These are the stories that graced the front page of the Portsmouth Daily Times, a paper printed in Portsmouth, Ohio for December 10, 1910 on the day 100 years ago when my Aunt Virginia Poletti was born. (See her story and Rockland’s landscape at that time in separate stories).
There must be 15 stories on this front page as I looked at the original paper for that day online the other day. There weren’t many pictures, in fact, I only saw one cartoon. Instead there were big, bold headlines. It occurred to me that the number and variety of the stories on this front page could very well be a local TV newscast today. I can see the visuals accompanying these stories very easily. Remember that newspapers were the main source of communication with the populace. Radio was in its infancy, as well as the “moving pictures.” TV and the internet were not even in any inventor’s mind yet. See what you think as you read on.
Here are some of the stories and items I came across
One story discusses the Supreme Court case about nullifying the $40/week salary of teachers.
In another, someone was shot at a union meeting in San Francisco.
In world news, there is a seven-line story about a battle between the French and Tribesmen in French West Africa in which 35 people were killed, 69 wounded, and 18 missing.
The union struggle was big news at that time. One story entitled, “Parade of Strikers,” stated that 50,000 striking garment workers and sympathizers marched through the streets of Chicago. “No disaster attended the parade.” Amazing. No one even tripped and skinned a knee or anything?
There is a story about amending the constitution to prevent and suppress monopolies. It reports of the efforts of the Governor to dissolve the steel trust.
Under the heading of dramatic stories we have: A fire in Poughkeepsie which killed a woman. A “score” of others were badly burned in “a fashionable boarding place.” We also have a report of a woman named Jennie O’Connor who is now “confined to her home” because she broke her arm and injured her head when “she started out in the yard to get a bucket of water and slipped on icy steps.” Another story states that a guy fell and almost fell through a skylight, showering glass below, when he was attempting to clear the roof of snow. These are front page stories, right?
The mayhem continues with this story, “14 Indians Slain by Thieves.” 14 Shoshone Indians were supposed to have been killed and their bodies dumped into trenches in Nevada. Informants told the story and the prosecuting attorney for Cassius County, J. Harley Lee, seeks to have the Department of Justice’s aid in bringing in the murderers, said to be “white horse thieves,” to justice.
A steamer was reportedly in distress a mile off Little Egg Harbor because observers noticed it was missing its funnels. Turns out it was a barge that had been converted to a steamer and the funnels were removed. The ship was not, in fact, in danger, but just anchored to make necessary repairs before moving on. A life-saving crew put out in a storm to assist them when it wasn’t needed. Too bad they didn’t have a radio? What they could have done with a cell phone or two.
They were not always conscious of the feelings of the victims in a case as illustrated by the language used in this story: An 85-year old woman, a wealthy recluse in Caldwell, Ohio, was found “burned to a crisp in the smoking ruins of her home.” Robbers were suspected of killing her and firing up the home to hide the crime. Are these stories beginning to look like your evening TV newscast yet?
Under deaths we have the report of the death of a 70-year-old Civil War veteran who died in Manchester, Ohio of pneumonia. He was the mayor twice and ironically signed his own pension papers at noon of the previous day. A four-line story also tells of the death of Justice W.D. Beard of the Tennessee State Supreme Court who “dropped dead in a hotel” in this area.
Under political news, there is a cartoon at the top of the page which is entitled, “Concerning the Presidential Message.” From what I can tell it is complaining of high prices among other things recently discussed by President Taft. There is a report on the Democratic caucus in Columbus, Ohio. The attendees are worried that “Senate insurgents” will influence Taft’s supreme court justice appointees. They only approved of two of his appointees, someone called Hughes and George Pepper.
There is also a major story reporting on President Taft’s address to the annual convention on national rivers and harbors, which I suspect was an early beginning of such government departments as the Environmental Protection Agency. He said that the importance of rivers has decreased with the development of railroad facilities. He said that the problem now confronting those at the convention was union and the cooperation of the railroads and rivers and the terminal difficulties of river transportation must be overcome before the problem could be solved. Whew, all in one breathe. He said “a complete solution for the difficulties presented would be found.” Did you understand any of that? It’s one of the best examples of political runaround I’ve ever heard. Not much changes in 100 years does it?
A small article at the bottom of the front page gives us, in hindsight, a warning of the great war to come. Dateline: London. The 3rd Division of the American fleet left there for Brest, France. The 4th Division will also arrive in January or July. It was hard to read which one because the type was very broken up in that spot. World War I began in 1914 in July, a mere four years later. Were we building up our forces in the European Theater even at that time in 1910?
Finally we have a cutsey cartoon character named, Billy Butt, who passes for the paper’s weatherman. He complains that everyone says he doesn’t give good and accurate forecasts. He therefore resolves to give the worst forecast he can possible give to wit: Ohio, snow tonight and Thursday. Cloudy with snow near Lake Erie. West Virginia, snow tonight and Thursday. Temperature below freezing. Indiana, Generally fair tonight and Thursday. Colder in the north portion. Well he almost made it the worst ever.
So “That’s the way it was,” as Walter Cronkite would say, on December 7, 1910, on the day Virginia Dare Winchenbaugh was born.
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