Same News, Different Decade III

Lewis Hines/Library of Congress

Original photo text: James Lequlla, newsboy, 12 years of age. Selling newspapers 3 years. Average earnings 50 cents per week. Selling newspapers own choice. Earnings not needed at home. Don't smoke. Visits saloons. Works 7 hours per day. Investigator, Edward F. Brown. Location: Wilmington, Delaware. May 1910

Here’s another post featuring news stories from the past that could be featured in today’s media and those that I found interesting.

All items appear exactly as they were published in the long-gone Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, except for bracket passages I inserted for additional information or clarification. My scintillating commentary appears in italics.

Published Tuesday, April 25, 1932

Just as assaults are no stranger to the South Side today, the same held true in 1932

Beaten by Three,
Injured Man Says

Found dazed at South Eighteenth and Sarah streets early today, Stanley Rycknek, 23, of 159 South Eighteenth street, told police he had been beaten by three men. Rycknek was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, where it was said he had suffered a probable fracture of the skull.

Published Wednesday, April 26, 1932

This teacher was instructing a student in more than reading, writing and ‘riithmetic

Wife Divorces Ex-Teacher

Judge George V. Moore today granted a divorce to Kathryn E. Hilty, Smithfield, Pa., school teacher, from Marlin E. Hilty, 35, former Latimer Junior High School instructor and Boy Scout leader.

Hilty was dismissed as a teacher after he had been held for court on charges brought by the parents of a 15-year-old North Side girls, a pupil in Hilty's classes.

Mrs. Hilty had testified she had employed detectives to follow her husband and that they had trailed him to the home of a girl called "Edna."

On another occasion she testified she returned home and found the bedroom disarranged and her photograph taken from the wall.

A highly charged atmosphere often surrounds athletes in many sports. Just see this story on a brawl between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants Friday and the following item.

Feuds Flare in Majors

NEW YORK (INS) -- Scrappy days are here again in the big leagues.

In line with the plea of [league] Presidents Heydler and Hartridge for more aggressiveness on the diamond, feuds are flaring in both circuits. Spikes were flying high, wide and handsome when the Yankees and Senators clashed at Washington yesterday. Heinie Manush threw cold steel at Frank Crosetti, Babe Ruth went into Joe Cronin like a runaway freight train, Ben Chapman bowled over Buddy Myer, and Manush took a flying leap at Lou Gehrig when there was no necessity for a slide.

In the National League Rogers Hornsby of the Cardinals is threatening to whip half the Chicago team, and Dick Bartell, of the Phillies, spiked Joe Judge of the Dodgers, roughed up Lefty O'Doul, of the same club, and bowled over Bill Terry, of the Giants, for a short count.

If hostilities continue, they'll have the boys wearing a fielder's glove on one hand and a boxing glove on the other.

Chloe is a Spitfire

My friend, Joy, has a huge crush on a car: a 1977 Triumph Spitfire named Chloe. Having bought it from the original owner, she has lavished it with TLC. She parks it in a garage and recently had the seats redone. Joy’s also learning how to drive with a manual transmission.

Joy enjoys flashing photos of Chloe as much as or better than mothers who pass around photos of their children.

To sum up, the Spitfire truly is Joy’s pride and, er, joy.

Speaking of Joy, I assisted her with a project this week. An ad agency from Cleveland is coming to Pittsburgh to shoot furniture ads in some of our stately homes and mansions.

Why are Cleveland people coming to Pittsburgh? Because most of the ones in the Lake Erie city, and in the Gilded Age there were plenty, have been knocked down.

She is helping the ad people scout the houses, and I helped her by emailing photos of candidates – many of which have appeared on Above Bellefonte.

I also tracked down owners using the Allegheny County property tax list, then I found phone numbers for most of them.

Joy was quite happy when she saw my work, but it wasn’t work. It was fun.

Doctors War Memorial

This statue of Hygia honors the 450 Allegheny County doctors who served in World War I.

Here’s another post featuring the statues and monuments of Schenley Park that I captured in photos during a recent walk through the park.

The Allegheny County Medical Society turned to Giuseppe Moretti, who had made a name for himself in Pittsburgh and beyond with his work in the city, to create a memorial for those members who served in World War I.

Moretti produced a fine classical piece that depicts Hygia, the daughter of Asclepius and the goddess of health, with a caduceus and torch.

The base carries this inscription: "’Non sibi sed patriae. [Latin phrase meaning “Not for self, but for country.] This monument in honor of four hundred fifty members of the Allegheny County Medical Society who served in the World War 1914-18 is presented and affectionately dedicated by their colleagues. Honor est praemium virtutis." {Honor is the reward of virtue.}

The base also bears a bronze plaque with the names of those who served.

The memorial is located beside Phipps Conservatory on Panther Hollow Road in the Schenley Park Historic District, which entered the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Source: Discovering Pittsburgh's Sculpture by Marilyn Evert and Vernon Gay, 1986, University of Pittsburgh Press

Monkey Business

Here’s a bonus post for Thursday from the BBC showcasing alcohol-loving vervet monkeys in the Caribbean who acquired a taste for alcohol after eating fermented sugar cane left in the fields.

Now, they invade resorts and beach bars, grab whatever manner of drink they can get their tiny hands on and party down.

This video is quite interesting and funny, and you just might – Gasp! – learn something.

Christopher Columbus Monument

The Christopher Columbus Monument creates quite an impression in Schenley Park.

Here’s another post featuring the statues and monuments of Schenley Park that I captured in photos during a recent walk through the park.

During the first celebration of Columbus Day in Pittsburgh in 1909, plans were made to create a monument to honor the great explorer.

Left: A tighter view of the Christopher Columbus Monument.

Those plans wouldn't come to fruition until 1958, when a colossal statue created by Italian-born sculptor Frank Vittor was dedicated with ceremonies that included a 21-gun salute. Vittor's brother, Anthony, carved the detail on the granite base that complements the statue.

The huge monument with a fountain in the base stands on Schenley Drive near Phipps Conservatory. In the early planning stages, the Sons of Italy had wanted to erect it at the entrance of Schenley Park on Forbes Avenue. That site was shot down because the powers that be didn't want it to block the view of the planned Mary Schenley Memorial and they didn't want such a large statue to dominate the park's entrance.

Right: This historical marker celebrating the work of Frank Vittor stands in front of the Columbus statue.

The monument, which underwent a $150,000 restoration in 1992 for the 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage, has been a target for vandals who decry the effects of the explorer's discovery of the New World on the indigenous people.

Same News, Different Decade II

Library of Congress

New York newsboys take a break before peddling their papers.

Here’s another post featuring news stories from the past that could be featured in today’s media and those that I found interesting.

All items appear exactly as they were published all those years ago, except for bracket passages I inserted for additional information or clarification. My scintillating commentary appears in italics.

Brisbane Today

Here are some short opinion items by Arthur Brisbane, who worked at Joseph Pulitzer's New York World before defecting to William Randolph Hearst. Eventually, Hearst made him editor of the New York Journal.

Brisbane’s column, syndicated to Hearst papers, including the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, was said to have been read by 20 million people daily. The column, titled “Today,” appeared in the far left column on Page 1, which is prime newspaper real estate.

Published Monday, April 24, 1932

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT and [British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald] will discuss war against depression "on a world wide basis," seeking a plan that will help everybody, everywhere. A beautiful idea, all success to it.

But unfortunately we learned, while ladling out billions in loans, that foreign borrowers are too tired to repay, that things may be good for the outside world without being good for the United States.

It is to be hoped that somebody will concentrate on a fight against depression with an eye strictly to better conditions here in American.

We need better conditions HERE, not in Timbuctoo, and we pay the government several  billions a year to keep its mind on that.

SOLEMN REPUBLICANS in the Senate object violently to using the power plant at Muscle Shoals for the benefit of the people of the United States who paid for the plant in good, fat, heavy taxation.

Those Republicans say that permitting the people that own Muscle Shoals to operate the plant for their own benefit, with no rake-off for private grafters, would be "the entering wedge to socialistic government."

Republicans may be surprised to know how many such socialistic steps the people of the community would approve and MAY TAKE.

Published Wednesday, April 26, 1932

Brisbane’s crystal ball certainly got clear reception when he made the following prediction:

DON'T FAIL to cross your continent while railroad trains still run. Airplanes will drive out passenger trains and then you will cross without seeing the country. You can't really see it from the clouds. It is seeing giant mountains towering above you and little things close by that makes your country beautiful and worth while.

Flying will be a great convenience, but we belong on the earth, close enough to see the flowers, the young grass, the children coming from school, the men working hard.

The following were published Monday, April 24, 1932, in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph

London Crowd Riots;
Urges Nazi Boycott

LONDON (INS) -- Despite police precautions, violence broke out today in the vicinity of the German embassy following renewed agitation for an anti-German boycott in protest against alleged mistreatment of Jews.

William Dunlee, a 32-year-old seaman, was remanded to Bow Street Police Court charged with throwing a bottle through the window of the embassy. Police said the bottle contained this message:

"Hitler, the butcher, you have gone too far."

It seems our “honorable” congress folks always have had a hard time controlling themselves

Congressman Faces
Court in Radio Row

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Representative F.H. Shoemaker of Minnesota waived immunity today, and appeared in Police Court to face an information charging assault on Theodore Cohen, a neighbor, whom he hit in the eye, "because his radio was too loud." He pleaded not guilty and demanded a jury trial.

Pittsburgh might be getting a new professional football team.

DiMeolo May Coach Pros

Luby DiMeolo, a former captain and star lineman of the University of Pittsburgh football team and now head line coach at New York University, likely will be appointed coach of the Pittsburgh Professional League football team.

Art Rooney [left], Milt Jaffe and Charley Nowe are the local men behind the movement to give Pittsburgh a professional eleven.

Whether or not the team will become a reality depends on the passing of the Sunday blue laws.

The blue laws prohibited almost every form of work and entertainment on Sunday. Here is a 2001 Post-Gazette story about them and how some are still in effect. However, the story contains an error. The reporter wrote, “Technically, the old blue laws remain on the books. They were not repealed.”

While that was the case with the majority of them, the state legislature did approve baseball and football games between 2 and 6 p.m. on Sundays.

This change allowed for the birth of what would become the Steelers in 1933.

The Hiker

Pittsburgh’s copy of “The Hiker” by Allen George Newman stands beside Frick Fine Arts Center.

Another of the fine sculptures in Schenley Plaza and Schenley Park is this memorial, which honors the service of the Fourteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, the Eighteenth Volunteer Infantry (Duquesne Grays) and Battery B (Hampton Battery) in the Spanish-American War.

While the other sculptures in the park are originals, this one is a copy of a work created by Allen Newman for the New York State Building at the 1907 Jamestown Exposition.

Right: A plaque from the trees honoring the mothers and wives of soldiers flank “The Hiker.”

Pittsburgh's statue, which stands between two memorial trees planted at the same time near the Schenley Bridge and Frick Fine Arts Center on Schenley Drive, was dedicated in April 1925. Other copies of the work were put up in such places as Buffalo, Staten Island, Providence, R.I., and Monongahela, Pa.

Communities that bought the statue also received a free pedestal design from Newman. However, his grandiose plan was rejected and the county architect completed the finished product.

One puzzle surrounding the memorial concerns the fact the county spent $27,500 when the list price of the statue was $1,750.

Source: Discovering Pittsburgh's Sculpture by Marilyn Evert and Vernon Gay, 1986, University of Pittsburgh Press

Plaque on the base of “The Hiker.”