Getting new blog posts by email

Google is killing that Feedburner function sometime in July, because reasons. I've added a new get-posts-by-email thing in the column to the right, from something called follow.it. If you want to continue/start getting posts in your inbox, enter your email address there.

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Today -100: June 30, 1921: We need to know the whereabouts of these people

Northern Ireland Prime Minister Sir James Craig rejects Éamon de Valera’s request for a meeting (which de V initially sent to a different Unionist politician named Sir James Craig).

The Dáil Éireann authorizes reprisals against British reprisals. A house for a house.

The House of Representatives votes 330-4 for the Borah Amendment in favor of calling naval limitation negotiations with Britain and Japan.

Winston Churchill’s mother Jennie, aka Lady Randolph Churchill, dies. The story is on page 12, which is odd since her leg being amputated was front-page news earlier this month.

The Cuban Senate votes against women’s suffrage. 

US Secretary of Labor James Davis wants to track immigrants, “not to regulate him, but to help him, to teach him, and encourage him. We need to know the whereabouts of these people, if it is only to protect them from the insidious poison of Red propaganda.”

A Lake County, Illinois jury takes 20 hours to convict a hotel owner of violating Prohibition law, because that’s how long it took for them to consume the evidence, 3 quarts of whiskey and 1 of port.

No, I’m not going to read the op-ed about how vivisection is “vindicated.”

I thought we’d heard the opinion of every person on earth about the Dempsey-Carpentier match, but... George Bernard Shaw thinks Carpentier will win.

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Today -100: June 29, 1921: Ultra-modern, to say the least

Éamon de Valera resonds to Lloyd George’s call to confer in London, saying he will need to consult with... “the political minority” or Ireland, i.e., the Unionists. He also says no lasting peace can be achieved if LG insists on dividing Ireland and rejecting “the principle of national self-determination.” De Valera also writes to Northern Ireland Prime Minister Sir James Craig and other Unionist leaders proposing talks with them.

West Virginia Gov. Ephraim Morgan orders the sheriff of Mingo County to draft 130 men (or accept volunteers) for 60 days to fight the miners. WV has no National Guard.

An address to the National Social Conference describes how a man was once cured of hysterical blindness by the Industrial Commission of New York by letting him remain with the woman he was living with in bigamy after leaving his “unkind” wife. A delegate to the conference says of the address, “It was ultra-modern, to say the least.” The person who gave the address was Frances Perkins.

Sports Headline of the Day -100:  

The NYT won’t shut up about the upcoming Dempsey-Carpentier fight, and evidently neither will professors at the Sorbonne.

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Today -100: June 28, 1921: Of beer and low confidence

The House of Representatives votes 250-93 to ban doctors prescribing beer and to restrict prescriptions for liquor to one pint every 10 days.

Giovanni Giolitti resigns as Italian prime minister after receiving only a marginal vote of confidence (234-200) on his foreign policy.

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Today -100: June 27, 1921: War in three years

Éamon de Valera has received the invitation from Lloyd George, although it appeared in the newspapers before the letter reached him. I’m just curious what address they mailed it to. De Valera will consult with the Dáil Éireann before deciding whether accept, possibly with conditions, and definitely with some associates, preferably ones the British will have to release from prison to attend. Ulster PM Sir James Craig is also mulling it over, and may insist on his own pre-conditions, like no consideration of an Irish republic.

The Upper Silesia crisis has been declared over, with both German and Polish forces agreeing to withdraw.

At the annual convention of Spiritualists at the Waldorf-Astoria, clairvoyant John Slater calls for an amendment to the Constitution to protect mediums from prosecution (in 1930 Slater will win in court after a clergyman has him charged for making predictions, which was illegal under Michigan law). He complains that rich Spiritualists don’t donate much to the cause, because Spiritualism “takes away the fear of Hell and they are no longer afraid to die rich.”

Trotsky supposedly told the 3rd congress of the Communist International that the US and Britain would be in a naval war by 1924.

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Today -100: June 26, 1921: Every imaginable sacrifice

The (presumably all-white) grand jury investigating the Tulsa race war indicts the chief of police, John Gustafson, and some other cops. Not actually for the race war, but for failure to enforce prohibition and firearm laws and to suppress vice, and something about stolen cars. Other than that, the grand jury report blames black people for the race war, I mean it puts ALL of the blame on them, because of course it fucking does. See, it started because blacks showed up armed at the court house to prevent a lynching, but, see, all those white people milling around the court house didn’t intend anything of the kind, they were just there for, I don’t know, cotton candy or something. The grand jury finds the underlying cause to be the spread of “racial equality” doctrine among blacks.

Georgia Gov. Hugh Dorsey, on his last day in office, says there have been 58 lynchings during his 4 years in office and in most cases there was no effort to bring members of the lynch mob to justice. He has suggestions about reforms that could deal with this, including a state-level constabulary and grand jury. Incoming governor Thomas Hardwick’s inaugural message responds to that and to the recent federal investigations of peonage in Georgia, saying the white farmer “has made every imaginable sacrifice to help the negro,” presumably not counting the white farmer who murdered all those black people on his plantation. Hardwick says “the indictment of the whole State and all of its people for mistreating the black race is an unspeakable slander upon our State and her people”.

Greece declines the Allies’ offer to mediate an end to their war with Turkish nationalists.

British Prime Minister David Lloyd George asks Éamon de Valera to come to London, with a plus one, for a conference with the British government and Northern Irish Prime Minister Sir James Craig “to explore to the utmost the possibility of a settlement.” Under the threat of martial law being declared and a major increase in military occupation on... wait for it.... July the 12th.

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Today -100: June 25, 1921: Live and never die

De Valera really was arrested and released, as confirmed by Sinn Féin. 

D.D. Murphy, leader of the black cult Live and Never Die, is shot dead by the Atlantic City police after a shoot-out.

A train containing some of King George’s escort for the opening of the Ulster Parliament earlier this week, the Tenth Hussars, is derailed by an IRA mine, killing 3 soldiers and a guard. 2 IRA are shot dead as are a bunch of injured horses.

In the Italian parliament, new deputy Benito Mussolini talks about annexing the Italian-speaking parts of Switzerland.

Assholes of the Day -100:  Whoever keep breaking into Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan’s house in Forest Hills and stealing stuff.

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Today -100: June 24, 1921: Of jackasses, final phases, and professional labor leaders

Rear Adm. William Sims gave a speech a couple of weeks ago in London, which everyone has been going on (and on and on) about ever since, in which he called American supporters of Sinn Féin jackasses, among other things (although he claims he’s been misquoted). He arrived back in the US yesterday, recalled so he can explain himself. There’s a heavy police presence at the port of New York to prevent him being mobbed.

Supposedly, the police finally capture Éamon de Valera, more or less accidentally in County Dublin, and then... let him go.

Chief Secretary for Ireland Sir Hamar Greenwood tells a group of Crown forces (presumably cops + soldiers) that the final phase of the struggle in Ireland is beginning. He says the Crown forces have no quarrel with the Irish people but wish to rescue them from the criminal minority which holds life cheaply and is opposed to civilization.

Future vice president Charles G. Dawes arrives in Washington to take up the post of director of the Budget Bureau, which Harding created. He complains loudly and bitterly that Congress hasn’t given him enough funding to properly fulfill what he sees as his task, which is to examine every penny of government expenditure and make cuts so that taxes on his fellow businessmen can be reduced. Disdaining having to “take his chances” on whatever civil servants are assigned to him, he wants to invite businessmen to come to Washington to advise him (without compensation) for four months.

T.H. Watkins, president of the Pennsylvania Coal and Coke Company, says he won’t be dealing with the United Mine Workers union anymore, because employers now understand their responsibility, so there’s no need anymore for “the professional labor leader.”

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Today -100: June 23, 1921: Stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation

Headline of the Day -100:  

And if there are two things the Irish are famously good at, it’s forgiving and forgetting.

The king thinks the model for “self-government” paving the way for healing division is... South Africa.

French Royalists have been getting into street fights. Members of the Camelots du Roi, for example, beat up a Latin Quarter café singer who sang a song which “somewhat reflected upon the private character” of Joan of Arc.

The American Federation of Labor convention passes a resolution of sympathy for the Irish, but Samuel Gompers prevents a motion for a boycott of English goods being attached.

Crime in Paris has increased so much, supposedly, that cops are now ordered to carry guns during the day.

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Today -100: June 22, 1921: Of banning Asians, banning Communists, and burning castles

The American Federation of Labor’s convention officially supports the exclusion of all Orientals from the United States. There is a fight in the convention over a proposal to boycott Britain over its policy in Ireland.

The Prussian minister of interior bans Communists from office in Prussia, down to the village level.

The Earl of Bandon, who is a former deputy lieutenant of County Cork and, of course, a Unionist, is kidnapped by the IRA, who also burn down his Castle Bernard.

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Today -100: June 21, 1921: Of sewers, smoking, lynchings, and vamps

In preparation for the visit of the king and queen to Belfast, police are inspecting the sewers for bombs, as was the custom.

Rep. Paul Johnson (D-Miss.) introduces a bill to criminalize smoking by women in the District of Columbia.

A mob near Jackson, Mississippi, lynches a young black convict who, while a trustie (sorry, spell-check: that’s how it was spelled in 1921), is alleged to have attacked a white woman.

Theda Bara is to marry director Charles Brabin.

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Today -100: June 20, 1921: Kings on the move

Britain, France and Italy try to persuade Greece to end its war with the Turkish nationalists, offering their “mediation” services. They’re hoping that Greece being forced to back down will also force King Constantine (currently visiting the front in Smyrna) out of power.

Everyone seems pretty sure former Austro-Hungarian emperor Charles will make another attempt to enter Hungary and become king on August 20th.

King George is going to Belfast Wednesday to open the Ulster Parliament, and a few rules for Belfasthoovians have been issued: no one can use their roof without a permit, saloons will have to close, etc etc.

Oh good, an innovation in lynching (McCormick, South Carolina): 

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Today -100: June 19, 1921: Of admissions, kluxers, dances, and newsies

Headline of the Day -100:  

2,000 idiots are inducted into the Ku Klux Klan near Cincinnati. 

Wellesley College expels four students for the crime of attending a townie dance without a chaperone. The dance was a reception to announce the engagement of one of the students. The father of one of the women says they have much livelier dances in Chicago. I don’t doubt it.

Harding refuses to grant D.C. public employees a half-day on Saturdays.

Automobiling etiquette is very important. So when former secretary of state Robert Lansing’s car (unclear if he or a chauffeur is driving it) knocks down a 12-year-old newsboy, tearing his pants and scattering his papers, Lansing graciously gives him two whole dollars to make good the damages, and speeds off.

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Today -100: June 18, 1921: Human

“The Reichstag is growing human,” begins a NYT article about a fist fight between Communist deputy Hermann Remmele and a nationalist (DNVP?) deputy named Mittlemann, who had agreed with another deputy who said Communists aren’t Germans and should all be killed. A general tumult ensues for several hours.

Sinn Feiners (presumably) destroy railroad signal boxes, wires, and signal cabins in London suburbs.

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Today -100: June 17, 1921: We’ll keep an eye on the men too

Supposedly, Bolshevism has “broken out” in the Polish forces in Upper Silesia.

A white mob in Autreyville, Georgia burn several houses and a negro church, presumably because they were pissed off that last week they failed to lynch a black man accused of killing a white girl last week (they will lynch him on Saturday, after he’s brought back to town for trial, a trial which seems to have been as fast, with a verdict as inevitable, as was the custom).

Ironic Headline of the Day -100:  

Chicago Beach Superintendant William Burkhardt, who last year told women bathers “Let your conscience be your guide” about bathing costumes, announces that they didn’t have a conscience and so he’s imposing rules: knickers to within 4 inches above the knees and skirts two inches below that, and one-quarter sleeves. “We’ll keep an eye on the men too,” he says.

There are no laws in the US (state or federal) preventing people flying unsafe airplanes.

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Today -100: June 16, 1921: Of machine guns, kings, horses, and glands

US customs agents intercept 600 Tommy guns (down to 495 in tomorrow’s paper) which were to be shipped from Hoboken to Ireland.

British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill’s plans for the Middle East, including installing Emir Faisal as King of Mesopotamia (after a plebiscite), are not being well received by the French, who deposed him as king of Syria last year. Churchill also plans to make Faisal’s brother Abdullah king of Transjordan.

Churchill’s other plan is that when most British troops leave Mesopotamia, 30,000 of their horses will be slaughtered.

A NY judge postpones sentencing a 36-year-old woman burglar until she has some sort of glandular treatment that’s supposed to cure her criminal tendencies.

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Today -100: June 15, 1921: Figures he’d be against “too much fun”

The US occupation authorities in Santo Domingo say they’ll withdraw in 8 months – if the Dominican people cooperate. Also, independence doesn’t look very independent, with the Republic expected to take on a large loan, overseen by an American overseer, with a police overseen by American officers, all this ratified by a convention named by the US military...

Retired Gen. Karl Höfer and his German irregular forces in Upper Silesia flatly refuse Allied orders to leave, even after Polish forces obeyed.

Maj. Roy Haynes, the Federal Prohibition Commissioner (in the Treasury) asks for Prohibition enforcement to be given a fair chance “without having too much fun poked at them” by newspapers, movies, playwrights, etc. Anything other than strict observance of the stupid law “means chaos, means Bolshevism.”

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Today -100: June 14, 1921: Of privileged positions, zeppelins, scurrilous stories, and poker

Pope Benedict complains about “the privileged position enjoyed by the Jews in Palestine, which is dangerous for Christians.”

The House of Representatives votes 305-61 to end the state of war with Germany and Austria. This differs from the Senate version in not also repealing the 1917 declarations of war.

Headline of the Day -100:  

And yes, I do want it to blow up just so I can write “Oh the humanité.”

Col. John Russell, the commander of the Marines occupying Haiti, bans “scurrilous” articles or speeches attacking the Marines or the Haitian president or government. Offenders will be tried by US courts-martial because Russell says Haitian courts aren’t up to the job of prosecuting people for libel or inciting rebellion because the next revolution might bring those people to power, “where they would be in a position to take bloody vengeance upon the Judge and members of the court.”

Scotland Yard has been raiding clubs to stop poker-playing. Poker players object that it is not gambling but a game of skill and anyway private clubs are private.

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Today -100: June 13, 1921: Dirty arms and the man

No links today, NYT website screwup.

A lynch mob in Moorestown, New Jersey fails to find a black man suspected of murdering a 7-year-old girl. They do find another black man at the train station and beat him pretty severely until people who knew the suspect convince them they’ve got the wrong guy.

A production of Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man in Vienna is disrupted by Bulgarians who (correctly) think it insults Bulgarians (A quote: “Bulgarians of really good standing—people in OUR position—wash their hands nearly every day.”). Eventually the Viennese get them to shut up.

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Today -100: June 12, 1921: Of feet, rum raids, mail horses, and scarey squirrels

Lady Randolph Churchill, aka Jennie, Winston’s mother, has her right leg (not foot, as the article says) amputated after falling down, breaking her ankle, and getting blood poisoning. For some reason this is front-page news.

The House of Representatives adopts a rule allowing the resolution declaring peace with Germany and Austria-Hungary, when it is voted on Monday, to be adopted with no amendments. Democrats object to this as forcing wholesale acceptance of a resolution which was decided upon secretly by Republican members of the Foreign Affairs Committee. 

Headline of the Day -100:  

This is in New York County. That one conviction, by the way, was someone who first pled guilty, then realized everyone was being acquitted and changed his plea, but of course he’d already admitted his guilt in court.

An anti-prohibition parade in Greenpoint, led by the mayor, had banners and floats. “On one float was a blacksmith in a forlorn attitude beside a neglected sledge hammer and an empty glass. This was entitled ‘Thinking’ in large letters.”

The NAACP reveals that Col. John Russell, commander of the US Marines occupying Haiti, arrested two editors and bans newspapers reprinting US newspaper stories about complaints about Marines in Haiti.

A mob of “vigilantes” force 100 or so foreign-born coal miners out of Francisco, Indiana. Plus another hundred who were working on railroad construction near Oakland City.

The Post Office plans to bar the use of unfit horses to carry the mail after a ruling that the arrest of a mail wagon driver for animal cruelty does not constitute unlawfully obstructing the mail.

Headline of the Day -100:  

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