Category Archives: Books

Crime, Murder, Prisons, Hangings and Lynchings in 1891

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Some Interesting Facts The 1892 World Almanac

The 1892 World Almanac contains fascinating crime statistics.

Putting the crime numbers in perspective to the population, in 1890 the United States total population was 62,830,361.  The “colored” population  was 7,488,676. So, African-Americans made up about 12% of the population.

There were 45,233 people in penitentiaries, 14,687 were black. That means African-Americans comprised nearly one third of the inmates in the U.S. penitentiary system.

The number of murders and homicides reported by newspapers for 1891 was 5,906.

The murders and homicides are broken down as follows:

  1. Quarrels 2,820
  2. Liquor 877
  3. Unknown 859
  4. Jealousy 449
  5. By Highwaymen 241
  6. Infanticide 208
  7. Resisting Arrest 182
  8. Insanity 102
  9. Highway Men Killed 74
  10. Self Defense 74
  11. Strikes 10
  12. Outrages (?) 2

The number of legal executions reported in the U.S. was 123. The two leading states were Georgia and Texas with 19 and 12 executions respectively. The electric chair as a means of execution was first put into use in New York in 1890.  Almost all the executions in 1891, were by hanging.

The number of lynchings reported was 195. The leading three states were Louisiana 29, Alabama 26 and Mississippi with 23. Six of the people lynched were women.

Below is the full chart on all these statistics. (double-click to enlarge to full size)

 

Old, Curious and Unusual Epitaphs

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Some Selections From “Here Lies” A Book About Graveyard Epitaphs

This book from 1900 whose full title is: Here Lies: Being a Collection of Ancient & Modern, Humorous and Queer Inscriptions from Tombstones compiled and edited by W.H. Howe, published by The New Amsterdam Book Company contains 197 pages of fascinating epitaphs, mostly from Great Britain. It was originally published in England in 1891 as Everybody’s Book of Epitaphs.

It’s difficult to believe that hundreds of years ago people were this creative about their own demise. Probably in many cases it was the friends and relatives of the deceased who were responsible for these final words etched in stone. Do you know what you would want written as your epitaph?

Here are a few of the better ones from this out of print gem:

Stephen Remnant

Here’s a Remnant of life, and a Remnant of death,
Taken off both at once in a remnant of breath;
To mortality this gives a happy release,
For what was a Remnant proves now the Whole piece.

 

Mr. Edward Pardon (a bookseller)

Here lies poor Ned Pardon, from misery freed,
Who long was a booksellers hack;
He led such a damnable life in this world,
I don’t think he’ll ever come back.

 

Continue reading →

The Birth Of The Movie Palace, Roxy, and The Best Deal Ever For A Screenwriter

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The Strand Theatre Opens, April 11 1914

When the Strand Theatre opened on April 11, 1914 in New York at 47th Street and Broadway, it marked the beginning of a new era in the exhibition of motion pictures; the age of the movie palace.

The Strand seated an astounding 3,500 people and was the largest and most ornate theatre ever built exclusively to show movies. The Strand covered 20 city lots and had a frontage of over 155 feet on Broadway and over 277 feet on 47th Street.

Innovations in design Continue reading →

The Best Woman Presidential Candidate Ever

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Comedienne Gracie Allen Enters The 1940 Presidential Race

In this newswire photograph, Gracie Allen, the zany half of the Burns & Allen comedy team “tosses her hat into the ring” to run for President in 1940.

Gracie put out a very funny book after her tongue-in-cheek Presidential run entitled How To Become President (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1940) which has enlightening chapters such as:

Government Jobs Pay Big Money

How Not To Offend Anybody

Buying A Good Used Platform

Secrets of Unsuccessful Speechmaking

Even though the candidacy was a plot line for the Burns & Allen weekly comedy radio show, Gracie did a whistlestop tour by train and over 300,000 Americans came out to hear her make campaign speeches in cities along the route.

After “dropping out” of the race in the middle of 1940, Gracie still ended up receiving over 42,000 write-in votes in the November election.

The forgotten story of her candidacy was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. Click here to listen.

How Accurate Is Your Non-Fiction Reading?

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Checking The Facts

In this age of “get the story out there as quickly as possible” it should concern you that what you are reading may not be true, simply because the facts have not been checked.

In the February issue of Harper’s is a fascinating excerpt entitled “What happened in Vegas” which is from the book The Lifespan of a Fact by John D’Agata, author. Jim Fingal, fact-checker, to be published February 27, 2012 by W.W. Norton. Continue reading →

How Many Books Were Published 100 Years Ago As Compared To Today?

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A Glut of Publishing

In 1907 there were 9,260 books published in the United States according to the New York State Library Bookboard.

Compare that to 2010 when there were 316,480 books published by traditional publishing companies according to Bowker.

Add to that another 2,776,260 on-demand titles produced by reprint houses specializing in public domain works and by presses catering to self-publishers and ”micro-niche” publications.

That is over 3 million books published in one year.

No wonder it is so hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Continue reading →

Book Review: A Penny From Heaven

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A Penny From Heaven by Max Winkler  (Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc 1951)

Anyone suffering through the trepidation of an uncertain job market and being out of work with no savings, would find comfort and inspiration by reading Max Winkler’s, 1951 autobiography and ode to America,  A Penny From Heaven.

Even for those not being in the same circumstances, Winkler’s book is a page-turning, lively recreation of the United States at the dawn of the twentieth century.  Achieving the American Dream and leaving behind the “old country” forever, was the goal of millions of ignorant, poor and helpless European immigrants and Winkler conveys the struggle as well as any writer ever has. Continue reading →

A Tragic Way To Go Out Of Business

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The Last Used Book Store in Downtown Worcester, Has a Devastating Fire

Although I somehow never made it to the Ben Franklin Bookstore in Worcester, MA, I have been in many shops like it and they are just all going out of business slowly but surely.

Worcester used to have many used book shops including a great one owned by Manasha Bilsey, Another Story Used Books, which he closed in 2003 because as he put it “the Internet has made used book stores not salable as a business model.”  Metropolitan areas have a hard time sustaining these types of businesses unless the proprietors of the store also own the building. This is often not the case, as buying the building is usually not a financially feasible option. Even owning the building is sometimes not enough to prevent the inevitable in what is becoming a vanishing occupation, proprietor -used book shop, open to the public. Continue reading →

The 1929 World Almanac

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Some Vintage Advertisements of the Era and What Americans Paid in Taxes

The World Almanac was called The World Almanac because it was published by The New York World newspaper, not because it contained everything about the world. A version is still published every year even though the New York World has been gone for many years.

This edition was published in early 1929 when America was riding high. The stock market crash that caused the Great Depression in October was still months away.  The almanac covers the past events of 1928 and has data on thousands of items that are no longer covered in modern almanacs.

The first 70+ pages were advertisements. The rest, useful information.

Here are a few interesting things I found looking at my copy. (click on any photo to enlarge and click again for high resolution)

You need a coffin? The Springfield Metallic Casket Company of Springfield Ohio has many to choose from including “old reliable.” My favorite Continue reading →

One of the Strangest Deaths in New York’s History

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Girls Chase A Boy to Give Him Birthday Kisses… and He Dies

Woodlawn Cemetery Is The Final Resting Place of George Spencer Millet Who Had One Of The Strangest Deaths In New York’s History

Woodlawn cemetery 1909 Gravestone of George Spencer Millet died while evading girls kisses on his birthday at Metropolitan Life Building

There is a book called Woodlawn Remembers: Cemetery of American History by Edward F. Bergman (North County Books, 1988.)  The book is mostly comprised of beautiful full page color and black & white photographs of monuments, tombstones and mausoleums with one page of text describing each person profiled.  The cemetery is located in the northern part of the Bronx. Woodlawn is on my shortlist of recommendations of unusual places to go for New York visitors.

The book is fascinating to be sure. It covers many of the interesting and important historical figures at Woodlawn. But one story not mentioned, is the life and death of George Spencer Millet (misspelled as George Millitt by The New York Times in the story at the end of this article) who is interred at the cemetery.

Millet’s story is briefly recounted in Permanent New Yorkers A Biographical Guide To The Cemeteries of New York by Judi Culbertson and Tom Randall (Chelsea Green 1987.) This book contains photographs too, but has more detailed biographies than Woodlawn Remembers. Permanent New Yorkers also covers the entire New York area, not just focusing on the two most famous New York City cemeteries. Woodlawn and Greenwood. I highly recommend both of these out-of-print books.

It was February 15, 1909 and Millet was a good-looking boy. Because when the girls he worked with at The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company found out that it was his 15th birthday, they all insisted on giving him a kiss. Continue reading →