September 30, 1935

The Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Hayes, graced the cover of Time magazine this week. The cover story begins like this:

Chicago's brisk, businesslike George William Cardinal Mundelein, 63, spent his days last week between his office, his residence, his cathedral, his villa at Mundelein, where on a nine-hole course he golfs in the high 40's. Boston's stocky, rugged William Henry Cardinal O'Connell, 75 and in the best of health, attended to routine business, looked in on a priests' retreat at St. John's Seminary. Philadelphia's austere Denis Cardinal Dougherty, 70, who lately bought a $215,000 house at Overbrook, was traveling quietly in Europe. The fourth U. S. Prince of the Roman Catholic Church, Patrick Joseph Cardinal Hayes of New York, had extraordinary priestly duties to perform. Clothed with vast and holy power, attended in proud dignity by a princely retinue, the Archbishop of New York set forth on an errand imposed upon him last month by His Holiness Pope Pius XI. Symbolically dispatched from the Pope's side and armed with all that Pontiff's authority and precedence. Cardinal Hayes was Legatus a latere to the Seventh National Eucharistic Congress, held this week in Cleveland.

According to Time, Hayes was the first "native-born" archbishop of New York. He apparently had interesting vacation experiences upstate:

Cardinal Hayes spends his summers in a rustic snuggery in the Catskills maintained by Dominican nuns. Once, roaming alone through nearby woods, he encountered a band of hooded Ku-Kluxers. The Cardinal muttered a prayer to his namesake St. Patrick. When a Ku-Kluxer lifted his hood it was to say that they were lost, and would he please tell them the way out of the woods. Out of this incident the amiable Cardinal made a little homily to the effect that just so does the True Church lead unbelievers from the woods.

In international news, the crisis over Italian aims to annex Ethiopia continued. A Committe of Five created by the League of Nations struggled to find a compromise solution to the crisis:

At first inclined to recommend that Italy be given a status over Ethiopia similar to that which Britain holds over the nominally independent Kingdom of Irak, the Committee finally decided to recommend for Ethiopia the status recommended by the League two years ago for Liberia and indignantly refused by that Negro Republic.

In effect this scheme was for Ethiopia's Emperor to consent to receive in Addis Ababa a League High Commissioner who would reorganize the Ethiopian police, finances, jurisprudence, education and health services. Numerous Europeans, nominated by the League, would be needed to put through these reforms. Depending on whether the reforming Europeans were predominantly Italian—and the Committee of Five omitted the vital question of their nationality completely last week—this plan might offer something or nothing to Il Duce.

Italy, however, rejected compromise:

Rome was first to reply. The Italian Government had just taken four steps: 1) announced a 5% war loan so huge that it shook down Rome's stock market several points; 2) obtained from King Vittorio Emanuele III a decree making Benito Mussolini the sole Italian arbiter of Peace or War; 3) set up a board of Italian fighting service commanders to co-ordinate army, air force and fleet move ments; 4) placed 10.000,000 Italians of both sexes on call for a "practice mobilization"—really a nationwide Fascist pep rally—liable to be announced at any hour this week. In Rome it was supposed to be highly significant that Il Papa, previously lukewarm toward Il Duce in the present crisis, gave his permission as Supreme Pontiff last week that the signal for Fascist mobilization shall be the ringing of Catholic church bells.

Happier news from New York City. There, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess was being prepared for its premiere. Time referred to the composition as "what may prove to be the finest attempt yet at a real U.S. opera." The work had been commissioned by the Theatre Guild. According to Time:

Production difficulties for the Gershwin opera have been to teach the Harlem Negroes a Southern accent, to drill by ear those who were unable to read a note, to help some members of the cast decide on names which will look imposing in the program. Great advantage has been the fact that none of the singers was handicapped at the start by having real grand opera ways. The principals, Porgy and Bess, have never sung on the stage before. Bess is one Anne Browne, a product of the Juilliard School of Music. Porgy is Todd Duncan, a Gershwin discovery from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Ken Knisely

This is a personal post. My friend Ken Knisely died Sunday. Ken was a teacher and philosopher. He believed in philosophy not as an academic discipline but as the search for truth and wisdom and the right way to live. Another college friend of mine - Greg Kitsock - recently wrote a great appreciation of Ken which you can see here. And this is Ken's own website - No Dogs or Philosophers Allowed.

Over the years, I saw less of Ken because I moved around and because - well - just because. We all make our compromises with power and the material demands of life and the inertia that comes with age but Ken did so less than almost any other person I know. The quote on his website from Socrates reads like this:

You are a citizen of a great and powerful nation. Are you not ashamed that you give so much time to the pursuit of money, and reputation, and honors, and care so little for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your soul?

By that standard, Ken had very little to be ashamed of.

September 27, 1935

The Cubs swept a doubleheader from the Cardinals, 6-2 and 5-3 to clinch the NL pennant. The victories extended the Cubs winning streak to twenty-one games. This tied a franchise mark set in 1880. The Cubs had last lost an outing back on September 2d when they dropped the second half of a doubeleheader to the Reds at Wrigley.

With the regular season scheduled to end on September 29th and the World Series between the Cubs and the Tigers to begin October 2d, we'll have a Series preview shortly.

George Gershwin

Today is the 107th birthday of George Gershwin. Of course, the careers of the Gershwins and Fred Astaire are closely linked. Fred and his sister Adele appeared in three Gershwin musicals on Broadway, including Lady Be Good and Funny Face. Ginger Rogers starred in the Gershwin musical Girl Crazy and Fred helped coach her for the dancing in the show.

The Gershwins also wrote music for two films in which Astaire starred - Shall We Dance and A Damsel in Distress. "Damsel" is one of my favorite films. It has dancing by Astaire, comedy by Burns and Allen, and is based on a book by Wodehouse. What more could you ask!

September 25, 1935

The Cardinals and the Cubs began a critical late season series today at Sportsman's Park. The Cards entered the series three games back, with five games left to play. The Cubs started Lon Warneke against Paul Dean. Dean was to finish the season 19-12 with a 3.37 ERA. Warneke was to be a twenty game winner thanks to today's contest in which the Cubs prevailed, 1-0. Dean struck out the first four batters he faced but then Phil Cavaretta hit a home run onto the roof for the game's only run. Cavaretta, the Cubs first baseman, was 18 years old.

The Tigers lost, 3-2, to the Indians but they had clinched the AL flag back on September 21st when they swept a doubleheader from the hapless Browns. The Browns ended the season with a 65-87 record in seventh place.

In The Nation today an item on a demonstration in Chicago by the American League Against War and Fascism protesting the "impending conflict between Italy and Ethiopia." The League applied for a permit for the demonstration which was refused "on the ground that the proposed demonstration was a 'hostile act toward a friendly power.'" The Police Commissioner punctuated the permit's denial by stating: "there isn't going to be any parade, and those who try to parade will get their heads cracked."

He was as good as his word. According to The Nation's account:

A number of persons who attempted to march, without otherwise committing any breach of the peace, were set upon by policemen. Old men and women, Negro and white, were among the victims; clubs were the weapons, although kicks and arm-twisting were also freely employed. Some 400 persons were arrested, several score being herded into a bullpen about twenty-five feet long and twelve feet wide. The injured were ignored, although some were bleeding copiously from the blows of policemen's clubs; for two or three hours even water was denied the prisoners.

Newsreels of the event apparently featured this commentary: "if these people want to start a war, let them go back where they came from."

The Nation also featured an article entitled "The Right of Asylum". The article lamented the government's policy of refusing to grant asylum in cases of deportation:

we do not hesitate to return an anti-fascist to Italy, where he may be put to death, or a militant anti-Nazi to Germany, or a Chinese student "agitator" to the tender mercies of his native firing squads. The fact that death or long prison sentences may wait these persons when they reach the countries of their origin deters us as little as the fact that in deporting them we may leave their native-born American children without economic support.

The article also noted that proposals had been made, but not enacted, in Congress to deport "no fewer than 6,000,000 aliens, as a means of solving the unemployment problem."

Osprey

In Prospect Park on Saturday there were several "good" (i.e. rare) birds - connecticut warbler, dickcissel - but, of course, I didn't see any of those. But I did have one of those experiences that makes even bad birdwatching worthwhile. While I was trying to figure out if the warbler I was looking at in a pine tree was a pine warbler or a chestnut-sided warbler or a blackpoll (I never did figure it out), an osprey flew up and perched in full view in a nearby tree.

Audubon called the osprey a fish-hawk because the bird dives into water to catch fish. Ospreys don't nest in Prospect Park (Audubon describes them as nesting throughout coastal New Jersey and today they nest at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens near JFK airport) but they do pass through in migration. At first I thought the bird I saw looked emaciated but then I realized he was just wet. It was at about the same time that I saw he had a fish in his right talon which he must have just caught in Prospect Park Lake. He looked around, perhaps disturbed by some squawking blue jays and chipping cardinals, and then flew off.

Tonight (Sunday), I saw two osprey in the Lullwater in Prospect Park. One was carrying a fish, the other was repeatedly calling. Perhaps the calling bird was a juvenile. Osprey were also seen over Central Park on Saturday.

Coincidentally, the National Gallery of Art opened an exhibit of Audubon engravings and paintings today entitled Audubon's Dream Realized: Selections from "The Birds of America". The centerpiece of the exhibit is an oil painting by Audubon - Osprey and Weakfish - which was recently acquired by the National Gallery. I must say the fish in the Audubon painting is much larger than the fish I saw being carried by ospreys over the weekend! Here's what Audubon says about the weakfish:

The largest fish which I have seen this bird take out of the water, was a weak-fish, such as is represented in the plate, but sufficiently large to weigh more than five pounds. The bird carried it into the air with difficulty, and dropped it, on hearing the report of a shot fired at it.

By the way, your chances of seeing a weakfish being carried by an osprey these days are not very good. According to one website I checked:

The commercial weakfish fishery in the lower [Chesapeake] Bay is significant, but has been in decline since the 1940s. Today the population is at a very low level due to severe overfishing, compared to a decade ago, and the fishery is in danger of collapse. Historical landings have fluctuated widely, but since 1980 commercial and recreational weakfish landings have steadily declined from about 80 million pounds to just over 7 million pounds in 1993. Much of the decline in the weakfish fishery appears attributable to overfishing and degradation in the estuarine environment.

September 23, 1935

The Cardinals were routed, 12-0, by the Pirates at Sportsman's Park. The loss dropped the Cards to 93-55. They were 3-1/2 games out with six games left to play. Ed Heusser started the game for the Cardinals. He finished the 1935 season with a 5-5- record and an ERA of 2.92.

The Senators were downed, 5-1, by the Yankees at Griffith Stadium. The loss brought a three game winning streak to an end. Earl Whitehill was on the mound for the Nats. Lefty Gomez got the start for the Yankees. Gomez was to finish the season with a 12-15 mark and a 3.18 ERA.

In today's issue of Time, the lead international story was the continuing crisis between Italy and Ethiopia. British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare delivered an impassioned defense of collective security to the League of Nations at Geneva:

Though he never varied from his flat, toneless delivery, Sir Samuel at one point fairly electrified the Assembly when he raised his hand above his head and thrice slapped the tribune loudly as he repeated words and phrases, then struck a final slap for further emphasis. Said he: "Britain stands (slap!) for steady collective resistance (slap!) to all acts of unprovoked aggression (slap!). Steady collective resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression (slap!)."

The Ethiopian government announced the Emperor's willingness to "accept any reasonable suggestion in the spirit of high conciliation by which he is moved." Time reported that, while delivering his speech, the Ethiopian delegate "visibly quaked with nervousness."

Mussolini, however, was in no mood to compromise:

"The [Italian] Cabinet examined in what circumstances Italy's continued membership in the League would be rendered impossible. The Cabinet, after having learned that around the Italo-Ethiopian controversy are gathering all the forces of foreign antiFascism, feels it is its duty to reconfirm in the most explicit manner that the Italo-Ethiopian problem does not admit of compromise solution after the huge efforts and sacrifices made by Italy. . . . From a military viewpoint our preparations in East Africa proceed with greater intensity."

In addition to Britain, other states also expressed their opposition to Italian aggression:

Fidelity to the Covenant was pledged by Haiti whose black delegate declared: "The colored peoples of the world are watching. The period of colonial wars is closed." Into line fell Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State, the Little Entente (Czechoslovakia, Rumania, & Yugoslavia), Belgium, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Portugal, Panama, China, the Scandinavian & Baltic States, Poland and Soviet Russia whose roly-poly Foreign Commissar "Maxie" Litvinoff spoke in English and re-employed Sam Hoare's words to say that in supporting the League Russia will be "second to none." No nation offered to be first.

Notwithstanding the widespread opposition to Italian aggression, Britain and France seemed resigned to war.

[T]he British and French Governments . . . "are now agreed that nothing done at Geneva can prevent Premier Mussolini's war machine from being launched at the heart of Ethiopia. When this happens the League of Nations' procedure must take a predestined course . . . culminating eventually in a decision to apply sanctions to the aggressor state. . . . The pressure to be applied shall be economic."

In other international news, Mexico was rocked by an armed attack on its legislature.

From the doorways and from the galleries gunmen previously stationed there ripped out revolvers, sent a fusillade of shots zinging through the air. Most of the windows were blown out. Seventeen bullets crashed through the press box from which reporters tumbled to safety. When the smoke cleared away Deputy Manuel Martinez Valadez of Jalisco lay dead on the floor. Deputy Luis Mendez, who died next day, and two other deputies were wounded. Fifty shots were fired. It was the third fatal battle in Mexico's Congress since 1924.

The Mexican government blamed a group of right wing deputies opposed to the program of President Lazaro Cardenas. Seventeen deputies suspected of involvement in the attack were expelled from the Chamber of Deputies.

In domestic news, the State Attorney of Florida concluded his investigation into the deaths of hundreds of war veterans in the Labor Day hurricane. These men were Bonus Army marchers who had been sent by the Government to work camps in Florida to help construct the Key West highway. Although veterans officials pleaded to have the men evacuated before the storm hit, a train sent to fetch the men was blown off the tracks en route. In its September 16th issue Time described what happened to the veterans:

At Camp Three, where 243 veterans were enrolled, the men ran for the mess hall. When the roof blew off they scattered over the railway embankment. The water began rising and the men began praying. Suddenly a terrific blast ripped up the tracks as a tidal wave struck. The ex-soldiers were swept into the mangrove swamp where many were battered to death, or out to sea where they drowned. Seventy saved their lives by hanging on to a tank car full of water—"Good old No. 3390."

When the Red Cross, the American Legion, the National Guard and the Coast Guard finally got into the devastated Keys over the broken bridges and wrecked roads, they found signs of slaughter worse than war. Bodies were in trees, floating in the creeks, bogged in the mud. While jittery veterans dug in the sand for hot bottles of beer, relief forces began to collect and count the corpses. The first thing President Roosevelt did after ordering out necessary aid was to promise burials with full military honors for the dead veterans. But the Florida Keys last week was no place for such ceremonies. To prevent plague the bodies were bundled onto drays, wrapped in oiled rags, boxed, burned.

Nothing but praise for all concerned came from the Dixie disaster. Ashore things were different. With smoke from the funeral pyres drifting lazily along the flat horizon of his State, stocky Governor Dave Sholtz of Florida quoted an estimate of the fatalities as 1,000, demanded to know why the veterans were not moved out before the hurricane hit, sourly declared that there was "great carelessness somewhere."

Sound familiar? Not everyone was mollified by the State Attorney's report which concluded that government officials were not to blame for the catastrophe:

Indignant, too, was Author Ernest Hemingway of Key West. After reporting the carnage in last week's New Masses, he passionately apostrophized one of the dead: "You're dead now, brother, but who left you there in the hurricane months on the Keys where a thousand men died before you in the hurricane months when they were building the road that's now washed out? Who left you there? And what's the punishment for manslaughter now?"

In happier news, it was a good week for movies. among the new releases reviewed by Time were The Thirty Nine Steps, Big Broadcast of 1936, Broadway Melody of 1936 and The Goose and the Gander.

Here's bit of what Time had to say about Big Broadcast:

a collection of specialty acts by radio entertainers, might have been much more satisfactory if its producers had not insisted on incorporating them into a story. Any narrative framework designed to include Amos 'n' Andy, Ray Noble, Ethel Merman, Henry Wadsworth, Lyda Roberti, Burns & Allen, Sir Guy Standing, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles, Jack Oakie, Ina Ray Hutton and her Melodears, Wendy Barrie, Bing Crosby, the Vienna Choir Boys and Bill Robinson could scarcely be distinguished for its spontaneity.

Of the moments when The Big Broadcast offers its audience some respite from the story the most enjoyable are those in which Bill Robinson demonstrates that he is still the ablest tap-dancer in the world, Bing Crosby sings I Wished on the Moon and Ethel Merman cavorts with a chorus of elephants to a tune called It's the Animal in Me.

Lyda Roberti had starred in the stage version of Roberta. Ginger Rogers is doing a Roberti imitation or homage in the film, particularly in her version of "I'll Be Hard to Handle."

September 22, 1935

The Cubs won their 18th straight game in their last appearance at Wrigley for the season, 2-0 over the Pirates. The Cardinals swept a doubleheader from the Reds to end the day three games out in the NL.

At the other end of the NL standings, the Braves lost their 110th game of the season - an NL record that they would break two days later when they dropped both ends of a doubleheader to the Dodgers. Today, the Braves were also swept in a doubleheader by the Phillies, 7-5 and 4-3 at the Baker Bowl. Ben Cantwell started the record-breaker for Boston. Cantwell was 4-25 for the Braves in 1935. His career record was 76-108. In 1935 he boasted an ERA of 4.61 and allowed 235 hits in over 210 innings. He was evidently a "contact" pitcher. He struck out just 34 batters over the season and walked 44.

The Phillies, by the way, were also a woeful bunch. Even after their victories today, they were 63-84, 33 games back of the Cubs. Hal Kelleher started the second game of the twin bill for the Phillies. Kelleher had a brief career in the majors, finishing with a 4-9 record. In 1935, he would end the season 2-0 with an ERA of 1.80.

London 1945

I've just completed London 1945 by Maureen Waller. If you expect a book about a triumphant city, rejoicing in its steadfastness and victory over fascism - think again! This book is chiefly a very detailed rendering of the miseries that afflicted Londoners at war's end. The catalogue of woes is long: rocket bombing by V-1 and V-2s that indiscriminately killed and maimed, housing shortages, food shortages, clothing shortages, rationing, rampant crime and corruption, limited personal hygiene (most Londoners bathed once a week - at most) and a government that seemed indifferent at times to the suffering of its civilian population. For example, the British government did not warn civilians - who had begun to return to London as the war neared its end in late 1944 - about the V-rocket attacks and suppressed most coverage of the bombings in order to deprive the Germans of potentially useful intelligence.

The book draws heavily on the experiences of ordinary people and offers sympathetic and illuminating information on the effects of the war on women and children and the difficulties of family reunification when Britain's soldiers returned home. At times, however, the detail is repetitive and excessive. There is also an illuminating discussion of the 1945 elections which decimated the Conservatives - led by Churchill - and brought the Labour party to power. Although this surprised many observers, the book makes it clear that it should not have. Churchill appears to have run a Red-baiting campaign which did nothing to address people's desire for a better life after the war and was heckled and booed at campaign stops in several London neighborhoods. Americans may be perplexed, however, that people who had been entangled in extensive government regulation of their lives during the war would turn to a party which advocated even more bureaucracy and regulation. Waller makes it clear that the vote was less an endorsement of Labour's socialist policies than a rebellion against a Conservative party which was felt to be out of touch with ordinary people and responsible for the country's lack of readiness for war.

Roberta again

In case you're interested, here's what The Nation had to say about Roberta:

"Roberta" the only musical film to which this column has exposed itself in recent weeks, owes all of its entertainment value, which is considerable, to the personality and dancing talents of Fred Astaire. For the sake of his incomparable feet the interruptions of the Alice Duer Miller romance, including the parade of fashion models [which included Lucille Ball] and white Russian emigres in Paris may be quite easily endured.

No mention of Ginger!

September 20, 1935

In baseball news, the Pittsburgh Crawfords defeated the New York Cubans to win the Negro National League championship. Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston collected extra base hits for the Crawfords. This 1935 squad was considered perhaps the greatest Negro League team ever:

For five years, 1932-36, Gus Greenlee's Crawfords were the "Yankees of the Negro Leagues" and each year's squad draws some votes as the greatest of all-time. However, the 1935 team, which featured five Hall-of-Famers in the lineup, is considered the best, with Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson and Satchel Paige. Although Paige jumped to a white semio-pro team in Bismarck, North Dakota during the season, the team was so strong that they continued to win without him. Lefthander Leroy Matlock assumed the role as ace of the staff and fashioned an outstanding record. Flanking Bell in the outfield were Sam Bankhead and Jimmie Crutchfield, giving the Crawfords one of the fastest outfields ever to play baseball. The Crawfords easily won the first half title with a .785 winning percentage and defeated the New York Cubans in a seven-game play-off for the Championship.

Greenlee was a gambling and numbers racketeer who owned the field where the team played in Pittsburgh - Greenlee Field - and the Crawford Grille which hosted entertainers like Lena Horne and Bill Robinson as well as Crawford ballplayers.

Nighthawks and Wood Ducks

Saturday evening, I had my first sighting this fall of common nighthawks. I was looking for them as they migrate through New York each year in September. But when I first caught sight of them, having seen them only a few times in my short birdwatching career, I thought they were hawks (for an instant) and then (very dark) gulls before I recognized them by their white wing patches. These birds are a species of special concern in New York although they continue to nest in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to Bull's. A birder named Ben Cacace has made regular reports of sighting nighthawks, at dusk, over Central Park this summer. Bootstrap analysis has an excellent post on the causes of the bird's decline.

Audubon wrote this about the nighthawk's flight:

The Night-Hawk has a firm, light, and greatly prolonged flight. In dull cloudy weather, it may be seen on the wing during the whole day, and is more clamorous than at any other time. The motions of its wings while flying are peculiarly graceful, and the playfulness which it evinces renders its flight quite interesting. The bird appears to glide through the air with all imaginable ease, assisting its ascent, or supporting itself on high, by irregular hurried flappings performed at intervals, as if it had unexpectedly fallen in with its prey, pursued, and seized it. Its onward motion is then continued. It moves in this manner, either upwards in circles, emitting a loud sharp squeak at the beginning of each sudden start it takes, or straight downwards, then to the right or left, whether high or low, as it presses onward, now skimming closely over the rivers, lakes, or shores of the Atlantic, and again wending its way over the forests or mountain tops. During the love season its mode of flight is particularly interesting: the male may be said to court his mate entirely on the wing, strutting as it were through the air, and performing a variety of evolutions with the greatest ease and elegance, insomuch that no bird with which I am acquainted can rival it in this respect. It frequently raises itself a hundred yards, sometimes much more, and apparently in the same careless manner already mentioned, its squeaking notes becoming louder and more frequent the higher it ascends; when, checking its course, it at once glides obliquely downwards, with wings and tail half closed, and with such rapidity that a person might easily conceive it to be about to dash itself against the ground. But when close to the earth, often at no greater distance than a few feet, it instantaneously stretches out its wings, so as to be nearly directed downwards at right angles with the body, expands its tail, and thus suddenly checks its downward career. It then brushes, as it were, through the air, with inconceivable force, in a semicircular line of a few yards in extent. This is the moment when the singular noise produced by this bird is heard, for the next instant it rises in an almost perpendicular course, and soon begins anew this curious mode of courtship. The concussion caused, at the time the bird passes the centre of its plunge, by the new position of its wings, which are now brought almost instantly to the wind, like the sails of a ship suddenly thrown aback, is the cause of this singular noise. The female does not produce this, although she frequently squeaks whilst on the wing.

Meanwhile, on the upper pool in Prospect Park, you can now see the wood ducks returning to their glorious breeding plumage. There were seven on the pool tonight. Audubon referred to the duck as the "summer duck" although this seems a strange name as the bird loses its breeding plumage in July and August and is a mere shadow of itself in "eclipse" plumage. He described their courtship in somewhat purple prose:

When March has again returned, and the Dogwood expands its pure blossoms in the sun, the Cranes soar away on their broad wings, bidding our country adieu for a season, flocks of water-fowl are pursuing their early migrations, the frogs issue from their muddy beds to pipe a few notes of languid joy, the Swallow has just arrived, and the Blue-bird has returned to his box. The Wood Duck almost alone remains on the pool, as if to afford us an opportunity of studying the habits of its tribe. Here they are, a whole flock of beautiful birds, the males chasing their rivals, the females coquetting with their chosen beaux. Observe that fine drake! how gracefully he raises his head and curves his neck! As he bows before the object of his love, he raises for a moment his silken crest. His throat is swelled, and from it there issues a guttural sound, which to his beloved is as sweet as the song of the Wood Thrush to its gentle mate. The female, as if not unwilling to manifest the desire to please ;which she really feels, swims close by his side, now and then caresses him by touching his feathers with her bill, and shews displeasure towards any other of her sex that may come near. Soon the happy pair separate from the rest, repeat every now and then their caresses, and at length, having sealed the conjugal compact, fly off to the woods to search for a large Woodpecker's hole. Occasionally the males fight with each other, but their combats are not of long duration, nor is the field ever stained with blood, the loss of a few feathers or a sharp tug of the head being generally enough to decide the contest. Although the Wood Ducks always form their nests in the hollow of a tree, their caresses are performed exclusively on the water, to which they resort for the purpose, even when their loves have been first proved far above the ground on a branch of some tall sycamore. While the female is depositing her eggs, the male is seen to fly swiftly past the hole in which she is hidden, erecting his crest, and sending forth his love-notes, to which she never fails to respond.

This duck very nearly disappeared from our ponds and lakes due to overhunting and wetlands destruction. Populations were "alarmingly low" by the late 1880s. A combination of hunting prohibition/regulation and human assistance - in the form of the construction of thousands of nest boxes - has brought the birds back.

September 18, 1935

The Cubs thrashed the Giants, 15-3, at Wrigley. It was the 15th straight victory for the Chicagoans and dropped the Giants six and a half games off the lead. The Cardinals, meanwhile, having split a twin bill with the Dodgers on the 17th, defeated the Brooklynites, 6-3, at Sportsman's Park. Nonetheless, they remained 2-1/2 games behind the surging Cubbies.

The Senators, however, were more successful against Chicago's AL entry, sweeping a doubleheader from the White Sox, 5-4 and 3-1. By the end of the day, the Nats were 63-80, 28 games behind the Tigers. Bobo Newsom started the first game and Ed Linke the second. Linke had a brief career, finishing with a lifetime 22-22 record. 1935 was his best season. He finished 11-7 (on a team with a 67-86 record) although his ERA was 5.01. Perhaps he benefited from strong run support. He gave up 211 hits in 178 innings and struck out just 51 batters (as against 80 walks). His luck ran out in 1938 - his final major league season, which he spent with the Browns. He was 1-7 with a 7.94 ERA and gave up 60 hits in over 39 innings pitched. He was twenty six years old when his career ended.

In The Nation published today, several interesting items:

In an editorial, the magazine comments on the recent assassination of Huey Long. It notes that "his championship of the poor was as sincere as anything in his equipment of distorted passions. Giving him every advantage of sympathetic consideration does not raise him to the status of martyr. Huey Long was America's first dictator." The editorial concludes:

His death undoubtedly means troubled times in Louisiana. Nationally, however, the political situation is simplified. Now there will be no formidable third-party movement in the South threatening to wreck the Democratic Party. With the death of Long the field of demagoguery is left to Father Coughlin, of whom one need be much less afraid.

The Nation was critical of Magistrate Louis Brodsky's denunciation of Nazi Germany in his decision freeing the SS Bremen demonstrators. These were anti-Nazi agitators who had boarded the Bremen - a German liner - and torn down the swastika flag. Although Judge Brodsky's conclusion that the demonstrators had not engaged in unlawful assembly was legally correct:

when Magistrate Brodsky, in presuming to set forth the sentiments of the defendants which urged them to commit what was in effect an act of violence against a nation with which the United States is on diplomatically friendly terms, proceeded in his official capacity to describe that nation in highly uncomplimentary language, one may question not only the diplomatic policy but the judicial propriety of such a proecdure. It is the function of a judge to uphold and interpret the law; it is not his function to make political speeches from the bench.

Perhaps Magistrate Brodsky had been influced by three anti-Nazi books reviewed in The Nation that week: The Nazi Dictatorship: A Study in Social Pathology and the Politics of Fascism; Rubber Truncheon; and I Was Hitler's Prisoner.

In an analysis of the Italo-Ethiopian crisis entitled "Geneva Stands Firm", the magazine noted that the delay occasioned by League of Nations deliberations over Ethiopia might postpone an Italian invasion for a full year. This was because the rainy season limited the available window for military operation to seven months of the year. The Nation was optimistic that sanctions could deter Italy:

Italy is obviously in no position to resist sanctions if they are rigorously aplied, and is even less able to go to war with any of the big poweers over their application. As was pointed out in last week's issue of The Nation, Italy is perhaps the farthest from self-sufficiency of any of the major countries. Faced by the certainty of a stringent financial and commercial boycott, combined with the threat of a closing of the Suez Canal, Mussolini would be practically forced to seek some face-saving compromise.

The article concluded that:

failure to curb Italy means the end of all possibility of security. It implies an acceptance by the world at large of the principles of force and violence which are the keystone of fascism, and relegates to the next post-war generation our rightful task of building an effective organization for peace.

In "Bullets Fell on Alabama", Bruce Crawford [according to the attached link, Crawford was a journalist and advocate for labor and civil rights]relates a visit by the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners to Birmingham, Alabama. In that city, possession of more than one copy of "radical publications" was an offense punishable by a fine of $100. Among the radical publications distributed by the Committee in a test of the ordinance were The Daily Worker, The Nation and the New Republic.

Members of the Committee were "seized" by local police and taken to meet Chief of Police Hollums. The Chief delivered the following remarks:

This literature [referring to the magazines listed above and several others]isn't unlawful, but it contains what offends some people. Besides, the ignorant working people shouldn't be allowed to read such literature. It stirs them up. Why, before these radicals began scattering such stuff the n----r would come holding up his hands when a white man called to him. Now the n----rs are uppity.

I haven't sufficient police force to guarantee you protection against certain elements here. There may be some in this room now, to hear what you are saying. If you pursue your activity [distributing left-wing magazines] here, I can't protect you, I'm sorry to admit.

If distributing radical magazines in Alabama wasn't dangerous enough, an advertisement in the magazine invited readers to "be one of 500 enemies of Nazism to help circulate in Germany a pamphlet against anti-semitism." The ad was placed by the International Relief Association.

Saint Robert Bellarmine

September 17th is the feast of Saint Robert Bellarmine. Bellarmine was involved in the Galileo controversy. He warned Galileo, under orders of Pope Paul V, not to discuss or defend Copernican or heliocentric theories. He apparently opposed Copernican theories both on the grounds that they contradicted Scripture and were not fully demonstrated scientifically. In a letter to Paolo Antonio Foscarini, who had written a book defending Copernican theory against the charge that it contradicted Scripture, Bellarmine wrote:

First, I say that it seems to me that Your Paternity and Mr. Galileo are proceeding prudently by limiting yourselves to speaking hypothetically and not absolutely, as I have always believed that Copernicus spoke. . . .

Second, I say that, as you know, the Council prohibits interpreting Scripture against the common consensus of the Holy Fathers; and if Your Paternity wants to read not only the Holy Fathers, but also the modern commentaries on Genesis, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Joshua, you will find all agreeing in the literal interpretation that the sun is in heaven and turns around the earth with great speed, and that the earth is very far from heaven and sits motionless at the center of the world. Consider now, with your sense of prudence, whether the Church can tolerate giving Scripture a meaning contrary to the Holy Fathers and to all the Greek and Latin commentators.

Third, I say that if there were a true demonstration that the sun is at the center of the world and the earth in the third heaven, and that the sun does not circle the earth but the earth circles the sun, then one would have to proceed with great care in explaining the Scriptures that appear contrary, and say rather that we do not understand them than that what is demonstrated is false. But I will not believe that there is such a demonstration, until it is shown me.

All this suggests to me that Bellarmine might have been comfortable today in the camp of the "intelligent design" theorists.

He is a Doctor of the Church and his major work, Disputations on the Controversies of the Christan Faith Against the Heretics of the Time, was three volumes! Apparently, among many other things, it argues against the so-called divine right of kings.

Nonetheless, Bellarmine seems to me admirable because of his style of church leadership and his concern for the poor. As one source states:

Bellarmine was made a cardinal by Pope Clement VIII on the grounds that "he had not his equal for learning." While he occupied apartments in the Vatican, Bellarmine relaxed none of his former austerities. He limited his household expenses to what was barely essential, eating only the food available to the poor. He was known to have ransomed a soldier who had deserted from the army and he used the hangings of his rooms to clothe poor people, remarking, "The walls won't catch cold."

Here is another author on Bellarmine:

All of a saint’s life should be a book or mirror that teaches people how to apply the gospel to the needs of their particular era and state of life and personal characteristics. I have already dwelt on his concern for the poor and the sick. Let us look at some other personal traits of Bellarmine. One was simplicity. He despised the pomp of office which most Renaissance notables gloried in. As soon as he became rector at the Roman college, he stripped down his office. The big chestnut desk he sent to the sacristy to hold altar linens. The religious pictures from his office were moved to the corridor walls where all might see, enjoy, and profit from them. Even as rector he insisted on doing a turn sweeping the corridors and washing the dirty pots and pans.13 As an old man, he used to delight in going off for his vacation to the Jesuit novitiate where he could shed his fancy red cardinal’s robes and don an old black cassock and eat the ordinary fare of the novices.

Another characteristic of his was a joyful disposition. He always received those who came to his office with a smile, himself pulling out a chair for visitors, trying to make them feel at home. Bellarmine’s Jesuit subjects at the Roman College and its 2000 students represented a dozen nationalities. He bent over backwards not to favor any one nation. The people Bellarmine did favor were the sick, for whom he provided the best fare and best care. Another thing he did not scrimp on was the library.

The Ashes

England has reclaimed the Ashes, defeating Australia 2-1 in the series. It is the first victory for England since 1987 and comes at the conclusion of what observers agree was a classic series. England is apparently awash in victory celebrations. According to the BBC:

The Queen and Tony Blair have sent congratulations to the Ashes-winning England cricket team.

Fans also celebrated outside The Oval cricket ground and in pubs around the country, while British troops around the world were glued to TV screens. Soldiers based at Camp Souter in Afghanistan clapped and cheered as England came closer to victory. At the Oval, fans danced around the ground and out onto the streets singing: "The Ashes are coming home."
From a nearby block of flats, a banner aimed at Australia and their fans simply read: "Barbecue that!"

On Tuesday tens of thousands of cricket fans jammed Trafalgar Square for a victory parade. Here's the BBC again:

The tens of thousands gathered in Trafalgar Square cheered highlights of the exhilarating summer series and interviews with each member of the victorious squad before a rendition of 'Jerusalem' rounded the presentation off.

Australian-raised wicketkeeper Geraint Jones held up a giant inflatable Dalek emblazoned with the words "Aussies exterminated". And Kevin Pietersen, man of the match in the final Test at The Oval, repeatedly sprayed those on the street below with champagne. "These are amazing scenes and it's fantastic what is happening to English cricket," Pietersen told BBC Sport. "I'm taking it all in and this is great for the game of cricket."

One commentator summed it up this way:

This glorious Ashes series has provided blessed relief from the fighting, snarling, cash-waving ogre of football which has trampled all over cricket for so long. Indeed, in some respects, the victory party was an old-fashioned affair - ancient hymns and anthems and flag-waving galore. It was like the Proms had never ended - and there wasn't a single arrest.

Pictures of the parade can be seen here.

September 16, 1935

The Cubs defeated the Giants, 8-3, at Wrigley. Meanwhile, the Cardinals (behind the recuperated Paul Dean) shutout the Dodgers, 1-0, at home. This left the Cardinals two games out with fourteen games left to play.

The Senators continued their slide, losing to the White Sox, 9-1, at home. Their victory still left the White Sox twenty one games out of first place in the AL with a 69-70 record. "Sad" Sam Jones started for the Sox. The 1935 season was sad indeed for Jones who finished the year with an 8-7 record but was released in November by the Sox, ending his career. He was 229-217 lifetime. His best season was in 1923 with the Yankees. He was 21-8 that year and threw a no-hitter on September 4, 1923. It was the last no-hit performance with no strikeouts until Ken Holtzman duplicated the feat in 1969. Bump Hadley went for the Nats so the game featured a former Yankee hurler contending with a future Yankee. Unlike Hadley, Jones does not appear to have been involved in any savage beanings during his career.

Time's cover featured Dr. Alexis Carrel. Carrel had won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1912.Charles Lindbergh worked with Carrel, as a volunteer, at the Rockefeller Institute. As the cover story noted:

Long ago Dr. Alexis Carrel had some small renown as the man who had found a way to keep a piece of chicken heart living and growing through the years. Lately the name of Carrel has been whirled up to fresh fame because Bio-mechanic Lindbergh designed him an artificial heart with which to pump life into human hearts, kidneys, thyroids, ovaries and because the Press knew the newsworthiness of the name of Lindbergh, if not of Carrel.

According to Wikipedia:

Later in life, Carrel published a best-selling book titled Man The Unknown theorizing that the whole of mankind could better itself by following the guide of a restricted number of intellectual aristocrats, and by implementing a regime of selective reproduction as in vogue at the time in the field of eugenics. He went so far as to recommend gas chambers to 'dispose' of 'inappropriate individuals', especially praising Hitler's efforts in eliminating weak-minded, alienated and criminals in the 1936's German introduction of his book.

Lindbergh shared with Carrel a certain admiration, if not affection for the Hitler regime. Nothing appears to have come of Carrel/Lindbergh's "bio-mechanical" heart.

In another interesting item, Time reported on new artwork ordered for Ellis Island, still serving as immigration inspection facility at the time. The work was carried out by the PWA - a New Deal organization - and involved muralists Edward Laning and Hideo Noda. Here is a photo of Laning at work on Ellis Island. Their work was nonetheless subject to approval by Immigration Commissioner Rudolph Reimer:

No sooner was Muralist Hideo Noda's cartoon submitted to him than Commissioner Reimer blossomed out as a stickler for artistic detail. The Noda mural was promptly rejected because Negro cotton pickers were shown wearing turtlenecked sweaters and creased trousers, because the creature pulling a poor blackamoor's farm cart seemed to be a full-blooded Percheron stallion. Artist Noda threw up his hands and his job, went back to California.

The Laning mural, showing the building of the Pacific Railroad with Irish and Chinese labor (see cut), got by Commissioner Reimer last week only after the artist had made many a change of detail to bring the whole into accord with that official's idea of U. S. history. Pointing to the drawing, Commissioner Reimer said:

"You see that man, he should be wearing high boots. These are Federal Army uniforms. There were Civil War soldiers working on that railroad and every now & then even a Confederate uniform would turn up. . . . The engineering details at first were even worse. Laning had square-cut ties under the tracks which were never used until 25 or 30 years ago. The rail which the coolies were handling was at least an 80 or 90-lb. rail. I made him reduce the size of the rail. Rolling mills in those days couldn't produce anywhere near that size of rail. . . .

"You know coolie labor was imported to work on that railroad and they were almost the first Chinamen that came to America. Having invited them Congress passed a law granting them limited citizenship. . . ."

Meanwhile at the League of Nations, fascist Italy accused Ethiopia of being a haven for various barbaric rituals:

Mostly the Italian exhibits showed Ethiopians snapped in acts every explorer of the Empire knows to be sanctified by savage custom, namely in the words of Baron Aloisi:

"Emasculation, not only of adults but of boys and babies captured during raids, and commerce in eunuchs, which is still flourishing. The survival of atrocious practices, such as cannibalism for magical purposes and bleeding babies for ritualistic functions. The cruelest practices of torture and execution. Among these may be cited a punishment that the French ethnologist and explorer, Marcel Griaule, witnessed in Godjam. An Ethiopian guilty of aggression against a minor ras [chief] was wrapped in muslin strips, dipped in wax and honey and slowly burned as a living torch in the presence of the ras. . . .

Such a country, declared Baron Aloisi, is unfit to belong to the League of Nations. Next day, on telephonic orders from Benito Mussolini, the Italian delegates began a melodramatic routine of jumping up and marching out of the League Council chamber whenever Ethiopian delegates arose to speak. This move backfired, won extra courtesy from other Great Power statesmen for dusky Ethiopian Chief Delegate Bedjirond Tecla Hawariate. Once when Mr. Hawariate, Premier Laval and Captain Eden had to enter the same door, such a contest of bows began that it seemed none would get in. Finally the Ethiopian entered first, next the Briton, last the Frenchman.

The Ethiopians replied through French Law Professor Gaston Jeze:

Wasting no breath to deny Baron Aloisi's undeniable facts on Ethiopian savagery, the Professor with great dexterity called Benito Mussolini a "Big Bully" without actually using those words. He neatly said that since nobody is to blame for the Ualual incident [an incident between Ethiopian and Italian forces at the Ethiopian/Eritrean border] no cause exists for war, ridiculed what he called the Fascist concept of a "Supernatural Mission for Eternal Rome" and scathingly declared: "In France we have a proverb, 'When a man wants to drown his dog he first says it is mad.' Italy, having resolved to conquer Ethiopia, begins by calling Ethiopia mad!"

Time speculated that a deal might be afoot to declare Ethiopia a "mandate" of Italy:

By common consent Premier Laval is now the No. 1 horse-trader for Peace. His entourage said, off the record, last week that they hoped Great Britain will raise no objection to a maneuver under which the League of Nations would designate Ethiopia afresh as "free and independent," entrusting her to Italy under much the same arrangement that free & independent Irak and free & independent Egypt are under London's thumbs.

Under this formula Italy's Armies could achieve some of the glory Benito Mussolini seems to want, for the savage Ethiopians would not take Civilization lying down. On the other hand this form of League "mandate" to Italy would cut off Ethiopia's Emperor from all help by the Great Powers and should, so Geneva statesmen said, "shorten the war." This they felt would be something gained, adding that the League would also have "localized the conflict outside of Europe."

Against a solution along these lines the chief forces this week were: 1) Anglo-Saxon public opinion that one must crack down on a "Big Bully"; 2) the Socialist and Trade Union movements on the continent and in Britain which ceaselessly petitioned the League to hurl "sanctions" against Boss Mussolini; and 3) Soviet Russia whose suave Foreign Commissar Maxim Maximovich Litvinoff unleased at Geneva a strong Red speech for Peace and against Fascist dreams of Empire.

Stay Tuned!

September 15, 1935

Germany today promulgated the Nuremberg Laws which prohibited marriage or sexual intercourse between Jews and "Germans" and further prohibited the employment of most "German" women in Jewish households. A Reich Citizenship Law stripped Jews of their citizenship and made them "subjects" of the German state.

Here's how Time magazine reported the event:

In menacing tones General Göring then read out three new decree laws. The first ended the clumsy arrangement under which the German tricolor and the Nazi swastika have been flown together as national flags. Henceforth Germany's sole flag is the swastika. "It is the anti-Jewish symbol of the world!" thundered General Göring amid deafening cheers. "A soldier from the front lines, Adolf Hitler, pulled us out of the dirt and brought us back to honor. . . . The swastika has become for us a holy symbol!" This, Germans considered, completely answered a Jewish judge in Manhattan named Brodsky who recently called the swastika a "pirate flag." Last week U. S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull sent the German Government a note of "regret" at the Brodsky incident.

Citizenship, Blood & Honor. The second decree read out by General Göring is the National Citizenship Law. This divides Germans into "citizens"' (with such rights as suffrage) and "members" (rights not defined). Jews under this law are automatically "members,'' and German "citizens" will be degraded to that status if they are found to be Communists or otherwise "unworthy."

The final decree last week is the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor. This permits Jews to fly a racial flag of their own; prohibits them from flying the German flag; bars Jews from marrying outside their race in Germany; bars them, whether married or not, from having sexual relations across the race line; and, as a final deterrent, forbids a Jew to employ a German female servant less than 45 years old.

The implications of this proviso struck the German Reichstag so forcibly that Deputies clutched their quaking midriffs and the whole chamber roared with Homeric laughter until tears of mirth glistened on many a cheek. Banging down his gavel President Göring boomed: "No Jew can insult Germany!"


The incident involving Judge Brodsky referred to in the Time article had occurred earlier in 1935. Demonstrators had boarded the German ship SS Bremen and torn down the swastika flag. Describing the swastika as a "pirate flag", Judge Brodsky dismissed the charges. He found that such a standard would naturally have incited the demonstrators.

In baseball news, the Cardinals lost again to the Giants, 7-3. It was a classic pitching matchup - Dizzy Dean versus Carl Hubbell. Meanwhile, the Cubs again defeated the Dodgers, 6-3. The Cubs were still in possession of first place. On July 4th, they had been in fourth place, 10-1/2 games back. The Giants were now in third place, 3-1/2 games back. As recently as August 24th, they had led the NL.

Hubbell was to finish the 1935 season at 23-12 with an ERA of 3.27. He allowed 314 hits in just over 302 innings and struck out 150 batters. It was his third straight 20-win season.

The Senators saw their winning streak come to a crashing halt as they dropped both ends of a doubleheader to the Indians. The Yankeees downed the Tigers, 8-7, at Yankee Stadium but still finished the day 8-1/2 games back.

American redstart, etc.

One bird that even bad birdwatchers like me are seeing in abundance this fall is the American Redstart. It's described by the Cornell Ornithology Lab as declining in a few areas but still abundant. Alexander Wilson painted the bird and Audubon also described it as abundant. Unfortunately, its abundance may be the result of characteristics which would not endear it to conservatives - who are now much enamored of (serially) monogamous penguins. As Cornell reports:

The male American Redstart occasionally is polygynous, having two mates at the same time. Unlike many other polygynous species of birds that have two females nesting in the same territory, the redstart holds two separate territories up to 500 m (1,640 ft) apart. The male starts to attract a second female after the first has completed her clutch and is incubating the eggs.

Polygynous but prudent. Audubon classified the bird as a flycatcher rather than a warbler. Here's bit of what he had to say about this abundant warbler:

This is one of the most lively, as well as one of the handsomest, of our Flycatchers, and ornaments our woods during spring and summer, when it cannot fail to attract the attention of any person who may visit the interior of the shady forests. It is to be met with over the whole of the United States, where it arrives, according to the different localities, between the beginning of March and the 1st of May. It takes its departure, on its way southward, late in September, and in the beginning of October. It keeps in perpetual motion, hunting along the branches sidewise, jumping to either side in search of insects and larvae, opening its beautiful tail at every movement which it makes, then closing it, and flirting it from side to side, just allowing the transparent beauty of the feathers to be seen for a moment. The wings are observed gently drooping during these motions, and its pleasing notes, which resemble the sounds of tetee-whee, tetee-whee, are then emitted. Should it observe an insect on the wing, it immediately flies in pursuit of it, either mounts into the air in its wake, or comes towards the ground spirally and in many zig-zags. The insect secured, the lovely Redstart reascends, perches, and sings a different note, equally clear, and which may be expressed by the syllables wizz, wizz, wizz. While following insects on the wing, it keeps its bill constantly open, snapping as if it procured several of them on the same excursion. It is frequently observed balancing itself in the air, opposite the extremity of a bunch of leaves, and darting into the midst of them after the insects there concealed.

Another frequent - and welcome - sighting this fall has been the monarch butterfly. Last year, numbers of this migrating insect plummeted. But this year, as measured at Cape May, New Jersey, monarch numbers have so far recovered to their highest point since 1997.

More Chrysostom

In the Orthodox calendar, today is the feast of the Repose of St. John Chrysostom. This feast commemorates the transfer of the saint's relics from the place where he died in exile to Constantinople. This was done at the urging of Saint Proclus - a follower of Chrysostom who became Patriarch of Constantinople in 434. Here is the story behind the feast:

The emperor, overwhelmed by Saint Proclus, gave his consent and made the order to transfer the relics of Saint John. But the people dispatched by him were by no means able to life up the holy relics -- not until that moment when the emperor realising his oversight that he had not sent the message to Saint John, humbly beseeching of him forgiveness for himself and for his mother Eudoxia. The message was read at the grave of Saint John and after this they easily lifted up the relics, carried them onto a ship and arrived at Constantinople. The reliquary coffin with the relics was placed in the Church of the holy Martyr Irene. The Patriarch opened the coffin: the body of Saint John had remained without decay. The emperor, having approached the coffin with tears, asked forgiveness. All day and night people did not leave the coffin. In the morning the reliquary coffin with its relics was brought to the Church of the Holy Apostles. The people cried out: "Receive back thy throne, father!" Then Patriarch Proclus and the clergy standing at the relics saw Saint John open his mouth and pronounce: "Peace be to all."

This site has the text of the "Eight Homilies Against the Jews" as well as a link to reactions regarding their posting.

More Equiano

Here's a website with additional commentary on the Equiano birth issue.

September 14, 1935

The Cubs grabbed the NL lead, downing the Dodgers in a slugfest at Wrigley, 18-14. Meanwhile the Cardinals let another extra innings game get away from them, losing 5-4 to the Giants in 11 innings. Paul Dean was to have started the game for St. Louis but was scratched owing to having suffered a "severe heart attack" at a boxing match. As Dean returned three days later to pitch for the Cardinals, his recuperative powers must have been extraordinary. In the bout at which Dean suffered his "heart attack", Tony Canzoneri defeated Joe Ghnouly in ten rounds to retain his world lightweight crown.

The Senators won their fifth straight, 5-1, over the Indians at Griffith Stadium. Bobo Newsom was on the hill for the Nats. The well-travelled Newsom apparently earned his nickname by calling his teammates "Bobo" - he moved so often he could not recall their names. According to one source:

Misfortune plagued Newsom. He once pitched nine no-hit innings only to lose 2-1 on a 10th-inning hit; he was suspended by his own manager for throwing a spitball; he had his kneecap broken by a line drive yet hobbled on to a complete-game victory. He showed great courage in the 1940 World Series. He had a 21-5 record that year and pitched three complete games for the Tigers in the seven-game Series. His father died suddenly after seeing him win the opener. Tearfully, Newsom dedicated his next start to his dad and won that as well. But his fortunes reversed in Game Seven, as he lost to the Reds, 2-1.

Meanwhile, the AL-leading Tigers downed the Yankees, 5-1 at Yankee Stadium. Gallant Yankee fans heaped abuse on Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg earning a rebuke from the New York American:

"The hooting and jeering which some of the fans turned loose against Hank wasn't much of a tribute to the sportsmanship of his home town."

Olaudah Equiano

A forthcoming book will cast doubt on the validity of Equiano's claim to have been born in Africa and experienced the Middle Passage - the notorious journey of enslaved Africans by ship to the Americas. Equiano's autobiography is one of the first, written in English, by an African (or person of African descent?). It was published in 1789. Now Vincent Carretta, who edited the Penguin edition of The Interesting Narrative, has uncovered a baptismal record record for Equiano which lists his place of birth as South Carolina. A discussion of Carretta's findings can be found here. The baptismal record itself can be examined here.

September 13, 1935

Friday the 13th. The Cardinals, trailing the Giants by four runs, tied the game in the bottom of the ninth. But Dizzy Dean, coming on in relief, is touched for three runs in the tenth and the Cards lose, 13-10. With the Cubs downing the Dodgers, 4-1, at Wrigley, the NL race is tied.

The Senators beat the Indians, 5-3, at Griffith Stadium. It was their fourth consecutive win. Bump Hadley was on the hill for the Nats.

Hadley later pitched for the Yankees and on May 25, 1937 savagely beaned Mickey Cochrane. Cochrane's skull was fractured in three places and the pitch ended Cochrane's playing career. Cochrane had been a beloved figure in baseball. As one source states:

Cochrane wasn't just a great baseball player, though. He was a hero and role model to millions of people during the Great Depression of the 1930s when as player-manager of the Detroit Tigers he led the downtrodden Tigers to their first pennant in 25 years. The combination of Cochrane's fierce competitiveness on the field and his likable personality off the field, mixed with his successful rise from humble beginnings, helped Americans take their minds off the widespread unemployment during the Great Depression and encouraged them that they too could weather the economic times. Many parents named their children after Cochrane, including one Oklahoma family named Mantle.

St. John Chrysostom

Today is the feast of St. John Chrysostom. (In the Catholic calendar - the Orthodox celebrate his feast on November 13th). He was patriarch of Constantinople and a constant thorn in the side of the powerful. As a website dedicated to the saint puts it:

[H]e also made enemies by his denunciations of the vices and follies of the clergy and aristocracy. He emptied the Episcopal palace of its costly plate and furniture and sold it for the benefit of the poor and the hospitals. He introduced his strict ascetic habits and reduced the luxurious household of his predecessors to the strictest simplicity. He devoted his large income to benevolence. He refused invitations to banquets, gave no dinner parties, and ate the simplest fare in his solitary chamber. He denounced unsparingly luxurious habits in eating and dressing, and enjoined upon the rich the duty of almsgiving to an extent that tended to increase rather than diminish the number of beggars who swarmed in the streets and around the churches and public baths. He disciplined the vicious clergy and opposed the perilous and immoral habit of unmarried priests of living under the same roof with "spiritual sisters." This habit dated from an earlier age, and was a reaction against celibacy. Cyprian had raised his protest against it, and the Council of Nicea forbade unmarried priests to live with any females except close relations.

Because of his constant tendency to denounce the powerful, particularly the Empress, he was exiled from Constantinople and died on his journey out of the city.

Unfortunately, Chrysostom's zeal was not confined to defense of the poor. He is the author of the infamous Orations Against the Judaizers. Here is a page which explores the issue of whether Chrysostom was anti-semitic - from a viewpoint sympathetic to the saint.

September 12, 1935

In baseball news, the Cardinals and the Cubs both won, leaving the Cardinals one game ahead in the NL pennant race. The Cubs stomped the Dodgers, 13-3 at Wrigley. The Cards were winners, 5-2, over the Giants at Sportsman's Park. The Senators shut out the Indians, 3-0, behind staff ace Earl Whitehill. The victory raised their record to 59-76. It was the third straight win for the Nats. The Tigers remained atop the AL by a comfortable margin, downing the Yankees, 8-5. Their loss left the Yankees with a 78-55 record, eight and a half games off the pace.

In world news, the U.S. issued a statement which included the following language:

"On September 3, having discovered that an American corporation was a party to a newly granted commercial concession the conclusion of which had added to the perplexities and difficulties confronting the governments and other agencies which are intent upon preservation of peace, the American Government took prompt steps toward removal of this obstacle to peaceful settlement. In connection with that matter, the Secretary of State said at his press conference: "The central point in the policy of this Government in regard to, the Italian and Ethiopian controversy is the preservation of peace-to which policy every country throughout the world is committed by one or more treaties-and we earnestly hope that no nations will, in any circumstances, be diverted from this supreme objective."

This was the oil concession referred to in my earlier post regarding September 9, 1935. What the U.S. had done was more fully revealed by the Time magazine report of September 16, 1935:

"In Addis Ababa last week, Ethiopian courtiers told correspondents that their Emperor was angrily rebuking U. S. Chargé d'Affaires Cornelius Engert inside the Royal Palace.

"The Emperor considers that Secretary of State Cordell Hull acted with gross misjudgment in persuading the Standard Vacuum Oil Company to cancel the Rickett concession," said the Emperor's spokesman, adding that His Majesty told Mr. Engert hotly: "We need the co-operation of somebody—instead of obstacles, OBSTACLES!"

Co-operation was what no Great Power would give Ethiopia last week except in words (see p. 18). The blatant announcement last fortnight that Haile Selassie had conceded subsoil rights in half his empire to British Promoter Francis Rickett and his mysterious backers (TIME, Sept. 9) was universally called by statesmen and financiers last week a "n----r trick." Anything but smart was this dusky African potentate's pathetic belief that President Roosevelt would defend Ethiopia against Italy as a result of the midnight signing of the Rickett concession. Equally footless was his loss of temper in accusing Secretary Hull of "gross misjudgment." This petulant error Chargé d'Affaires Engert erased by denying the assertions of the Emperor's own entourage that he expressed himself in violent terms. According to Diplomat Engert the Emperor merely voiced "regret" that Standard Oil is not to lead the U. S. Marines to the rescue."

The racist language of Time's report reveals what was perhaps one of the most important reasonas why Ethiopia received no real assistance from the U.S., Britain or France. None of these countries wanted Ethiopia to be an example of successful resistance to European aggression by an independent African state - ruled by Africans. Remember, France and Britain were both major imperial powers in Africa in 1935.

September 9, 1935

In baseball news: "With the Cardinals' Phil Collins losing to Curt Davis and the Phils, 4–3, the Cubs win their 5th and 6th straight games. Chicago tops the Braves, 5–1 and 2–1, behind the pitching of Larry French and Tex Carleton, cutting the Cardinal lead to a single game."

The Senators lost to the Tigers, 5-4. This dropped their record to 56-76 - sixth place in the AL.

Clyde Herring, the governor of Iowa, was on the cover of Time magazine. Here was the magazine's version of the baseball pennant race:

"Baseball superstition says that the team which is leading each major league on July 4 will win the pennant. Last July 4, the New York Giants were nine games ahead in the National League, the New York Yankees one game ahead in the American League. More logical is the belief that the teams which lead the leagues on Labor Day will finish first. On Labor Day last week, the Detroit Tigers were nine full games ahead of the Yankees and seemed destined to win the American League pennant more easily this year than last. In the National League, the Champion St. Louis Cardinals were clinging to first place by two games, with the Giants and Chicago Cubs bunched close behind and the Pittsburgh Pirates within striking distance. "

The chief international story was the ongoing crisis in Italo-Ethiopian relations:

"If the prestige of the League of Nations is to be saved by restraining Benito Mussolini, obviously France and Britain must do the hog-tying. In Paris swart, astute Premier Pierre Laval picked the strongest possible delegation of pro-League French statesmen to go with him this week to Geneva. Portly, pipe-sucking Edouard Herriot and fluffy-maned, impassioned Joseph Paul-Boncour, both onetime Premiers, are the two big League guns, but they are flanked by pontifical old Henry Berenger, Chairman of the French Senate Foreign Affairs Committee and kinetic Deputy Paul Bastid, the Chamber's Foreign Affairs Chairman. Though French public opinion remained friendly to Italy last week it also remained pacifist and continued to regard the League as a vital strut in the structure of Security—in France a word more magic than Peace. "

The Emperor had recently signed a deal granting an oil concession to British interests. The French were non-plussed by this act which was apparently designed to win British and American support for Ethiopia. The French, by contrast, were willing to hand Ethiopia over to Mussolini:

"The [French] Premier promised Benito Mussolini a "free hand" as to Ethiopia when they last met in Rome (TIME, Jan. 14, 21). Ever since, M. Laval has hoped that it might be possible to pass off a Fascist conquest of Ethiopia at Geneva by giving it some other name than "war." It might, for example, be called a "colonial expedition." Early last week M. Laval suggested the advantages of this name to Sir George Clerk, but the British Ambassador reacted by freezing up. Without exactly saying so, Sir George intimated that the French may be the sort of people who would keep the League going and save Europe from unpleasant complications by letting Il Duce have his war under some sweeter name, but that His Majesty's Government are not that sort of people. Few days later, when the odor of oil arose, it was like attar of roses in the black nostrils of peasant-born Pierre Laval."

Finally, this interesting item from Time on the quarrel between Mexican artists Diego Rivera and David Siqueiros:

"Artists in the U. S. will, if necessary, argue all through the night about their work, but they seldom resort to gunfire. In Mexico, art is taken much more seriously. Last week a sober crowd of black-coated schoolteachers filled the auditorium of the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City for a conference on Progressive Education. On the platform Painter David Alfaro Siquieros, one of the founders of the famed Revolutionary Syndicate of Technical Workers, Painters & Sculptors (now defunct) that first brought Mexican mural painting to the world's attention, was expounding his theories. Up from a rear row seat suddenly sprang the best-known member of that syndicate, Diego Rivera, who yanked a revolver from his hip pocket, pointed it straight at his old companion-in-paint.

Before Artist Rivera could pull the trigger, bystanders intervened. But honor had been impugned and a duel was in order. Half an hour's furious talk on the part of the authorities convinced both principals that the duel should be one of words, to be held in the same place the following night.
Fighting point between the two muralists was the charge that neither was sufficiently Communist. A hearty laugh was this to thoroughgoing Reds, who have disowned Rivera and Siquieros time & again. Possibly the proletariat never had a more talented group of advocates than the members of the old Mexican syndicate. Besides Rivera and Siquieros it included Jose Clemente Orozco, Xavier Guerrero, Carlos Merida, Jean Chariot. All were real artists, sturdy individualists. All have made international reputations and a certain amount of money. With growing fame all have developed an unintelligent but thoroughly natural jealousy of each other. Because Muralist Siquieros was the author of the famed manifesto which launched the Revolutionary Syndicate, and because Muralist Rivera has gained the greatest publicity, feeling between these two has been particularly bitter."

Depression era photos

The other side of 1935 and depression era life can be seen in these photos taken by Farm Security Administration photographers beginning in 1935. Color photos from this collection are currently on display at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Roberta reviewed

I know you're waiting for it. Here's the Time magazine review of Roberta:

Roberta (RKO). Dressed up with Jerome Kern songs, Alice Duer Miller's little anecdote about the U. S. football hero who, on a visit to Paris, inherits his aunt's dressmaking establishment and marries a Russian princess, was one of the hit shows of the 1933-34 theatrical season in Manhattan. Now, further decorated
and enlarged to suit the tastes of cinemaddicts, it has become a thoroughly enjoyable musicomedy of the smart rather than the spectacular type, which can be recommended to students of singing, dancing and next season's female fashions. The screen version of Roberta contains two new Kern songs—"I Won't Dance" and "Lovely to Look At"—in addition to "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and three others held over from the stage version. Roberta, a kindly, domineering, elderly cosmopolite, is Helen Westley. Her assistant, the Russian princess whose chief
function is to put her to sleep with sentimental lullabies
every afternoon, is Irene Dunne. Her unsophisticated nephew is Randolph Scott. These items, in addition to a series of handsome modernistic interiors and a fashion show which is likely to have a helpful influence on this summer's trends in dressmaking,
can be listed among the advantages of the picture. But the most
pleasant moments in Roberta arrive when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers turn the story upside down and dance on it. On the three occasions when they allow their feet to speak for them, their sleek and nimble scufflings lift Roberta out of the class of ordinary entertainment, make it an intermittent masterpiece.
The picture establishes Fred Astaire more firmly than ever as the No. 1 hoofer of the cinema and proves what The Gay Divorcee suggested: that Ginger Rogers is a wholly acceptable partner.

It appeared in the March 18, 1935 issue of the magazine.

Premier Wang" (presumably of China) appeared on the cover. According to the story:

"A keen little Japanese general, trim if tubby, bustled about Hongkong last week, the confident swish of his great-coat followed by hate-glinting Chinese eyes. "

The story, which deals with Japan's efforts to annex parts of China, continues:

Nanking has an ornate and splendid new "White House," but President Lin modestly resides in a rented house. The White House, he seems to feel, should be occupied by the Nanking Government's real boss, Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. But the
Generalissimo's pose is precisely that he is not President. Last week the Chinese Communist armies, which the Government reports "almost exterminated" every few months, were again giving Generalissimo Chiang so much trouble that he placed himself at the head of forces rushing to avenge the murder of an Australian missionary. Left in command at Nanking was the versatile and brilliant Premier of China, Mr. Wang Ching-wei. Today he is carrying the awful onus of secret negotiations with Japan, fateful to China's whole future—the future of the most populous nation in the world.

Though the Heavens May Fall

I've just finished reading Though the Heavens May Fall. The book tells the story of the 1772 Somerset decision which found that slaves brought by their masters to England were free there - as British law did not recognize slavery. Because there were about 15,000 enslaved Africans in Britain at the time of the decision, its effects were significant. Moreover, by recognizing the principle that English common law disfavored slavery, - and describing slavery as "odious" - the decision struck a moral blow in favor of the institution's abolition. The book's title is derived from the maxim: fiat justicia, ruat coelum - let justice be done, though the heavens may fall.

The decision itself was delivered orally and its essence is only a paragraph in length. It is worth quoting:

The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only positive law, which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasion, and time itself from which it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from a decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England, and therefore the black must be discharged.

Of course, as there were no official court reporters at the time, the author notes that this is only one of several versions of the decision which survive.

The book opens windows on the legal process in eighteenth century England and the lives of two fascinating men: Lord Mansfield, the judge who decided the case and Granville Sharp, the abolitionist crusader who sponsored the legal challenge. We might have learned more about James Somerset, the man whose petition for habeas corpus, filed as he was being dragged to the sugar cane/killing fields of the West Indies, was the subject of the decision. Nonetheless, the book - although poorly edited - is well worth a read. Additional information about the black presence in Britain is available here. And another recently published book advances the theory that the Somerset decision was an important cause of the American Revolution.

September 8, 1935

Huey Long was assassinated on this date. What would Huey think of his beloved Louisiana today? His assassin, Carl Weiss, was killed by Long's bodyguards. According to one account, Weiss' body had sixty one bullet wounds.

In baseball news: The Cards fail to increase their lead as they split with the Phils. In the opener, Dizzy Dean wins his 25th game, but the Birds lose 4–2 in the night cap when they strand 16 runners. St. Louis outhits the Phils 13 to 4. Rain washes out the Cubs game at Wrigley.

The Brooklyn Dodgers swept a twin bill from the Reds at Crosley Field. They were 60-71 after the day's games - in fifth place in the NL.

The Senators downed the league leading Tigers, 4-3. Bump Hadley started for the Nats. After the win, they were 56-75, 29 1/2 games back of the Tigers.

Today is the feast of the Nativity of Mary.

Top Hat

Top Hat was released seventy years ago this week. Here is the review which appeared in Time magazine:

Top Hat (RKO). When Hollywood revived musical films three years ago, dancing was monopolized by Director Busby Berkely and his imitators. The height of their inventions was reached in Footlight Parade, which showed a chorus massed to represent the U. S. flag. When Dancer Fred Astaire first appeared in Hollywood, he was deemed too lacking in acting ability and sex appeal to do more than a momentary turn in Dancing Lady, for which Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer borrowed him from RKO. That bit made Astaire one of the five biggest box-office names in the
industry. Teamed with Ginger Rogers—an almost equally capable comedienne who had been overlooked for years for the same reasons—he has since made an estimated $10,000,000 for the company which had at first been happy to lend him to its
competitors. Finally, thanks more to Fred Astaire than any other single influence, the character of musicomedy in the cinema has now completely changed.

In Top Hat, Dancer Astaire obligingly continues to offer cinemaddicts an inventory of the proficiencies which made him a stage star for ten years before civilized dancing reached the cinema. The picture contains a dance on a sanded rug, designed as a lullaby for the lady (Ginger Rogers) who lives on the floor
below and who has gone upstairs to complain about the tap-dance that preceded it; an elaborate routine with male chorus, copied from one Astaire did in Smiles in 1930; a pretentious "Piccolino," which may or may not turn out to be the "Continental" of 1935-36. Possibly more ingratiating than any of these is an informal scene reminiscent of their best, in Roberta, showing Rogers & Astaire caught in a thunderstorm, arguing with each other by dancing.

The music which accompanies these exercises, all by Irving Berlin, contains such likely hits as Top Hat, White Tie and Tails; Cheek to Cheek and Isn't This a Lovely Day. The story shows Astaire as the U. S. star of a London revue trying hard to further a romance which begins when he keeps Miss Rogers awake and which is impeded only by her stubborn and illogical belief that he is her best friend's husband. Otherwise pleasantly negligible, the narrative has at least the merit of giving a cast of skilled comedians (Edward Everett Horton, Helen Broderick, Erik Rhodes and Eric Blore) a chance to be amusing when Astaire &
Rogers are out of breath.

September 2, 1935

Sadly, and perhaps ironically, this was the date of the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 which killed over 400 people. It was the strongest hurricane until Gilbert in 1988. Even this toll, unfortunately, pales next to the destruction wrought by Katrina.

In happier news, Hank Snow, a country music singer, married on this date. Snow was known as the Singing Ranger.

In baseball news: The first-place Cards open a 30-game home stand by sweeping a Labor Day doubleheader from the Pirates. Paul Dean wins his 16th game, 4–3 in the opener, then Dizzy cops his 23rd in the nitecap, 4–1. The Cards are two games up on the rained-out Giants.

With the Cubs splitting two with the 7th-place Reds at Wrigley, Chicago is just two 1/2 in back of the Cards. Chicago wins 3-1 in the opener as Lon Warneke tops Tony Freitas, then lose 4–2 to Gene Schott. Bill Lee takes the loss.

Veteran P Dick Coffman (5-11) and Browns manager Hornsby get into a shoving match shortly after their train leaves St. Louis for a road trip. Coffman is cut from the team and put off the train at Edwardsville, IL, and will not play again this year.

The Senators split a doubleheader with the Red Sox at Fenway. Earl Whitehill started game 2 for the Senators. He was the staff ace, finishing the year with a 14-13 record and a 4.29 ERA.

Donald Budge was featured on the cover of the Time magazine published today. The magazine featured a story on the collapse of the "Ethiopia Parley", the presidential prospects of New Hampshire Governor John Gilbert Winant and a new Cecil DeMille film on the Crusades.

Inside the Vatican

I've just finished reading Inside the Vatican of Pius XII, a memoir of Charles Tittman who was U.S. charge d'affaires to the Holy See and lived in the Vatican from the entry of the U.S. in World War II until June 1944.

It's an interesting read - a combination of Tittman's memoir with notes by his son - who was a teenager at the time. The book focuses on three themes: 1) efforts by the Allies to persuade Pius to denounce Nazi atrocities, including the Holocaust; 2) the efforts of Pius to prevent Allied bombing of Rome, and 3) Vatican views of the Soviet Union and the U.S. alliance with Stalin.

On the first issue, Tittmann notes that Allied efforts eventually produced a statement from the Pope referring to "the hundreds of thousands who, through no fault of their own, and solely because of their nation or race, have been condemned to death or progressive wasting away."

Tittmann is clearly sympathetic to Pius on this issue. He states that "[t]here were absolutely no signs that the Pope was pro-Fascist or pro-Nazi. In fact, the opposite seemed more the case." And in September 1942, Tittmann prepared a memorandum summarizing the reasons for the Vatican's reluctance to condemn Nazi atrocities. Among these were that the Pope would also have to condemn "Russian cruelties" if he denounced Nazi atrocities and that the Vatican lacked the resources to assemble "supporting evidence of reported violations in order to justify condemnatory action . . .."

Tittmann also comments that "[w]hen members of the hierarchy speak out on violations, as they have done in Germany and other countries, it should be realized that it is the voice of the Pope speaking and that this should be sufficient." Although many bishops did courageously speak out, others provided explicit or implicit support for the Nazis or collaborator regimes. Did the latter group also speak for the Pope?

Tittmann also notes that the "Holy See is firmly convinced that any public statement by the Pope condemning Nazi atrocities in Nazi-occupied Europe, far from doing any good, would greatly worsen the already precarious situation of Catholics obliged to reside in those areas."

On the issue of the Soviet Union, Tittmann notes that an encyclical of Pope Pius XI - Divini Redemptoris - had unequivocally barred Catholics from any cooperation with communism. "Communism is intrinsically wrong, and no one who would save Christian Civilization may collaborate with it in any undertaking whatsoever."

This position posed problems for Roosevelt's efforts to win support to extend Lend-Lease aid to Russia after the Nazi invasion in June 1941. In a letter to Pius XII, seeking his support on this issue, Roosevelt stated that "[i]nsofar as I am informed, churches in Russia are open." Although the Vatican failed to accept this evident whitewash of Stalin's record on religious freedom, it did assist Roosevelt by arranging for Archbishop McNicholas of Cincinnati to issue a pastoral letter "interpreting the Encyclical . . . as desired by President Roosevelt."

Roosevelt's statements regarding religious freedom in Russia are consistent with the type of propaganda used to marshall support for the alliance with Stalin. The film Mission to Mosocow - based on the experiences of former Amabassador Joseph Davies - featured a script which:

"wrote that the Soviet invasion of Finland and Poland after the 1939 Nonaggression pact was only "self-defense", blamed the purge trials on traitors and Trotskyite 5th columnists, ignored the ideological differences between Stalin and Trotsky, and romanticized Russian leaders and the happy Russian people learning as modern consumers in contrast to the regimented Germans . . .."

The book by Davies, published in 1941, is widely available through used bookstores and makes for interesting reading today. The film, first screened by Roosevelt in the White House, was so popular that it led Benny Goodman to issue a song with the same title.

I Won't Dance

Just for fun.

GINGER:
Think of what you're losing
By constantly refusing
To dance with me.
You'd be the idol of France with me.
And yet you stand there and shake your foolish head rheumatically
While I wait here so ecstatically.
You just look and say emphatically:

FRED:
Not this season. There's a reason.
I won't dance.
Don't ask me.I won't dance.
Don't ask me.
I won't dance, Madame, with you.
My heart won't let my feet do things they should do.
You know what? You're lovely.

GINGER:
So what? I'm lovely...

FRED:
But oh, what you do to me.
I'm like an ocean wave that's bumped on the shore.
I feel so absolutely stumped on the floor.

GINGER:
Ah, but when you dance you're charming and you're gentle.
Especially when you do The Continental.

FRED:
But this feeling isn't purely mental.
For heaven rest us
I'm not asbestos.
And that's why...
I won't dance.
Why should I?
I won't dance.
How could I?
I won't dance, merci beaucoup.
I know that music leads the way to romance.
And if I hold you in my arms... I won't dance.