One Hundred Years Ago

[Rix Gins]

https://youtu.be/Gvoq7oWkqRg

[WOTR]

I see you beat me to it...

The kick off to the riot was the death of the swimmer- but it sounded like a large part of the underlying cause and tension was labour in the stockyards.

There were 40,000 total jobs in the stockyards. In 1910, there were 67 black employees. But 1919 there were 12,000.

It sounds like the employers would play races against each other to keep them divided and try to get the cheapest labour possible.

It sounds like the Chicago federation of labour wanted to integrate the workforce, but the American federation of labour sort of worked against them and the CFL organized union workers in the stockyards into units based on their residential neighborhoods. In rigidly segregated Chicago that meant that Black and white workers wound up in separate locals.

Anyhow, whatever the underlying cause, the trigger appeared to be the stoning of one of the swimmer. Funny how we now consider stoning to only be occur in backwards, uncivilized countries.

Pictured is an African American man that was stoned to death by whites during the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. The picture actually looks to have one fellow with stone in hand, and an officer winding up for the pitch...

[Rix Gins]

I thought you might have been posting about the riots so I kind of used the video for a preamble.  That was sad how the black kid was just trying to cool off by rafting around on the water and supposedly the current pushed him into the 'whites only' section of water.  Supposedly that is what brought out all the rocks...almost like hit the black kid on a raft and win a kewpie doll.  I can also understand the anger of returning soldiers seeing their jobs taken.  It was a big no win situation on both sides.  Too bad they didn't conclude that black and white aren't technically colors.  Of course we still haven't learned that, even to this day.

[Rix Gins]

From the Library of Congress.  The New-York Tribune.  July 30, 1919.

[WOTR]

From the Library of Congress.  The New-York Tribune.  July 30, 1919.

Cool cartoon...

I should probably post before the clock rolls around (my time) to August 1...

July 31 1919: The National Assembly, sitting in Weimar, adopts a constitution for the Republic. Seems like the start of utopia (or a continuation on the march to the next war...)

[Rix Gins]

From the Library of Congress, August 3, 1919.

The Daily Ardmoreite  


The Evening Star

[WOTR]

The Evening Star

Saving that for my brother in law (who despises daylight savings time.)

[Rix Gins]

Saving that for my brother in law (who despises daylight savings time.)

Ha!  That's cool.

[AZZERAE]

https://youtu.be/v1vPYKniKxU

[Rix Gins]

https://youtu.be/v1vPYKniKxU

Neato!

[Rix Gins]

From the Library of Congress.  The Rock Island Argus., August 04, 1919.

[K_Dubb]

From the Library of Congress.  The Rock Island Argus., August 04, 1919.

I love the weird, creepy pronunciation, but whose is it -- his or Addie's?  I kind of think it's hers since she probably appeared in court, not him, but maybe she was imitating him.  Also the misplaced circumflex on "rôle" -- they knew it had one, just not sure where.

[albrecht]

I love the weird, creepy pronunciation, but whose is it -- his or Addie's?  I kind of think it's hers since she probably appeared in court, not him, but maybe she was imitating him.  Also the misplaced circumflex on "rôle" -- they knew it had one, just not sure where.

Interesting, shouldn't "Scott county district court" be a proper name and so capitalized, as in "Scott County District Court?"

[K_Dubb]

Interesting, shouldn't "Scott county district court" be a proper name and so capitalized, as in "Scott County District Court?"

Oh certainly!

Upon consideration it must be his pronunciation which she imitated for the court since the whole point of the article seems to be how villainous he is, and this is back when villains talked like they are supposed to.

[WOTR]

Oh certainly!

Upon consideration it must be his pronunciation which she imitated for the court since the whole point of the article seems to be how villainous he is, and this is back when villains talked like they are supposed to.

Ah, for the good old days. When men were men, women were women, and you could always spot a villain from his speech. 

[Rix Gins]

Oh certainly!

Upon consideration it must be his pronunciation which she imitated for the court since the whole point of the article seems to be how villainous he is, and this is back when villains talked like they are supposed to.

Haha, well put, K.  I was kind of surprised that the reporter tried to reproduce the villain's way of pronouncing the word.  God bless whoever it was.  I picture him puffing his way through six or seven cheap cigars during a shift.

[Rix Gins]

From the Library of Congress.  The Rock Island Argus., August 05, 1919.

[K_Dubb]

From the Library of Congress.  The Rock Island Argus., August 05, 1919.

Hahaa this is back when, after a spectacular wreck, you just bounced up and brushed yourself off.  I am surprised the officers didn't chase after the guy waving their billy clubs and blowing their cute little whistles.

[albrecht]

From the Library of Congress.  The Rock Island Argus., August 05, 1919.

My objection to the writer is that they didn't use that great term of art "Autoist" as they do in other articles.

[WOTR]

My objection to the writer is that they didn't use that great term of art "Autoist" as they do in other articles.

My objection is the 50MPH. Even a modern day car with seat belts and airbags is not going to be broadsided at 50MPH and the occupants only slightly injured. Nor are the cars going to drive off. Perhaps it was an exaggeration, perhaps a misprint.... (5.0 MPH?)

*How many cars would reach 50MPH in an urban area? This was an era when the newspaper still referred to them as "gas buggies."

[Rix Gins]

My objection is the 50MPH. Even a modern day car with seat belts and airbags is not going to be broadsided at 50MPH and the occupants only slightly injured. Nor are the cars going to drive off. Perhaps it was an exaggeration, perhaps a misprint.... (5.0 MPH?)

*How many cars would reach 50MPH in an urban area? This was an era when the newspaper still referred to them as "gas buggies."

You know, WOTR. I was kind of thinking the same thing.  A broadside hit like that at 50 mph would have disabled both vehicles.  Unless it was a glancing blow, like fender to fender, and the bigger car was able to proceed while the Keystone cops were being tossed onto the ground.  I don't know why, but I pictured the big touring car coming down a hill and gaining the 50 mph speed that way.

[Rix Gins]

From the Library of Congress.   The Rock Island Argus., August 09, 1919. 

[albrecht]

From the Library of Congress.   The Rock Island Argus., August 09, 1919. 



 

I enjoy stories of people who commit crimes, usually petty, that take more effort than simply paying the fine, obeying the law, working, etc. Like that guy who counterfeited for years $1 dollar bills. Or this guy who hammers, repaints, and modify an old license plate.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/finding-mr-880-case-1-counterfeit-article-1.109016
If those "Negroes" were together how could then be charged with "creating a disturbance alone?" Was the disturbance simply a trespass or were they involved in some kind of "activity" that was too sensitive for readers of yesteryear?

[Rix Gins]

I enjoy stories of people who commit crimes, usually petty, that take more effort than simply paying the fine, obeying the law, working, etc. Like that guy who counterfeited for years $1 dollar bills. Or this guy who hammers, repaints, and modify an old license plate.

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/finding-mr-880-case-1-counterfeit-article-1.109016
If those "Negroes" were together how could then be charged with "creating a disturbance alone?" Was the disturbance simply a trespass or were they involved in some kind of "activity" that was too sensitive for readers of yesteryear?

oh, I like those type of stories too.  The Rock Island Argus seems to be pretty good at printing them.  I wonder if Mr 880 got any money for the movie that was made about him?  I get the impression that Lena and Claude were in the boxcar 'alone' meaning just the two of them and nobody else.  If the disturbance was due to a certain 'activity' then they were most likely correct in fining Lena twice as much as Claude.  She would have probably been the louder of the two.

[WOTR]

You know, WOTR. I was kind of thinking the same thing.  A broadside hit like that at 50 mph would have disabled both vehicles.  Unless it was a glancing blow, like fender to fender, and the bigger car was able to proceed while the Keystone cops were being tossed onto the ground.  I don't know why, but I pictured the big touring car coming down a hill and gaining the 50 mph speed that way.

I suppose it is possible. A glancing blow would make sense.

[Dr. MD MD]

You know, WOTR. I was kind of thinking the same thing.  A broadside hit like that at 50 mph would have disabled both vehicles.  Unless it was a glancing blow, like fender to fender, and the bigger car was able to proceed while the Keystone cops were being tossed onto the ground.  I don't know why, but I pictured the big touring car coming down a hill and gaining the 50 mph speed that way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HESH8U1B4o

[albrecht]

oh, I like those type of stories too.  The Rock Island Argus seems to be pretty good at printing them.  I wonder if Mr 880 got any money for the movie that was made about him?  I get the impression that Lena and Claude were in the boxcar 'alone' meaning just the two of them and nobody else.  If the disturbance was due to a certain 'activity' then they were most likely correct in fining Lena twice as much as Claude.  She would have probably been the louder of the two.

Claude should've used a Clinton-style defense and claim that he wasn't ever "alone" with Lena because the definition of "alone" means by oneself and not in the presence of others. Then he could going into the proper meaning of "is." And even bring in some existential or phenomenological arguments about whether each person is really always "alone" as we only have experience of our own brain and never can, really, know what is in someone's else's mind. And then, depending on "activity" digress into what "sex" really is.... and then sum up with a possibly vague statement, depending on how you parse it, "I did not have sex with that woman Miss Lena." Which could be read "I did not have sex with Lena" OR "a statement to Lena that he did not have sex with an unamed- other 'that woman.'  - that is, don't cooperate and don't testify against me I wasn't cheating on you with that other woman.

[Rix Gins]

From the Library of Congress.  The Rock Island Argus, August 11, 1919.

[Rix Gins]

Andrew Carnegie died on August 11, 1919.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie


https://youtu.be/FacF9tL-M1s

[K_Dubb]

From the Library of Congress.  The Rock Island Argus, August 11, 1919.

Another case of strangely resilient men who all survived ejection!  I am a little confused because, a few generations earlier, being thrown from a carriage -- the kind with horses -- and killed is in the plot of quite a few novels.  I always wondered how accurate that was.  The touring car, sputtering old thing that it must have been, was surely more powerful than a coach and four, yet people somehow managed to get mangled in a buckboard drawn by a nag, not to mention sleighs.