Thursday, December 16, 2010

Today -100: December 16, 1910: Of arbitration, palaces, fingers, and the P-word


The idea behind Andrew Carnegie’s $10 million donation is that peace will be established when arbitration between nations becomes not a diplomatic but a judicial process.

This is the entirety of a NYT story: “The Government Palace at Quito was burned to-day.”

Gross Headline of the Day -100: “Snipped Finger Exhibit.” Albert Shattuck of the Executive Committee of the American Museum of Safety (est. 1908 to promote workplace safety) (I wonder what the gift shop sells) appeared at a dinner of the Engineers’ Club with his little finger bandaged, which he explained was the result of a shaving accident. I admit to having been somewhat disappointed when I realized that “Snipped Finger Exhibit” wasn’t about an actual exhibit at the museum.

Mortifying Headline of the Day -100: “Remember the Pickaninnies.” “Those who feel an interest in colored children protest that, in all the flood of Christmas charity, everybody seems to forget the little ones of the city’s dusky poor. There is to be a ‘pickaninny Christmas tree,’ just the same, and a Christmas dinner, too.” And Rosalie Jonas, who is collecting subscriptions for the event, has a little poem, which may be the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever read:


Ms. Jonas was evidently a poet of the Harlem Renaissance, so, um, presumably African-American.

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