Today -100: September 22, 1914: So many of the Louvains of which we now hear so much

Pope Benedict is pissed at the destruction of the Cathedral of Rheims, says he cannot “believe it possible, in such a civilized epoch as the twentieth century, to be plunged back to the time of Attila.”

Brig. Gen. Christiaan Beyers, commandant-general of the South African army, resigns over Britain’s invasion of German Southwest Africa (Namibia), saying that South Africa had no quarrel with Germany.  He discounts all the talk of German barbarity, at least compared to that of the British during the Boer War: “With very few exceptions all the [Boer] farms, not to mention many towns, were so many of the Louvains of which we now hear so much.”

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: The London Standard claims that Bavarian troops are almost on the verge of mutiny after fatal clashes in Brussels with Prussian troops who were defiling the portrait of Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, who was a Bavarian princess before marrying King Albert.

Supposedly, Austrian Field Marshal Vodinowski is executed for spying for the Russians and Field Marshal Foreich is fired after a particularly disastrous battle and shoots himself (the only Google references to Foreich refer to this incident, so I’m not convinced he actually existed).

The War Tax Bill is progressing through Congress.  It will replace the expected $100 million shortfall in import duties caused by the war with various stamp duties, taxes on brokers and museums and concert halls and theaters and bowling alleys and pool halls and tobacco dealers, and gasoline and beer and wine.  Republicans are insisting that no new taxes are needed and the $100 million could simply be cut from the budget.

Anthony Comstock files a complaint about the play “A Beautiful Adventure” (by Robert de Flers and Gaston Armand De Caillavet), which he calls “immoral, indecent, and totally improper.”  The assistant district attorney is being sent to judge for himself.  Director Charles Frohman says he’ll sue Comstock for slander.

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