One Hundred Years Ago

[albrecht]

Some items from the February 24, 1916 Chicago Day Book.  Also note the two part letter to the editor written by our own albrecht.  Yup, he went back there and penned it under his time traveler cover name of R.H. Sloan.

I admit it- I used MadMan's Machine-- but only threw the letter through the field, did not go through myself. Stamps were a lot cheaper then also.

ps: re Tongs. I recall reading about them in old history books interesting history. Initially, and many mostly, they were benevolent organizations (like most immigrants had) that would help the Chinese but started initially competing for the racket of transporting dead Chinese back to their hometowns (because in the religion/belief one should be buried with ancestors.) And then a racket to smuggle Chinese women for wives, especially after we passed the Exclusion Acts. But then to make more money gambling halls, opium, etc. So wars started over the competition for these industries (though the "re-burial" stuff went away apparently.) They still exist in many "Chinatowns." In Spokane the traditional China Town (which by this point had become more Japanese than Chinese,) along with the seedier elements (hobo camps, taverns, cheap boarding houses, prostitution areas, etc- though not nearly as bad or sordid than were in the old days) near was destroyed for Expo 74.

[Walks_At_Night]

On February 24, 1916, Deputy Sheriff Levi A. Bowers of the Floyd County Sheriff's Office, Iowa was killed:

Deputy Sheriff Levi Bowers was shot and killed in Rockford, Iowa, by a man he was attempting to arrest for the attempted murder of a local doctor.

As Deputy Bowers and the local constable entered the suspects home he opened fire with a shotgun, killing him instantly, and blowing off part of his mother's hand as she tried to stop him. The suspect was taken into custody and charged with Deputy Bowers' murder.

The 24-year-old suspect shot and slightly wounded the doctor as he walked out of a grocery store in Rockford. He said he shot the doctor because he gave him medicine for indigestion that burned up his insides. On March 18th, 1916, he was convicted of Deputy Bower's murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Deputy Bowers is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Rockford.

[albrecht]

On February 24, 1916, Deputy Sheriff Levi A. Bowers of the Floyd County Sheriff's Office, Iowa was killed:

I wonder what kind of patent medicine "burned up his insides" and does Norry's Healthsite sell such stuff now?
http://www.kwwl.com/story/20619536/2013/01/17/floyd-county-deputys-death-in-1916-will-not-be-forgotten

[K_Dubb]

I admit it- I used MadMan's Machine-- but only threw the letter through the field, did not go through myself. Stamps were a lot cheaper then also.

ps: re Tongs. I recall reading about them in old history books interesting history. Initially, and many mostly, they were benevolent organizations (like most immigrants had) that would help the Chinese but started initially competing for the racket of transporting dead Chinese back to their hometowns (because in the religion/belief one should be buried with ancestors.) And then a racket to smuggle Chinese women for wives, especially after we passed the Exclusion Acts. But then to make more money gambling halls, opium, etc. So wars started over the competition for these industries (though the "re-burial" stuff went away apparently.) They still exist in many "Chinatowns." In Spokane the traditional China Town (which by this point had become more Japanese than Chinese,) along with the seedier elements (hobo camps, taverns, cheap boarding houses, prostitution areas, etc- though not nearly as bad or sordid than were in the old days) near was destroyed for Expo 74.

You're right; even on little Whidbey Island the Chinese smuggled in to work on farms were driven out.  I ran across these items when looking up Oak Harbor pictures yesterday:

During the 1880s and 1890s, Chinese immigrants made up a large proportion of the workforce on farms, in industrial operations, and in towns. Racist feelings bubbled up to mob action against the Chinese, called Celestials, in populated areas including Oak Harbor. Business groups organized boycotts of Chinese businesses and prohibitions against employing Chinese. Farmers and businessmen who refused to sign pledges against the Chinese were threatened with violence. Oak Harbor residents dynamited Chinese potato patches.

Farmers, on the other hand, relied on the cheap labor and had no desire to remove what they regarded as reliable employees and responsible tenants. In 1882 Federal law prohibited Chinese immigration and smuggling Chinese laborers from Asia and Canada became a profitable business. After violent rioters expelled the Chinese in Tacoma in 1885, many Chinese left Whidbey Island, but a few individuals remained protected by landlords and employers.

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8223

and from Wikipedia:

In the waters of Deception Pass, just east of the present-day Deception Pass Bridge, is a small island known as Ben Ure Island. The island became infamous for its activity of smuggling illegal Chinese immigrants for local labor. Ure and his partner Lawrence "Pirate" Kelly were quite profitable at their smuggling business and played hide-and-seek with the United States Customs Department for years. Ure's own operation at Deception Pass in the late 1880s consisted of Ure and his Native-American wife. Local tradition has it that his wife would camp on the nearby Strawberry Island (which was visible from the open sea) and signal him with a fire on the island's summit to alert him to whether or not it was safe to bring his illegal cargo ashore. For transport, Ure would tie the illegal immigrants up in burlap bags so that if customs agents were to approach then he could easily toss the bags overboard. The tidal currents would carry the discarded immigrants' bodies to San Juan Island to the north and west of the pass and many ended up in what became known as Dead Man's Bay.

There's a rather-touching exhibit at the little museum in Langley my dad volunteers at of medicine bottles and other packaging from a Chinese doctor in Port Townsend who treated the immigrants in their traditional manner.  The poor fellows would have to be rowed several miles across for their prescriptions.

[albrecht]

You're right; even on little Whidbey Island the Chinese smuggled in to work on farms were driven out.  I ran across these items when looking up Oak Harbor pictures yesterday:

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=8223

and from Wikipedia:

Horrible. "Ure would tie the illegal immigrants up in burlap bags so that if customs agents were to approach then he could easily toss the bags overboard."
Sounds like the human-smugglers, and illegals just as desperate and/or tricked, just as brutal as they are today. Jeez.

[K_Dubb]

Horrible. "Ure would tie the illegal immigrants up in burlap bags so that if customs agents were to approach then he could easily toss the bags overboard."
Sounds like the human-smugglers, and illegals just as desperate and/or tricked, just as brutal as they are today. Jeez.

Yep.  And the local boys dynamiting potato patches is pretty low.

[Rix Gins]

From the February 24, 1916 Tonopah Daily Bonanza.

[Meister_000]

Originals attached -- copied out in full

MOTOGRAPHY -- The Motion Picture Trade Journal: Vol. XV, No. 15
CHICAGO, APRIL 1, 1916

Film Recruits Soldiers

'THE BATTLE CRY OF PEACE' promises to produce more recruits for the Canadian government than any other medium we have employed since the war began."

Above is the statement Major M. S. Boehn, chief recruiting officer for the Province of Ontario, made after he had witnessed a showing of the great American war film.

When the big "preparedness" spectacle was given its initial showing at the Strand theater in Toronto, all attendance records of the house were demolished. And since that time the V. L. S. E. feature has continued to draw immense audiences.

The reasons for this are easy to understand. When one considers the thrill which the big film caused through the very backbone of the American nation, which is at present enjoying the solid comforts of peace, it is little wonder that war-suffering Canada is stirred to its depths by the heart-seizing story and the lessons of unpreparedness contained in the tremendous picture. Interest in the scenes of the spectacle is not confined to the Canadian fathers, mothers and sisters whose sons and brothers and sweethearts are at this very moment in the trenches "somewhere in France," but every officer in all the branches of the government had driven home to him more forcibly than ever before the importance of his duties toward his country.

Although Canada has contributed valiantly of her youth to the English armies in Europe, separated from the actual conflict by the broad ocean, she realized only indirectly the horrors of actual combat and invasion. The graphic story and terrible scenes shown in "The Battle Cry of Peace" brought vividly to every Canadian's mind the actual meaning of war.

It is little wonder, then, that recruits, stirred as they had never been stirred before, flocked to the standard to swell the forces who are attempting to finish the war in Europe and protect the mother country.

Hitherto it has been the practice of the Canadian censors to eliminate from imported films scenes showing the American flag, but in "The Battle Cry" no such action was taken.

Prior to the public showing of the film at the Strand, the picture was exhibited privately before various members of the Canadian parliament, Toronto aldermen and army officers. Realizing the stimulation the great film would be to the sense of duty to one's country, Major Boehn delivered the following impressive speech at the conclusion of the private performance:

I am willing to go on record as saying that 'The Battle Cry of Peace' promises to produce more recruits for the Canadian regiments than any other medium we have employed since the war began. Its appeal is simply invaluable for this purpose. Also, the marvelous manner in which the invasion of the United States is depicted leaves small room for doubt as to what would happen in Canada under similar circumstances. As a screen production it is magnificent, considered in the light of a tremendous and much needed lesson to those who fail to realize the dangers of modern warfare when waged by an unscrupulous enemy, and the necessity for checking a foe's offensive by every possible means; there is practically no limit to the influence it exercises.

[K_Dubb]

From today's Morning Oregonian.  I take the "war college" to be an informal gathering, maybe outside a newspaper office, to read bulletins as they come in?



The Taithybius, though in Vancouver:

[Rix Gins]

More great stuff from Meister and The Battle Cry of Peace.  Had no idea it would be such a hit up in Canada.  And K__Dubb, beautiful ship photo.  I see the two of us at bottom to the left.  Looks like we ventured up to Vancouver to look for work.  Not too successful by the looks of things.   

[Rix Gins]

Everett True, February 25, 1916.

[Rix Gins]

From the February 25, 1916 Day Book.

[Rix Gins]

The Tonopah Daily Bonanza, February 25, 1916.

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

From the February 25, 1916 Day Book.

Those darn checkers playing deacons!

[K_Dubb]

From the February 25, 1916 Day Book.

Wow, wonder what would have happened had the war ended.

And yeah, we look pretty hard up.  Trixie's no doubt on the arm of some swell back in Seattle.

[K_Dubb]

From the Morning Oregonian today, some real Wild West stuff around here:




The Covington depot:


Some other neat photos of trains around during this period I found while looking for that one:






And we're in luck, Rix!  Standards are falling:

[albrecht]

Some other neat photos of trains around during this period I found while looking for that one:

That is a cool looking train! But doesn't seem to match up with the descriptions of other "Galloping Goose" trains (which were converted cars/trucks and smaller, lighter loads and didn't run on steam power.) So maybe that was her proper name but not of the 'galloping goose' variety?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galloping_Goose_%28railcar%29

[K_Dubb]

That is a cool looking train! But doesn't seem to match up with the descriptions of other "Galloping Goose" trains (which were converted cars/trucks and smaller, lighter loads and didn't run on steam power.) So maybe that was her proper name but not of the 'galloping goose' variety?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galloping_Goose_%28railcar%29

Ha I did the same thing, and I'm sure you are right.

[albrecht]

Ha I did the same thing, and I'm sure you are right.

Great minds and all that. Ha. But that is one cool looking train!!

[K_Dubb]

Great minds and all that. Ha. But that is one cool looking train!!

It must be one of these!



https://www.pinterest.com/madisonkirkman/mckeen-motor-cars/

Check out inside, it's like a steampunk submarine!

[albrecht]

It must be one of these!



https://www.pinterest.com/madisonkirkman/mckeen-motor-cars/

Yep. Awesome aesthetic design but apparently a lot of problems with the power-train. No reverse, adapting marine technology didn't work for the jarring land-based use, maintenance problems, etc.

[K_Dubb]

Yep. Awesome aesthetic design but apparently a lot of problems with the power-train. No reverse, adapting marine technology didn't work for the jarring land-based use, maintenance problems, etc.

Man, don't be so judgy!  I want one for the next wine tour.  You can stand up in the prow while Rix and me smoke out the portholes in the back.

A lamp, inside:



Another photo from Arlington, WA:

[Rix Gins]

And we're in luck, Rix!  Standards are falling:

Wow.  Some of the girls actually want us to smoke.  But no drinking?  There must be a way around that. 

I'm so glad you think on the bright side of things, K.  I was all for hopping a tramp steamer to Jamaica (the rum running trade) but thankfully you convinced me to return to Seattle with you.  Not only was Trixie still there, but there's a rumor that she's got a younger sister by the name of Bonnie.  If we could only get enough capital together and purchase a good tobacco shop.  Perhaps you can "find" one.  You know the place better than I do.

[Rix Gins]

Everett True, February 26, 1916.

[Rix Gins]

From the February 26, 1916 Day Book.

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

From the February 26, 1916 Day Book.

The story about the "Wireless Sleuth" reminds me of one I read about four German immigrant farm women in Iowa who were arrested during WWI for conversing in German on a party line, which was illegal in the state at the time.

"Mallet headed, kidney footed police" is pretty harsh!    I've heard people called mallet heads, but kidney footed is a new one!

[Rix Gins]

From the February 26, 1916 Day Book.

Now I've got "Dominick Plane from South Desplaines, parlez vous?" stuck in my head.

[Walks_At_Night]

Old man Steve Bader had a bit of Rasputin in him!

[Rix Gins]

From the February 26, 1916 Day Book.

One of these buildings could possibly be the sight of tomorrow night's labor debate.  Not sure which.

[Rix Gins]

The Tonopah Daily Bonanza, February 26, 1916.