Falmanac: The Fallston Almanac of American History
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(Public Opinion) Mrs. Samuel Lightner would never have considered herself an actress. She was a wife and a mother of eight and filling those roles was enough for anyone. However, in late June 1863, she performed a role worthy of the best actresses of the time. Despite the fact that her family supported the Union and her husband was in the army, Mrs. Lightner played the role of a Confederate sympathizer in order to save a railroad. Continued
Photo: MDRails
(NYTBR) ... what elevates “Moneymakers” from the novelty shelf is Tarnoff’s skillful interweaving of the counterfeiter’s work and America’s revolving enchantment with and disavowal of paper money. Alongside tales of jailbreaks and executions, he examines the nation’s changing relationship to federalism and the democratization of the means of exchange. For example, David Lewis would cheat the poor but was said to often refund their losses after a successful day of bilking the rich. This dramatic sensibility converged with the emerging Jacksonian populism, and its attendant dissatisfaction with a centralized banking authority, to fashion the counterfeiter as an American Robin Hood. Continued
(Sun) Baltimore's Inner Harbor will look a little bare this week after two of its premier attractions — the submarine Torsk and the 1854 sloop of war Constellation — are towed away for a month of repairs in dry dock. The Torsk will be the first to go as tugs move in around 9 a.m. Sunday to escort the World War II veteran down the harbor to the Sparrows Point Shipyard. The Constellation will follow at about 9 a.m. on Monday, according to Chris Rowsom, executive director of Historic Ships in Baltimore, part of the Living Classrooms Foundation and the ships' caretaker. Continued
Photo: 'The USS Torsk (SS-423) is docked at the Baltimore Maritime Museum and is one of several Tench Class submarines still located inside the United States. Nicknamed the "Galloping Ghost of the Japanese Coast"; the vessel is the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for a food fish of the North Atlantic.' Photo by stevehdc via Wikipedia, some rights reserved.
(Wikipedia) The History of the American League, officially known as the American League of Professional Baseball Clubs and often abbreviated AL, stretches back into the late-19th century. The American League is one of the two leagues that makes up Major League Baseball. Originally a minor league known as the Western League, the league later developed into a major league after the American Association disbanded. Continued
Pictured: The 1921 Baltimore Orioles
Washington, D.C., Jan. 28, 1861 (NYTimes) His speech was a memorable one — that was the only thing that everyone could agree upon. The anti-slavery New-York Tribune called it “pathetic.” A pro-Southern newspaper in Washington found it “solemn and impressive.” Today, the words have even more resonance than in 1861. For they may have been the very first eerie echo of what would become a famous American rallying cry: “The South will rise again.” They also marked a moment in national politics whose repercussions are still being felt. Continued
(YDR) When Ed Gotwalt looks up these days, he sees blue skies.
The new ceiling of his business, Mister Ed's Elephant Museum and Candy Emporium, is painted that way. An elephant mosaic adorns one wall.
Everything -- including broken pieces of elephant figurines used to make the mosaic -- has risen from the ashes. Continued
Photo: Horydczak Collection (Library of Congress).
(Wikipedia) Walter Esau Beall (July 29, 1899 – January 28, 1959) was an American major league baseball player who played for the New York Yankees on several championship teams in the 1920s.
Born in Washington, D.C., Beall was a standout pitcher in the minor leagues before his contract was sold by Rochester of the International League to the New York Yankees in August 1924 for $50,000. Beall was a member of the 1927 New York Yankees, a team often considered the greatest ever,[3][4] though he only pitched one inning that year (May 30 against the Philadelphia Athletics). Continued
Photo: Find A Grave
(Wikipedia) The Knickerbocker Storm was a blizzard that occurred on January 27–28, 1922 in the upper South and middle Atlantic United States. The storm took its name from the resulting collapse of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C. shortly after 9 p.m. on January 28 which killed 98 people and injured 133. Continued
(Baltimore Sun) Civil War sketchings, historical maps, and photographs of the Great Fire of 1904 are among a trove of Baltimore memorabilia that will be sold Saturday at a Towson auction house.
The sale will feature the collections of Michael Isekoff, a Baltimore native whose collection of maps and photographs rivals those found in libraries and museums, and the late Jeffrey Weiss, a local book enthusiast who amassed rare art reference and illustrated books. Continued
(ExploreHoward.com) As the nation prepares to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, new information has been discovered about a Union encampment high on the hill above Ellicott City.
Throughout the war, Union soldiers camped on both sides of the Patapsco River to guard the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, but the 12th New Jersey Volunteers was the first out-of-state regiment to stand guard over the town, known then as Ellicott's Mills. They came after the local unit, the Patapsco Guard, moved on to other parts of Maryland in May 1862. Continued
Images: Top: Annapolis Junction, on the Washington branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in possession of the troops of the United States government. Bottom: 8th N.J.V. Camp near Matawoman [sic] Creek on the Potomac Charles Co. Md. (Library of Congress).
(Sledworks.com) Remember those snowy evenings as a kid. Several inches of white powder would fall through the night. You couldn't wait to get up the next morning knowing school was cancelled and you and a bunch of other neighborhood kids would get on your favorite sleds for a day of good old-fashioned fun. Continued
Photo: Sled Hill
(LoC) According to the terms of the capitulation protocol of January 26, 1654, Portugal decreed that Jewish and Dutch settlers had three months to leave Brazil. Approximately 150 Jewish families of Portuguese descent fled the Brazilian city of Recife, in the state of Pernambuco. By September, twenty-three of these refugees had established the first community of Jews in New Amsterdam.
Known as Sephardim (Jews of Spanish-Portuguese extraction), theirs was a complex saga. Continued
(Baltimore Sun) The Maryland Historical Trust is asking the state attorney general's office for guidance on how to address concerns from preservationists who oppose a developer's plans to raze certain buildings on Baltimore's west side, including the former Read's drugstore.
The request comes after a statewide preservation group, Preservation Maryland, appealed a decision by the Maryland Historical Trust to allow the developer to proceed, saying a 2001 legal agreement calls for those buildings to be preserved if at all possible. Continued
(NYTimes) McAvoy Layne climbed the stage chomping on an unlighted cigar, his shock of spray-painted white hair bright in the spotlights. “You can’t beat an audience that’s been waiting 100 years,” he said to the crowd. Continued
Colonel Harry Gilmor was born at Glen Ellen, the homestead of his father, the late Robert Gilmor, in Baltimore county, on January 24, 1838. His mother was Miss Ellen Ward, daughter of Judge William Ward, of Wilmington, Del. He was educated by a private tutor, and lived at his father's farm until the breaking out of the war, when, with a number of other adventuresome young Marylanders, who were advocates of rebellion, he went South and joined the Confederate army. His gallant career during the war is a matter of national history, and finds no part in this work. At the close of the war, Colonel Gilmor returned to Baltimore and engaged in business until 1872, when he was elected a Police Commissioner, his term beginning in 1873. During his service he was mainly instrumental in introducing tactics and discipline into the city police force. The good effects of his innovations were evidenced during the riots of 1877, at which time Colonel Gilmor's bravery and coolness did much towards protecting property and life from the mob. He served until 1878, when he resigned and was succeeded by Mr. Milroy. Colonel Gilmor, in 1875, lost one of his eyes, the ball being excised without chloroform. During the long and painful operation he showed great nerve, never wincing under the lancet. In the autumn of 1882 a cancerous affection appeared on the side of Colonel Gilmor's face, the result of a wound in the jaw which he received during the war. After several months of intense suffering he died on March 4, 1883. His funeral was one of the greatest ever seen in Baltimore. Shortly after the close of the war Colonel Gilmor wrote his book, "Four Years in the Saddle," which Prince Hohenlohe, of Prussia, pronounced one of the greatest cavalry stories ever written, and ordered it translated into German. A monument to the memory of Colonel Gilmor was recently erected by the police force and the Confederate soldiers of Baltimore. - "Our police: A history of the Baltimore force from the first watchman to the latest appointee" by De Francias Folsom, 1888.
(YDR) York County's tourism is rooted in its manufacturing base and manifested through factory tours with stops such as Harley-Davidson and Martin's Potato Chips.
Soon, the York County Convention & Visitors Bureau will add one more tour to its portfolio, and this time, the stop will be just across the Susquehanna River bridge in Lancaster County. This spring, the Turkey Hill Dairy will open its Turkey Hill Experience at the long-vacant, former Ashley & Bailey Silk Mill in Columbia.
And, while the interactive tour promises to feature simulated exhibits rather than actual production, the Turkey Hill Experience fits the bureau's local brand of "Factory Tour Capital of the World." Continued
Also: View a construction photo gallery at Turkey Hill
Photos: Ashley & Bailey silk mill before restoration began (Nightening).
(Wikipedia) The Columbia Phonograph Company was originally the local company run by Edward Easton, distributing and selling Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Delaware, and derives its name from the District of Columbia, which was its headquarters. As was the custom of some of the regional phonograph companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own, and its catalogue of musical records in 1891 was 10 pages long. Columbia's ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Company's breakup, and thereafter sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. Continued
(Cigar Aficionado) ... Like absinthe, after years of being restricted in the United States, buffalo-grass vodka has re-emerged, but in a different formulation: ZU Bison Grass Flavored Vodka. Unlike absinthe, bison-grass vodka does not contain psychotropic ingredients.
The original Zubrowka, pronounced zu-bruv-ka, Polish for buffalo vodka-contained quite a bit more of the buffalo grass it was named for back in the 14th century. But it has been unavailable in the United States for decades because buffalo grass contains coumarin. Continued
This photo is owned and operated by Jojo
(Scandalous Woman) Although little known today outside her native Baltimore or to Napoleon scholars, Elizabeth Bonaparte Patterson was a well-known beauty in her day. Her marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother, made her a well-known celebrity on both sides of the Atlantic, and allowed her entree into the highest echelon of society.
(LoC) Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, one of Robert E. Lee's most outstanding generals in the Army of Northern Virginia, was born in Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), on January 21, 1824.
Orphaned at a young age, Jackson spent much of his childhood moving between the homes of various family members. In 1842, he was awarded an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. A commissioned officer during the Mexican War, he served as a second lieutenant of artillery, was promoted to first lieutenant, and later won brevets to captain and major. Continued
(Wikipedia) The Mud March was an abortive attempt at a winter offensive in January 1863 by Union Army Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside in the American Civil War. ... The offensive movement began on January 20, 1863, in unseasonably mild weather. That evening a steady rain began, and it persisted for two days, saturating the unpaved roads, leaving them knee-deep in mud. After struggling for two days to move troops, wagons, and artillery pieces, Burnside yielded to complaints from his subordinates and reluctantly ordered his army back to camp near Fredericksburg. Continued
(North County News) An old building on Jarrettsville Pike that was once a blacksmith shop and the site of community dances has been restored and turned into a fine art gallery by a local man who says he loves good art, old buildings and a good project.
Rick Opfer, who owns Richard Opfer Auctioneering, in Timonium, bought the shop and adjacent house two years ago. The Phoenix resident said he spent more time and money on the restoration than he ever imagined.
But the result, Forge Fine Art Gallery, is a unique building where art-lovers, antiques enthusiasts, collectors and the public can glimpse a piece of history while gazing at an eclectic mix of fine art. Continued
(NYTimes) ... Like her home state, she bridged North and South – and linked an older America with a newer one. The 45-year-old Carroll was a daughter of Maryland, as well as of a remarkable political dynasty. Her father had been governor three decades earlier; her cousin had been the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Although born and raised on a remote plantation on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, she had grown up reading Shakespeare, Kant, Blackstone and Coke – paying far more attention to literature, law and philosophy than needlework and housekeeping. At age 14, when her father took office, she was already advising him on statecraft, offering sage wisdom derived from the ancient Greek lawgiver and military strategist Lycurgus of Sparta. Continued
(AP/Google) The mysterious visitor to Edgar Allan Poe's grave has failed to show up for the second year in a row.
Fans of the writer waited all night at the Baltimore cemetery where Poe is buried, hoping for a glimpse of the anonymous person who always left roses and cognac at Poe's tombstone.
The tradition went on for some 60 years until last year when the visitor failed to make an appearance. Continued
(Wikipedia) Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809–October 7, 1849) was an American poet, short-story writer, editor and literary critic, and is considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. Continued
Also on Falmanac:
Controversy doesn't deter Poe toaster from annual visit
Baltimore Has Poe; Philadelphia Wants Him
So, how'd all this raven stuff get started anyway?
(Baltimore Sun) While most of the Chesapeake Bay's islands are slowly vanishing beneath the waves, one not far from Baltimore is staging a remarkable renaissance. Poplar Island, former hunting retreat, hangout for politicos and black cat farm, had nearly washed away by the late 1990s. But it's since been restored to the size it was when it was still a thriving 19th-century farming and fishing community, using muck dredged from the shipping channels leading to Baltimore just 34 miles to the northwest. Continued
Pictured: Off for Jefferson Island. Annapolis, MD, June 25. Loaded to the gunwale with members of the Cabinet and Democratic members of the Senate and House, the first boat shoves off for Jefferson Island where President Roosevelt will give the politicians a first-hand account of his seven-point legislative program, 6/25/37 (Library of Congress)
(NYTimes) R. Sargent Shriver, the Kennedy in-law who became the founding director of the Peace Corps, the architect of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s war on poverty, the United States ambassador to France and the Democratic candidate for vice president in 1972, died Tuesday. ... Robert Sargent Shriver Jr., known as Sarge from childhood, was born in Westminster, Md., on Nov. 9, 1915, the son of his namesake, a banker, and Hilda Shriver. His forebears, called Schreiber, immigrated from Germany in 1721. One ancestor, David Shriver, was a signer of Maryland’s 1776 Constitution. Continued
(Wikipedia) Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1856 – August 4, 1931) was an American surgeon. He was the first African-American cardiologist, and is attributed with performing the first successful surgery on the heart. He also founded Provident Hospital, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States. Continued
(YDR) To commemorate the Hellam Post Office's last day in operation, which will be Jan. 22, local historians are encouraging people to get mail hand-canceled with the round Hellam date stamp.
Members of the Kreutz Creek Valley Preservation Society plan to do oral interviews with people about their memories of the post office that day as well, said Katina Snyder, treasurer of the historical society.
She suggests that people bring an envelope with a stamp affixed to it to get the round Hellam date stamp. However, she advises against putting the envelope in the mail, just in case it gets canceled again at the processing center. Continued
Photo: Postal officials encouraged Rural Free Delivery (RFD) carriers to replace their horses and wagons with the latest in transportation technology. This unidentified carrier painted his early electric-motored vehicle in the same paint and identification scheme as the RFD wagons of the era. Circa 1910 (Smithsonian Institution).
(Wikipedia) Alexander James Dallas (June 21, 1759 – January 16, 1817) was an American statesman who served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President James Madison.
Dallas was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Dr. Robert Charles Dallas (1710 – 1769) and Sarah Elizabeth (Cormack) Hewitt. When he was five his family moved to Edinburgh (his father was a Scotsman) and then to London. There he studied under James Elphinston. He planned to study law, but was unable to afford it. He married Arabella Maria Smith of Pennsylvania, the daughter of Maj. George Smith of the British Army and Arabella Barlow (in turn the daughter of the Rev. William Barlow and Arabella Trevanion, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Trevanion), in 1780 and the next year they moved to Jamaica. There he was admitted to the bar through his father's connections. Maria's health suffered in Jamaica and they moved to Philadelphia in 1783. Continued
(Baltimore Sun) Just in time for Edgar Allan Poe's birthday on Wednesday, Hollywood filmmakers in Belgrade have wrapped an extravagant present.
Last week, director James McTeigue, who guided Natalie Portman through "V for Vendetta," completed principal photography on "The Raven," a thriller starring John Cusack as Baltimore's classic yet still controversial man of letters. In this ambitious pastiche, set in the last five days of his life, Poe is more than a poet, critic and fiction writer. He becomes a detective seeking a serial killer who has designed his crimes to echo Poe's stories. Continued
(Natty Geo) Could this partly gilded hilt have held Blackbeard's sword? There's no way to know for sure, though it was found amid the North Carolina wreck of the Queen Anne's Revenge, the flagship of the infamous 18th-century pirate.
Since 1997, archaeologists have been excavating the Queen Anne's Revenge. The sword hilt—found in pieces but reassembled for this picture—is among their latest finds and was revealed to the public this month. Continued
(NYTBR) ... In the South, slave tastes defined the cooking repertory in a wide arc that extended from the rice and seafood belt of the Carolinas to the Creole and Cajun lands of Louisiana. Elsewhere, blacks brought new flavors and dishes to white America in restaurants and markets, or on the sidewalk from food carts. As the United States expanded westward, they extended their reach, working as cooks on the chuck wagons that accompanied the great cattle drives and on the Pullman cars that carried passengers all the way to California and the Pacific Northwest. In the process, unsuspecting white Americans learned to appreciate African-derived spices and pungent flavors, to regard Southern dishes like gumbo and fried chicken and red beans and rice as part of the national heritage, to elevate macaroni and cheese to a place high in hipster heaven. Continued
(LoC) The Continental Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784, officially establishing the United States as an independent and sovereign nation. The Continental Congress approved preliminary articles of peace on April 15, 1783. The treaty, signed in Paris on September 3, 1783, required Congress to return the ratified document to England within six months.Although Congress was scheduled to convene at the Maryland State House in November, as late as January 12 only seven of the thirteen states were legally represented. Operating under the weak Articles of Confederation, Congress lacked the power to enforce attendance. With the journey to England requiring approximately two months, time was running short. Continued
(ouramazingplanet) The order to abandon ship came just after midnight. The USS Monitor, a Union ironclad, was taking on too much water, caught in a violent storm. At approximately 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, 1862, the Monitor was overcome, engulfed by the crashing waves. Almost 150 years later, conservators are getting the first up-close look at the sunken Monitor's 30-ton steam engine, an engineering wonder of its day, and the mighty heart of a ship that played a notable role in America's Civil War. Continued
"This is a video I made of the trees of Perry Point. The engravings are from mentally ill patients from the Veterans Hospital. They date back to 1911." For more information see http://hdghistory.wordpress.com/
(Cannonball) The York Civil War Round Table will feature Living Historian Suzanne Doucette portraying in first person Elizabeth Van Lew, Civil War spy at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, January 19, 2011.
Elizabeth Van Lew was a well-born resident of Richmond, Virginia who built and operated an extensive spy ring for the United States during the American Civil War. Under the nose of the Confederate government, Van Lew gathered intelligence, hampered the Southern war effort, and helped scores of Union soldiers escape from Richmond prisons. A Northern sympathizer in the Confederate capital, Van Lew led what one historian called "the most productive espionage operation of the Civil War." Continued
The Harrisburg Seven were a group of religious anti-war activists led by Philip Berrigan. The "Seven" were Berrigan, Sister Elizabeth McAlister, Rev. Neil McLaughlin, Rev. Joseph Wenderoth, Eqbal Ahmed, Anthony Scoblick, and Mary Cain Scoblick.
The group became famous when they were unsuccessfully prosecuted for alleged criminal plots during the Vietnam War era. Six of the seven were Irish Catholic nuns or priests. Continued
(NYTimes) ... Descended via the Spanish “filibustero” from the Dutch “Vrijbuiter” - itself a corruption of the English word “freebooter” - filibuster at first referred to English buccaneers, pirates who sailed in search of Spanish gold and silver. But by the mid-19th century, it had come to mean irregular armies from the United States bound for foreign lands and those who joined them. Some enjoyed nod-and-wink approval from federal or state officials, but most acted without governmental authority, even in outright defiance of Uncle Sam. Continued
Pictured: Cuba Libre label (Library of Congress via Firecured)
(Wikipedia) Bayard Taylor (James) (January 11, 1825 – December 19, 1878) was an American poet, literary critic, translator, and travel author. Taylor was born on January 11, 1825, in Kennett Square in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Continued
(Wikipedia) Project Diana, named for the Roman moon goddess Diana — goddess of the hunt, wild animals and the moon — was a project of the US Army Signal Corps to bounce radio signals off the moon and receive the reflected signals. Today called EME (Earth-Moon-Earth), this was the first attempt to "touch" another celestial body.
From a laboratory at Camp Evans (part of Fort Monmouth), near Wall Township, New Jersey, a large transmitter, receiver and antenna array were constructed for this purpose. The transmitter, a highly modified SCR-271 radar set from World War II, provided 3,000 watts at 111.5 MHz in 1/4 second pulses, and the antenna (a "bedspring" dipole array) provided 24 dB of gain. Reflected signals were received about 2.5 seconds later, with the receiver compensating for Doppler modulation of the reflected signal. Continued
(Wikipedia) The United States has had public debt since its inception. Debts incurred during the American Revolutionary War and under the Articles of Confederation led to the first yearly reported value of $75,463,476.52 on January 1, 1791. Over the following 45 years, the debt grew, briefly contracted to zero on January 8, 1835 under President Andrew Jackson, but then quickly grew into the millions again. Continued
(Wikipedia) Ross Albert Grimsley II (born January 7, 1950 in Topeka, Kansas) is a former left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Cincinnati Reds (1971-73), Baltimore Orioles (1974-77 and 1982), Montreal Expos (1978-80) and Cleveland Indians (1980). His father, Ross Sr., pitched for the 1951 Chicago White Sox.
Grimsley helped the Reds win the 1972 National League Pennant and the 1973 NL Western Division, and the Orioles win the 1974 American League Eastern Division. Continued
(BANV) The new owners of the Plumpton Park Zoo in Rising Sun are now keeping it open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily to entice visitors to the 25-year-old zoo they purchased from its aging founder Ed Plumstead. Plumstead closed it this past summer following a USDA inspection that turned up some problems with the animals’ care and condition. Cheryl and Nichlas Lacovara, of Mullica Hill, New Jersey, who were longtime fans of the zoo and exotic animal enthusiasts themselves, bought the zoo and enlisted the help of a team of volunteers to renovate it. Continued
(Wikipedia) Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr. (5 January 1779 – 22 March 1820) was an American naval officer notable for his heroism in the Barbary Wars and in the War of 1812. He was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the United States Navy, and the first American celebrated as a national military hero who had not played a role in the American Revolution. Decatur was born on January 5, 1779, in Berlin, Maryland, to Stephen Decatur, Sr. and his wife Ann (Pine) Decatur. Continued
(Wikipedia) The Maryland train collision occurred at 1:04 pm on January 4, 1987, on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor main line in the Chase community of Baltimore County, Maryland, United States, at Gunpow Interlocking, about 18 miles northeast of Baltimore. Amtrak Train 94, the Colonial, from Washington, D.C., to Boston, crashed into a set of Conrail locomotives running light which had fouled the mainline. Train 94's speed at the time of the collision was estimated at about 108 miles per hour. Fourteen passengers on the Amtrak train were killed, as well as the Amtrak engineer and lounge car attendant. Continued
(YDR) The York County Rail Trail Authority recently approved turning over phase 1A, which is now complete, of the northern extension of the York County Heritage Rail Trail to county commissioners and the county parks department.
The Heritage Rail Trail County Park is intended to extend the rail trail northward along the Codorus Creek, ultimately making a connection between the existing trail terminus in York and John C. Rudy County Park in East Manchester Township. ... In other authority news, members voted to name C.S. Davidson Inc. as the engineer for two sections of the Hanover Trolley Trail planned for development in 2011. Continued
(OiYC) Our Pennsylvania Dutch tradition says pork and sauerkraut is the meal with which to ring in a new year, in order to bring good luck.
But did you know these New Year's customs? Continued
"New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever. We shall also reflect pleasantly upon how we did the same old thing last year about this time. However, go in, community. New Year's is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion." - Mark Twain (Letter to Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Jan. 1863)
