Today -100: May 22, 1911: Of ice cream cones, lynchings, swiftly revolving propellers, and peace

Lurking Death of the Day -100: “Think Death Lurks in Ice Cream Cones.” Children have been getting sick and two have died in Yonkers. Curdled milk in the ice cream? Cones made of sugar and paper? In those pre-FDA days, who knows.

Six blacks are lynched in Lake City, Florida by ten men who pretended to be cops and tricked the sheriff’s son into releasing them with a fake telegram. The men were suspected of killing a white dude in Tallahassee and had been moved 100 miles to Lake City to prevent them being lynched, but the mob went on a road trip.

And an old negro preacher who killed his wife and shot a deputy is lynched in Swainsboro, Georgia, the town’s second lynching this month -100.

French Minister of War Maurice Berteaux is killed at an air race when a monoplane crashes into the stands and Prime Minister Ernest Monis and his son are injured. Monis had to be dug out from under the wreckage. His nose was broken and two leg bones had compound fractures. Once again, I’m surprised by the level of gore the NYT is willing to print (also in the Florida lynching story): “Minister of War Berteaux was badly mangled. The swiftly revolving propeller cut off his left arm, which was found ten feet away from the spot where he was struck, the back of his head was crushed in, his throat gashed, and the whole of his left side cut and lacerated.” The pilot was fine. The race will continue tomorrow.

Madero signs a peace agreement ending the Mexican Revolution. President Díaz and his VP will resign shortly.