Embarrassing Moments

By Kelli Huggins, Education Coordinator

 

Embarrassing moments: we’ve all had them, and people in the past were no exception to this shame. While I won’t be sharing any of my own personal lowlights, I do really enjoy a regular column that ran in the Elmira Telegram in the 1910s which printed reader-submitted embarrassments for everyone’s enjoyment. If you spend some time reading them, you’ll realize that there are certain situations that are universally embarrassing, regardless of the decade in which they occur. However, some others are a little hard for us to relate to in the 21^st century. Below are a selection of some of my favorites:

The most embarrassing moment of my life was when I sat down on a custard pie at a picnic.

My most embarrassing moment was when I attended my first dance. I was not a good dancer and as the music stopped I heard my partner say under his breath, “Well, thank goodness!”

The most embarrassing moment of my life was when I went to a party with a girl. During the party it began to rain pitchforks. Another youth offered to take the girl home under his umbrella. She declined, saying she would rather go under my umbrella. Imagine my embarrassment later when I had to tell her I had no umbrella.

It was late when we arrived at the theatre and the house was dark. Our seats were in the balcony, and as I went down the aisle I laid my hand on what I thought was a post, but lo and behold. It began to move. What was my horror to find that the object was a man’s bald head. In my embarrassment I stammered in an audible tone, “O, pardon me, I thought you were a post.”

While parading down one of the streets in the loop I noticed that everyone looked at me. Being as homely as they make them, but perfectly healthy, I commenced to think I was getting better looking. After several passersby laughed out loud I looked at myself from head to toe and discovered that in my haste I had only one spat on. To make matters worse I had the spat on over a shoe and the top of the shoe was gray and the spat white.

My most painful as well as most embarrassing moment was when I once occupied the speaker’s platform with six men. I being the only woman. I had a new frock for the occasion, an airy-fairy thing that made me feel I was at my best. But not for long . How can I describe my physical torture and mental anguish when I discovered that I was not the only inhabitant of that dress? My right to be therein was being disputed by a flea! Squirm and writhe as I would and pat and smooth with my hands, I could not persuade that flea to leave nor yet to dwell with me in harmony. To leave the platform was out of the question and when in a few minutes my address was called I was frankly and plebeianly scratching!

Read All About It: The Elmira Newsboys Club

You probably know that September 4 is Labor Day this year, but did you know that it is also Newspaper Carrier Day? No? Well, now you do! This fact made me recall this great photograph in our collection, showing the Elmira Newsboys Club. This got me wondering what I could find out about their organization.

The Newsboys in their clubhouse. The image below is from the newspaper, so the quality isn't as good (except for the rip in the original above), but it does include their names.

  In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Elmira’s newspapers, the Advertiser, Daily Gazette and Free Press (later the Star-Gazette), and the Telegram, used newsboys to sell their daily papers. Newsboys were seen as entrepreneuring young men, but who could also be prone to a bit of mischief. There was an issue with newsboys hopping on trains without paying in order to move faster through their routes and to sell to passengers onboard. Still, many people were fond of the boys and they usually got generous tips and gifts around holidays.

Christmas and New Years' appeals like these were common. This one features a picture of my favorite Elmiran of all time, Colonel

In 1907, an official Elmira Newsboys Club formed. They met weekly at the YMCA, where they had a variety of guest speakers and visitors, who spoke on everything from health and hygiene to leadership to adventure travel. At each meeting, local women’s charitable groups served the boys dinner. Afterwards, the boys played in the YMCA’s gym and pool. The newsboys, who were mostly between 13 and 14 years old, were given clubhouse furnishings by local businessmen, some of whom had delivered papers in their own youth. By the second meeting, they had almost 20 dues-paying members. 

In that first year, an April banquet got pretty raucous. It involved thrown food, boys falling out of their chairs, confusing cheese and butter, and more questionable table manners. They were a spirited group!

In August 1907, the Elmira Newsboys Club took that energy on their first annual outing. The boys, who governed their own club, raised enough funds to pay for a trip to Watkins Glen. None of the boys had ever been to Watkins before. They took a steamer boat ride on Seneca Lake, which was offered to the club at a discounted rate. 

Invoice showing a Telegram newsboy, 1892

The first president of the Elmira Newsboys Club was “Joe the Newsboy.” Joe was an Armenian immigrant who was well-known and liked and most likely a good deal older than the rest of the boys. Joe’s full name is a little hard to discern. In the newspapers, his name was spelled in the following ways: Hosep Kumrou, Joseph Kroumrou, Housep Kmorou, Housep Koumrou, Joseph Komrouian, and Housef Koumrouryan. For simplicity’s sake in this post, I’ll just stick with “Joe.” Joe, with his ambition, out-going personality, and broken English, was sometimes the butt of local jokes. He wrote a letter to the newspaper after he was satirically called “Joe the Nuisance” in an article.

Joe the Newsboy

Joe the Newsboy represented the club at the Jamestown Exposition, a world’s fair held in Virginia in 1907. He sold papers there and by all accounts had a great time. He sent letters to the club members. Once, Joe sent back a phonograph record of his voice. This gift was well-received: “The newsboys have been doing little else today except listening to Joe’s voice on the record as he makes his greeting to them over and over again.”

In September 1907, Joe returned from the Jamestown Exposition. He was in poor health and decided to move to Los Angeles, California for the better weather. When he left Elmira, the newsboys accompanied him to the train station and saw him off. It was said that “no one has been more faithful and more persistent in speaking well of Elmira than he.” Joe died in Los Angeles on April 28, 1916 after a long illness. He was buried in Los Angeles. 

The Elmira Newsboys Club continued on. They still had weekly meetings through the 1920s at least. They had a baseball team through the 1910s. The club reorganized in 1923 and seemed to meet more sporadically through the 1930s and 1940s. 

Elmira Star-Gazette carrier route book belonging to newsboy T. Clair Perkin, ca. 1930s (above and below).

Elmira Star-Gazette carrier route book belonging to newsboy T. Clair Perkin, ca. 1930s (above and below).

Elmira’s Most Eligible Bachelors (1888 Edition)

By Kelli Huggins, Education Coordinator

When I was doing research for “Seduction” our most recent installment of our History They Didn’t Teach You in School series, I found the most delightful Elmira Telegram newspaper article from 1888.  Now, it is no secret that late 19^th century journalism is one of my strange passions; it’s brutal, hilarious, and descriptive in ways that reporting can’t be today.  And this piece, entitled “Pointers for the Girls” is about as good as it gets.

1888 was a leap year.  As the lore goes, during leap years, women could initiate a courtship or propose marriage to a man, which was the only reprieve from strictly held Victorian beliefs of courtship propriety.  Typically, single women could not address men without introduction. And don’t even think about something like riding in a closed carriage with a man who wasn’t a relative! 

As the Telegram staff wrote in the article, “For the first time in four years the dear, delightful darlings who have failed to hail the matrimonial chariot are privileged to drive a man into a corner and propose matrimony to him.  In this year they are give the heaven-born privilege of the men and can make love to whom they wist, providing however, that man is willing to wist.”  Elmira, it was reported, was “prolific in marriageable men” and the article highlighted the “choicest flowers in the matrimonial garden.”

The descriptions are hysterical and are clearly meant to be satirical.  For example, alderman Morris Gladke was described as the “handsomest man in Elmira. Got curly hair and a little mustache.  No flies on him.  Been spoken of as a mayoral candidate.  Devoted to his mother and would hate to leave her.  Afraid of girls anyway… Been sick lately.  Discreet lady nurse might get the inside track.”

Here are some of my other favorites:

David Hill

David Hill (the Governor of New York State): “May be president next year. Has no bad habits. Doesn’t chew tobacco, stay out nights, or go to dog fights. Is bald-headed but real smart, and would be a regular prize. Wife can keep a hired girl, and ride in the street cars. Got some money.”

Levi Little

Levi Little (Chief of Police): “ Good looking and six feet tall. Got a trotting horse and affectionate nature.  Would probably accept a satisfactory offer.  Isn’t afraid of the cars or good-looking girls… Can’t raise whiskers.”

George Cotton

George Cotton: “The dandy of them all.  Dude.  Wears tight pants, and is a politician. Thinks of running for mayor. Is a ladies’ man and a great hand for society… Got a good appetite, and likes pie.”

J.S. Root (Dentist): “Handsome young man… Strongest drink is buttermilk…Likes a joke and eats Frankforts.”

Mark Bennett

Mark Bennett (Journalist): “Writes poetry as a pastime. Little bit bald, but has a mustache. Color of seven cent sugar… Been as far away from home as Buffalo.”