Speakeasies .... Tea for Two .... New York 1929

We all have a vision of the Roaring Twenties.  

It's a decade popularly regrded as hedonist, where "anything goes", sandwiched between the Great War and the Great Depression.

The Chrysler Building, 2008 begun in 1929

And New York seems to be one of those places that is the personification of flappers, speakeasies and gangsters.

All of which means I tuned into BBC Radio 4's Artworks New York 1925 Episode 1 Winter.  And I was not disappointed.

It is one of four episodes, and I do hope we see a little of that other New York, because for every flapper, speakeasy and flashy celebrity there was a poor tenement, a dark workshop and a family on the borderline of poverty.

We shall see

"In 1925 New York became the biggest, most populous city in the world, overtaking London, and was the launchpad for an extraordinary range of writing, music, culture and politics which still resonate 100 years later - from the publication of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and the launch of The New Yorker, to the rise of the Harlem Renaissance and the first success for the composer Richard Rodgers.

This is the story of that momentous year, season by season, told over four episodes, with contributors including novelist Jay McInerney, the academic Margo Jefferson and the editor of the New Yorker David Remnick. The series is presented by the saxophonist and broadcaster Soweto Kinch, with an original sound track played by the composer and clarinettist Giacomo Smith and his band.

Episode 1: Winter

At the start of the year a new kind of celebrity politician, Senator Jimmy Walker, had set his sights on becoming mayor of New York. He was a fast-drinking, fast-talking dandy. We follow his fortunes throughout the series, culminating in the election in November.

In February 1925 the New Yorker magazine was launched, and in March a special edition of the sociological magazine, Survey Graphic, was devoted entirely to Harlem. Whilst the New Yorker flopped, the special Survey Graphic was a runaway success.

In the winter months we also find out how F Scott Fitzgerald was preparing for the publication of The Great Gatsby in April, and how aspiring composer Richard Rodgers was struggling to create a hit song.

Presenter Soweto Kinch

Producer Katy Hickman

Band: Giacomo Smith - clarinet; Laura Jurd - trumpet; Daniel Higham - trombone; Alexander Boulton - banjo; Joe Webb - piano; Corrie Dick - drums; Soweto Kinch - saxophone"

*Artworks New York 1925, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002flhl

Location; BBC Radio 4

Picture;The Chrysler Building in New York City illuminated at night, August 2008, David Shankbone Licensing I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following licenses:, w:en:Creative Commons, attribution share alike. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

“administering medicine to the dead” ……. The American War of Independence ..... and Thomas Paine

“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, ….. is like administering medicine to the dead”

Thomas Paine, 1792

Now I have to thank my friend Christianna for introducing me to this wonderful riposte to those who wallow in the depths of Holocaust Denial, outlandish conspiracy theories or walk with anti-vaxxers.

And I think it is worth quoting the entire original paragraph, which runs, “To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture. 

Enjoy, sir, your insensibility of feeling and reflecting. It is the prerogative of animals. And no man will envy you these honors, in which a savage only can be your rival and a bear your master”.

We might today quibble with the last sentence, but in its entirety, it remains a powerful guide to how to treat the outlandish arguments of those who have travelled beyond the borders of reason and reminds me of Deborah Lipstadt’s often referenced explanation for why she doesn’t debate with Holocaust Deniers because it is as pointless as discussing with “the flat-Earth people or the Elvis-is-alive people”.

And so back to the original quotation and a bit of history.   

It was written in the March of 1778 by Thomas Paine who was political activist, philosopher, political theorist, and revolutionary. His written works included Common Sense written in 1776, the Rights of Man, 1791 and thirteen pamphlets which collectively are known as and The American Crisis,  which came out between 1776–1783.*

The American Crisis was written with a view to galvanise American support for the cause of independence, and contains some pretty good one liners, like, "These are the times that try men's souls: 

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman”, and "Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph”.

And it was from one of those thirteen pamphlets published on March 21st 1778, that our quotation comes from.*

General Sir William Howe, engraving, 1872

It is a long piece and is best read in one sitting and concerns itself with General Sir William Howe, who was at the time Commander-in-Chief of British land forces during the American War of Independence, and is a comment on the state of the war and the actions of Sir William.

In places it is savage and funny, as when Thomas Paine speculates on the type of monument which might in the fulness of time be erected to Sir William Howe.

But I will close with the last paragraph which perfectly sums up the case for the British withdrawl from America.

"Go home, sir, and endeavor to save the remains of your ruined country, by a just representation of the madness of her measures. 

A few moments, well applied, may yet preserve her from political destruction. I am not one of those who wish to see Europe in a flame, because I am persuaded that such an event will not shorten the war. 

Battle of Bunker Hill, painted in1909

The rupture, at present, is confined between the two powers of America and England. 

England finds that she cannot conquer America, and America has no wish to conquer England. You are fighting for what you can never obtain, and we defending what we never mean to part with. 

A few words, therefore, settle the bargain. Let England mind her own business and we will mind ours. Govern yourselves, and we will govern ourselves. 

You may then trade where you please unmolested by us, and we will trade where we please unmolested by you; and such articles as we can purchase of each other better than elsewhere may be mutually done. 

If it were possible that you could carry on the war for twenty years you must still come to this point at last, or worse, and the sooner you think of it the better it will be for you".

And that is it.

Pictures; Thomas Paine, Laurent Dabos, circa 1792, National Portrait Gallery, Gen. Sir William Howe, Henry Bryan Hall  1872, Battle of Bunker Hill" 1909, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

*Thomas Paine US History .org, https://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-05.htm

“J. Edgar Hoover is the man of the hour ….. All that he needs is just a little more power”* ..... today and all week on the wireless

 Now I first came across J. Edgar Hoover, sometime in 1964.

J. Edgar Hoover, 1961

I was just 15 years old and embracing all that American folk music could throw at me, starting with Bob Dylan and moving through Peter Seeger, Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs.

It was a journey which would continue on to traditional British folk music, and despite the odd transgressions is a place I always return.

And that is how I came across J. Edgar Hoover, who was at the heart of U.S. crime busting, and political chicanery for a great chunk of the last century. For some he was a hero, and for others a sinister and malevolent force eating away at American democracy.

In Tom Paxton’s Daily News, written in 1964 “J. Edgar Hoover is the man of the hour, All that he needs is just a little more power”*.

So, I tuned in with interest to The People Vs J Edgar Hooveron BBC Radio 4, and was hooked.

“Emily Maitlis on the ascent to power of the man who made presidents wait.

J Edgar Hoover built then ran the FBI for almost five decades. He turned it from a bureaucratic backwater into a premier crime fighting and counterintelligence force. In the process, he arguably became America’s most powerful man. 

J. Edgar Hoover, 1930

He’s been dead 50 years and still his shadow looms over the US. Today’s fears of a ‘deep state’ - of unaccountable government officials working against the public in their own interest – can be traced back to him. In the first of an 8-part series, Emily shows how though his job was to enforce the law...he would not always be bound by it.

Producer: Neal Razzell

Research: Louise Byrne

Editor: Hugh Levinson

Production Coordinator: Janet Staples

Sound: Tom Brignell**

Location; The USA

Pictures, J. Edgar Hoover, 1961, Library of Congress, and in 1930, from the FBI collection, http://www.fbi.gov/multimedia/images/history/hoover.jpg

*Daily News, Tom Paxton, from the LP, Ramblin’ Boy, 1964

**The People Vs J Edgar Hoover, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00187g5

Genealogical Adventure ..... another story from Tony Goulding

After a pause for a couple of months I have decided to return to writing some more History. 

I thought would kick-off by relating a few of interesting discoveries from my own family history research with the justification, should I need one, that it may inspire others to undertake their own investigation. 

I have previously on this blog written a little about the family of my grandfather the photographer Arthur Harold Clarke. On this occasion I wish to focus on his wife, my maternal grandmother’s forbears. Her mother, Harriet Kate Ross (née Walters) was the daughter of Harry and Mary (née Joynt). Harry Walters was a veteran of the American Civil War and as such was awarded a war disability    pension. 

He served in the Union Navy on four vessels, Ohio, Iroquois, North Carolina, and Preble. The last of these blew up in somewhat suspicious circumstances in Pensacola Bay on the Florida coast on the 27th April, 1863. (1)

U.S.S. Preble (1839)

U.S.S. Preble (1839)

After leaving the Union Navy Harold returned to Walsall, England and married Mary (née Joynt). The surname “Joynt” is quite an uncommon one and is thought to be derived from the French Huguenot name “Joyant”. Soldiers with this name were apparently awarded land in the west of Ireland as a reward for serving in William of Orange’s army in his campaign against James 11’s Catholic army culminating in William’s victory at the battle of the Boyne on the 11th July, 1690(2). Mary Joynt’s father, Oliver, was born in Kilala, Co. Mayo, Ireland where his father was one of a number of farmers with the same surname.

     

My grandmother’s maiden name was Ross and as the name suggests her father, Alexander William Stewart Ross was Scottish born in Edinburgh in 1868. His father, Neil Stewart, had been born in Perth, Scotland in 1827 the son of a shoemaker.  This man, Neil Stewart, was something of a black sheep of the family in that he served at least two prison terms for theft in Edinburgh’s Calton Jail and also had a very unconventional relationship with the mother of his children as he had a first wife still living who he had not divorced. This first wife, Mary (née Christie) is a bit of an enigma as after appearing in the records with her husband in Dundee, Scotland in the 1850’s she then “vanishes” for several years in which she may or may have not been committed to a mental asylum. Her story epitomises the frustration of stalled research often faced by family historians widely referred to as “a brick wall”. Neil Stewart died in 1874, not long after his release from jail, leaving two young children. 

My grandmother’s father and his older sister were raised by their mother, Jeanet Scott in Hawick, Roxburghshire in the Scottish Borders.

Carlton Hill Edinburgh showing Jail in the foreground

Neil Stewart Ross’s father and grandfather, both named Alexander, were both shoemakers in Perth, Scotland. His grandfather marks the furthest trace back I have on my family tree so far. I know he was married to Janet Stewart in Perth on the 12th November, 1798 at which time he was serving as a soldier in the 72nd Regiment of Foot. From these facts it was possible to estimate his birth year to cc 1769 and as the 72nd was a Highland regiment it is quite possible that Alexander Snr. was born further north. (3)

I have been researching my ancestors for over 20 years now and while writing this I found a guide to myself which I wrote in the early days of my quest. I must admit that I have never been very good at following through on them! As they were compiled before the explosion of genealogical information being available online some of the “tips” are a little dated. Whatever, I thought to close I would just share a couple of them which I found helpful (after updating them to fit the internet age)

1) Always start researching records from a known fact never an assumed one.

2) Spend some time exploring the website you are using for easier navigation.

3) When looking at electoral rolls always be aware of changes in the franchise.

4) Be prepared to try different spellings of names in records. They can be mis-transcribed or may have been alternatively spelt by your ancestor. (Common in days of lower levels of literacy).

5) Try to be methodical and keep clear records.

(Not something I have been very good at doing)

Pictures; U.S.S. Prebble by Per Honor et Gloria - (Drawing of USS Preble (1839). This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art.) Carlton Jail, Edinburgh by Cornell University Library - originally posted to Flickr as Edinburgh from Calton Hill, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7295173

 Notes

1) The official inquiry attributed the explosion as due to a fire caused by the carelessness of a crew member.

2) This battle and its aftermath remains a focal point in the tensions between the two communities of Northern Ireland. The protestant, loyalists' parades on the 12th July by the Orange Orders celebrate William’s victory. The catholic, nationalists, however, regard these parades as triumphalism and resent their incursions into areas which they now see as “their” areas.

3) The 72nd Regiment of Foot was raised in 1778 by the Earl of Seaforth in the western highlands. The vast majority of men enlisted were highlanders. The recruitment was no doubt fuelled by the twin forces of the economic pressure and political oppression. The eviction of tenant farmers to create more profitable largescale farms for the landowners, known as the Highland Clearances, compounded the impact of the oppression of highland culture in response to the Jacobite risings of the 18th century. (The Earl of Seaforth himself was of a family of Jacobite sympathisers). One of the measures enacted in the Act of Proscription of 1746 was the prohibition of the wearing of traditional highland dress unless on military service. All of which gives a great background to the life of my great4 - grandfather and his family.

For me the family connections to great historical events are the most exciting discoveries from my genealogical research.