Recent Articles – Page 215 – Old Magazine Articles

The Western Front Elephant
(Der Welt Spiegel, 1915)

Animals have played important rolls in war from the beginning and World War One was no exception. Throughout the war the widespread use of dogs, horses mules and pigeons are all well documented and there have been some very interesting books written on the topic. Not so well documented is the presence of this one elephant who, being loyal to the Kaiser, is pictured in the attached photograph from 1915.

From Amazon: War Elephants

The Western Front Elephant
(Der Welt Spiegel, 1915)

From Amazon: War Elephants

Promoting Citizenship
(Touchstone Magazine, 1920)

To encourage the making and distributing of films that will promote faith in America, the Americanism Committee of the Motion Picture Industry was organized.

A Post-War Visit to Metz
(Literary Digest, 1919)

This is a letter from an American infantry Major, James E. White, who wrote home to explain that there was still much to do six days after the armistice.

The major’s letter relayed his experiences as being one of the first Allied officers to enter the formerly occupied city of Metz, in order to evacuate wounded American prisoners:

The following Tuesday the grand entry of the French troops took place, but no welcome was more spontaneous than than that given to the group of American officers who on that Sunday peacefully invaded the fortress of Metz.

Social Customs in Washington, D.C.
(Vogue Magazine, 1921)

Although this VOGUE MAGAZINE article was written long before the need was ever created to discuss e-mail etiquette or the proper application for Velcro in custom tailoring, many of these tribal maxims in Social Washington (both official and non) are still adhered to, especially in so far as White House functions are concerned. This article summarizes in a mere three columns the social conventions of Washington D.C. in 1921 and it covers the rules that the First Lady and the Vice-President’s wife were expected to abide by as well as the proper manner of accepting White House invitations.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is not invited to dine with an Ambassador, or a foreign Minister, or the Secretary of State, because their relative rank has never been established.

The article reads much like any rule book, but it will introduce you to a local deity whom the idolatresses of The Washington Social Register have long prostrated before: the Washington Hostess.

Click here to read an article about social Washington during the Depression.

Supplying Candy to the A.E.F.
(America’s Munitions, 1919)

Historians may ad the following to that list of the many firsts that World War I has claimed as its own:

The First World War was the first conflict in which the American soldier preferred candy to chewing tobacco.

Candy in the days of the old Army was considered a luxury. The war with Germany witnessed a change… Approximately 300,000 pounds of candy represented the monthly purchases during the early period of the war. Demands from overseas grew steadily. The soldier far from home and from his customary amusements could not be considered an ordinary individual living according to his own inclinations, and candy became more and more sought after. As the need increased, the Quartermaster Department came to recognize the need of systematic selection and purchase.

The suffering sweet tooth of the Yank was not appeased by candy alone. The third billion pounds of sugar bought for Army represents a tremendous number of cakes, tarts, pies and custards. An old soldier recently stated that the ice cream eaten by the Army during the war would start a new ocean…

Click here to read about the shipments of chewing gum that was sent to the American Army of W.W. I.

Joseph Conrad as Interviewed by Hugh Walpole
(Vanity Fair, 1919)

Hugh Walpole (1884-1941) interviewed his much admired friend, Joseph Conrad (1884-1941) for the pages of a fashionable American magazine and came away this very intimate and warm column:

There is a mystery first of the man himself– the mystery that the son of a Polish nobleman should run away to sea, learn English from old files of the ‘Standard’ newspapers when he was thirty, toss about the world as an English seaman, finally share with Thomas Hardy the title of the greatest living English novelist— what kind of man can this be?

The Difference Between Brits & Yanks
(Literary Digest, 1919)

The author of this piece interviews the poet Robert Nichols (1893 – 1944) and finds the writer was convinced that the differences between the two peoples rests in their understanding of the idea of freedom.

A Letter from the Freshly Dug Trenches
(New York Times, 1915)

This World War I letter makes for a wonderful read and it gives such a vivid picture of what the war must have been like once both sides had resigned themselves to trench warfare. The letter was dated October 8, 1914 and the British officer who composed it makes clear his sense that no war had ever been fought in this queer manner before.

Paris Fashion, 1913
(Vanity Fair Magazine, 1913)

The unknown author of this article believed deeply that the Paris fashions of 1913 were very much in keeping with the grand traditions established and maintained by that city since the eighteenth century. This critic was very impressed with the recent work of Paul Poiret and Doeuillet and presented a number fashion illustrations to prove the point. Oddly, the article is credited simply to Worth which leaves one wondering whether the writer was one of the sons of Charles Frederick Worth (1825-1895); Jean Philippe Worth or Gaston Worth, both of whom had inherited their father’s great house of fashion.