A 1912 magazine article concerns machine gun inventor Isaac N. Lewis and his machine gun, the Lewis gun. The Lewis Gun played a major roll during the First World War, having been purchased in large quantities by the British/Commonwealth armies. Written just two years prior to the slaughter, this article is about U.S. Army experiments with the Lewis Gun when it is mounted on aircraft. As the article makes clear, the Lewis Gun was the first machine gun to have ever been fixed to a plane.
What did the smart, re-constructed Confederate soldier wear to the reunions, you ask? Why an eight buttoned sack coat with matching trousers composed of Dixie Gray wool, of course! It was all the rage among the apple-sauce crowd of 1922 - and by clicking the link below you will see a black and white ad from "Confederate Veteran Magazine" which pictured the togs. A first-hand account as to the daily goings-on at Hitler's Plotzensee Prison.
Written by Jan Valtin (alias of Richard Julius Hermann Krebs: 1905 - 1951), one of the few inmates to make his way out of that highly inclusive address and tell the tale. Krebs was a communist in the German resistance movement who later escaped to New York and wrote a book (Out of the Night
) about his experiences in Nazi Germany.
"The prisoner who has served his sentence is usually not released; he is surrendered to the Gestapo for an indefinite term in one of the concentration camps, preferably Sachsenhausen or Buchenwald. Incurable hard cases are sent to Dachau... " One writer's reminiscence of attending a London party and being introduced to Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) and the object of his affection, John Gray. The author insists, as has been documented in other places, that Gray was the model for Wilde's character Dorian Gray: "Once at a Private View in the New Gallery, as I came downstairs, I came on Wilde, in the midst of his admirers, showing more than ever his gift of versatility. Seeing me he made a gesture, and as I went up he introduced me to John Gray, then in what is called 'the zenith' of his youth. The adventure was certainly amusing..."
An additional article about Wilde can be seen here.
Attached is a chart pulled from a 1936 issue of THE LITERARY DIGEST that reported on the U.S. urban homicide rate spanning the years 1926 through 1935. It indicates that the murder rate began climbing during the economic depression (from 8.8 in 1928); the years 1934 through 1936 saw a steady decline in urban homicide, more than likely as a result of the end of Prohibition. This is a brief look at the up-bringing of Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835 - 1910), accompanied by two 1910 magazine photographs of the people who inspired the writer to create "Becky Thatcher" and "Huckleberry Finn". Also interviewed was the man who instructed the author in the skills required to pilot the Mississippi River.
The historian Henry Steele Commager chose to rank Mark Twain at number 4 insofar as his impact on the American mind was concerned - click here to understand his reasoning (does this still hold true?)...
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