Today -100: November 7, 1913: Of hepburns, ritual murders, and straight hair

Suffragists in Connecticut will plead for the commutation of the death sentence on a woman who killed her husband. Which I might not have mentioned but for the suffragist quoted by the Times, a “Mrs. Thomas N. Hepburn,” i.e., actor Katharine Hepburn’s mother.

The prosecutor in the Kiev ritual murder case admits that Mendel Beilis might well be an excellent father and a virtuous man, who just happens to believe that killing Christian children is not a crime.

The US State Dept refuses to pass on to the Russian government a petition against the trial and asking the Czar to debunk the blood libel, signed by clergy, including most of the bishops of the Catholic and Episcopal churches, because Russia made it clear that it won’t accept them.

The governor of Indiana sends the entire national guard into Indianapolis to deal with the street car strike, although he’s holding off on declaring martial law until he sees whether an agreement can be reached. The street car company is demanding that the union be abolished and the strike leaders be banished from the city as a condition for starting talks, and insists that its employees are actually all perfectly contented.

Gen. Felix Díaz, who escaped arrest in Mexico by fleeing to Cuba, is stabbed by five Mexicans while listening to a band concert in Havana. He received minor stab wounds in the neck (it was just a penknife) but fought off his assailants with an umbrella. One pulled out a gun but missed Díaz and shot one of the other assailants instead.

A letter to the NYT asks the question: what’s up with these negroes who have straight hair all of a sudden?

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