One Hundred Years Ago

[Walks_At_Night]

The Day Book, Jan. 28, 1916.  Everett is in hiding.

He sure beats ass, don't he?   This stuff is great!

We could use him today to shut down some of these stupid telemarketers.

[Rix Gins]

He sure beats ass, don't he?   This stuff is great!

We could use him today to shut down some of these stupid telemarketers.

LOL  Good idea.  I could sure use an Everett True voice recording to play when I get a call from a scammer.  Those a-holes call at least once a day, and I'm on the No Call list. 

[Walks_At_Night]

LOL  Good idea.  I could sure use an Everett True voice recording to play when I get a call from a scammer.  Those a-holes call at least once a day, and I'm on the No Call list.

We had very little for years and then over the last three months it's gotten terrible again.   

[Walks_At_Night]

For a change we have a little happier story comparing the Detroit of a hundred years ago with today's Detroit.

The subject this time is Belle Isle Stables which is located on well...... Belle Isle.    It is an island [about 980 acres] located in the middle of the
Detroit river that separates the State of Michigan from the Province of Ontario. It was a really neat place when Detroit was in it's heyday.

Belle Isle:




The Belle Isle Stables were used for quite some time by the Detroit Mounted Police.



As is all to common in the D the stables fell into near ruin in recent times:



However in 2013 the State of Michigan intervened and started managing Belle Isle via a 30 year lease from the City of Detroit.   The state has
been busy cleaning the mess up and have restored the stables:






BTW - the Detroit Police still manages to maintain a small mounted contingent:

[Walks_At_Night]

Saturday Evening Post cover:

[Rix Gins]

Today's war news from The Day Book, 1-28-16, that includes a news item concerning The Appam. (Photo from Wikimedia.)

[Rix Gins]

Also from the Day Book.  Why do I get the impression that Attorney Rice looked like this guy? 

[Walks_At_Night]

In 1916 the Bour-Davis Motor Car Company was still building automobiles in Detroit.   The company was founded by Robert Davis and Charles Bour.   They were never really successful as they produced perhaps 1,500 units in the entire weird history of the company.   They would move to Frankfort Indiana in 1918 and from there onto to Shreveport, Louisiana in 1919 before folding in 1922. 

The 1916 Bour-Davis had a slanted radiator which was unusual for the day:



It looks like they may have targeted some lady drivers:


Some Bour-Davis rigs still exist.   Here is a 1922 model:




I have no luck in finding a picture of the original Bour-Davis factory in Detroit.  In fact, I had a devil of a time even finding
the address of the factory.   Finally found a small blurb in the Chilton Automotive guide that listed the address as
23rd Street and West Fort Avenue in Detroit.    Today the location is a parking lot for a truck driving school  but it is near the
Detroit River and has a good view of the Ambassador Bridge.

[Rix Gins]

Johann Brandhofer was an Army Infantryman with the 2nd Company, 2nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment.  He was a farmer's son from the town of Seboldshof.  He was shot in the head and killed during an assault, south of Givenchi, on January 28, 1916.  He was 21 years old.

[ShayP]

The shells from an allied creeping bombardment on German lines, 1916



For those unfamiliar with the term, a creeping barrage is where artillery rounds are fired just in front of an advancing line of infantry, to clear barbed wire and other defenses.   This lone British soldier up to his knees in spent shell cases, offers a striking impression of the destruction that took place on the Western Front.

[Meister_000]

The shells from an allied creeping bombardment on German lines, 1916

For those unfamiliar with the term, a creeping barrage is where artillery rounds are fired just in front of an advancing line of infantry, to clear barbed wire and other defenses.   This lone British soldier up to his knees in spent shell cases, offers a striking impression of the destruction that took place on the Western Front.

Wow, that is nuts. And those are some large shells too!
Thanks

[Rix Gins]

There was a great scene in "All Quiet on The Western Front" (1930) that showed a creeping barrage but I couldn't find a clip of it on YouTube.  Anyway, here's an interesting look at the German's "Big Bertha."  Note the wicker baskets in the video?  That's how the Germans carried the shells...in those big baskets.


https://youtu.be/TAxclrDiQ3o

[Meister_000]

There was a great scene in "All Quiet on The Western Front" (1930) that showed a creeping barrage but I couldn't find a clip of it on YouTube.  Anyway, here's an interesting look at the German's "Big Bertha."  Note the wicker baskets in the video?  That's how the Germans carried the shells...in those big baskets.

Thanks Rix. Here's some unlisted 1980s-90s ? movie-version of WWI German infantry with somewhat lighter, (medium?) Howitzer. The horses struggling, and the need to unhitch and rehitch them with every advance or creep (as shown here unmechanized) is reality checking. I might not yet have the right concept of how quickly the forward advance is supposed to be moving nor if mechanized must be assumed for such a drive.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aD3Zca746mY

[edit: It appears that the technique (rolling or creeping barrage) is in fact a 1916 invention!

http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/creepingbarrage.htm
". . . the so-called 'creeping barrage' was not actually deployed until August 1916 by the British (Sir Henry Horne) during the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front." ]

[Meister_000]

Speaking of reality checks . . .

Shell Shock -- Documentary  (14 mins, Part 1 of 4)
Lots of WWI stock footage (of the effects)


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cc7ehb8agWY


(Below) Montage of British artillery being employed in World War I -- Stock Footage (silent)

The gammut from light to heavy is shown. At the 1:00, 2:30, and 3:20 marks you'll see examples of the light Howitzer that I recon are the guns used by the Brits for their "creeping barrage". Shell size, and mounds of them on the ground look right, and relative mobility of the these smaller guns makes them the more likely candidates.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kK2Xn1rY8kQ

[Walks_At_Night]

Even 100 years later the effects of Artillery can still be seen in places like Verdun:

[Meister_000]

Even 100 years later the effects of Artillery can still be seen in places like Verdun:

Hi Walks. Looks like a denuded clear-cut forest.
Thanks

[albrecht]

Hi Walks. Looks like a denuded clear-cut forest.
Thanks

So an interesting tidbit, but could be total bs and I don't know if it is true but was told this many years ago that after WWI they replanted the trees in some areas (since all pretty much destroyed) and the interesting way the Dutch did it was to plant as normal (like a crop) in rows (easy and can be more mechanized) but then later, per some schematic, chopped down trees at random so that now, if you go hike -or bike since it is Holland- in them, it looks like random, more natural, forest. Could be bs but I did see lots of old stumps and seemed like a pragmatic way of doing things (and Dutch are pretty pragmatic.)

[Meister_000]

So an interesting tidbit, but could be total bs and I don't know if it is true but was told this many years ago that after WWI they replanted the trees in some areas (since all pretty much destroyed) and the interesting way the Dutch did it was to plant as normal (like a crop) in rows (easy and can be more mechanized) but then later, per some schematic, chopped down trees at random so that now, if you go hike -or bike since it is Holland- in them, it looks like random, more natural, forest. Could be bs but I did see lots of old stumps and seemed like a pragmatic way of doing things (and Dutch are pretty pragmatic.)

I believe it. A full-blown restoration attempt would have been way too expensive. Danka.

[Meister_000]

[edit: It appears that the technique (rolling or creeping barrage) is in fact a 1916 invention!

http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/creepingbarrage.htm

". . . the so-called 'creeping barrage' was not actually deployed until August 1916 by the British (Sir Henry Horne) during the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front." ]

Below: Likeness of British General Sir Henry Horne in 1917 (standing at right). Credited with first-deployment of the "Creeping Barrage" tactic in August 1916 during the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front.

Second below:
"14th Battery Royal Australian Field Artillery, near Ypres, 1917. The sheer physical work required of the artillery was tremendous. To cover an attack with a creeping barrage, these 18-pounder guns would fire 2 to 4 shells (twenty-two pounds per round, including cartridge and propellant) per minute, for 50 minutes of each hour (the guns needed to cool and have the sights checked), for up to six hours. Each fuze had to be set by hand, and the elevation had to be adjusted as the gun and air temperatures changed, and depending on the batch of propellant involved."

[Meister_000]

British 18 Pounder vs. Gegman Howitzer -- 25 mins.
The British gun uses an 18 lb "shrapnel"-shell filled with large lead ball-shot! hence it's troop-killong power. This historian says the rate of fire was more like a sustained 10-12 shells per minute hand loaded (rather than the 2-4 per minute claimed elsewhere).

Sorry, I see now you're going to have to click the white text title (top left) in vid frame and be sent to Youtube to see it.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Di5svup9BkY


Below: The 13 and 18 Punder British Artillery Guns in WW1 [Part1: 7 mins.]


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PSaYCfDAdtk

[Rix Gins]

Even 100 years later the effects of Artillery can still be seen in places like Verdun:

And felt...(note, article is two years old.)

http://www.netnewsledger.com/2014/08/03/world-war-one-shells-still-deady-and-dangerous/

[Rix Gins]

Here are a couple of items from The Day Book, January 29, 1916.  http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1916-01-29/ed-1/seq-1/

[Rix Gins]

Here is the result of that boxing match reported on earlier.  (Between Fred Fulton  http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/fulton-f.htm and "Porky" Flynn http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/flynn-d.htm  From The Day Book.

[Rix Gins]

Oh, and lets not forget the latest from paladin1991 Everett True.

[ShayP]

Silhouette photography - The latest fad!

Below are silhouette images by Karl Struss, featured in the NY Sun’s Sunday Lithogravure Supplement in February 1916.  Struss was an American photographer and a cinematographer of the 1900s through the 1950s.

 

[ShayP]

What attracts men and women in 1916?

At last the sexes have come to an understanding! It is a man’s wrists that attract women and women’s ankles that attract men! No lesser authority than the supreme court here brought that out Mrs Rebecca Fogg, witness in an alienation suit, said the defendant in the case asked her how he could make himself more attractive to women. She said she told him it was the shape of a man’s wrist that counts.

New York, Oct 16 

[ShayP]

From the Los Angeles Herald, 1916

Dr. Albert Shiels, superintendent of schools, and Mrs. Susan Dorsey, deputy superintendent, addressed the council of presidents.

Here are the things which Los Angeles school children may not do in the future, according to an etiquette campaign launched today by the P.T.A.: 

Giggle on the street cars.
Talk in loud tones on cars.
Sit when elder people are standing on cars.
Use slang.
Wear silk stockings.
Wear jewelry or trinkets.



Los Angeles public school children are to have better manners and a higher standard of etiquette in the future. To accomplish this both the children and their parents are to be educated in courtesy and manners in the homes.

EDICT OF MOTHERS
This was the edict of mothers who belong to the council of presidents of the Parent-Teacher Federation, which held its first meeting of the yeaf today at Symphony Hall. The subject of juvenile etiquette was brought up at a round table held under the direction of Mrs. E. H. Noe. 

According to the consensus of opinion expressed at the round table, little school girls giggle and talk too loudly on street cars. Both little girls and boys are too apt to remain seated in the cars when older people are standing. These things are to be campaigned against by the mothers.

WAR ON SLANG
A great effort will be made by the 8000 mothers of the P.T.A to stop the use of slang on the part of their children and it is here that father will get his education, according to the mothers. For henceforth, father may not say “darn" if he whacks his thumb with a hammer, because it will give the son of the house a bad example. 

Old fashioned courtesy toward parents and elders will be introduced into Los Angeles homes, according to the P.T.A. plan. Parents will campaign to teach their children courtesy in small maters, such as standing until their parents are seated, and maintaining a polite manner toward each other. 

JEWELRY UNDER BAN
The question of dress for high school girls was taken up today with the result that mothers will wage war against silk stockings, jewelry and trinkets, and cosmetics. “We want to reach the etiquette and manners of children in school and public through the homes,” Mrs. Noe said today at the round table. "It is the fault of the parents that children of today are noisy, slangy and lax in courtesy. 

.............................

One might say we need a bit of this nowadays. 

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

From the Los Angeles Herald, 1916

Dr. Albert Shiels, superintendent of schools, and Mrs. Susan Dorsey, deputy superintendent, addressed the council of presidents.

Here are the things which Los Angeles school children may not do in the future, according to an etiquette campaign launched today by the P.T.A.: 

Giggle on the street cars.
Talk in loud tones on cars.
Sit when elder people are standing on cars.
Use slang.
Wear silk stockings.
Wear jewelry or trinkets.

Los Angeles public school children are to have better manners and a higher standard of etiquette in the future. To accomplish this both the children and their parents are to be educated in courtesy and manners in the homes.

EDICT OF MOTHERS
This was the edict of mothers who belong to the council of presidents of the Parent-Teacher Federation, which held its first meeting of the yeaf today at Symphony Hall. The subject of juvenile etiquette was brought up at a round table held under the direction of Mrs. E. H. Noe. 

According to the consensus of opinion expressed at the round table, little school girls giggle and talk too loudly on street cars. Both little girls and boys are too apt to remain seated in the cars when older people are standing. These things are to be campaigned against by the mothers.

WAR ON SLANG
A great effort will be made by the 8000 mothers of the P.T.A to stop the use of slang on the part of their children and it is here that father will get his education, according to the mothers. For henceforth, father may not say “darn" if he whacks his thumb with a hammer, because it will give the son of the house a bad example. 

Old fashioned courtesy toward parents and elders will be introduced into Los Angeles homes, according to the P.T.A. plan. Parents will campaign to teach their children courtesy in small maters, such as standing until their parents are seated, and maintaining a polite manner toward each other. 

JEWELRY UNDER BAN
The question of dress for high school girls was taken up today with the result that mothers will wage war against silk stockings, jewelry and trinkets, and cosmetics. “We want to reach the etiquette and manners of children in school and public through the homes,” Mrs. Noe said today at the round table. "It is the fault of the parents that children of today are noisy, slangy and lax in courtesy. 

.............................

One might say we need a bit of this nowadays. 

Good luck with that! 

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

Saturday Evening Post cover:

That's Lady and Leopard, the first of five 1916 Saturday Evening Post covers created by Sarah Stilwell Weber, and one of sixty she did for the magazine during her successful career as an illustrator.  She also did covers for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Colliers, and other popular magazines, as well as art for advertisements.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Stilwell_Weber

http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/artists-gallery/saturday-evening-post-cover-artists/sarah-stilwell-weber

[Walks_At_Night]

Mr. John Malek and Miss Agata Banas, married at Lawrence, Mass., January 30, 1916