Patriotic New Englanders

1895

The First Person Who Fell In the War of the Revolution.

Hezekiah Butterworth, in "The Patriotic Schoolmaster," says the first person to fall in the war of the Revolution was not Crispus Attucks, but a boy. If Attucks, who fell by an accidental encounter, merits a monument as the first who fell for liberty, so does this boy.

There were a few merchants in Boston who continued to sell taxed articles. They came to be despised and hated. The boys, in their hasty patriotism, made on a placard a list of the names of those who imported and sold proscribed articles and put it on a pole that bore a wooden head and hand. They set this image up before an importer's door, with the wooden hand pointing toward it, and this made the importer angry, and he fired a musket into the crowd of boys. Christopher Gore, afterward governor of Massachusetts, was slightly wounded.

Little Christopher Snyder, a boy whose mother was a widow, and who had followed the spirit of the times, fell mortally wounded. They took up his form and bore it away, and the whole city wept. Never in America was there a boy's funeral like his. They made for him a patriot's coffin and bore his form to the Liberty Tree, which stood near the present corner of Washington and Essex streets. On the coffin was this motto, "Innocence itself is not safe." The boys of nearly all the schools, some 600 in number, gathered around the body as an escort. The bells tolled, business was closed, and some 1,500 people followed the first martyr to the grave.

As the procession marched not only the bells of Boston, but those of the neighboring towns, were heard tolling. It was almost spring, and there was a mellowness in the air. That procession was a prophecy of events to come, a protest against the injustice of the royal power. The sons of liberty should remember little Snyder's grave.

An American Custom

1895

We Want the Correct Time and Endeavor to Get It.

Of course if you walk on Chestnut street and take notice as you go along — all people should have observing eyes — you will see men stopping to compare their watches with the chronometers in the jewelers' windows. And if you have traveled abroad I venture to say you never saw a foreigner so comparing the time of his watch.

The fact is this is a custom peculiarly American. We place more value on time here — our minutes are precious, we are so busy, so eager in the race for wealth — time is indeed money with us.

A friend of mine who goes abroad every season was chatting about this matter to me and said:

"Do you know that the Americans buy the most expensive watches? I was talking to one of the most celebrated watchmakers in all Europe on this very subject, and I was surprised to hear him say that his best watches — the most expensive make, repeaters and the like — were mostly sold in the American market. He said, too, that foreigners do not care for such correct time as the Americans. If their watches are a few minutes too fast or too slow, it does not concern them.

"I was myself impressed with the truth of these remarks by the watchmaker when, a few days afterward, I was in a railroad station in Paris and saw two public clocks four minutes apart! Another time I set my watch by one public clock in London and the next day found by another public clock in the same city, only a dozen blocks away, that my watch was six minutes slow by that clock! Yes, you may be sure that the Americans are the only nation who care for the exact time." — Philadelphia Call.

Good Word for Americans

1895

Credit Given Them as Being the Kindliest Race In the World.

Take them as a whole, the Americans are the kindliest race on the face of the earth. In spite of their eagerness, their push, their desire to be in the front rank at all times and all seasons, the true American seldom fails in kindness. He wants badly to prevent any one getting ahead of him mentally, physically and morally, but if his competitor falls in the struggle he will make untold sacrifices to help him up. The rule in American business is pure cutthroat competition carried to its logical conclusion. You are expected to press and push every point as far as it can possibly be pushed and pressed, and no one is expected to consider whether in making a commercial coup you will not ruin Brown, Jones and Robinson. The moment, however, that Brown, Jones or Robinson actually goes under he is treated with the utmost generosity and consideration.

The hand which struck him down is instantly stretched forth to help him, and as much care and trouble are used to put him on his feet once again as were originally employed to knock him off them. In social intercourse this kindness and sunniness is specially attractive. The American will take infinite pains to make the merest stranger happy. He is courteous and pleasant spoken, not, like the Frenchman, from convention, but from the sense of pleasure which his instinctive optimism teaches him to diffuse. His optimism has even proved strong enough to break down the shyness which naturally belongs to the English race. One sees no doubt survivals of it in the American, but in most cases the sense that all is for the best in the best possible of worlds has mastered it altogether. — London Spectator.

Uses Flag for Coat Lining

1916

"Prettiest Thing I Could Find," Tailor Told Court.

BOSTON, Massachusetts — Pankus Brown, a tailor and a United States citizen for several years, admires the flag so much, he told the South Boston district court, that when he wanted to make a fur coat especially attractive he caused his assistant to use a silk flag for lining.

"I meant no insult to the flag," Brown pleaded, when charged with misuse of the national emblem. "I wanted to make the coat look nice and I used the prettiest thing I could find. That flag cost me a lot of money."

The court ordered him fined $50.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 11.

True Sports Never Die

1901

Bicycling is almost as old as the present generation, golf is far older, though Americans in general seem not to have heard of it till recently; football was played in China more than 1,500 years ago and in younger nations ever since they heard of it, and archery and horsemanship hark back to prehistoric man and are instinctive in millions. These sports cannot die or even be killed, nor can any others that are liked; they are as irrepressible and immortal as the human impulse to get out of doors and do something. — Saturday Evening Post.

A.E.F. Slain Soon To Be Taken Home

1920

Board To Remove Bodies Arrives In England

All Dead That Can Be Moved Are to Be Sent Back When France Permits

LONDON, England, Jan. 1. — Extensive plans for the wholesale removal of the bodies of America's war dead to the United States will be put into operation in England and France this week.

Fifty-one members of the graves registration service arrived at Southampton on board the Martha Washington. Some members of the expedition will remain in England to supervise the work of removing the bodies of Americans who died in England, while the others will proceed to France, where they will start similar operations.

26,096 Buried in Great Britain

According to the statement of Major Whipps, mortuary officer with the American forces in Great Britain, 26,096 American soldiers were buried in Ireland, Scotland and England. The bodies of only two members of the American Navy still remain buried in English soil. The others were transported home shortly after the armistice. In France there still are 600 Naval dead, whose bodies will be taken home as soon as technical objections can be overcome.

According to American Naval officers in London, France finally has granted permission to the United States to remove both the dead sailors and soldiers.

Heretofore only in exceptional cases have the bodies of soldiers been sent back to the United States. A recent Army order, however, is said to contain instructions to the effect that all bodies not buried in the actual war zone are to be prepared for shipment to America.

The organization, composed partly of Army officials and partly of civilians, which will superintend the removal of the bodies, will be divided into three sections. One section will be stationed in England, a second section in France, and the third will be assigned the work of gathering the bodies buried in Belgium, Germany and Italy.

Some to Be Left Behind

It is not regarded as possible or desirable to send home all the bodies. Those that are left in Europe will, however, be gathered into one cemetery. The Argonne Cemetery, located at Romagne-sur-Montfaucon, in the heart of the region where the A. E. F. made its biggest fight, has been suggested as the site of the permanent A. E. F. Cemetery. There are 21,000 Americans interred there now.

The hardest work will be in removing the bodies of the war-swept areas, it is expected. Identification will be exceedingly difficult in many cases where large numbers of men were buried close to the battlefield.

The cost of the removal of bodies to America will be approximately $1,000 each. Owing to the shortage of railroad equipment in France, Army auto trucks will be used to carry the bodies from their present locations to the ships at Brest.

The Self Reliance of Americans

1900

Above all the American is personal. He is responsible to himself. He is ready to declare at any time, "My deeds upon my head."

Some of us go to church. We read in our service books, "From all evil and mischief, from sin, from the crafts and assaults of the devil, good Lord, deliver us." We know that this is only a form of words. We rely upon nothing intangible. We have the words and the habit of repeating them by inheritance. We trip over them while we accept nothing Dei gratia, nor do we shirk our own responsibility in affairs by pleading a special order of Providence.

The child is taught that if he walks into mischief and is caught at it the excuse that he was unduly persuaded into evil doing will not save him from the retributive slipper. The school and college boy and girl pay the piper personally for all unlawful dancing. The man behind the plow, the man behind the counter and the man behind the gun know that results depend. — Self Culture.

The American Woman's Curiosity

1910

"The American woman's intellectual characteristic is curiosity. One feels she would like to have ten pairs of eyes so as to see everything, ten pairs of ears so as to hear everything. . . .

"When I sit down at table beside an American woman of Paris, she immediately asks me: "Have you seen such and such a play? Have you been to such and such an art exhibition? What do you think of this novel or of that philosophical or historical book recently published?' . . . And I am forced to admit that I have not seen the latest play, that for more than ten years I have not set my foot inside the annual 'salons,' that I read slowly and carefully, and am therefore forced to read but few books. And I know my American neighbor feels great disdain for my inculture. . . .

"Still I have infinite sympathy for her charming and universal intellectual curiosity; only long experience has taught me that man's head cannot contain too many ideas at once." — Marcel Prevost in Harper's Bazar.


Teach Them to Know Home City

The Buffalo board of education is considering a proposition to introduce in the public schools a textbook on Buffalo which will give pupils some knowledge of the industries and institutions of the city in which they live.

The Philippine-American War

1899

Recruiting for the new volunteer army has been successful. The Secretary of War feels justified in saying that before the end of the rainy season in the Philippine Islands — the first of November — there will be fifty thousand American troops in the field. The President believes that the force will be sufficient to end the war. Otherwise he would have called for a larger number of soldiers.

It is a matter of common comment that the people are tired of the conflict, and wish to see it ended. Those who regard the war as an immoral attack upon a people who deserve their independence have been reënforced by politicians who think they see in the Philippine difficulty an opportunity for party success. Beside these two classes are many supporters of the administration who are apprehensive lest their political opponents are correct in their estimate of the effect of the war upon the result of future elections.

On the other side there is no enthusiasm for the war. It is merely regarded as a painful national duty. The number of those who would withdraw the army and navy and leave the Filipinos to decide their own fate is probably very small. Unless the body of the people should accept their opinion, the only practicable course is to prosecute the war vigorously and to end it quickly.

Carrying on a distant war, carrying on any war, is new business to the American people. They do not like it, and only accept its cruel, distasteful burdens when they must. Must is an uncomfortable word in its relation to some of the experiences of life. Many a peace-loving citizen cannot see how a proud nation can perform the duty to the world which it undertook in the Treaty of Paris, without first overcoming opposition to its authority in the Philippines. It is here that the imperative most seems to force acquiescence.

Dreyfus at Rennes

1899

Justice may be done at Rennes, but Dreyfus will never be a national hero. The world will probably pity him, and Frenchmen may reluctantly admit that he has been treacherously dealt with and cruelly used; but he lacks the qualities which his own nation admires in a public man.

He has a strong but not a handsome face. His figure is bent. He has quiet dignity but lacks a commanding presence. His manner is cold and reserved. His emotions are generally under the control of a strong will. His face and bearing repel rather than excite sympathy.

The French are an excitable people who like melodrama in their public life. Dreyfus is not a man capable of striking an attitude and posing before them as the victim of conspiracy and oppression who has baffled and triumphed gloriously over his enemies. He neither appeals to their imaginations nor excites their emotions. The pathos of his lot does not touch their hearts and induce hero-worship. Even when convinced of his innocence they will look upon him as an unfortunate Jew, who has been baited and nearly hounded to death.

Americans may judge of him differently, but Frenchmen are strangely and perversely indifferent to either English or American opinion. They can never make a popular idol of a scapegoat for the crimes of military intriguers. Their heroes must be men of action, with a vainglorious faith in their own destiny, with a theatrical air and with fascinations of personality. Dreyfus as he is seen at. Rennes is merely, in their eyes, a poor dupe who has suffered until the iron has entered into his soul.

At the time of writing this article Dreyfus's trial is not completed. Should he be acquitted his resignation from the army will probably follow, and years of exile in England. Evil passions have been excited by the prolonged excitement of the Dreyfus affair. The Jews in France will not benefit by his acquittal. They will be more vehemently disliked because he has been misjudged and cruelly wronged.

In any event Dreyfus will not have suffered in vain. Militarism will never again be the blind, unreasoning force which it has been in France. Justice and mercy, those grand Hebraic virtues of the ancient Scriptures, will have a deeper meaning throughout the world in consequence of the wrongs suffered by this patient, unhappy Alsatian Jew.

Shooting Skies For Rain

1910

Uncle Sam Has Lost Faith in Rain-Making Schemes, but Italians Are Still Sanguine

Washington. — Recently when fire was sweeping over the mountains of the west, leaving death and destruction in its wake, the despairing people appealed to the war department to bombard the skies and bring a much-needed rain. For obvious reasons their request was refused. Uncle Sam, a few years ago, spent large sums of money experimenting along this line, sending up bombs and firing cannon at the skies to produce rain by artificial means. It was no use, for clouds refused to "leak" in satisfaction of man's tiny tickling. Since then the government has been without faith in any scheme for rain-making.

It is now held that the reason why rain usually followed the great battles of history is because whenever possible the commanders moved their armies and began battles when the weather was fair. Rain falls on an average of one day in three, so it is no amazing matter that the clouds should spill their contents about the time one of those famous slaughters would be over with.

Of course, the great men of science know that it is useless for man, with his puny implements, to undertake to bring about those stupendous changes in nature necessary to produce the phenomenon of rain. It would be necessary to lower the temperature of a vast area of the heavens, or saturate such a region with moisture to obtain results, and our means of accomplishment are too limited.

Though our government has lost faith in rain-making, however, the Italians seem to be quite confident that in one way, at least, bombarding the clouds is productive of good results. In all the vineyards of that sunny land there may be seen curious funnel-shaped guns pointing to the sky. Hail storms form one of the chief dangers to the grape crop in that country, and the Italians believe that the firing of these guns prevents such destructive visitations by dissipating the clouds which give them birth.

Mrs. Humphrey's Strong Feelings About Fashion

1911

Editorial Zingers

The truth is that the love of dress is, next after drink and gambling, one of the curses of our country. -- Mrs. Humphrey.

The Boston young woman who worked eight years on her trousseau must have had unusual, though not well founded, faith in the stability of the styles.

A Montreal doctor recently contributed a pint of his own blood to save the life of a patient. Some doctors seem to be actuated by a sincere desire to cure.

The autocrats of fashion may succeed in making women wear the ugly Turkish "harem" stress, but no autocrat now living will ever succeed in shutting women up.

"I know not where I am," cried a poetess in one of the magazines. English critics of American literature will wonder why she did not say: "I know not where I am at."

An English paper announces that Americans lack the sense of humor. That sounds like the argument of the man who satisfies himself by exclaiming: "You're another!"

A Canadian highbrow tells us that the temperature seven and a half miles above the earth is 90 degrees below zero. Let this be a warning to builders of skyscrapers.

Both the Native-Born and Immigrant Have Duties to America

1920

By Senator W. S. Kenyon of Iowa

The alien cannot Americanize himself. He can never become assimilated if he is shunted off into a shanty town. He cannot be Americanized with a club. There is more hope in a handshake than in profit-sharing.

There is a growing need for America to Americanize itself; for each individual to stop shifting the blame onto others and depending on some one else to put our house in order. The immigrant has his duty to America and he must be made to discharge it. The native-born has his duty and he must search his own heart to see if there are any roots of the trouble there. If we could only control our greed, our avarice, our quick prejudice and passion and pull together for the general welfare of our country, what a nation this would be! America means more than stocks and bonds, and churches and schools and farms and stores. It means a great ideal of justice for all men. A man who cannot be just whether with his employee or with his employer is not a true American.

The ship of state is sailing through pretty troublesome seas, but it is a mighty sturdy old ship. It will weather the storm. It will pull through every crisis. It is a time for aroused conscience and determination of all our people to enthrone justice in their own hearts and then do what they can to assist others. We are engaged now in much talk of helping the world. We can help it by giving to the world a high example of justice and fraternity, and in so doing many of our industrial problems will be solved.

No Equal Suffrage Movement in France After the American Fashion

1920

By Mme. Clemenceau-Jacquemaire, in New York Times

So far as I have been able to observe, there is no equal suffrage movement in France in the sense that you in America regard a movement. From earliest times the women in France have always held a high position in the community. They have taken an active part in business projects, and the professions have always been open to them. They have been prominent in literature, science, and art. Indirectly they have exerted great influence on the political life of the country. Consequently there has been no pronounced movement for equal rights in France such as has been started elsewhere.

The women of France are not anxious to vote or to be elected to office. Therefore I am not of the opinion that suffrage will gain headway in my country. Nevertheless I am watching with great interest the progress of the women of other countries. We admire your progressiveness and are interested in the experiment of sending women to congress, of giving them seats on the bench. This is, of course, in line with your advancement and liberal ideas. But our own traditions, our social and racial conditions, are very different.

I find no cause for anxiety regarding the competition of the sexes in business. Women who had taken men's jobs on the outbreak of the war are gladly relinquishing them, and peace adjustment is coming without bitterness.

Was it not Ellen Key who avowed that even if the suffragist was striving to be free she was making a mistake if she thought the vote would free her from the limitation of nature? Women cannot pass beyond those limits without interfering with the rights of nature and the potential child. Woman, of course, has a right to avoid marriage, and to allow herself to be turned into a third sex, provided she finds in this her greatest happiness. But when all is told, motherhood is the central factor of existence for most women.

Train Ferries in Europe

1894

From the Engineering Mechanic

English engineers, finding it necessary to adopt our system of train ferries, and not wishing to give us credit of inaugurating that system, have managed to discover a Sir John somebody who worked the whole thing up fifteen years ago.

A New York paper says: "There seems to be nothing in the way of running unbroken trains between London and Paris, except the necessary capital and the employment of sufficient technical skill. If the London, Chatham, and Dover would combine with the Northern, of France, and employ an experienced American engineer to plan and construct the docks and appliances for embarking and landing the trains, and at the same time send to any of the shipbuilding establishments on our great lakes for a man to construct the ferry boats, the arrangement could be perfected in a year and a half or two years, when freight and passengers could be transported from any part of Great Britain to the Continent, and eventually to all of Asia and Africa, without change of cars or break of bulk."

The system of train ferries will no doubt be established throughout Europe in a few years, and will do much to expedite and cheapen transit.

Modern Surgery For The Battlefield – Saving Many Lives

1916

Saving The Soldier – Wonderful Accomplishments of Modern Surgery

German System So Perfect That Desperately Wounded Men Are Restored to Service in Comparatively Short Time

With their characteristic thoroughness the Germans have set themselves to the task of saving every wounded soldier sent back from the front who is not beyond their aid. They are accomplishing wonderful results and thousands of disabled soldiers are soon restored to health and sent back to the firing line, who might have perished miserably were it not for the scientific management of German hospital work.

There is no neglect of the wounded. From the time a man is hurt on the battlefield until he is installed in a hospital, perhaps far away from the scene of his injury, all that could possibly be done for him before he reaches the hospital has been accomplished by skilled hands and when he reaches his destination competent surgeons, who specialize in the kind of wound he has received, begin the final work of healing.

Instead of being the most common operation Ii war surgery, amputation is not practiced now, except as the last resort. Antiseptic treatment has so minimized the danger of infection that the most desperately wounded soldiers are saved and dismissed from the hospitals with, their full complement of limbs.

Not only are German surgeons doing splendid work, but American, French, English and Austrian surgeons are everyday performing remarkable operations. Recently an operation was performed by Prof. Albert Tietze on a soldier who had a serious wound in his head. After a large fragment of shell had been removed the X-rays showed that a small piece of shell remained. Professor Tietze said this particle could not safely be left in the skull because it might become dislodged in future years and cause instant death.

It was suggested that a magnet be used to draw out the splinter. There was no instrument of the sort available, but engineers of the telegraphic division soon made an electro-magnet. A motor, formerly used for running a threshing machine, and a dynamo were requisitioned. The physician took an iron wand, highly polished, and connected it with a coil. The wand was inserted in the soldier's skull and the fragment of shell was easily withdrawn as it clung to the end of the iron.

French Girl Inspects 20 U.S. Suitors

1920

Frankly Admits She Is Here to Hunt Husband — Has Discarded Eighty as Unsuitable

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Twenty times Mlle. Susanne Boitard watched an American officer get down on his knees before her and heard him propose marriage to her.

And just twenty times the chic French girl answered, "Oh, Monsieur, but you must wait! When the war is over we shall see. It may be ——"

All this happened in the battle-scarred days of 1918 at Mlle. Boitard's magnificent home near Amiens, France, wherein many Yank officers were quartered during the war. And now she is in the United States looking over her score of prospective husbands, and has already discarded eight as unsuitable. Mademoiselle frankly admits that she is hunting a mate and that she believes marriage is the greatest ambition that a woman can achieve.

"So why shouldn't I come to America to pick the best one of the twenty who have asked my hand in marriage?" demands the French girl.

Is Pretty, Rich, Educated

It cannot be denied that Mlle. Boitard has qualifications for marriage. She is pretty, perfumed and excessively feminine. She is 24, rich and well educated. She is brilliant and vivacious. She is the picture of health and beauty.

"And I want the best husband in the world!" Calmly announces Mlle. Boitard.

On the subject of husbands, and American husbands in particular, she admits that her U.S. suitors were great fighters, but she has some objections to them as prospective mates. They spend too much, she avers, and they are poor — ah, oui! — very poor judges of good wine.

"All these men who proposed marriage to me," declares mademoiselle, in her charming English, with a trace of French accent, "lived at our chateau near Amiens. They drank our wine and they ate at our table. They were very enthusiastic over the chateau at Amiens and our home in Paris, for they had every possible luxury there. Now isn't it entirely possible that some of these twenty officers may have loved my luxurious home more than they did me?

"It is only reasonable that I should want to see how my American suitors live in their own homes. I do not want to be too critical about them, but I find some faults in the American national character.

"What has displeased me about American men more than any other one thing is that they are so stupid and reckless about spending money. They eat and drink and tip in expensive places as if they were millionaires. I find it very unpleasant. They want to appear rich, and that surprises and disappoints me.

Poor Judges of Wine

"And I do not like the American way of drinking. The men I know seemed to drink just for the sake of drinking, without the least appreciation of good wine. With one of them I am sure that it would have been all the same to him if he was drinking perfume.

"The American business man works too hard. He doesn't take any time for his wife and his home. I want my husband to work, but I also want him to make time for theaters, art, horses and charity affairs. I don't want to have to think in the dollar sign."

Back in New York from one inspection tour, Mlle. Boitard seemed a trifle disillusioned. She had seen and discarded eight of the twenty who wanted to marry her.

"There is one chance in particular, and maybe two or three others, that I may yet marry an American man, in spite of the eight I have discarded," says the French girl, dreamily. "I am thinking of one officer from Kentucky and another from St. Louis. But I will visit these cities and will find out for myself."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, page 1.