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Old Print Article: Hungry Joe, King Of Bunco (1889-1902)

February 8, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"In his way he was an artist, but his art was one that did not add much to the joy of nations."

Francis J. Alvany, the 19th-century bunco artist known as “Hungry Joe,” never had his fill when it came to schemes and dupes and ruses. Born in 1850, Hungry Joe spent most of his 52 years on Earth using hook, crook and any other means to separate marks from their money. He was so duplicitous that even when he passed away, no one was sure he wasn’t faking it. The New York Times dedicated newsprint to Hungry Joe’s chicanery as did the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. A trio of brief Eagle articles about his life and times follow.

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“He came pretty near getting $150 out of General John A. Logan once."

“Hungry Joe and General John A. Logan” (May 5, 1889): “He came pretty near getting $150 out of General John A. Logan once. The general was in one of the rooms on the ground floor on the Twenty-third street side of the house where the ladies’ entrance is located. The boy at the door came and told me that the general had gone into his room accompanied by a bunco man. I went around and knocked at the door. Hungry Joe was just going away, but I barred the door and asked the general if he had given the fellow any money. The general was inclined to get nettled at my question, and blurted out that the young man was the son of the president of the bank in Chicago where the general’s account was kept. I said: ‘Why general, the man is a thief, a common thief.’ He would scarcely believe me. But presently Hungry Joe took $50 out of his pocket, which he got from Logan, and handing it back said I was on to him and the general might as well have his eyes opened. The general had given him $50 and was going to give him $100 the next day.”

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“Hungry Joe Released” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, June 21, 1896): “Hungry Joe, the famous bunco steerer and the man of many aliases, was released from the Maryland penitentiary this morning after serving a seven year’s sentence for swindling and left for New York at 8:10 A.M. He says he intends to become a bookmaker and follow the races for a living. Hungry Joe whose right name is said to be Alvany, is a native of Baltimore and is said to have swindled Oscar Wilde out of $1,500 during his checkered career. He was sent to the penitentiary here for swindling a Baltimore man out of $5,000, and has been a model prisoner, continually asserting his innocence of the crime of which he was convicted. He is said to be worth $150,000 as the result of his operations prior to his conviction.”

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"With a simple three card monte game he emptied the pockets of a brother of a Brooklyn police captain." (Image by ZioDave.)

“Hungry Joe” (Brooklyn Daily Eagle, March 25, 1902):  The late Hungry Joe–if he is late–was viewed with alarm by some and jealousy by others. The people who viewed him with alarm were those who were unfortunate enough to have money, or watches, or any other goods and chattels he wished to possess, for as he so wished he took them. The people who viewed him with jealousy, in which was a mixture of admiration, are the other people who try to get folks’ chattels away from them. For Joe was the slickest fellow in the bunco business. He it was who had the courage and the skill to wring money out of a judge of a criminal court, the late Judge Noah Davis. He bled the venerable Charles Francis Adam in Boston; he got hundreds of thousands of dollars from General Logan, Oscar Wilde and other more or less celebrities, and with a simple three card monte game he emptied the pockets of a brother of a Brooklyn police captain. The captain took it back.

Joe had partners who led his dupes into rooms where bogus gambling schemes were in operation, but for the boldest of his strikes he took no one into his confidence. In his way he was an artist, but his art was one that did not add much to the joy of nations, and in spite of his infrequent and mysterious exemption from arrest in this city he was arrested elsewhere and made to serve terms behind the bars. Probably he died–if he is dead–without leaving much to his heirs. Probably, also, if he had put the same ingenuity, the same address, the same energy into any decent business he would have made that business pay. This man elected–or elects–to pass his life in running away from the police. Either he buys safety with a large percent of his earnings, or he never knows sound sleep. He has his days of luxury and weeks of woe. It is a wretched, a contemptible life, that of a criminal, and nobody but a fool will choose it. Hungry Joe, the bunco king, was nobody’s fool at his work, but he was the poorest and cheapest of fools when he threw away the chance to make himself a rich, respected, useful man, to turn himself into a despised and hunted creature.”

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Old Print Article: “Wright’s Little Hatchet,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1891)

February 7, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

Nineteenth-century slot machine. (Image by Marcotis.)

Ragged urchins were everywhere in Brooklyn in the 1890s. One such lad, named Jon Wright, had an adventure that involved a hatchet, a slot machine and some chocolate. The Daily Eagle reported on his thievery in its August 5, 1891 issue. An excerpt:

“Jon Wright is a ragged urchin 12 years old and living at 39 Bergen street. He was arrested this morning by Officer James W. Webb at 4 o’clock while parading West Brighton armed with a hatchet.

When the officer asked him what he was doing out at that hour he explained that he was ‘hustling.’

‘You’ll hustle to police headquarters,’ said the officer.

On the way the officer noticed the boy’s pockets bulging out, and on searching found in them a couple of quarts of chocolates, such as come out of the nickel slot machines. The boy said he had broken open some machines with the ax because he liked chocolate. Beside, he had not been home for some days and was hungry. He was a cool little fellow and asked for a cigarette as soon as he got in the cell. He was held until his story should be verified.”

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Old Print Article: Oscar Wilde Rides The Long Island Rail Road, Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1882)

February 6, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"If you don't wait on me I'll report you."

Of all the important and momentous events in the life of writer Oscar Wilde, riding on a Long Island train wasn’t one of them. But that didn’t stop the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from reporting on a minor kerfuffle he was involved in while aboard a train headed for Long Beach, in its August 24, 1882 issue. Wilde’s haughtiness with a conductor was apparently met with pure cheek. An excerpt:

“Oscar Wilde has been badly snubbed by the guests of Long Beach and other resorts on Long Island. In traveling between Hunter’s Point and Long Beach in a drawingroom car the other day he occupied two chairs in the laziest kind of way. Presently Conductor Billy Reynolds passed through.

‘Conductor?’ called out Oscar.

‘What is it, sir?’

‘Hand me some ice water,’ commanded Oscar.

‘There’s the tank; fill in,’ tartly replied the conductor.

‘Impudence, damned impudence,’ chimed in Sam Ward. ‘I’d report the fellow, Oscar.’

‘See here, young man,’ cautioned Oscar, ‘if you don’t wait on me I’ll report you.’

‘Report and be damned,’ said the conductor. ‘I sized you up long ago.’

Oscar was as good as his word. The railroad officials laughed over it, and that conductor is said to be in line for a promotion.”

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Old Print Article: “The Loving Lilliputians,” New York Times (1863)

February 2, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

The loving couple as they appeared on the cover of "Harper's Weekly." They were much more attractive than this depiction suggests.

Two of New York’s tiniest residents were the principals of one of the largest weddings in the history of the city. It was in 1863 that Charles Stratton, better known as diminutive P.T. Barnum attraction General Tom Thumb, took a bride in the form of fellow little person performer Queen Lavinia Warren. The ceremony was held at Grace Episcopal Church and Barnum made certain that it was the social event of the year.

The New York Times was on the scene to file a breathless 5,000-word article in its February 11, 1863 edition, which was subtitled: “Marriage of General Tom Thumb and the Queen of Beauty. Who They Are, What They Have Done, Where They Came from, Where They Are Going. Their Courtship and Wedding Ceremonies, Presents, Crowds of People.” A few excerpts about the insane scene follow.

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“Those who did and those who did not attend the wedding of Gen. Thomas Thumb and Queen LAVINIA WARREN composed the population of this great Metropolis yesterday, and thenceforth religious and civil parties sink into comparative insignificance before this one arbitrating query of fate — Did you or did you not see Tom Thumb married?

The Scriptures tell us that a little matter kindleth a great flame, and that being the case, no one need be surprised that two little matters should create such a tremendous hullabaloo, such a furore of excitement, such an intensity of interest in the feminine world of New-York and its neighborhood, as have the loves of our Lilliputians. We say ‘feminine world,’ because there were more than twenty thousand women in this City yesterday morning up and dressed an hour and a half before their usual time, solely and simply because of the approaching nuptials of Mr. STRATTON and Miss WARREN. They didn’t all have cards of admission, oh no, but it wasn’t their fault. Fathers were flattered, husbands were hectored, brothers were bullied and cousins were cozened into buying, begging, borrowing, in some way or other getting tickets of admission to the grand affair.

The marriage of Gen. Tom Thumb cannot be treated as an affair of no moment — in some respects it is most momentous. Next to LOUIS NAPOLEON, there is no one person better known by reputation to high and low, rich and poor, than he.”

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Barnum was a very distant relation of the General and taught him how to sing, dance, mime and do imitations. (Image by Mathew Brady Studio.)

“Long before the hour appointed for the ceremony, a great concourse had gathered OUTSIDE THE CHURCH, and that portion of Broadway between Union-square and Ninth-street was literally crowded, if not packed, with an eager and expectant populace. All classes of society were represented, not excluding the ‘spectacle man’ and the woman retailer of apples. As the time approached for the ceremony of the nuptials, the crowd increased in density, every one exhibiting the most impatient desire to catch a glimpse at the happy pair when they should arrive. All the buildings in the vicinity of the church were made subservient to the general curiosity, and not a door, or window, or balcony, which would in the least facilitate view, but was put into practical service. The smiling faces of the thousands of fair ladies thus assembled contributed not a little to the attractiveness and joyfulness of the occasion. The system of police was admirably executed. Order was preserved throughout the entire proceedings, and a general good feeling seemed to exist among the people. Stages, and all vehicles excepting the carriages which contained invited guests and holders of tickets, were turned off Broadway at Ninth-street below the church, and at Twelfth-street above. In the intermediate space, and near each sidewalk, were stationed lines of policemen, who succeeded in maintaining their position until nearly noon, when the multitude became so vast that they were obliged to form new lines nearer the centre of the street. The open space was then hardly of sufficient width to admit of the free passage of carriages, but the drivers threaded their way through, notwithstanding the slight inconveniences which opposed them. To place a correct estimate upon the number of carriages that passed through the line, unless a person stood by and counted them one by one, would be impossible. There was one unbroken chain of them for over two hours preceding the arrival of the ‘little couple.’”

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Not even Harry Potter and Lady Middlemarch will have such a wedding.

“Policemen were detailed to preserve order in the vicinity of the hotel, as well as of the church. Vehicles were turned off the main thoroughfare at Houston and Spring streets, and the long line of carriages which was noticed at the church, came pouring down toward the place of reception. The crowd followed, and in less than fifteen minutes the street in front of the hotel block was completely choked with human beings. Upon each side of the hotel entrance was displayed the American colors, as was also the National flag upon the roof of the building. The inmates of the carriages, as they alighted, were closely scrutinized by the outsiders, many of whom naturally envied the good fortune which entitled their inferior, perhaps, in social standing to congratulate the married party. Pickpockets, as usual, were busy plying their avocation. Two of that ‘genteel profession,’ however, were discovered in the act, and taken to the station-house.”

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“THE RECEPTION WAS A SUCCESS, as, of course, it was expected to be when BARNUM was the head and front of the offending. The brilliant assemblage, the delicious music, the merry laughter, the surging sea of laces, tulle, silk, satin, broadcloth, moire antique, muslin, velvet, furs and fine feathers of every imaginable hue and material, have been unsurpassed even in the gorgeous halls of the Metropolitan. All that the Messrs. LELANDS could do for the guests was done, and if a hundred or so did accidentally stray into the dining room, it seemed to be considered in the programme. All was hilarity, jocularity, fun, amusement and the acme of enjoyment, down to the happy moment when the twain retired.”

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Old Print Articles: Jugglers Cause Mayhem, Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1889-1901)

February 1, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Alvini appeared on the stage in a flowing Japanese gown and tossed balls in the air." (Image by J. J. Grandville.)

In the years right around 1900, there was no bigger miscreant than the professional juggler, as the following trio of articles from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle attests.

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“Nerve of a Juggler” (August 25, 1893) “Every one has heard that a juggler must have a steady nerve. The popular belief is that he never dissipates. That is incorrect. A juggler doing his turn each day at a concert hall in Chicago of ten goes on stage carrying a heavy ‘load,’ yet he performs his feats with as much certainty as when he is sober. Sometimes he becomes joyous and gives free entertainments. The other day he stepped up to a soda fountain for a glass of seltzer. While the young man was drawing the beverage the juggler picked up four silver glass holders and began a little exercise, keeping all four in the air at the same time. A girl who was eating an ice cream soda dropped her spoon and ran into the street. The boy with the apron simply said: ‘Please don’t.’ The juggler begged pardon in a thick and unsteady voice, drank his seltzer, and, after solemnly winking at the female cashier, departed.”

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“Juggler Alvini Arrested” (April 22, 1889) “William D. Alvini, the juggler who was arrested last night while performing at a sacred concert at the Park Theater, New York, was held for trial in $300 bail by Justice O’Reilly at Jefferson Market Court to-day. Alvini appeared on the stage in a flowing Japanese gown and tossed balls in the air. Roundsman Coughlan thereupon arrested the juggler for violation of the Amusement law.”

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“Think He Is Crazy” (February 1, 1901) “John Weston, 33 years old, who said that he was a physician and had a home at 311 East Fourteenth street, Manhattan, was sent to jail this morning by Magistrate Brenner pending an investigation into his mental condition. He was arrested late last night on Myrtle avenue, apparently very tipsy and acting strangely. When he was locked up he changed his occupation and declared that he was a prize fighter. Then, after a while he asserted that he was an actor.

“I never fought but once on my life,’ he said to the doorman. ‘That was when I had four whiskies and two beers and had to fight for a cigar.’

Then he laughed the weird laugh of a man out of his wits. This morning he said to Magistrate Brenner that his business was juggling with Indian clubs. ‘I’m only waiting now for the executive committee,’ he added.

‘The executive committee may get you yet,’ commented to the Magistrate as he wrote out the commitment for the prisoner’s removal to the jail.”

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Old Print Article: “A Great Acrobat Who Once Owned A Celebrated Trick Pony,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1887)

January 30, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"An hour after his demise the body was placed in an ice coffin."

Along with his brothers Louis and Willie, acrobat Rudolph Mette was part of a high-flying nineteenth-century circus act, but he was brought low by drink and found dead in a Brooklyn stable one summer evening in 1887. The July 3 Brooklyn Daily Eagle provided a brief postmortem of the trapeze man. An excerpt:

“Rudolph Mette, aged 41, one of the celebrated Mette Brothers, acrobats, was found dead at 11:30 o’clock last evening in the hay loft of Henry Hamilton’s stable, on Bedford avenue and North Fifth street.

It was rumored that he had died from alcoholism, but Mr. Hamilton says that the cause of his death was congestive chills.

An hour after his demise the body was placed in an ice coffin and Coroner Lindsay was notified. Mette has a sister residing on Graham avenue and another living in New York. Should either of them refuse to bury him Mr. Hamilton will defray the funeral expenses.

The Mette brothers were among the most noted acrobats of this century, having been connected with Barnum’s, Forepaugh’s and other circuses. The deceased was the owner of a trick pony at one time, for which, it is said, Barnum offered him $7,000.”

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Old Print Article: “Bubble Blowing For Health,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1902)

January 26, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"The searcher after health and beauty must blow as large a bubble as she can while seated."

Society has come up with many ways to drive women crazy, but few of them involve blowing soap bubbles. One such instance is described in this groundbreaking health reporting in the September 27, 1902 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“The latest suggestion for acquiring health and beauty is to practice bubble blowing with a clay pipe. It is claimed that if a woman will adhere to the practice for a reasonable length of time she will find her cheeks have become plump and the contour of her neck decidedly improved. Blowing bubbles is a similar operation to the deep breathing exercises now so highly recommended, and the searcher after health and beauty must blow as large a bubble as she can while seated, blowing slowly and gradually, for fear of bursting the bubble. After a few minutes the exercise is repeated standing.

Then she lies flat on her back on the floor with chin as high as possible and blows as long as she can, the first bubble slowly and then as rapidly as possible.”

Old Print Article: “An Officer And Three Boys Bitten By A Mad Dog,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1896)

January 25, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"He was universally advised to take the boy at once to Paris and place him under the advisement of Pasteur."

Legendary French chemist and bacteriologist Louis Pasteur treated his first human patient for rabies, or “hydrophobia,” in 1885 after testing his vaccine on fewer than ten dogs. It was a bold move that proved successful in defeating what had been a killer virus. But his treatment hadn’t yet become widespread in the U.S. by the following year when four people were bitten by a rabid dog in Chicago. The only answer was to send them to France and Dr. Pasteur for treatment. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported the story on April 28, 1886. An excerpt:

“A big white dog, mad with rabies, appeared on Fulton street, in Pullman, yesterday afternoon. He was heated, but his tongue did not protrude. His jaws were covered with thick foam. The dog went along the street quietly until opposite the house of Al Klingel, a railroad switchman. There the brute turned, dashed across the street, seized Johnnie Klingel, aged 8, by the cheek. The animal then started down the street and meeting a little boy named Connors bit him severely in the hand. Then the dog retraced his way on the street, attacking everything that confronted him, but never turning aside. Meeting another boy, he seized him by the seat of the trousers and nearly tore the garment from the lad, but his teeth did not touch the flesh. A moment later an adventurous dog tried to make the acquaintance of his mad brother. A short fight ensued and the mad dog proceeded. Within a block he attacked another dog and sent the unfortunate away howling. By this time the street was aroused and Police Officer Kane and Cassenbrot pursued the dog to Kensington, where he ran into a saloon.

The officers took refuge on a card table and tried to shoot the dog but failed. The dog escaped from the saloon, followed by the officers. In the street a bold boy attacked the dog with a ball bat. He gave the animal one blow and then climbed the fence. Here the policeman overtook the brute, and Officer Kane fired. The ball struck in back of the dog’s head and he fell. Kane approached him and fired another ball into the dog’s body, thinking to make the killing sure, but the animal struggled up and attempted to escape. Again Kane fired, the shot breaking the dog’s leg. He fell, but once got to his feet and rushed upon Officer Cassenbrot. With a savage crunch he set his teeth in the man’s wrist, lacerating it terribly. Yelling like mad the officer shook him off, and as the dog gathered himself for another attack. Officer Kane fired a bullet into the brute’s mouth by killing him. A search was made for the two dogs bitten by the mad one. They were found and killed. Physicians were at once called to attend the two boys who were bitten. Their wounds were burned with caustic, but the physicians gave no hope of preventing hydrophobia. It was soon learned that the mad dog had been in Wildwood last Saturday. On that day he bit Percy Perkins, son of the Superintendent of the Pullman Iron and Steel Works. The boy is 12 years old. He was bitten on the end of the finger, and yesterday his hand and arm were much swollen and he was suffering great pain.

Mr. Perkins consulted with several physicians yesterday and he was universally advised to take the boy at once to Paris and place him under the advisement of Pasteur. Acting under this advice he made arrangements to start the boy with his mother for Paris to-day. The sympathy expressed in the village last night resulted in the circulation of a subscription paper to raise sufficient funds to send all the bitten children to Paris. A considerable amount of money was subscribed. Mr. Perkins had decided not to send his boy away until this evening, and it is probable the three wounded children will go together. Officer Cassenbrot’s wound is the most severe of any. What treatment he will receive has not been determined upon.”

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Old Print Articles: French Lion Tamers (1892-1900)

January 23, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Pezon, the great French lion tamer, owed his success to the use of electricity in taming his beasts."

Not everyone in fin de siècle France had the best of sense when it came to behavior within a lion cage. Great lion tamer Jean-Baptiste Pezon had his wits about him, but others were not so wise. That’s proven in three short articles that follow, which were published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle between 1892 and 1900.

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“Lion Attacks Man” (October 4, 1900): “There was a serious accident to-day in the menagerie of the country fair near Privas, in the Department of Ardeche. A large audience gathered to witness a local butcher enter the lion’s cage, play a game of cards with the lion tamer and drink a bottle of champagne. The performance was successful until the butcher foolishly and without warning the trainer, approached the lion and held a glass of champagne under his nose, whereupon the lion bounded upon the butcher, ground his shoulder within his jaws and mauled his body dreadfully.

When the butcher was removed he was almost dead. In the meanwhile the audience was panic stricken, and in the stampede to escape from the menagerie many persons were trampled upon and badly injured.”

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“He Was Awake: A Lion Would Not Submit to Hypnotism” (November 30, 1892): “A Miss Sterling entered the lion’s cage at Bezier’s last evening, accompanied by the lion tamer, a professor of hypnotism having already attempted to hypnotize the fierce animals. In the case of one of them, however, he seems not to have been successful, as no sooner was Miss Sterling well within the cage when the powerful brute threw himself upon her and terribly lacerated her limbs. She was barely saved from being torn to pieces by the prompt interference of the lion tamer, who courageously attacked the animal and thus gave the wounded woman time to crawl out of the cage.”

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“Electric Lion Taming” (March 20, 1898): “Pezon, the great French lion tamer, owed his success to the use of electricity in taming his beasts. When a wild lion or tiger was to be tamed live wires were first rigged up in the cage between the tamer and the animal. After a time Pezon would turn his back, and the wild creature would invariably make a leap at him, but encountering the charged wires would receive a paralyzing shock sufficient to terrorize it forever.”

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Old Print Article: “Sitting Bull Wires His Victory,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1889)

January 20, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Sitting Bull was not in the fight, but watched it from a bluff some distance off."

Legendary Sioux warrior Sitting Bull had his bravery and honesty called into question in a revisionist report in the September 15, 1889 Brooklyn Daily Eagle that was originally published in the Minneapolis Journal. An excerpt:

“W.H. Mosher, of Ypsilanti, Mich., is in the city. He was formerly in charge of a store at Standing Rock Agency, Dak., and among his frequent visitors were Sitting Bull, Gall, Red Cloud and others of the famous personages of the Sioux tribe. Mr. Mosher was recently discussing Sitting Bull’s claim to honors in the Custer fight.

‘Sitting Bull has become famous as the hero of the Custer battle on the Indian side, but the fact is that he was not in the fight at all. I can understand Sioux well and speak it fairly. One night Sitting Bull and Gall met in my store and for over an hour discussed the details of the battle, and once or twice almost reached a fighting point. Gall was making an attack on Sitting Bull for attempting to steal his bravery.

‘The fact is that Sitting Bull was the first to reach a telegraph station with the news of the massacre, and he made the most of the opportunity. He pictured himself in the the thickest of the fight and had scalps with him to prove it, but they were all secured after the battle and not in it. Sitting Bull was not in the fight, but watched it from a bluff some distance off. At its close he rushed down and took three or four scalps and then rode away and painted himself a hero. At least that is what the Indians say. Gall was the natural leader and is regarded as a very brave warrior. Sitting Bull was merely a medicine man and had the reputation of being a coward.'”

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Old Print Articles: “Arrested In A Grave,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1900)

January 18, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"A gravedigger was arrested...on the charge of stealing potatoes out of the lot." (Image by Viktor Vasnetsov.)

Gravediggers stealing potatoes is a problem that still plagues us today, but it was positively rampant in 1900, as is evidenced by this article from the December 29, 1900 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“A week ago John Miskofsky, 27 tears old, of 126 Vienna avenue, a gravedigger, was arrested on the complaint of Theodore Paltz of Hegeman and William avenues, on the charge of stealing potatoes out of the lot. After the first arraignment Miskofsky was paroled, but failed to appear in court on the day set for the examination. Magistrate Worth then instructed Court Officer Albert N. Shuttleworth to arrest him. Yesterday the officer went to Miskofsky’s home and was told by his wife that he was at work in the Evergreen Cemetery. Shuttleworth went, as directed, to the cemetery, and finally located his man at the bottom of a grave that he was digging. He was placed under arrest and was locked up in the Ralph avenue station.

Miskofsky told the officer that he had paid Paltz $1.35 for the potatoes and thought he would not have to return to the court. The officer so explained the case to Magistrate Teale this morning in the Gates avenue court, where the prisoner was again arraigned, but he was held for examination until Wednesday, and went to jail in default of $200 bail.”

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Old Print Article: “A Fight At The Wild West,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1902)

January 16, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"The trouble started when the cowboy endeavored to help himself to a quantity of peanuts which he refused to pay for."

In 1902, if you mixed cowboys, Indians, Cossacks and Italian peanut vendors, you were asking for trouble, as is proven in this trenchant piece of reporting from the May 6, 1902 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“Cowboys, Indians, Cossacks and Italian peanut vendors were mixed up this morning in a row which occurred near the entrance of the Wild West show on Halsey street. In the scrimmage one of the cowboys was cut in the face with a knife in the hands of one of the Italians. The trouble started when the cowboy endeavored to help himself to a quantity of peanuts which he refused to pay for. The vendor struck the cowboy with a stick, and when the latter rushed at him drew a knife and stabbed him. In the confusion that ensued a number of stands were overturned and their contents strewn over the street. The row ended when the injured cowboy was taken into the doctor’s tent and his wound dressed. No arrests were made.”

Old Print Article: “Wood Wore Green Tights,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1894)

January 12, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Raymond Wood, a contortionist, is lying in a precarious condition."

A vital report from Indiana reached the offices of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on September 1, 1894. It concerned a contortionist who had apparently been poisoned by the dye in his green tights. An excerpt:

“Anderson, Ind.—Raymond Wood, a contortionist, is lying in a precarious condition, caused by wearing green tights. He did his act at a home minstrel performance in this city last Friday and in perspiring the tights faded. The was especially the case on his right leg below the knee. He thought nothing of it and was surprised to find the member highly inflamed the next morning. It had become discolored and swollen to twice the usual size and it is now feared that amputation will be necessary, if not more serious results are caused by blood poisoning, extending over the entire system.”

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Old Print Article: “The Gospel of Egotism,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1900)

January 10, 2011 in Old Print Articles | Permalink

"That incipient insanity appears in many of the writings can hardly be doubted." (Image by Hans Olde.)

Announcing the death of God probably wasn’t a real consensus-builder back in the nineteenth century, so Friedrich Nietzsche took it on the chin in 1900 when he died. This postmortem, originally published in the Springfield Republican and reprinted in the November 4, 1900 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, was a scathing takedown of the extremist philosopher. An excerpt:

“The death of Friedrich Nietzsche is of no special significance to the world, because for ten years past the famous German philosopher had been in an insane asylum, the victim of the hopeless mania and paralysis, which mercifully brought death.

That incipient insanity appears in many of the writings can hardly be doubted. The brilliant gleams of intellectual insight with which they abound are obscured by great masses of nonsense, a delirium of wild and whirling words, which only the most extreme of his disciples can pretend to understand. His favorite vehicle was the aphorism; he disdained to stoop for demonstration. He might as well have said with the man in the anecdote, ‘I am not arguing–I’m just telling you.’ He likened his aphorisms to mountain peaks and said it took long legs to stride from one to the next. And the least capable of such a stride are those who have the habit of stopping to look where they leap.

Nietzsche’s philosophy is too extravagant and Teutonic to have gained much vogue outside of Germany, but it might very well be the fin de siecle philosophy of the civilized world. It represents the extreme swing of the pendulum away from Christianity. Two things made Nietzsche foam at the mouth, Wagnerism and Christianity. His special detestation was the altruism on which Christianity is founded. His ideal man was the ‘blonde brute,’ as he called him, the magnificent, untamed animal, pitiless, ruling by the right of strength, robbing, killing, regardless of others, joyous and exultant in unbridled egotism. Altruism he hated because it was the religion of the weak and sickly, a religion, he thought, pulling men down to the common level, preventing the development of the ‘beyond-man,’ as he fanatically called his ideal brute. The weak, the halt and the blind, the sick and the unfortunate touched not his sympathies. Away with such rubbish–the refuse of the race.

What profound irony in the fact that this upholder of such savage doctrines spent his last years, helpless and imbecile, in one of those kindly retreats which the religion he despised has given the world!”

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Old Print Article: “This Monkey Is Doomed To Die,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1894)

January 9, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Sometimes the monkey goes out for a stroll on the beach."

This story from the August 12, 1894 Brooklyn Daily Eagle explains why so few barber shops these days have pet monkeys. An excerpt:

“A chief attraction of the barber shop attached to Schillinger’s hotel on Rockaway Beach is a monkey, which the barber plays with in the absence of faces to scrape or hair to cut. Sometimes the monkey goes out for a stroll on the beach. Yesterday afternoon he was peregrinating when little Ellen Mason of Allen street and Railroad avenue, who was also out for a stroll, happened to meet him. The child became frightened, and ran with the monkey in hot pursuit. In a playful way the monkey perched on one of Ellen’s arms and bit a good piece out of it. The child screamed, which had the effect of attracting the barber’s attention, who grabbed the miscreant by the tail as he was meditating another assault. The child was carried home and her wound bandaged.

Ellen’s father last night made application to Justice Smith for a warrant to shoot the monkey. It was granted.”

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Old Print Article: “A Feat Of Penmanship–More Than 7,000 Words Written On One Postal Card,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1896)

January 6, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Mr. Wellman copied eight columns of the 'Bulletin.'"

If you think today’s workers waste time merely because there are so many hand-held gadgets to play with, then have a look at this article in the November 6, 1896 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. In this piece, which originally ran in the San Francisco Bulletin, some Bay Area chucklehead wasted about six hours of company time with the aid of just a pen and a postcard. An excerpt:

“Walter D. Wellman, a bookkeeper in the employ of Anspacher Bros., the commission merchants, has performed the remarkable feat of writing in long hand 7,068 words on an ordinary postal card. About two months ago M.C.F. Grincourt, a Frenchman, succeeded in writing 5,454 words in French on a postal card. M. Grincourt’s feat made a great sensation, and his postal card was for a long time on exhibition at the Examiner office. An account given in the columns of the Examiner represented this as the finest and closest writing ever accomplished. But Mr. Wellman has far excelled the Frenchman, not only in the number of words he has succeeded in getting upon the postal card, but in the length of the words he used also.

M. Grincourt copied a portion of one of Victor Hugo’s novels, in which the words were notoriously short. Mr. Wellman copied eight columns of the Bulletin, selected from three distinct articles, so that he could not be accused of copying from one writer whose vocabulary consisted chiefly of short words. There were 110 lines on M. Grincourt’s postal card and 154 on Mr. Wellman’s. Mr. Wellman also asserts that he had plenty of room to spare and could easily have gotten in 8,500 words.

"The postal can easily be read with a glass, and a person with a good eye can read it without the help of a glass."

He worked on it for fifteen days, at odd moments, when he could escape from his business duties. He says he could have accomplished it in six hours of steady work. He wrote it at a pace of fifty words a minute, while his pace in writing the ordinary size is from thirty-five to forty a minute. The postal can easily be read with a glass, and a person with a good eye can read it without the help of a glass. A fellow clerk of Mr. Wellman easily read the postal with his naked eye, but begged off from all postals being written in this fashion. The 7,068 words are written with an ordinary steel pen in violet ink. The ink is a mere matter of chance, and has nothing to do with the fineness of the work.

Mr. Wellman has never done any work of this kind before. His only practice was in writing the Lord’s prayer. Without the slightest difficulty he accomplished the feat of writing these seventy-two words in a space no larger than a gold quarter of a dollar. The writer of this curiousity is a young American, 28 years old. He is near sighted and wears glasses, but his eyes must be very strong, as he has suffered no pain or inconvenience from this close work. In fact, his near sightedness may help him a little, as near sighted people usually see things at a close range much better than people of ordinary sight.”

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Old Print Article: “Called A Sneak And A Coward” (1891)

January 4, 2011 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Kahn says he used the means beneath the dignity of a butcher to get these customers." (Image by Bartolomeo Passarotti.)

Two butchers in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn had a feud in the late nineteenth century which began to boil over. How would they settle the dispute? According to an article in the November 10, 1891 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the rivalry might end in a duel fought with butcher knives. An excerpt:

“Rivalry in the butcher business in Greenpoint has become so desperate that a duel is proposed. Harry Grimes is a butcher employed at 553 Manhattan avenue. Nearly opposite is the butcher shop of Felix Kahn, at 580 Manhattan avenue. Kahn is a Frenchman who has a high temper. Grimes got some of Kahn’s customers recently and Kahn says he used means beneath the dignity of a butcher to get these customers.

Kahn’s assistant and young Grimes would frequently race for the house of a customer and would bang their butcher carts together in the race. Kahn finally boxed Grimes’ ears, and the latter said he could finish Kahn in two rounds, but that he would not stoop to anything so low as a street fight. The entire neighborhood became interested in the war of the rivals and they recently learned that Grimes had challenged Kahn to fight a duel with butcher knives, and that the challenge had been accepted. Neither of the principals would talk of the expected duel, and people were expecting that one or both of the butchers would be carved up.

"There is only one thing left for me, and that is to brand you as a coward and a poltroon." (Image by Annibale Carracci.)

Kahn showed his hand yesterday. He does not want blood. He wants protection, and his French blood having cooled off, he wishes to satisfy his honor in the courts of justice. He appeared before Justice Goetting in his Lee avenue police court to-day, and asked that the strong arm of the law be placed between him and the keen edge of Grimes’ knife. He gave the court the following challenge which he had received:

‘Mr. Kahn:

DEAR SIR–Some time since I indicted a letter to you, but you have not had the manliness or even the politeness enough to respond. What am I to understand by this, to say the least, ungentlemanly conduct. There is only one thing left for me, and that is to brand you as a coward and a poltroon, unworthy to be called a man. But what can be expected from Poland or Baxter street. For fear the letter I sent you miscarried. I will again give you an opportunity to respond, therefore I challenge you to fight me any time within the next week. The sooner the better. The insult and indignity cannot be wiped out too soon and nothing but blood will satisfy me. The failure on your part to answer this, my second communication, will stamp you as a sneak and a coward.

Yours respectfully,

The Butcher Boy Whom You So Cowardly Assaulted’

Kahn told the court that he had no desire to spill the blood of Grimes and that he was so fond of his own blood that he had no desire to lose any of it. Justice Goetting consented to act as his second and directed Clerk Schiepphaus to correspond with the blood thirsty butcher and request him to come to court to arrange for a compromise, which will not include blood letting.”

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Old Print Article: “Alger’s Queer Sevants–Seven Year Old Girl And One Armed Boy Attend Him,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1897)

January 2, 2011 in Old Print Articles | Permalink

"He frequently talks of pistols, killing people, putting them under ground and other deeds of violence." (Image by Guillaume Duchenne.)

George Alger was an elderly Brooklyn landowner in the 1890s who was apparently a danger to himself and others. His household help was also quite unusual. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle painted a picture of the odd arrangement in the September 14, 1897 issue. An excerpt:

“With only a little girl 6 or 7 years of age and a one armed boy to look after him, George Alger, an old man and the owner of several pieces of real estate in Brooklyn and elsewhere. is living to-day at 184 Seventeenth street, despite the fact that there is a committee of his person who is supposed to look after him and see that he is properly cared for. Alger is an incompetent person, subject at times to fits of violence, and in the opinion of a referee who has recommended the sale of a portion of his property, should be confined in an institution.

Judge Hurd of the County Court handed down a decision to-day in which he severely condemns the manner in which Alger is allowed to live and points out the duties which ought to have been performed by the committee of his person.

Alger is a widower, his wife having died last April. The only relative he has is a sister, Mrs. Calista C. Gilbert, who resides in New Haven, Conn. Shortly after the death of Mrs. Alger, John Muir of 318 Twelfth street, was appointed a committee of the person and estate of the old man and since that time has administered his affairs.

Referee Elder in his report, recommended the sale for not less than $3,000 of a certain piece of property on Twelfth street, and the confinement of Alger in an institution, saying:

‘Mr. Muir’s committeeship, while careful, is necessarily one of almost an exclusive financial character. I learn that Mr. Alger at certain seasons of the year is a violent man and during all seasons of the year he frequently talks of pistols, killing people, putting them under ground and other deeds of violence. I do not think an insane man who indulges in such notions is safe at large. In passing upon the report of the referee, Justice Hurd said to-day:

‘There is sufficient shown to warrant the sale of the incompetent’s real estate. The committee is the committee of the person and estate; he is as much bound to provide suitable and proper support for the incompetent as he is to preserve his estate. He is bound to restrain Mr. Alger, if he is dangerous, as the referee reports, without the instruction of the court. The way in which the incompetent man is living–his meals cooked by a girl between 6 and 7 years of age, with a one-armed boy as attendant and messenger–is manifestly improper. The committee should correct it and see to it that a proper style of living is afforded. However disagreeable the committee may find his duties, he must nevertheless perform them for the best interest of his ward.'”

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Old Print Article: “The New Photography,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1896)

December 31, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

"Skeletons are shown within the flesh." (Image by Albert Londe.)

It was early in 1896 that X-rays became an important part of medical procedures, though researchers began working on its development as far back as 1875. German physics professor Wilhelm Röentgen ultimately got the credit for perfecting the process. In the February 10, 1896 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the new invention is heralded for the major advancement it was. An excerpt:

“Until some man invents a camera that will take a picture around a corner the new utilization of the Cathode or Roentgen rays will suffice for wonder. In this process, as everyone knows by this time, objects that we have supposed to be opaque have been pierced by light so that objects within them have shown in shadowy mass on the photographic plate. A razor had been photographed inside of its case, skeletons are shown within the flesh and things have been revealed that were covered with black paper, wood, horn, rubber and thin plates of metal. Indeed, we begin to inquire if there is such a thing as opacity, now. All this is unexpected and curious, but to men most important for one thing: It opens the human body to examination. If something is wrong inside of one it may not be necessary to cut him open to find what. If the something is known it will save unnecessary cutting.

Wilhelm Röentgen, father of the X-ray. (Image by the Nobel foundation.)

To one who has never seen an operation by surgery, or has given small attention to such matters, it may seem as if it were easy to find the lodging place of a bullet or broken knife point in the flesh, but often the finding of a needle in a bundle of hay is an easy task compared with it. The hay, at all events, contains no nerves, no quivering muscles, no tough cartilage and tendon, no resisting bones: one does not have to be careful how he explores this way and that lest he cut an important nerve or sever an artery or tap a vein, And sometimes, after probing and reaching and cutting for half an hour the work is found to be too difficult and dangerous to continue; then the patient is made as easy as circumstances allow and told to resign himself to wearing the bullet or the knife point for the rest of his days.

By use of the X rays the bullet can be made to declare itself to the sight and the surgeon can go straight to it with his scalpel, and if the ball is found to lie in too close contact to an artery it can be left to encyst. In case of a compound fracture pieces of bone that may be driven into adjacent muscle may be promptly located and removed or replaced. Perhaps a higher sensitization can be obtained so that relatively opaque tumors, cancers, fungoid growths, ossifications or chalk deposits may be indicated in the picture and the surgeon will then be guided as to the mode of procedure. Appendicitis may be resolved into a case for surgical or for medical treatment according to what it shows of the degree of induration or suppuration or the presence of foreign and irritating bodies. Of all the recent advancement in surgery this of the employment of the cathode ray promises the most benefit.”

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Old Print Article: “Respectable Aged Men Of Brooklyn To Be Cared For,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1886)

December 29, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"The inmates will be provided with single rooms."

If they were “respectable,” geezers had it made in Brooklyn in the 1880s. Small institutions began to sprout up for men of a certain age who were unable to provide for themselves. In the story below, from the May 21, 1886 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, one such charity home in Brooklyn was building bigger digs to accommodate more old-timers. According to an almanac I found, the new Classon avenue location mentioned in the piece was indeed eventually built as promised. An excerpt from the article:

“The Brooklyn Home for Aged Men, at 64 State street, was built for a private house and was donated for the purpose of a home by Mr. Frederick Marquand. It is supported by voluntary contributions of money, food and clothing–not by a fund–and has beds for nineteen inmates, who must be over 70 years of age and must have been residents of Kings County for five years before admission. No tramps or dubious characters are admitted, as it is desired that the home should be for the benefit of men who have seen better days and who live lives in conformity with Christian precept. The home was started in a little old house on Grand avenue, in 1877, with seven inmates, and was transferred to the building now occupied in 1879. A number of ladies connected with local charities became interested in it, and not only secured the admission of homeless but educated gentlemen, but also contributed funds for their support. The concern is private and unsectarian. It is not a hospital but, as its name implies, a home.

"No tramps or dubious characters are admitted."

The undesirable location and the growing number of requests for admission recently induced the Board of Managers to raise a building fund and purchase a plot of land 100×100 feet on the east side of Classon avenue, between Park and Prospect places, in close proximity to the Faith Home. The ground is high and the situation salubrious. The plans contemplate the erection of a three story and attic building that will occupy the center of the lot and will accommodate 50 inmates. It is to be a solid looking structure of brick and brown stone, and Mr. Daus, the architect, says he has striven to give it the appearance of a charitable institution and not of a large private house. The middle of the western front is recessed, but the line of the wings is carried across this recess by a colonnade and noble entrance. This entrance is a massive arch of brown stone, with the name of the institution carved above it, and it gives on a piazza behind the colonnade, where the inmates may take the air.

The inmates will be provided with single rooms, each of which is supplied with heating and ventilating apparatus and a closet. Large hallways, heated and ventilated likewise, traverse the building, and special efforts have been made to reduce the danger of fire or panic to a minimum by providing ample stairways and doors that will shut off each wing from contiguous portions of the house. The sanitary arrangements will be of the most approved description, and an infirmary on the upper floor, receiving a south light, will have beds for six patients. The dining room and sitting room will be large and airy. Ground for the new building will be broken within a month and the structure will be at least a year in the process of construction.”

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Old Print Article: “A Noted American Woman Dead,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1880)

December 26, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"It was only when she espoused the abolition cause that she lost the social position that she made for herself."

“Over the River and through the Woods” is a comforting song of home and family, but its author, Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880), had a way of making people uncomfortable. A popular writer who surrendered her career to agitate for the abolitionist cause, Child was on the right side of history even if it cost her part of her career.

An article in the October 21, 1880 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle memorialized the author, if sometimes in a backhanded way. It’s a pretty good bet that the Eagle in that year didn’t have a single female journalist or editor, so this remembrance has a fair amount of praise but is still marked by a condescending attitude toward Child and all women. An excerpt:

“Lydia Maria Child, who died yesterday at her home on Wayland, Mass., was in many respects one of the most noted of her sex in this country. Her literary career covered a period of more than half a century, and her record was a consistent, persistent and for the most part a popular one. So long as she confined herself to writing she was eminently popular, and it was only when she espoused the abolition cause that she lost the social position that she made for herself.

She was preeminently an American product. The daughter of a humble baker, she became the most widely known of American female writers, with one exception–Mrs. Stowe–and like that writer, she owed her great celebrity to her espousal of the anti slavery cause. English people, who had little respect for American culture, gladly recognized the advocates of that cause in this country, and augmented the fame of all such. It was a time in the history of the country when few women were before the public, and none in this country had become famous outside of letters.

"As a woman, she possessed, in a marked degree, qualities not generally common to her sex."

Mrs. Child endeared herself to women by some of the earliest pen work she did, which was on household topics and home education, and the later work she did for her sex made her name an honored one. She was distinctively a woman writer, finding her subjects in the domestic world and doing her best work for the elevation of her sex in social and educational directions. As she grew in years she developed larger humanitarian views, and like Lucretia Mott, she gave her time and talents to a cause which brought her no fame as a writer, though it placed her in the front ranks of the agitators and deprived her of all the social distinction that had followed in the wake of her literary success. With Harriet Martineau, Fredrika Bremer and other English women who visited the United States about the time that the agitation was at its height, she waged a pamphlet war and gave up more lucrative employment for the sake of the cause of anti-slavery. We of to-day know Mrs. Child only as a writer, many years having elapsed since she retired from the world to live in retirement, surrounded by her family. Her last public work in the anti-slavery cause was a controversy she had with Governor Wise, of Virginia. in reference to a letter she had written to John Brown, offering to go and nurse him in prison.

As a woman, she possessed, in a marked degree, qualities not generally common to her sex. She was fearless and honorable in all her dealings, and wrought out her task independently and with consistency. Self education she urged as the essential precursor of all other tasks, and she worked to teach women to be broad and wisely liberal, to be united in all their public undertakings and to so serve their own higher needs that the succeeding generation might give enduring evidence of the capabilities and culture of American women. In her career of fifty years she exemplified the principles she advocated, and in her death the public has lost a wise teacher, and a brave and true representative of literature and philanthropy.”

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Old Print Article: “The Passing Of Old Landmarks,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1894)

December 23, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

Without pioneering photojournalist Mathew Brady, the Civil War era would have a name but not a face. There were other notable photographers of that tumultuous period, but it’s mostly Brady’s work that truly captures the visages burdened by the fate of a nation. And the notable 19th-century figures in his pictures went far beyond the American battlefield, ranging from Nathaniel Hawthorne to P.T. Barnum to Mark Twain. While Brady was rich in life experience, his relentless attempt to record the Civil War with the expensive daguerreotype process essentially bankrupted him financially. He died penniless in the charity ward of New York’s Presbyterian Hospital in 1896. An article from the March 19, 1894 Brooklyn Daily Eagle chronicles how Brady’s money troubles cost him his photo gallery in Washington D.C. An excerpt:

“One by one the old landmarks in Washington are passing away. Recently the historical photograph gallery, run for years by Mathew B. Brady, the man who daguerreotyped Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, Miss Madison, General Jackson, Edgar Allan Poe, Taylor’s cabinet and the elder Booth, was converted into a billiard parlor. Business has been bad with Brady for some time. Younger and more enterprising photographers have practically driven him out of the field, and now his famous gallery is a thing of the past. Brady was born in 1823 in Warren county, N.Y. When a young man, William Page, the artist who painted Venus, took an interest in him and gave him some crayons to copy. He knew Morse well, and it was the latter who told him about the remarkable discovery his friend Daguerre had made in France.

Ulysses S. Grant, uniformed in 1864. (Image by Mathew Brady.)

In 1842 Brady had a studio on the corner of Broadway and Fulton street. Here he remained for fifteen years until the verge of the Civil War when he opened a gallery in Washington. The old man tells me that from the first he regarded himself as under an obligation to his country to preserve the faces of its historic men and women. In 1851 he visited Europe and took pictures of Cardinal Wiseman, Lamartine and Louis Napoleon. He also took Fannie Ellsler, he took Jefferson Davis when he was a senator, and Mrs. Alexander Hamilton was 93 years old when she sat for him. Brady delights to talk of his experiences and is to-day one of the most interesting characters of the capital. His series of war pictures brought him into contact with military men from all over the country.”

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Old Print Article: “Search For A Button Which Young Madden Is Said To Have Swallowed,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1897)

December 21, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

"The button affixed to the bosom of her dress attracted his attention and she made no opposition when he plucked it away." (Image by Josef Peters.)

Three-year-old Brooklyn lad Thomas Madden told his impoverished parents that he swallowed a button and was in terrible pain. X-rays were inconclusive and doctors began to doubt his story, but the anguish persisted and the Maddens were worried sick. The next few weeks probably seemed like a year to them. Two excerpts from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle below tell the story. (The New York Times was also on the case.)

••••••••••

“Search For A Button Which Young Madden Is Said to Have Swallowed,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (January 18, 1897): “Little Thomas Josef Madden, 3 1/2 years old, whose parents live at 54 State street, will go under the X-ray, at the Hudson street hospital in New York again to-day. He was there yesterday and the father says the ray revealed the motto button, from a package of cigarettes, which the boy claims to have swallowed, lodged in the larger intestine, on the left side of the body, with the pin attached to the button sticking upward. Mr. Madden saw this himself, he says, and the doctors assured that it was so. The ray was not powerful enough, however, and it was decided to make a second examination this afternoon, using more effective apparatus. Meanwhile the child will continue abstinence from solid food and will continue the milk diet which he has had for two weeks since he has swallowed the button.

"The X-ray photograph taken yesterday revealed no indication of the presence of the button in the pyloric region." (Image by Steven Fruitsmaak.)

When the accident occurred he was a chubby little fellow with an exuberance of spirits, which made him the life of the humble household in which he lives. His father, who works along shore, and is a man of slender means, has viewed with increasing anxiety his little son’s rapid loss of flesh and the spasms of pain with which he is seized at home.

Mr. Madden said to-day that he had gone so far as to pawn some of his clothes to secure money with which to have the boy treated, and, he added, that as long as his resources were exhausted he did not know what to do now.

Superintendent Knoll of the Hudson street hospital is represented as having said that the X-ray photograph taken yesterday revealed no indication of the presence of the button in the pyloric region which was examined, but the boy’s father is very positive in the statement that the button was found.

Nobody saw the button swallowed, but all the members of the boy’s family are well satisfied that it is this which has caused all his suffering. Thomas Josef was sitting on the lap of Mrs. McGrath, a neighbor who was visiting the Maddens, and with whom the boy is a great favorite. The button affixed to the bosom of her dress attracted his attention and she made no opposition when he plucked it away. A few minutes later, when he was seated at the dinner table, Thomas was seized with a fit of choking. His father slapped him vigorously on the back and presently the child seemed relieved.

‘He just bolted on a piece of meat, papa,’ suggested Mrs. Madden.

‘Oh, no, mamma,’ spoke up the child, ‘it was that button.’

‘If I had known it was the button,’ said Mr. Madden, ‘I’d have had my finger down his throat in a minute. Now, I don’t know what to do.’

All the neighbors are very much excited over the case. The Maddens live in a tenement section.

••••••••••

"The emblem on it was an Irish flag. "

“Cut Out the Button: Tommy Madden Undergoes Successful Surgery,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (January 24, 1897): “An interesting operation was performed in Post Graduate hospital in New York yesterday afternoon, when the physicians cut a cigarette button from the throat of little Thomas Madden. The boy swallowed the button a week ago, and it stuck in his throat and all efforts to dislodge it and extract it were until yesterday without effect. The operation yesterday was performed by House Surgeon Bullard and the regular house staff. When the button was cut from the throat it was found to be of the sort now placed in boxes of cigarettes. The emblem on it was an Irish flag. It was thought last night that the boy would recover.

The operation was long and tedious and occupied about three quarters of an hour. Before making the incision the surgeon made a careful attempt to remove the button through the mouth by forcing long, curved forceps down the throat. This proved impracticable.

Dr. Lee, who has charge of the ward at the Post Graduate hospital in which the little patient is confined, is very hopeful of Tommy’s ultimate recovery.”

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Old Print Article: “Seth Kinman, The Pacific Coast Nimrod Who Gives Chairs To Presidents,” New York Times (1885)

December 19, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

““A unique character is Seth Kinman, the grizzly bear hunter and presidential chair presenter.”

Seth Kinman was a self-made man and a self-promoter. A bushy-faced nineteenth-century California hunter who never met a bear or buck he cared for, Kinman used the skins and carcasses from his quarry to fashion unusual chairs that he presented to several American Presidents.

Kinman began bestowing these odd gifts to Presidents during the Buchanan Administration, which is the subject of the first excerpt, taken from an 1857 Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The second excerpt, a reprinted article in an 1885 New York Times that originally ran in the San Francisco Call, further examines Kinman’s life and by then what had become a longstanding chair-giving tradition that had allowed him to become friend to several Presidents.

••••••••••

“A Curious Chair for President Buchanan,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (May 18, 1857): “An old Western hunter, Seth Kinman, sent a chair from Humboldt, California, which arrived in New York by the George Law for President Buchanan. The chair is made entirely of the antlers of the deer, fashioned into a most comfortable arm-chair, with a high sloping back and convenient arms. A pair of antlers, with six points each, form the front legs and arms; and another pair, having five points each, form the hind legs and back. Small antlers, having two points each, join the whole together in a substantial manner. The seat is made from the dressed skins of the bucks whose antlers form the chair. They have, all told, just thirty-one points, corresponding with the number of states now in the Union. The whole chair is simply varnished, showing the original color of the antlers. The old hunter has engraved his address on the left arm point: Seth Kinman, Humboldt County, California.”

••••••••••

The nimrod sits his ass down on President Andrew Johnson’s chair.

“Seth Kinman, The Pacific Coast Nimrod Who Gives Chairs to Presidents,” New York Times, reprinted from the San Francisco Call (December 9, 1885): “A unique character is Seth Kinman, the grizzly bear hunter and presidential chair presenter, now stopping in this city. He is a tall man, 70 years old, straight as an arrow, dressed in buckskin from head to foot, with long silver hair, beard, and shaggy eyebrows, under which and his immense hat a pair of keen eyes peer sharply.

He is the Nimrod of this coast, the great elk shooter and grizzly bear hunter of California, who has presented elk horns and grizzly bear claws from animals that have fallen before his unerring rifle to four Presidents of the United States–Buchanan, Lincoln , Johnson, and Hayes–and has ‘the finest of all’ to present to President Cleveland next spring. He claims to have shot in all more than 800 grizzlies, as many as 50 elk in one month, and to have supplied the Government troops and sawmill hands in Humboldt with 240 elk in 11 months on contract at 25 cents per pound.

Resting atop the chair is Kinman’s fiddle, the neck of which is made with a skull bone from his favorite mule.

He was born in Union County, Penn., in 1815, went to Illinois in 1830, and crossed the plains to California in 1849. He tried mining on Trinity River, but followed hunting mainly for a living. In the Winter of 1856-57 he made his first elkhorn chair, and conceived the idea of presenting it to President Buchanan. Peter Donahue favored it. He went on in the Golden Age with letters to Col. Rynders in New-York, and in Washington he met Senator Gwin, Gen. Denver, and others. Dr. Wozencroft made the presentation speech, and Buchanan was highly pleased. He wrote Rynders to get Kinman the best gun he could find in New-York, which he did, together with two fine pistols. He also got an appointment to corral the Indians on the Government reservation, and when they strayed away he brought them back.

In November, 1804, he presented President Lincoln with an elkhorn chair, which greatly pleased him; Clinton Lloyd, Clerk of the House, made the presentation speech. The chair to Hayes was presented when he was Governor of Ohio, but nominee for President. The chair presented to President Johnson was made of the bones and hide of a grizzly.”

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Old Print Article: Mr. Gould Takes A Bride (1898)

December 17, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

Financier Jay Gould, the groom's dad, was widely reviled. Some historians believe he was unjustly tarnished.

Having a father who’s a despised robber baron probably isn’t a lot of fun, even if he leaves you a bucketful of cash. Howard Gould, son of the late and hated financier and railroad tycoon Jay Gould, learned this the hard way when he married in 1898. The wedding ceremony, a lavish affair, was roundly mocked for its excess. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, a paper that had been appropriately tough on the old man, came to the aid of the newlyweds, even predicting a long and happy union for the pair. Alas, it was not to be. The second article that’s excerpted, from New York’s Covington Sun a decade later, details the marriage’s bitter end, which involved Gould allegedly being cuckolded by the prominent soldier and nostalgia salesman Buffalo Bill Cody.

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“Mr. Gould’s Marriage,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (October 13, 1898): “Howard Gould, son of Jay Gould, a famous millionaire, has married a woman who was at one time an actor. That fact does not justify the hubbaboo of print that has been made over it. Mr. Gould is a free man, being of age and a little over, therefore he may do as he pleases, if he does not break the law. His wedding was quiet and devoid of spectacle, so there was no occasion for the yellow journals to go into verbal convulsions over the waste of a fortune upon the unworthy cooks, waiters, florists, dressmakers, tailors, hosiers, wine merchants, carriage renters, musicians, jewelers, lapidaries and other people who commonly earn something when society gets married.

One interest in the case, however consists in the rumored sacrifice in half of his fortune that Mr. Gould has made in wedding Miss Clemmons. His father left a will which specified that if one of his children married without consent of the others, or his executors, he would lose half his patrimony and the lost half should be distributed among the other relatives. It is guessed that the young man has about $6,000,000, and if he were to lose half of this he would still be able to go to the circus once in a while and even buy pink lemonade. At all events, he married for love, and his life for that reason ought to be happy. So many of our children of millionaires marry pitiful creatures from Europe, for the sake of a title, that it is rather an agreeable surprise to find one of them who knows his own mind well enough to follow it and who has sufficient courage of his convictions to defy the efforts of the dead to rule the living.”

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"Mrs. Gould, prior to the marriage, asserted that her relations with Colonel Cody were exclusively of a business nature, whereas they were meretricious."

“Sordid Troubles of the Married Rich,” Covington Sun (April 16, 1908): “That portion of the public which has been waiting so patiently for the oft-delayed washing of the family linen of the Howard Goulds is about to have its reward. Before Justice Dowling, Mrs. Gould’s attorney, Clarence J. Shearn, made a motion to have the issues framed for trial by jury on the ground that they were such a nature that no judge would care to pass on them first.

Sounding a note of self-pity as he surveyed the miserably unhappy life that he had led since he had married Katherine Clemmons, Howard Gould told of the many humiliations to which he had been subjected.

There are allegations of the deepest import to the wife of the millionaire, however, in the answer. Gould charged that not only before but after he married Katherine Clemmons she was guilty of improper conduct with Colonel William F. Cody (‘Buffalo Bill’). It was charged also that she became infatuated with Dustin Farnum, the actor; that she frequently had him in her apartment at the Hotel St. Regis; that she followed him on a tour through the New England States and visited him in his hotel after the performances.

There are charges of Mrs. Gould’s fondness for intoxicants, beginning, as alleged, with two or three cocktails before breakfast, a pint of Hock at luncheon, brandy highballs and unlimited champagne at dinner, whereby on one occasion, it is alleged, she fell from her chair to the floor.

Mr. Gould alleges that his marriage was the result of fraud and misrepresentation on the part of his wife. He says that Mrs. Gould, prior to the marriage, asserted that her relations with Colonel Cody were exclusively of a business nature, whereas they were meretricious. He swears that during 1887, 1889 and 1892 his present wife lived with Cody in London, Paris, Chicago, Nebraska, Virginia and New York.”

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