This note came from the able researcher, David Goudsward!
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Abbie A Hathaway was the daughter of Franklin L and Alice A Hathaway. She died 14 Oct 1917 at age 65 yrs
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And for more on David ... click here!
Showing posts with label 1917. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1917. Show all posts
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Lovecraft Misses Religious Occasion
[To Galpin, Tuesday, 30 September 1917]
The neighbourhood is quite honoured today. His Emminence Cardinal Mercier of Belgium being entertained in the McElroy mansion only four houses west of Castle Theobald {i.e. Lovecraft's then home} on Angell Street. My Aunt is now there at the reception being given in his honour.
The extensive grounds are all fenced off to deter curious crowds, and awnings cover the long drives whereby the mansion is reached from the street. His emminence will sleep there tonight,then depart of the lawless town of Bosting {Boston}. I should like to see the Cardinal, but feel to confoundedly miserable today to breast any bustle, formality, or excitement. {...}
The McElroy home is the only stronghold of Hibernianism. It was built by the late Joseph banigan, sometimes called the "Rubber King", who was Mrs. McElroy's father. He was a poor Irish peasant who suceeded in business and lived to found afamily whose inante good qualities gave them a definite social standing hereabouts. He married an American lady, and gave his children the best education obtainable, so that they are rather influential in the community. One of our principal skyscrapers - whre my grandfather had his office the last two years of his life {1902-1904} - was named the "Branigan Building" - though Providencepride has led it to its recent renaming as the "Grosvenor Building" ...
My mother and aunts knew the daughters of Joseph Branigan from childhood, and found them really worthy in every respect. The grandchildren were my earliest playmates, though it made me shudder in my British soul to know "Dicky Banigan", "Robert McElroy", "Edmund Sullivan", wtc!
However there is some consolation in the fact that Dick, Joe, and John Banigan, who live nearest me (next house to #454 Angell) were only a quarter Irish. Their father had followed the example of his own father and married into an old American family. Still, I wished they could have been solidly Saxon! The Banigan heirs are the recognized heirs of catholic circles here, and have entertained all the visiting Popish dignitaries such as cardinal Sarton of Italy, Gibons of baltimore, and now Mercier. Mercier, by the way, is rather Galpinesque in altitude {i.e. tall}. My aunt went to the college exercises this morning to see him obtain his LL.D., and says that the tallest professor was selected to confer on him his academic cap. The registrar (whose wife told my aunt) is supposed to perform this ceremony, but is such a pygmy that he felt he could not do it graceflly, so called in more assistance!
The Banigan or McElroy Mansion, where Mercier is now receiving the homage of local society, is one of the "show places" of the neighbourhood, and excited Klie's {Rheinhart Kleiner} vast admiration when he was here.
It is a gothic maor-house of brick and stone, such as its peasant builder may have seen and admired at a distance in his boyhood in Ould Oireland {i.e. old Ireland}. The grounds are extensive and beautifully kept, with hedges, trees, and stables of pleasing architecture. It lies almost exactly half way betwixt the house where I was born, and the one which I inhabit. Altogether, fancy the Irish have helped rather than harmed the locality!
From a New York Times Notice:
_____
October 1, 1917, Wednesday
Page 7, 363 words
_____
COMMITTEE TO GET FUND FOR MERCIER;
Plan to Raise Purse Is Launched at Dinner for the Belgian Cardinal.
DUVAL TO NAME MEMBERS
Bishop Burch Pays Tribute to Guest of Honor--Cardinal Leavesfor Providence.
_____
On the eve of his departure yesterday for Providence, R.I., Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, was the guest of George L. Duval at a private dinner in the Metropolitan Club, Fifth Avenue and Sixtieth Street.
_____
_____
From Wikipedia: Désiré-Félicien-François-Joseph Mercier (November 21, 1851—January 23, 1926) was a Belgian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Mechelen from 1906 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1907. Mercier is noted for his staunch resistance to the German occupation of 1914.
_____
A local article from: Jewelers' circular, Volume 79, Issue 1, p.103 shows some behind the scenes work, and list of attendees.
_____
From Cardinal Mercier: a memoir By David A. Boileau, p. 225: President Wilson had "an illness in the White House" and could not see the Cardinal. On the 26th of September he visited Philadelphia. On 29th he was at Princeton. New York on the 30th. 1 October he toured Providence. {Which is most likely an error in the book, as Lovecraft dates his letter the 3th September}. Hartford and yale on the 2 October. Springfield, MA thr 4th-7th on the way next to Boston.
_____
Lovecraft is confirmed precise in this pericope from, Journal of the ... annual session of the Rhode Island Episcopal Convention By Episcopal Church. Diocese of Rhode Island. Convention, p.77, which states, "Tuesday, September 30. Providence. Attended Cardinal Mercier at exercises at Brown University, at Providence College and at City Hall. Attended luncheon for Cardinal Mercier and made address of welcome. P. M.: Attended reception to Cardinel Mercier. Evening: Presided at dinner of the Harvard Club for President Lowell of Harvard University."
_____
As to Banigan, here is an historical note of his signifcance, and why he was tied to rubber.
Rhode Island's Irish history is tied closely to Joseph Bannigan, the sole Catholic out of a list of 200 influential Rhode Island businessmen in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Bannigan emigrated from Ireland after the potato famine and became an apprentice jeweler before eventually owning the fledging but growing Woonsocket Rubber Company. In 1882, Bannigan built a companion rubber mill in Millville, Ma. He was well-loved for his philanthropic efforts in the community and his strong loyalty in the hiring of the Irish. Banigan worked to foster the Irish community, but problems arose in 1885 as tough economic times led to a lowering of the wages for his millworkers.
As the Irish grew in their independence and self-confidence, they became indignant that Bannigan did not consult with them before cutting their wages. This led to a thousand workers walking out in the Millville plant creating the first strike in America on June 18, 1885. The Holy and Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was funded from the New York area, and the labor organizing movement started in the Blackstone Valley with approximately 10,000 strikers demonstrating in Millville.
Strikebreakers were sent in to intimidate the workers, yet about 60 workers lay siege to the boarding house where the strikebreakers were staying and a riot and injuries ensued. Anyone found to support these strikebreakers would be shunned and eventually, Banigan appealed to Father Michael McCabe who appealed to workers to accept Banigan's terms. Workers were aware that many of Banigan's foremen were top church leaders and money flowed easily to the Church from Banigan. However, an agreement was accepted in October 1885 in which Banigan compromised on the pay cut but created a list of regulations which included "must attend church on Sunday or be fired." This last rule created another uproar but the State finally ruled in favor of the workers and the antagonism finally subsided though many mill workers progressed to become more independent construction craftsmen and more influential after this debacle.
Eventually, Joseph Banigan went on to become the President of the US Rubber Company which bought out the Woonsocket Rubber Company. His role in history, though eventually controversial, was a milestone for the Irish worker in Rhode Island.
____
The neighbourhood is quite honoured today. His Emminence Cardinal Mercier of Belgium being entertained in the McElroy mansion only four houses west of Castle Theobald {i.e. Lovecraft's then home} on Angell Street. My Aunt is now there at the reception being given in his honour.
The extensive grounds are all fenced off to deter curious crowds, and awnings cover the long drives whereby the mansion is reached from the street. His emminence will sleep there tonight,then depart of the lawless town of Bosting {Boston}. I should like to see the Cardinal, but feel to confoundedly miserable today to breast any bustle, formality, or excitement. {...}
The McElroy home is the only stronghold of Hibernianism. It was built by the late Joseph banigan, sometimes called the "Rubber King", who was Mrs. McElroy's father. He was a poor Irish peasant who suceeded in business and lived to found afamily whose inante good qualities gave them a definite social standing hereabouts. He married an American lady, and gave his children the best education obtainable, so that they are rather influential in the community. One of our principal skyscrapers - whre my grandfather had his office the last two years of his life {1902-1904} - was named the "Branigan Building" - though Providencepride has led it to its recent renaming as the "Grosvenor Building" ...
My mother and aunts knew the daughters of Joseph Branigan from childhood, and found them really worthy in every respect. The grandchildren were my earliest playmates, though it made me shudder in my British soul to know "Dicky Banigan", "Robert McElroy", "Edmund Sullivan", wtc!
However there is some consolation in the fact that Dick, Joe, and John Banigan, who live nearest me (next house to #454 Angell) were only a quarter Irish. Their father had followed the example of his own father and married into an old American family. Still, I wished they could have been solidly Saxon! The Banigan heirs are the recognized heirs of catholic circles here, and have entertained all the visiting Popish dignitaries such as cardinal Sarton of Italy, Gibons of baltimore, and now Mercier. Mercier, by the way, is rather Galpinesque in altitude {i.e. tall}. My aunt went to the college exercises this morning to see him obtain his LL.D., and says that the tallest professor was selected to confer on him his academic cap. The registrar (whose wife told my aunt) is supposed to perform this ceremony, but is such a pygmy that he felt he could not do it graceflly, so called in more assistance!
The Banigan or McElroy Mansion, where Mercier is now receiving the homage of local society, is one of the "show places" of the neighbourhood, and excited Klie's {Rheinhart Kleiner} vast admiration when he was here.
It is a gothic maor-house of brick and stone, such as its peasant builder may have seen and admired at a distance in his boyhood in Ould Oireland {i.e. old Ireland}. The grounds are extensive and beautifully kept, with hedges, trees, and stables of pleasing architecture. It lies almost exactly half way betwixt the house where I was born, and the one which I inhabit. Altogether, fancy the Irish have helped rather than harmed the locality!
From a New York Times Notice:
_____
October 1, 1917, Wednesday
Page 7, 363 words
_____
COMMITTEE TO GET FUND FOR MERCIER;
Plan to Raise Purse Is Launched at Dinner for the Belgian Cardinal.
DUVAL TO NAME MEMBERS
Bishop Burch Pays Tribute to Guest of Honor--Cardinal Leavesfor Providence.
_____
On the eve of his departure yesterday for Providence, R.I., Cardinal Mercier, Primate of Belgium, was the guest of George L. Duval at a private dinner in the Metropolitan Club, Fifth Avenue and Sixtieth Street.
_____
_____
From Wikipedia: Désiré-Félicien-François-Joseph Mercier (November 21, 1851—January 23, 1926) was a Belgian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Mechelen from 1906 until his death, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1907. Mercier is noted for his staunch resistance to the German occupation of 1914.
_____
A local article from: Jewelers' circular, Volume 79, Issue 1, p.103 shows some behind the scenes work, and list of attendees.
_____
From Cardinal Mercier: a memoir By David A. Boileau, p. 225: President Wilson had "an illness in the White House" and could not see the Cardinal. On the 26th of September he visited Philadelphia. On 29th he was at Princeton. New York on the 30th. 1 October he toured Providence. {Which is most likely an error in the book, as Lovecraft dates his letter the 3th September}. Hartford and yale on the 2 October. Springfield, MA thr 4th-7th on the way next to Boston.
_____
Lovecraft is confirmed precise in this pericope from, Journal of the ... annual session of the Rhode Island Episcopal Convention By Episcopal Church. Diocese of Rhode Island. Convention, p.77, which states, "Tuesday, September 30. Providence. Attended Cardinal Mercier at exercises at Brown University, at Providence College and at City Hall. Attended luncheon for Cardinal Mercier and made address of welcome. P. M.: Attended reception to Cardinel Mercier. Evening: Presided at dinner of the Harvard Club for President Lowell of Harvard University."
_____
As to Banigan, here is an historical note of his signifcance, and why he was tied to rubber.
Rhode Island's Irish history is tied closely to Joseph Bannigan, the sole Catholic out of a list of 200 influential Rhode Island businessmen in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Bannigan emigrated from Ireland after the potato famine and became an apprentice jeweler before eventually owning the fledging but growing Woonsocket Rubber Company. In 1882, Bannigan built a companion rubber mill in Millville, Ma. He was well-loved for his philanthropic efforts in the community and his strong loyalty in the hiring of the Irish. Banigan worked to foster the Irish community, but problems arose in 1885 as tough economic times led to a lowering of the wages for his millworkers.
As the Irish grew in their independence and self-confidence, they became indignant that Bannigan did not consult with them before cutting their wages. This led to a thousand workers walking out in the Millville plant creating the first strike in America on June 18, 1885. The Holy and Noble Order of the Knights of Labor was funded from the New York area, and the labor organizing movement started in the Blackstone Valley with approximately 10,000 strikers demonstrating in Millville.
Strikebreakers were sent in to intimidate the workers, yet about 60 workers lay siege to the boarding house where the strikebreakers were staying and a riot and injuries ensued. Anyone found to support these strikebreakers would be shunned and eventually, Banigan appealed to Father Michael McCabe who appealed to workers to accept Banigan's terms. Workers were aware that many of Banigan's foremen were top church leaders and money flowed easily to the Church from Banigan. However, an agreement was accepted in October 1885 in which Banigan compromised on the pay cut but created a list of regulations which included "must attend church on Sunday or be fired." This last rule created another uproar but the State finally ruled in favor of the workers and the antagonism finally subsided though many mill workers progressed to become more independent construction craftsmen and more influential after this debacle.
Eventually, Joseph Banigan went on to become the President of the US Rubber Company which bought out the Woonsocket Rubber Company. His role in history, though eventually controversial, was a milestone for the Irish worker in Rhode Island.
____
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Lovecraft's Motivations For Enlisting?
(Above are images of a special pamphlet issued by the Providence Journal showing the inevitability of war with Germany. The paper systematically published exposes of German espionage and notably much of it in the New Ehngland and New York area)
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Below are excerpts from some historic documents that I've recently noted. Apparently Providence was in the middle of uncovering a hotbed of German spies. Lovecraft would have devoured the local newspaper daily. Systematically, the Aryan-devoted HPL would have had his idealism shattered. HPL, as is well known, was a fan of all things British, and in his belief system of the time (as with many) the Germans were brothers to the British. This is no mystery, as the royal family were intimately tied by marriage (i.e. Queen Victoria). He proudly announced that the "Teuton is the summit of evolution". On 16 May 1917, he himself applied for enlistment with the Rhode Island National Guard. Why? While Mr. Joshi has written much about this (see for instance A Dreamer and a Visionary}, I think that HPL was following for years the information in the Rhode Island Providence Journal. Indeed, it would be folly to think that he didn't read it daily.
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SAYS GERMAN SPIES REVEAL OUR SECRETS; Two in State Department, Four in Treasury Suspected, Providence Journal Asserts. CAPT. HORN HAS CONFESSED Name of German Officer, Now in Prison, Headed List to be Saved by False Passports.
Special to The New York Times. August 17, 1915, Tuesday Page 2
PROVIDENCE, Aug. 16. -- The Providence Journal will say tomorrow morning ... {rest of text not readily available}.
In a document (online starting with http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/viewtext/12014464?op=t&n=1 and following).
In April, 1915, the Providence Journal exposed the German Embassy's plot to discredit the Washington Administration by means of false affidavits of neutrality
violations "to enable British men-of-war to get supplies from this country." Beginning with this exposure the Journal began its series of revelations concerning German Government plots which focused the attention of the whole civilized world on this newspaper and its exposures.
...
On June 10 the Providence Journal published a story exposing an attempt on the part of Germans to buy the Bethlehem Steel plant, engaged in making munitions of various kinds, with the intention of breaking the contracts with the allied nations. The next day came the exposure by the same paper of threats against munition plants, which resulted in small armies of private guards being stationed about the various properties.
...
William Jennings Bryan's "peace at any price" doctrine was disclosed on July 3, when the Journal published the facts of the interview between Baron Konstantin T. Dumba, the Austrian Ambassador, and the Secretary of State. This was the famous meeting
where Bryan promised that President Wilson would accept Germany's proposition to end the submarine warfare if the United States would publicly suggest that its citizens refrain from sailing on passenger ships of the belligerent countries carrying munitions; that the United States would make provision for such boats; and that the President would issue a proclamation advising United States citizens not to sail on such boats. The Journal secured from the files of the German Embassy and printed the original memorandum of the conversation between Ambassador Dumba and Mr. Bryan, which the former had given to Ambassador Bernstorff.
...
The first of the labor troubles, declared by the Journal to have been incited by the Germans, began on July 13, when the Remington Arms Company plant at Bridgeport was tied up, and this was followed by a rapid spread of the trouble to other munition plants at Bridgeport and elsewhere.
...
On July 20 the Journal printed the statement that a woman agent of the German Embassy had approached Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, and had twice offered him enough money to make him independent for life if
he would use his influence to call strikes in factories making munitions of war. The offers were refused.
...
Another sensation was caused throughout the country when the Journal, on August 4, published a story showing the connection that Von Bernstorff and Capt. Boy-Ed had had with Victoriano Huerta's attempt to re-enter Mexico and embroil the United States in war with that country. This plot included shipment of arms and German reservists to Mexico.
...
On August 18 the Journal published a story showing that, at the request of President Wilson, it had presented to the Navy Department and the Neutrality Board evidence to show that German spies had worked in this country long before the outbreak of the war and that they had tried to steal the fire control secrets of our navy. It also showed that Germany had planned a series of wireless stations completely surrounding the Western Hemisphere.
...
In 1916, the evidence mounted toward war. On the 1st {of Match, 1916} the office of the Providence Journal was visited by an explosion and fire of incendiary origin.
...
In 1917: On January 1st, 1917, the Journal printed a story from its Washington office in which it declared that the Administration had, in its peace effort, seemed
to the Allied governments to be attempting to aid Germany at the price of immunity from submarine warfare and, at the same time, appearing before the Allies as giving the Kaiser warning that the United States might enter the war on the side of the Allies.
...
The same day {1 February} the Journal published a story showing
that the reason New York Harbor had been closed tightly on the 1st was because a plot had been discovered to send German ships to sea and then sink them in the channel, blocking the harbor.
On April 2nd the Journal printed the story of the arrest, of Dr. Iriis and declared that his incarceration had seriously crippled German intrigue in Central America. The existence of a state of war between the United States and Germany was proclaimed
on April 6. It was also on the 9th that the Journal published a story showing how the Germans were spreading tuberculosis throughout France in order to decimate
the population.
...
On the 16th April a German with wireless signal code was arrested near the Marconi plant at Elizabeth, N. J. On May 2 the Journal showed that the aid of Germans in Mexico had been promised to the Kaiser in a war against the United States and also that the Morgan office had been the aim of the Wall street bomb plotters. {The last day of the month (April 1917) two Germans were arrested charged with trying to explode a bomb in Wall street}.
_____
With a few days of the Elizabeth, NJ arrest, and Wall Street bombing, Lovecraft may have finally had enough. Nearl three years of almost daily ponding by the Providence Journal may have battered his "Teutonic" brotherhood philosophy. Morton's argumentation may have also swayed him.
_____
"I resolved to attempt enlistment despite my almsot invalid condition... I presented myself at the recruiting station of the R.I. National Guard ... was given a ... application for the coast artileery ... the sensation created at home was far from slight ... {and} soon brought my military to a close .."
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Lovecraft in Context (1917)
_____
Lovecraft, as much as we admire, idolize, or scartch our heads over him, was a man of his times. He had a cultural milieu, and this indicates that there was a socio-economic and political group in which he was at home. People knew him, understood him, and he, they. To others, outside, they may have been puzzled at his beliefs and opinions, but not his group. Not yet. Not until his horizons grew, and he became a very big fish in a small pond.
_____
HPL
The Inspiration for April 1917
{p2}
…heart, we ourselves, look out upon the world with eyes that are beneath the fretful surface with hearts that reach out to the innermost hearts of mankind. We are bound to our fellowmen by stronger ties than kinship or ace, by a mightier-than-human Force which holds us together, an all-powerful Something that will not let us go.
In a little poem which has just come to light, Robert Louis Stevenson says:
"Let us wander where we will,
Something kindred greets us still,
Something seen on vale or hill
Falls familiar on the heart;
So at scent of sound or sight,
Severed souls by day and night …
Tremble half the world apart."
The Great War, raging fiercely for almost three years across the wide Atlantic, has "fallen familiar on the heart," – on the heart of us individually, on the heart of our little fraternity collectively. No less than twenty-seven of our number – members of the British Amateur Press Association and our own Canadian constituent – have enlisted and gone to that hazardous, far-reaching Front, and the little band is scattered frm No-Man's Land to Mesopotamia, from London to Zanzibar. Where many of them are, we do not know; perhaps never shall know; but our souls, severed from them in truth, have "trembled half the world apart," and we want Our Boys to know it. We want these brothers of ours, this fraternal kin of ours, to feel that we are with them, that we have been from the beginning, will be to the end.
{3}
And, therefore, are we gathered here – a little handful of us together – to speak for us all; to lay at their feet this little tribute of pride, of love, and affection, though nothing we can do, no words we may speak, no tribute, however great is worthy of them. And when it is all over when they come marching back with blaring trumpets, and flags opf victory, they will find
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Rare copy of Tryout (June 1917)
The seller states: THE TRYOUT Vol. 3, No., 7. 1917Edited & published by the ageless indefatiguable C. W. (Tryout) Smith, "The Tryout" remains one of the legendary HPL amateur papers and HPL published more within its pages than any other paper. This issue contains Lovecraft's intelligent, canny , admonishing and neutering four-page response to attacks by "The Lingerer" editor, Rev. Graeme Davis upon both Lovecraft and the United Amateur Organization of which HPL was then President. "To refute Mr. Davis' none too generous suggestion that my own loyalty to the United is caused by a conceited desire to stand out against a background even more mediocre than myself , I need only mention the names of a score of fellow members to each of whom I can justly and and gladly concede the palm of vastly superior genius, scholarship and expression." There is also a poem by HPL alter-ego Lewis Theobald Jr., and admiring comments upon both Lovecraft and Winifred Virginia Jordan. Very scarce from this era!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tryout Vol 3 No 3 1917
The seller says: THE TRYOUTVol. 3, No., 3. 1917Edited & published by the ageless indefatiguable C. W. (Tryout) Smith, "The Tryout" remains one of the legendary HPL amateur papers and HPL published more within its pages than any other paper. This issue is loaded with Lovecraft featuring the poem - ""The Nymph's Reply to the Modern Businessman" by Lewis Theobald, Jr., "Fact & Fancy" by H. P. Lovecraft, and note that "H. P. Lovecraft recently added $25 to his bank account by capturing a prize by Fays Theatre for the best movie review". Additional poetry by the HPL heart-throb Winifred Virginia Jordan. Very scarce from this era!An early HPL issue of interest & importance!
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