Today -100: September 8, 1913: The protests have been emphasized by bombs

Some Japanese people have been killed in Nanking, and there is a loud jingoistic clamor in Japan for an invasion.

Riots in Lisbon. The Daily Telegraph correspondent reports “the Royalists have protested energetically against the holding up of telegrams to ex-King Manuel, congratulating him on his marriage, and that the protests have been emphasized by bombs.”

Mexican dictator Huerta wants to buy a dirigible from a Nevada firm. The State Dept has to decide if it constitutes a “munition of war” banned for sale to a combatant under the Neutrality Acts.

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Norm!

The worst part of Obama constantly invoking an “international norm” against chemical weapons is that when I hear it I feel an irresistible urge to yell “Norm!” Too many episodes of Cheers, I guess, if there could be such a thing. He used the term no less than 16 times in today’s press conference. There is evidently an “international norm [Norm!] on banning chemical weapons.” Remember how Assad has lost his “legitimacy,” according to Obama and Hillary? That was another measure which could be defined and enforced by Obama personally.

The problem is that a “norm” does not exist in concrete terms unless its terms are specified by international law or treaty. There is no such law, and no treaty signed by Syria. So Obama can certainly make a moral case for stopping Syrian use of such weapons, but there is nothing to “enforce” or “breech.” Or even unravel: “when there’s a breech this brazen of a norm this important [Norm!], and the international community is paralyzed and frozen and doesn’t act, then that norm [Norm!] begins to unravel. And if that norm [Norm!] unravels, then other norms and prohibitions start unraveling.” I hate those unraveling norms, you wind up picking threads out of the furniture for weeks.

“There are a number of countries that, just as a matter of principle, believe that if military action is to be taken it needs to go through the U.N. Security Council.” And by “as a matter of principle,” they mean as a matter of international law.

He says he would “greatly prefer working through multilateral channels and through the United Nations to get this done,” but he’s gotta protect that norm. And Assad would probably prefer to win his war without chemical weapons (if he did order the use of chemical weapons), but Obama and Assad will disregard those preferences in order to get their way.

“As I said last night, I was elected to end wars, not start them.” Funny how that happened, huh?

“And what I’ve tried to explain is we may not solve the whole problem, but this particular problem of using chemical weapons on children, this one we might have an impact on, and that’s worth acting on.” Way to set a nebulous goal to which he can’t be held.

“that experience with the war in Iraq colors how people view this situation not just back home in America, but also here in Europe and around the world.” It’s called learning from past mistakes.

“Now, is it possible that Assad doubles down in the face of our action and uses chemical weapons more widely? I suppose anything is possible, but it wouldn’t be wise.” And if Assad has proven himself to be anything, it’s wise.

“I think it would be pretty hard for the U.N. Security Council at that point to continue to resist the requirement for action, and we would gladly join with an international coalition to make sure that it stops.” Gladly. With a song in our heart and a cruise missile in our pants.

“These kinds of interventions, these kinds of actions are always unpopular because they seem distant and removed.” Yes, it’s not like the Civil War, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

“I want people to understand that gassing innocent people, delivering chemical weapons against children is not something we do.” We have drones for that.

He met with the presidents of Brazil and Mexico, both of whom ae pissed off that the NSA has been spying on them (personally, as well as their countries). “I said that I would look into the allegations.” You’d have thought he’d have “looked into” them before actually meeting the two presidents. You can tell it wasn’t Obama that McCain was losing to at phone-poker, because Obama sucks at bluffing.

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Today -100: September 7, 1913: Of phonetics, taxidermy, and jaywalking

The NYT is perplexed by reports of George Bernard Shaw’s next play: “‘Pygmalion’ has no sex interest, and it is literally a play on phonetics.”

Headline of the Day -100 (I think this is the NYT’s Sunday magazine section): “One Calling Which Has Not Yet Been Invaded by Women.” Taxidermy.

Woodrow Wilson, out for a walk, is nearly run down by a street car as he jaywalks. A cop jumps in front of the trolley and gets it to stop in time.

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Today -100: September 6, 1913: Of shotgun weddings, or something

This story raises more questions than it answers:


(click on image to see, you know, the rest of it)

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High confidence

Oops, just found a post I forgot to post yesterday about Obama’s press conference in Stockholm.

On NSA snooping, he suggested that “it may be that the laws that are currently in place are not sufficient to guard against the dangers of us being able to track so much.” Oh, a narrower law would certainly be a help, but just because something isn’t technically legal does not make it obligatory. Just fucking stop snooping on everything and everyone. Just. Stop.

On chemical weapons, “I didn’t set a red line; the world set a red line.” But did the world name the United States sole judge, jury and executioner? Because if not, don’t pretend to be acting on the world’s behalf.

“Keep in mind, I’m somebody who opposed the war in Iraq and not interested in repeated mistakes of us basing decisions on faulty intelligence. But having done a thoroughgoing evaluation of the information that is currently available, I can say with high confidence chemical weapons were used.” George Bush had high confidence about Iraq. Cheney had high confidence. Rumsfeld had high confidence. Condi had high confidence. God save us from politicians with high confidence.

“But I do have to ask people, well, if, in fact, you’re outraged by the slaughter of innocent people, what are you doing about it?” Not bombing Syria, that’s what I’m doing about it.

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Today -100: September 5, 1913: Of refugees, the basest impulse of crooked politics, train crashes, and hotel jurists

The House appropriates $100,000 to help Americans get out of Mexico.

Theodore Roosevelt (a former governor of New York, it should be remembered) writes to semi-deposed NY Gov. Sulzer, telling him that “there is no question that all of your assailants are the enemies of the public and that their aim is to acquire the evil domination of the State Government, and that the conspiracy against you has not one saving impulse behind it that can in the remotest degree be ascribed to patriotism or civic spirit, or to anything save the basest impulse of crooked politics.”

Meanwhile, the Fawley Committee is now accusing Sulzer of spending $8,000 on printed matter promoting direct primaries, when the executive department’s entire printing budget was only $1,000.

The engineer of the train that crashed in Connecticut two days ago is arrested after a closed-door coroner’s inquest in which the coroner allowed the railroad company to review and edit all the evidence, so that looks totally above board.

NYT Index Typo of the Day -100: “HEHRY B. BROWN, HOTEL JURIST, DIES.” That should be Henry B. Brown, Noted Jurist. In fact, former US Supreme Court Justice Brown (1890-1906), who wrote the majority opinion in Plessy v. Ferguson, which is not mentioned in his obit.

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Today -100: September 4, 1913: Of coal wars and little coteries of men who follow politics as a dishonest trade

H.T. Davis, President of the Paint Creek Consolidated Coal Company, testifies to the Senate special committee investigating the West Virginia coal wars that coal miners were contented with their ill-paid, brief lives before “outsiders” from the United Mine Workers’ Union came. He defends the use of guards to keep union organizers away from miners and says that the mineowners didn’t bring in machine guns until they heard that the miners were bringing in guns.

Foiling Tammany Hall’s attempt to deny him re-election by giving the Democratic nomination to someone else, NYC Mayor William Jay Gaynor is re-nominated by petitions from independent voters. Gaynor, still unable to speak much after his recent illness caused by being shot in the throat three years ago, has a speech read out attacking Boss Murphy and Tammany, “a little coterie of men who follow politics as a dishonest trade, and have no other visible means of support,” picking the next mayor at a table at Delmonico’s. Gaynor adds that the people of NY “are going to shovel all of these miserable little political grafters into one common dump heap”. He had a shovel with him and play-acted “burying his enemies.” Everyone loves a prop comic.

Ex-prez Taft is elected president of the American Bar Association.

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Never means never

Today, Secretary of State John Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Mr. Chairman, thank you for welcoming Teresa. This is her first public event since early July, so we’re all happy she’s here.” Sure, who doesn’t bring their wife along to watch them try to start a war.

“[The world wants] to know if America will rise to this moment and make a difference.” And by make a difference, I mean make a crater. Well, craters.

“The President and the Administration appreciate that you have returned quickly to the nation’s capital to address it and that you are appropriately beginning a process of focusing with great care and great precision”. Because nothing says great care and great precision like the United States Senate.

Obama is coming to the Senate for a vote because “We are stronger as a nation when we do that.” Sure, remember how strong as a nation the Tonkin Gulf Resolution made us?

“the Assad regime - and only, undeniably, the Assad regime - unleashed an outrageous chemical attack against its own citizens.” There’s that word again.

“Now, some people here and there, amazingly, have questioned the evidence of this assault on conscience. I repeat here again today that only the most willful desire to avoid reality can assert that this did not occur as described or that the regime did not do it.” You can always tell how much someone “welcomes a debate” when they open by being amazed at the willful desire to avoid reality of anyone who questions them.

“Now, I remember Iraq. Secretary Hagel remembers Iraq. General Dempsey especially remembers Iraq.” Also the Alamo. And the Maine.

“our intelligence community has scrubbed and re-scrubbed the evidence.” It just sounds dirty when he says it like that.



“Within minutes of the attack - 90, I think, to be precise, maybe slightly shorter” Well then you’re not being precise, now are you? “the social media exploded with horrific images of the damage that had been caused”. And things that explode in social media have never been wrong, or manufactured. “Those scenes of human chaos and desperation were not contrived. They were real. No one could contrive such a scene.” Says a man who hasn’t seen a new movie in several decades.

He claims Syria kept inspectors out for four days, which is not true. (By the way, did you know that when either side makes a claim of a chemical weapons attack, both sides are required to stop fighting until the UN is done inspecting the area? It’s totally true.)

Over 180 countries joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, he says, without mentioning that Syria isn’t one of them.

“Now, some have tried to suggest that the debate we’re having today is about President Obama’s redline. I could not more forcefully state that is just plain and simply wrong. This debate is about the world’s redline, it’s about humanity’s redline, and it’s a redline that anyone with a conscience ought to draw.” It just sounds dirty when he says it like that.

“the world wonders whether the United States of America will consent, through silence, to standing aside while this kind of brutality is allowed to happen without consequence.” Yes, not bombing Syria is exactly like consent.

“And I think all of you know that history holds nothing but infamy for those criminals” Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it infamy “...and history reserves also very little sympathy for their enablers.” Oh, now not bombing Syria has slipped from consent to active enablement.

“we cannot overlook the impact of chemical weapons and the danger that they pose to a particularly volatile area of the world in which we’ve been deeply invested for years, because we have great friends there, we have allies there, we have deep interests there.” Israel and oil, oil and Israel, Israel and oil.

Oh lord, I am so getting GeeDubya flashbacks now: “but to avoid the creation of a safe haven in Syria or a base of operations for extremists to use these weapons against our friends.”

He calls the authorization for Obama to use whatever military force he wants pretty much wherever and however and for as long as he wants “this very limited request the President has put before you.”



“We need to send to Syria and to the world, to dictators and to terrorists, to allies, and to civilians alike the unmistakable message that when the United States of America and the world say ‘Never again,’ we don’t mean sometimes, we don’t mean somewhere. Never means never.”

“Norms and laws that keep the civilized world civil mean nothing if they’re not enforced.” The civilized world, really, that’s the expression we’re using? Maybe he meant to say that he wanted to keep the civil war civil. Actually, that pretty much is what he’s saying: that the mass slaughter was perfectly acceptable and, to use the word he definitely used, I heard him, “civil,” until someone had to ruin it.

“We all agree there will be no American boots on the ground.” They will be manufactured in China.

“The President has made crystal clear we have no intention of assuming responsibility for Syria’s civil war.” So,
“accountability” for Assad, but no responsibility for us. How convenient.

“Some fear a retaliation that leads to a larger conflict. Well, let me put it bluntly: If Assad is arrogant enough, and I would say foolish enough, to retaliate to the consequences of his own criminal activity, the United States and our allies have ample ways to make him regret that decision without going to war.” Um, even if you don’t call it a war (which won’t stop it being a war; ask the people under the bombs we drop whether it’s a war, they’ll be pretty clear on the subject), that is exactly the “ample ways to make him regret decision” is precisely the “larger conflict” he’s reassuring us against.

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Today -100: September 3, 1913: Of train wrecks and pardons

Headline of the Day -100: “Wilson Sees Wreck Pyre.” By coincidence, his train follows a route where a train, the White Mountain Flyer, crashed in Connecticut a few hours before, killing 21. The New Haven railroad is notorious for crashes, collisions and wrecks. The NYT lists 17 in the previous 27 months, with 66 deaths.

Guy-Who-Thinks-He’s-Still-Governor-of-New-York William Sulzer pardons bank embezzler extraordinaire Joseph Robin. The warden of the prison holding Mr. Robin plans to ignore the pardon. Sulzer’s idea is to force a court to rule on just who is governor of New York pending his impeachment trial (a court will rule against him, and Robin will go back where he came from).

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Today -100: September 2, 1913: Of rebellions, holidays, crippled tsareviches and big cossacks, and loop-the-loops

Oh yeah, there’s been a rebellion in China for a while now, hasn’t there. Well, Nanking (Nanjing) falls to government forces, as the NYT explains in the two sentences it devotes to the subject. Its coverage of China often resembles a Zen koan in its brevity and allusiveness.

John D. Rockefeller explains why he doesn’t give the workers on his estate Labor Day off: “Instead of spending money on amusements my employees will have an opportunity to add to their savings. Had they been given a holiday, money would have been spent foolishly.” He gave this explanation whilst playing golf on Labor Day, because of course he did.

Headline of the Day -100: “CZAR'S SON STILL CRIPPLED.; Looks Robust, But Has to be Carried About by a Big Cossack.” Oh, we’ve all been there.

Other Headline of the Day -100: “FLIES UPSIDE DOWN QUARTER OF A MILE.” French aviator Adolphe Célestin Pégoud flies the first ever loop-the-loop (except Wikipedia says it was the second; a Russian flew one 12 days before). This is the same guy who parachuted from a plane last month. Pégoud will achieve a more dubious first: he was the first “ace” to shoot down another plane (during World War I, not for, you know, sport). He will himself be shot down in 1915, by one of his old German aviation students.

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Today -100: September 1, 1913: Of refugees and bloody Sundays

Although Pres. Wilson told Americans in Mexico that they should leave, he didn’t actually have any preparations in place. Those who obeyed are being dumped in New Orleans and handed $5, so now many Americans still in Mexico are refusing to leave.

Bloody Sunday in Dublin (yes, there have been other Bloody Sundays in Ireland; it’s just that kind of place). James Larkin, president of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, holds a public meeting that the police had banned. Larkin, on bail on a charge of seditious conspiracy, had burned the proclamation banning the meeting on Friday and an arrest warrant was issued. He evades the police, sneaks into a hotel in disguise and addresses the crowd from a balcony for a while before being arrested. The police beat strikers, injuring hundreds and killing one.

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What message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price?

Believing it was important to speak to the American people about our forthcoming not-at-all-a-war with Syria at a time when they would be paying maximum attention, President Obama went on tv on the Saturday of a holiday weekend.

In keeping with the Obama administration position that it is “indisputable” that the Syrian government used chemical weapons, he only spent a single sentence on proof, and the level of proof he offered was simply “Our intelligence shows...”

He never spoke about “punishing” Syria, but about “hold[ing] the Assad regime accountable.” He did not explain precisely how bombing a country produces accountability, nor why the Assad regime should be accountable to the United States (and France, I almost forgot about France).

He will ask Congressional authorization, which he totally doesn’t need, because “I’ve long believed that our power is rooted not just in our military might, but in our example as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Also... moxie!

He asked a good question: “What message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price?” What message, indeed, oh wielder of the flying killer robots?

He asked another good question: “If we won’t enforce accountability in the face of this heinous act, what does it say about our resolve to stand up to others who flout fundamental international rules?” Says the man about to launch unilateral military strikes.

Finally, though, it’s all about the children: “We cannot raise our children in a world where we will not follow through on the things we say, the accords we sign, the values that define us.” So this is, what, a teachable moment? It’s about teaching our children the importance of cleaning up their rooms when they say they’re going to clean up their rooms?

“But I will ask those who care about the writ of the international community to stand publicly behind our action.” Our unilateral action in support of the writ of the international community, without asking for UN endorsement, because only the United States decides what constitutes the writ of the international community.

“And the American people have the good sense to know we cannot resolve the underlying conflict in Syria with our military.” The American people can’t find Syria on a map.

“we’re not contemplating putting our troops in the middle of someone else’s war.” Is he quoting Lyndon Johnson now?

Always end on a joke: “I ask you, members of Congress, to consider that some things are more important than partisan differences or the politics of the moment.”

“And we lead with the belief that right makes might -- not the other way around.” But flying killer robots and cruise missiles help too.

(Incidentally, although he said he’s going to Congress for authorization, he didn’t say that, like Cameron, he’ll be bound by that vote).

And now, all over America, Republican congresscritters are preparing statements linking authorization to the repeal of Obamacare. Oh, you know they are.

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Today -100: August 31, 1913: Of capitals and lockouts

The European Powers have decided that Albania’s capital will be Elbassan, a small crappy town several days’ mule-ride from the coast (that is, it was then; today I’m sure it’s a sophisticated, gleaming metropolis), which “does not contain a single dwelling suitable for a European resident.”

Rioting in Dublin (the NYT surely meant to say a police riot, since it was they who attacked striking tram workers). Well, I say striking, but this is the start of what is known as the Dublin Lockout. Employers in the city collectively decided to crush the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union by firing hundreds of its members (Guinness, a major employer in the city, did not join in the lockout).

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Today -100: August 30, 1913: Of lynchings, gypsies, protecting American women, detestable harridans, splendid cannibals, and letters to the editor

The Jennings, Louisiana, police chief and other town notables are arrested for accessory in the lynching of Joseph Comeaux, who was of course black. Comeaux had responded to a Syrian (probably Lebanese, I’d guess) shopkeeper who had brushed dirt onto his shoes by hitting him with his own broom, inflicting minor injuries. Obviously, he had to die.

A large band of gypsies attack the town of Lunel in France, before being fought off by the army. No idea what this is about, and there will be no follow-up stories.

Texas Gov. Oscar Branch Colquitt at the governors’ conference: “I would send every United States soldier into Mexico to protect American women, if necessary.”

In Britain, of course, it is the politicians who need protection from the women. Prime Minister Asquith is attacked by two suffragettes (or, as the NYT puts it, “detestable... harridans”) on the golf links. Charges against the detestable harridans will be withdrawn to save Asquith having to testify.

NYC Mayor Gaynor has a sore throat, possibly because he was shot in the throat three years ago.

Headline of the Day -100 (New York Globe): “Cannibals Are Splendid People.” Says Dan Crawford, author of “Thinking Black,” a missionary who has been living with the Luban of Central Africa for 23 years. “Their religion is one of sex,” he says, which probably explains why he finds them so splendid.

Uneaten Headline of the Day -100 (LAT): “REFUSED TO EAT HIS WORD.: Oklahoma Editor Killed When He Declined to Masticate Newspaper Criticising Former Treasurer.” Former treasurer of Murray County John Lindsay approached J. Y. Schenck, the editor of the Sulpher Democrat, and demanded that he retract and eat a story. Schenck refused and Lindsay shot him, as was the custom. The LAT doesn’t say what the paper said about Lindsay.

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Today -100: August 29, 1913: Of governors on burros

Headline of the Day -100: “25 Governors Race Down a Mountain.” On burros, yet.

Proquest Typo of the Day -100, for an LA Times story about the reaction in Mexico to Wilson’s speech: “WILSON MASSAGE ANGERS REBELS.” No happy ending?

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Today -100: August 28, 1913: Of dueling governors, strikebreakers, horses, confidential agents, and the settled fortune of the distracted country, and brides of the wind

The lower house of the NY Legislature accepts messages from Acting Gov. Martin Glynn, thus formally recognizing him and not Sulzer as the One True Governor. The state senate will follow suit tomorrow.

Guards at the Pope tin mill in Steubenville, Ohio shoot at strikers, hitting six.

President Wilson’s daughter Jessie (aka “the hot daughter”) is thrown from her horse and is unconscious for more than a half hour.

Mexico makes public its communications with the US government, which include a promise from Woodrow Wilson that if Huerta promises not to run for president, Wilson will ask American bankers to make loans to Mexico. For some reason, people think this sounds like an attempted bribe. Mexican Foreign Minister Federico Gamboa says that Mexico won’t submit its elections to the veto of any president of the United States, because that’s the prerogative of the Mexican military. OK, he didn’t say the last part. Still, if it weren’t for the fact that he was speaking for a murderous coup government, I’d admire his wonderfully sarcastic letters to John Lind, whom he addresses repeatedly as “Mr. Confidential Agent.”

Woodrow Wilson addresses a joint session of Congress about Mexico, where “War and disorder, devastation and confusion, seem to threaten to become the settled fortune of the distracted country.”

He sounds genuinely surprised that Gen. Huerta did not accept his proposal that he step down immediately and not stand in presidential elections, and seems to be casting about for reasons why he didn’t: “I am led to believe that they were rejected partly because the authorities at Mexico City had been grossly misinformed and misled upon two points. They did not realize the spirit of the American people in this matter, their earnest friendliness and yet sober determination that some just solution be found for the Mexican difficulties; and they did not believe that the present administration spoke, through Mr. Lind, for the people of the United States.” But “the steady pressure of moral force will before many days break the barriers of pride and prejudice down...” Why, Mr. Darcy! “...and we shall triumph as Mexico’s friends sooner than we could triumph as her enemies-and how much more handsomely, with how much higher and finer satisfactions of conscience and of honor!”

He does not plan to intervene militarily at this time, or to do much else, really: “We can afford to exercise the self-restraint of a really great nation which realizes its own strength and scorns to misuse it.” Which sounds rather like his explanation for not declaring war on Germany after the sinking of the Lusitania, that there is such a thing as being “too proud to fight.”

He calls for all Americans to leave Mexico (or, as an LAT headline puts it, “‘Run’ is Wilson’s Last Word to Americans in Mexico”), and for a ban on the sale of arms to both sides (arms have been sold to the regime which the US government does not recognize).

Name of the Day -100: Oskar Kokoschka, an Austrian painter I’ll admit to not having heard of, perhaps because Tom Lehrer didn’t sing about him in the song about Alma Mahler, has broken off his engagement with her because he didn’t like her living off the income from her late husband Gustav Mahler’s estate. But c’mon, that name! Wouldn’t you love to be able to say, “Hello, my name is Oskar Kokoschka”? Anyhoo, this is “Bride of the Wind,” a 1913 painting by Oskar, which Wikipedia describes as “a self-portrait expressing his unrequited love for Alma Mahler.”

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What part of indisputable did you not understand?

Jay Carney says it’s “preposterous” to doubt that there were chemical weapons attacks in Syria or that the government was responsible. Biden says there’s “no doubt,” and last week Kerry said it was “indisputable.” So that settles that: evidently the debate on the facts is over without ever having actually, you know, occurred. We seem to have skipped right past that to the part where officials deny the validity of questioning “facts” which are, after all, indisputable, beyond dispute so why are you even still trying to dispute them, you preposterous lackwits?

Shouldn’t Kerry at least go to the UN with a test tube of fake anthrax or something? Isn’t that, like, traditional?

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Today -100: August 27, 1913: I am tired of being a girl

There is a Carnegie Commission investigating atrocities during the Balkan Wars. First I’ve heard of it. Anyway, the Serbs are boycotting it, as is the custom.

Headline of the Day -100: “Girl Wears Male Garb.” The NY police “had been receiving complaints that a girl masquerading as a man was going about his precinct, and had been seen in various saloons.” Naturally a police captain and a detective investigated, tracked her down and arrested her for vagrancy. She told the magistrate, “I am tired of being a girl. I want to work with men and get a man’s pay. I am tired of the worries of a girl who works in factories at a salary that will not keep body and soul together.”

Leo Frank is sentenced to death for the murder of Mary Phagan, which he did not do.

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Today -100: August 26, 1913: Of peons, the kind of government that best suits Mexico, holidays, and Arctic expeditions

Headline of the Day -100: “Two Slain by Peons.” A couple of Europeans in Mexico. Er, the Europeans are the slayees, not the peons. You just don’t hear the word peons that much anymore.

As special envoy Lind’s mission to Mexico comes to an end, having accomplished nothing, the NYT again calls for recognition of Huerta’s junta in Mexico, pooh-poohing the objection that it’s a dictatorship: “Mexico, in the long run, will have the kind of Government that best suits it. If it amounts to a dictatorship, that is Mexico’s affair.”

There seems to be a truce between the British government and militant suffragists. Emmeline Pankhurst is visiting her daughter in Paris and will then go on an American tour, and has advised her followers also to take a holiday. On the other side, the government is failing to re-arrest women out of prison on Cat and Mouse Act licenses. Currently there are 43 militants sentenced to prison, only one of whom is actually in prison.

The HMS Karluk, leading a Canadian Arctic expedition got caught in the ice pack early in the month, expedition leader Vilhjalmur Stefansson (on one of the other ships) reports. It will drift for the next few months before sinking in January 1914, while the ship’s phonograph played Chopin’s Funeral March. The crew of 25 will camp on the ice for a few weeks, then set off looking for land. Two advance parties are lost, the remaining 17 men reach Wrangel Island, and 14 will survive until they are rescued (by the HMS Bear; I was momentarily startled by the June 1914 headline “Bear to Get Karluk’s Men”) in September 1914, when their first words were, I’m guessing, “There’s a WHAT now, a WORLD war? What say you just leave us right here on our cozy ice-island until it’s over.” (Update: wow, I just assumed they were all men. There was an Inuit whose wife and two children came along.)

I have to wonder how many groups from various ill-conceived expeditions were scattered throughout the Arctic Circle. In 1917 the Karluk’s captain, Robert Bartlett, rescued another 1913 expedition, which was searching for Crocker Land, which explorer Robert Peary claimed to have spotted in 1906 but which he hadn’t seen any more than he’d actually reached the North Pole (he named it for the banker who paid for the expedition, and who he hoped would pay for another expedition to explore “Crocker Land”). The expedition (which Peary was not on) had been stranded for four years, with only one vicious murder. And before Bartlett rescued them, another ship tried to reach them, only to get stuck in the ice for two years.

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Today -100: August 25, 1913: Slow news day

Nothing of interest to report. Sorry readers. And sorry, websites & Facebook pages that copy off this feature. Don’t know how you’ll fill your space today; might I suggest doing so by thanking your sources and linking back to them?

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