The Historian's Hut: Did You Know?: Modern

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Tuesday, December 17, 2019

The Alcohol Exposition Of Rep. Fiorello La Guardia

The date was June 19, 1926, and the United States was struggling through the Prohibition Era (1919/1920-1933), a time in which the U.S. government cracked down on the mass-production and sale of alcoholic beverages. They did this through questionable and ineffective means that produced underwhelming and ironically lawless results. Although the Temperance Movement and an alliance of dry politicians were in favor of Prohibition, Representative Fiorello La Guardia of New York was in no way a fan. On that June day in 1926, Representative La Guardia decided to express his dissent in a very educational public service announcement that the populace would be sure to drink up—he invited twenty people from the news industry into his Washington D.C. office and then proceeded to demonstrate to them how someone in the United States could use legal store-bought ingredients to make an alcoholic beer.

As the band of newsmen jostled for positions in Fiorello La Guardia’s Congressional office, the representative readied his ingredients. His desk was covered with glass cups and various bottles of different liquids. Like a chemistry teacher, Rep. La Guardia proceeded to hold up one of the bottles for all in the room to see. It was a non-alcoholic (or legally low-alcohol) brew—a product called “near beer.” He took this legal and accessible item and poured its contents into a glass. With that step completed, Rep. La Guardia next showed the reporters another bottle from the table. It was a container of malt extract tonic, another easily-obtainable product that was legal to own during Prohibition. After opening the bottle of extract, Rep. La Guardia raised up the glass with the non-alcoholic beverage already in it, and, upon receiving the full attention of the reporters, he made a show of pouring most of the malt extract into the near beer. After giving the concoction some time to ferment, Rep. La Guardia proclaimed that he had made a 2% beer with simply-procured, legal products. As a final touch, the representative drank the beer and sent the reporters on their way to print reports on his informative stunt.

Representative Fiorello La Guardia received rave reviews from the newspapers that attended his alcohol exposition. Dry politicians, however, balked at the gall of the man and protested. Yet, verbal jabs from his fellow Congressmen did not stop Rep. La Guardia from bringing his brewing show on the road. He was known to have done a second beer production exposition in his home state of New York. Prohibition, however, would not end in the United States until 1933.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Photograph of Fiorello La Guardia dated between ca. 1915 and ca. 1920, [Public Domain] via the U.S. Library of Congress and Creative Commons).

Sources:

Tuesday, April 16, 2019

A Eulogy For Notre-Dame De Paris

On the fifteenth of April, during the year 2019, the iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris suffered a catastrophic fire. Flames spread out from a maze of scaffolding built around the cathedral’s spire (nicknamed “the Arrow”), eventually reducing the spire and the roof of the beloved structure to cinders. Fiery debris collapsed inward, and, in some places, punched through the cathedral’s vaulted ceilings to reach the priceless interior of the church. Fortunately, church authorities have claimed that several key treasures (such as Notre-Dame’s Holy Crown of Thorns relic) were whisked away to safety. Yet, numerous cultural and religious wonders that adorned the cathedral have undoubtedly been destroyed or incredibly damaged. The site, however, is no stranger to adversity. Notre-Dame de Paris has faced looting, vandalism and wartime damage over the centuries. In spite of this, it has always proved to be a survivor; even now, the masonry and iconic shape of the Notre-Dame de Paris has survived the fire remarkably well. Someday, the cathedral may possibly be rebuilt in its old image—yet it will never be the same. For now, all we can do is remember Notre-Dame’s historic past and hope the best for the cathedral’s future.

Surrounded by the waters of the River Seine and situated in the center of Paris, the island known as the Île de la Cité has long been associated with religious worship. During the age of the Roman Empire, the site housed a temple of Jupiter, and when Christianity later became the dominant religion in Europe, Christians designated the Île de la Cité as a place worthy of their own houses of worship. At least three Christian churches were constructed on the island, the last of which was the famous Notre-Dame de Paris.

Around 1160, during the reign of King Louis VII of France (r. 1137-1180), the Parisian Bishop Maurice de Sully proposed the project that would become the Notre-Dame de Paris. Construction officially began in 1163, when Pope Alexander III (r. 1159-1181) ceremoniously placed down the first stone of the project. The building effort reached its first milestone step in 1189, when the high alter of the cathedral was consecrated. Yet, the project was still a long way from completion. During the 13th century, much of the building was constructed, including the nave and chapels, as well as its famous rose windows. The cathedral, however, still was not finished. In fact, construction was not officially completed until 1345, during the reign of King Philip VI (r. 1328-1350). Yet, even after that point, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris continued to undergo change, with new additions, decorations and remodeling. Upon completion, the cathedral’s interior measured around 427 feet long by 157 feet wide (130 by 48 meters). The rooftop of the cathedral stood around 115 feet high (35 meters) and the iconic front towers reached even heigher at 223 feet (68 meters) each.

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris faced its first major disaster during the French Revolution (c. 1789-1799). As the cathedral was associated with the French monarchy, it was ravaged and mistreated in the course of the revolution. Many of its windows were smashed. Bells were melted down and repurposed. Treasures were looted or destroyed. A reported twenty-eight statues of kings in the cathedral were pointedly decapitated. And, for a final touch, the cathedral, itself, was said to have been utilized by the revolutionaries as a warehouse. Yet, the cathedral found an interesting ally in Napoleon—he returned ownership of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris to the church in 1802, and he later used the site as the venue for his coronation as Emperor of France in 1804.

Although Napoleon brought the cathedral back to a dignified state, it still was in urgent need of repairs. A new wave of interest in repairing Notre-Dame came from an unlikely source—a novelist. The inspiration for major restoration work on the cathedral is attributed to the influence of Victor Hugo, whose novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (published 1831), showcased the cathedral in its 15th-century glory. The novel greatly affected the French population and, as early as 1844, King Louis Philippe of France ordered that the Cathedral of Notre-Dame be restored. The project was spearheaded by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Lassus and Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, who attempted to repair what was damaged and replace what was missing. To the best of their ability, they replaced the bells, stained glass and statues that had been destroyed during the French Revolution. Additionally, the team used old sketches and illustrations of Notre-Dame as a reference in order to rebuild or repair famous sections of the cathedral, such as the spire and bell tower.

The work of the 19th-century restorers shaped the Cathedral of Notre-Dame back into a structure of such beauty that it drew in tourists and pilgrims from around the world. Yet, on April 15, 2019, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame suffered a level of damage seemingly unprecedented in the history of the cathedral’s existence. Unfortunately, much of the tangible history lost in the fire cannot be replaced. Yet, history is always in the making, and, perhaps, the future of the cathedral will be just as beautiful and inspiring as its past.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Edmund A. Hunt painting of Notre Dame de Paris, c. 1877, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

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Monday, August 20, 2018

Repeating Muskets Prior To The 19th Century

Many people think that the advent of repeating firearms was a thing of the 19th century—a time dominated, at least in the Americas, by the U.S. Civil War and battles between cowboys and lawmen in the Wild West. While the 19th century was, indeed, a time skyrocketing popularity for repeating weapons, it may be surprising to learn that multi-shot firearms had already been around for hundreds of years.

Before the 19th century, repeating firearms were available for purchase, but were often ignored, as they were expensive to manufacture, difficult to repair and provided little advantage in accuracy over other muskets. The low demand for pre-19th century repeating firearms, however, did not stop ambitious gunsmiths from inventing primitive semi-automatic and automatic weapons. The mechanisms used in these interesting weapons could vary greatly, with some relying on swiveling gun barrels, while others used something akin to a Roman candle design, or even magazines of musket balls that could be individually loaded into a firearm through a contraption similar to those found in later lever-action repeating rifles.

Here are just a few of the bizarre repeating firearms that were in existence during the heyday of muzzle-loaded weaponry. In the 16th century, the 16-shot wheel-lock was one of the first firearms to use the Roman candle design, where one shot ignited the charge of the next, repeating until the ammunition was expended. In the early 17th century, two separate gunsmiths, named Lorenzoni and Kalthoff, created some of the first magazine-loaded flintlock rifles. During the 18th century, at least three more notable repeating firearms were produced. These included the Joseph Belton 8-Shot Repeating Musket, the Cookson Volitional Repeating Flintlock and the Girandoni Air Rifle. The latter of these weapons was actually carried by Merriwether Lewis during the famous Lewis and Clark surveying expedition into the American West.

Written by C. Keith Hansely.

Picture Attribute: (Battle of Bunker Hill by Howard Pyle (1853–1911), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

The Book of the Continental Soldier, by Harold L. Peterson. Pennsylvania: Stackpole Company, 1968.
https://www.britannica.com/technology/repeating-rifle#ref264878

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

The “Apache Pistol”

In the mid- to late 19th century the bizarre “Apache pistol” was born. This odd invention was a civilian personal protection firearm that allegedly was developed in France as a self-defense tool against the Parisian street gangs of the time, nicknamed Apaches. So, while snake guns were made to protect civilians from snakes and dog guns were produced to protect people from feral dogs, the “Apache pistol” was invented to protect 19th-century gentlemen from the so-called Apache street hooligans.

The weapon was like a Swiss Army knife, containing a variety of tools, but it was much less reliable or useful than an actual pocketknife. The “Apache pistol” could be called a pistol because it included a very small pepperbox revolver, with little to no gun barrel, as well as an often dangerously unguarded trigger. Supporting the weak and unreliable weapon was a set of metal knuckledusters, which served as the grip of the gun. Finally, jutting out from underneath the pistol mechanism was a small folding knife, which, when extended, looked like a small bayonet. All in all, it was a weapon that gave the user the option to punch, stab or shoot an assailant, although the weapon was so awkward that the gun wielder may just as likely have cut or shot himself by accident during the brawl. Unsurprisingly, the “Apache pistol” quickly went out of style.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Apache Pistol photographed by Flickr user Michele M. F., via Creative Commons license 2.0).

Sources:

Weapons: an international encyclopedia from 5000 BE to 2000 AD, edited by David Harding and Jefferson Cann, et. al. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1980.
https://www.businessinsider.com/worst-guns-ever-2016-8#1-apache-pistol-8
https://books.google.com/books?id=MloqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=apache+pistol&source=bl&ots=nWHmtere-O&sig=jVqJOpXpEvaYLstp_4UsAaXjSNk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiumoadq-3cAhUBX60KHf-QCi44KBDoATAGegQIBBAB#v=onepage&q=apache%20pistol&f=false

Tuesday, July 10, 2018

When South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu Fled From His Country, He Tried To Take Tons Of Gold With Him

Nguyen Van Thieu came from a moderately wealthy family in the ruling Christian minority class of South Vietnam. He was born in either 1923 or 1924, while the French still had an uneasy control over Vietnam. Over a long military career, first in the French-sponsored Vietnam National Army, and then in the South Vietnamese Army, Nguyen Van Thieu made himself into a man of influence. In 1967, he was elected president of a highly militarized South Vietnamese government and remained in power until the final year of the war, in 1975.

Nguyen Van Thieu fled from Saigon on April 26, 1975, while the city was under siege and would inevitably fall. His escape came only five days after he resigned from the office of president. While many other South Vietnamese people were crushed to death while trying to get on American transports, Nguyen Van Thieu received a personal airlift out of Saigon on a U. S. Air Force C-118 transport plane. Dubious reports from 1975 claimed that he smuggled 15 tons of baggage out of Vietnam to accompany him on his exile, possibly including over three tons of gold. Whether or not that is true, other airlines in South Vietnam also reported that they were asked to ship gold out of the country. Spokesmen for the Swissair and Balair airlines stated in 1975 that Thieu had approached their companies about sending 16 tons of gold to Switzerland. Both companies claimed that they had refused the job, as they feared the gold had originated from South Vietnam’s national gold reserve.

Despite his plan being thwarted, Nguyen Van Thieu lived comfortably for the rest of his life. He first flew to Taiwan, then Britain, and finally settled down near Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Nguyen Van Thieu died in his Boston home in 2001.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (President Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam standing in front of world map, during a meeting with Lyndon B. Johnson in Hawaii, c. 1968, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

The Vietnam Experience: Setting The Stage, by Edward Doyle and Samuel Lipsam. Massachusetts: Boston Publishing Company, 1981.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nguyen-Van-Thieu
https://www.biography.com/people/nguyen-van-thieu-9542460
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/04/14/archives/thieu-said-to-try-to-send-out-gold.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/30/magazine/the-lives-they-lived-nguyen-van-thieu-b-1924-exile-on-newberry-street.html

Sunday, February 11, 2018

The Rise And Disappearance Of Marie Waite, A Rumrunner During The U. S. Prohibition

In 1917, the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution was proposed and sent out to the states for ratification. The amendment, if passed, would ban the production, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States. It took some time, but the amendment was eventually ratified in 1919 and implemented in the everyday life of Americans by 1920. Although the sale of alcohol was now illegal, secret speakeasies and other underground bars still roared with activity. It immediately became apparent that anyone who could satisfy the formidable thirst of the American population would make a fortune. While flashy, less-subtle bootleggers like Al Capone took up most of the prohibition spotlight, other enterprising criminals carved out their own empires of alcohol.

Rumrunners shipping illicit goods into the United States from the Caribbean posed a constant problem for the U.S. Coast Guard. Marie Waite was one of these smugglers, but she had a relatively late rise to power in the rumrunning scene. This was because the “Bahama Queen” of rumrunners, Gertrude Lythgoe, dominated smuggling in the Caribbean for the first half of the 1920s. In those years, Marie Waite restrained her ambitions while her husband, Charlie Waite, became a prominent smuggler in his own right. Nevertheless, a power vacuum opened up in the middle of the decade—Gertrude Lythgoe retired from the smuggling business in 1925 and Marie’s husband, Charlie, died during a shootout near Biscayne Bay, Florida, in 1926. Shortly after Charlie Waite’s death, Marie began her own bid for power in the Caribbean and soon proved that she had a keen eye for the trade. And so began the reign of “Spanish Marie.”

Spanish Marie made a fortune by creating an adaptable smuggling route leading from Havana, Cuba, to various locations in southern Florida. At the height of her power, she fielded an armada of fifteen ships, which were usually dispatched in caravans of four. From her position on the flagship of the flotilla, a vessel named Kid Boots, Marie used radio-transmitted codes to keep in contact with her ships and to evade the U.S. Coast Guard. Yet, if a caravan did manage to be caught, at least one ship was usually armed for battle. By 1927, Marie Waite managed to position herself as the leading rumrunner of the Caribbean through the use of bribery, intimidation and smart administration.

Spanish Marie’s heyday, however, was cut short. On March 12, 1928, the U. S. Coast Guard captured Marie Waite while she was personally offloading more than 5,000 bottles of alcohol onto trucks waiting near Miami, Florida. In a mysterious end to her tale, she was released on bail and virtually disappeared, both from the law and, supposedly, from rum-running. It was a decent time to retire and go into hiding—the Prohibition era was coming to a close and would end, in 1933, with the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Rum Runner ship "Linwood" set afire by her crew to scuttle her and destroy evidence. Contraband is seen on the deck. Photographed by the U.S. Coast Guard, c. 1923. [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

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Monday, December 4, 2017

The Bizarre Bad Luck Of Wilmer McLean, Who Had Two Separate Homes Ravaged By The American Civil War

In 1853, Wilmer and Virginia McLean established their so-called Yorkshire Plantation on a spot of farmland at Manassas Junction, Virginia, located along the Bull Run tributary, which feeds into the Occoquan River. Little did the McLeans known just how closely their prosperity would be tied to the American Civil War, an event that would erupt in less than a decade.

In 1861, the Union and rebel Confederate forces that made up the two sides of the American Civil War fatefully converged right on top of the McLean family’s Yorkshire Plantation. Wilmer McLean was considered too old to be conscripted by either side in the war, but he was a Confederate affiliate, who worked as a supplier for the quartermasters of the Confederacy. When battle loomed, McLean sent his family away to safety, but he personally stayed to continue his civilian work with the Confederacy.

From July 1861 to August 1862, the Union and Confederacy fought in two major battles at Bull Run. The buildings on McLean’s plantation were well used by the Confederacy during the Battles of Bull Run. P. G. T. Beauregard, the leading general of the Confederacy during the Battles of Bull Run, set up his headquarters in McLean’s farmhouse, and transformed Yorkshire Plantation’s barn into a makeshift hospital and prison. With McLean’s plantation serving such roles as these for the Confederate forces, the Union army deemed the Yorkshire estate to be fair game for their artillery. During one notable incident in 1861, Union artillery thoroughly annihilated McLean’s kitchen. After an experience like this, Wilmer McLean understandably decided to flee his war-torn plantation and relocated his family to the peaceful town of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

In 1683, the McLeans set up their new home in a former tavern located in Appomattox. From there, Wilmer McLean worked as a sugar merchant and continued his operation as a supplier for the Confederacy. Although the war raged on, he must have hoped that the front lines would remain clear of Appomattox Court House. Nevertheless, in 1865, the Union and Confederate forces clashed in their last significant skirmish in the vicinity of McLean’s new home.

With disastrous luck, the McLean home was chosen as the location where Confederate General Robert E. Lee would surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant. Lee formally admitted defeat on April 9, 1865, from within the front parlor of Wilmer McLean’s home in Appomattox Court House—this historic moment would destroy McLean’s life.

Unfortunately for the McLean family, their home was the sight of an important historic event. As such, the victorious Union soldiers inside the McLean home at Appomattox Court House wanted material keepsakes with which they could remember the occasion—regretfully, the only souvenirs that were available all belonged to the McLean family. Despite this obstacle, the soldiers wanted their remembrances and were not in a mood to pay fair prices for the items that they took. The desk and inkstand that Lee used in his surrender was looted, as were McLean’s chairs, candlesticks, and even a cloth doll that belonged to McLean’s daughter. Furthermore, soldiers cut away countless strips of fabric from curtains and upholstered furniture. By the time the soldiers left Appomattox Court House, the McLean House was thoroughly pillaged and vandalized.

Although the war was over, Wilmer McLean’s financial troubles were just beginning. With his plantation at Manassus Junction destroyed at the start of the war, and his home at Appomattox Court House looted after the end of the war, Wilmer McLean found himself heavily in debt and short on assets. After he defaulted on his debts in 1869, McLean’s Appomattox Court House “Surrender House” was repossessed and sold in a public auction. The house was then sold from person to person until it fell into the hands of a businessman in 1891 who had an ambition of turning the historic place into a mobile tourist attraction—he demolished the home, brick by brick, and planned to make Washington D.C. the new home of the Surrender House. The businessman, however, was bogged down by financial and legal troubles, which kept the dismantled home in Appomattox. Thankfully, the United States Park’s Service purchased these bricks, as well as the property that made up McLean’s estate in the region, and went to work carefully rebuilding the historic home. It was officially opened to the public in 1950 and remains a tourist destination, to this day.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Top picture attribution: (Wilmer McLean, c. 1860, in front of The Room Where Lee Surrendered to Grant in the McLean House of Appomattox Court House, published by The Major & Knapp Eng. Mfg. & Lith. Co. 71 Broadway, c. 1867, both images [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

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