America 1870-1900 - In which I intend to cover THE FRONTIER but get distracted by my own navel.

Quote from the diary of Lucy A. Ide from 1878. "Thoughts stray back to the comfortable homes we left behind and the question arises, is this a good move? The wagon train is divided, some want to turn back; others favor going on. A decision is reached at noon; the train is to move on."

There is a picture of an unidentified white homestead family and they look tired! Two months from Ohio to Colorado and I’ve driven it in two days! It’s haul but it can be done with enough peach iced tea and American Spirits.

“War whoops of Indians attacking settlers,” is the first line of the section entitled THE PROMISED LAND.  My heavens, as Ma Ingalls would say. There’s a lot to unpack here.

I was going to whip right through the frontier in one afternoon and instead I want to focus on why I think I wouldn’t put Laura Ingalls Wilder in an elementary school library. I don't think it matters if I digress, because I realize I am writing this for myself rather an other readers. Be prepared for MUCH digression.

I love Laura. I have been to all but 2 of her homesites. I have attended Laurapalooza and would go again!  I have a Little House in the Big Woods shot glass purchased in Pepin, Wisconsin that I use to make many cocktails.  I will love those books until the day I die.

However:  My friend Radhika, now a very well respected doctor, was once a young girl whose parents emigrated from India. She was reading LHotP and read Ma’s opinion that “The only good Indian is a dead Indian” and thought it applied to her. Now it didn’t, but she didn’t know that and it was a good long time before she realized it. And it DOES apply to any native kids reading that. If this book makes one kid feel badly about their background, that is one too many.

The books are still worthy of study, of course. Dickens used to be the Stephen King of his day. Hell, he was the Tiger King of his day. Everyone waited with bated breath for the newest episode of his work. And now very few people read him for pleasure. Those who do are in for a treat, but time has moved on. We have not forgotten Dickens, we have just elevated him to a classic.

Certainly kids can still read LHotP - there is much to love in them. If they were reprinted with an introduction that sets them in their proper historical context - with the story of the Osage who were displaced in the book, I might change my mind.

Or maybe those kids read THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE instead to see another side of the American narrative.

Someday I will take my mythical granddaughter Little Barbara on my lap and we will read about the “Indian camp” in LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE and I will tell her just how wrong Ma was and why, and she will say, “Wow, that is NOT the way they teach it in school!” and I will be so happy because she will be in school in a time when all voices are heard.

The focus of history changes every day. Aren’t we lucky to live in a world where so many narratives are available at the same time?  Generally the “victor” gets to tell the story, but that is no longer the case. And Laura wasn’t in a war with Omakayas, the little girl from THE BIRCHBARK HOUSE. They existed at the same time and their stories both could be true at the same time.

To be clear, both are fiction, although Wilder based her fiction on her real life experiences, with some dramatic flourishes and omissions. One of the larger omissions is one that Laura’s uber-Libertarian daughter and editor Rose Wilder Lane left out. When she edited the books, any inkling that Mary went to the blind school on Uncle Sam’s dollar went by the wayside.

Why not focus on the version of the story that doesn’t make any kid feel bad? And to those who would say that it makes white kids feel bad to hear about white suppression of Native culture I would say, no it doesn’t, unless their grownups are acting actively butt-hurt. The books are beautifully written and every kid who reads them is going to want to be Omakayas. Just like I wanted to be Laura.

All quotes and images are from TL unless otherwise noted.

THE HIRED GIRL by Laura Amy Schlitz

I remember exactly where I was when I read GOOD MASTERS, SWEET LADIES, Laura Amy Schlitz's 2008 Newbury award winner. I was behind the circulation desk in the old BHS library thinking - "How did this crazy bunch of monologues set in 1255 win that award??" And then I read it. It was glorious - funny, smart and engaging.  I thoroughly enjoyed A DROWNED MAIDEN'S HAIR as well. It was published before GMSL, but I came across it later. And in 2015 THE HIRED GIRL was published.

When it first came out I gave it a cursory look, but was distracted by some shiny object or another. Had I but dug in, I could have loved it longer! It is absolutely tremendous. It touches on several of my favorite themes - the servant class, early 20th century Jewish culture, unrequited love, bad parenting and, of course, evangelical Christianity!

The heroine, 14 year old Joan Skraggs, aka Janet Lovelace, leaves her father's farm after he burns up her beloved books. She finds herself in Baltimore where she is employed as a housemaid for the wonderful Rosenbach family. Well, we know they are wonderful eventually, but they are also deeply human and seeing them through the eyes of a sheltered young girl is just delicious. Janet tells her story in the form of a diary and her perspective is so true.  The reader has the pleasure of seeing the bigger cultural picture, while still being carried away but Janet's story.

My favorite things about this book, which may be in my all time top 50, are it's take on how evangelical attitudes can be both compelling and dangerous, how navigating social castes is not as easy as we have been led to believe and how reading elevates, even as is damages.

First up - Janet wants to be a good Catholic. Her mother was and she wants to take "the blessed sacrament." She is training with the parish priest to be confirmed. Her religious fervor is tempered by her respect for the unselfish morality she sees in the way the Rosenbach's behave. There is a bit about how she learns that Judaism is unconcerned with hell and decides that it is a noble religion because there is no payoff, they are just good because it is the right thing to do. But she can't help herself - she witnesses to Mr. Rosenbach and the squirrelly grandson Oskar with little impact.

She also falls for one of the Rosenbach sons, but the divide between shiksa and nice Jewish boy is too great. Even more so, it seems, is the divide between servant and master. Schlitz handles this beautifully and alludes to the dangers that would face an attractive housemaid in a house with lower standards or creepier sons. The character of Malka, a house keeper in the "she's one of the family" mold straddles the line in a way that highlights the distinctions.

Finally, the worship of books and study is another religion to Mr. Rosenbach and his older son Solomon. Janet shares that faith with them and it is what elevates her as the book progresses. Ironically, Mimi, the Rosenbach's daughter who is Janet's age, hates reading, but brings the book to an extremely satisfying end by learning to love it just a little. I'll say no more about that.  Mimi is not a major character, but she does a wonderful job of highlighting the differences in class. She and Janet live in the same house and are the same age - although Janet lies and says she is 18, rather than 14 to gain employment - but their circumstances couldn't be more different.

Finally, I have heard tell that LAS is a fan of Maud Hart Lovelace and I have to believe the the choice of Janet's new last name is an homage to her. Someday I am going to find out for sure! I watched a delightful book trailer where LAS said she thought of coming of age stories as books where girls learned to "settle down" and she didn't want to write a book where a girl settled down. She also describes Janet as a girl who has "an engine too big for her chassis" which is just perfect.

Janet has joined the pantheon of great bookish adorable heroines. Janet - meet Betsy, Jo, Anne and Laura. I am sure you will get along.

America 1870-1900 - HOLIDAYS [continued]

Part 6 HALLOWEEN AND THANKSGIVING

Halloween and Thanksgiving are lumped together, as they should be, bracketing the not yet invented holiday of Barbvember wherein it is all about me from the second the candy hits the floor on Halloween to the moment the turkey hits the table on Thanksgiving.  But I digress…

Halloween is all about how a gal is going to dang well get married someday! There is a nice Betsy-Tacy connection here in the going down the stairs backwards to see the face of your future husband in a mirror. Risking a broken neck on the off chance that you will get some inside information? Not my style. I will be sitting over here putting apple seeds on my face, thank you very much.

There is mention of Pagans and “the harvest festivals of the ancient Semetic tribes”, but no indication of people who might be Pagan or Semetic still existing. Halloween is for kids and tomfoolery around marriage. And Thanksgiving is a “reminder of tribulations of the less fortunate.” Ah yes, the guilt. I forgot that used to be a thing. We don’t have guilt in America anymore unless it is directed at others. We are a nation of perfect people who have a hard time recognizing when they have been oppressing others for 400 years.

We finally have some people of color who are both non-fictional and not wanted men! There is a picture of some 15 black scholars and their three teachers who are dressed circa Little House on the Prairie. Some quite clever backwards google image searching informs me that this photo was taken around 1899 at the Whittier Primary School in Hampton, Virginia. That school was a practice school of the Hampton Normal School which was a teachers’ college after the Civil War and is now Hampton University. The students have a homemade cabin on the desk and the words “The Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers” is on the board behind them. It will be some 100 years or so before public education starts mentioning that there was history on this continent prior to the landing of the European settlers. Don’t hold your breath, children!

Part 7 CHRISTMAS

We begin the Christmas section with a terrifying lantern slide of a family of eight.  Spry, child hoisting Grandpa, bearded prosperous Dad, two little girls behaving daintily, two little boys behaving boisterously, a baby of indeterminate gender - intersex perhaps? I’m grasping at straws here…- and a clearly exhausted Mother. She’s just a bit slumped over in her chair, just as much as her stays will allow. You can’t really read her expression, but I would bet that she is thinking, “Whoever bought my son this drum should DIE!” No jury in the land would convict you, Madam.

“A Christmas Carol” was sweeping the nation like baby fish mouth to counteract “the [vocabulary alert!] refulgent* style of the Victorian Christmas.” And The Ladies’ World, in December of 1892 is doubling down on keeping the guilt:gilt ratio in check. It turns out that my cheap and crafty ways are timeless and also it is probably my fault that my husband is an alcoholic due to my monstrous greed. Just kidding, it’s 2020, my husband is just pandem-drunk. Phew!

So it is a white Christmas, from a representation standpoint. There is one little picture of a child’s scrapbook that has a little black child kind of tormenting a little white child, sticking out their tongue and maybe pinching her. You know how Judge Potter Stewart said of obscenity, “I know it when I see it”? Well, that is the racist vibe on this picture. It’s just gross.

And that’s the holidays! The score is 18 positive and 1 negative depiction of people of color and a bunch of decorative females and one who created art that was diminished by the patriarchy.  We’ve still got nothing on the gay front, but next chapter is THE FRONTIER and there will be cowboys - perhaps they inspired Randy Jones.

* refulgent - I had to look it up, which is one of my favorite things! It means bright and shiny.

No footnotes this time around - all images from Time-Life Books. This Fabulous Century 1870-1900. New York: Time-Life Books, 1970. 

Who the Heck is Helen Green?

You would think if you were famous enough to have at least two short story collections and three other novels published and be hailed in The Bookman as "a writer who has something new and fresh to tell" you would be remembered by English majors less than 100 years later. But I have never heard of her. 

Three of her books are available full text at Google Books. AT THE ACTORS' BOARDINGHOUSE, THE MAISONE DE SHINE: MORE STORIES OF THE ACTORS' BOARDING HOUSE, and MR. JACKSON. They are all written in dialect with trendy slang which make them virtually incomprehensible today. I suppose I could try. In his glowing review of At the Actors' Boardinghouse in Bookman, Arthur Bartlett Maurice gives a list of a few of the short stories that are "must reads" and if I fall further down the Helen Green wormhole, I just may give them a shot. 

And she wasn’t just some unsuccessful person who fell by the wayside. AT THE ACTORS’ BOARDINGHOUSE was originally published in The Morning Telegraph. At least they held the copyright in 1905. But Helen owned it in 1906 when the book was published by the Nevada Publishing Company in New York. And then Brentano’s published another edition in 1907! 

And look at this biographical information! In the words of the glorious Scott Thompson, "It sounds like utter bullshit to me..." (I'm also having a hard time piecing together this sloppy narrative.) I really want to learn more about this woman!

Things I need to research - The New York Morning Telegraph, Bookman’s Magazine and the rest of the Female Humorists in the article I found in a Good Housekeeping magazine my friend Lady Char loaned me from January 1910. I only read it because it had a picture of Jean Webster in it, who I adore, but there was nothing in the article about her! Good Housekeeping is really pulling the old bait and switch...

I am trying to post something every day, but I keep having to do other things! And I have so many books to read and I just got Laura Amy Schlitz's THE HIRED GIRL. So I am going to read that for a half hour right now. I plan to fall completely in love. 

The Bookman: A Magazine of Literature and Life, March, 1908.

Green, Helen. The Maison de Shine: More Stories of the Actor's Boardinghouse. New York: B.W. Dodge and Company, 1908.

Maurice, Arthur Bartlett. "Feminine Humorists." Good Housekeeping, January 1910.

America 1870-1900 - HOLIDAYS

Look at this double spread for decoration day 1899! It’s about 10 years early for EMILY OF DEEP VALLEY, but it certainly conveys the importance of the holiday. There are TONS of flowers. It is a BIG DEAL! There are lots of pretty girls celebrating. I can’t help use CAPITAL LETTERS! There are only two boys. The one on the left looks like he's making eyes at one of the girls, but the one on the right looks like he is planning the murder of whoever forced him to be in this picture.

Part 1 THE LUXURY OF GUILT
We open with a quote by a woman! Or rather, a woman's magazine.“I have been paying New Years calls since twelve o’clock. A tiresome hollow sham it is, but I must keep it up until nearly midnight.” Godey’s Lady’s Book, January 1870. Wow, way to be a downer Godey. Frankly, the look on the face of the little girl in the Christmas card opposite is also a little resigned.

There is a fascinating bit about the origins of certain holidays and how “in an era of hard work, rural isolation and monumental inhibition, holidays were liberating occasions.”

National holidays had national origins. Arbor Day was created to get trees planted on the prairies. Decoration Day/Memorial Day was a way to allow Civil War veterans a chance to be honored and the fallen remembered.

The feasting and religious days were overlaid with guilt. Folks had to “reconcile the doctrine of deprivation with their own need to bust loose once in a while.” Wow, way to be quotable, TL!

Part 2 THE NEW YEAR
New Years used to be ghastly! It was a late 19th century Tinder where gentlemen callers swiped available young ladies right in their parlors! The premise was that marriageable young women of a certain social standing would be listed in the newspaper and up and coming gentlemen would swing by to call to see if sparks flew. Married men also did this - often with families in tow, I guess just so that people could pretend that it wasn’t a complete meat market.

Reading the proper etiquette guidelines I think I’d rather relive the New Years Eve where we stayed home to watch movies and my then 9 year old son’s best friend explosively vomited all over the family room than have to live through New Years Day 1885.

Part 3 VALENTINE’S DAY

Oh look, we have our first successful female who isn’t a criminal! A valentine maker of the highest order. “[A] genteel Mt. Holyoke graduate [a college girl!] Esther Howland of Worcester, Massachusetts, whose lacy creations sold for as much as $50.” Nowadays we would call that person an artist. Whatever… It is noted that she died a spinster. So -possible lesbian - or just sensible? Hey, she should have known not to go to college if she wanted to remain ornamental and marriageable. She is pretty interesting. Her father was a publisher and stationary-er, stationary-ist? He had a stationary business. When Esther received a Valentine from overseas she figured she could make pretty Valentines and she did. She designed them and employed women to make them in their homes. She paid a decent wage and got quality work in return and is now known as "The Mother of the American Valentine."

I guess it was useful back when you sent one valentine to see if perhaps your sentiments were returned. Harper’s Weekly in 1880 seems to think St. Valentine’s Day is a big old whore that allows women to pretend that they are interested in a variety of beaux leaving potential suitors feeling unsure of reciprocity. Clearly, the roots of incel culture are here.

Part 4 EASTER
Did you know that until the Civil War, Easter was mostly seen as a Catholic holiday? But then someone realized that they could make a buck off it and a bunny...I mean a widely celebrated religious holiday, was born. Bonnets, anyone?

There is the bitchiest roast of ugly people from Brooklyn Life in 1890 which I shall share. It seems that Brooklyn hasn’t changed much.

Part 5 INDEPENDENCE DAY
So I was prepared to skip the fourth of July as I usually do. It was fun when the kids were little and we would go to the fireworks. Nowadays we stay home and watch TV and I feel a little guilty about it. Since everything is cancelled, I get a guilt-free holiday! So other than pandemic, systemic injustice and the threat of impending civil war, all is good…

Well this is RICH! I read the Independence Day section and it is all about people fighting with members of the opposite political party and desecrating flags in the process.  It also mentions the unspeakable disrespect of using the flag in advertising! Let’s hope people continue to be vigilant about not trying to make a buck off of American patriotism.

All quotes and images are from TL unless otherwise noted.

Miltimore, John. "How Esther Howland Used an All-Female Workforce to Bring Valentines to the Masses." Foundation for Economic Education, February 14, 2020. [Image courtesy of Mt. Holyoke College.]

MISS TIPPY by Janet Lambert

It has been a long, long time! I usually read my Lamberts at the gym and if you are just waking up from a 3 month nap, the gym is no more. But I am back! Not at the gym, that place is full of germs! But rather, back in the saddle. I am on summer vacation after the craziest school year ever and I am ready to dig back into the lives of the Parrishs, the Jordans and - coming soon - the Draytons.

First up, I ADORE TIPPY PARRISH!!! I didn't like her when she was Penny's irritating little sister, but oh my gosh, teenaged Tippy is a treat. She's funny and no nonsense and gets in just the right kind of trouble. She is a good friend and a snappy dresser when needed.

So - ready for polio, postwar postings and puppy love?

Chapter One - The Parrishes are being called to Germany and Tippy is NOT happy! The rest is just bringing new readers up to date on who all the players are. 

Chapter Two - This is a really lovely chapter about how the Parrishes communicate. It shows everyone's attitude about the move and has a lovely quote -"Other families might woefully accept another way of life or be indifferent to the suffering of one of its minor members, but the Parrishes reached into a grab bag and pulled out everyone's emotions, spread them out and aired them until they were quite acceptable and ready for use." Isn't that a thoughtful group?  There is also some nonsense about little Davy being jealous of his little brother. He'll get his...

Chapter Three - Tippy learns to drive by being left alone in the car and told to find her way back. Bobby gets involved and helps and annoys her in turn. This seems like that process of throwing someone in the water to get them to swim, except there are people walking around who could be turned into innocent bystanders pretty darn quick!

Chapter Four - It is very much a time of change. Carrol and Penny are hoseying the older Parrishes' treasures for when they are away. Mr. Parrish leaves and Tip worries her mom will be lonely. She goes to the movies where she feels superior to a fat girl and is embarrassed to see the young officer she met while she was destroying the base whilst learning to drive. She goes home to see her mom, but no one is there but Trudy, the housekeeper. They have a conversation about who gets to be called Miss and Mister and who is just called by their first name. Apparently it is a thing.

Chapter Five - Tippy decides to be a poet, but I don't think it is going to stick. Then she joins Alice and Gwen for a bridesmaid dress fitting for Jennifer's wedding. She then goes on a double lunch date with Alice,  Bobby and Peter. She is concerned about how much fighting she has been doing with Bobby and tries to remedy this situation.

Chapter Six - Tippy is still working the writing angle and Peter is besotted by her. Penny comes down to entertain the cousin of a friend and it is a nice look at how the military takes care of its own. It turns out that it is Ken Prescott (SWOON - according to many of my Lambert-loving friends) the young officer who has observed Tippy act the fool TWICE and she is mortified. Penny is trying to fix them up but Bobby ruins it by insisting on going to the city with them. Yay, Bobby! I am firmly on team Peter.

Chapter Seven - SO MUCH DRAMA! Tippy and Alcie are talking about marrying each other's brothers someday and it comes out that Bobby has been confiding in Alcie about his relationship with Tip and vice versa. Tippy feels betrayed and the girls get in quite the row before they realize how stupid it is.  In other news, Penny and Josh come down for dinner before the show. When they call to check on the kids, there is no answer and all hell breaks loose. I smell polio!

Chapter Eight - They race up to the country and it turns out that Davy has polio which was a huge fear at this time and was a very big deal as there was no vaccine yet. What must it be like to live in fear of an easily transmittable, potentially deadly disease for which there is no cure?? Holy cow, when I read this, I had no idea and now I live it every day. Crazy... Anyhoo - Tippy doesn't go in the house so that she is not possibly infected. This way she can take care of Parri if necessary. Why the heck did Penny go in the house? Just to be a good friend to Carrol? There is an interesting bit where Penny wishes it was the baby because they didn't know him so well yet. 

Chapter Nine - Tippy takes care of Parri and tries to curl her hair. It doesn't go well, but it gives Penny and Mrs. Parrish a much needed laugh. Tip is nervous about visiting Carrol and Dave at the hospital, but it goes well and the doctor says Davy will live and maybe even walk again someday. 

Chapter Ten - So Alcie and Tippy discuss the birthday dance which is going on despite Davy, The Jordans are going to have a house party for Tippy and Bobby which is awfully thoughtful. In other news Mrs. Parrish gets uncharacteristically het up about the move. Tippy comforts her beautifully, earning a "Miss" in front of her name from Trudy. The whole "Miss Tippy" seems racially uncomfortable at best, but Trudy tells the story of how her pastor called her Miss Trudy for the first time and it kind of sets it as an age thing rather than a black/white thing. Perhaps it was just something of the time, but it still doesn't sit easy.

Chapter Eleven - Tippy thinks everyone has forgotten her birthday. Josh cheers her up with the gift of a typewriter. But even more by treating her as an adult. Then she finds out her family has bought her a gorgeous dress for the dance with all the fashionable accoutrements. THEN Alcie throws her a surprise dinner party! Peter gives her a charm bracelet and all is right with the world. 

Chapter Twelve - Tippy's party is horrible and wonderful. Ken Prescott makes her nervous with his manly ways, but Peter asks her to wear his pin and thinks about "someday" with her. She declines, but is pleased to be asked. 

Chapter Thirteen - Tippy wakes up with an excitement hangover. She can't help but tell Alcie about Peter's proposal, but is disappointed by his chipper demeanor. Shouldn't he be heartbroken? A conversation with Penny gives her a chance to learn the evils of going steady.

Chapter Fourteen - Tippy says goodbye to Davy at the hospital. She brings him soldiers and is optimistic. She says goodbye to Trudy and it is sweet. She spends her last night in the US with Bobby, Alcie and Peter. They take a drive and try not to think about the future.

Chapter Fifteen - It is time to go. Because of packing restrictions, Tippy has to wear ALL HER CLOTHES and is sweating bullets. She half-heartedly hopes she'll have a fever when she gets her medical check to see if she can go on the boat, but no such luck.  

There are fascinating details about military family transport in this chapter! The officers are treated like gods, but their wives and kids are treated like not-very-important baggage. Tippy and her mother are lucky to have a stateroom to themselves, it could have held 4 strangers! There are last minute packing issues and Peter and Alcie drive Tip to the boat. There is a sweet goodbye to the island as they pass it, but no time to visit. 

The boat is "a tub" so any fantasies of shipboard fun are dashed. Tippy finally cracks and has a good cry. Penny offers a trip home next summer and it works to a degree, but not as much as stern talking too from Miss Gertrude, aka Trudy. She is on course to rescind the Miss in Miss Tippy. Tip rallies. 

There is a very sweet convo with Peter which he gives her a picture of him in his full dress uniform and asks for one of her in her white dress. He tells her to write out all her sadness to him. Awwww...

So everyone has to go ashore, but Bobby is nowhere to be found! Where is that thoughtless little troll? His mom needs to say goodbye to him! Just as I am about to write him off, he and Alcie come bounding up the steps with comfy folding chairs for Tip and her mom so that they don't have to spend the entire voyage sitting on awful non-officer-quality wooden benches. Oh Bob, sorry I doubted you!

Well, that's all. I can't wait to see what life on an army base in Germany is like! If my timing remains consistent, I should know by mid 2023!

America 1870-1900 - LAW AND ORDER

Part 1 AN EYE FOR AN EYE
SO this is the law and order section and I am really not excited about reading it. I have had about enough of man’s inhumanity to man lately! I don’t have a good feeling about this.

Man the first paragraph is just a litany of stone cold killers. Next paragraph is the gangs of New York and good old organized crime! I won’t even mention the picture of hanged rapist Frank McManus opposite the text. I feel down quite the rabbit hole of internets looking into the identity of his victim and what happened to her. I didn’t find much, but more than Time Life was willing to do. She was a child when she was attacked, but based on what I found out, she lived at least into her 20s. Not a lot of info, but I found a picture of her as a young woman and she appeared to be not institutionalized or off the rails.

Part 2 ALERT AND FAITHFUL
Wells Fargo was interesting! James Hume was a fancy-man who started using science to solve crimes. And in his rogues gallery of stagecoach robbers I found “Eugene Tyler (negro) Robbed Los Banos Stage, May 7, 1877 with Dan McCarthy” and Tom Horn a letter thief who looks like he might be black/Asian but isn’t identified as such.

Part 3 SIX GUN JUSTICE
This is an exciting retelling of the Younger Gangs undoing at the hands of the Northfield Minnesota vigilante mob. My godchildren live in Northfield. I wonder if they are aware of the town’s rich criminal history?

Part 4 THE PIONEERING PRIVATE EYE
So...in discussing the Pinkertons, the Molly Maguires are wedged in between master thief Adam Worth (thought to be the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Moriarty)and serial killer Herman Webster Mudgett of DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY fame. I guess that speaks to which version of history Time Life is buying. The Molly Maguires (at least the 20 who were convicted on Pinkerton evidence and hanged)  are perceived by some as union agitators taken down by a corrupt system financed by powerful industrialists and by others as violent terrorists. I had always heard the former and Sean Connery and Richard Harris would agree with me.

According to the book, “Once he had nailed his man, Pinkerton had a unique talent for encouraging the unhappy felon to confess.” Pinkerton attributed it to a guilty conscience, but could it also have been a beat down?

Pinkerton’s logo was an eye with the words “we never sleep” beneath it which led to the term “private eye”. Who knew? Pinkerton came to prominence when he foiled an assassination attempt on Abraham Lincoln and set up the first secret service during the Civil War. He caught Mrs. Rose Greenhow - a woman! - who bears looking at as a successful female, albeit a confederate spy.

Pinkerton retired, eventually passing the business on to his son. He wrote crime novels and still investigated crimes for fun. He died of a gangrenous wound on his tongue that he got while taking his daily constitutional. As I have always said - walking kills. TL describes it as an “ignominious death” and even though I have heard the word ignominious before, I am going to count it under new words to me as I have not used it in conversation before. But I shall henceforth!

Part 5 TARNISH ON THE COPPER BADGE
Here we go, police corruption. I have been hearing something about this lately. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst of the NY society for the Prevention of Crime was thought to have solved this back in 1892. And yet...

Vocabulary alert! The “seamy side” refers to a stocking or a garment - the uglier side that holds the whole thing together. I never knew this!

So Parkhurst was a clerical fellow who was not afraid to visit the “seamy side” (“‘Show me something worse’, was his constant cry.”) and then he publicized it. Basically, he preached about police corruption - specifically Tammany Hall. When he was asked to back up his allegations with proof, he went out and gathered proof. He cited his sources like a boss.

Part 6 THE WAGES OF CRIME
State prison in St. Cloud is photographed near the end of the century, all white men - both convicts and law enforcement. It is, however, Minnesota.

“You don’t want any musky sentimentality when you are dealing with criminals. One of the things that many of our great reformers should learn is that fellow-feeling for the criminal is out of place.” Teddy Roosevelt. Hmmmmm, Ted - what about the circumstances that led to crime? I think we should try to have fellow-feeling for all people, you big bully.

And thus ends the section on crime with 2 people of color (a robber and a forger, a woman and a half (a traitorous vixen and an implied rape victim), and a group of early labor agitators who may or may not have been bad guys. So far, not a great representation, Time Life.

Andrews, Evan. "10 Things You May Not Know About the Pinkertons." History. August 22, 2018.

"Reverand Charles H. Parkhurst." Oxford Academic, [Courtesy Wiiliston Northampton School Archives.] April 25, 2016. 

"Rose O'Neal Greenhow." American Battlefield Trust, 2020. 

Wells Fargo History & Museum in San Francisco, August 24, 2009. 

America 1870-1900 - NATION ON THE MOVE (continued)

We are still on the move and up comes the question of the centennial! I remember the bicentennial. We spent that summer on a cross country trip to see bison. My mom nearly fell off a cliff riding a horse around Lake Louise - pictured!-  and my little sister nearly died of a North Dakota sunburn - sadly, not pictured. I can't locate the picture where 11 year old me has the angriest face ever in front of Mount Rushmore because everyone is paying attention to Katie because of her near death experience and what about MY very bad sunburn? The happiest memory of this trip was painting the dogs' toenails. Yes, that is dogs plural. In a camper. With three kids. It was something. My mother is a saint!

But back to 1876.

People wanted to have a big banger for the 100th  anniversary of freedom, but not everyone thought it was a good idea. Benjamin Willis a Democratic member of the house of representatives said, regarding the centennial, “Is self-jollification...getting up a grand magnificent exposition, a function of government? Rather than expend money for a jubilee in 1876 we should bequeath to posterity the privilege of celebrating the continued existence of the Republic in 1976.” He was not a fellow who cared about a good time. BUT he was the father of Portia Willis who was a pretty awesome suffragist. (And not mentioned in the book, but I learned about her when Wikipedia-ing her dad.)

It was decided to hold the 1876 Central Exhibition in Philadelphia. The city of brotherly love paid $1.5 and the congress matched it.

“The government is not a republic, but a hateful oligarchy of sex.” Anonymous suffragist, 1876. So women are mentioned! Useful women who aren't going to make good wives! Also in this section we have our first non-white face. He is a dime novel character named “Pomp” which doesn’t seem like positive representation. I couldn't find any info on The Electric Horse by Noname other than bibliographically. I looked up some dime (or half-dime) novels and they were written in dialect that was nearly incomprehensible. And a lot of information about A Horse with No Name that was not related to this book at all.

People - and by people it means white men - were proud to be Americans at this time and described thus by historian Henry Adams. The average city dweller was “a pushing, energetic, ingenious person, always awake and trying to get ahead of his neighbor.” Well, he sounds like a jerk!

The creation of Wrigley’s chewing gum and Brentano’s bookstore are outlined here. Brentano’s died twice. Once in 1983 when it was acquired by Borders and then in 2011 when Borders went under. But I was actually chewing Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum when I read that section. Some some things did stick around. There is also a glowing origin story for Buck Duke of the American Tobacco Company. Thanks, Buck, for the 10 years you probably shaved off my life.

So they are discussing how this land of raw material was chewed up and spit out by the greed of men. The land that our forefathers “rightfully” stole from the indigenous people and worked with the sweat of stolen Africans ended up eating its own tail. Right now it kind of feels like our great greed-fueled empire is going down. Maybe it will come back or maybe it is some other country’s turn to be "it". We did a good job for awhile. We got rid of dictators who ruled by right of birth and replaced them with, well dictators who rule by right of circumstances - but every so often, by right of brains, or talent, or hard work and with a large amount of good luck.

This was written in 1970, which is not the world we have now. Back then, no one who was living their best middle-class-white-girl life knew we needed a revolution.  Sure there were feminists, and anti-war protesters and civil rights workers, but their platform was narrow and easy to ignore if it didn’t affect you. Basically, the people who were trying to make a change weren't being heard the way they are today.

Economist Henry George saw it, “Amid the greatest accumulations of wealth, men die of starvation, and puny infants suckle dry breasts; where everywhere the greed of gain, the worship of wealth, shows the force of the fear of want.” Yes indeed.

Up next is law and order. Yikes.


All quotes are from TL unless otherwise noted.
Benjamin Willis. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, 1865-1880.
George, Henry. Progress and Poverty. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881.
Time-Life Books. This Fabulous Century 1870-1900. New York: Time-Life Books, 1970. 
Portia Willis. Bain News Service, Library of Congress, 1910.

America 1870-1900 - NATION ON THE MOVE

We begin our first tome with 18 pages of black and white photographs from 1870-1900. They feature a bunch of white people. They are mostly men doing manly things, but there are some decorative females scattered among them in supporting roles.

Since I believe that I am not going to see any (out) gay people in this entire series and and am pretty sure that many of the representations of people of color are going to be problematic (spoiler - they are!) it seems that women are going to be getting most of the attention from Time Life (hereafter to be referred to as TL) as the least marginalized of the marginalized groups. Also, as a woman, this is the one group I can speak to the struggle of first hand. And oh my, I certainly do!

So I am going to mostly gloss over the decorative and marriageable women except when I have something funny or moving to say about them. (When in doubt, assume I am trying for funny.) If a woman accomplishes something on her own without a man's support I will count her as being "represented" otherwise, she is background noise at best and a representation of the unattainable (and in our modern times untenable) goal of perfect helpmeet with no personality of her own at worst. Okay, that seems harsh, but seriously - it's all kids, virgins, wives and mothers between those covers!

So many photos before page 25 and not a single non-white face. Our first chapter is NATION ON THE MOVE and we are up and at 'em! We've got ourselves a trans-continental railroad!

Before the TCR's completion, it took a month to get from New York to San Francisco by rail and stage. It took 5 months by wagon train from Missouri and you were already halfway there! I wonder if that explosion of movement from the TCR felt like the information superhighway? Interesting parallels, so much opportunity for wealth and oppression.

This would be a good place for TL to begin discussing the "Great Migration" of African-Americans from the postbellum south to the northern industrial cities. But they do not. Perhaps they had not yet read Isabel Wilkerson's masterwork THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS. It wasn't published until 50 years later, so I suppose that is their excuse.

It is mentioned that at this point in time, fewer than 2 per 100 “citizens” went to college. Is the number so low because women and blacks are not represented, or would it be even lower in that case? This book has no citations, which just made me very sad. There are photo credits which can help with some identification. I tried to find the numbers and did find a chart from the zippily named National Center for Education Statistics that matches that and does split it by male and female. But the numbers are so low (And the print so small!) that I couldn't distinguish by gender. There was no mention of race in the report from the last 120 years of American Education, because I am sure black and white education rates were similar because of the level playing field and everything...

I am going to end with a terrific and hopeful quote from journalist Josiah Gilbert Holland who was born in Belchertown, MA, wrote a solid Lincoln biography, helped found Scribner's Monthly, and was friends with Emily Dickinson. (I read the Wikipedia page so you don't have to!) “Progress cannot be reckoned in railroads and steamboats, or counted in money, or decided in any way by the census tables. Are we producing better children and better men and women? This is the question which decides everything." I like to believe that this is true, that the human condition is the struggle to be better. I think most people want to be decent, but there are so many factors that can get in the way. I really try to believe in the good in people, but greed and fear and hate are out there and they will have an impact.

Biographical Encyclopedia of Massachusetts of the Nineteenth Century. v.2. Boston: Metropolitan Publishing and Engraving Company, 1883. p. 180.

Snyder, Thomas D. 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Study. Washington, DC: US Department of Education, 1993.

Time-Life Books. This Fabulous Century 1870-1900. New York: Time-Life Books, 1970. 

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. New York: Random House, 2010.