Today -100: August 12, 1912: Of firing squads, cows, and ringlings

Nevada gave prisoners who were sentenced to death the right to choose between hanging and firing squad, and Andriji Mirkovich chose the latter. But the warden can’t find five men to form the firing squad.

Woodrow Wilson comes out against prohibition but in favor of local option, and says such social and moral issues should not be part of party platforms.

Republican congresscritters, scared shitless that they might have to declare in favor of either Taft or Roosevelt, have found a loophole in an anti-corruption law forbidding congressional candidates from promising public offices in return for support. They say that means they can’t announce their support for T or R, which of course it doesn’t.

The NYT is endlessly fascinated with the participation of women in Bull Moose politics, including the naming of four women, one of them Jane Addams, to the National Committee. I’m waiting with some trepidation for the Times to realize that a female bull moose is called a cow.

The NYT says Hiram Johnson, Roosevelt’s running mate, will resign as governor of California. The LAT says he will not resign.

The sultan of Morocco plans to abdicate in favor of his brother, but France won’t let him until he publicly announces that he is doing it for health reasons, so no one thinks they forced him out.

A con man is arrested on the verge of marrying a Miss Grace Spence of Berkeley. He was impersonating, of all people, one of the Ringling Brothers. He was also in the middle of negotiating with the city of Venice, CA for a $25,000 bonus to locate the winter quarters of the circus there, but was found out when he bounced a check, one of many.

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