Teenage blacksmiths, March 15, 1917

Another one from Oklahoma City.

The bicycle messenger

Manley Creasson, age 13 or 14.  $15.00 every two weeks.  Oklahoma City, on this day, in 1917.

The Child Newsies of Oklahoma City, March 15, 1917

Czar Nicholas abdicates.

The Headquarters

To the Chief of Staff

In the days of the great struggle against the foreign enemy, which almost for three years has tried to enslave our country, God the Lord has seen it fit to send Russia a new ordeal. The arisen internal disturbances among the people will threaten to have a disastrous reflexion in the further conduct of the obstinate war. The fate of Russia, the honour of our heroic army, well-being of the people, the whole future of our dear Fatherland demand the war to be brought to the victorious end by whatever means. The cruel enemy is straining its last strengths and already close is the moment, when our valiant army together with our glorious allies will finally be able to break down the enemy. In these decisive days in the life of Russia WE have considered it to be the duty of conscience to facilitate for OUR people the close unification and rallying of all national forces, for the earliest reaching of the victory, and with the consent of the State Duma WE have considered it right and proper to give up the Throne of the State of Russia and to resign OUR Supreme Power. As we do not want to part with OUR son, WE pass OUR legacy to OUR Brother, Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich and bless Him to ascend the Throne of the Russian State. WE command OUR Brother to govern affairs of the State in full and inviolable unity with the representatives of the people in the legislative bodies on such grounds, which they will enact, and to make for that an inviolable oath. In the name of the warmly beloved homeland I call all true sons of the Fatherland to fulfil their sacred duty for Her by their obedience to the Tsar at a difficult moment of nationwide ordeals and help HIM, together with the representatives of the people, to lead the Russian State to the road of victory, prosperity and glory. May God the Lord help Russia.

Pskov
2 March 15 h 5 min. 1917

Nicholas

Minister of the Imperial Court
Adjutant General Count Freedericksz

The Douglas Budget for March 15, 1917: Douglas soldiers return home.

Douglas Guardsmen were returning just as Douglas JrROTC cadets were getting ready for their annual show.

The Douglas paper may not have been a daily, as the troops had actually returned that prior Saturday.

Chicago and Northwestern Warehouse Fire, Casper Wyoming

A disaster struck Casper Wyoming on this day in 1917.  A warehouse belonging to the Chicago and Northwestern, and used also by C. H. Townsend, caught fire.  It was the largest fire in the town since a 1905 livery stable fire.

Western Union Messenger No. 38. March 14, 1917

Fourteen years old.

The Wyoming Tribune for March 14, 1917. Germany gets control fo Mexico's finances

Dramatic claim. . . but at that point, what good would it have done if true?

The Laramie Boomerang for March 14, 1917: Laramie welcomes home its Guardsmen

Laramie's Guardsmen returned to an enthusiastic welcome. . . and speeches.

The feline musings of Judge Posner

Suppose the class members all happened to own pedigreed cats, and the breeders who had sold the cats to the class members had told them that as responsible cat owners they would have to feed the cats kibbles during the day and Fancy Feast at night and buy a fountain for each cat because cats prefer to drink out of a fountain (where gravity works for them) rather than out of a bowl (where gravity works against them) and they don’t like to share a fountain with another cat,” Posner wrote. He asked readers to imagine that the cat food got more expensive, and the fountains didn’t work.
Cat owners, he wrote, wouldn’t like that. “Yet would anyone think they could successfully sue the breeders? For what? The breeders had made no misrepresentations. “It’s the same here.”

Judge Posner, as quoted by the ABA Journal, in a recent decision.

 Cat belong to Navy Commander, formerly owned by the Sultan of Turkey, 1927.

The Douglas Enterprise for March 13, 1917: Company F makes it home.

Douglas' Company F arrived home the prior Saturday and the news was reported that Tuesday.  If they were home, chances are that all the men from central Wyoming had likewise returned.

In other news high school baseball teams were already playing each other, even though it was only March and that's still a winter month in Wyoming.  The high schools in the state today no longer have baseball, which isn't surprising as the weather simply isn't conducive for it.

The World War One oil boom had hit Converse County, as this paper gives evidence of.  Converse County remains a major oil location today.  The oil fields referenced in the paper largely spread out towards Casper, which was having a huge oil boom at the time.

The Cheyenne State Leader for March 13, 1917: Eight Wyoming Guardsmen enlisted in Navy.

Some Wyoming Guardsmen were already back under orders. . . but in the Navy.

What motivated the switch in services isn't clear, but in the immediate pre World War One period in the US the news was full of the Navy.  Whether that motivated their switch in services or not, those eight would serve out the upcoming war in a new service.  Of course, they couldn't have known that their fellows in the Guard would be back in active duty very soon.

Chicago Daily News Cartoon, March 13, 1917

This cartoon relates to a call some months earlier by Woodrow Wilson that "We must depend in every time of national peril,...not upon a standing army, but upon a citizenry trained and accustomed to arms."   The point was that China lacked such a body of men and was now facing Japanese demands.

Bah, Daylight Savings Time

Well the war's over.  Can we stop this now?

And by the war, I mean World War One.

Yes, the hideous affliction of Daylight Savings Time was foisted upon a suffering nation by Congress during the Great War.  The concepts are expressed in these United Cigar Stores broadsheets although I've never personally understood the logic behind any of it. Somehow, even though there remain only 24 hours in a day, getting up early is supposed to help us get more done.

Why would that be true?

Now I get the saving coal one.  Okay, I buy that a little.  But the rest of it I think is bull.

Indeed, I'm not even sure that I buy the coal story really. Why, exactly, would an extra hour of daylight save 1,000,000 tons of coal?  No need to turn on the lights late?  What about early?

And is, in 1918 terms, 1,000,000 tons a lot?  It sounds like a lot, but it might not necessarily be.

 

For example, on bull, I don't think you get any more gardening in due to Daylight Savings Time.  The sun still sets pretty late in the summer anyhow and you have plenty of time for gardening.  Particularly if your garden is right there at your home, which for most people it is, and which was undoubtedly the rule in 1918 when Daylight Savings Time came in. 

Daylight Savings Time, we're told, is actually a danger to our health.  There's an increase in heart attack and car accidents after the time change, it's been noted.  But it might be most a danger to fathers who have to wake up their spouses and teenagers. At least that's  my observation.

Sunday Morning Scene: Churches of the West: Christ the King Catholic Church, Gering Nebraska

Churches of the West: Christ the King Catholic Church, Gering Nebraska:

I did a very poor job of photographing this church, as I failed to really investigate the full architecture at the time. What is visible in this photo is the 1996 addition to the 1958 church. The spire for the 1958 church is visible.  Had I paid more attention at the time, I would have photographed that portion of the church.

Anyhow, this Catholic Church in Gering Nebraska is an interesting example of a church having been substantially added to.

The Laramie Boomerang for March 12, 1917: Laramie Guardsmen to arrive on No. 19.

On Monday March 12, the news came that the Laramie contribution to the Wyoming National Guard had been mustered out of service and taken down to the Union Pacific depot in Cheyenne.

 

Union Pacific Depot in Cheyenne.

The unit was expected in Laramie that evening.

The annual day of sleep subtraction arrives once again.

From prior years, on the evening this year, in which we "spring forward".

Lex Anteinternet: No, just go away

Uff:

Last fall, when I ran this:

No, just go away

 

World War One era poster, from when Daylight Savings Time was a brand new announce.

I have not been able to adjust to the return to normal time this year.

Not even close.

I'm waking up most morning's about 3:30 am.  That would have been early even when Daylight Saving's Time was on, as that would have been about 4:30, but that is about the time I had been waking up, in part because I've been spending a lot of time in East Texas, where that's about 5:30.  Indeed, my inability to adjust back to regular time is working out for me in the context of being up plenty early enough to do anything I need to do in East Texas, but it's the pits back here in my home state.

I really hate Daylight Saving's Time.  I understand the thesis that it was built on, but I think it's wholly obsolete and simply ought to be dumped.

I meant it.

But the annual darkening of the morning time unreality event is back. So now I get to feel exhausted by act of Congress.

I see I'm not alone in my views. There's a petition to Congress.  There was a bill in the California Assembly.  And in Kansas.  And a petition to put it to a referendum in Utah. Rhode Island is considering ending as well.

And good riddance, I say.

Cretans and Creeps in the Age of the Computer. Was "Yes, it's bad behavior. Immoral, and criminal. But at what pont is it Nature?"

Recently I posted this item

Lex Anteinternet: Yes, it's bad behavior. Immoral, and criminal. But at what point is it Nature?: And if so, should that be considered in some fashion?  Marine Corps poster from 1915 emphasizing that the Marines fight, but placing, ...

This news story regards, as anyone paying attention knows, a story which purported that male Marines (and most Marines are male) were acquiring nude photos of female Marines, most of whom are young, single, women in good physical condition, and "sharing" them.

This shouldn't be a surprise at the same time the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue is on the stands.  It features mostly nude young women in good physical condition and is viewed mostly by men, for money.  And that's celebrated.

Yes, what the men sharing photos of the female Marines is doing is immoral, and maybe illegal. But what those buying Sports Illustrated are doing is also immoral, if legal.

Anyhow, I've already written about that sorry tale, and have a different focus from what I note here.

On one of the subjects of the photos, it turns out that she is not a Marine, which doesn't make it any better. Anyhow, a news story reports:

While he was away training in California, she sent him lewd photos on SnapChat in private, thinking they would never resurface. Just a few months later, her life would be turned upside.

XXXX says her 25-year old daughter had no idea her former boyfriend saved and shared screenshots of the photos she had sent him while they were together. The pair eventually broke up, but a few months later on Valentine's Day a friend of YYYYY's, who's also a Marine, told her he saw photos of her posted in a secret Facebook group called 'Marines United.'

What do we make of that?

Well, she's a cretin.  And he's a creep.

I know that's really harsh, but frankly, in an era in which the complaints allegedly are that this demeans women, maybe there is a point at which you can say, yes the "boyfriend" who did this is a cad, and a really bad person, but the girl who did this was sharing something she shouldn't have been, and in more than one way, probably.  This isn't a just deserts argument so much as a warning.  People who would decry traditional morality ought to expect that the suspension of it results in the suspension of a lot of additionally morality. 

This was pointed out, apparently, by a somewhat controversial site that caters to Marines and which has not been kind, apparently, the recent social experimentation in the Marine Corps, in a rather blunt fashion.  Tip Of The Spear, that I'm not familiar with I'd note, commented:

“On the female side of the apparent issue women post risque pictures of themselves or send nudes to other people, they then complain about being harassed. On the male side of the apparent issue, men are collective and sharing nudes and risque pictures like they’re baseball cards and are stupid enough to leave comments in public view promoting stupidity and harassment,” the statement said. “Both sides are equally guilty but in different ways. Guys stop thinking with your d— and girls stop metaphorically burning down cities for attention.”

From a news article (can't remember where I saw it).  But that is pretty much on the mark.

On the young woman noted above, some hometown newspaper got hold of her mother and interviewed her.  Her comments were as follows.

YYYYY's father is a retired Gunnery Sergeant in the Marine Corps. XXXX says this is not the Corps her daughter was raised to know.

"They were raised with this male figure who is a Marine who they very rarely heard curse, they never saw him be disrespectful, they saw him take care of business and take care of his home," said McGinnis. "This is the image of Marines they have in their head. This is the image YYYYY has in her head of how a Marine should be, especially a non-commissioned officer. Honor and integrity is what the girls were raised with. This has her rethinking the way she views the world."

Well that's all nice and charming but it's also bull if meant to suggest it reflects the whole.

No, I'm not saying every Marine is a lech by any means.  I was never a Marine, but I served with plenty of discharged former Marines while a Guardsmen, and I can say that they varied in morals and temperament like any group of men do.  At least two of the men I knew who had been combat Marines were very religious men and likely always had been.  One former Marine Corps officer I dimly know is a Catholic Priest now.  A couple former Marines I know, both also highly religious, are lawyers whom I've never heard say a cross word.  So I'm not saying that they all behave like this.  All of this would be true of men I knew in the Army as well. But frankly, I'd also be less than candid if I didn't say that the many men who stayed on high moral ground did so in an environment that was less conducive to it than most others.  Indeed, they tended to be admired for that, as otherwise all the vices that boys have, and I do mean boys, are accentuated by the fact that its a largely male environment and without the supervision of older people, male and female, like otherwise exists in society, a fact which is actually secretly missed by most servicemen.  This has always been the case and is frankly generally worse in a peacetime army than in a wartime one when the service population base is wider.  Indeed, even Kipling famously noted this in a stanza of his poem Tommy:

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,

But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you,

An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,

Why single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;

All of this is not said to excuse the conduct.  But its again said to emphasize a point that is seemingly lost in modern American society.  These societies are largely male as being a soldier mostly appeals to men for deep reasons of evolutionary biology.  Efforts to recruit more women and to incorporate them in combat units are contrary to this basic fact and even damage these units to the extent that they require changes in them away from their real purpose.  That purpose is a deadly one and it means the men in the units are trained to do something that people are otherwise taught is deeply immoral.  We can expect them to exhibit behavior that's at least as good as that in college dorms, which is also often not all that good, but we're not going to get it.  Indeed, at least one famous commander of World War Two noted for his profanity noted this as long ago as the that, although I'll not repeat the quote.  Some experiments fail, which is why they're experiments, and that failure needs to be heeded.

Beyond this, there's a lesson that has to do with traditional standards and expectations society wide. . . and Tip Of the Spear likely summarized the tip of that lesson about as well as anyone.

Poster Saturday: International Women's Day

 

These are old Soviet era International Women's Day Posters.

While International Women's Day was something that was observed in the Soviet Union, I'm not trying to make a statement by posting these.  I'm merely posting them as they're somewhat timely.

 

British Troops in Baghdad, following the Turkish withdrawal.

On this day, in 1917, Baghdad fell to the British. This photo was taken on that day.