The Social Value of the Car (Literary Digest, 1908)John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu (1866 - 1929), Member of Parliament, publisher of The Car and all-around advocate for the internal combustion engine gave an address in which he extolled the virtues of the automobile in societal evolution. Some of the virtues are just plain quaint while others touch upon elements of Edwardian life we would never consider. Lord Montagu innocently believed that motorists would play a part as unofficial ambassadors; traveling abroad, joyfully chatting with one and all and thereby decreasing the chances of a European war.
He would have been surprised to know what an active roll the automobile played throughout both world wars. A Bad Review for Enrico Caruso (The Literary Digest, 1908)André Tardieu (1876 – 1945),while writing for the French magazine TEMPS, committed to paper these unkind words regarding the Italian opera star Enrico Caruso (1873 – 1921) in an attempt, perhaps, to only slander Caruso's many adoring American fans and the culture that created them. "...the American public admire only those artist's for whom they pay dear."
''Down-With Suffrage!'' (Literary Digest, 1908)"The great meeting held recently in London to launch the Women's National Anti-suffrage League was made additionally noteworthy by the participation of Mrs. Humphry Ward..." "The real reason why women ought not to have the political franchise is the very simple reason that they are not men, and that according to a well-known dictum, even an act of Parliament can not make them men. Men govern the world, and, so far as it is possible to foresee, they must always govern it." A German Champion of American English (Literary Digest, 1908)Having made a twenty year study of the English spoken in both Britain and the United States, Alois Brandl (1855 - 1940), chief Professor of English literature at the University of Berlin, found himself in an advantageous position that would allow him to make definitive conclusions about the evolution of the English language on American shores:
"Mr. Brandl has been comparing English as it is spoken by Englishmen and English as it is spoken by Americans, and has come to the conclusion that the former is not a whit purer than the latter... the English of Americans was not only improving, but was already as good as that of our English cousins... He is very severe on the Cockney accent, and declares that the English of the ordinary educated American is quite on an equality with that of the ordinary educated Englishman..."
Professor W.W. Skeat (1835 - 1912), chair of Anglo-Saxon Studies at Cambridge University, entirely agreed with the German savant and went on in greater detail along similar lines. No mention was made as to what unit of measure was applied to reach their deductions.
Unsuspected Qualities of Native American Music (Literary Digest, 1908)Attached is a brief article on the topic Native American music and the studies of Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838 - 1923), who had overseen a number of Native American archival recording sessions around the time this article appeared in print. Fletcher once wrote:
"We find more or less of it in Beethoven and Schubert, still more in Schumann and Chopin, most of all in Wagner and Liszt."
An Islamic View of Western Imperialism (Literary Digest, 1908)The Indian Muslim scholar Syed Ameer Ali (1849 - 1928) is remembered as a man who, at times, fully recognized that there were indeed some benefits in store for the developing nations serving as colonies with the British Empire; but in the attached 1908 column, the man preferred to only list the damnable qualities of colonization:
"A few years ago 'Spread-eagleism' was used for mere purposes of ridicule; christened 'Imperialism' it has acquired a holy meaning - it sanctions crusades against the liberty of weaker states...England treats her provincials worse than Rome did."
[NOTE: The author of this piece mistakenly assumed Ali to have been a follower of Hinduism.]
An article about the Muslim opinion concerning
Christianity can be read here...
The 1908 New York - Paris Race: Bumpy Ride (Literary Digest, 1908) With the centennial re-running of the New York to Paris race beginning this May (2008), it is interesting to read about the authentic 1908 contest and the difficulties they faced in a world without proper roads. "Interest in the New York - to - Paris race, temporarily suspended by the failure to find a passable road in Alaska..." Who Were the Young Turks? (Literary Digest, 1908)This 1908 magazine article serves to define the "Young Turk" movement and present a brief history of those reformers who sought to modernize the government of Turkey and introduce a constitutional form of government that would benefit not only the Turks but also the people who reside within the dominions of the Ottoman Empire: "The program of the Young Turks includes individual liberty to all Ottomans; this liberty is to be inviolable excepting by process of law; the press is to be free, Ottomans may form commercial, industrial, or agricultural associations, so long as no law is infringed. All are to be equal before the law." Unsuspected Qualities of Indian Music (Literary Digest, 1908)A short article on the topic Native American music and the studies of Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838 - 1923), who had overseen a number of Native American archival recording sessions around the time this article appeared in print. Fletcher once wrote:
"We find more or less of it in Beethoven and Schubert, still more in Schumann and Chopin, most of all in Wagner and Liszt."
When Grant was a Colonel (Literary Digest, 1908)This Civil War reminiscence was originally printed in a Missouri newspaper and concerned the Union General U.S. Grant (1822 – 1885) when he was a lowly colonel assigned to guard the railroads along the Salt River in Northeast Missouri and how he got along with the local population:
"He talked politely in a calm, dispassionate way, and never with heat or anger. Some of those who visited his camp in those days quote him as saying that if he had considered the war merely to free slaves he would have taken his command and joined the South..."
Click here to read about
General Grant's march on Richmond.
Click here to read about the son of General Grant and his memories of his father at Vicksburg.
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