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The “Second Passover Sedar Dinner” given by Jewish Welfare Board, to the men of Jewish Faith in the A.E.F. Shows them singing “The Star Spangled Banner.” Paris, France. April 1919. Pvt. L. Cohen. (Army)
Monthly Archives: April 2014
The Titanic – A 3rd Class Passenger’s Hopes and a President’s Bereavement
On April 14, 1912, the “unsinkable” RMS Titanic sank two and a half miles to the ocean floor; of 2,223 people aboard, only 703 survived. In commemoration of this date, let’s take a look at two fascinating artifacts related to this tragedy.
On board the Titanic was a 22-year-old valet named Charlie Shorney, who had paid eight pounds one shilling for Third Class passage. His fiancée awaited him in New York, where he hoped to start a taxicab business upon his arrival. Here is a postcard Shorney sent to his father as the Titanic left Queenstown for New York. Charlie went down with the Titanic, together with 75% of the Third Class passengers.
The Titanic brought men from vastly different worlds to a shared end.
Major Archibald Butt, a popular military aide to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft, perished as well. Roosevelt spoke of his shock and grief; Taft was devastated.
In eulogizing his aide, President Taft wrote that he regarded Archie Butt like a younger brother – a member of his family. In his memorial, Taft lauds him as a Christian gentleman and perfect soldier:
I knew that he would certainly remain on the ship’s deck until every duty had been performed and every sacrifice made that properly fell on one charged, as he would feel himself charged, with responsibility for the rescue of others.
There are widely conflicting accounts of Butt’s actions before his death; he was last seen standing on the sinking deck with John Jacob Astor.
Jewish Civil War Soldiers’ Passover Seder on the Battlefield in 1863
During the Civil War soldiers were paid in gold and silver coins, and there was an extreme shortage of small change. On payday, a soldier would exchange part of his salary for sutler tokens, which he would then use to purchase necessities from the regimental store.
In honor of the Jewish holiday of Passover, here’s a wonderful story related to a G.W. Forbes Civil War Sutler’s Token.
Joseph A. Joel, a Jewish private in the Ohio 23rd Regiment, told the story:
Approaching Feast of Passover, twenty of my comrades and co-religionists belonging to the Regiment, united in a request to our commanding officer for relief from duty, in order that we might keep the holydays, which he readily acceded to. The first point was gained, and, as the Paymaster had lately visited the Regiment, he had left us plenty of greenbacks. Our next business was to find some suitable person to proceed to Cincinnati, Ohio, to buy us Matzos…
Horseradish or parsley we could not obtain, but in lieu we found a weed, whose bitterness, I apprehend, exceeded anything our forefathers “enjoyed”. We were still in a great quandary; we were like the man who drew the elephant in the lottery. We had the lamb, but did not know what part was to represent it at the table; but Yankee ingenuity prevailed, and it was decided to cook the whole and put it on the table, then we could dine off it, and be sure we had the right part. The necessaries for the choroutzes we could not obtain, so we got a brick which, rather hard to digest, reminded us, by looking at it, for what purpose it was intended.
I strongly recommend you read the full story – an absolute delight!
International Children’s Book Day and Mark Twain Remembrance Day
One of the ubiquitous features of online searching and shopping is the “Recommended for You” list; every major site has algorithms to identify items you will probably like based on what you’ve already read or purchased. A significant side effect is what has been termed Filter Bubbles – since we are increasingly exposed to ideas similar to our own, we are less and less exposed to alternative viewpoints, with obvious costs to society.
When I buy a book from Amazon I rarely get a recommendation that surprises me. In honor of International Children’s Book Day (April 2) and Mark Twain Remembrance Day (April 21), I suggest you look at Mark Twain’s wonderful recommended reading list for children from 1887. But first, take a moment to think about which authors might be mentioned there… Any successful predictions? For an interesting discussion of Twain’s list, see this article in Slate.com.
I was in the bookstore yesterday and overheard a father trying to get his son excited about “The Wind in the Willows.” If the kid had enough sense to listen, I suspect he’ll try to convince his own son or daughter to read the same book one day – or maybe download it directly to their neural interface.
In any case, some books last the test of time – and should be recommended reading to all. Feel free to suggest some personal favorites in the Comments section!
The Overprotected Child
The Atlantic has an excellent article called The Overprotected Kid, which I’ve been thinking about a lot in the last few days. The article focuses on playgrounds – nowadays typically boring, predictable, and safe – but in passing raises a whole lot of questions on how childhood has changed in the last few decades.
One line struck me in particular: “When my daughter was about 10, my husband suddenly realized that in her whole life, she had probably not spent more than 10 minutes unsupervised by an adult. Not 10 minutes in 10 years.” While these numbers may be extreme, they do highlight a trend – children today spend far less time unsupervised than in the past.
There are lots of reasons for this – a pervasive fear of strangers, overworked parents wanting to maximize time with their kids, a culture which emphasizes keeping kids busy and striving to realize their potential – but the bottom line is, the author claims, kids today are missing out on vital social skills and critical opportunities for personal growth.
Today’s overprotected kids are not challenged in a real way. They don’t explore, they don’t face their fears, they don’t gain a sense of competence and mastery, and they don’t learn how to negotiate with others and resolve conflict.
I have been blessed to live in a small community, and from a very young age my kids have spent lots of time on their own – hanging with other kids, climbing trees, building forts. They may not log as many hours of screen time as they’d like, but I believe they are far better equipped to deal with the challenges of adulthood than so many of their peers – whose well-intentioned parents have deprived them of the challenges they need to grow.
Have you read The Overprotected Kid? What do you think?
History Source 