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.

To Kill a Cook

Looking for something fun to do the first week of February? Are you located in or around New York, Nashville, Houston, or Philadelphia? Then hot damn, I’ve got something fun planned for you!

That’s my book tour for To Kill a Cook, and goddamn is it gonna be a good time. Save the date and preorder now.

Things I Like

1. Drexel! Last month I started a two year low residency creative writing MFA at Drexel and so far it’s been a heck of a lot of fun. We had a five day residency at the campus in West Philly a week and a half ago and it was a joy to meet everyone whose work I’ve been reading, learn where they’re coming from, and spend many, many hours talking story. I like Drexel’s commitment to practicality, both in terms of storytelling and the business of writing, and because it’s low residency the price ain’t bad. If you’re considering an MFA, check it out. It’s a great way to learn about things like…

2. It’s Me They Follow! This absolutely beautiful book by Philly bookseller Jeannine A. Cook. One of the first graduates of the Drexel MFA, she came by the residency to talk about her new novel, her experience in the program, and her experience selling books in Fishtown. I’m just a couple chapters in but so far it’s lovely.

3. Lingopie! As part of an ongoing project to elevate my French from atrocious to simply lousy, I’ve started watching French TV through Lingopie, a language learning streaming service that I get free through the Philly library. Been watching a lot of goofy stuff. If your library gives you access, it’s worth a look! They’ve got other languages besides French.

And speaking of the French, today we’ve got a Paris outbreak of love madness, two snake attacks, and an accused white slaver. Jump in a tree on…

August 20, 1921

• The Joint Army and Navy Board reports that recent bombing tests prove the airplane has not made the battleship obsolete—although they do recommend maximum air defense and the construction of aircraft carriers.

• A group of American ocean liner passengers, including the Harvard glee club, protest “being treated like immigrants” when their second class ticket requires them to be vaccinated against tuberculosis upon entering returning to the United States.

• Thirty-one cigar stores have been robbed this year, striking terror into employees and causing their insurance companies to raise rates.

• In Knoxville, twenty-seven whites are wounded when trying to storm a jail in order to lynch a Black man accused of assaulting a local school teacher.

• Seeking clues to the “’good killers’ death syndicate,” Newark police fingerprint a dead man.

• The Weather: Increasing cloudiness and showers today; Sunday cloudy and cooler; fresh southwest winds.

I love the kinds of nonsense you could just print in the newspaper back in 1921. Today this kind of insane, unsupported, racist claptrap would have to go in the Atlantic.

PARIS, Aug. 19.—Crimes due to so-called love madness have always been frequent here, Latins being often violent in their love affairs, but the French themselves are amazed at the present epidemic, several being reported daily.

Yesterday a young Spaniard, aged 18, who loved a pretty French stenographer but who had been refused permission to marry her by the girl’s father, visited the hospital where she was ill. Admittance was refused, whereupon the Spaniard broke into the ward and stabbed the girl twice in the neck before the attendants could intervene. She is expected to recover.

Juries here are proverbially lenient in cases of this kind, but public opinion is now becoming anxious and an agitation is afoot to revise the legislation in regard to the carrying of arms without a license and to impose a heavy punishment for violations.

This story is a two for one, as the editors decided to squeeze in an item about an unrelated snake bite after the story of the guy at the Zoo. Very rare that you see the word “treed” referring to a person.

James McArdle, a keeper in the Bronx Zoo, was cleaning out a reptile cage yesterday when a copperhead snake, three feet long, bit him on the index finger of his left hand. McArdle jerked his hand back, slammed the cage door and ran to the office of the Curator, Dr. Raymond L. Ditmars, who wrapped a rubber bandage around McArdle’s wrist, lanced the finger and sucked out as much of the poison as he could.

The copperhead is one of the most deadly snakes, and its poison fatal in a short time without immediate and skillful attention. Dr. W. Reid Blair was called and put antiseptic on the wound, then took McArdle to Fordham Hospital. Dr. Blair took with him a serum for snake bite made in South America, the Zoo being the only place in this country where it is kept. McArdle didn’t think much of the serum or other newfangled remedies, and asked for a big drink of whisky. He was told that unfortunately there was none in the hospital and that he would have to take the serum. McArdle, who is 52 years old, and lives at 2080 Walton Avenue, the Bronx, was reported apparently out of danger last night. The bite was the first accident of the kind in the Zoo in six years.

MONTICELLO, N.Y., Aug. 19.—Friends of H.E. Barnum of Bridgeville, near Monticello, were informed today that Barnum was attacked and treed by a rattlesnake which made a lunge at him, but only succeeded in puncturing one of his shoes.

Barnum was on his way to Denton Falls when the rattlesnake crossed his path, only a yard away. He leaped for a branch of a tree as the snake struck. It struck again, but Barnum had pulled himself up far enough to get out of range. With Barnum safe in the crotch of the tree and the snake on guard below, he shouted for help, and J.B. Dorman killed the reptile with a club.

I’ve been reading old-timey newspaper articles for many years now and I think this is the first time I’ve seen the Mann Act applied to combat actual human trafficking and not, say, a young couple driving across state lines to get married.

DENVER, Aug. 19.—Disclosure that innocent girls are being sold into bondage in this State and that the established cash value ranges from $35 to $45 and upward was made by Department of Justice officials here tonight, following the arrest of Robert Loomis at Pueblo for alleged violation of the Mann act.

Loomis, an employee of the Missouri Pacific, is married and has a one week old baby. Loomis’s arrest was caused by a statement made by Rachel Lee Morrow, 16 years old, in which she told of her alleged removal from Kansas to Texas and thence to Colorado for immoral purposes.

Luxurious gowns, expensive jewelry, unlimited gayeties and promises of early marriage are the inducements in trapping new victims, she told Government agents. “He promised to marry me if I would accompany him to Amarillo, Texas,” the girl said. “He told me he had two other girls besides me, one 14 years old and the other 12,” she added. “He said he had sold them both for immoral purposes. He told me he got $45 for the oldest girl and $35 for the other, and said it was an easy way for him to get some money.”

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