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.

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I’ve spent the last two weeks helping the publishers put the finishing touches on the book, and that plus persistently unhelpful little kid illnesses have made it impossible for me to do my fortnightly dive into the weirdness of the New York Times. As such, we’re dipping into my archives for stories from Strange Times “Classic 52”—the newsletter’s first year of issues, which are currently unavailable online. (I’m working on that—don’t fret.) This is a particularly good one, a meditation on femininity in 1921 that includes a list of immoral concepts that could basically serve as a guiding light for this entire newsletter. Brace yourself for actresses, amusements, and chop suey on… 

February 1, 1921

• Mrs. Warren G. Harding, wife of the President-elect, spent her first day in New York in her hotel suite, resting, refusing visitors and inspecting fourteen dinner gowns.

• The New York state legislature introduces a bill to punish baseball bribery with a $10,000 fine or five year jail term. T

• he Michigan state senate passes a bill penalizing highway robbery with forty lashes on the bare back, twenty years in prison and a fine of $500.

• The Weather: Fair and continued cold today; Wednesday cloudy; fresh north winds.

Two women veterans of the psalm-singing legion of John Alexander Dowie who, under the self-assumed title of Elijah III., tried to Zionize New York in 1903, are back in the city do more missionary work under the "Blue Law" program of the cult.

Whether their mission to this city presaged another attempt of the organization at Zion City, Ill., to "save" New York from its iniquities, neither of the missionaries was able to say yesterday. They said that their orders from Wilbur Glenn Voliva, who succeeded Dowie as overseer of the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church, were to begin the distribution of literature in this city and keep up the work for about six months or until next July 10.

"I haven't been able to see yet that New York is any more wicked than Chicago, New Orleans, or any one of thirty other cities we have worked in, said Belle Schelhorn, one of the missionaries. "There are bad folks everywhere. We haven't noticed any more wickedness here in proportion to the size of the city than in others, and people have—"

"But the way the women dress on the streets," interrupted Miss Helen Buhmann, the white-haired companion of Miss Schelhorn. "Gracious, if they were in Zion, Overseer would slap their faces."

"Yes, terrible, terrible," acquiesced Miss Schelhorn, who, at 50 years of age, has seen more than one generation of iniquities during her campaigning for the church at Zion City.

"Their high-heeled shoes and their cobweb stockings are—but they have been very nice to us here. We love New York already, but all of us must prepare for the second coming of the Lord. There is every sign that He is coming. The Jews are going back to Palestine. We must read the Word and prepare for the Day."

"And this is how and why they came to New York, as far as they know. For the last ten years the two missionaries have been traveling from city to city in the Middle West, selling the literature of their religious organization. They have been as far West as Cheyenne, Wyo.; to Galveston, Texas; New Orleans, Winnipeg, Canada, and many other cities. The hard work of these campaigns weeded out all the other missionaries, and only these two remained.

Then last week Overseer Voliva called them and told them to get ready to start propaganda work in New York. Without any announcement, the two campaigners arrived in the city on Friday morning and immediately became lost in the mazes of the city they had come to help save. They were to have gone to a hotel in the Thirties, but instead they started out from Grand Central Terminal to find a rooming house, and they set up their headquarters at 148 East Forty-fifth Street, over the beauty parlors of Mme. Lydia, which wouldn't be so unusual if "cosmetics" didn't come very near the top of the alphabetical list of things banned by Overseer Voliva, successor to Elijah III.

"Where is Wall Street?" asked Miss Schelhorn. "That's where we want to start. No, not because we think there are more wicked people there than any other places, but because we thought we would find more buyers there for our weekly paper, which we call Leaves of Healing, and which is edited by the overseer himself. It is only 5 cents a copy.

"Oh, no, we never go into theatres or cabarets, or 'lobster palaces,' unless it is to sell a leaflet or two. I don't think they would let us in the theatres to sell pamphlets, and we never go into a theatre for amusement—it's against our religion.

"And as for those wicked movies—more little boys are turned into burglars and murderers by them than anything else I know of. They are tools of the devil.

"We don't want the kind of people you find in such wicked places. There are plenty of others outside in the streets, seeking admission at every door we find. Yes, we'll try every street in New York. It will take a long time, but we are going to try the task.…"

This is just a partial list of things banned at Zion City, compiled with the aid of the two missionaries:

• Actresses

• Amusements

• Beer Chop suey

• Cigarettes

• Cigars

• Cards

• Cussing

• Dice

• Drugs

• Doctors

• Eels

• Flirting

• Gambling

• Gasoline (on Sunday)

• High heels

• Hooch

• Jazz

• Lace stockings

• Oysters

• Pork

• Peekaboo waists

• Short Skirts

• Saloons

• Silk

• Stockings

• Secret societies

• Sausages

• Spooning

• Tobacco

• Theatres

• Vaccination

• Vamps

There are many other little things prohibited. One is that the teachers in the schools shall not tell the children the earth is round.

The missionaries yesterday exhibited their substitute for bacon. It is called "beef bacon," and looks like sliced corned beef. But there are few substitutes for the other things on this "Blue Law" list.

Miss Schelhorn said she didn't think it was the intention of her organization to co-operate with the Lord's Day Alliance or any other body agitating for more strict observance of the Sabbath.

"Pamphlet?" she concluded. "Yes, five cents. Thank you."

BOSTON, Jan. 31.—"Show off at least the tips of your ears and wave your hair," was the advance information on Spring styles given out to women by the Ladies' Hairdressing Association, which opened a convention here today. Older women may show more of the ear than debutantes and still conform with the new styles. Higher hair dressing also will be in the vogue for older women. Earrings in hoop and pendant effects will be favored.

PARIS, Jan. 31.—Tomorrow will begin the most exciting month in the woman's year in Paris. Beginning with the house of Molyneux, in the Rue Royale, the great dressmaking establishments will open their showrooms to the public and display their Spring and Summer fashions. Almost every day in February there will be some exhibition to attend and something new to discuss.

With their usual sensitiveness the fashion setters are staunchly refusing to disclose their official openings. All is mystery and the great query in every woman's mind is whether skirts are to be longer or shorter and looser or tighter. The answer to the question appears to be longer and wider. All authorities seem at least agreed on that.

The tight short skirt and blouse with waistline somewhere near the knees is going to disappear. The waistline appears likely to approach much more nearly where nature intended it to be and at the same time it will be learned with satisfaction that it will remain loose. All the fashions seem designed for tall, slim, elegant young women in the early twenties, or even younger. Nothing is designed for matrons or stout people, so the supposition is that they are not going to exist during the coming year. Colors are going to be brilliant, but used cleverly so as to avoid gaudiness.

Both in this new use of color and the draping of new skirts one is assured that no unskilled hand will ever succeed. The fashions have been, it seems, designed for that purpose.

Latest of all the curiosities of fashion are serpent-skin gloves. They are made of the skin of a small kind of python, with brilliant lozenges of black and silver, which present a most striking effect when worn with low-length sleeves. This new type glove is the design of Louis Cart. To complete the serpent illusion two small emeralds are placed on the back of the hand to imitate the serpent's eyes.

BERLIN, Jan. 31.—The Lokal-Anzeiger prints a report by a Roentgen ray expert and gynaecologiest, Professor Goldknecht, of Vienna, who says of his experiments:

"Thirty out of 100 women whom I treated showed decided rejuvenation which, however, did not affect fertility. The patients were aged between 40 and 50. In some cases my Roentgen treatment caused a complete change of appearance. Fresh complexions returned, wrinkles disappeared and the patients recovered the buoyancy of earlier life. Curiously enough, the treatment had no effect on weight."

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