Today -100: February 18, 1926: Of baby sopranos, cathcarts, pests of pests, and cotton

Marion Talley makes her debut

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/svc/tmach/v1/refer?pdf=true&res=9B0DE5D6113AEF3ABC4052DFB466838D639EDE

as prima donna at the Metropolitan Opera in Rigoletto. She’s 19 years of age. 19! There’s been so much fuss about this that the Met is mobbed and thousands can’t purchase tickets. The cops arrest several scalpers. The Associated Press reports live by telegraph from the wings, which has not been done before for an opera.

The NYT review praises Ms Talley’s voice but finds that she “has not at present the artistic knowledge to make the most of her gifts.” But you can hear for yourself what she sounded like singing Rigoletto in February 1926:

https://youtu.be/kk_NhUMxaHk

The Treasury Dept is investigating whether it’s feasible for the federal government to purchase the country’s entire supply of medical whisky so it doesn’t keep going astray.

Secretary of Labor James Davis decides that Vera, Countess Cathcart will be thrown out of the country after all. He points out that the 1924 Immigration Act moved the burden of proof from the government to the alien. Next step: To the courts!

The National Woman’s Party points to other examples of the double moral standard in the law: 38 states make prostitution illegal while letting their clients off the hook.

Mexico bans teachers from running for public office.

Manila City Councilman-Elect Antonio Paguia, who last month was sentenced to 2 months in prison for calling Gov. Gen. Leonard Wood “a big tree without a shadow,” is now convicted of sedition, this time for calling Wood a “pest of pests,” “usurper of Philippine autonomy,” and “the worst emissary of the imperialists ever sent here.” The court says this is sedition because an attack on Wood is an attack on the United States government. 

Greece arrests a bunch of opponents of PM Theodoros Pangalos, including former PM Alexandros Papanastasiou and former interior minister Georgios Kondylis.

The Senate votes to compensate Wynona Dixon, 75, for cotton seized by Union forces from her family plantation in Louisiana during the Civil War. $7,666.67. It now goes to the House.

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