Today -100: January 25, 1912: Of spelling, Jews, murderer’s arms, and interracial marriages

Headline of the Day -100: “Blease Sure He Can Spell.” South Carolina Gov. Coleman Blease sends a special message to the Legislature accusing it of deliberately inserting misspellings – explanitory for explanatory – into his messages when they are printed in the House Journal, to make him look illiterate. Also, he wants a committee appointed to inform the people just who it was who burned Columbia during the Civil War.

Russian Prime Minister Kokovstoff responds to questions from Colliers about Taft’s abrogation of the 1832 Russia-US treaty. He says it is unreasonable for the US to object to American Jews being banned from Russia. After all, the US bans people whose religion tolerates polygamy. And anyway, Russia discriminates against its own Jews, so why should American Jews enjoy greater rights in Russia than Russian Jews? These restrictions “are considered a measure of defense for the Russian masses against alien domination”, just like the US bans entry of Asiatics. So that’s okay then.

Medical Headline of the Day -100: “Refuse Murderer’s Arm.” A French surgeon wants to experiment with grafting limbs onto people who’ve lost theirs. But a one-armed man has refused to accept an arm from a guillotined murderer.

Racist Headline of the Day -100 (L.A. Times): “White Man and Negress Wed: ‘We Love Each Other and We’ll Be Happy.’” Inter-racial marriage was evidently big news. The couple were married on a boat going to Catalina Island. The captain of the boat says he would have stopped it had he known. The reverend who officiated called the district attorney first to find out if such a marriage was legal.