Old Print Articles

You are currently browsing the archive for the Old Print Articles category.

A Brief Note From 1873 About A Missing Knife

April 18, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the October 27, 1873 New York Times:

“A letter dated Oct. 1, from Dos Palmas Station, on the Desert, to the Yuma (Cal.) Sentinel, says:: ‘Four days ago the son of old Chino Theodore, from Yuma, came to this station about dark, on foot, and nearly dead for water. He said he had left his father and a boy, the brother of Mrs. Jeager, out forty miles on the desert, without water and nearly dead for the want of it, having been without it for three days when he left them twenty four hours before. Joe Dittier, the station-keeper, and Hank Brown started the next morning with a team and plenty of water to find them. After going twenty-five miles, they came upon the old man. He had found a cask of water that had been left by surveyors, and had drank himself nearly to death. One of the party stayed with him, and the other went to look for the boy. After going fifteen miles he was discovered stretched out under a bush, naked and almost dead–his tongue being swollen and black, and blood running out of his nose and ears. He was brought to after two hours’ hard work, having been without water for five days and nights. Their three horses died. The party are now stopping here and getting along all right. The old man says that if he had not lost his knife he would have cut his throat, and ended his misery. The station keeper and Brown deserve praise for the manner in which they acted, being without food three days on their return.”

Tags: , , , ,

Old Print Article: “Revived By Jiu-Jitsu,” New York Times (1910)

April 16, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“The patient immediately regained full consciousness.”

As far as I can tell, a Tokyo man fainted on a train platform in 1910 and got the crap beaten out of him. The New York Times had a different take in its September 4 issue of that year. The story:

“Tokyo–An extraordinary story of the resuscitation of a man apparently dead by means of jiu-jitsu is printed by the Japanese Advertiser, which paper declares that, though jiu-jitsu has attracted much attention throughout the world as a marvelous art of self-defense, it has not yet received the attention it deserves as a means of restoring to life persons who are victims of shock, concussion of the brain, apoplexy or drowning.

It has long been asserted that this curious science has what may be known as an esoteric side–that there are secrets connected with it that are imparted only to those who have attained a very high degree of proficiency, and that they are pledged not to divulge these secrets. It is even said–and believed–that certain jiu-jitsu experts know how to kill a human being by what is little more than a touch.

However this may be, the story now related appears well authenticated. A man named Tanenouchi Yasutara, 23 years old, a conductor in the service of the Tokio street railway, suddenly fell apparently lifeless on the platform of the train on which he was on duty. His collapse was due to apoplexy. The man’s body was lifted to the ground and every possible means of resuscitation known to the fellow conductors and motormen, as well as others suggested by onlookers, was tried without avail. The man remained livid, without any apparent respiration or pulsation, and was on the point of being given up for dead when one Iura Hidikichi, who is a jiu-jitsu expert, happened to pass by, and, lifting the lifeless body up, tried upon it the jiu-jitsu method of resuscitation. 

The effect was an instantaneous as it was marvelous. The patient immediately regained full consciousness, to the great amazement of the onlookers who had crowded around.

Broadly speaking the method employed is as follows: The operator kneels on one knee immediately behind the patient, whom he lifts to a semi-sitting posture, placing his (the operator’s) knee between and slightly below the patient’s shoulder blades in the cardiac region, then brings his hands forward over the patient’s chest, and then gives them a powerful jerk backward. If any life remains the effect is instantaneous, not only respiration and pulsation, but full consciousness, being restored. There are, however, details in regard to this treatment which cannot be learned.”

Tags: ,

A Brief Note From 1847 About A Silenced Man

April 15, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the July 15, 1847 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Philadelphia–On Tuesday evening last, in Decatur Street, William Rushworth and Patrick McGuire quarreled, a regular fight ensued, when the former got the latter down, throttled him until his tongue protruded from his mouth, and then bit it off. The physicians fear death will ensue from mortification or lock jaw, and in case of recovery he will be deprived of the power of articulation.”

Tags: ,

A Brief Note From 1911 About A Dish Served Cold

April 12, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the October 19, 1911 New York Times:

“Vancouver, B.C.–The Rev. J.G. Patton, who arrived to-day from Maleoules, New Hebrides, where he has been a missionary for nineteen years, said that shortly before he left a French trading vessel made a raid and a number of natives were kidnapped. 

The natives, in revenge, attacked the steamer and captured three of the crew, all natives. These were killed and eaten.”

Tags:

A Brief Note From 1894 About Fruitarians

April 10, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

 

From the June 11, 1894 New York Times:

A new society of cranks has been started by a former Lieutenant in the German Army. His name is Wäthe. He is the leader of a new “ism,” and as such has sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu. The “Fruitarians” is the name of the new society he represents, and their belief–or rather notion–is, that modern civilization is full of vanities and strange motions, and greatly needs reforming. The members eat nothing but ripe fruit, eschew cooked food of any kind, and drink only water. They are to live in huts, bare of the comforts of civilization, and go naked. Ex-Lient. Wäthe intends to buy a large tract of land in the Sandwich Islands, or perhaps, a small island outright, for the purpose of founding a colony.•

Tags:

Old Print Article: “Walking on Water,” New York Times (1886)

April 9, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

While Charles Blondin gained fame by crossing over Niagara Falls on a tightrope, and Steve Brodie gained even greater notice by pretending to go over it in a barrel, only “Professor” Alphonse King tried to traverse its channel with tin shoes of his own invention. His results were mixed. From the December 12, 1886 New York Times:

“Buffalo–An attempt was made to-day to outrival the feats of Donovan, Graham, Hanslitt, Potts and Allen in braving the terrors of Niagara, which though a failure in one way, was a success in another. Mr. Alphonse King, who is the inventor of a water shoe, gave exhibitions some years ago in this country and Mexico and not long ago in Europe. He gave one in the Crystal Palace in London, and while there attracted the attention of Harry Webb, an old-time manager, who made him an offer of a year’s engagement to come to this country. While here some time ago Mr. King had looked over Niagara River below the Falls and believed that he could walk across the channel on the patent shoes. He came to this country four weeks ago and has since that time been in New-York City practicing for the trip. While there, Thomas Bowe, hearing of King’s determination to attempt the trip, made a wager of $1,500 with Webb that King could not walk 100 feet in the current. The money was deposited with a New-York newspaper, and on Friday afternoon Messrs. King and Webb, accompanied by A.C. Poole, of Poole’s Eighth Street Theatre, reached the Falls.

The trip to-day gave King two cold water baths, and demonstrated that while he could walk with or against the current all right it was impossible to walk across the river because of the eddies, which twice upset them. He retired confident that what he set out to do could not be done. King’s ‘shoes’ are of tin, 32 inches long, 8 inches wide, sloping at the top, and 9 inches deep. Each weighs 30 pounds. They are air-tight and have in the middle an opening large enough to admit the feet of the wearer. At the bottom are a series of paddles, which operate automatically as fins.”

Tags: , , ,

A Brief Note From 1884 About A Girl, Interrupted

April 8, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the February 15, 1884 New York Times: 

“Youngstown, Ohio–Kitty Gilmour, daughter of the late Dr. Gilmour, of New Lisbon, died on Monday after six hours’ illness. Physicians pronounced the disease hemorrhage of the bowels. The body was placed in a vault here. At 2 o’clock this afternoon the undertaker went to the vault to bury another body and discovered moisture on the glass of Miss Gilmour’s coffin and noticed that her face was flushed. He summoned Dr. Nelson, the girl’s uncle, who ordered the body to be taken to his house. It was quickly removed from the coffin and placed on a cot. The doctor found on placing his hand underneath the body that it was warm. Bottles filled with hot water were placed at the feet and along the sides, an electric battery was applied ineffectually, and every known restorative used, but at 8 o’clock to-night none had been very effective. The appearance of the corpse was very life-like, a natural color overspreading the entire face except the chin, on which is a purple spot. The neck and arms have not stiffened. The folded hands clutch a bouquet of white roses. At the throat is a bunch of tuberoses. The lady was 24 years old, and was to have been married in a few months. She was the only child of a widowed mother, who is almost crazed with grief and suspense. Much excitement exists. A council of physicians has been summoned who will experiment with the body during the night.”

Tags: , ,

A Brief Note From 1908 About Monkey Arson

April 4, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the July 5, 1908 New York Times:

“‘Nimbo,’ a pet monkey belonging to Mrs. Mary Blackwell, a widow, who lives in a three-story frame house at 1,770 Bath Avenue, Bath Beach, sat in the parlor window yesterday afternoon watching the boys in the street set off firecrackers. Mrs. Blackwell was on the lawn in front of her house watching the youngsters also.

She happened to turn around, however, and saw Nimbo in the act of striking a match and setting fire to the lace curtains at the parlor windows in imitation of the boys in the street. Mrs. Blackwell gave the alarm, but before firemen reached the house it was in flames.

Mrs. Blackwell had to be restrained by the police to prevent her running into the house after Nimbo, and she begged the firemen to save him. They tried, but when they reached the monkey they found he was dead and his body burned almost to a crisp. Mrs. Blackwell was heartbroken over the monkey’s death.”

Tags: ,

Old Print Article: “The Tattooed Woman,” New York Times (1882)

April 3, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"

“She was the daughter of a sailor who began tattooing when she was but 6 years of age.”

A sailor’s daughter was covered in ink from a tender age, as seen in an article in the March 19, 1882 New York Times:

“Miss Irene Woodward is a brown-haired, brown-eyed maiden of about 19 years of age of medium-size, and of pleasing appearance. She claims to be tattooed on every part of her body from her neck to her heels. During a reception of three hours at the Sinclair House yesterday afternoon she was attired in a scant costume of black velvet and gold. A close-fitting bodice or jacket, trimmed with gold bullion and fringe stopped an inch or more above the knee. The bodice was cut low in the neck and edged across the bosom with lace ruching. The visitors were permitted to look upon the quaintly decorated skin of the upper portions of the chest and back, the arms, and the exposed surface of the lower limbs. Miss Woodward remarked that she felt a little bashful about being looked at the way, never having worn the costume in the presence of men before. The tattooing, which was done in Indian ink, appeared artistic, and the devices were varied and attractive. Around the neck was observed a floral necklace. Dependent from this was a bunch of roses in full bloom drooping until their graceful forms were lost beneath the lace edging of the bodice. The rising sun was illustrated on each shoulder and the arms were covered with stars, hearts, floating angels, wreaths, harps, crosses, a full-rigged ship, and various mottoes. The young woman’s back, it was said, was completely covered with a large cross, heart, and anchor. Upon the lower limbs were pictures very numerous and complicated. Miss Woodward states that she was the daughter of a sailor who began tattooing when she was but 6 years of age and finished it when she was 12. She was born near Dallas, Texas, and has spent the greater part of her life in the Western wilds. She conceived the idea of exhibiting herself after seeing the tattooed Greek in Denver. On and after to-morrow she will figure among the multitude of curiosities at Bunnell’s Museum, at Broadway and Ninth Street.”

Tags:

Margaret And Kate Fox, The Original Rappers

April 2, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

We see ghosts sometimes because we’re afraid of death. If others haven’t completely died, maybe we can also somehow go on forever?

In 1848, the Fox sisters (Margaret, Kate and Leah) of New York told a lie about ghosts that people wanted to believe, and so they did. The two younger siblings (pictured in the above undated classic photograph) claimed that they could communicate with a murdered man who made “rappings” on the floor upon command, and with a little sleight of hand–foot, mostly–they caused a national sensation. The girls were soon “performing” in large halls and arenas around the world. The so-called intelligentsia was just as gullible as were the rubes; James Fenimore Cooper allegedly prepared for death by meeting with the girls. And Spiritualism, discrete from religion, had begun in earnest the United States

The Fox girls may have had an unusual beginning, but their ending was quite predictable: Interest in them faded, a lifetime of lying tied them in knots they could never extricate themselves from, and they died in poverty and obscurity, interred in pauper graves. From a November 21, 1909 New York Times article about spiritualist cranks in America:

“The Fox sisters were the founders of modern Spiritualism. It was in 1848 that spirit rappings were first heard in their home at Hydesville, N.Y. It created an unparalleled sensation, and from the pilgrimages to the Fox shrine grew the great religion–or industry–of Spiritualism. 

According to a confession subsequently made by Margaret Fox, she and her sister Kate, then children, found they could produce peculiar sounds by the manipulation of the toes and fingers. They greatly enjoyed the perturbation of their mother, who could not understand the mysterious sounds and began to think the house was haunted.

She finally told the neighbors and the resulting sensation naturally tickled the children more than ever. But their married sister Leah Fish, who lived in Rochester, learned the origin of the mysterious sounds and saw the commercial possibilities. She took them with her to Rochester, and in a short time the whole world was talking of them.

Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were among their visitors. Elisha Kent Kane, the great explorer, fell in love with Margaret and is said to have married her, though his family never acknowledged it. Kate, who was the first to discover the power the sisters possessed, kept up the seances until her marriage in 1873.

In 1888, Margaret Fox confessed that the whole thing had been a fraud, and Kate indorsed the confession. Leah Fox was then dead. Subsequently Margaret retracted the confession, and this retraction completely satisfied the Spiritualists, who at her funeral predicted that the year 1848 (the year of the first rappings) would loom higher in history than the year 1 of the Christian calendar.

But the Spiritualists were never able to explain how it was that Margaret and Kate Fox not only confessed the fraud, but gave public exhibitions of how it was committed. On October 21, 1888, Margaret Fox appeared before an audience of 2,000 persons in the Academy of Music, in this city, and gave a demonstration. Physicians went upon the stage and felt her foot as she made the motions by which she had produced the raps heard around the world. Then she stood in her stocking feet on a little pine platform six inches from the floor, and without the slightest perceptible movement made raps audible all over the theatre. She went down into the audience, and there, resting her foot on that of a spectator, showed how by the motion of her toe the sound was produced.

She gave other public exhibitions, and her subsequent retraction of her confession did not explain away the demonstrations. Kate Fox became a dipsomaniac, and her children were taken away from her because of that fact. She died in 1892, and Margaret a year later. Margaret’s last words were: ‘Give me one more drink.’ She, too, had become a dipsomaniac.”

Tags: , , ,

A Brief Note From 1908 About A Healthy Woman

March 29, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“Chicago–As a result of overdevotion to health promotion, Mrs. Nancy Balleon of Oak Park is near death.

While taking a sun bath yesterday Mrs. Balleon fell from a scaffolding she had built outside her room on the third floor of her home.

Mrs. Balleon had been interested in a number of health systems. After taking a walk in the morning in her bare feet, exercising on the parallel bars, and taking a cold plunge, she has been in the habit of spending several hours in her improvised sun porch. It is supposed that while dozing she rolled from her cot off the scaffolding. She is suffering from three broken ribs and concussion of the brain.”

Tags:

Old Print Article: “Fanatic Kills Little Girl,” New York Times (1908)

March 28, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“His wife told the Coroner that the child had been killed by God, and that her husband was God.”

From Robert Matthews to Mel Lyman to Krishna Venta, America has never known a shortage of messianic kooks. Once such self-styled Christ found his way into the pages of the April 29, 1908 New York Times. The story:

“Allentown, Penn.–A murder by a religious fanatic occurred last night in the Borough of Alliance, near here, Councilman Henry Smith’s little daughter was killed by his brother-in-law, Robert Bachman of Nazareth, Penn., while on a visit at the Bachman home. At the time of the killing Bachman was in a frenzy, during which he drove everybody except the little girl out of the house.

Bachman was at the head of a new praying band, and last week he got the Smiths interested. Thy went to Bachman’s house yesterday, prayed and held services, and then decided to remain until the spirit told them to leave. Late last night, under Bachman’s direction, Smith, in fighting the devil, broke three doors, kicked in the floorboard of a bed and jumped, smashing it. Meanwhile Bachman was in an adjoining room with the Smiths’ only child, May Irene, who would have been 5 years old today. 

When Mrs. Smith entered that room she found her daughter dead on the floor and Bachman on his knees alongside in a religious frenzy. The horrified mother snatched up the body of her child and ran shrieking from the house. Later the father and mother took the body to their home, eight miles distant. The forehead and upper portions of the child’s bosy were bruised and scratched. 

This afternoon Bachman was arrested. His wife told the Coroner that the child had been killed by God, and that her husband was God. The belief is that Bachman, in his frenzy, unwittingly killed the child.

Smith and Bachman are cement mill workmen.”

Tags: , ,

A Brief Note From 1912 About Smart Parisians

March 26, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the October 1, 1912 New York Times:

Paris–Ultra-smart Parisians in search of a novel sensation have discovered a new use for scent. Instead of using morphia, cocaine or caffeine, they now employ as a stimulant hypodermic injections of otto of rose and violet and cherry blossom perfumes. 

An actress was the first to try the new practice. She declared that forty-eight hour after the injection of the perfume known as ‘new mown hay’ her skin was saturated with the aroma.”

A Brief Note From 1909 About Medicinal Cheese

March 24, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the October 24, 1909 New York Times:

“Denver–Limburger cheese is the principal ingredient of a cancer cure which Philip Schuch Jr., a local chemist, says he has discovered.

Following the death of his mother 11 years ago from cancer, Schuch began an investigation of the cause and growth of cancers, during which, he asserts, he discovered that the basic germs of cancer are similar to those of leprosy and consumption. He spent several months in the leper colony in Venezuela studying the disease.

Schuch’s cure consists of a thorough cleansing of the affected parts with liquor of quicklime and sweet milk, in equal parts, and then the application of poultices of pulped fresh Swiss or Limburger cheese, moistened with glycerine. Although no test of this has been made, Schuch says that theoretically the formula should cure mild cases of leprosy.”

Tags:

Old Print Article: “Women Wreck Drug Stores,” New York Times (1901)

March 22, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Followers of Dowie, the faith cure leader, adopted the tactics of Mrs. Carrie Nation yesterday and wrecked a number of drug stores."

“Followers of Dowie, the faith cure leader, adopted the tactics of Mrs. Carrie Nation yesterday and wrecked a number of drug stores.”

Two fanatics who gained fame (and infamy) in the late 1800s, the ax-wielding Prohibitionist Carrie Nation and the batshit crazy Illinois faith healer John Alexander Dowie, were bitter rivals and had a heated confrontation during the latter’s combustible revival meetings at Madison Square Garden in 1903. But that didn’t stop a few of Dowie’s tens of thousands of loyalists from copying the any-means-necessary methods of Nation, who was known for walking into saloons and smashing their contents into shards with her trusty blade. But what the Dowieites hated far more than liquor was medicine and their efforts against science can be seen in an article in the February 7, 1901 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“Chicago–Crying out that drugs were the agents of the devil, a half-dozen women, followers of Dowie, the faith cure leader, adopted the tactics of Mrs. Carrie Nation yesterday and wrecked a number of drug stores on the West Side. In some instances there were hand to hand fights with druggists.

Armed as they were with pitchforks, umbrellas and canes, the women came out the victors in nearly every encounter and succeeded in destroying property wherever they went. 

The women went in a well organized band, were of middle age and well dressed. Most of them wore automobile coats, under which they concealed their implements of destruction while on the street. After leaving a drug store they invariably sang ‘Praise Be the Lord,’ or ‘Zion Forever.’ Policemen saw them, but attached no significance to their actions and no arrests were made.

The first place visited was Charles G. Foucek’s drug store, at Eighteenth Street and Centre Avenue. Calling the proprietor to the front of the store the crusaders upbraided him for dealing in traffics of the devil. Then one of the women, who seemed to be a leader, asked: ‘Don’t you know that all the ills of human kind can be cured by prayer?’

‘I an not aware of the fact, if such is the case,’ said the druggist.

‘Hurrah for Dowie,’ shouted the woman. At that her companions drew canes and umbrellas from beneath their long cloaks and began to strike at the druggist’s head. He dodged the blows and took refuge behind the prescription case. Then the women turned their attention to the shelves and show cases and began to strike right and left. The besiegers were finally driven off with buckets of water.

Other drug stores in the same neighborhood, belonging to B. Lillienthal, Leo L. Maranzek, Herman Limerman and O. Shapiro, were also wrecked by the crusaders, the same tactics being used. The women finally separated, after being driven from one of the stores at the point of a revolver.”

Tags: ,

A Brief Note From 1906 About A Syrian Leper

March 20, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the October 7, 1906 New York Times:

“Baltimore–A special dispatch to The American from Charleston, West Va., says:

‘Crazed by fear due to his continued stay, the people of Pickens, West Va., are plotting to kill George Raschid, the Syrian leper, who was recently returned to West Virginia from Baltimore, and who has since been at Pickens awaiting removal to his home in Syria. Pickens is a small place about thirty miles from Elkins.

Dr. J.L. Cunningham, according to dispatch, has wired Gov. Dawson that if Raschid’s life is to be saved he must be removed from Pickens at once, and the Governor has notified Prosecuting Attorney C.W. Harding and Sheriff MacDonwell, at Elkins, to protect the Syrian at all hazards, for which purpose State troops are to be sent to Pickens if necessary.”

Tags: , , ,

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, A Handsome Woman

March 18, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Photography, Urban Studies | Permalink

mmmm

Along with temperance, abolition and suffrage, dress reform was a major movement spearheaded by women in the 1800s. Females at the time were encumbered by garb that was cumbersome–and occasionally even dangerous–and wanted the right to wear more “rational clothing” without fear of reprisal, even arrest. One of the most outspoken of dress reformers was Dr. Mary Walker, a brilliant surgeon who wore a military uniform while providing medical attention to soldiers during the Civil War. After the war, Walker was so vehement and forceful in her insistence on women wearing men’s clothes that she was shunned, for the most part, by men and women alike.

This undated classic photograph shows Walker late in life, adorned in formal men’s wear. From an article about her in the March 12, 1886 New York Times:

“Newport, R.I.–This evening Dr. Mary Walker was for a brief period detained at the police station, where she expressed her surprise and disgust at the officials of a city who did not know the law, and who had laid itself liable by obliging her to accompany Officer Scott from Commercial Wharf to the office of the Chief of Police. The doctor arrived here by boat from Providence at 6 o’clock, and desired to be shown the residence of Miss Sarah Briggs, an old friend whom she had not seen since the Union soldiers were taken to Portsmouth Grove, near this place, for treatment during the civil war. She had been pleading in Providence with the members of the Legislature in behalf of woman’s suffrage, and for the payment of a Revolutionary claim which she claimed the State owed her friend Miss Briggs. She had no sooner reached the plank walk when, at the instance of several females who had seen her on the boat, the officer told her that she must accompany him tot he police station. She told the officer her name and said that he was violating the Constitution by interfering with her freedom. The officer, strange as it may seem, had never heard of Dr. Mary Walker and he insisted upon taking her to the station.

The doctor reluctantly accompanied the officer, and was followed by a crowd of men and boys, who, it would appear, had never seen a woman dressed in men’s clothing before, and it was a sight which they will never forget. The Chief of Police, being a man of intelligence and conversant with the laws, expressed his regret at her arrest, and apologized for his officer, who, he said, had acted in good faith. This would not satisfy the doctor, who was naturally very angry, and she insisted upon learning the officer’s name, and demanded that he be discharged from the police force. She was forced to admit, however, that she had been arrested in other cities by mistake. She remained at the station for some time, and repeated the law for the benefit of the officer who had arrested her. She also delivered quite a lecture upon sundry subjects, for which she is noted, and then walked out of the office with her hat on one side and with her cane in a very dudish position. The incident created a decided sensation. She will leave town to-morrow. It is rumored that she does not intend to let the matter drop, and a few wiseacres predict that she will try and make trouble for the city.”

Tags:

A Brief Note From 1900 About A Hungry Man

March 17, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the February 17, 1900 New York Times:

“Reading, Penn.–William H. Lotz, probably the heaviest man in Pennsylvania, died here to-day, aged forty-five years. He weighed 523 pounds, and measured seventy-two inches around his waist. He was the son of the late David H. Lotz, a wealthy hat manufacturer.

About ten years ago William inherited $25,000. Since then he has lived on the fat of the land, but his weight increased, his wealth decreased, and he finally became poor. Last Fall he was exhibited at country fairs as a fat boy. He would visit an oyster house and order a barrel of the bivalves, eating several hundred at a sitting. He was very generous and good-natured.”

Tags: ,

A Brief Note From 1873 About A Thirsty Man

March 14, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the August 17, 1873 New York Times:

“A few days before the James surveying party reached Coyote Wells, says the San Diego (Cal.) World of the 1st inst., the driver of the Yuma stage brought word to Charley Ellis, keeper of the station, that he had seen a man in the Colorado desert, who seemed to bewildered, and wandering about without purpose. Ellis at once mounted his mule and started in search of him. About a mile and a half east of the Wells he found the man lying on the sand sucking the blood from his arm, which he had lacerated in a fearful manner, for the purpose of quenching his thirst.”

Tags:

A Brief Note From 1904 About A Tan Woman

March 12, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the May 7, 1904 New York Times:

“Chicago–Miss E. Reusse, a well known music teacher with a studio in the Athenaeum Building, was found a raving maniac early this morning, and is now at a hospital as the result of a fast which she indulged in.

Some time ago Miss Reusse fell under the influence of the Persian sun worshippers, a sect of considerable numbers here, and, following their teachings, she has fasted for several weeks, and is nearly a skeleton. Night before last she became violent and threw all her belongings out on the porch of her home.

Her neighbors then interfered and had her taken to a hospital. She has not spoken an intelligible sentence since she was removed.”

Tags:

Old Print Article: “X-Ray Moving Picture Machine Shows Brain At Work,” New York Times (1910)

March 11, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

“A device now in preparation…will make thought actually visible to the eye.”

A scientist using brain scans to try to learn more about human capabilities and criminality? Sure. But in 1910? That was when Dr. Max Baff was projecting brain imaging onto movie screens in the hopes that thinking could be manifested and “read.” An excerpt from a September 4, 1910 New York Times article:

“‘It is possible to watch the processes of thought on the moving picture screen. By new apparatus which is being perfected the man of science will be able to suggest an idea to his patient, and then observe the infinitesimal changes of the brain issues which result upon thinking. ‘

So Dr. Max Baff, Fellow of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, says. In addition to the announcement that German scientists in Munich have succeeded in getting motion pictures of the internal organs of the human body, Dr. Baff makes known a device now in preparation, by which the tiny brain cells may be magnified 5,000 times, will make thought actually visible to the eye.

Light will be thrown on the problems of crime by this new achievement, he believes. A man’s mental power may be measured to a nicety. The complete system of education may be jolted by the knowledge to come. And the mystery of the two great extremes in the mental scale, the brain of the genius and the brain of the fool, will be solved. …

By no means does Dr. Braff regard this discovery as a stride in the study of psychology. ‘Indeed no. Now we know nothing,’ he explained in his office last week, ‘and soon we will only begin to know.

‘It is as if a new continent had been discovered,’ he continued. ‘The exact place in the brain area where thought takes place is not yet known. By the moving pictures the riddle will be solved, I believe. Once we study the movement of the brain cells magnified 5,000 times and we will be able to gauge the capacity of a man’s mind, and whether or not he is fitted for the work he is doing.

‘By these means science will be able to discriminate between the fit and the unfit. We shall discover the criminal who commits the crime because he can not help it, and on the other hand we shall be able to detect the criminal who is feigning insanity, for brain storms, in that they are a definite mental phenomenon, may be photographed.

‘Even the activities of the so-called soul may be projected on the screen.'”

Tags:

A Note From 1885 About A Hairy Guy Swimming

March 10, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the December 2, 1885 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Rockaway Beach is still excited over the mysterious wild man of the sea and last night a company of New York men went down to the beach to see the strange creature. They saw the figure and declare that his body is covered with auburn hair as long as a horse’s mane. John B. Ennis declared this morning that at eight o’clock last night he met the wild man near the Atlantic Park. Ennis came upon the dweller in the sea suddenly. He was dancing like one deranged, until, catching sight of Ennis, he gave a peculiar screech and darted into the sea. Ennis lost sight of the creature after the first wave broke over it, and walked the beach for half an hour, pistol in hand, hoping to see the suspicious person emerge from the water. Every man on the beach goes armed, and the women and children do not venture out alone, day or night. There is a pretty general inclination to shoot the hairy being, as a means of ascertaining whether it is natural or supernatural, but no one will run the risk of being prosecuted if it should turn out that the wild man is only an insane creature.”

Tags:

Old Print Article: “Witchcraft Terror In Breton Village,” New York Times (1922)

March 8, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

mmm

“Soon after the appearance of this person a young woman named Marie Clément declared ‘her blood was frozen in her veins.'”

No matter how advanced the world becomes in a variety of ways–our world included–plenty of people still cling to superstition, whether it be religion or medical quackery or what have you. The opening of a story from an article in the May 4, 1922 New York Times, which reported on fears of witchcraft in a decade known for automobiles and flappers:

“Paris–Witchcraft, a demon-haunted village, people possessed by devils and final exorcism of the evil spirits by a priest are features of a strange story of peasant superstition that reaches the Matin today from a tiny hamlet on an island off the Breton coast. The epilogue to the story is more prosaic–intervention of the police authorities of twentieth century France and the arraignment of the dreaded sorceress before a modern court of justice.

The distress and terror which fell on the village of Tyhair were traced directly by the frightened inhabitants to the invasion of the island by a strange woman popularly known by the name of the Witch de Grach. Soon after the appearance of this person a young woman named Marie Clément declared ‘her blood was frozen in her veins,’ Her father was next affected, his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth when he attempted to speak. Soon after the father of Marie’s fiancé found his cattle wasting away and the milk drying up. Clément was accused by his neighbor of having cast a spell over the cattle and the two families were embroiled in a feud.

The other inhabitants having had troubles of their own took to the side of Clément, declaring the distress of the village was due to the sorceress who had turned loose devils. These devils, after working evil, they declared, always disappeared in ratholes.”

Tags: ,

A Brief Note From 1886 About Two Marriages

March 8, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the March 3, 1886 New York Times:

“Oswego, N.Y.–Mrs. Isaac Rury of New-Haven, Oswego County, was arrested to-day on a charge of bigamy. The story told by Mrs. Rury is a peculiar one. She married her first husband 15 years ago in Hawkinsville, Oneida County, when she was 15 years old. After her marriage she discovered that her husband was not a man. She left him after living with him six months and has not seen him since. She married Rury in 1884. She alleges that her second husband was acquainted with the facts in the case. She had him arrested a day or two ago for brutal treatment, and claims that the present proceedings are brought against her for spite.”

Tags: ,

A Brief Note From 1898 About A Heavy Sleeper

March 4, 2013 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the December 13, 1898 New York Times:

“Topeka, Kan.–John Clark, an inmate of the Dodge City Soldiers’ Home, was taken seriously ill recently, and last night the doctors pronounced him dead. He was accordingly prepared for burial, and laid out in the room set apart for that purpose.

Early this morning a commotion was heard, and the watchers, rushing into the chamber of death, found Clark sitting up in his coffin and screaming with terror. Stimulants were administered, and he was at once removed from the coffin and returned to his bed.

Clark says that he has no recollection of the period during which he lay seemingly dead beyond a confused sensation of hunger and a distinct iciness about the feet. He is likely to recover.”

Tags:

« Older entries § Newer entries »