Theodore Roosevelt and Russell J. Coles, fishing in Florida

On this day in 1917.

Coles was a scientist with a special interest in fish.  He had a fair number of publications to his credit on the topic.

Czar and son, March 16, 1917

Dated this date, but perhaps published on this date.  Things were not going well in Russia.

Our Lady Derzhavnaya, Icon, found in Kolomenskoye, Russia after having been lost during Napoleanic invasion.

Our Lady Derzhavnaya, icon.

The Our Lady Derzhavnaya, "the Reigning Icon" was found on this date in 1917 in  Kolomenskoye, Russia

The icon is believed to have been painted in the 18th Century by an unknown iconographer.  It was removed from Ascension Convent in Moscow province during the Napoleonic invasion of Russia  and hidden in the village church in Kolomenskoye, where it was forgotten.  On this date, in 1917, peasant woman Evdokia Adrianova, from the village of Pererva in Moscow Province, related that she had a dream in which the Blessed Virgin appeared and instructed her to go to the village of Kolomenskoye, where she would find an old icon which, "will change color from black to red."  She did in fact travel to Kolomenskoye and related her story to the village priest who accepted her story and helped her search. They found the icon, which was covered with candle soot, and discovered upon taking it outside that the icon depicted the Blessed Virgin wearing a red robe and with regal symbols.  Because of the day of the event, Russian Orthodox faithful have interpreted the appearance in connection with the abdication of Czar Nicholas II on the same day.

The icon has also been associated by some with the Marian apparitions at Fatima that commenced on May 13, 1917.  This is so much the case that the the Reigning Icon and the Theotokos of Port Arthur icon have been twice taken to Fatima, once in 2003 and once in 2014, a fairly remarkable effort given their age and the degree of attachment to them by the Russian Orthodox, particularly Russian Orthodox emigres, and all the more remarkable given Fatima's strong association with Catholicism..  The icon today is installed in the Kronstadt Naval Cathedral.

Theotokos of Port Arthur icon, which also was taken to Fatima in 2003 and 2014 by Russian Orthodox faithful and which had also been lost.  It was found in 1998 by Russian Orthodox pilgrims in a Jerusalem antique shop.

Bicycle Delivery Boy, aged 13, Oklahoma City.

$5.00/week.  On this day, in 1917.  Again, note the surprisingly high standard of dress.

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.