1912 – Page 2 – Old Magazine Articles

The Boy at Vicksburg
(Literary Digest, 1912)

After reading the attached article, we concluded that baby-sitters must have been pretty hard to come by in the 1860s – and perhaps you’ll feel the same way, too, should you choose to read these columns that concern the recollections of Frederick Dent Grant (1850 – 1912) – son of General Ulysses S. Grant, who brought his son (who was all of 13 years-old at the time) to the blood-heavy siege of Vicksburg in the summer of 1863. The struggles he witnessed must have appealed to the boy, because he grew up to be a general, too.

George Bernard Shaw Comments About the Titanic Sinking
(The Bookman, 1912)

On the matters involving Titanic, playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1957) hated the hero-blather he read in the press; he despised all the assorted sugary-sweet romantic rot that was associated with the ship’s sinking and it was only by lying, he insisted, that the newspapers made the victims out to be, in any way, heroic.

Shaw illustrated his point by referring to the survivor account by Lady Duff-Gordon (1863 – 1935):

She described how she escaped in the captain’s boat. There was one other woman in it and ten men, twelve all told, one woman for every five men.

Good point.

Click here to read the socialist ramblings of George Bernard Shaw.

Click here to read various witty remarks by George Bernard Shaw.

More Titanic Verses
(Collier’s Magazine, 1912)

American politician, diplomat and author Brand Whitlock (1869 – 1934) composed this pseudo-medieval verse in which the Ironic Spirit mocks man and his triumphs:

This is thy latest, greatest miracle.

The triumph of thy latest science, art and all
That skill thou’st learnt since forth the Norsemen fared
Across these waters in their cockle shells…

Whitlock is not remembered for his poetry, but rather as the outstanding U.S. Ambassador to Belgium between the years 1913 – 1922. It was there that the man’s mettle was put to the test and was not found wanting.

An Historic Telegram Addressed to General Sherman
(The Nation, 1912)

The Nation reported in 1912 that a telegram of great historical importance had been put up for auction (N.B.: the Twenty-First Century equivalent of a telegram is a text message). The telegram was addressed to General William Techumseh Sherman and signed by General U.S. Grant and it clearly gives Sherman free reign to ravage the countryside as he marched.

Click here to read the chronologies of the American Civil War.

To read the story behind Lincoln’s beard, click here.

‘The Sunset of the Confederacy”
(The Dial Magazine, 1912)

This book review is a wonderful read, punctuated with interesting descriptions of the Civil War’s most prominent players. The book in question is The Sunset Of The Confederacy by former Confederate General Morris Schaff (1840-1929), author of The Battle of the Wilderness (1910).

The Struggle for California
(The Dial Magazine, 1912)

Attached is the The Dial Magazine book review of Elijah R. Kennedy’s The Contest for California in 1861. Kennedy maintained that a large party in California and Oregon sought to deliver that region to the Southerners and might have succeeded were it not for the efforts of one Colonel E.D. Baker.

Click here to print American Civil War chronologies.

Union General James Harrison Wilson
(The Dial Magazine, 1912)

Attached is the review from a respected literary journal concerning the autobiography of Brigadier General James Harrison Wilson (1837 – 1925). Under the Old Flag Wilson is today best remembered as the U.S. Army cavalry officer who captured the Confederate President Jefferson Davis in his flight from Richmond. Following the Civil War, where he rose rapidly in the army hierarchy and finished as brigadier general, Wilson continued to play important rolls in the U.S. military; serving during the Spanish-American War and the Boxer Rebellion

A Child’s Interview With Dickens
(The Literary Digest, 1912)

Kate Douglas Wiggin recalled her childhood train ride in the 1840’s in which she was able to have a chat with one of her favorite authors, Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870), as he traveled the United States on a reading tour.

‘Of course, I do skip some of the very dull parts once and a while; not the short dull parts but the long ones.’ He laughed heartily. ‘Now that is something that I hear very little about’ he said.

Anticipating the Titanic Disaster
(The Nation, 1912)

A couple of years prior to the sinking of Titanic the president of the International Seaman’s Union of America presented a petition before the U.S. Congress declaring that the issue of safety at sea is widely ignored on all levels. In his address he remarked:

There is not sailing today on any ocean any passenger vessel carrying the number of boats needed to take care of the passengers and crew…

Two Parachute Pioneers
(Popular Mechanics, 1912)

Attached is a well illustrated article concerning two of the earliest parachute drops: one was quite fatal while the other had a jollier ending. The first leap documented in this column was made by a fellow known only as F. Rodman Law (dates?); he jumped 345 feet from the torch of the Statue of Liberty and landed 30 feet from the water’s edge. The next day, parachute enthuiast Franz Reichelt (1879 – 1912) jumped from the first platform of the Eiffel Tower with a parachute of his own design. The Popular Mechanics correspondent reported that:

His body was a shapeless mass when the police picked it up.

Mouillard: Aviation Pioneer
(The Literary Digest, 1912)

The attached 1912 Literary Digest article addresses the debt that past and future aviators owe to Louis Pierre Mouillard (1834 – 1897); an aviation visionary whose relentless study of bird flight throughout the last half of the Nineteenth Century paved the way for aviators yet unborn.

German Military Expansion
(The Spectator, 1912)

This small piece from THE SPECTATOR magazine concerned the 1912 budget increase mandated by the Imperial German Defense Bills which called for a growth of the German army and navy. The expansion of the fleet was to include eight battleships and nine cruisers of various sizes and provide for further additions later. The German Army was to be furnished with two additional army corps.

The Crown Prince: Saber Rattler
(Current Literature, 1912)

The son and heir of the German Kaiser, Crown Prince Wilhelm III (1882 – 1951) was known well throughout the pre-war era for demonstrating his dislike of the German Government’s peaceful policies and especially for his belligerent, anti-British remarks, which caused tremendous embarrassment to the Imperial German Chancellor, while giving no end of pleasure to the hot-heads of Berlin.

Titanic Corpses Continue to be Found
(Clinch Valley News, 1912)

The Clinch Valley News, a small town newspaper published out of Jeffersonville, Virginia, reported that as many as 77 Titanic corpses had been found floating in the Atlantic just nine days after the sinking.

Many of the bodies were unrecognizable and were buried at sea with suitable ceremonies.

Two Governments Weigh In On The Titanic Disaster
(Literary Digest, 1912)

An overview of both the British and the American reports concerning the sinking of the Titanic.

An interesting comparison of the American and British official investigations of the Titanic disaster was published…the conclusions is reached that although the American investigators were practically an ‘avenging’ body and the English a ‘vindicating’ one, the recommendations made by the two come to very nearly the same thing…[but]in the matter of responsibility, the reviewer finds marked dissimilarity.

Titanic Didn’t Have to Sink
(The North American Review, 1912)

As an architect of U.S. Navy battleships and a popular New York politician
Lewis Nixon (1861 – 1940), maintained throughout this article that the full array of 1912 technology was ignored in the planning of Titanic‘s first (and only) voyage:

We have in our battle-ships devices to show when water enters compartments, and by simple and economical devices it would be possible to have the depth to which water has risen indicated on the bridge, and on merchantmen as well as on our men-of-war searchlights should be carried.

What is the Shape of an Iceberg?
(Literary Digest, 1912)

A short, well illustrated article which sought to answer the question which so many were asking in the immediate aftermath of the Titanic disaster

How big is an iceberg?

The U.S. Senate’s Report on the Titanic Disaster
(The Independent, 1912)

The White Star Company is properly condemned for the fact that there was no suitable provision for saving life, no drill of the sailors, and further, that the bulkheads separating the watertight compartments did not close properly.