In the news - January, 1914

Photo of 1909 newsgirls courtesy of Shorpy 

I've been reading a bit of the Detroit Free Press from 1914 every day for about a month now in search of tidbits to share. But these themes come up so often that, if you hear nothing else, at least one of these were mentioned (listed in the general order of frequency).

• Baseball and the business of baseball. If not baseball, then boxing, horse racing, or city league basketball.
• What the people in Gotham (aka NYC) and Chicago are up to.
• Local "coming out" parties (i.e., debutantes being presented to high society).
• What violence Pancho Villa and/or the Federals hath wrought just south of the border (in the ongoing, bloody Mexican Revolution), and the US attitude towards border patrol and keeping the Mexican Revolution, well, Mexican.
• Who has died recently (usually of pneumonia).
• Recent automobile accidents.
• Suffragettes doing unlady-like things. Also, what kinds of work women can and/or should not do, how much they should be paid, what hours they should be allowed to work, and whether or not they should want to work once married. Occasionally,when women are in the news, their physique (while irrelevant) is apparently considered noteworthy, as in the case of the "svelte" phone operator and the "plump but also attractive" phone operator who were fired because they preferred to go out tango dancing rather than work overtime.
• Europe's increasing instability leading into WWI.
• Hygiene tips.
• Anticipation of this year's opening of the Panama Canal.
• Detroit's upcoming building boom and officer elections for architectural, realtor, and builder societies.
• The Detroit auto show.
• Blaming the tango for the demise of morals (e.g., by the pope, police in other countries, etc.).

Simon Weingarden stands beside the newsstand he ran
at the corner of Michigan and Woodward from 1910 to 1960.
Photo courtesy of The Detroit News.

Sometimes the articles' topics look like they were lifted from 100 years in the future:

• "Wireless" will soon be available on trains. (OK, by wireless, they mean telegraph.)
• In the midst of a national recession that seems to have been caused in part by unregulated, bad banking practices, bankers are being forced to choose between having power on other companies' boards and having financial investments in them.
• Foreclosures on major institutions. (In this case, the railroad companies.)
• Detroit riverfront reclamation and design, including the open competition for Belle Isle's Scott Fountain. (The fountain was handsomely funded by the estate of James Scott, recently deceased real estate developer, speculator, and "vindictive, scurrilous misanthrope", who desired a life-sized statue of himself to endure.)
• Merchants hope that a revitalization of Cadillac Square will improve their pocketbooks.

Others give a sense of local flavor:

• Miss. Schultz of 125 Grand River chases and catches two burly tramps who had stolen a 10-pound roast and chain of bologna from the butcher shop.
• The Detroit Police entertains adding women to their force.
• A store owner is saved when the bullet from the gun "highwayman" robbing him ricochets off the store owner's step ladder.
• Wayne County judge orders experimental "medical cure" for convicted youth.
• Helen Keller comes to town.
• The east side gets a "motion picture house". 

It seems that ethnicity is often considered noteworthy. Like that British firms are using "Chink" (translate: East Asian) designs. Or that a local patrolman shot as he halts 4 Italians robbing a pastor. Or the "Gypsies" that invite a policeman to their party when he shows up on a noise complaint.