”

It turns out that Mayor Harper indeed has plans, but they involve kickbacks from one of the local heads of the underworld involving profits from a bordello in the Tenderloin.

Above, City Hall on Broadway, located on what is now the vacant lot next to the Victor Clothing Building, which was originally built as a City Hall annex.


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For Sale on EBay

Posted on January 3, 2007 by lmharnisch


“escalante_sandy” is offering an original mug shot of Elizabeth Short, with bidding starting at $50. The seller says this mug shot, among a lot of 23 photos, belonged to a retired detective and is not a reproduction, a claim that appears true.

The most interesting thing about this copy of the mug shot (which was printed up in bulk and handed out freely during the investigation) is what’s written on the back. It’s obvious that the detective was assigned to sweep the neighborhood around the Biltmore in an unsuccessful attempt to see if anyone noticed her.

Note the inscriptions: “Hill St. 2nd to 8th St. W. to Fig. Hotels + Bars” Translation: Visit the hotels and bars between Hill Street and Figueroa from 2nd Street to 8th Street. Apparently the police were checking a period between 4 p.m. on Jan. 9, although Red Manley said he dropped her off at the Biltmore a few hours later, until daylight Jan. 15, the day the body was found.

I don’t recognize any of the other pictures, but one is identified on the back as underworld figure Nick Licata.

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Some Nice Boring Statistics

Posted on January 2, 2007 by lmharnisch

Jan. 2, 1907
Los Angeles

Some diligent soul at The Times dug through the number of marriage licenses and divorces and put together a small story that traced the city’s growth through the increase in couples that joined or separated. This is the kind of information you could never find if you were looking for it; only through happenstance can you discover this data.

So here we go:

Year

Marriages

Divorces

1906

4,714

719, 13 annulments

1905

3,841

567

1904

3,283

557, 10 annulments

1903

3,005

473, 7 annulments

1902

2,351

386

1901

1,917

1900

1,503

1899

1,505?

1898

1,381?

1897

1,432

1896

1,405

1895

illegible

1894

1,251

1893

1,201

1892

1,023

1891

1890

1,182

1889

576

Apparently Los Angeles did not have a thriving reputation as an early day Reno. Divorces were only granted to those who had lived here for a year. The Times writer notes a difference between a final decree and an interlocutory decree: Those with a final decree could remarry while those with an interlocutory decree had to wait a year. For 1906, the figures were 719 interlocutory decrees and 542 final decrees.

The Times also notes that given the Episcopal Church’s tight restrictions on performing marriages of divorcees, the number of ceremonies by justices of the peace has increased markedly.

As regular blog readers will recall, getting a divorce in 1907 could be quite a challenge.

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January 1, 1907: Alive!

Posted on January 1, 2007 by lmharnisch

Dec. 7, 1906-Dec. 22, 1906,
Bakersfield

January 1, 1907
Los Angeles

For 15 days, miner Lindsay P. Hicks lay trapped by a cave-in that killed his five companions tunneling in a mountain above the Kern River for an Edison hydroelectric project. On the 16th day, crews finally cut through the last of the steel and scraped away rocks and debris to free the man who had been kept alive with gallons of milk poured down a 60-foot iron pipe.

At first, Edison officials assumed that no one survived the collapse of the tunnel. Then someone heard the faint signal tapped on one of the steel rails for the mining cars: the code for “trapped miner.” The iron pipe was driven through the side of the mountain to provide air and food as Hicks lay either under a rail car or next to it, sheltered by a pile of collapsed timbers that prevented him from being crushed. Continue reading →

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The Old Watchman

Posted on December 31, 2006 by lmharnisch

Dec. 31, 1907
Los Angeles

His name was W.H. Reynolds and the old watchman for E.H. Howard Contracting had laid out all night after being beaten up and thrown in the weeds by two robbers who said they were garbage men looking for the closest dump.

A woman who saw the assault contacted the University Station and police searched all night in the area around Alameda Street and Washington Boulevard, where Reynolds lived in a small, ragged tent. It wasn’t until daylight that two patrolmen found him lying face down and he was taken to the Receiving Hospital.

When Reynolds was undressed, the hospital staff found his arms and legs covered with needle marks from where he had injected himself with cocaine. “He always has a small vial containing cocaine in liquid form about his person,” The Times says. “Such had become the grip of the drug upon him that he could not do without it for more than an hour.”

Reynolds told police that he went to bed, but didn’t feel well so he decided to get dressed and shoot up with cocaine. There was a knock at the door and when he went outside, he found two men with a team of horses who said they were looking for a garbage dump. When he began giving them directions, one of the men hit him on the head and they stole his drugs and syringe as well as $7.50 ($153.93 USD 2005).

“Despite the pain of the operation, Reynolds begged for cocaine and the surgeons, in view of the old man’s weakened condition, finally gave him a weak solution of the drug,” The Times says.

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google7971355090e933b6.html

Posted on December 31, 2006 by lmharnisch

This is for google.

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The Old Men in Blue

Posted on December 30, 2006 by lmharnisch

Dec. 30, 1907
Los Angeles

James Sullivan, 64, was a prisoner of the Confederates held at Belle Isle, Libby and Andersonville, where he and war correspondent Albert D. Richardson escaped by tunneling for three months with a spoon.

Henry Russell, formerly of the 4th Cavalry, was held at Andersonville and Benjamin L. Gorsuch of the 1st Maryland Infantry was captured and sent to Belle Isle. James Sherwood was with the 10th New Jersey. John Ryan, 77, was with 7th New York Heavy Artillery.

And then there’s John Smith, 70, of the 8th Illinois who is out of his head most of the time. Smith is so feeble that one of his fellow ex-soldiers has to help him to his cell at night.

The six old soldiers are serving 10 days in jail for public drunkenness in Sawtelle, the settlement outside the gates of the veterans home, and much to their shame were brought downtown in irons on the streetcar.

Smith, Russell and Sullivan freely admit they were drunk on payday, but not causing any trouble. Gorsuch and Sherwood, two former infantrymen, said they were “skylarking” in a harmless scuffle and were jailed because they refused to pay a fine, while Ryan says he was in his room, doing nothing.



The men are no trouble. In fact the sheriff and jailer have refused to lock them up, giving them the run of the place as they serve their 10-day sentences. The men say that the Sawtelle constables “lay for us like a pack of wolves” on payday because they get a bonus for each arrest, plus mileage for every prisoner brought to the County Jail.

Veterans Home officials counter that drunkenness is an increasingly serious problem and that the old soldiers get around attempts to maintain sobriety by pooling their money and designating one man as a runner to buy liquor wholesale in Santa Monica.

“This method of irrigation is practiced to such an extent that one veteran is kept almost constantly on the go between Sawtelle and the beach,” The Times says. “All who travel over the electric line are familiar with the figure and the package bottles. He is seen every day. He gets off the car before it reaches the Sawtelle business center, and always there are lolling tongues and parched throats to welcome his return.”

Read the previous entry on Ocean Park banning the sale of liquor to soldiers in uniform because of drunk Civil War veterans.

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The City Grows

Posted on December 29, 2006 by lmharnisch

Dec. 29, 1907
Los Angeles

The Times real estate pages feature homes under construction around Washington Boulevard west of Hobart Boulevard. “This section is just being built up with a splendid class of dwelling houses,” The Times says. “There are several car lines within a short distance, furnishing a rapid transportation service to the center of the city, and as the whole section is on a mesa, it is high above the fogs and occasional floodwater caused by rain, which obtains a few blocks farther south.”

One home features a bit of whimsy: A Mission-style house on the northwest corner of Washington and Westmoreland Boulevard with an automobile garage designed like a Dutch windmill, including a conical top and sails. Of course, the garage and the house are long gone.

J.H. Lapham is building a two-story, seven-room home at 2045 S. Oxford while the California Bungalow Co. is building a two-story frame home at 1732 S. Oxford that “will compare well with the surrounding homes.” Note that while the neighborhood in the 1700 block of South Oxford appears to be generally intact, The Times apparently erred in the street numbers, which go from 1728 to 1734 S. Oxford.

Stay tuned more architectural ramblings to South Oxford. By the way, here are the “New Ha Apartments.” Apparently the signage once read: “New Hampshire,” but I like it better this way.



And a random snapshot of ABC Letter Art on South Vermont. Maybe the folks who own the “New Ha” should pay a visit.



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Architectural Ramblings

Posted on December 28, 2006 by lmharnisch

Dec. 28, 2006
Los Angeles

As promised, here are some photos of a few neighborhoods I visited recently.

Views of South Pasadena





First, a few shots of South Pasadena taken along Mission and El Centro to contrast with the views from 1907, then a visit to the 4600 block of South Wesley Avenue and the 100 block of West 52nd Street. Note the various states of preservation and decay, along with generous layers of stucco.

Views of Wesley Avenue









I always seem to run across interesting cars, a Corvair on Wesley and an old jalopy in South Pasadena.





And here’s an interesting mystery from Fedora Street. What’s the purpose of the guard shack/ticket booth? I can’t imagine.

The Mystery of Fedora Street

916 Fedora St., as photographed in December 1907

Behold, the mysterious guard shack



If it’s to keep out the stucco crew, it’s too late.


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A Gruesome First

Posted on December 27, 2006 by lmharnisch

Dec. 27, 1907
Henryetta, Okla., by the Associated Press

A little more than a month after Oklahoma achieved statehood, James Garden became a wretched statistic: the first black to be lynched there.

On Dec. 24, Garden went to see liveryman Albert Bates about renting a rig. When Bates refused, Garden accused him of racism, went across the street to get a gun, returned and shot Bates to death.

By nightfall, a group of 100 men stormed the jail, fought off police officers and hanged Garden from a telegraph pole in the center of town, then used his body for target practice, riddling it with bullets.

“All the Negroes in Henryetta are terrorized and more than 100 came from there to Muskogee tonight,” The Times says.

The strife continued and there were fears that another lynching would touch off a race war. On Christmas Day, a mob stormed the jail a second time and tried to take “a one-eyed Negro named Smith, charged with inciting Garden to commit the crime,” The Times says. However the sheriff took Smith and Jim Johnson, who gave Garden a rifle, to Okmulgee before they could be lynched.

On Dec. 26, The Times reported that the white men of Henryetta had been sworn as deputies and armed themselves in response to reports that an armed band of 35 heavily armed African Americans were en route to seek revenge. There were “only 1,290 rounds of ammunition in the city,” The Times said, enough to shoot each member of the alleged black band 36 times.

Unfortunately, The Times (or AP) didn’t follow this incident, so there’s no telling what happened. But we in Los Angeles need not feel so superior to those in the raw, new state of Oklahoma. A quick check of Proquest shows that a lynching was narrowly avoided at Towne and 8th Street in 1906 after H. Whitfield of 907 W. 28th St., bit off the ear of Fritz Gustavson, 925 Crocker St., during a fight.

Whitfield’s life was saved by Deputy Constable Dennis Johnson, who arrested Whitfield and blockaded himself and his prisoner in a barbershop at 8th Street and San Julian until the police wagon arrived, despite threats from a mob that they would burn down the shop if Johnson did not turn over the black, who was soaked with a white man’s blood.

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Blunder the Double Eagle

Posted on December 26, 2006 by lmharnisch

Dec. 26, 1907
Pittsburgh, by direct wire to The Times

As Christmas celebrations concluded at Knoxville Presbyterian Church, the congregation presented the Rev. W.A. Jones with $100 ($2,052.36 USD 2005). A banker who was among the worshipers made a point of getting freshly minted gold pieces to present to the pastor.


But the $20 Double Eagles, newly redesigned by sculptor Augustus St.-Gaudens at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt, had a terrible flaw, in Jones’ view.

“This is Godless money, I cannot take it,” Jones said of the coins, example at right. “My mother taught me to look for the motto ‘In God We Trust’ on the coins of our country and when the president announced his new order effacing the inscription from the coins, I swore I would take no money that did not bear the old motto.”


St.-Gaudens died in August before the release of the coins and the resulting furor over omission of the motto, which was restored by U.S. Mint engraver Charles E. Barber in 1908. In fact, St.-Gaudens wanted to omit all the lettering and it was only after a heated battle with Roosevelt that he agreed to restore “E Pluribus Unum” to his design.


In 1908, Los Angeles bankers made further complaints about St.-Gaudens’ new $10 gold pieces, saying that they wouldn’t stack properly because the Indian’s cheek, example at right, was raised too high. “Someone’s idea of art is on the bum if those are artistic coins,” one the banker said. “Maybe it is mine and maybe it is the designer’s. I don’t know about that, but I do know the coins won’t do for us. They won’t stack and we cannot handle them at all.”

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Merry Christmas, Gen. Otis

Posted on December 24, 2006 by lmharnisch


Dec. 24, 1907
Los Angeles

Last-minute shopping, crowded post offices, trees decorated in hotel lobbies and toys given by Santa to the neediest children of the city; it was a Christmas season very much like today. And at Levy’s, 310 Times employees gathered to celebrate the most prosperous year in the newspaper’s history.

Of course, as The Times noted, not everyone could attend because “the news must needs be collected and the wheels kept going.”

Between courses of the Christmas dinner, speakers made humorous comments, following the motto: “Spare not the gaff, but live to laugh.”

Harry Chandler received a set of doll triplets and Gen. Otis was presented with a tin sword. The employees also put together a comic eight-page paper, “The Timeslet,” full of jokes, satirical ads and cartoons. Among the most notable speakers was George W. Burton, “known around the office as ‘The Bishop,’ who gave “a jolly and entertaining talk, full of humorous thrusts at the managing editor and others.”

Gen. Otis received a silver loving cup from the employees, along with a speech by the staff poet, John S. McGroarty:

“Gen. Otis is this afternoon the guest of his official family. He is among his own people—the people who are nearest to him and in whom he is most interested. In his busy and strenuous life he has to do with many men who are great and powerful in the world’s affairs, but it is we who toil within the strong walls of the old gray castle who are his strength and upon whom he relies. His enemies are not here, but are outside of the breastworks, where they lie more or less incapacitated….

“It is Christmastime and we, the members of the great craft who are each doing our part to produce a great newspaper every day in the year, are here to celebrate. The head of the house sits with us, as one of us and not the least of the hard workers now as he has always been. To him, from his employees and from his fellow workers, from the men and women of The Times, I am commissioned to bear a message of goodwill and loyalty and upright treatment. As a token of these sentiments, I present to Gen. Otis this loving cup, knowing that he will accept it with the same feeling that inspired the givers.

“Knowing Gen. Otis as I do, I know that no gift that he has ever received will occupy in his stately home a more honored and more affectionate place than this cup will occupy.

“Within his rooftree are many trophies of both war and peace—emblems of hard fights won on the fields of battle as well as in the oftentimes fierce struggles of peace. But when his eyes rest on this cup, which bears to him its message of faithfulness, the loyalty, the esteem and the affection of his own people, there will be no other to stand beside it.

“Gen. Otis, on behalf of my associates, I present this gift to you with old Rip Van Winkle’s toast: ‘Here’s to you and all your family; may you all live long and be happy.’ ”

The Times said: “Gen. Otis was taken by surprise and was much affected. He expressed his thanks for the token of esteem and affection, and spoke feelingly of his appreciation of the loyalty of his corps, remarking that the size of the gathering, the harmony of it and the whole spirit of the affair were most admirable, and once more assuring all that the gratitude of and kindly notice of the publishers of The Times were accorded to every faithful worker, no matter how humble.”

The banquet closed with three cheers for Gen. Otis and new refrain set to the tune “Auld Lang Syne”:

“The good old, good old Times, old Times
The good old, good old Times
Join in the song on every lip
The good old, good old Times.”

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On the Frontiers of Mental Health

Posted on December 23, 2006 by lmharnisch


Dec. 23, 1907
St. Louis, via Direct Wire to The Times

Dr. Henry S. Atkins, superintendent of St. Louis’ insane asylum, has found that Christmas is a perfect time to test his theory that shopping cures insanity.

Atkins and two attendants took 60 women from the asylum “into the world of department stores and the activities which all women enjoy,” The Times said.

The patients and the two female attendants, who wore civilian clothes instead of their uniforms, mingled with crowds downtown, “swallowed up among the thousands of other women bent on the same mission.”

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A Mystery Solved

Posted on December 22, 2006 by lmharnisch


Dec. 22, 2006
Los Angeles

A quick (well, relatively) check of the Sanborn maps (online via the Los Angeles Public Library website) shows (Vol. 11, Sheet 1143) the intersection of McCollum and Berkeley. Alas, the impact crater was not recorded. Apparently all other variants were typos.

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