Today -100: April 3, 1914: Of thwarted sprots, home rule all round, fannies, and Torreón falls

“General” Kelley of the unemployed army is convicted of vagrancy in Sacramento. His army marches on.

The Tories decide to let Asquith run unopposed in the by-election. Col. Sprot must await another opportunity (spoiler alert: Col. Sprot will actually defeat Asquith in the 1920 general election, and then go on to accomplish... well, that’s it, that’s all he ever accomplished).

Foreign Minister Sir Edward Grey has suggested a federal system as a way out of the Home Rule/Ulster impasse. Everybody’s being very polite about it, although I fail to see how that would resolve the fundamental question of whether Ireland should be a single political unit.

Rumors correctly say that a major shipment of rifles bought in the US will be smuggled into Northern Ireland aboard the S.S. ... wait for it... the S.S. Fanny. More will be heard of the Fanny. And a certain amount of shameless giggling.

Suffragettes burn Lisburn Castle in County Antrim, although the fire is put out before doing much damage. Sir Edward Carson is now on the WSPU’s shit list for not including women’s suffrage in his demand for a referendum on Ulster exclusion from Home Rule.

The Treasury Department names the 12 cities in which Federal Reserve banks will be created. There was a lot of haggling over this.

Russia makes it legal for married women to own property, open businesses, get jobs and apply for their own passport without their husband’s permission. Legal separation, short of divorce, is introduced.

Mexico: The rebels take Torreón, but Gen. Velasco escapes.

Constitutionalist authorities in Parral arrest the US consular agent for passing counterfeit money (counterfeits of rebel money, not federal money or “Villa currency”).

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