Founded in 2017, Strange Times is a twice-monthly newsletter that explores the weirdest news of 1921, one day at a time. To get free games and the original PDFs of every article that runs in Strange Times—plus stories that didn’t make the cut—back me on Patreon.

Things I Like

1. Bread and Water Printshop! Based in Pittsburgh, Rose is a screen printer who makes some of the prettiest, most comfortable shirts and hoodies available on this here internet. When her instagram was deactivated last week, her business took a hit, so I thought I’d give her a plug. Scroll through her shirts and you’ll probably spot one you want.

2. Ludwig! Amazon recently dumped a tranche of quality British mysteries on us, so my wife and I have been working through the likes of Harry Wild and Queens of Mystery. But the best of the bunch is Ludwig, which stars Peep Show’s David Mitchell as a puzzle designer who has to find out why his cop brother disappeared by, naturally, impersonating him.

3. Driving Without GPS! This isn’t advice for a road trip, okay—even I am not luddite enough to yearn for the return of the atlas in the glovebox—but for when you’re cruising around wherever you live. If you’ve been someplace more than a couple of times and you’re not in a hurry, forgo the screen and see if you can find your way there on your own. You’ll probably get a little lost. You’ll also learn a lot more about how your town does—or doesn’t—fit together.

Today we have a single story of a man condemned to a life inside of scare quotes. Give “Jack Brown” a break on…

August 10, 1921

• Total crop failure is reported across Russia’s grain belt, suggesting that the famine that has already killed millions will be even worse next year.

• An Eighth Avenue fruit vendor is arrested on charges of flag desecration for using a furled flag on a pole to support a crate of lemons outside his shop.

• Illinois governor Len Small is arrested on charges of embezzlement. (Small was eventually acquitted of the charges, although he raised suspicions of jury tampering when he gave eight of the jurors jobs on the state payroll. He won reelection in 1924 and was not removed from office until losing the famously violent 1928 “pineapple primary.”)

• The Weather: Fair today; Thursday, increasing cloudiness, probably local thunder showers afternoon or night.

A truly baffling story, deeply reported (for 1921) and yet totally lacking in evidence or resolution. There’s no real evidence that Jack Brown is a trans masc conman—he could well be a very confused cis dude!—but he’s burdened with scare quotes from the first sentence just because. Even so, it’s better than the way the Times handles trans stories in 2025.

Two years ago Mary Holdowanetz and “Jack Brown” got jobs in a Summer boarding house at Monticello, N.Y. Eight of Mary’s 22 years had been spent as a waitress in a Brooklyn restaurant, the remainder in the place of her birth, Stanislau, Galicia. “Jack Brown” was a farmhand, from Kingston, N.Y., and the two became engaged. Yesterday Mary cam e to the Harlem Court and asked Deputy Assistant District Attorney Alexander Lehman to issue a summons for Caroline Schimek of Kingston, who, she said, was “Jack Brown,” and had personated a man for two years. She said that “Jack Brown” looked like a man, talked like one and smoked occasionally, but, after two years of patient waiting, a letter from “Jack’s” parents in Kingston told all.

“Jack Brown” was found last night in the Monticello boarding house, and was told ofo Miss Holdawanetz’s statement. The answer was:

“My name is just Brown and I never heard the name of Carolyn Schimek before.”

“Jack” was serving dinner when the New York Times correspondent arrived. The erstwhile farmhand wore white apron, was beardless, and had a general manner fitted to the name of “Jack.”

“Then,” was the question, “you deny there is anything in the statement that you are not a young man and that your real name is Carolyn Schimek?”

“I certainly do,” was the reply. “I am from Tillary, N.C., and I came North three years ago and went to work here. I admit I asked Mary to marry me, but nothing came of it.”

Boarders who had spent several seasons at the Monticello House told of having seen Miss Holdowanetz and “Jack Brown” “keeping company.”

Girl Fails to Get Summons District Attorney Lehman told Miss Holdowanetz that the law could do nothing in the matter of issuing a summons for Miss Schimek. But, he added, if the girl came to this city a summons would be issued directing her to answer the charge of masquerading as a male for two years. Such an offense is a misdemeanor.

After her court appearance Mary was found working in the Oakland Lunch at 2139 Lexington Avenue, between 128th and 129th Street. Deep blue eyes, much brown hair that verges on auburn, pink cheeks, white teeth and a smile. That was Mary.

“Two years ago last May,” she said in English that did not suggest Galicia, “I got a job as waitress in a big boarding house in Monticello. There were four other girls waiting on table besides me. It was fine to be out in the country after working in the city so long.

“Pretty soon ‘Jake Brown’ was hired as a farm hand. He was hired to milk the cows and work in the garden and do all the work a farmer does. He was of medium height, slenderly built, but wiry and strong. He had dark brown hair and big brown eyes. He was awfully refined.

“The very first day he saw me he began to get attentive and asked me to go for a walk. He walked along the road in the moonlight and I liked him—he was so much of a gentleman and so refined. He wasn’t like other fellows I’d known. He talked so well.

“We became friends and he used to take me to the movies and to dances. No, he never paid any attention to the other waitresses; he seemed to like only me, and I never suspected he wasn’t a man.

“His beard? No, he didn’t have any, but he told me that he used a preparation that took the hair out by the roots. Jack looked just like any young fellow might; why should I have thought he wasn’t?

“I reminded him that we were engaged once and he said we’d have to wait for a while, as he was too young. Another time he said he was saving up the money to get married with, adding that he wasn’t ready to get ‘hooked up.’

“I came back to New York when the season was over and Jack used to write me letters. Oh, regular love letters, and he came down to see me four times. Yes, he wore trousers and he had an army overcoat, too. Jack told me that he had worked as a conductor during the war on the Delancey Street trolley. I guess nobody using that line ever suspected him any more than I did.

Went Back Second Time “I worked up at Monticello last Summer and we used to write letters to each other. I don’t remember how often, but quite a lot. The first Summer up there he gave me a plain gold signet ring with his initials on it. It was the engagement ring.

“Well, the letters from Jack began to get fewer, and there were funny things in them. I was tired of waiting, and three weeks ago I inquired of Jack’s folks, and they told me how it was.”

She learned, she added, that “Jack” or Carolyn was supporting a mother and six other children. But, continued Mary, the ridicule and embarrassment caused by her fiancé merited punishment. Hence the trip to Harlem Court.

In connection with the signet ring, Miss Holdowanetz displayed a letter which she said she had received from Carolyn’s brother, Erwin Schimek. It was as follows:

Kingston, N.Y., May 21, 1921.

Dear Mary: I am sorry to say what I have to. Will you please send me the ring with the name Schimek, because Carolyn took it away from my father and my father got it for a present from his best friend. Our address is R.F.D. 2, Box 8, Kingston, N.Y. Please send it. I am sorry. Your friend, EDWIN SCHIMEK.

P.S.—Hope this will reach you in the best of health. Best regards from us all to you. Answer, please.

Probably Mary would have told more of her “romance” across the marble-topped table, but the proprietor of the Oakland Lunch suggested that customers were waiting.