A Ponzi Scheme for Flappers

(NYTimes) FOR a few months in 1922, throngs of America’s youth — from schoolkids to shopgirls — were swept up in a leaderless pyramid scheme that promised “something for nothing” and encouraged promiscuous flirtation. These were the “Shifters.” This is their (brief) story. Continued

Firpo Marberry

(Wikipedia) Frederick "Firpo" Marberry (November 30, 1898 – June 30, 1976) was an American right-handed starting and relief pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1923 to 1936, most notably with the Washington Senators. The sport's first prominent reliever, he has been retroactively credited as having been the first pitcher to record 20 saves in a season, the first to earn 100 career saves, the first to make 50 relief appearances in a season or 300 in a career, and the only pitcher to lead the major leagues in saves five times. Continued

Photo: Yankees catcher Wally Schang slides safely into 3rd base in second game. Senators 3rd baseman is Ossie Bluege and pitcher backing up play is Firpo Marberry. Senators won 2nd game 7-2 of the 1924 World Series. (Library of Congress).

 

Steven Spielberg, Historian

(NYTimes) Having worked before at the intersection of Hollywood and history, helping a tiny bit with a respectable movie about the Cuban missile crisis called “Thirteen Days,” I approached the new movie “Lincoln” with measured expectations. I had seen how a film could immerse viewers in onscreen time travel without messing up the history too much. But that was the most I hoped for.
“Lincoln,” however, accomplishes a far more challenging objective: its speculations actually advance the way historians will consider this subject.
The movie, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day-Lewis as the 16th president, makes two especially interesting historical arguments. Continued

Police arrest five in raid on Catonsville saloon in 1912

 

(Towson Times) Samuel Bloom saloon on Frederick road at Paradise was raided Sunday night at 7 o'clock by Patrolmen Hutson and Phelps, of the Canton Police Station.
The patrolmen, who were dressed in plain clothes, say they entered the saloon and ordered bottle beer which was served to them. They then arrested Samuel Bloom, John Hall, a helper, and two other men as witnesses. All were taken to the Catonsville Police Station and released on a $500 bail. Continued

Tiffany-designed church interior a Baltimore landmark candidate

Louis Comfort Tiffany

(Baltimore Sun) More than a few East Coast buildings contain a Tiffany stained-glass window or two. But one structure in Baltimore can boast much more — a complete interior created by the famed designer, Louis Comfort Tiffany.
St. Mark's Lutheran Church on St. Paul Street is considered such an exceptional example of Tiffany's work that it has been recommended for designation as a Baltimore landmark. Only one other city building — the Senator Theatre — has an interior that was singled out for landmark status.
"St. Mark's is one of only a few intact Tiffany-designed interiors left in the world," said Lauren Schiszik, preservation planner and landmarks coordinator with Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. "It's a glorious example of Tiffany's vision, and it's all there." Continued

Clement Studebaker

 

(Wikipedia) Clement Studebaker (March 12, 1831 – November 27, 1901) was an American carriage manufacturer. With his brothers, he founded H & C Studebaker Company, which built Pennsylvania-German conestoga wagons and carriages during his lifetime, and automobiles after his death, in South Bend, Indiana.
Clement Studebaker was born on March 12, 1831, in Pinetown, Pennsylvania. By the age of 14 he had learned to work as a blacksmith in his father's shop. He later worked as a teacher. Continued

Photo: Conestoga Wagon (1883) by Newbold Hough Trotter (1827-1898). Painting in the State Museum of Pennsylvania (AdMeskens)

 

Remembering Repudiation Day

 

(Gazette.Net) There are some ill-informed denizens of Frederick County who labor under the misapprehension that the tea party movement is a new phenomenon in Frederick, and that the famous tea party protest against British taxation was basically a Boston adventure.
But a group of Frederick judges met in a long-since demolished wood house on Record Street, behind the current City Hall, a full decade before the Boston Tea Party launched its own protest in what came to be called Repudiation Day. Continued

Cartoon lovingly pilfered from the late John Stees, longtime cartoonist from the Baltimore Sun of my youth.

 

1940: First flight of the Martin B-26 Marauder

(Wikipedia) The Martin B-26 Marauder was a World War II twin-engine medium bomber built by the Glenn L. Martin Company.
The first US medium bomber used in the Pacific Theater in early 1942, it was also used in the Mediterranean Theater and in Western Europe. The plane distinguished itself as "the chief bombardment weapon on the Western Front" according to an United States Army Air Forces dispatch from 1946, and later variants maintained the lowest loss record of any combat aircraft during World War II. Its late-war loss record stands in sharp contrast to its unofficial nickname "The Widowmaker" — earned due to early models' high rate of accidents during takeoff.
A total of 5,288 were produced between February 1941 and March 1945; 522 of these were flown by the Royal Air Force and the South African Air Force. Continued 

 

Nov. 24, 1903: Starting Your Car Gets a Bit Easier

1903 (Wired): Clyde J. Coleman is issued a patent for an electric automobile starter.
Coleman originally applied for the patent in 1899, but his early designs proved impractical. The need for this kind of starter for an internal combustion engine was obvious. Automobiles were getting larger, and hand-cranking — the method used to get the pistons moving in order to make ignition possible — was not only cumbersome, but physically demanding and potentially injurious. Continued

Photo: Ben Shahn FSA/OWI/LoC

 

Henry Bourne Joy

(Wikipedia) Henry Bourne Joy (November 23, 1864 – November 6, 1936) was President of the Packard Motor Car Company, and a major developer of automotive activities as well as being a social activist.
In 1913, Joy and Carl Graham Fisher were driving forces as principal organizers of the Lincoln Highway Association, a group dedicated to building a concrete road from New York to San Francisco. After the first several years, Fisher had become more involved instead with creation of the north-south Dixie Highway project and became a developer of Miami Beach, but Joy was dedicated to the Lincoln Highway for the long-haul. Naming it after former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was one of the moves Joy led, and his Lincoln Highway project was completed in his lifetime, despite lack of financial support by automotive leaders such as Henry Ford (Sr.). Continued 

 

The Pilgrims Should Have Been Thankful for a Spirochete

 

(Slate) As we feast on succulent turkey, moist stuffing, and glistening cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving, the furthest thing from our minds is probably rat urine.
Yet it’s quite possible that America as we know it would not exist without rat urine and leptospirosis, the disease it spreads. The disease conveniently cleared coastal New England of Native Americans just prior to the Pilgrims’ arrival and later killed the helpful Squanto. It still lurks among us, underdiagnosed, an emerging menace. Continued

A Sauerkraut Thanksgiving

 

(Bon Appétit) ... I didn't know what to say that day to explain our tradition, but I've since done some research, and I now know where it comes from: Baltimore. Serving sauerkraut at Thanksgiving is an old tradition there, rooted in the homes of the city's German immigrants. In 1863, when Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday, about a quarter of Baltimore's population was German. Sauerkraut was a given on their celebratory table, and so it became a common part of Thanksgiving meals across the city. Over time, it didn't even matter if you came from German stock: Sauerkraut became a Baltimore thing. My grandfather's family was as Irish as they come—Mack was their surname, a shortened version of Macgillycuddy—but he grew up on the Chesapeake Bay, eating sauerkraut on the fourth Thursday of every November. Continued

{Falmanac slow-cooks his Thanksgiving sauerkraut with spareribs and caraway seeds.}

Photo: Making sauerkraut c1915 (Library of Congress).

The Dust Bowl: Tonight on PBS

Watch The Dust Bowl Intro on PBS. See more from The Dust Bowl.

Stewartstown Railroad line abandoned by federal board

 

(YDR) A federal board ruled Friday that it has granted the abandonment of the 7.4-mile line of the 127-year-old Stewartstown Railroad.
The estate of George M. Hart had asked the Federal Surface Transportation Board to declare the railroad abandoned. It's a step the estate needed to take so that it can foreclose on the railroad to collect a $350,000 debt the railroad owed to Hart.
The federal board ruled that the record does not show a credible need to keep the line in the national rail transportation system, the ruling states. The Stewartstown Railroad Company is unlikely to restore rail service on the line. Continued

James McHenry

(Wikipedia) James McHenry (November 16, 1753 – May 3, 1816) was an early American statesman. McHenry was a signer of the United States Constitution from Maryland and the namesake of Fort McHenry. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress from Maryland, and the third United States Secretary of War (1796–1800), under presidents George Washington and John Adams. Continued 

 

 

The Articles of Confederation

(LoC) On November 15, 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation. Submitted to the states for ratification two days later, the Articles of Confederation were accompanied by a letter from Congress urging that the document
…be candidly reviewed under a sense of the difficulty of combining in one general system the various sentiments and interests of a continent divided into so many sovereign and independent communities, under a conviction of the absolute necessity of uniting all our councils and all our strength, to maintain and defend our common liberties… Continued

Charles Carroll of Carrollton

(Wikipedia) Charles Carroll of Carrollton (September 19, 1737 – November 14, 1832) was a wealthy Maryland planter and an early advocate of independence from Great Britain. He served as a delegate to the Continental Congress and later as United States Senator for Maryland. He was the only Catholic and the longest-lived (and last surviving) signatory of the Declaration of Independence, dying at the age of 95. Continued

Image: Cornerstone of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad laid by Carroll on July 4, 1828, now displayed at the B&O Railroad Museum.

 

John Dahlgren

(Wikipedia) John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren (November 13, 1809 – July 12, 1870) was a United States Navy leader. He headed the Union Navy's ordnance department during the American Civil War and designed several different kinds of guns and cannons that were considered part of the reason the Union won the war. For these achievements, Dahlgren became known as the "father of American naval ordnance." He reached the rank of rear admiral. Continued

Top Photo: Dahlgren Chapel, Turner's Gap, Maryland (Acroterion, some rights reserved).

Construction Site Offers Fleeting Glimpse of the Civil War Past

(NYTimes) ... FREDERICKSBURG, Va. — The first bullet surfaced just after lunch. As Jon Tucker sifted soil through a screen in September, a corroded lead slug jiggled into view amid the sand and ash excavated from a pit just a few feet from a fenced-off sidewalk and rushing traffic.
Mr. Tucker waved to his supervisor, Taft Kiser, the lead archaeologist on the site, and held up the bullet for him to see. It would not be the last time. Hundreds of artifacts followed, along with the contours of a buried cellar holding a rich trove of Civil War history sealed since a ferocious 1862 battle in this Virginia city, which today lies just beyond the suburbs of Washington. Continued

Armistice Day

We never observed Veterans Day in my house, growing up. We observed Armistice Day. "It was intended for those who fought in World War One," my mom said, and that was that.

Lee MacPhail, Executive Who Led American League, Dies at 95

(NYTimes) Lee MacPhail, a former president of the American League, a general manager of the Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles, and the oldest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, died on Thursday night at his home in Delray Beach, Fla. He was 95. Continued

Stanford White

(Wikipedia) Stanford White (November 9, 1853 – June 25, 1906) was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead, and White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found to this day in places like Sea Gate, Brooklyn. His design principles embodied the "American Renaissance".
In 1906, White was murdered by millionaire Harry Kendall Thaw over White's affair with Thaw's wife, actress Evelyn Nesbit, leading to a trial which was dubbed at the time "The Trial of the Century." Continued 

 

Cold Steel and Crossed Sabers at Little Washington

 

(NYTimes) ... The unidentified Confederate observer reported that “Delony, putting spurs to his horse, left the column behind and dashed up into the melee, and hand to hand with his own boys, nearly all of whom had been cut down, was delivering his blows right and left.” Howard remembered that Delony “was fighting like a mad boar with a whole pack of curs about him, having his bridle hand dreadfully hacked, his head gashed and side thrust.”
The bluecoats called on him to surrender, but Delony barked back at the federals to lay down their own arms instead: “Surrender! By God! I am the best man!” and felled one enemy soldier with a blow of his sword. Continued

Bucky Harris

(Wikipedia) Stanley Raymond "Bucky" Harris (November 8, 1896 – November 8, 1977) was a Major League Baseball player, manager and executive. In 1975, the Veterans Committee elected Harris, as a manager, to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Harris was born in Port Jervis, New York and raised mostly in Pittston, Pennsylvania. Harris was discovered by baseball promoter Joe Engel, who led the Chattanooga Lookouts at Engel Stadium. In 1919, at the age of 22, he came up to the Washington Senators, where his initial performance was unimpressive. Harris' batting average was a meager .214, and he participated in only eight games in his first season.
Despite this poor showing, club owner Clark Griffith made him Washington's regular second baseman in 1920, and before long, Harris was batting .300, while distinguishing himself as a tough competitor. The young player stood up even to the ferocious Ty Cobb, who threatened Harris when he tagged Cobb in their first encounter. Continued

 

The Storm That Nearly Lost the War

(NYTimes) During the first week of November 1861 the worst storm in years struck the Atlantic Seaboard. Lacking modern meteorological equipment and techniques to predict its arrival, millions of people were caught unprepared. Floodwaters swamped Newark, Manhattan and Newport, R.I. Violent winds splintered fishing fleets off New England. On Nov. 3, 26 people on board the 990-ton square-rigger Maritana drowned when their ship capsized near Boston Harbor.
As bad as the damage was, though, most Northerners feared the worst news was still to come. Continued

Treaty of Fort Stanwix

 

(Wikipedia) The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was an important treaty between North American Indians and the British Empire. It was signed in 1768 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York. It was negotiated between Sir William Johnson and representatives of the Six Nations (the Iroquois).
The purpose of the conference was to adjust the boundary line between Indian lands and British colonial settlements set forth in the Royal Proclamation of 1763. The British government hoped a new boundary line might bring an end to the rampant frontier violence which had become costly and troublesome. Indians hoped a new, permanent line might hold back British colonial expansion.
The final treaty was signed on November 5 with one signatory for each of the Six Nations and in the presence of representatives from New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania as well as Johnson. The Native American nations present received gifts and cash totaling £10,460 7s. 3d. sterling, the highest payment ever made from colonists to American Indians.[1] The treaty established a Line of Property which extended the earlier proclamation line of the Alleghenies (the divide between the Ohio and coastal watersheds), much farther to the west. The line ran near Fort Pitt and followed the Ohio River as far as the Tennessee River, effectively ceding the Kentucky portion of the Colony of Virginia to the British, as well as most of what is now West Virginia. Continued

Emily Dickinson, Death, and Gilligan’s Island

 

(greathistory.com) ... But perhaps the coolest thing about Emily Dickinson, the thing your teachers never told you because it’s not academic enough, is that this poem is written in iambic quadrameter.
Which means you can sing it to the theme of Gilligan’s Island. Continued
 

Seabiscuit vs. War Admiral in "the match of the century"

(Wikipedia) On November 1, 1938, Seabiscuit met War Admiral in what was dubbed the "Match of the Century." The event itself, run over 1 and 3/16 miles (1.91 km), was one of the most anticipated sporting events in U.S. history. The Pimlico Race Course, from the grandstands to the infield, was jammed solid with fans. Trains were run from all over the country to bring fans to the race, and the estimated 40,000 at the track were joined by some 40 million listening on the radio. War Admiral was the prohibitive favorite (1-4 with most bookmakers) and a near unanimous selection of the writers and tipsters, excluding the California faithful. Continued

Photo by Arthur Siegel (FSA/OWI/LoC).