Monday, November 18, 1912

Lester Noble, a Courier-Herald linotyper, was enjoying a late-night cigar at the Columbian hotel when he was drafted into service by Officer McClara of the police force. McClara whispered that there were burglars in Boyd’s bowling alley. “Noble’s luxuriant growth of hair began to protrude upward. ‘Let ’em burgle. I’m goin’ home,’ he said.” The officer insisted, though, and they made their way to the alley, where Noble fell over a box in the darkness and made a loud crash, warning the burglars, if there were any. “The praise Mr. Noble is receiving today is a soothing balm to his barked shins and fluttering nerves.”

A “suffragette army” completed its 400-mile walk from Edinburgh to London in five weeks. They went straight to Downing street to present a petition demanding suffrage for women, but “Premier Asquith, profiting from his experience of previous meetings with the vote-seeking women, had retired to the country.”

Wednesday, November 13, 1912

Am I the only one who finds typographical errors amusing? I was amazed to see that in this Kaufman & Company advertisement, they managed to spell “chrysanthemums” correctly but failed utterly at “Illinoisans,” “Champaign’s,” and “loyalty.” I don’t even know what to say about “There are FREE.”

A man in Benton, Illinois, purchased a revolver and vowed to kill all the “Bull Moosers” with whom he came in contact. First he entered a grocery store, but the weapon failed to discharge, and he was arrested and later adjudged insane and taken to the asylum.

In New York, the notorious suffragist Maud Malone was found guilty of wilfully disturbing a public meeting. When Woodrow Wilson spoke in the Brooklyn academy of Music on October 20, Miss Malone insisted on knowing his views on woman suffrage. “Since Mr. Wilson has never committed himself on that subject he evaded her question. Miss Malone insisted, and was arrested.”

Anti-Suffrage Pamphlet

Pamphlet distributed by the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage

Source: Jewish Women’s Archive

Via: Disgrasian

Remember, ladies, if you are married, your vote can only double or annul your husband’s vote! (Huh?) Go and clean the house instead.

Thursday, November 7, 1912

An unknown negro shot “Red Ben” Barnett in the arm at Woody Mathews’ pool room on Market street in Champaign. “Red Ben” is a notorious bootlegger who was recently ordered to leave the Twin Cities and never return.

The Progressive party intends to put up candidates in every district for the 1914 election, when a new house of representatives will be elected. Said Colonel Roosevelt, “The Progressive party has superseded the Republican party. All we need to do is to keep steadily on with the fight and we will win.” Fight, fight, fight. Reading all of this news just makes it clear to me that politics is too important to be left in the hands of the men.

Monday, November 4, 1912

The Twin City Ministerial association has decided to set apart December 8 as a “white plague day” in the churches of Champaign and Urbana. At least 129 people in the county are afflicted with tuberculosis. The Champaign County Anti-Tuberculosis Health league is seeking more funds in order to open a free dispensary to the poor in the Twin Cities.

A woman telephoned police headquarters and said, “A man at 803 East California street is beating his wife something awful,” but the police declined to interfere without a warrant.

The Twin City Equal Suffrage league will bring the noted author and lecturer Charlotte Perkins Gilman to speak in town on December 5. It is likely that the Illinois theater will be the location.

A motorman was severely injured and two horses killed when a street car struck a dairy wagon on West Oregon street yesterday. The wagon driver, by a miracle, escaped injury. Witnesses say that he drove onto the track in front of the car while the gong was ringing.

Finally, James S. McCullough, a candidate for state auditor and an Urbana man, is “the only soldier of the Civil War on the Republican State Ticket. He lost an arm in battle for his country,” says his rather large campaign advertisement.

Anti-Suffragist Postcards

War on Women, Waged in Postcards: Memes From the Suffragist Era (Collectors Weekly)

Tuesday, October 22, 1912

The Urbana progressives have this to say today: “Fellow voters, in the coming election let us forget our old party traditions that made us vote for Satan himself if he bore the right party label. Let us be men for once and all and show our manhood and good common sense by casting our ballot for Theodore [Roosevelt], the greatest man now living.” Col. Roosevelt indeed seems like a great man, but is that the quality that makes a good president? If I were able to cast a vote, I would still be making up my mind about it all. I suppose I would vote based on the issue that seemed to me most important, which now is woman suffrage … and of course that wouldn’t be an issue if I were allowed to vote!

An aged Urbana man named Charles Judd went to Danville on Sunday. He attempted to board an I.T.S. car to return home, but the conductor would not let him on, owing to his intoxicated condition. Mr. Judd angrily hurled a whiskey bottle at the conductor. “Then he ran, and, although an old man, gave two policemen a good race around the public square.” He is now being held on a charge of assault.

Sunday, October 20, 1912

The new comic act at the Walker Theater is a “militant English suffragette” armed with a huge mallet, who sings a song and makes a speech. Also at the Walker is “The Village Lockup” (a sketch of rural life), the minstrels Moore and Browning, and the Kuma Japs.

Apparently there was a student riot at the opera house following the Illini football win, but the front page of Papa’s Daily Illini is missing today. I imagine there will be something in the Courier-Herald tomorrow about the riot.

Thursday, October 3, 1912

Mrs. John Norton Pomeroy, of 1109 West California avenue in Urbana, is probably the only woman in the Twin Cities who has the right to vote in the presidential election this year. She maintains a legal residence in California, which extended the right of entire suffrage to women recently, placing it “in advance of the states in the effete east.” She would have to travel to California in order to vote.

Yesterday afternoon, three hundred freshmen went on a rampage in the Natural History Building and broke things. They were trying to get a look at a board on which seating assignments for physical training lectures had been posted. The same thing happened last week, only this time even the lists of names were torn up. “This will necessitate the making of new ones, which is a hard task.” Dean Clark arrived and quieted the men. On Tuesday he warned the freshmen against the painting of class numerals on sidewalks and buildings. (Rival freshmen and sophomores apparently do this by custom.)

There are 4,050 students at the University of Illinois this year, of whom 889 are women.

Friday, September 20, 1912

Seventeen-year-old Edna Vice of Tolono died this morning. The warrant sworn out by her foster father charges that Gordon Pettigrew, a farm hand who wronged the girl, gave her a drug to produce an abortion. The sheriff has gone to make Pettigrew his prisoner.

Dr. Joseph Scheurich of Philo figures three years of paying alimony is plenty and is petitioning the court for custody of his children. Mrs. Scheurich and a Philo man recently were arrested for living together illegally.

The Twin City Equal Suffrage association will hold a very important meeting at the home of Mrs. Milton Parks, 810 West Green street, Urbana, at three o’clock Saturday.

William Humble, who shot at the marshal of Homer, is holding the highway near his home in Newcomb township. “Heavily armed and evidently insane, Humble is stationed in front of the Oak Grove church and threatens to kill anyone who comes in range of his guns.”

A woman in Providence, Rhode Island, held police officers at bay by running into her room and disrobing. She refused to put on any clothing for several hours, until a friend persuaded her to dress. She was charged with the theft of a diamond ring.

In Nicaragua, “a large number of college girls are still at the mercy of the bandit soldiery of the revolution.” The headline is “CO-EDS ARE IN PERIL,” and three companies of American marines are rushing to their aid.