Thursday, November 3, 1774. Charleston Tea Party.

Tea boldly brought into the harbor, was in turn tossed into the harbor at Charleston.

Last edition:

Wednesday, November 2, 1774. A Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Labels: 1770s, 1774, Colonial North America, New Hampshire, Nova Scotia, Thanksgiving

May 10, 1919. Homecomings, Mourning, Occupations, and Race Riots

A J. C. Leyendecker illustration was on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post this day in 1919, with a veteran recounting his service to two youngsters.

It's a bit odd to see an illustration of this type now, although they were common in the World War One and World War Two time frame.  The celebration of military service still occurs, but it tends to occur in movie form much more now, as opposed to illustrations, which was very common then.

Service went on, of course, for troops on occupation duty in Germany.

Germany itself declared a national week of mourning over the terms of the proposed treaty to officially end World War One.  The Germans were shocked by the terms.  Even some of the press in the United States was a bit shocked for that matter, and acknowledged the terms as severe.

In Charleston, South Carolina, a horrible race riot occurred when sailors from the Charleston Navy Yard went on a rampage directed against blacks in the town. The initial cause was that five sailors felt that they'd been cheated by a single black man, which developed to an all out assault by sailors, and then some white residents, of the town against blacks.  The Navy was forced to send in Marines and blue jacket Sailors to put down the riot, which involved over 1,000 sailors and some white civilians.  While there were some criminal charges that were filed shortly after the event, they came to nothing as the event had so overwhelmed the police that they were unable to treat the event as a conventional criminal one in their effort to address it.

The Charleston riot was the first of a series of race riots across the United States that year, contributing to the summer of 1919 being called the Red Summer.  The country was slipping into a recession which was in turn causing racial tension to rise.

The war news.

One of my cousins is transcribing correspondence between our grandparents, prior to their being married.  I'm very glad she is, it's been most interesting.

These date from mid winter of 1916-1917.  It's entering to see how the Great War shows up in them, as a casual reference, as they corresponded back and forth from Quebec to Charleston, South Carolina.

January 12, 1917:

I saw by the paper last night that Humbert Mariotti’s father was dead. Also that the Irish Rangers have been broken up as a unit in England and that Major O’Brien and Trihey(?) are returning to Canada along with others, and they are sending the boys in drafts to the front. Isn’t it too bad. I think it is a shame.

 January 19, 1917:

I saw by the paper this morning that Judge Doherty had made a statement that the Irish Rangers were going to Ireland and thought they would go to the Front as a unit. Also that as far as the particular officers mentioned as returning to Canada, he knew nothing about it. So I guess Mr. McCrory will be going alright.

January 24, 1917:

I heard this noon through a girl in Marguerite’s office that Jim McCrory was engaged to May Wittels (if this is the way to spell it) and wanted to marry her before he left, but she didn’t want to until he came back. Do you think it is true? I guess May must be delighted if it is true, but it seems to me she would have married him before going, if it is true. Anyhow, she has some very pleasant memories of happy moments she passed in the office, hasn’t she? Only it was mean of Percy Minto (?) to always intrude.

 January 29, 1917:

I saw by the papers this morning that the Irish Rangers are having a great time in Ireland. Col. Trihey is still in Canada. I do not know whether he is going back or not. I believe for a while during his absence Mr. McCrory was in command. It seems Edgar Reynolds is not at all liked by the men under him. He was exercising his usual authority.

 February 8, 1917:

I saw by the Star bulletin just as I came along that there was quite an accident on the Grand Trunk Pacific. A train coming eastward conveying 300 French Canadian soldiers jumped the rails. I think 2 were killed and 40 injured.

 February 13, 1917:

I wonder if the U.S. went to war if they would have to censor the mails between there and here. They would soon get to know ours, dear, and let them go through.

 February 14, 1917

Regarding staying there indefinitely, dear, this will not be necessary, but don’t you think it would be advisable to stay there, for say, a year or so after the war, as people say that times will be worse after the war for a couple of years until things get settled. If you get an increase by the end of April we could get married and instead of renting a house and (paying for) or buying furniture, we could board and with the money you would have in the bank you could put it into stocks. Of course if things were very good there we could stay on after the war.

March 14, 1917

At noon today, there was an extra out with the news that a U.S. ship had been sunk. If true, I wonder if they will go to war.

March 17, 1917

Last night it seems there was some kind of a soirée in Outremont at which Henri Bourassa presided, and this morning all the store windows and poles throughout Outremont had little posters on them about eight inches long and five inches wide marked “Down with CONSCRIPTION. A bas la CONSCRIPTION”. I presume it must have been some of his party who did it. It seems in the East end the same thing has been done.

March 19, 1917

Greta Morris told me in speaking of Ralph Goodchild that he got married before going away to some very nice little girl from Kingston. I was quite surprised, as I had heard nothing about it, although I have seen Winnie several times lately. It seems he met her this summer while at some summer resort down the St. Lawrence where his regiment was located, and became engaged to her while there. Of course his battalion went overseas shortly afterwards, so I presume she has gone along with him.

March 20, 1917

The war news this morning seems to be very good. The English and French are driving the Germans out of France at a great rate, according to our newspapers. I hope it is true and that it will continue.

March 23, 1917

Last night the 245th battalion, Kitchener’s own, left for overseas. Two of the Rolland boys, Stuart and Charlie, who are cousins of the Terrouxs were with them. Stuart was to have brought his wife along with him but at the last moment found she could not go. Of course they were very much disappointed.