Today -100: April 17, 1910: Of elections, eating hippopotami, and booty

Headline of the Day -100: “Negro in Cuban Cabinet.” Martín Morúa Delgado, Sec. of Agriculture and Commerce.

The Mississippi Legislature agrees to Sen. Le Roy Percy’s suggestion of a primary election to validate his election by the Legislature. This is just weird. In these pre-17th Amendment days the power to elect US senators remained with the Lege, so this is an election without the force of law, although Percy promises that if he loses, he’ll resign and let the governor pick someone else, presumably Vardaman (in the decades before the passage of the 17th Amendment in 1912, states were increasingly using advisory popular elections). But this one would be a primary with no general election, so that the only citizens who would get to vote for this office are registered Democrats.

An article in the NYT Sunday magazine section suggests solving the high cost of meat by importing animals from Africa and elsewhere. Hippopotami, yaks, antelopes, llamas, giraffes, white rhinoceroses. Hippos, for example, could graze in parts of the country (Florida) not previously used for pasturage. Prof. W.N. Irvin of the Bureau of Plant Industry in the Dept of Agriculture has eaten hippo and says it’s like a blend of beef and turkey, no wait beef and pork. “I predict that in five years hippo steak will be found quite common on the menu of the average New York and Chicago restaurants.”

Other Headline of the Day -100: a man was arrested trying to sell a diamond ring he’d stolen from the jeweler he worked for. The headline: “Caught Selling His Booty.”