Harking Back to Peter's World
From Wednesday's International Herald Tribune's WaybackMachine(tm).
Today, the rest of the story (not yet available on line):
A starker contrast to the Simpson case, or a time more evocative of Peter's ideal world, would be difficult to achieve.
As much as Peter might rue the change, I can't escape the conclusion that if I was fined $10 for every time I annoyed she who is perfect in all ways, I wouldn't be able to afford sunlight.
NEW YORK: 1906: Signor Caruso At Court
A motley crowd, including many women of various ages and degrees of beauty, gathered in the Yorkville police court this afternoon [Nov. 21], when Signor Enrico Caruso, tenor of the Metropolitan Opera House, was arraigned on a charge of improper conduct in the Central Park monkey house. Even a larger crowd gathered outside to see the principals in the affair arrive. They were distinctly disappointed when it became certain that Mrs. Hannah Graham, who made the formal accusation against Signor Caruso in the police station, would not be a witness. Signor Caruso came in a cab with Mr. Conried and Mr. Bareleing, his instructor. The tenor alighted, smiling and in apparent confidence. Signor Caruso soon took the stand and denied having annoyed women as charged.
Today, the rest of the story (not yet available on line):
NEW YORK: 1906: Signor Caruso Guilty
Signor Caruso was declared by the magistrate, Mr. Baker, this afternoon [Nov. 23] guilty of annoying a woman in Central Park and fined $10, which is the usual amount for disorderly conduct. His counsel will appeal to the General Sessions Court. It is reported this evening that the tenor is prostrated by the trial and its result. He wept while former Judege Dittenhoefer was summing up the defence. Signor Caruso was recalled by the prosecution, which attempted to present evidence that Signor Caruso insulted a society woman in a cab while driving home from a reception last year, but the magistrate refused to admit the testimony. The Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Mathot, who announced yesterday that he expected to have Mrs. Graham as a witness, informed the court that she ad left the jurisdiction of the court.
A starker contrast to the Simpson case, or a time more evocative of Peter's ideal world, would be difficult to achieve.
As much as Peter might rue the change, I can't escape the conclusion that if I was fined $10 for every time I annoyed she who is perfect in all ways, I wouldn't be able to afford sunlight.
posted by Hey Skipper at 8:58 PM
4 Comments:
I think there were two factors in Mr Caruso's disfavor. One, she was a "society woman", and as such her reputation had enumerable monetary value. Being a society woman was akin to having a job back then, but in reverse. Society status determined how much of her husband's forutne a woman could manage to spend on some ball. She couldn't let a slight like this get around unanswered.
The second factor against him was the fact that he was a swarthy Italian in the days when swathy Italians were as socially acceptable as Borat is today.
I'm not sure what the Times meant by 'insult' in those days, when there were fine distinctions among 'criminal conversation' and 'assault' and whatnot.
When I began in the news game, 'criminally assaulted' for 'rape' was just passing out of use.
I suspect 'insult' means 'grope.'
Peter:
The situation and use of language evinced genteel civility whose disappearance some, among whom I include you, would rue.
Consequently, I expected you to jump on the decay of our society due to the combination of secular amorality and the ugly, unshaven, head of atheistic Darwinism.
As it so happens, my son is also twelve, and, if the tests are anything to go by, the smartest member of our household. While he is taking math with the kids a grade ahead, in other respects his attention span, at least, would keep him from hitting in your son's league.
My wife, having an undergraduate degree in Biology, and being a nurse, simply gives our critters (in addition to the man child, I also have a 13 yr old woman child) straight answers to their birds & bees questions. She figures that they will take on board what computes, and put the rest on disregard.
Consequently, they found the school provided sex-ed something of a yawn.
As for the flip side of the coin, celibacy training, we got the kids a puppy last year.
Unlike my teen-age years, where, so far as girls were concerned, I must have been the unwitting recipient of a Romulan Cloaking Device, I fear my son will cause girls to go rather weak at the knees.
So does my wife. She is already carefully eyeing the bear rifle Joe Shropshire thoughtfully suggested when Duck threw another scare into Brit.
Peter:
That is because very few liberal shibboleths survive having children.
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