Tuesday, November 23, 1909. The Uprising of the 20,000

Approximately 20,000 Yiddish-speaking young women launched a strike in the New York garment industry.

Mount Aspiring (referred Tititea), the highest peak in New Zealand at 9,957 feet (3,033 m), was climbed for the first time.

Last edition:

Sunday, November 21, 1909. Demanding Nicaraguan reparations..

Labels: 1900s, 1909, boats and ships, Diplomacy, Nicaragua, U.S. Navy, United States

Sunday, November 21, 1909. Demanding Nicaraguan reparations..

The US issued a statement demanding reparations from Nicaragua for the execution of two American mercenaries, Leonard Groce and Lee Roy Cannon, that had occurred several days earlier.  The transport ship USS Buffalo was ordered to proceed towards Nicaragua.

USS Buffalo.

Nicaragua was fighting a rebellion at the time.

Last edition:

Friday, November 19, 1909 Sabin sentenced and Belgian abuse.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, 1910s, 1913, Belgium, Blog Mirror, Christianity, Colonialism, Congo, Crime, Personalities, Protestant, religion, Sheep Wars, Spring Creek Raid, Wyoming

Friday, November 19, 1909 Sabin sentenced and Belgian abuse.

Today In Wyoming's History: November 19: 1909  George Sabin sentenced for Second Degree Murder for his part in the Spring Creek Raid.  He escaped on December 25,1913, while on a work gang in  Basin, and was never recaptured.

The sentencing is remarkable and significance as it effectively meant an end to private warfare over sheep in Wyoming, and it also meant that conventional justice had come to the Big Horn Basin, where previously juries would not convict in these circumstances.  This reflected in part the horror of the  Spring Creek assault, but also the fact that the Basin was now closer to the rest of the state, having been connected some time prior by rail.

Members of the leadership of the Church of England, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, and fifty members of parliament assembled at Albert Hall to protest Belgium abuses in the Congo.

Last edition:

Saturday, November 13, 1909. Cherry Mine Disaster.

Labels: 1900s, 1909, Coal, Disaster, football, Illinois, Mining

Friday, June 30, 1899. Safe passage for Spanish troops at Baler.

In a somewhat bizarre episode of the Spanish American War/Philippine Insurrection, on this day in 1899, the Spanish soldiers at Baler, who had held out for a year in a fortified church, were recognized as friend of the Filipino people and granted safe conduct.

A film about this event was earlier reviewed by us here:

1898:  Our Last Men In the Philippines

Baler had been under siege from June 26, 1898, until June 2, 1899, which exceeded the period of time during which Spain was at war with the United States. The troops under siege had not realized that Spain had departed, and when informed, they refused to believe it and kept fighting.  Ultimately, the besieging Filipinos became concerned for the garrison and began to supply it with food, beverages and cigarettes.  An American expedition to relieve the garrison was launched and failed.

Finally, on June 2, 1899, the garrison surrendered.

The surviving Spanish troops upon their return to Spain.

The Spanish troops were lauded by Aguinaldo, but two Franciscan Priests who had been at the church, Fr. Félix Minaya and Fr. Juan López, plus a captured Yorktown seaman, George Arthur Venville, were kept as prisoners.  The priests were freed when the US occupied the town on June 3, 1900 but Venville was executed by Filipino tribesmen.

Last edition

Monday, June 26, 1899. Birth of Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia.

Labels: 1890s, 1899, 1910s, 1918, Christianity, Communism, Monarchy, Orthodox, Personalities, Protestant, religion, Russia, Russian Civil War, Russian Revolution

Friday, June 2, 1899. The Wild Bunch Robs the Overland Flyer at Wilcox and the Philippine Republic declares war on the United States.

Today In Wyoming's History: June 2: 1899   The Wild Bunch robbed the Union Pacific Overland Flyer No. 1  near Wilcox, taking between $30,000 and $60,000.  This robbery is famous in part for the large amount taken, but also for the destruction of a rail car by explosives which were used to open a safe.  This is depicted in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Attribution:  On This Day.

 

The Overland Flyer in 1906.

Longtime Wyoming residents may wonder where on earth Wilcox is.  That's because, it isn't.  It's a named spot on the railroad just north of Rock River.  If this same crime occured today, people would report it as having occured north of Rock River.  It occured very near the junction with the Fetterman Road.

I've driven past this spot thousands of time and never realized where it was. This was a bold action, as Rock Rover was more substantial than it now is (the explosion clearly could have been heard from there) and Medicine Bow not all that far to the north. 

The First Philippine Republic officially declared war against the United States, although clearly the war, which the US termed an insurrection, had been going on for some time.

To recognize it as a war would have required a declaration of war, which in turn would have recognized the sovereignty of the Philippine Republic, which would have made a mockery of the US position on the islands.

Almost always, when people accuse the US of being involved in "colonial wars", they're full of it. This, however, was a colonial war.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, June 1, 1899. White Horse Pass.

Labels: 1890s, 1899, Alaska, Yukon Territory

Theodore Roosevelt at Arlington.

On this day…we call to mind the deaths of those who died that the nation might live, who wagered all that life holds dear for the great prize of death in battle.

President Roosevelt at Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Day, 1902.

I have to say, I wouldn't have referred to death as a "prize" in this context.

Blog MIrror: The American Springfield Krag–Jørgensen Rifle

 

The American Springfield Krag–Jørgensen Rifle

February 22, 1874. Birth of Bill Klem.

"The Old Arbitrator", Klem was a Major League (National League) umpire from 1905 to 1941, and served in eighteen World Series (1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1917, 1918, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1934 and 1940), more than any other umpire.

He lived until 1951 and passed away at age 77, writing his attorney just before his death that "This is my last game, and I'm going to strike out this time."  He and his wife Marie had no children.

Last prior:

February 18, 1874. Disputed crown.

1906 US Army Emergency Ration Preserved Survival Food Testing 24 Hour MRE Review

Monday, July 23, 1973. Old Faithful Inn added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Old Faithful Inn in 1909.

Today In Wyoming's History: July 23: 1923  1973   Old Faithful Inn was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Attribution:  On This Day.

  President Nixon refused to turn over tape recordings to the Senate or special prosecutor.

A Hairy Time

This is an advertisement commissioned by the Wyoming Department of Health, and my gosh does it bring home a really overlooked point about the past. . . and today.

Very well done, and very much worth the watching.

Not all that long ago getting a simple infection, and tetanus is more than a simple infection, could kill you.  Calvin Coolidge, Jr., the then Vice President's son, died from a staph infection resulting from a blister on a toe that he acquired playing tennis barefoot.  The infection killed the poor boy within a week of its occurrence.

Infections acquired at barber shops, sometimes deadly, were such a problem that they were a major topic of local physician's organizations.  Tetanus was only one of the killer diseases that lurked there. Even anthrax could be picked up from razor strop, if it had been made from a diseased animal.  Bacteria lurking in barbers brushes, used all day long on multiple clients, posed another danger.

And of course, as the story of Calvin Coolidge, Jr. shows, infections could be picked up anywhere, and kill you.

Memories of such things remained strong in my parents' generation.  My mother recalled that her father used to occasionally get a shave at the barbers, which was odd as this was well after the safety razor came about, and that he invariably developed "barber's cancer", a colloquial term meaning a bad rash from an infection.  The family tried to prevent him from doing this, but he would occasionally anyhow, and given the line of work he was in, it was probably in order to engage with members of the local public.  My father, for his part, never approved of going barefoot, regarding it as an invitation to infection.

Now, simple vaccinations eliminate the danger.

Saturday, June 2, 1923. Criqui v. Kilbane

Eugène Criqui knocked out Johnny Kilbane in the sixth round at the Polo Grounds in New York City to take the World Featherweight Title.  Babe Ruth, who had hurried over from a Yankee's game, was in attendance.

Cirqui.

Cirqui had been a professional boxer since 1910, although his career was interrupted by World War One during which he was shot in the jaw by a German sniper.  His jaw had been reconstructed with wire, the bone of a goat and silver.

He died at age 83 in 1977.

Kilbane.

Kilbane was from Ohio and from a classically difficult childhood.  He'd been boxing since 1907.  He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War One and retired shortly after losing this fight.  He died at age 68 in 1957.

The Kaufman Act passed, requiring the electrification of all New York City railroads by the beginning of 1926.

The Federal Government wasn't taking New York's no to Prohibition lightly.

The New Academic Disciplines (of a century+ ago).

I was listening to an excellent episode of Catholic Stuff You Should Know (I'm a bit behind).  Well, it's this episode here:

THE LITURGICAL IDEAL OF THE CHURCH

The guest, early on, makes a comment about the beginning of the 20th Century, end of the 19th, and mentions "archeology was new".  I thought I'd misheard that, but he mentioned it again, and added sociology.

He explained it, but it really hit me.

Archeology, and sociology, in fact, were new.  Many academic disciplines were.

Indeed, that's something we haven't looked at here before.  People talk all the time about the decline of the classic liberal education (at a time that very few people attended university), but when did modern disciplines really appear?

Indeed, that's part of what make a century ago, +, more like now, than prior to now.  Educational disciplines, based on the scientific method in part, really began to expand.

So, we can take, for example, and find the University of Wyoming recognizable at the time of its founding in 1886.

But would Princeton, as it is now, be recognizable in 1786?

And interesting also how this effected everything, in this case, the Church's look at its liturgy.

But also, everything, really, about everything, for good and ill.

Going Feral:

Going Feral:  :  

 

House of the Rising Sun Deconstructed. Anything seem a little odd?

Most of us know the song, House of the Rising Sun.  Probably most people who think of it, when they do, think of the version by Eric Burdon and the Animals.

It's a great song.

Anything ever seem a little off about it, however?

The song is about a house of prostitution, which most people familiar with the song are aware of.  As Burdon sings it, the lyrics are:

There is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

And God, I know I'm one

My mother was a tailor

She sewed my new blue jeans

My father was a gamblin' man

Down in New Orleans

Now the only thing a gambler needs

Is a suitcase and a trunk

And the only time he's satisfied

Is when he's all drunk

 

Oh mother, tell your children

Not to do what I have done

Spend your lives in sin and misery

In the House of the Rising Sun

Well, I got one foot on the platform

The other foot on the train

I'm goin' back to New Orleans

To wear that ball and chain

 

Well, there is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

And God, I know I'm one

Now, it is a great song.  And I like this version of it, which was released in 1964.

The interesting thing, however, is that song from a male point of view, which it is, it's sort of way ahead of its time.  Not that it isn't relevant, it's just a point of view that I can't think of any other song from the mid to late 20th Century expressing that view.  Basically, the protagonist is confessing that he's a sex addict and addicted to frequenting the prostitutes of The House Of The Rising Sun.

The song wasn't written by Eric Burdon, or any of his band. They were covering a song, which many are unaware of, that had already had a successful recording run when sung by Woodie Guthrie and Hudey Ledbetter (Leadbelly).  Indeed, I thought Leadbelly had written the wrong, but I was in error on that.

The Guthrie version, from 1941, has the following lyrics:

There is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

And God I know I'm one

My mother was a tailor

She sewed my new bluejeans

My father was a gamblin' man

Down in New Orleans

Now the only thing a gambler needs

Is a suitcase and trunk

And the only time he's satisfied

Is when he's on a drunk

Oh mother tell your children

Not to do what I have done

Spend your lives in sin and misery

In the House Of The Rising Sun

Well, I got one foot on the platform

The other foot on the train

I'm goin' back to New Orleans

To wear that ball and chain

Well, there is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy

And God I know I'm one

Identical.  What about Leadbelly?  Well, he recorded it twice, first in 1944, which had these lyrics:

There is a house in New Orleans

You call the Rising Sun

It's been the ruin of many a poor soul

And me, oh God, I'm one

 

If I'd listened to what mama said

I'd be at home today

Being so young and foolish, poor girl

I let a gambler lead me astray

 

My mother she's a tailor

Sews those new blue jeans

My sweetheart, he's a drunkard, Lord God

He drinks down in New Orleans

 

He fills his glasses to the brim

Passes them around

The only pleasure that he gets out of life

Is a hoboin' from town to town

 

The only thing a drunkard needs

Is a suitcase and a trunk

The only time that he's half satisfied

Is when he's on a drunk

 

Go and tell my baby sister

Never do like I have done

Shun that house down in New Orleans

That they call that Rising Sun.

 

It's one foot on the platform,

One foot on the train.

I'm going back down to New Orleans

To wear my ball and my chain

 

My life is almost over

My race is almost run

Going back down to New Orleans

To that house of the Rising Sun

Oh, now wait a moment, that's a lot different.  In this version, which is earlier, the protagonist, while sung through Leadbelly's male voice, is a girl entrapped in prostitution.  Frankly, the song makes a lot more sense all the way around.

Leadbelly's 1947 version of The House of the Rising Sun.

In the second recording, which is the one people normally here, Leadbelly had followed Guthrie's lead, and the protagonist was male.

The first one presents a really grim warning. The girl who is the subject of the song has obviously left the house, and now is returning? Why? Well, contrary to the way prostitution is portrayed in film, her reputation would have been completely ruined and by this point that probably would have been her only option to try to make enough money to stay alive.  Not only that, she's noting that she's expecting an early death.  

More on that in a moment.

Leadbelly, it should be noted, didn't get around to recording until very near the end of his life.  He died in 1949, and was first recorded in 1933.  He was born in 1888 and was preforming professionally by 1903.  Indeed, at first he preformed in Shreveport audiences in St. Paul's Bottoms, its red-light district, with his career interrupted by stints in jail, which are referenced in some of his most famous songs.  He was in fact discovered, and truly was a great musical talent, by Alan Lomax while serving a prison stint.

Leadbelly preformed so early that some have speculated to what degree he was an indeterminable influence on the blues.  He definitely was, but he also was unique in that he played a twelve-string guitar, very unusual for bluesmen, and his songs were always in the blues format but in sometimes in a near blues, ten bar, format.  Indeed, some of those were converted to eight bar blues formats by later recording artists, probably basically by accident.

Anyhow, Leadbelly's songs often had a really old origin.  This seems to be one. And the fact that the first version he recorded was sung from a female point of view is telling. Taht's probably how he learned it.

How early is that version?

Well, the song first makes its appearance by reference in 1905. By that time, it was being sung by miners in Appalachia, which means that one of the references doesn't quite fit unless the song had really travelled in the South.  I.e., a song about somebody in New Orleans is out of regional context.  The first printed version of the lyrics appear in 1925, with this:

There is a house in New Orleans, 

it's called the Rising Sun

It's been the ruin of many poor girl

Great God, and I for one.

Just like Leadbelly had it.

The first recorded version came in 1933, later than I would have supposed, but still pretty early in the recording industry.  It was by Applachain artist Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster.  Ashley claimed to have learned it from his grandfather, which pushes the song back to the mid 19th Century. Ashley's version has a male protagonist:

There is a house in New Orleans

They call the Rising Sun

Where many poor boys to destruction has gone

And me, oh God, are one.

Note, this one has a blunter warning than any others with a male protagonist. The male vocalist hasn't gone to "ruin", but to "destruction".

Hmmmm. . . . so was it a male or female song?

My guess is that it was originally a female one, but because of its compelling popularity, it's been switched back and forth from its near onset.

So, was there a House of the Rising Sun that induced poor girls into lives, and probably shortened ones, of prostitution?

Nobody really knows for sure, but applying Yeoman's Eighth Law of History, as we should, would suggest it's likely. That law, as you'll recall, stated the following:

Yeoman's Eighth Law of History:  Myths, unless purely fanciful, almost always have a basis in reality.

In cultures that write things down, the concept that myths, which were primarily related by word of mouth, have any basis in reality seems to come as a shock. But they normally do. 

It is the spoken word that is the default means of transmitting information, including history, in human beings.  The written word is a learned behavior, indeed one that must not only be learned but nurtured in order to take root.   Even now, a lot of people will take and retain information better orally than in a written form.

But oral transmission is always subject to decay with the teller, and the tricks the mind uses to retain the story warp it a bit by default. But that doesn't mean that the stories were never true in any fashion.

All the time we find that historians and archeologist are surprised to learn that something thought to be a myth has some basis in reality.  Probably most do. Troy turns out to have been a real city (and the war was probably over the teenage wife of a teenage king, I'll bet), the Navajo and Apache turn out to be from the far north originally and so their memories of their being great white bears and great white birds are spot on.  Myths, even very old ones, if carefully discerned usually have some basis in fact.

While that eight law mostly referred to old myths, it applies to more recent ones as well, as the basic principle is the same. The song clearly came out of Louisiana, and it traveled the South pretty extensively while persistently retaining its references to a House of the Rising Sun.  There likely was such a place in Louisiana, or at the chances that there was are pretty good.

Indeed, a whole series of theories hold that it was on Conti Street in the French Quarter or on Ursulines Street or on St. Louis Street.  In 2016 however, the New Orleans Times Picayune ran an article about an advertisement they'd found in which a hotelier was advertising the Mechanics Hotel, just outside of town, and with obviously pretty good rooming accommodations, which was noted to have formerly been "the old establishment of the Rising Sun".

Hmmm. . . .

The owners of the Mechanics Hotel wanted his potential guests to note that the hotel had a variety of rooms and offered a variety of services and accommodations, none of which included prostitution.  The prior role of the Rising Sun wasn't mentioned, just that the Mechanics Hotel was where it formerly was, or rather that it was being rebranded.  Perhaps it was also being repurposed. If so, that advertisement would have served two purposes, one being "don't stay away if you would have avoided the old Rising Sun", and the second being "don't come around if you are expecting the old services of the Rising Sun".

That advertisement, by the way, ran in 1828, which would mean that the song would have to have dated back to at least that approximate time.

So, what's the moral of the song?  It clearly has one.

The basic warning is against living a life of depravity, that's clear enough.  More than that, it was a direct warning about living a life of sexual depravity.  Further, it warns the audience that the vocalist can't get out of it, now that the protagonist is in it, even though it would see, that the protagonist has tried.  In the male variant sung by Guthrie, and in the female variant sung by Leadbelly, the protagonist informs the audience that the subject is at a railroad station with one foot on the platform, and one on the train, and is going back to New Orleans "to wear that ball and train".  That tells us that the male protagonist is going back to New Orleans where he intends, seemingly against his will, to resume visiting the House of the Rising Sun.  In the female protagonist version, she's going back to be a prostitute.

The female version is even grimmer.  In that version, not only does the lyrics indicate that the subject is a slave to the situation, she's a different sort.  Her slavery, in essence, is implied to be economic.  Her reputation is ruined and she can't do anything else at this point.  Moreover, she knows that she's going to die young, either at the hands of one of her clients, or more likely through disease.

Which takes us to this.  That in fact was then and is now the thing that kills prostitutes early.  It's odd how in Western movies like Lonesome Dove or Open Range this is ignored.  Prostitutes were nearly guaranteed to get a venereal disease at the time, and it was probably going to kill them. Regular clients were likely to get a "social disease" as well, and the number of men who came down with one even where they were not regular customers, but who had made a visit a few, or perhaps even one, times were likely to as well.

Indeed, it wasn't really until after World War Two that it was the case that VD could really be effectively treated. . Nearly all of the treatments before then were ineffective to varying degrees.  But that's not the last of it.  Girls who fell into prostitution didn't simply think it an economic option, but were often victims of what was termed "white slavery".  Kidnapped and drugged, or kept against their will in some fashion, sometimes by force, sometimes by addition.  This is also still the case.  

It's worth noting, in addition, that modern pornography has its origin in prostitution and indeed the word stems from it.  "Graphy" indicates depiction, and pornea is Greek for of or pertaining to prostitutes.  Very early pornography, going back to the first really easy to use cameras, came from photographing prostitutes to expand on their marketability.  I.e., the working girls were basically captives of their procurer, and those people expanded their profits, not the girls profits, by photographing and selling their images, which had the added impact of being a species of advertising.  This aspect of pornography was very heavy in the industry up until the mid 20th Century, when some of the subjects limited themselves to selling their own images in some fashion, but it's apparently returned in spades since the Internet, with many, apparently, of the images around now being once again of young girls trapped most likely by drug addiction.

The whole thing is pretty bad, suffice it to say.

Okay, we went down sort of a rabbit hole here, and for an odd reason. The trip to House of the Rising Sun started off as it refers to the mother of the subject sewing his blue jeans. We'll explain that in the other thread, but we would note that the song has one final aspect.  It's a warning about the decay of a family. 

Wednesday, December 30, 1942. Sinatra breaks out, and Soviets starting to. And, Bobby Soxers.

Frank Sinatra appeared as a solo act for the first time, appearing before a screaming crowed of bobby soxers of 5,000 at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.

Sinatra on the radio with actress Alida Valli.*

Sinatra in some ways was the first example of a phenomenon that would attach to certain male performers of the mid 20th Century in which they were the subject of gigantic teenage female fascination.  We tend to think of personalities like Elvis in this category, but Sinatra had the same adulation prior to their experiencing it.

His appearance at this point in time raises certain interesting questions.

Sinatra was born into an Italian American family that endured rough circumstances, to some degree, but which also saw his father go from being a boxer to a fire captain, and which featured a dominant, highly driven mother.  The mother supported the son's endeavors.  Sinatra, who always performed under his own name, took an interest in music early and started singing professionally with bands at age 20.  He sang with Tommy Dorsey's band in the late 1930s, with his desire to break free from the band resulting in a legal battle and persistent rumors that Mafia boss Willie Moretti, who was Sinatra's Godfather, had held a gun to Dorsey's ear.  That rumor was incorporated by Mario Puzo in the novel, and later the movie, The Godfather to apply to a very much Sinatra like character.

Sinatra was a huge hit in the early 1940s, but being of conscript age, the logical question is why he wasn't drafted.  He was categorized by the Selective Service as 4-F, which provides the reason, due to a perforated ear drum, but Army files later indicated that he was regarded as psychologically unsuitable for military service due to emotional instability.  He did tour with the USA in the latter portion of the war.  A lack of wartime service did not hurt him, as it did not hurt John Wayne, which says something about the culture of the time.

He campaigned for Franklin Roosevelt in 1944.

Sinatra lived a long, and not uncontroversial, life, dying at age 82. As all that would really be too long to go into, will stop here, with the World War Two story told.

Bobby soxers should be noted.

Bobby soxers have come to be erroneously associated with the 1950s, but in fact were a 1940s phenomenon.  They were teenage girls and women in their very early 20s who were an early example of the emerging youth culture of the United States.  Indeed, they were in some ways its real pioneers.  They were called "bobby soxers" as, at the time, they wore short "bobbed" socks with saddle oxfords.

Saddle oxfords are a dress shoe now, but they've always had the reputation of being a semi casual dress shoe.  At some point they became heavily associated with students and young people.  They were introduced as a mass manufactured shoe in the early 1900s by the Spaulding Company, with the first example introduced in 1906. That's the same company, we'd note, famous for basketballs, etc., which says something, as at first, it was an athletic shoe, not a dress shoe.

Probably that origin as a sporting shoe caused its popularity.  It crossed over pretty quickly to dress wear, anticipating a later trend we have seen the past few decades of basketballs hoes in that use.  

The shoe came on the scene just as there was a real expansion of women in sports, so it was ideally timed  It became hugely popular with cheerleading teams.  By the 1930s it was approaching near universal adoption by schools as mandatory footwear for girls academic uniforms, although it remained popular with men.  They began to become school uniform shoes for boys in the period as well.

The same period saw a shortening of skirts. The combination of the shorter skirts, saddle shoes, and short socks lead to Bobby Soxers being the name for young women affecting the style.  The style endured until the 1950s, when it faded, but the shoes themselves retained widespread academic popularity until the decline of clothing standards started to set in during the late 1960s.

While it may seem odd now, the style was somewhat risqué.

President Roosevelt spent the morning visiting with Naval personnel, including Admirals King and Leahy, and the Secretary of the Navy.  He was in New York City at the time, and had a doctor's visit in the afternoon.

The Red Army was generally gaining ground everywhere to the south of Stalingrad.

Footnotes:

*Not really related to this entry but for this photograph, Alida Valli was an Italian actress coined by Mussolini as "the most beautiful woman in the world."  She truly was lovely.

Born to nobility, her real name and title was Freiin Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg.  She was born in a part of Italy that is now in Croatia, and which had once been part of Austria Hungary.  She was of mixed heritage, but considered herself Italian.

The photo must have been taken post 1943 as she was active in Italy at this time.  Married three times, her first husband was an Italian fighter pilot who was killed in action at Tobruk.

She was popular in Western films throughout her career, which again says something about the times.  Unlike hugely popular Italian actresses of a certain appearance, Sophia Loren and Claudia Cardinale, Valli had a more normal figure and rose to popularity in the "dirty" Italy period when Italy was regarded as, and truly was, fairly backwards.

Sunday Morning Scene. Churches of the West: St. Patrick Misson Church, Denver Colorado.

Churches of the West: St. Patrick Misson Church, Denver Colorado.: 

St. Patrick Misson Church, Denver Colorado.

This Catholic Church in North Denver is St. Patrick Mission Church.  The Mission Architecture Church was built from 1907 to 1910, and served the Denver Highlands.  Its architectural style is unusual for Denver.

This Church is also called St. Patrick's Oratory, and has a presence by the Capuchin Poor Clare Sisters.

There's more to this church than I have here, I just don't know what it is, but it may be explained by the Capuchin sisters. The church as a bit of a campus, and therefore as a mission, it might strongly reflect their presence.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Denver Colorado.

Churches of the West: Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Denver Colorado.: 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Denver Colorado.

This is Our Lady of Mount Carmel in North Denver, Colorado.

Built between 1899 and 1904 for an Italian population, the church is located in a neighborhood known as Little Italy, although its rapidly gentrifying and experiencing a change in neighborhood character.  Nonetheless, one Mass per month is offered in Italian.

Sunday, October 18, 1949. Hitler issues the Commando Order.

British Combined Operations patch.

Hitler issued the illegal Commando Order. It stated:

On 18 October, after much deliberation by High Command lawyers, officers and staff, Hitler issued his Commando Order or Kommandobefehl in secret, with only 12 copies. The following day Army Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl distributed 22 copies with an appendix stating that the order was "intended for commanders only and must not under any circumstances fall into enemy hands". The order itself stated:

For a long time now our opponents have been employing in their conduct of the war, methods which contravene the International Convention of Geneva. The members of the so-called Commandos behave in a particularly brutal and underhanded manner; and it has been established that those units recruit criminals not only from their own country but even former convicts set free in enemy territories. From captured orders it emerges that they are instructed not only to tie up prisoners, but also to kill out-of-hand unarmed captives who they think might prove an encumbrance to them, or hinder them in successfully carrying out their aims. Orders have indeed been found in which the killing of prisoners has positively been demanded of them.

In this connection it has already been notified in an Appendix to Army Orders of 7.10.1942. that in future, Germany will adopt the same methods against these Sabotage units of the British and their Allies; i.e. that, whenever they appear, they shall be ruthlessly destroyed by the German troops.

I order, therefore:— From now on all men operating against German troops in so-called Commando raids in Europe or in Africa, are to be annihilated to the last man. This is to be carried out whether they be soldiers in uniform, or saboteurs, with or without arms; and whether fighting or seeking to escape; and it is equally immaterial whether they come into action from Ships and Aircraft, or whether they land by parachute. Even if these individuals on discovery make obvious their intention of giving themselves up as prisoners, no pardon is on any account to be given. On this matter a report is to be made on each case to Headquarters for the information of Higher Command.

Should individual members of these Commandos, such as agents, saboteurs etc., fall into the hands of the Armed Forces through any means – as, for example, through the Police in one of the Occupied Territories – they are to be instantly handed over to the SD

To hold them in military custody – for example in P.O.W. Camps, etc., – even if only as a temporary measure, is strictly forbidden.

This order does not apply to the treatment of those enemy soldiers who are taken prisoner or give themselves up in open battle, in the course of normal operations, large-scale attacks; or in major assault landings or airborne operations. Neither does it apply to those who fall into our hands after a sea fight, nor to those enemy soldiers who, after air battle, seek to save their lives by parachute.

I will hold all Commanders and Officers responsible under Military Law for any omission to carry out this order, whether by failure in their duty to instruct their units accordingly, or if they themselves act contrary to it.

It figures, somehow, that he'd issue the order on a Sunday. 

On the same day, as Sarah Sundin notes:  "Vice Adm. William Halsey replaces Vice Adm. Robert Ghormley as Commander South Pacific Area and South Pacific Force."

Halsey was a 1904 graduate of the Naval Academy and was in his early 60s, having been born in 1882.

 

1908: The World Debut of a Future Giant in the School Bus Industry