May 20, 1919. The destruction of Reims.

On this day, in 1919, a Red Cross photographer took scenes of devastated Reims.

German POWs working on clearing up the wreckage.

Cardinal Louis Lucon of Reims, who was forced to evacuate the city against his will.

Some Gave All: Village Memorial to its World War One Dead, France...

Some Gave All: Village Memorial to its World War One Dead, France...

Railhead: Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" and 844, Laramie Wyoming

Railhead: Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" and 844, Laramie Wyom...:

Union Pacific 4014 "Big Boy" and 844, Laramie Wyoming, May 17, 2019

The Union Pacific 4014 is one of the twenty five legendary "Big Boy" locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company for the Union Pacific between 1941 and 1944.  They were the largest steam engines ever built.  4014 is one of 4884-1 class engines, that being the first class, the second being the 4884-2 class.  Only eight of the twenty five Big Boys remain and only this one, 4014, built in 1941, is in running condition.

It wasn't always.  Up until this year, none of the Big Boys, retired in 1959, were operational.  4014 in fact had been donated by the Union Pacific to a museum upon its retirement. But the UP reacquired the giant engine a few years ago and rebuilt it, and has returned it to excursion service.  Its first run in that role took place last week on a trip to Utah, and we photographed here in the Union Pacific rail yard in Laramie where it was on a day off before its anticipated return to its home in Cheyenne which will take place today, May 19, 2019.

The massive articulated train is truly a legend.

The 4014 was built as a coal fired train, with the difficult hilly terrain of the Union Pacific in Wyoming in mind.  The conversion, however, restores to steam service, but as a fuel oil burning engine.  Indeed, that type of conversion was common for steam engines in their later years.

The 4014 is a four cylinder engine that was designed to have a stable speed of up to 80 mph, although it was most efficient at 35 mph.  It was designed for freight service.

The Big Boy was traveling with two other engines in its train, one being the Union Pacific 844, and the other being a diesel engine.  I'm not certain why the 844 was part of the train, but the diesel engine was likely in it in case something broke down.  Nothing did, and the maiden run of the restored locomotive was a success.

The 844 is a Northern type engine built in 1944.  The FEF-3 class engine was one of ten that were built by the American Locomotive Company. While used for everything, the FEF series were designed for high speed passenger operations and were designed to run as fast as 120 mph.

The 844 was in service all the way until 1960. During its final years it was a fast freight locomotive.  844 never left service and after being rebuilt in 1960 it went into excursion service for the Union Pacific.

On its maiden run, the UP had a variety of class late rail cars pulled by the train, each of which is named.

May 19, 1919. Laramie to get a refinery, Daniels comes home, Ataturk in Samsun

Big news in Wyoming, and most particularly in Laramie, was that the Midwest Oil Company, which was very active in Natrona County, had determined to build a refinery in Laramie.

People in Laramie today may be surprised to know that this was even considered, let alone that it was actually built, which it was later that year, although the remnants of the refinery remain there.  Indeed, oddly enough, discussion has been going on for several years on how to clean the remnants of the refinery up, a project that has been ongoing, and on May 5 of this present year a legal notice regarding the final work on it was published.

The refinery operated from 1919 to 1932, making it a plant that closed during the height of the Great Depression.  The same location was later operated for a few years as a Yttrium plant, although most of the refining equipment had been removed in the 1930s.  Clean up of the site is nearly complete.

Navy Yeomanettes welcoming the Secretary of the Navy back to Washington, D.C., May 19, 1919.

On the same day Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels was welcomed back from Europe by female sailors at the new Navy Building.

The first anniversary of air mail was commemorated.

The Post Office and the Army, which provided the flyers, were also commemorating the first anniversary of ail mail service in the United States.

Cambridge and Harvard, May 19, 1919.

And Cambridge and Harvard were photographed.  I don't know what this area looks like today, so I don't know how much this view has changed. Does anyone here?

And students were doing toothbrush drills at the school located at the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company.  At the time I was a student we didn't do drills, but we were instructed in school on toothbrush use and given some odd stuff that would color our teeth prior to brushing to see if we were effective in the use of our toothbrushes.  If we were, the stuff would brush off.  I recall that we did that for several different years, so toothbrush instruction was still going on at least as late as the 1960s and 1970s.

Today is regarded in Turkey as the centennial of Turkish independence, we should note, but because Mustafa Kemal Ataturk reached Samsun, a city in Turkey, and set about organizing military efforts.

The dating to this date seems oddly subject to propaganda in my view, as Ataturk went on to be the post war leader of Turkey and was the central figure in the new Turkish state.  In reality, the Turkish War of Independence was ongoing as it was effectively the Greco Turkish War, which had started a few days prior.  That war itself was one of the odd ancillary wars of the theoretically over First World War, as it started off as an Allied licensed Greek landing in Turkey in anticipation of carving up the Ottoman Empire.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Cody United Methodist Church, Cody Wyoming

Churches of the West: Cody United Methodist Church, Cody Wyoming:

Cody United Methodist Church, Cody Wyoming

A very poor Iphone photograph fo the Cody Methodist Church, taken from my truck window.  If I have time, I'll take a better one on some other occasion.

I don't know the vintage of this quite striking modern structure.

The Best Post of the Week of May 10, 2019.

The best post of the week of May 10, 2019.

The 2020 Election, Part 1

The Overly Long Thread. Gender Trends of the Past Century, Definitions, Society, Law, Culture and Their Odd Trends and Impacts.

And in the same week

I wonder how many people, other than me, still use these?

Accidentally getting an argument right for the wrong reasons. Alyssa Milano discovers the connection between sex and babies.

A La Memoire Des Enfants De Grivesnes Morts Pour La Patrie, France.

The Collapse of the Standard of Dress

May 18, 1919. Recalling the recent war.

The war wasn't actually technically over, with the Peace Treaty not yet signed, and it certainly wasn't forgotten.  It figured prominently on the cover illustration for the New York Tribunes graphic issue for this day, which was a Sunday feature.

Ft. Riley and Camp Funston, May 18, 1919.  Camp Funston, the locus of the great Flu Epidemic, would soon cease to exist and just become the wooded lot near Ft. Riley that it is today.

 Organizations laying wreaths as a statute of Joan d'Arc, Paris, May 18, 1919.

Gatherings seemed to be going on this Sunday in Paris.

Red Cross Societies banquet, Paris, May 18, 1919.

And dramatic news was going on, concerning the advancement of aircraft across the Atlantic, and in general.

A Cheyenne paper gave banner headlines to the loss of one of the U.S. Navy seaplanes attempting to cross the Atlantic, but it was the weather item, the same today as it was a century ago, that drew my eye to this one.

Poster Saturday. Salvation Army Home Service Campaign. May 19-26, 1919.

A poster from the Salvation Army form 1919 in support of their Home Service Campaign, following the conclusion of World War One.

The Salvation Army is a Protestant religious denomination, something that seems to escape people sometimes, that's somewhat uniquely organized on military lines.  I can't think of anything really comparable other than, I suppose, the Catholic military orders of the Crusades, but as they are monastic orders, and the Salvation Army is an entire faith, that isn't truly comparable.  Even Salvation Army churches are referred to in militaristic terms.

It was founded in 1865 in London, England, by a former Methodist minister as part of a widespread "Holiness Movement" that existed at the time.  It was widely spread in the English speaking world by World War One and had a major service role along with the YMCA and Red Cross to the extent that the three are sometimes confused. Indeed, along with both the Red Cross and the YMCA, the Salvation Army is associated with donuts due to the Great War, even though none of those organizations focused on serving donuts.

The Great War service organizations filled a roll that the USO and other organizations that were organized by the governments did during World War Two.  Not too surprisingly, therefore, they continued on in that role after the peace, at which time the economy was sinking in the wake of post war military discharges and the cancellation of wartime contracts, and also at which time large numbers of Europeans were homeless.

Truth

The whole truth is generally the ally of virtue; a half truth is always the ally of some vice.

G. K. Chesterton.