A mirror strongly reflected back.

  Yes, this picture again.  Two young couples.  Migrant farm workers in Louisiana and their children, 1939.  Not the Holy Family, of course, nor do I intend it to be. But, rather, families.  Today's readings goes to them and, by extension, all of us really.

On the Catholic Liturgical Calendar, which is used by more than the Catholic Church, this Sunday is the Mass of the Holy Family.

We've seen families take a beating in recent decades, although oddly enough statistically the result of that has not been what some, especially "progressive" social theories, would expect.  Indeed, most people continue to desire to be married, marriage ages haven't really changed as much as people suspect, and while the rate of children born outside of marriage has skyrocketed enormously in the last few decades, we also see that even that is some of a statistical glitch in that some of those non unions are basically what was previously regarded as common law marriage. Even the big preemption by the United States Supreme Court in 2015 in preventing the democratic process from defining the perimeters of marriage and the usurpation of that previously well established role by at court in a five to four ruling has turned out to have just about zero actual impact in unconventional marriage rates as the benefactors of that decision have largely not availed themselves of it, contrary to the widespread expectation that they would.  The natural law, it would seem, continues to prevail. . . which of course it would, as it is, after all, natural.

Anyhow, not to go all political on everyone here on the final day of the year (not that we don't do that anyhow), but I thought today's readings, or more specifically the first and second reading (I put in the Gospel reading as well) very interesting in this context.

Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14

God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.

My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you.

Or Gn 15:1-6; 21:1-3

The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying:
"Fear not, Abram!
I am your shield;
I will make your reward very great."
But Abram said,
"O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be,
if I keep on being childless
and have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?"
Abram continued,
"See, you have given me no offspring,
and so one of my servants will be my heir."
Then the word of the LORD came to him:
"No, that one shall not be your heir;
your own issue shall be your heir."
The Lord took Abram outside and said,
"Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so," he added, "shall your descendants be."
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.

The LORD took note of Sarah as he had said he would;
he did for her as he had promised.
Sarah became pregnant and bore Abraham a son in his old age,
at the set time that God had stated.
Abraham gave the name Isaac to this son of his
whom Sarah bore him.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

R. (cf. 1) Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.

or Ps 105:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9

R. (7a , 8a) The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Give thanks to the LORD, invoke his name;
make known among the nations his deeds.
Sing to him, sing his praise,
proclaim all his wondrous deeds.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Glory in his holy name;
rejoice, O hearts that seek the LORD!
Look to the LORD in his strength;
constantly seek his face.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations
which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.

Reading 2 Col 3:12-21

Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Wives, be subordinate to your husbands,
as is proper in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives,
and avoid any bitterness toward them.
Children, obey your parents in everything,
for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children,
so they may not become discouraged.

Gospel Lk 2:22-40

When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
They took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.

Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
He took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
"Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel."
The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
"Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
—and you yourself a sword will pierce—
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee,
to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.

Oh, and obviously my last post didn't make the final one of the year (there's a Resolution on this sort of thing for 2018).  But, this is a better place to close out, assuming this is where we do.

Again, Happy New Year!

Base Hospital, Camp Custer Michigan. December 31, 1917. And the last post for 2017.

Camp Custer Michigan's base hospital in 1917.

And with this big photo, we close out 2017.

Have a Happy New Year!

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Lord of Lords Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming.

Churches of the West: Lord of Lords Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming.

This is, admittedly, a terrible photograph, and I took it only because I happened to be walking by and got this odd view of this particular church.  Normally, given the modern architecture, I probably would not have taken this photograph of this south Casper Lutheran Church, which is in a neighborhood which is about to overtake its previously rural setting.

The photograph really doesn't do it justice, as this is not the normal view of this church.

Poster Saturday. Updating the Poster Pages

Rather than post a new poster here, or rather a new old poster, for Poster Saturday, I finally, instead, got around to updating a couple of the poster pages here.  I've been really remiss at doing that, in spite of having posted a lot of posters over the past year.

Here's the updated pages:

The Poster Gallery: Posters of World War One.

The Poster Gallery: Posters from World War Two.

 

I wasn't going to add a poster at all this week. But, what the heck.  One with a familiar brand name, but not war themed this week.

Page Updates: 2017

Page Updates; 2017

March 25, 2017

They Were Lawyers:  Branch Rickey, Chuck Schumer, Kellyanne Conway

They Were Soldiers:  Branch Rickey, Ty Cobb, Christopher "Christy" Mathewson, George Harold Sisler, Ryan Zinke

April 15, 2017

They Were Wyomingites: Anne Gorsuch.  Link to post on Wyoming Fact and Fiction added.

December 30, 2017

The Poster Gallery: Posters of World War One.
The Poster Gallery: Posters from World War Two.

Major updates with lots of new posters. 

Best Posts of the Week of December 24, 2017

The best posts of the week of December 24, 2017.

Mexican Raid on Brite's Ranch, Texas. December 25-26, 1917.

 

 

 

Theodore Roosevelt Calls on Neighbors at Christmas, 1917

Today In Wyoming's History: December 26. U.S. government takes over the railroads

Blog Mirror: The Aerodrome: Air Subsidies Continue for Cody and Laramie. .. for now

Holscher's Hub: T'was the night before Christmas. . .

Holscher's Hub: T'was the night before Christmas. . .

Holscher's Hub: T'was the night before Christmas. . .

A Hundred Years Ago: 1917 Pictures of Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen

1917 Pictures of Good Housekeeping Test Kitchen

General View of Camp Custer, Michigan and the 337th and 338th Infantry. December 29, 1917.

Blog Mirror: The Aerodrome: Air Subsidies Continue for Cody and Laramie. .. for now.

Air Subsidies Continue for Cody and Laramie. .. for now.

 

From Today's Casper Star Tribune, the following headline:

Air service subsidies expected to continue in Cody and Laramie. But larger questions loom.

But that apparently doesn't mean that such subsidies aren't on the firing line still, to some degree.

For those who might not be aware, air travel to Cody is subsidized by the Federal Government for the winter months, and for all passengers all year long for Laramie.  This provides for twice a day winter flights, for example, to and from Cody to Denver during the winter months.

It's pretty safe to assume that without these funds air travel to Cody would be impaired and for Laramie it would simply end.  The Tribune notes, regarding how this works;

United’s new contract to provide service to Cody guarantees the airline an annual payment of $850,000 to provide 14 nonstop trips each week from Cody to Denver between October and May.

That doesn't provide a reason to continue the subsidy, of course, and pure free marketers would argue that if the market doesn't support it, it should end.  On the other hand, it's been proven that a lack of convenient air transportation hinders Wyoming's economy fairly massively.  

For this reason, the state actually seriously took a look, and still somewhat is, on subsidizing air travel withing the state itself, although it didn't get to that. As the Tribune summarized it:

The Wyoming Department of Transportation presented an ambitious fix to the state’s reliance on commercial air carriers, who can currently decide whether and when to provide service — allowing the fortune’s of Cowboy State communities to rise and fall based on the whims of national corporations.

WYDOT proposed effectively creating its own airline, determining which communities would receive service as well as schedules, ensuring, for example, that it was possible for business people to catch an early morning flight into Casper or Rock Springs.

The state would contract with the same regional providers, like SkyWest or GoJet, that United and Delta Air Lines use on branded flights to connect relatively small communities, like those in Wyoming, with major hubs in Denver and Salt Lake City. These arrangements are known as capacity purchase agreements.

“This idea of capacity purchase agreements, for decades, has worked very well for airlines,” WYDOT director Bill Panos told lawmakers last summer.

At a bare minimum, a lack of air service certainly isolates Wyoming's economy.  So, at the end of the day, the argument somewhat comes the degree to which you favor practicality over economic purity, or whether you believe the government should have any role in subsidizing transportation.  The Governor's office noted, according to the Trib:

“Commercial air service is a significantly limiting factor,” Endow’s Jerimiah Reiman said earlier this year. “There’s a lack of air service particularly to global destinations.”

Of course, if we're going to go for economic purity, at some point we'd have to request that the Federal Government cease funding highway construction, which is a subsidy and a fairly direct one.  I can't see that request coming any time soon, but its interesting how in a state that tends to argue for a fairly laissez faire type of economics, we don't feel that way about highways.  No, not at all.  Of course, to be fair, funding the infrastructure, massively expensive though it is, is not the same as funding transportation itself.  I.e., there's no Federal bus subsidy, or Federal car subsidy. 

There isn't a Federal rail subsidy of any kind in most places, of course, although we do still have Amtrak, so I guess that's not fully true.  When railroads carried passengers everywhere cars were not as commonly used for over the road transportation and the Federal Government hadn't gotten in to highway funding yet.  Indeed, if the Federal Government quit funding highway construction it'd change the transportation infrastructure massively and we'd have to wonder if railroads and airlines would be big benefactors.  Anyhow, even at that time the railroads weren't necessarily super excited about passengers and the Federal Government somewhat forced the rail lines to carry them, but it didn't subsidize them.  The U.S. Mail was a big moneymaker for railroads back then, which it no longer is in any fashion, so the railroads had to listen to the Federal Government for that reason if none other.

December 28, 1917. Home Economics.

Today In Wyoming's History: On This Day In Wyoming History. Now available as an Ebook

On This Day In Wyoming History. Now available as an Ebook.

Now available as an Ebook:

On This Day In Wyoming's History.

In addition to being the frequent blogger here, as noted on the face page of this blog, I'm also the author of On This Day In Wyoming History, a book cataloging the daily history of Wyoming. 

The book went to press in March, 2014, and can be ordered through its publisher, The History Press, and of course through Amazon.  It's also available at various local bookstores in Wyoming, including Wind City Books in Casper, Hastings in Laramie, and the bookstore of the Wyoming State Archives and Museum in Cheyenne.

The book catalogs interesting and significant events from Wyoming's history.  If you have an interest in Wyoming, I hope you'll consider picking up a copy.

Lex Anteinternet: Happy Centenary! Things or rather places, that are 100 years old. Adding another of a bit different character.

 Last week I posted this item:

Lex Anteinternet: Happy Centenary! Things or rather places, that ar...: I've been meaning to post this forever but just wasn't in any big hurry to do it. Then it suddenly dawned on me that if I didn't...

Later, I went into the local Sutherlands and saw they had t-shirts celebrating their 100th Anniversary. Turns out they are also 100 years old.

Now, they aren't local, and I don't even know how long they've been here. They took over the space used by another store, although I've forgotten what it was.  I go there relatively frequently however.  And it turns out they too remain family owned.

Another interesting retail centenary.

Today In Wyoming's History: December 26. U.S. government takes over the railroads

Today In Wyoming's History: December 26. Boxing Day:

1917     The U.S. government took over operation of the nation's railroads during World War One.

 U.S. Capitol as viewed from a Washington D. C. rail yard, 1917.

This was a big deal.

The extent to which labor strife was a factor in the early US history of World War One is a story that tends to be drowned out by the opposite story during World War Two.  With the lesson of the first war behind it, labor was highly cooperative during the Second World War and, for that matter, the war brought massive employment relief from the ongoing Great Depression.

The story wasn't at all same in regards to World War One.  Going into the war the nation was faced with labor strife in the critical coal and railroad industries.  On this day the Federal Government, giving a late unwelcome present to the railroads, nationalized rail and put the lines under the United States Railroad Administration.  The USRA would continue to administer rail until March 1, 1920.

The action wasn't solely designed to address the threat of rail stoppages by any means.  Rail was critical to the nation and formed the only means of interstate national transportation.  This would largely remain the case in World War Two as well, of course, but by then there were beginning to be some changes to that. For that matter, its frankly the case far more today than people imagine.  But in the teens, rail was absolutely predominant.

In spite of that, and in spite of their best efforts, the railroads simply found themselves unable to address the massively increased burden on the various national private companies, the accompanying inflation in rail prices, and addressing the needs of labor.  The Interstate Commerce Commission did what it could, but it finally recommended nationalization in December, 1917.  The President took action on the recommendation on this day.

The USRA's sweep was surprisingly broad, and it even included the standardization of locomotives and rail cars.  Over 100,000 railroad cars and 1,930 locomotives were ordered for the war effort, which the USRA then leased.

USRA Light Mikado pattern locomotive.

Showing, perhaps, the radical spirit of the time, the railroad employees unions not only supported the nationalization, but hoped and urged it to continue following the war.  This of course had no support outside unions and more radical quarters.  Nonetheless, because the formal legislative act that approved the nationalization, which came in March, had provided that the rail lines had to be returned to private ownership within 21 months following the conclusion of the war the failure of the United States to sign the Versailles Treaty necessitated a separate act to do the same, with that act strengthening the powers of the ICC.

Theodore Roosevelt Calls on Neighbors at Christmas, 1917

Blog Mirror: Christmas 1917: Celebrations were subdued as young Montanans marched off to war

Christmas 1917: Celebrations were subdued as young Montanans marched off to war

Blog Mirror: Camp Taylor, Christmas 1917: A Time Of Festivity And Solemnity

Camp Taylor, Christmas 1917: A Time Of Festivity And Solemnity

A Christmas Observation

You know that you're getting old when you are the first one up on Christmas morning simply because you're habituated to getting up early.

Mexican Raid on Brite's Ranch, Texas. December 25-26, 1917.

On this day in 1917 Mexican raiders attacked Brite's Ranch in Texas. This resulted in a two day running fight that ultimately involved the U.S. Army's 8th Cavalry, including motorized elements of the same.

 Brite's Ranch in 1918, including small fort built on the location by the Texas Rangers for defensive purposes.

The Mexican forces responsible for the raid were never clearly identified.  Villistas were logically suspected for the raid at first, and may well have been responsible. However, Carrazaistas came to also be suspected to have been involved. Whether or not they were has never been determined. At the same time it cannot helped but be noted that the border had become lawless and the raids that came out of Mexico in this time period did not necessarily have any political motive and some of them were simply armed criminal expeditions.  Some had mixed purposes.

The raid started at about dawn when a party of about 45 or so Mexican raiders rode into Brite's Ranch, which was not only a ranch headquarters but a small town as well.  Only one man, Sam Neill, the son of the ranch manager, was awake at the time but realizing what was happening he armed himself and engaged the raiders. This soon awakened others there and the fight expanded and went on for some time until the Mexican raiders captured two Mexican ranch hands and bargained for their lives for entry in to the general store, which was then granted to them.  As they were robbing the store, a postal carrier with two Mexican passengers arrived and all three of them were killed by the Mexican raiders, bringing the total deaths in the raid to four.

The Neill's were hosting a Christmas party that night and as a result as the hour for the party arrived guests began to arrive and this resulted in the resisting party being expanded and the alarm being spread.  The message was carried to Lucas Brite in Marfa by telephone and then to the 8th Cavalry and the local sheriff, who formed a joint posse and cavalry detachment that then drove the raiders back into Mexico.

The following day men of the 8th Cavalry, who had arrived at Brite's Range by automobile, borrowed horses from the ranch and launched a punitive raid into Mexico, hoping to catch the responsible parties.  They met with additional cavalrymen near the Rio Grande and a detachment of about 200 troopers entered Mexico. The cavalrymen caught up up with the raiders and engaged them near Pilares, killing about 29 of them and recovering some of the stolen property.

This story would not end here, unfortunately, as the events that were unleashed by the raid on Brite's Ranch inflamed feelings on the border and would lead to tragedy, as we will see in a later entry on our real time exploration of the Punitive Expedition and the events that preceded and followed it.

So, while all eyes were on France, things were getting tense again on the Mexican border.

 The Brite's Raid made the cover of the Casper Record in a not very Christmasy issue, along with something that would actually happen the next day rather than on Christmas Day.  Hooverize?

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Church of the Ascension, Esterbrook Community Church, Esterbrook Wyoming

Churches of the West: Church of the Ascension, Esterbrook Community Church, Esterbrook Wyoming

 

This church was built in 1942 as the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, serving the mountain community of Esterbrook, Wyoming.  In 2005 the Church was leased to an independent protestant congregation, which uses the church as the Esterbrook Community  Church. The church remains the property of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming.

Tauberts Ranch Outfitters over the ages.

Tauberts Ranch Outfitters over the ages.

Pretty cool video.

The well dressed man of 1917.

Fedora (although some rubes like to claim that they didn't come in until after World War One, they were around well before it), scarf, starched collar, wool top coat, spats, and cane.

British Canadian organist Richard Tattersall at a meeting of American organists at the College of the City of New York, this day, 1917.

The Big Picture: Officers, 32nd Division, Camp MacArthur, Waco, Texas, December 23, 1917

Poster Saturday: Leslie's, December 22, 1917 edition

On Saturday I usually put up a poster, if I post in this category at all, but this week I'm posting the cover of the December 22, 1917 edition of Leslie's Illustrated News, which features a Norman Rockwell illustration of an American soldier, presumably in France, opening a Christmas package.  This magazine was published on the same schedule as The Saturday Evening Post and it had some of the same illustrators.

The cover demonstrated what was on the mind of Americans that Christmas of 1917 as American troops began to arrive in Europe.  While the bulk of Americans troops remained in the US at this time they were beginning to show up in Europe and the US had already sustained its first combat casualties, which was fairly remarkable when considering how small the US Army had been just several months prior.

This cover contrast with one we ran yesterday, that of The Saturday Evening Post, which featured an illustration by Joseph Christian Leyendecker.  At this point in time Leyendecker was arguably a more prominent illustrator and worked for a variety of magazines as well as doing commercial illustrations.  Rockwell was a bit of an understudy in some ways to Leyendecker whose career started earlier.  Leyendecker was a German immigrant, arriving at age 8, whose career rivaled if not exceed Rockwell's in this period.*

The Saturday Evening Post, December 22, 1917

Rockwell's World War Two era illustrations of American soldiers would be very notable for being highly technical correct in uniform details.  They weren't gritty combat depictions like those of cartoonist Bill Mauldin (whose cartoons were highly accurate in material details) or the incomparable Howard Brodie, arguably the greatest pen and ink combat artist of all time, or like the haunting paintings of Tom Lea.  But in terms of material details they were excellent, particularly of servicemen training in the US during the war and then later returning to the US post war.  Rockwell's development of running characters served well here, such as the running depiction of Willie Gillis, a typical American serving in uniform during World War Two (although even during the war Rockwell sometimes got uniforms incorrect by basing them on what was in the regulations of the time rather than what was actually being used).**  That is in part what makes these two illustrations, one by Rockwell and one by Leyendecker, interesting. They got some thing fairly seriously wrong.

At the start of World War One the United States had not fielded a large army since the Spanish American War and a really large army since the Civil War. So average people were simply not as familiar with material details of soldier's uniforms and equipment as they later would be.  And coming before the era of good color photography, the illustrator was left without a lot of information to go by. That shows in both of these illustrations.

The Rockwell illustration, depicting a happy American soldier receiving a package of gifts, many of which are useless to his present condition, has the overcoat correct, but the helmet is completely incorrect.  Rockwell appears to have based it on the French Adrian M15 helmet, some of which were in fact issued to American servicemen in France early on. But if that was his goal, he only managed to get some of the odder details of the M15 helmet correct

Indeed, he may have been trying to depict the British Brodie pattern helmet which in fact had been accepted into US service at this time and which would be standardized as the US M1917 helmet.  The saucer shaped helmet with the prominent brim is the one that most U.S. servicemen were equipped with during the war. But if that was his goal, the ridge on the helmet and the flaming cannon ball device, which were on the Adrian helmet, were incorrect.  Such big mistakes would not appear in Rockwell's World War Two illustrations.

Leyendecker's soldier is much more correctly depicted and the uniform details are all correct, except the color is wrong. And this is the second time that Leyendecker had depicted a soldier wearing a uniform of this color.  The color would be pretty close to the German feldgrau color and a person is almost inclined to speculate that Leyendecker was familiar with that color by some means and simply assumed the US uniform was in the same color.  Period photographs would not have corrected him on this as they were in black and white.  Later illustrations by Leyendecker would not repeat the error.

*It's come to be almost assumed that every single issue of The Saturday Evening Post was illustrated by Rockwell over a period of decades, but this simply isn't true.  Rockwell was never the exclusive illustrator of Post covers and he worked for more weekly's than just the Post.  The confusion is understandable however as Rockwell came to develop a style, which was already evident at this time if not fully developed, that truly captured slices of American life.  Highly accurate in detail, they were typically but not always fairly sweet depicts, although they could be sad or even angry.  Their fame is just in that they really were very close depictions of real events in the typical American's life.  

The Post also ran covers by Leyendecker and an entire range of illustrators including female artists such as Marjorie McMein and Sarah Stilwell-Weber.  Rockwell is, of course, be best known today and likely the best of them as well.

**Rockwell had two covers going to press on the same day, and the other one featured one of his recurring characters.  Country Gentleman, which was published by the same publisher as The Saturday Evening Post, featured a "Cousin Reginald" cover.  Cousin Reginald was a character that appeared on the cover of Country Gentleman and was a citified boy whose rural cousins constantly get the better of him.

 

Best Posts of the Week of Deceber 17, 2017

The best posts of the week of December 17, 2017.

Quite a range of topics this week.

We start with something I missed, but I shouldn't have:

Today In Wyoming's History: New Mexicans In Wyoming

Today In Wyoming's History: New Mexicans In Wyoming: 

 

The oldest house in the United States, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  New Mexico very much has its own distinct cultures that have been in theregion for a very long time.

 And then to something rather sad.

His last pictures

And then something we started to write a long time ago, but we hadn't finished:

You Heard It Here First: Peculiarized violence and American society. It Wasn't The Guns That Changed, We Changed (a post that does and doesn't go where you think it is) 

And then an error:

Iced coffee.

And then a comment:

All too true.

(Mitchell Grafton, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons), after Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) -The Girl With The Pearl Earring (1665).jpg

Followed by some local centenniaries:

Happy Centenary! Things or rather places, that are 100 years old.

And then some of the things I like to see and do.

Friday Farming: Get A Long Little Dogie

Before going back to 1917.

December 22, 1917: The United States Guards Authorized

December 22, 1917: The United States Guards Authorized

Red Cross repsentatives marching with members of the New York State Guard in 1918. This is, of course, the State Guard, not the United States Guards. 

Showing a distinctly different approach to things than would be taken during the Second World War, something that will continue to be the case as we read more about Woodrow Wilson's approach to Federalism during World War One, the United States Guards were authorized on this day in 1917. They were part of the National Army, i.e. that part of the Army raised from civilians for the war, as opposed to those parts made up of the combined National Guard and Regular Army.  While they were part of the National Army, they were under the authority of the Militia Bureau (today's National Guard Bureau).  Of interest, at the same time the Federal Government was encouraging states to raise units of State Guards.

Some explanation of what these various units are or were is necessary to make much sense out of this story, of course.

The National Guard is well known to Americans, of course, and the nature of the National Guard would be evident to anyone who has been reading this blog over the past two years, as various National Guard units were called up and deployed to the Mexican border to be followed by the mass call up, and then mass conscription for odd legal reasons, of the National Guard in 1917.  As has also been seen, and a much different practice from what would occur in later years, states actively recruited for National Guardsmen right up until they were formally inducted into the U.S. Army and even proposed new National Guard units, much like they had done with the formation of state units during the Civil War.

Much different from the Civil War or even the Spanish American War, however, changes to the structure of the American military establishment following the Spanish American War had formalized its status as a reserve of the Army and caused the Militia Bureau to come about to deal with that.  The regularization of the National Guard as the state militia country wide created, in all states and in some territories the creation of those units to fill both a local militia role and to be the reserve of the Army in time of war.  In a few states this was controversial and they ended up accordingly splitting their state establishments between the National Guard and a State Guard, with the liability of the State Guard in times of war being fairly unclear.  The latter would seem to have been so liable as long as the fighting was to occur within the boundaries of the United States.  Rhode Island provides us one such example, Maryland another.  Most states did no such thing, however.

When the US entered the Great War in 1917 the National Guard, lately back from the Mexican border, was first called up and then conscripted in mass.  Indeed, it was expanded and therefore the result was that the states now lacked, for the most part, men for local militia service, should it be needed. That was one perceived problem.

A second was that, in spite of how we recall it today, the U.S. entry into World War One, while largely popular, was not entirely popular everywhere.  We've already had the example of a revolt against conscription and perhaps the war in general in Oklahoma.  To compound that, the teens were at the height of the radicalization of the American labor movement and labor was much less willing to go along with the Federal government as part of the war effort than it would be in later years.  Those who have read the newspaper entries here have seen the ones about trouble in the vital coal and rail industries, two industries that literally had the ability to completely cripple the nation.  Beyond that, the Administration of this era was highly intolerant to radical dissent and tended to see the events in Russia as if reflected in a distant mirror in the United States.

Given all of that, the Federal Government perceived there being a need for internal security forces at a national level.  To take up that role, it formed 48 regiments of United States Guards.  By the end of 1918, 1,364 officers and 26,796 men were serving in the United States Guards, stationed in the continental United States and the Territory of Alaska. 

These men were taken from the many men found unfit for service in the National Army, something which the readers of the newspapers here would also have noted, although the regulations provided that such departures from physical standards had to be "minor".  While physical standards for service were far less strict than they are now, frankly American health wasn't what the covers of The Saturday Evening Post and Leslie's might suggest.  Plenty of men were too old, infirm or in ill health so as to go to France with the National Army.  18,000 of the men who served in the United States Guards fit the category of men with a "minor" physical defect who had been conscripted but, because of their condition, could not go oversees. They were volunteers from the National Army into the United States Guards.  The balance were men whose condition precluded them from being drafted in the first instance, or who were above conscription age as the United States Guards would take able men who were above the service age.  After August 1918, when the Selective Service operated to process all incoming servicemen, a crack in the door that had existed for overage men to attempt to volunteer for the National Army was closed but they could still volunteer for the United States Guards. Some of them ended up in the 48 regiments of United States Guards maintained to keep the wolf at bay in the US itself.

 Enormous panoramic photograph of Michigan state troops, June 1917.  I've never been certain if these cavalrymen are National Guardsmen or State Guardsmen. If they're National Guardsmen, they're irregularly equipped in that they're carrying riot batons and lever action rifles, both of which would be extremely odd for National Guardsmen of this period even taking into account that prior to the Punitive Expedition some units were still privately equipped to some degree. This suggests state equipage, which was common for State Guards.

They didn't do it alone.  The various states had to form State Guard units as, even though its rare, State Governors lacked an armed force for internal security in the event of riots or disasters.  Substitute militia units were authorized and formed in every state, drawing from the same pool, to some extent, as the United States Guards, but with less connection to the formal National Army.  They were also less regularly equipped as well, relying on old or irregular weapons.   

For the most part, these units saw no action of any substantial type at all, but there is one notable exception, the Texas State Guard, which remained constantly deployed on real active service on the Mexican border, augmenting the United States Army which carried on in that role all throughout the war.  The United States Guards did provide security in Alaska, wild and far duty at that time (the initial unit was made up of men from a waterways unit), and in controlling IWW strikes in Arizona in 1918 and 1919. They also were used to suppress a race riot in North Carolina in 1918.

After the war, the United States Guards were disbanded, with that formally coming in 1920 but with actual demobilization starting on November 11, 1918 and continuing on into 1919.  The states largely disbanded the State Guard units, but a few retained them, with states that had such units before the war being in the forefront of that.  During World War Two State Guard units were again reestablished everywhere, after the National Guard was federalized in 1940, although this did not have happy results everywhere.  No effort was made to re-create the United States Guards and no need to do that was seen.  Today, some states still retain State Guard units that augment their National Guard establishments, but most do not.

Photographs, we'd note, of the United States Guards are exceedingly difficult to find, and therefore we've posted none.  They were issued obsolete U.S. arms, like the Krag rifle, or non standard arms, like rejected Russian Mosin Nagants.  While not equipped with the latest weapons going to France, these arms were more than adequate for the role the units performed.  Uniforms were initially going to be made up of blue dress uniforms of a late pattern, which did not vary greatly from field uniforms of the late 19th Century, but this was soon rejected on the basis that it deterred enlistment on the part of the men who did not want to be identified with rejected uniforms for rejected service.

Their service is obscure, but like that provided by State Guardsmen on the Mexican boarder during the war, it was real service.  It started on this day in 1917.

Friday Farming: Get A Long Little Dogie

Holscher's Hub: Get A Long Little Dogie:    

 

  

The Saturday Evening Post, December 22, 1917

Today In Wyoming's History: December 22, 1917

Today In Wyoming's History: December 22:

1917  Mrs. Cody reacquires title to the Irma Hotel, in Cody.  Attribution.  Wyoming State Historical Society.

 Louisa and William F. Cody in later years.

Happy Centenary! Things or rather places, that are 100 years old.

I've been meaning to post this forever but just wasn't in any big hurry to do it. Then it suddenly dawned on me that if I didn't do it soon, these places would be 101 years old, not 100. So here goes.

A thread dedicated to a few local places and establishments that made it to year 100 in 2017.

The ConRoy Building

 

 The ConRoy (Consolidated Royalty Building).  The building's appearance has changed somewhat, but you have to really observe it to notice the changes.  The windows were replaced from the original style about fifteen years ago, giving it more modern and more efficient windows.  The elevator shaft, not visible here, is an enlarged one to accommodate a larger elevator than the one put in when it was built in 1917.  The awning restores the building to an original appearance in those regards which it lacked for awhile, but at street level the building has a glass or rock masonry treatment which clearly departs from the original.

One that I've mentioned here before is the ConRoy, or Consolidated Royalty Building.  Built in 1917 as the Oil Exchange Building, the building was one of Casper's first "sky scrapers",  if in fact not the absolute first.  Ground was broken in the summer of 1917 and the building was completed some time in August 1917. The Consolidated Royalty Oil Company, a company in which former Governor B. B. Brooks had a major interest, occupied the fifth floor of the structure.

 

The ConRoy Building occasionally gets some interesting avian visitors.

Unlike its two sister buildings, the Wyoming National Bank Building (now apartments) and  the Townsend Hotel (now the Townsend Justice Center) designed by the same architect, the building has never been vacant and remains in use today.  At least one of the current tenants descends from a firm that was a very early tenant, and perhaps a 1917 tenant.

 

The building has been updated over time, and its appearance is slightly changed due to the addition of an odd decorative rock face in the 1950s, but it by and large looks much like it did in 1917 from the outside.  It's one of the few old downtown Casper buildings that hasn't undergone major appearance changes over the years.

May 2, 1917 edition of the Casper Daily Tribune announcing vacancies in the yet to be built Oil Exchange Building.  The remainder of this issue was full of war news, and indeed it was partially the oil boom caused by the war that brought the building about.

Kistler Tent & Awning Company

Painted building sign at original location of Kistler Tent and Awning.  At this point the company occupied a couple of buildings in the heart of downtown Casper.

Another Casper feature hitting the century mark this past year is Kistler Tent & Awning.

 Kistler Tent & Awning log on an elevator pad.  Up until very recently their logo featured a sheep wagon.

Kistler Tent & Awning is a canvas manufacturing company.  It makes, and still makes, all the things listed in this sign, as well as anything else that can be made with canvas.  Two of my pickups have tonneau covers made by Kistler Tent & Awning.

Kistler logo in the cement of a building most recently occupied by the Western Book Store.  Obviously this was the storefront for Kistler Tent and Awning at one time. An interesting thing is that the photos on the bricks depicted above are not on the same building, but an adjoining one.  Either Kistler leased the sign space or, probably more likely, it occupied several adjoining buildings at this time.

At some point in its early history Kistler Tent & Awning occupied a location, or locations, right downtown, showing what a major business it was.  When it located there I'm not certain of, however.  It's earliest noted location was on 7th and Durbin, a few blocks away.  The structures located there do not date to this period now.   The company is presently located about one mile to the west in more spacious quarters.

 Kistler Tent & Awning today.  I'm not sure when the company moved to this location, but if the sign is any indication it would likely have been in the 1940s or 1950s.

Wyoming Automotive

 Wyoming Automotive.  This building is obviously not the original structure.

If Kislter Tent & Awning made at least one product that was focused on an older means of transportation, covers for sheep wagons, the arrival of the automobile age was signaled by the arrival of another company in town, Wyoming Automotive.

When exactly in 1917 Wyoming Automotive opened up seems lost to history, but it was in 1917.  The company was one of the very first automobile supply stores in Casper and its amazingly still open today.

 July 26, 1922 edition of the Casper Daily Tribune.  An advertisement for Wyoming Automotive as a "jobber" of Eveready Flashlights is included.  I have no idea what that is supposed to mean.  Note also the odd advertisement for "Driverless Cars".  We may expect to see advertisements like that soon in  the paper, but what did it mean in 1922?

Wyoming Automotive isn't the only local automotive supply store still open, but in the age of the chain stores, that it keeps on keeping on is pretty amazing.  I wish I could say more about it, but unfortunately I really can't.  It has a focus to a degree on performance automobiles, and I've never owned one, so I've rarely stopped in the shop.  I'm glad they're still up and running, however.

Changing times and changing ownership.

One thing that perhaps we should note about all of these entities is that even though they're all still there, not one of them remains owned by the original owners, I think (I'm not completely certain about Kistler Tent & Awning).  Wyoming Automotive was purchased years and years ago by one of the individuals who worked at the store and its since gone on to another.  So it hasn't passed down in the family, per se, but sort has passed down through its employee family, which is neat.

While I'm uncertain, I think that Kistler Tent & Awning also went, at some point, from the Kistlers to an employee and is now passing through that family.   Again, I'm much less certain about the story there so I could be off, and in fact it might still be owned by the same family.  It's still locally owned any way you look at it.

The Consolidated Royalty Oil Company no longer occupies the entire fifth floor of the ConRoy Building which is named after it, and hasn't for many, many years.  So many, I don't know how many it is.  It actually came into formal existence in September 1917, just in time to occupy the building it had created, but how long it occupied space in the structure I'm unaware of.  It might have been a really long time, or it might not of.  No idea.

At any rate, the building always had tenants and other occupants and to a degree that was always the most significant aspect of its day to day existence.  Early on the Casper Star Tribune published from its basement as one of the tenants and, when it moved, Prairie Publishing (which is no longer around, but which I think would also be 100 this year but which only made it into the 1980s, I think) occupied that space.  Accounting firms and law firms had a presence in the building right from the very onset.  The descendants of two such entities that stretch back to the very early history of the building are still in it and other tenants have a presence that dates back up to fifty or more years.  Today the building is owned by some of its tenants, which shows an interesting degree of stability in the occupancy of the building.

Indeed, all three of these entities have shown that stability.  While they may no longer be owned by the original owners, they are all owned by people or business that had direct roles in the businesses and knew them well.  They all remain major local businesses a century down the road.  We can't say that about too many local enterprises.