Ringling Brothers and Geroge Washington

RINGLING BROTHERS CIRCUS

WORLDS GREATEST SHOW

A few remarks about the big shows and the 'Father of Our Country', George Washington, that need to be brought to the attention of today's America, as Ringling Brothers give their last show ever.

Abstract of an article on Thursday, November 8, 1894 of the Daily Commercial Herald, in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The greatest of all shows, the biggest of all shows, the best of all shows, call out the advertizements, The Ringling Brothers Shows, are touring Mississippi for their first time ever.

They will draw more people from out of town than did the Civil War siege, and their show will be bigger, funnier, more pleasant and inviting than that was.

Ringling Brothers shows are, out of the question, a tremendous organization which will well repay the cost of seeing. They will come to the Delta loaded on four great trains and in crossing the Mississippi, the father of waters, test the ingenuity and capacity of the transport boat and its people to get them over in good time.

Washington's crossing the Delaware won't be a circumstance to Ringling's crossing the

Mississippi and a bet is, ten to one, that he would have stopped over to visit the greatest show on earth before or after his show with the Hessian's at Trenton. But now, Washington was not in on all that we are on to. Washington never saw a railroad train, he never saw a steam boat, nor a telegraph station to send a telegram. There are a good many things Washington was not on to., the telephone, a typewriter, nor electric light. George never read the Commercial Herald, but above all he never saw a Ringling Brothers main street parade or show.

Washington fought and won battles with less soldiers that there are people hired by Ringling, they have perhaps one thousand, and if he had the three hundred and fifty horses the big show has, he would have made short work of the enemy, being so well equipped. Come to think of it there was no elephant in this country in Washington's day.

In a good many ways the history of Washington's conquering army and Ringling's shows are alike. Both were raised from a little straggling unorganized nucleus to be a great power and to take first place of the foremost and greatest.

Harrison Howeth, 2017: Abstracts of Daily Commercial Herald, Vicksburg, Mississippi, November 8, 1894.

Disgustingly Gross

DISGUSTINGLY GROSS

MODE FOR COOKING MAN

An 1870 London Daily News Item gives an account of the eating of a French soldier by Kanaks cannibals.

If anyone of us looks to be eaten by cannibals, he may wish to be informed just how he will be cooked. The savages who might eat him are by no means devoid of refinements in culinary disposition.

Sometime in 1870 some French soldiers were taken prisoners by the Kanaks tribe and one of the Frenchmen was killed and eaten.

The victim is first decapitated, the body is then hung by the feet for an hour to allow the blood to run out. While waiting for this the cannibals are digging a yard wide hole in the ground a yard and a half deep that is lined with stones , then in the midst is built a fire. When the fire has burned the wood and glows with the heat, more stones are added.

The man is cleaned out, divided into foot long pieces, hand and feet are thrown away as worthless, he foot long pieces are placed on large tree leaves such as found in tropical forest, surrounded with coconut, bananas, and other plants known for their delicious flavors, then wrapped tightly, the fire is removed from the stone pit, the wrapped meat placed in the hot stones and left to cook for another hour.

The tribal women do not join with the warriors in this feast, only men are allowed to partake of so rare a delicacy.

Abstract: The Star Democrat of Easton, Maryland, taken from the London Daily Times was the source.

1888 DECORATION DAY

DECORATION DAY

WEDNESDAY MAY 30 1888

More and more is made of Decoration Day as the years go by and the time is not far distant when the occasion will be a legal holiday as generally enjoyed and respceted as the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving Day.

The day is largely devoted to processions and the strewing of flowers than to a recital of the great deeds of courage , self sacrifice , suffering and death which are insoparaly associated with all memory of the buried heros.

Perhaps this will be changed after the story of the Civil War by vertue of its age becomes novel again to generations yet to be.

We hope that it will be changed. It is a gracious and beautiful act to strew flowers upon the soldiers graves but it is our sacred duty to tell, again and again , so that it will never be forgotten nor less thought of , the story of the of the war for the Union and Confederacy and the brave, consciously, courageously faced and met death because of their love of their ideas.

Let us today, while honoring the heroic dead , remember the ones who still live among us, the mothers and widows, of men who fell at the front.

The county can never repay the men and women who saved it from disruption . Let there be flowers and flags until the end f time.

Source: Wilmington Evening Journal, Wednesday, May 39, 1888, Wilmington Delaware. Abstract May 20, 2017, Lewes, Delaware, Harrison Howeth.

ROSES

Rosa 'Cecile Brunner' , also known as Mlle Cecile Brunner,  Sweetheart Rose,  Malteser Rose, or Mignon, is a light pink polyantha rose bred in France Marie Ducher  and introduced by her son i law, Joseph Pernet Ducher  in 1881. It's parents are a double flowered R multiflora and a hybrid tea rose, either ' Souvenir d'un Ami'  or,  a seedling of "Mme de Tartas". It is not clear if the rose was named after the sister ( 1853 -  1927) or a daughter (1879)of Ulrich Brunner. 

CIVIL WAR SUBMARINE HUNLEY

H. L. HUNLEY

CIVIL WAR SUBMARINE

CONFEDERATE

This is the story behind the development and the struggles her inventors and crew faced.

Horace Lawson Hunley, the Collector of Customs at New Orleans. Louisiana, wealthy lawyer and planter, very early in the Civil War realized a necessity of keeping the Confederate supply lines from Europe open. Union ships were now in blockade of Southern ports. It was Hunley who had ideas of new innovative technology which could break the stronghold of the Union blockade.

The fall of 1861, Hunley collaborated with James McClintock and Baxter Watson, inventors, and built a underwater vessel and by February 1862 the small, three man crew submersible vessel was ready for testing. Christened the “Pioneer” she proved to be seaworthy but needed minor changes to prevent leakage. Because of Union forces which were quickly advancing , before further experiments could be made in Lake Pontchartrain, Confederates had to scuttle the submarine in a burning pile of cotton bales.

Undaunted, McClintock, Watson and Hunley, continued with design updates and experiments. They had made attempts to power the vessel with steam or electric, but it was decided to keep the man power operated propeller shaft first designed. As this prototype was being towed toward Fort Morgan, high winds and heavy seas cause her to sink but with no loss of life.

Construction of the third submarine was made possible by financial help of a Mobile, Alabama group of engineers. This underwater craft would become the Hunley, and was designed under direction of James McClintock and Lieutenant W, A. Alexander. She weighed 7-1/2 tons. 39 feet, 5 inches long, 3 feet, 10 inches in width, powered by a hand cranked propeller shaft to a speed of 4 knots. The crew required was nine men.

Hunley was built using the steam boiler of a locomotive with a cylindrical structure added for navigation. The Hunly submerged by filling ballast tanks with water and came to the surface by pumping the water out. That it had no source of fresh air was a drawback as she needed to come up to surface when air was needed. The major weapon was the torpedo spur, filled with 90 pounds of black powder, which was used to ram the target ships hull and released. Only after the submarine was a safe distance back, were the explosives detonated.

July 31, 1863, the Hunley was tested again on the Mobile River before a crowd of high ranking military officers. Her target was an old flat boat and the Hunley disappeared below the surface of the water , then there was a loud concussion. The flat boat was gone, the submarine surfaced, completing her first successful test.

Charleston harbor was the chosen target, hoping to break the Union blockade. The Hunley went into action for a night time attack on a Union war ship. As fate would have it, the crew never had the chance to prove themselves as the officer in charge, accidentally, triggered the 'dive' and the submarine went below with its hatch open. Many of the crew were drowned.

Just days after this fatal accident the Hunley was salvaged from the harbor bottom and refitted. This time Horace Hunley decided to be at the helm . Again, fate went against her, on a routine test dive, the vessel sank, October 13 1863. All aboard were lost, including Horace Hunley who was at the helm.

Once again, retrieved, repaired and modified and a volunteer only crew was ordered by General P.G.T.

Beauregard. . A crew of volunteer stepped forward immediately, Lieutenant George E. Dixon , a combat veteran, wounded at Shilo, took the command. With commanding officer Dixon at the helm and her new crew, the Hunley began patrols off Sullivans Island and record show Dixon and his men went on twenty off shore missions, several miles out at sea.

Hunley entered combat 17 February 1864, the crew had targeted a sloop of war, USS Housatonic, on the blockade line at Breach Inlet, South Carolina , Early evening, a sailor thought he saw a dolphin, another said it was a log, however, it was to late to give alarm, The Housatonic being alarmed tried to get away from the submarine but Dixon had mounted the charge into the rear quarters of the ship , reversed only 80 feet, detonated and tore a hole in the Housatonic hull, which sank within five minutes with a loss of five drew members.

Confederate lookouts stationed on shore sighted a blue light , the signal that the mission was accomplished , built a fire on the beach to guide the submersible home. Hunley never returned.

Theories abound as to what actually happened to the Hunley. Was a glass porthole shot out by the Union sailors, did the explosion pop rivets of the hull or did a crew member open the hatch too soon to send the blue signal.?

August 8 2000, the Confederate submarine, H. L. Hunley, was pulled from the murky depths of the Atlantic Ocean off the cost of Sullivans Island, South Carolina , in some 27 feet deep water , 136 years after it sunk during the Civil War.

Abstract of an newspaper article the Tyrone Pennsylvania, Tyrone Daily Herald, October 5, 2000, by

Dee E. Blazier , from information received from descendents of Civil War Veterans.

Harrison Howeth, 2017

MASSASOIT AND PLYMOUTH COLONY

MASSASOIT

A GOOD INDIAN

Early colonists of America were generally able to protect themselves with great vigilance against the dangers of the Indians. One exception of this was the Plymouth Colony and the chief Native American of the New England territory, Massasoit.

Shortly after the founding of this colony, Massasoit sent repentativesto the Pilgrams to assure them of his friendly disposition and to make a treaty between them. This treaty is known to be the oldest act of diplomacy recorded in New England and it was sacredly kept for 54 years, never being relaxed

Massasoit's village was rather far distance west of Plymouth Colony, on the Bristol peninsula's Warren River, at the springs which carry his name and feed the river. Massasoit often used this location to entertain distinguished guest. The town of Warren, Rhode Island, now sits there.

A delegation from Plymouth Colony was sent to his village to pay a visit to show him their appreciation, and on the second day of their trip were informed that he had died., but upon reaching his residence, they found him alive but seriously ill. The Plymouth Colony governor Winslow says “When we came thither were found his home full of men so that we could not get in at once, which were making disturbing noise that bothered both us and the sick man”. The white men administered to him and he soon recovered.

Massasoit, upon recovery said “ I see the that the English are my friends and love me, I will never forget the kindness they have shown me”.

The Massasoit family , was his wife, two brothers, three sons, two sons' wives and a grandson.

One son was named Mooanum, another was Pernetcom. Soon after their father died they both went to Plymouth Colony an request that they be given English names. The English Court named them Alexander and Phillip. Alexander became Chief Sachem on the death of his father, but soon died and Phillip assumed the sachemship and became well known and waged the “King Phillip War”. He did not possess the peaceful disposition of his father.

It was well that Massasoit lived between the Pilgrims and the powerful Narragansetts Tribe under Camonicut who had shown a determination to attack and dispel Plymouth Colony, prevented only by Massasoit. He was just, humane, beneficent, true to his word and in every respect and honest person. His personal appearance was noble and majestic and exceedingly dignified. Physically he was a large man, strong and well proportioned .

Massasoit died in the autumn of 1661, about the age of 80 and all who knew him mourned his death, knowing they had lost a true and valued friend.

HE IS TO BE HONORED AS ONE WHO CONTRIBUTED LARGELY TOWARD THE SETTLEMENT AND PROSPERITY OF THIS GREAT REPUBLIC OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Abstract: Harrison Howeth, 2017, Pittsburgh Daily News, Friday November 3, 1916.

RFD

RURAL FREE DELIVERY

1 OCTOBER 1891

RFD service began in the United States in the late 19^th century to deliver mail to rural farm

families living in more remote homesteads who prior to RFD had to pick up mail themselves at sometimes distant post offices or hire carriers to make delivery.

The proposal to offer free rural delivery was not universally embraced by local shop keepers and the private mail carriers who feared a loss of business. Store operators worried it would stop the farmers weekly visits to town to obtain goods and merchandise, and catalog merchants, such as Sears & Roebuck might present significant competition

It was 1893 when legislation mandated the practice presented by Georgia Congressman

Thomas Watson, even then implementation was slow and not generally adopted in the United States

Post Office until 1902

Postmaster General John Wanamaker was in favor of RFD along with man thousands living in rural communities wanting inexpensive mail service. The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, the nations oldest and largest agricultural organization, gave significant support to RFD.

The birthplace of RFD has many referrals, Fayette county Indiana, Milton Trader, farmer, president of the Indiana Grange, advocated the idea in 1880 through thr National Grange networks.

Jefferson county West Virginia , Charlestown, Halltown, and Uvilla, post offices, experimented the idea, October 1, 1891

1896 RFD became official with 82 routes in operation. A massive undertaking for the next several years, which remains the largest and most expensive endeavor ever instituted bu the USPS.

Parcel service came in 1913 allowing delivery of newspapers and magazine.

1930 found 43000 or more rural routes serving 6,875,400 families or 25,472,000 people.

Abstract: Harrison Howeth from Wikipedia.org WWW