STUMP » Articles » Memory Monday: Last Week of July 1918 - The Brewster Standard Takes a Vacation » 13 August 2018, 21:13

Where Stu & MP spout off about everything.

Memory Monday: Last Week of July 1918 - The Brewster Standard Takes a Vacation  

by

13 August 2018, 21:13

Great news, guys!


So here we go again!

I’m a bit behind, so I’ll just do one week’s worth today, and catch up for August for the next couple weeks.

A NOTE FROM TEDDY

Before I get into it, I’ve been going through one of Edmund Morris’s books on TR: Colonel Roosevelt – it’s on TR’s post-presidency period, starting with his African safari he did immediately after Taft’s inauguration.

(Oh, Taft comes across as a total whiny bitch in this… so far)

I’m only halfway through, and so I’m learning about the Roosevelt-Rondon Scientific Expedition in Brazil, which I didn’t even know had happened! To a certain extent it doesn’t help that I know that TR survived the trip (do I really need to spoiler that?) but it makes me keep thinking “HOW did he survive that trip?!” It’s far more interesting than any of the political stuff, I think.

Anyway, that expedition was in 1913-1914, and the following is from July 1918:


Sorry for the duplication. It’s my own error.

Oh, and via Wikipedia here’s TR’s sonn Kermit from the Brazilian expetition:

Woo woo.

MORE POLITICKING

So, 1918 was the usual Congressional election, and I believe the Brewster Standard was a Republican paper (thank goodness they didn’t pretend to be anything but partisan. More papers should go back to that tradition rather than trying to pretend they don’t have a clear editorial slant.)

So in addition to that specific statement from TR, here is an excerpt of what he told Republicans in a party meeting in Saratoga:

I’ve mentioned before that the paper copies from 1918 are often in obviously poor condition.

Here are two other Republicans, both of whom were on the outs with TR because of what happened in 1912. (No, I’m not referring to the Titanic.)

Elihu Root:

President Taft:

TOPSY TURVY

This one is just a little odd.

I show a little of the adjacent text to show you that the piece was printed upside-down…. why?

Maybe a summer intern.

LIGHT NEWS TIME?

Part of my guesstimate re: summer intern (okay, not really, but somebody set this down and took a vacation) is because what I saw in the paper. It’s weekly, and normally runs 8 pages.

In the issue of 26 July 1918, I saw the following: one full page of ads, two pages full of legislation which just ran straight from the NY legislature, barely anything on war news, no auto corner (that’s usually half of page on all things automotive).

The local “Miss So-and-So visited at the Mr. George Somebodys” pieces were also a bit shorter than usual.

Heck, even the ads are taking it easy:

SOME THINGS DON’T CHANGE IN 100 YEARS

This is very local:

So, one of the reasons the place I live is not so built up is that we’re a big part of the New York City water system and HELL IF THEY’RE GONNA TREAT THAT WATER!

Anyway, the way enforcement works now is they’ve got planes and trucks to surveil the system, and yes, people do get arrested and fined for messing about in the lakes around here. Yes, you can take a rowboat out on the lakes, but heaven help you if you use a GASOLINE ENGINE!!!

The main change now is that planes are used for surveillance… not sure what they used back in 1918. Neighbors snitching, I suppose.

History will continue next week! See you then!


| Main |