Strange Times 61: "Radical Freak Garments"
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This week brings a murderous divorcee, freakish tuxedos, ankles exposed, and Italians at war with themselves. Drop your ankle curtains for…
March 2, 1921
Mrs. Ebba Winslow, "known as one of the most aggressive woman Republicans in Queens," is named the first woman sheriff of the borough.
Harry T. Lamey is arrested after sending a letter threatening to kill the legendary horse Man O' War unless given $10,000.
After a sleepless, feverish night, Caruso is operated on for the third time: a brief surgery intended to correct an abscess in the pleural cavity that may be the cause of his continued fever.
The Weather: Cloudy today; Thursday, clear and colder; fresh south winds.
A classic Strange Times murder story, complete with drinks hurled in faces and the poetry of Robert Service.
CHICAGO, March 1.—Mrs. Isabella Cora Orthwein, a former St. Louis society woman and the divorced wife of a wealthy oil operator, shot and killed Herbert P. Ziegler, district manager of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, in her apartment in Surf Street this morning.
When the police broke into the apartment they found Mrs. Orthwein sobbing over the body of the man. A revolver with two cartridges discharged lay near the body. There were some half empty bottles in the room and, lying on a table, with the lines heavily underscored, was a book of poems open at this passage:
From Love's close kiss to hell's abyss is one sheer flight, I trow;
And wedding ring and bridal veils are will-o-wisps of woe,
And 'tis not wise to love too well—and this all women know.
An attempt by Ziegler to break off a relationship of which he had grown weary seemed to be the real prelude to the murder. Friends of Mrs. Ziegler, from whom he had been separated for some time, say a reconciliation had been effected and he had pledged his wife he would sever all relations with Mrs. Orthwein. His wife and Elaine, their sixteen-year-old daughter, had just returned from California and occupied the family residence. Ziegler had been living at the Congress Hotel. On Monday evening the reconciliation was completed, it is said. Ziegler promised to cease all attentions to Mrs. Orthwein and Mrs. Ziegler promised to withhold divorce proceedings.
The police say that Ziegler then went about the task of telling Mrs. Orthwein that he was done with her. This, it seems, necessitated a trip to a prominent North Short resort, where Ziegler is said to have drunk more than was good for him. He was attentive to two girls he found there and a quarrel resulted, and Ziegler and Mrs. Orthwein threw liquor in each other's face. She called a friend and asked him to take her home, which he did.
She says that shortly thereafter Ziegler called her on the telephone and asked permission to come to her apartment, but she refused to see him. She says he came, nevertheless, considerably under the influence of liquor. It appears he had a key to the apartment, but she had locked her bedroom door against him. She says he burst the door open and began beating her, when she shot him. The police found the outer doors open, and the bedroom door showed that it had been broken down by force.
Mrs. Orthwein is the divorced wife of Ralph Orthwein of St. Louis and former President of the American League baseball club of that city. He is said to have settled a cash sum of $350,000 upon her at the time of the divorce. She was born in Columbus, Ohio, and her maiden name was Isabella Landrum. She was famous for her beauty in Kentucky. In 1907 she was divorced from Jack O'Connor, manager of the St. Louis Browns, and shortly afterward she was married to Orthwein. She was prominent in St. Louis and famous for her beauty and horsemanship.
The Zieglers were married eighteen years ago, but trouble arose. They were reconciled later and Ziegler sent his wife and daughter to California. He was very fond of his daughter and this led to the reconciliation of Monday.
The inquest, begun this afternoon, was continued for one week at the request of Mrs. Ziegler, wife of the dead man, and his father, Peter H. Ziegler, a police officer. The elder Ziegler told Coroner Hoffman they wanted time to produce additional witnesses, who, it was declared, would tell a different story from that of the accused woman.
As the defendant was led from the courtroom by Mrs. Mary Shea, matron of Detention Home No. 1, where she is a prisoner, she was crying.
"There's no witness who can swear truthfully I threatened him," she sobbed.
"God knows I did not want to kill Herbert Ziegler. Why do they want to continue the inquest. There is nothing they can gain.
"I gave him all I had—his wife had done the same before me, even before I knew him. Still he was not satisfied. When he turned to another woman I was through. I told him so, and that was what made him a maniac. He was not satisfied to let me go, but wanted me and the other woman, too."
When I go out on the town with my fellow radical freaks, I assure you our tuxedos are always sparkling white. Really puts the bluebloods on edge.
A white tuxedo was the principal exhibit of interest when mannikins illustrating what are intended to be the latest styles paraded past members of the New York Custom Cutters' Club at their dinner in the Hotel Commodore last night. The white tuxedo was conceived "so that the fanciful ideas of the younger generation may have full swing in natty array."
In the club's own description of the affair it was said that the "classy dresser" would be induced to adopt that garment, but that the cutters would "frown upon all forms of radical freak garments." Moreover, there would be this season "a preponderance of blues and grays in color, although the sporting suits will be just as cheery and loud as in former years."
For the business man a "utility" suit was displayed "that will allow him, when working around his auto, to roll up his sleeves without taking off his coat, by means of a slashed effect with buttons."
A cursory search turned up no information about the Ohio ankle curtains, but I can tell you that if you do an image search for the phrase you will find a lot of pictures of ankles. If that’s what you’re looking for, I won’t stand in your way.
ALBANY, March 1.—New York women, unlike their sisters of Ohio, can get along without "ankle garments" if they sit in jury boxes, legislators were told today when they gave a hearing on the Donohue bill giving women equal rights with men as jurors.
"In Ohio they have ankle curtains around the jury boxes," said Miss Mary Wood of the State Federation of Women's Clubs. "We do not care for that curtain in New York."
A follow-up to the article shared in last week’s special issue, featuring more murdered mayors, a general strike, and all manner of fascist violence. Once again, it’s a round-up of news from all over the country, so there’s no narrative to be found, but it is a fascinating look at the chaos of the rise of fascism.
MILAN, March 1.—In the cyclone of bloodshed which is sweeping over Central and Southern Italy 120 victims have been counted at Cerignola, in Apulia, alone, eleven of whom were killed. Throughout the Apulian Provinces insurrection has been raging for a fortnight, and this latest episode arose out of a Nationalist demonstration in the Town Hall square to protest against a general strike.
At the first attempt to rush the Municipal Palace rifle fire was directed upon the Fascisti from every window and balcony, to which the latter replied by firing revolvers. Royal Guards, in trying to separate the combatant forces, were attacked from both sides and defended themselves with muskets.
After twenty minutes' fighting the police forced an entrance to the Town Hall and arrested the Mayor and the whole communal Administration.
Hordes of armed peasants, accompanied by their women folk, carrying lightened torches, are laying waste Apulian farms and homesteads. At Minervino Murge a farmer defended his property against incendiaries for half an hour and then endeavored to escape. He was pursued, and when he dropped, mortally wounded, his assailants dispatched him with daggers.
Similar stories of violence come from Bisceglie, where peasants stormed the Agriculturists' Union, shouting: "Death to the landlords! Long live the revolution!"
The Confederated Chambers of Labor at Terlizzi and Matera and other towns have been given to the flames.
Among those who perished in the disorders at Conversano, a communist stronghold, was Lieutenant Calcaterra, who was stabbed in the back with a stiletto. The Mayor of the town also was killed.
The strike is still general at Foggia, Spinazzola, Gravina, Giovinazzo and Barletta.
A fresh chapter in the fratricidal strife among the people of Florence has added nine victims to the death roll, and more than fifty dangerously wounded are in hospital wards. Severe fighting is going on in Certaldo and San Frediano, the Socialist and communist quarters beyond the Arno. Armored cars are being used to force the enormous barricades erected in the streets.
The inhabitants—men, women and children—greeted the Fascisti invaders with a pitiless hail of bombs from roofs, windows and doorways. The cavalry had to be withdrawn, and regular infantrymen were obliged to creep forward on all fours. Later machine guns were brought into play against the fortified houses.
The son of the well-known steel manufacturer Bertha, who was a militant Nationalist, was stabbed with daggers and his corpse was flung into the Arno.
Seven cannon have been planted each of the bridges.
The postmen and telegraph messengers have joined the strike, and the situation is becoming so serious, owing to the insurrection having spread to the hill towns and villages, that it is rumored this evening that the Government has decided to place the city and province under martial law.