Today -100: May 18, 1911: Of inaugurations, toothaches, and great institutions

Sen. Gallinger (R-NH) introduces a resolution for an Amendment to the Constitution changing the presidential inauguration from early March to late April. Not for any reasons of good governance, but because it’s too fucking cold in D.C. in March. At Taft’s inauguration, thousands of dollars were spent on grandstands “which when the parade passed were occupied only by snowdrifts.”

Harriet Stanton Blatch and other suffragists were ordered off the floor of the NY State Senate, where they were lobbying for the women’s suffrage bill. Some senators are horrified that after having pledged to support women’s suffrage during the last election to get women off their back, the bill might reach the floor and they would have to actually vote on it.

Headline of the Day -100: “Diaz, in Agony, Tells Cabinet He Will Quit.” Mexican President Porfirio Díaz has finally agreed to resign sometime in the next few days, to be replaced by Foreign Minister Francisco de la Barra acting in conjunction with Francisco Madero pending a new election within six months. The rebels will also be in charge of half the states. Oh, the “agony” bit: Díaz has a toothache.

Pancho Villa crosses into the US in a rage to find Col. Garibaldi and settle their personal feud (they are ostensibly both on the rebel side, but they clashed during the taking of Juarez), but the mayor of El Paso, backed by the Secret Service, takes Villa’s guns from him and sends him back to Mexico. “The United States Secret Service is a great institution,” commented Garibaldi.