Today -100: December 12, 1920: Of disarming, hobos, experimenting in college, and mimetic satirists

The League of Nations disarmament commission agrees to ask members not to increase their military spending in 1922 and 1923 over 1921 levels, but Japan says it can’t reduce its military and naval spending while the US is increasing its.

A police raid in Dublin finds a bomb-making plant in a bicycle repair shop.

At the big hobo convention in Toledo, Ohio, two rival hobo organizations clash, with Gus Gramer, the Grand Dictator of the Social Order of Hoboes, accusing the International Brotherhood Welfare Association of “usurping the rights of the regular hoboes,” but they ultimately resolve their differences. Just what are the rights of regular hobos?

Headline of the Day -100:  

Goucher College in Baltimore.

Enrico Caruso bursts a blood vessel in his throat during Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. He actually tries to continue singing, but fails. He’ll make a couple more attempts at concerts, but his career is over.

By coincidence, in a Sunday NYT interview with Charlie Chaplin, the “mimetic satirist,” as he calls himself in preference to “clown,” describes having met Caruso once, and it did not go well.

Don't see comments? Click on the post title to view or post comments.