Tuesday, February 26, 1924. The Beer Hall Putsch Trial commences.

Eight Nazis, including Adolf Hitler, went on trial for the Beer Hall Putsch.

And:

Press Conference, February 26, 1924

There was snow on the ground in Washington that day.

Dorthy Day write about the Thrills of 1924.

The Thrills of 1924 (February 26, 1924)

The City of Houston was photographed from the top of the Keystone Building.

The building still stands

Saturday, June 26, 1943. Mutiny in Norway, Choosing Normandy, and Willie Gillis.

Today in World War II History—June 26, 1943: Allied commanders choose Normandy for invasion of France in 1944 and appoint Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory to prepare air plans for D-day.

Sarah Sundin, on her blog.

The crews of six U-boats based in Norway mutinied, refusing to put out to sea in light of high German submarine losses.  They were arrested and placed in Akershus Prison in Oslo.  The collapse of Imperial Germany began, of course, with sailor revolts in 1918.

Fritz Schmidt, age 39, the German Commissioner-General for Political Affairs and Propaganda in the occupied Netherlands died when he "fell, jumped, or was pushed out of a train".

"USS Newell (DE-322), launches sideways at Houston, Texas, June 26, 1943. The ship was named in honor of Naval Aviator Lieutenant Commander Byron Bruce Newell who was killed while serving onboard USS Hornet (CV-8) during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, October 26, 1942. Ship’s Sponsor was the widow. Photographed August 12, 1943. Official U.S. Navy photograph."

A famous Norman Rockwell illustration appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, depicting his everyman soldier figure, Willie Gillis,  showing the "cat's cradle" string trick to an Indian snake charmer.

Friday, September 2, 1921. Famine

Houston Texas, September 2, 1921.

On this day in 1921 food aid from Western countries arrived in Riga, Latvia for transport to the Soviet Union as famine relief.  The US was the largest contributor.

The famine was human induced, caused by the incompetence and stupidity of the communist economic system in multiple ways.

On the same day, Federal troops arrived in West Virginia, but President Harding declared they would not be used to impose martial law as long as civil law continued to function.  The threat, of course, was the private warfare between union coal miners and non-union/company forces.

Japanese dignitaries were photographed in Washington, D.C.

 

Baron Kyuro Shideharu

Belle Case LaFollette, wife of Sen. Robert LaFollette, was photographed walking their dog.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Catholic Co Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston, Texas

Churches of the West: Catholic Co Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston...:

Catholic Co Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston Texas

This is  the new Co Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which replaced the old one in 2005.  The new cathedral is a very large church located just one block from the old cathedral.

Churches of the West: Old Catholic Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston Texas

Churches of the West: Old Catholic Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Hou...:

Old Catholic Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Houston Texas

This is the old Co Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Houston Texas.  The new Co Cathedral is located one block over and this cathedral, originally a 1912 church that was elevated to the status of Co Cathedral in 1959.  The other cathedral for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston is located in Galveston, with that church being the Mother Cathedral for Texas.

Iphone photograph from the highway, with the new Co Cathedral also partially visible.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Houston Texas

Churches of the West: Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Houston Texas:

Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, Houston Texas

This is the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in downtown Houston, Texas.  The church was built in 1875.

This church, located right downtown, has undoubtedly seen a lot of changes in this immediate neigbhorood.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Unknown downtown Houston Church, Houston Texas

Churches of the West: Unknown downtown Houston Church, Houston Texas:

Unknown downtown Houston Church, Houston Texas

The spire of an unidentified church in downtown Houston, Texas, just before my phone battery died.

The View from the San Jacinto Monument

A live webcam, right on the harbor. 

It is a very strange thing . . .

to look at photographs of a disaster and recognize places in it.

 

Downtown Houston.

I'm not going to second guess anything or anybody on this.  It's simply a shock to see it.

The past several years I've spent a lot of time in Houston.  In terms of large cities, I'm fairly certain that only Denver Colorado has claimed more of my time.  As a result, I've become pretty familiar with parts of the enormous city, although because it is an enormous city I certainly don't know all of it by any means.  Indeed, I'm really only familiar with the downtown, the energy corridor, and various bits and pieces of the town.  Having said that, I've been in it so much that it's one of the large American cities I'm comfortable with to a degree.

Given that, while there are millions of people in Houston, I can't but feel that I have a bit of a personal connection to the city.

Well, God bless those there.

People will post prayers, of course, and they should. For some reason, I always think of the Navy Hymn when things like this occur.  Perhaps because Hurricanes and their aftermath are so closely connected to the sea.  Indeed, they're the sea come on land, really.  So, that being the case, I'll post the text here.  Give some thought to Houston and its residents today.

Eternal Father, strong to save,

Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,

Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep

Its own appointed limits keep;

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,

For those in peril on the sea!

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard

And hushed their raging at Thy word,

Who walkedst on the foaming deep,

And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,

For those in peril on the sea!

Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood

Upon the chaos dark and rude,

And bid its angry tumult cease,

And give, for wild confusion, peace;

Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,

For those in peril on the sea!

O Trinity of love and power!

Our brethren's shield in danger's hour;

From rock and tempest, fire and foe,

Protect them wheresoe'er they go;

Thus evermore shall rise to Thee

Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.

Lex Anteinternet: The Houston Riots of August 23, 1917. The fate of Cpl. Baltimore

I posted this, earlier today:

Lex Anteinternet: The Houston Riots of August 23, 1917: While, once again, we are not doing a "1917 day by day", particularly as the story of the Punitive Expedition can't be run...

I also posted a link on the Reddit 100 Years Ago Today site.

Someone asked what happened to Edwards, the soldier first arrested, and Cpl. Baltimore, the military policeman who was so abused.  I don't know what happened to Edwards, but Baltimore's fate is documented.  As I related there:

In the other post on this here somebody asked what happened to Edwards and Baltimore. I don't know about Edwards, but here's the details on Baltimore:

Baltimore apparently joined the men marching downtown when he returned and was accordingly tried and sentenced to death. His sentence was carried out.

Baltimore was a stoic man and a sterling soldier. He wrote to his brother that he was innocent of shedding any blood but that the execution was "God's will", quoting John 3:16.

The Houston Riots of August 23, 1917

While, once again, we are not doing a "1917 day by day", particularly as the story of the Punitive Expedition can't be run day by day on a centennial basis, we are still in the same era and we do note some things. Today we note a terrible event.

On this day in 1917, in Houston Texas, two policemen arrested a black soldier for interfering with the arrest of a black woman.  In the afternoon a military policeman, or as we should note a black military policeman, Cpl. Charles Baltimore, inquired of a white city policeman of the arrest. The white policeman took offense, there was an exchange of heated words, the white policeman assaulted Cpl. Baltimore who then fled, and was shot, but not killed, while making his retreat.  Baltimore was shot at three more times, took refuge in an unoccupied house, was arrested, and then released.

In spite of Baltimore's release, a rumor rapidly spread through nearby Camp Logan that Baltimore was being held and the soldiers of the all black 24th Infantry began to arm themselves in order to march downtown and secure his release.  Their officers first discounted anything occurring but then took steps to secure arms. A rumor then circulated that a white mob was marching on Camp Logan and the riot was off and running.  Led by Sgt. Vida Henry, who had first alerted his superiors of the planned raid prior to the riot, about 100 soldiers of the 24th Infantry marched on downtown, killing fifteen (white) Houstonians, including four policeman.  Twelve other Houstonians were wounded, including one policeman who later died.  Four soldiers were killed as well, two of whom were friendly fire incidents.  After the mutineers shot Cpt. Joseph Mattes, Illinois National Guard, by mistake their cohesion broke down and Sgt. Henry advised them to slip back into Camp Logan.  He then killed himself.

The Army indicted 118 enlisted men of I Company, 24th Infantry (the only company to participate in the riot) for mutiny and rioting.  110 were found guilty. Nineteen were hanged and sixty-three received life sentences. One was judged incompetent to stand trial. Two of their white officers faced courts-martial but they were released. No Houstonians were tried.

The military court martial was joint in nature and constitutes the largest murder trial, in terms of defendants, in U.S. history.  It was aided by seven soldiers turning states evidence against their fellows early on.

The event left a lasting mark on race relations of the time but it did lead to reforms in military court martials that imposed more executive oversight over them, stemming from a feeling that the Army had reacted too harshly.  It oddly also lead to a smoother transition into integration in Houston years later as one of the city politicians of that era had witnessed the events as a young boy, and privately and effectively urged integration on a private basis.

Painted Bricks: Houston sidewalks

Painted Bricks: Houston sidewalks

Movies in history: Devil In A Blue Dress

There got to be enough movies that are reviewed here, in a historical context, that I began to forget which ones I had done, so I added a new page on Movies In History.  In doing that, I saw a few movies that should be added here that I've failed to include.

One of these movies is the excellent 1995 movie Devil in  Blue Dress.  Based on a novel by Walter Mosley, the film stars Denzel Washington as Ezekiel "Easy" Porterhouse Rawlins. a recently discharged black Army veteran from World War Two.  Out of work and living in Los Angeles, Rawlins takes work as a detective trying to locate a mysterious woman who is connected with two rival politicians.

Excellently done, the story presents a really nice look at the world of African Americans in the late 1940s, a time at which they were following up on a World War Two migration out of the south and into various cities. Rawlins is shown living in a black middle class neighborhood in Los Angeles that is obviously new to him, having relocated after the war to Los Angeles from his native Houston Texas.  Most of the residents of his neighborhood are blacks who are similarly from Texas.

The material and cultural details of this film are superbly done.  Everything is period correct, including the attitudes towards blacks in this less racist, but racist still, region of the country, compared to where the residents of the neighborhood are from.

Explaining the movie in greater details would entail plot spoilers, so I'll leave it at that.  Suffice it to say, this film is excellently done.  For that matter, the story is a very good one and it's a shame that this character hasn't returned to film.

New hotels with elements of the old and new.

I've posted here in the past about old hotels, and how small their rooms were.  Here's a twist on that.

Single king bed room at the downtown J. W. Marriot in Houston, Texas.

These are photos of the room interior of the current JW Marriot in downtown Houston, which is a very nice hotel.  It's located in a building built in 1909, at which time the sixteen story structure was the tallest building in Texas.  It wasn't a hotel, however, it was an office building.  The solid steel frame building housed banks and offices in its early history.  It didn't become a hotel until last year, 2014.  It's a nice one, but a careful eye can tell that it wasn't built as a hotel.

Interior (back room) view.  The other views are no doubt much better.

The hotel is a very nice one, but what strikes me is how small the room noted above was.  It was a fine room, but very small, just like the early 20th Century hotels I've stayed in elsewhere are, except that this didn't become a hotel until 2014.

Ipad, taking the place of a hotel services book and phone in some ways.

Which isn't to say that it wasn't updated with modern conveniences.  It certainly was.  Included in these are, of course, the perfunctory television, which I rarely turn on in a hotel room, and an Ipad, which could be used to check the hotel's services, or order that your car be brought around, etc.

Interesting incorporation of the old and new in a renovation.