One Hundred Years Ago

[Robert Ghostwolf's Ghost]

I have not been able to confirm it but I suspect that Briggs-Detroiter was an offshoot of the Briggs Manufacturing owned by Walter Briggs.  Briggs would have a huge impact in Detroit over time - he would start the Detroit Zoo, the Detroit Orchestra and would own the Detroit Tigers for many decades.  It was Briggs who would put the second tier on what would become Tiger Stadium which would result in the wonderful short port overhang in right field.   

Tiger Stadium was called Briggs Stadium from 1938 to 1960.

[Walks_At_Night]

Out of curiosity, why the vehemence? I'm against internationalism, our tax scheme, monetary system, and foreign wars/entanglements (created all under his aegis) and don't like much of what he did, etc but your comment seems particularly strident against Wilson. Just curious, especially since much of what he did was of Col. House and then his wife's influence/doings?

Well I think you laid out some pretty good criticisms yourself.   Getting ready to install my new copy of Turbo Tax so I'm in a foul mood.   

[albrecht]

Well I think you laid out some pretty good criticisms yourself.   Getting ready to install my new copy of Turbo Tax so I'm in a foul mood.

Hahaha. Understood and...good luck.

[Walks_At_Night]

In Janury 1916 there were three British Royals/Nobles/Peers/Sons of Peers Who Died In Action in the war.

Lieutenant The Honorable George Joachim Goschen
Son of the 2nd Viscount Goschen. 
died January 16, 1916 from wounds received in action at the Siege of Kut Al Amara, Mesopotamia (now in Iraq)

Captain The Honorable Robert Stafford Arthur Palmer
Son of the 2nd Earl of Selborne
killed in action January 21, 1916 the Siege of Kut Al Amara, Mesopotamia (now in Iraq)



Sub-Lieutenant The Honorable Harold Courtenay Tennyson
Son of the 2nd Baron Tennyson [and yes of those Tennyson's]
one of the ten causalities aboard the HMS Viking when the ship hit a mine near Boulogne, France


More info here:
http://www.unofficialroyalty.com/january-1916-royalty-and-world-war-i/#A4

[Meister_000]

Just a note on tools and techniques. I've had a hell of a time always wanting to grab or extract some text from either scanned text PDFs (not Distilled pdf) or JPGs of text, with little or no success.

On a cell phone (at least) even reading from one doc and trying to type the text into a word processor in a separate window had been essentially impossible -- until now.

Samsung's recent generations of phones and tablets allow "split-screen" running of two apps visible side-by-side at once. After figuring out how to do it, I'm now able to open a PDF in the top half of the screen and a Text editor in the lower half and then either type what I'm reading from the pdf, or, better yet, use Google's "Voice to Text" and dictate the text input.

So, I can now hold my phone about 18" away from me, read the text off the pdf, and speak in a normal volumed voice, and the text capture output is near flawlessly accurate every time! ;') -- using a cell phone only.    Here's what the work environment looks like (new-old-stock Samsung Note 4).

[Meister_000]

New York Tribune: November 22 1915, p14

CITY WOODPILE FOR HOBOES
Police Prepare Course of Manual Labor to Keep Vagrants Busy

"New York as a winter resort for ginks, hoboes, vagrants, bums and just ordinary tramps, whose thoughts are turning to its erstwhile welcome recreations, is no more. If Weary Willie is willing to clean streets, shovel snow, chop wood in the city's wood-yards, or match his ambition against any other variety of manual labor, he may come to New York. Police Commissioner Woods thinks that few tramps will care to face Father Knickerbocher's welcome.

The city has served notice that every tramp who reaches New York will be picked up by the police and put at hard manual labor.

Mr. Woods said that the Department of Charities, through the Municipal Lodging House, had room for 2,600 homeless* men. and while in this shelter men are given bed and hoard, and an effort is made to find employment for them. If they refuse employment when given an opportunity, they will be put to work."

-------------------------
*"homeless men" -- This is a rare early use of the term "homeless" who were back then most often called "vagrants" (or some other of the half dozen  epithets deployed above) and subject to the ubiquitous "Vagrancy Laws"** of every town and city in the country.
"Gink" was new to me (a foolish or contemptible person).

** [wikipedia] Vagrancy Laws were vague and covered a wide range of activities and crimes associated with vagrants, such as loitering, prostitution, drunkenness, and associating with known criminals. Under the vagrancy laws, police arrested people who were suspected of crime, but who had not committed a crime.

Va·grant
noun
a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging.
Synonyms: street person, homeless person, tramp, hobo, drifter, down-and-out, derelict, beggar; itinerant, wanderer, nomad, traveler, vagabond, transient;
Informal; bag lady, bum

[This edict, declared very near the end of the year (1915), would extend into the first quarter of 1916 (still winter) at least, so it seemed fair game to me.]

[Rix Gins]

Great article, Meister.  Your stuff looks good with the new phone.  Good for you.  Guess I'd have been a "Gink" for sure. (The definition I looked up for the word was "odd.")  lol  We had a similer problem in my town, back in 1918.  If the hobos the cops picked up at the tracks were willing to pull weeds, they would get meals and a bed to sleep in for the night.  If not, they were put back on the train...let the next town deal with them.

[Rix Gins]

January 31, 1916 and believe it or not, several British airmen were hunting Zeppelins and wound up chasing UFOs.  Here is a link to a fascinating website owned by David Clarke that describes the events in detail.  http://www.uk-ufo.org/condign/hist19162.htm  Here is a beautiful illustration that could easily accompany the article but is from another site.  http://a54.idata.over-blog.com/610x513/0/09/07/26/Taken/BE2C-vs-unidentified-Zeppelin-copie-1.jpg

[Meister_000]

Great article, Meister.  Your stuff looks good with the new phone.  Good for you.  Guess I'd have been a "Gink" for sure. (The definition I looked up for the word was "odd."  lol  We had a similer problem in my town, back in 1918.  If the hobos the cops picked up at the tracks were willing to pull weeds, they would get meals and a bed to sleep in for the night.  If not, they were put back on the train...let the next town deal with them.

Thanks Rix. I'm finding lots of similar stuff, e.g. from a different 1915 paper; "vagrants hobos and bums will be shown the North Star with proper instructions." 

And you don't want a modern slang dict (for gink) but one from the period. You're not ' contemptable" and that's the old sence of the word.

Thanks, later, bed time!

[ShayP]

Founded on August 25,1916 by John T. Thompson (Colonel, U.S. Army retired), John Blish (Commander, U.S. Navy retired), Thomas Ryan (financier) and others, the Auto-Ordnance Corporation (AOC) set forth on a program to develop a light automatic gun. After giving up on their efforts to design a semi-automatic rifle, they turned to the development of a light machine gun. That effort continued until 1920 when a series of prototypes evolved into the production Model of 1919 Thompson Submachine Gun (TSMG). This model was manufactured by AOC, although probably less than ten were actually made.

[ShayP]

Child labor photos from 1916.....


Date: August 1916
Location: Warren Countyâ€"Albaton, Kentucky
Amos (6 years old) and Horace (4 years old), worked every day from “sun-up to sun-down,” worming and suckering tobacco plants on their father’s farm.


Location: Comanche County, Oklahoma
Date: October 1916
Jewel (6 years old) and Harold Walker (5 years old), both picked between 20 to 25 pounds of cotton a day.

[Walks_At_Night]

Founded on August 25,1916 by John T. Thompson (Colonel, U.S. Army retired), John Blish (Commander, U.S. Navy retired), Thomas Ryan (financier) and others, the Auto-Ordnance Corporation (AOC) set forth on a program to develop a light automatic gun. After giving up on their efforts to design a semi-automatic rifle, they turned to the development of a light machine gun. That effort continued until 1920 when a series of prototypes evolved into the production Model of 1919 Thompson Submachine Gun (TSMG). This model was manufactured by AOC, although probably less than ten were actually made.

The good ole 'Chicago Typewriter'.   My Uncle Ed carried one in Burma.   It is bulky, awkward to shoulder and he absolutely loved it!

[ShayP]

1916 advertisement for a Westinghouse percolator.  (manufactured in Pittsburgh, PA)

[ShayP]

Oh if they only knew what problems this paint would eventually cause.....

Advertisement for Dutch Boy white lead paint by the National Lead and Oil Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1916.

[Walks_At_Night]

Oh if they only knew what problems this paint would eventually cause.....

Advertisement for Dutch Boy white lead paint by the National Lead and Oil Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1916.

Aside from the toxicity, when mixed with Red Lead it produced some pretty good comedy:

[ShayP]

Some sort of puzzle/game.....

Get the Boys Out of the Trenches and Let Us Have Peace, 1916, J.L. McCaskey, Pittsburgh Game & Novelty Co., Pa.

[albrecht]

Child labor photos from 1916.....


Date: August 1916
Location: Warren Countyâ€"Albaton, Kentucky
Amos (6 years old) and Horace (4 years old), worked every day from “sun-up to sun-down,” worming and suckering tobacco plants on their father’s farm.


Location: Comanche County, Oklahoma
Date: October 1916
Jewel (6 years old) and Harold Walker (5 years old), both picked between 20 to 25 pounds of cotton a day.

Amazing how far society has come in a hundred years. Now we have people in the 20's or 30's who are still considered children and won't work! Kidding, sorta. Neat photos but crazy. I wonder what happened to them.

[ShayP]

Let's play a board game from 1916.  How about some Uncle Wiggily!? 

The game was created in 1916 using a character called Uncle Wiggily in a series of children’s books. The stories were written by American author Howard R. Garis.  He began writing the stories for the Newark News in 1910.  Garis penned an Uncle Wiggily story every day (except Sundays) for more than 30 years, and published 79 books within the author's lifetime.

The game is played with the deck of cards with partners.  The game was first published by Milton Bradley in 1916 and has seen several editions with minor modifications over the years. Uncle Wiggily remained one of the first and favorite games of childhood.

Example of the original board.


Box close to that year. *exact date not known.


Sample of a book that the game is based on.


A modern version of one the many published works.

[albrecht]

Let's play a board game from 1916.  How about some Uncle Wiggily!? 

The game was created in 1916 using a character called Uncle Wiggily in a series of children’s books. The stories were written by American author Howard R. Garis.  He began writing the stories for the Newark News in 1910.  Garis penned an Uncle Wiggily story every day (except Sundays) for more than 30 years, and published 79 books within the author's lifetime.

The game is played with the deck of cards with partners.  The game was first published by Milton Bradley in 1916 and has seen several editions with minor modifications over the years. Uncle Wiggily remained one of the first and favorite games of childhood.

Example of the original board.


Box close to that year. *exact date not known.


Sample of a book that the game is based on.


A modern version of one the many published works.

I love Uncle Wiggly as a kid but never knew there was a game! Nice find.

[Walks_At_Night]

Amazing how far society has come in a hundred years. Now we have people in the 20's or 30's who are still considered children and won't work! Kidding, sorta. Neat photos but crazy. I wonder what happened to them.

They very well might have had very long, healthy, happy lives.   My Father was born in 1921 and started work at the age of 5 on the same day he started Kindergarten.   After class he'd start work on the farm - not exactly an ideal childhood but it had it's benefits.   The fresh air and hard work made him strong as a bull.   He passed away last March at the age of 93 and was hale and hearty up until his final illness.   The farm kids in those photo's were probably some strong, healthy kids. In an era without antibiotics, with Polio and TB the sheer physical strength might have been an advantage.

[Rix Gins]

The Day Book January 31, 1916.  Introducing Mrs. True to the BellGab audience.

[ShayP]

Did you know that Lincoln Logs were created by Frank Lloyd Wright's son John Lloyd Wright in 1916?

He claimed that the foundation of Tokyo’s earthquake-proof Imperial Hotel, while it was under construction, inspired the shape of his logs.  He named his invention Lincoln Logs.  While many people thought this was an allusion to Honest Abe, evidence suggests the name came from another Lincolnâ€"his dad.  Frank Lloyd Wright was born Frank Lincoln Wright, but he changed his name when his parents split.  John eventually received a patent in 1920.

[Rix Gins]

An item from the Tonopah daily bonanza., January 31, 1916.  Photo from Wikimedia.   

[Rix Gins]

Private Seberin Porossa, a member of the German Air Service, died exactly  100 years ago.  He was born on November 17, 1892 in the town of Wreschen (Poland?).  Cause of death: Disease and/or injuries.  Location of death: Subat (Turkey?).  Age: 24.

[albrecht]

They very well might have had very long, healthy, happy lives.   My Father was born in 1921 and started work at the age of 5 on the same day he started Kindergarten.   After class he'd start work on the farm - not exactly an ideal childhood but it had it's benefits.   The fresh air and hard work made him strong as a bull.   He passed away last March at the age of 93 and was hale and hearty up until his final illness.   The farm kids in those photo's were probably some strong, healthy kids. In an era without antibiotics, with Polio and TB the sheer physical strength might have been an advantage.

True, same experience I've had with family. The real child labor problem was factories and mining. Even today it is legal for kids to work on the farm/ranch. I've had some amazingly long-lived relatives and the best part was they didn't eat like the doctors say now but like farmhands still into their 90s and 100s. Ha. Earlier to bed, early to rise, work hard, eat well, and don't watch tv- better advice than doctors or fad diets/health-news, maybe.

[Walks_At_Night]

The Day Book January 31, 1916.  Introducing Mrs. True to the BellGab audience.

Fresh Everett!  Hen pecked and left in a heap.  Who would have thunk it?

[Rix Gins]

Fresh Everett!  Hen pecked and left in a heap.  Who would have thunk it?

LOL!

[Walks_At_Night]

Really nice pix of an Aussie from 1916:

[Walks_At_Night]

On February 1st, 1916 [some sources say it was the 2nd] - Ivan Logginovitch Goremykin Chairman of Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire informed the Czar that he wished to resign.    He was a stalwart supporter of the Romanov's but lost support with both the Duma and the Council of Ministers.  He would not have a long retirement.  On Christmas Eve, 1917 he was killed by a street mob of Bolshevik's.


He also gave Burnside a run for his money:

[Ciardelo]

An item from the Tonopah daily bonanza., January 31, 1916.  Photo from Wikimedia.   

This made me go take a peek ahead at what happened. Hopefully we'll see an article about them finding it.