Today -100: November 6, 1913: Of dry towns, whipping Mexicans, and bear chases

Of 24 towns in Illinois that voted on prohibition, 18 went dry. Everyone ascribes this to the female vote.

Oregon voters voted for workmen’s comp, voted down sterilization of habitual criminals.

At a meeting in the East End, Sylvia Pankhurst announces the formation of a volunteer corps to protect suffragettes and labor union members. It will be commanded by a former Boer War vet, Capt. Sir Francis Vane. Sylvia says that they’re basing the corps on the model of the Ulsterites, so they’re expecting the same immunity from governmental interference enjoyed by Sir Edward Carson. Sylvia, who is out of prison on a Cat & Mouse Act license, escaped re-arrest with the help of East Enders.

Since Mexican banks have been saying they can’t lend money to Huerta without endangering their reserves, he decrees that bank notes are legal tender which must be accepted, but banks don’t have to pay off on them for a year. Problem solved.

Headline Word Choice of the Day -100: “German Experts Certain We Could Not Whip Mexico Easily.” “Whip” is a very pre-World War I way to describe what goes on in a war. Although I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Donald Rumsfeld predicted we would whip Iraq easily.

China is forced by Russia to agree to recognize the “autonomy” of Outer Mongolia, whose exact borders remain nebulous.

55 Filipinos brought to Ghent as an exhibition in a exposition some months ago haven’t been paid in months and are literally starving.

Headline of the Day -100: “Bear Chase in the Bronx.” Bruno, for that is his name, escapes from a gypsy camp, gets nearly 3 miles away before someone from the Bronx Zoo “lassoes” him (literally??) and returns him to the gypsies.

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