USS Arabia.
She'd been laid down in 1903 as a commercial fishing vessel. Submarine depredations caused the Navy to take her into service in August, 1918, but with that task complete, she was struck from the Navy's rolls and sold that following November.
Why put this obscure ship in here?
Well, this blog explores trends and changes. 1919 wasn't all that long ago, at least not the way historians think of time, and therefore it wasn't that long ago when commercial operations, and even the Navy, regarded sail as still a viable means of propulsion.
There was big local news.
Mary Pickford was coming to the Irish Theatre in Casper on Sunday.
Mary Pickford in 1916.
Pickford was a huge deal in 1919, and frankly she always would be. One of the really big early stars of early movies, the Toronto born actress was at that time as big of movie star as anyone could imagine.
Her life wasn't really a happy one. Married three times, she became a recluse in later years and would only receive Lilian Gish as a personal visitor. This week in 1919, however, she'd be Casper's visitor.
Casper was also declaring war on vice, the paper proclaimed. If it was, it wasn't very successful at it. It wasn't until after World War Two when the strong streak of vice running through Casper would be cleaned up, and the Sandbar district remained all the way into the 1970s.
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