COWGIRL

1912

WORLD EVENTS:

In politics this year, Woodrow Wilson is elected President. In Russia, Leninand Stalin tak e over the editorship of the newspaper “Pravda” to expose theirideas of the budd ing and still underground Communist party.
The flu is the reported cause of death for two percent of London’s populationeach week. The epidemic doesn’t keep the suffragette movement down. OnMarch 4, ninety-six women are arrested after a raid on the House of Commons The next day, police raid the Women’s Socia l and Political Union offices. Later that month, the English Women’s Enfranchis ement Bill is defeated.Three months later, suffragettes start a window smashing campaign at Postoffices and Labor Exchanges in the UK. All English events aren’ t dire. Theremains of what is believed to be the missing link between man and a pe is discovered by an amateur archeologist in Piltdown. The skull is known asP iltdown Man and believed to be 50,000 years old. In 1953 the Piltdown manwill b e proved a hoax.
The biggest news event of the year occurs on the night of April 15. On hermaiden voyage, the SS Titanic collides with an iceberg and sin ks. Only 711of the 2,224 passengers survive, partially due to the lack of suff icient lifeboats. The dead include many steerage passengers trapped in the lowe rberths. Prominent millionaires such as John Jacob Astor also perish. Inrespon se to the disaster, federal government orders all steamships to carryenough lif eboats for all passengers. MOLLY BROWN, rescues fellow passengers, giving them her clothing to protect them from the cold and rowing the boat to safety. She i s hailed as a hero upon her arrival in New York.
MOLLY BROWN, born MARGARET TOBIN in 1867 in Hannibal Missouri. It was there that sheworked as a waitress and learned how to steer a boat on the MississippiRiver. She met Samuel L. Clem ens, who told her of the riches in the RockyMountains. Shortly afterward, she headed west and settled in Colorado. In1890 her miner husband struck it rich in Leadville. Their new house becamean instant showplace of Victoriana but most of Molly’s time was devoted togaining acceptance in the city’s social circle. She gained fame when theTitanic sank by rescuing other passengers, giving them h er clothing to keepwarm and was the only woman to row a boat to safety – which s he accomplishedin seven and a half grueling hours. She also gained the “Unsink able” partof her name. Her heroism also earned her admission to the Colorado g roup of”sacred 36″ society leaders.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

Congress exten ds the 8 hour day to all federal employees; in private industrymost workers labo r 10 to 12 hours per day 6 days a week.
The big labor event of the year is the January 12 worker’s strike inLawrence, Mass. The owners of the textile mill f elt an average of $8.76 aweek was too much for 54 hours work. They sent the fir st paycheck of theyear with a wage cut and an announcement of a two-hour reducti on in the workweek. Many women and children spontaneously stopped their looms and wenton strike, joined by a number of men workers. The strikers, encompass ing 28nationalities, included children as young as 14 years old, marched abrea stthrough the city streets and clashed repeatedly with law enforcementofficials who were sent to the mills to protect the non strikers. The strikeshowed the p ower of the International Workers of the World and the influenceof MOTHER JONES .
The strike succeeded, bringing prominence to the International Workers of t heWorld among textile workers throughout the East and established a minimumwage law for women and children in Massachusetts. It is the first state lawof its k ind.

MARY HARRIS JONES (Mother Jones)

Born Mary Harris in Cork, Ireland, Jo nes studied in Canada before immigratingto the United States. She worked as a d ressmaker and then a teacher. Shelost her entire family in the yellow fever ep idemic of 1867. After that shebegan her life as an itinerant organizer, traveli ng throughout the UnitedStates to help railroad laborers, mine workers, and oth er low-paid andmistreated workers learn their rights and fight injustice. A br illiantstrategist, in 1903 she led striking children of textile workers to Presi dentTheodore Roosevelt’s home in Oyster Bay, New York. In 1911 she resumedorgan izing mine workers and in 1912 was convicted of conspiracy to commitmurder and t o dynamite a train.. She was called “the most dangerous woman inAmerica” by th e West Virginia state prosecutor. She received a twenty-yearsentence but only served three months in “lock-up” before the governor ofWest Virginia freed her a fter public outcry. She continued organizing forworker’s rights until she died . . . in 1930 at age 100. “No matter what yourfight, don’t be ladylike.” she on ce said.

U.S. SOCIETY & WOMENS LIVES:

New Mexico and Arizona are admit ted to the Union as the 47th and 48th State. The new state of Arizona joins Kans as and Oregon in giving women the vote. Seventy-six year old ABIGAIL DUNIWAY is the first woman to vote in theirhome state of Oregon. Still, victory give suffra gists a total of only ninestates.
A shipment of Japanese cherry trees is sent to the United States as a goodwill gesture. They are planted at Washington, DC where they will blossomeach spring, adding to the delight of the springtime to urists in the TidalBasin.
In Oklahoma, twenty-eight year old wildcatter Tho mas Baker Slick strikes itrich when Wheeler Well No. 1 comes in, ushering in the rush for black gold inthe state.
FW Woolworth Company is founded by Frank Wo olworth.
This year alone has sees the introduction of many tasty treats like cranberrysauce, a peppermint candy with a hole in it that the Cleveland candy m akercalls Life Savers and a new mayonnaise bottled as Hellmann’s Blue RibbonMayo nnaise, which is said to hold its texture and freshness almostindefinitely. Or eo Biscuit is a winner for the National Biscuit Co. with twochocolate flavored w afers sandwiched over a cream filling.
Slang is permeating the language, to the disdain of the proper Victorians. New words in the popular lexicon include w ords like flossy meaning stylish,peachy when something is nice and phrases like it’s a cinch, Beat it meansgoing somewhere. Sure! Peeved, lowbrow and lousy enter the lexicon as dothe new term for a motion picture, now called a movie. Youngsters take ajoyride in a speedy automobile and watch it being serviced. Th e word moron iscoined from a new book linking crime to low intelligence. The wor d is used todescribe an adult with the intelligence of a child.
Ragtime fad le ads to animal dances such as fox-trot, crabstep, turkey trotand kangaroodip. . . . 15 women are let go from their jobs at the CutisPublishing Company in Philad elphia after being seen dancing the turkey trot.

FASHION:

Fabric manu facturers, moralizers, ministers and feminists have been demandingfuller skirts instead of the crippling and dangerous hobbled fashion of thepast two years. Tw o prominent French couturiers respond with a “fashionwar”. Paquin reveals a ful l silhouette in August with skirts wide enough topermit free movement. The fol lowing day Callot shows skirts that wereslimmer and briefer than ever before bu t slit at the back to make it possibleto walk in them. Women rally behind Paqui n. Young designer Coco Chanelopens her first salon in Deauville intending to fo cus on sportswear.
A new Filene’s with a 7 foot doorman opens in Boston. The Automatic BargainBasement will lose money for seven straight years but will then becomeprofitable and famous as a Boston institution.

CULTURAL EVENTS:

The Minsky brothers take over New York’s Winter Garden Theater for bawdyburle sque productions. “When Irish Eyes are Smiling” becomes a hit from theBroadway musical “The Isle o’ Dreams. Other popular songs are “Waiting forthe Robert E Lee,” “The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi” and ” Bulldog and Bingo EliYale” by Yale so phomore Cole Porter, 20. Dixieland Jazz music is making itsearly appearance wh en the Dixieland Jazz Band opens in a cabaret in NewOrleans.
In London, LILIAN MARY BAYLIS takes over the management of the Old Vic. Sheturns to presenting opera and Shakespeare and sets a goal in 1914 to produceall of his works. She w ill achieve her ambition by 1923. The Old Viccontinued to produce Shakespeare until 1963. Also in London, KensingtonGardens, George Frampton’s statue of Peter Pan is erected.
France is talking about Vaslav Nininsky’s presentation of D ebussy’s”L’Apre-midi d’un faun” with the Ballets Russes. He both choreographed theballed and portrays the openly sexual Faun. The frank bestiality and overtse xual gestures divides Paris between “faunists” and “anti-faunists.” It islater seen as the beginning of modern ballet. At the same time, PabloPicasso and Geor ges Braque’s papier colleges indicated the movement to Cubismand modern art.
J ohn M. Synge’s play “The Playboy of the Western World” causes riots inDublin. AM Y LOWELL publishes her collection of poems titled “A Dome ofMany-Colored Glass,” Somersert Maugham publishes “The Land of Promise,” anddentist Zane Grey, 37, puts away his drill when his second novel “Riders ofthe Purple Sage” is publishe d. His first novel, “The Last of the Plainsmen”won the hearts of frontier lover s in 1908.
CG Jung publishes “The Theory of Psychoanalysis” and secedes from thepsychoanalytic movement to form the Analytical Psychology movement. A. Adler also forms his own movement, the Individual Psychology movement.
In The Beve rly Hills, a new hotel, ringed by bean fields, opens with a barand fireplace pro viding a place for the new film industry to socialize. Itis quaintly called the Beverly Hills Hotel.

FILMS:

London has 400 cinemas; In the US a pprox 5 million people visit cinemasdaily
“Queen Elizabeth” with SARAH BERNHAR DT, shown July 12 at New York’s LyceumTheater. At forty minutes, it is the firs t feature length motion pictureseen in America. Rights to the French film were acquired byHungarian-American nickelodeon chain operator and former furrier Adol phZukor, 39, who persuaded theatrical producer Charles Frohman to join him ininv esting $35,00 in the venture. Their aim is to give motion pictures theprestige of legitimate theater and therefore show the film on a reserved seatbasis across the country. The approach earns them $200,000, enabling them toform Famous Pla yers Co. to produce their own films. Other films this yearare “The Musketeers o f Pig Alley” with LILLIAN GISH and DW Griffith’s “HerFirst Biscuit” with MARY PICKFORD, 19. Griffith won’t have her services longas Carl Laemmle puts her un der contract to his new Universal Pictures Corp. He will have sole control of Un iversal from 1920 to 1936 and be the first topromote the personalities of his fi lm performers as movie stars.
LILIAN MARY BAYLIS
was born in London in 1 984 but raised in South Africa. She returned toEngland in 1898 and joined her a unt to manage the Royal Victoria Hall, knownas the Old Vic. When her aunt died, she became the sole manager and beganproducing opera and Shakespeare. In 1931 she acquired another theater, TheSadlers Wells and used it for the exclusive pre sentation of opera and ballet. The companies she started evolved into the Royal Ballet and the EnglishNational Opera.
SARAH BERNHARDT
Born Henriette Berna rd in Paris, she entered the Comedie Francaise in 1862making an early impact . A staunch French patriot, she organized and ran afield hospital during the Franco -Prussian War, as well as a hospital in Parisduring the following Siege. She ret urned to the theater and became famous forher expressive acting in roles which r anged from the classic French drama toplays written for her, including “La Dame aux Camellias.” She made ninesuccessful tours of the United States, playing Ha mlet and traveling by railwhere she caused a sensation by sleeping in especially made coffin. Shemanaged several theaters, including one which was renamed the Theater SarahBernhardt in 1899.

SPORTS

This year the V Olympic Games are held in Stockholm. Fifty-seven women enterthe games but the American Olymp ic Committee still refuses to permit womenathletes to participate. Australian w omen enter their first Olympiccompetition with swimmer Fanny Urak taking the gol d in freestyle. Great-grandson of the American Indian chief Black Hawk, athle te JimThorpe is a sensation when he wins the pentathlon and the decathlon and th e200-meter run. Sports writers call him the best male athlete of the firsthalf of the twentieth century. When he later admits that he played semi-professional baseball, his gold medals and trophies are taken from him andhis records erased from the books. He went on to play professional baseballwith the New York Gian ts and was the first president of the AmericanProfessional Football Association. In 1932 he was voted the greatestfootball player of the first half of the 20th century.
Robert .F. Scott reaches the South Pole January 16, but he and his partyperish in a blizzard on the return. Mountain climber DORA KEEN has betterlu ck and becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Blackburn inAlaska. While she is climbing peaks, aviatrix HARRIET QUIMBY makes asuccessful flight ov er the English Channel but the news of her achievement iovershadowed by the sink ing of the Titanic.
MRS. D.R. LAROMBE wins women’s singles at Wimbledon and M ARY K. BROWNE, 15,wins the US women’s singles.
A fourth down is added to US fo otball and a touchdown is given a value of sixpoints. The field is standardized at 360 feet by including end zones 10 feetdeep.
WOMEN’S ACHIEVEMENTSInfluenced by the British Girl Guides, JUILETTE GORDON LOW starts the firstt roop of Girl Guides in America. The Girl Guides will be renamed Girl Scoutsnext year.
HENRIETTA SZOLD, 52 founds Hadassah which will become the largest J ewishwomen’s organization in America.
Sergeant ISABELLA GOODWIN becomes the first woman police detective in the NewYork City Police Department.
MARIA MONTESSORI, 42 begins a educational movement based on her successteaching slum children how to read. Montessori was the first woman graduateof Rome University medical school in 1894. Her revolutionary theories stressspontaneity, tolerance and child-directed learning and will be laterincorporated into traditional schools throughout the world.
CLARA BARTON, founder of the American Red Cross dies April 12. During theCivil War, she established a network for procuring, storing and transporting goods and compiled information on missing soldiers. Many times shepersonally marked their graves. Under the auspices of the International RedCross of Geneva, she became involved in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)where she distributed supplies in the battle zone. She returned to Americanconvinced of the need for an American Red Cross which would also providerelief for domestic disasters. She tirelessly campaigned for eight years. In 1881, her determination resulted in the creation of the AmericanAssociation of the Red Cross, which she presided over until 1904.
HENRIETTA SZOLD, a native of Baltimore, In 1889 she started a school in her native Baltimorethat educated several thousand immigrants. She became interested in Zionismafter a 1909 visit to Palestine. She co-founded Hadassah in 1912 and headedthe group until 1926. The sisterhood of American Jewish women was a Zionistorganization dedicated to improving health conditions in Palestine. In 1919Szold moved to Palestine to personally direct Hadassah’s work. She iscredited with saving over 100,000 Jewish children from the Holocaust bycoordinating their emigration from Nazi Germany.