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
One more signing for folks in the Philly area, this time at the wonderful new horror/mystery bookshop Thrillerdelphia! It’s restaurant week here in Manayunk and I’m going to be chatting to a local chef about life and death in fictional kitchens. If you’re local, come say hi!
Things I Like
The Quakertown Five! Last month in Quakertown, a Philly suburb, a group of high schoolers walked out of school to protest ICE. While they were doing so, a local man who just happens to be the chief of police AND the borough manager charged into the crowd, knocked one teen to the ground and put another in a choke hold. He wasn't wearing anything to identify himself as a cop; the uniformed officers did nothing to stop him. For trying to stop him from beating up their friends, five of the teens are now facing assault charges that could land them in detention for up to five years. I donated to their legal defense fund and you should too!
Thinking About Heated Rivalry! And this New York mag article about boylove and slash fiction is the best thing I’ve read on it.
Buying Shows I Like! When most of the new Doctor Who—some of which is twenty years old now, so not exactly new—was abruptly taken off Disney+, I impulse bought this weirdly cheap DVD box set that contains all of the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth doctors for just $40—ten bucks per doctor! When I got sick of the low quality widescreen transfer of classic Simpsons on, again, Disney+, I bought the DVDs of seasons 1-10 on eBay. There’s something comforting about knowing that I control my access to the shows I love.
Today brings a baby who’s lost—or is he?!!—and a shootout in Mingo County. Leave your kid in a go-cart on…
August 29, 1921
Three prisoners in Sing Sing are placed in solitary confinement after accusations that they have stolen blank checks belonging to the prison and used them to steal several thousand dollars.
The annual summer masquerade ball at Allenhurst, N.J., is disrupted when Cecil Adrian Arthur dies as the result of a blow and a fall “sustained early Saturday morning in an altercation with a Cuban accused of having attempted to molest Arthur’s partner at a dance.”
A dispatch from Aydin, in Turkey, describes the city as “a vast sepulchre,” as the thousands of Armenian civilians slaughtered by the Turkish army lie buried in unmarked mass graves.
The Weather: Partly cloudy today and Tuesday; not much change in temperature; moderate southwest winds.
Which is the more embarrassing parenting failure here? Leaving your toddler alone on the sidewalk or failing to look for him in all the bedrooms before you declare him kidnapped?
While police of the East Thirty-fifth Street station were searching last night for Frank Carabba, 3 years old, of 343 East Thirty-first Street, on the presumption that he had been kidnapped, the child was found by his parents asleep in one of the bedrooms at home.
Late in the afternoon the child was left in his go-cart in front of the house, and fell asleep there. A neighbor carried the sleeping boy upstairs and laid him on a bed in the Carabba apartment. The neighbor then went to the kitchen and spent half an hour chatting with Mr. and Mrs. Carabba, but said nothing about putting their baby to bed. After she had gone Mrs. Carabba went to the street and found the go-cart empty. She thought the child had been kidnapped and notified the police. Two hours later the parents reported the boy had been found.
Another dispatch from the warm-up to the Battle of Blair Mountain. Once again the authorities have declared the situation under control. I’m thinking the worst is yet to come.
CHARLESTON W. Va., Aug. 28.—The flames of warfare in Logan County, fanned by the march of armed miners last week, flared up today near Sharples, a little mining town across the Logan County line from Boone. As a result five miners are believed to be dead and others are reported to be wounded in a clash with a detachment of State police.
Three deputy sheriffs and a Justice of the Peace of Logan were captured by a group of inflamed miners. Other coal diggers from Blair, Madison, Danville and other places are mobilizing in preparation for an extended offensive on the Boone-Logan line.
These details were included in reports to Governor E.F. Morgan, who said that the situation arising today was “very serious.”
John H. Charnock, new Adjutant General of the West Virginia National Guard, and three officials of District Seventeen, United Mine Workers, left Charleston late today post-haste for Sharples to make overtures to the miners in an effort to avoid further shooting. They are being taken to the scene by a special train over the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad and at 11 o’clock tonight they were reported to be near Danville.
Anxiety at Governor’s Office
Colonel I.W. Leonard, staff officer stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, has been sent here by General George W. Read, command of the Fifth Corps Area, for indefinite duty in this State. Colonel Leonard conferred with General Morgan on his arrival.
The Governor’s office was unable definitely to determine the number of miners fatally wounded, although semi-official information said “at least five were killed.” The battle took place when a patrol of State police, sent from the Mingo County zone, and headed by Captain J.R. Brockus, came upon a part of armed men and shots were exchanged, following the refusal of the miners to heed a command to lay down their arms and surrender.
At midnight anxiety over the situation was felt at the executive State offices. Further reports were not available and it was feared that State policemen had been ambushed.
Deputies and Police Attacked
STATE POLICE HEADQUARTERS, ETHEL, W. Va., Aug. 28.—Five men fell in an encounter early this morning between an armed band, supposedly part of the army of miners which started last week to march on Mingo County, and State troopers on Beach Creek, Logan County, near the Boone-Logan county line, Captain J.R. Brockus, commanding the State police, and deputy sheriffs reported this afternoon. There was much shooting on both sides, he said. Whether all the men who fell were killed, Captain Brockus was unable to state.
He added that after his men had seen those who had fallen picked up and carried away by their companions the State troopers and deputies retired because some of their number were in civilian clothes and it was difficult to distinguish them in the darkness from the men comprising the armed band. The clash was at close range, according to Captain Brockus’s report, the men firing at each other when eight to ten feet apart.
Prior to the fight, Captain Brockus said, eleven prisoners had been taken by the patrolling party which set out from Logan yesterday, ostensibly toward Blair and Sharples. Four of the prisoners escaped during the engagement, it was said, and one of them is believed to have been killed.
Captain Brockus was at the head of the advance guard of troopers and deputies. It was this detachment, comprising twelve men, that engaged the armed band. The patrol while proceeding toward Sharples, Captain Brockus reported, ran across five men on foot. All were armed with rifles and one had a shotgun.
“We called on these men to disarm, which they did,” the Captain continued. “We placed them under arrest and proceeded down the road. Further on we met two automobiles and placed six additional men under arrest.
Volley Follows Call to Disarm
“With the eleven prisoners we marched on toward Sharples and came upon another squad of five armed men. Some one called to us that we would not be allowed to pass. We called upon them to surrender their arms, but received in reply a volley of shots.
“Our men returned the fire and in the fight five men fell to the ground. We waited until we saw that they were picked up and carried away, and then decided to discontinue the advance for the present. It was very dark and some of our deputies were in civilian clothes, hampering our distinguishing them.”
Captain Brockus could not definitely state whether the five men were killed, but said that “probably four” were killed. He talked with a man who came from Sharples after the battle had taken place and this man said that “some miners were killed,” but was unable to tell whether all five had been fatally wounded.
Feared Walking Into Trap
Captain Brockus said that later reports from Sharples indicated that the State police had “played in luck” in stopping when they did.
“We learned from Sharples that there were between 1,500 and 2,000 armed miners waiting for us to walk into a trap,” Captain Brockus said, “and if we had advanced it seems assured a very serious situation would have developed.”
All along the way, the State police officer explained, “pot shots” were being taken at the police from men hidden in houses and in ambush.
Sharples is fifteen miles from Madison, the county seat of Boone County, where President Keeney of the United Mine Workers on Friday turned back some of the miners who were marching from Marmet to Mingo County. It contains about 1,000 people and is only a short distance from Blair. The miners in this station are organized.
Several weeks ago a detail of State police and deputy sheriffs were sent from Logan to establish a post of the police in that section. When they neared Sharples they were met by a body of armed men and, according to reports sent out from Logan, were disarmed and ordered out of the country.
Those who would discuss today’s engagement said they regarded the fighting as “purely local.” They added that they believed the march movement to Mingo County had been successfully checked last week through the intervention of Federal authorities and mine workers’ officials.
