APRIL 1915

WOMEN'S RIGHTS, EXOTIC ANIMALS

Get into a conversation with a long time Queens resident and you're likely to discover a subscriber of the Long Island Star- Journal, a daily paper that informed the community about local and world news until it folded in 1968. A banner across the Star Journal masthead reminded readers that the newspaper's name came from the merger of the Long Island Daily Star (1876) and the North Shore Daily Journal - The Flushing Journal (1841).

Welcome to April 1915!

Women’s rights were in the news with the April 9 Star-Journal report on a talk given by a prominent suffrage campaigner in Queens County. Mrs. Alfred P. Eno spoke to the mothers’ club of Winfield (now part of Maspeth) on equal rights for women. It was 67 years since Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton had organized the Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, the event that in 1848 gave birth to the equal suffrage campaign, and still American women did not have the right to vote.

Eno, unperturbed by occasional squalls from babies in the audience, told the Winfield mothers about the current campaign for a suffrage amendment to the New York State constitution. The Woman Suffrage Party of Greater New York believed that by reaching into every election district to influence its voters, they would bring suffrage close to the people and eventually influence parties and legislators through public opinion Hundreds of women in all the boroughs canvassed voters in shops, factories, tenements, and private homes.

Emma Rodman, president of the Elmhurst Suffrage Club, then gave the meeting a vivid picture of the campaign in her neighborhood. The Star-Journal quoted her praise of Queens residents: "The men are fair-minded: they are splendid when you approach them about suffrage. In Elmhurst we meet the men at the railroad station and the trolley cars at night and give them literature telling them why women should vote. They would tip their hats and thank us for the pamphlets, and many would stop at the first lamp-post and read them through before proceeding further." In August 1920 the 19th Amendment would finally give American women the right to vote.

Another pair of daring women was featured in the news that month, taking on one of New York’s most prominent millionaires. On April 10, the Star-Journal reported that Nathan Straus, head of R.H. Macy and Company and the dry goods firm of Abraham and Straus, was the defendant in lawsuits brought by Mrs. Harriett Stewart of Astoria and her daughter. The suits were for injuries allegedly sustained when Mr. Strauss’s luxurious Benz limousine, driven by his chauffeur John P. Worms, ran into the Stewarts’ much less grand Ford automobile. The collision was so severe that Mrs. and Miss Stewart, out for a day’s shopping in Manhattan, were thrown out of the car onto Fifth Avenue.

Nathan Straus was being sued for the sum of $1,000. However, the jury sitting in the Long Island City Municipal Court was unable to agree on a verdict and the cases were sent back for retrial. The following month the Star–Journal reported that in a fresh trial, both plaintiffs had been awarded $150 apiece in damages.

Another interesting legal case reported in April 1915 struck a homier note. Fourteen Dutch Kills residents appeared in Municipal Court on charges that their roosters were too noisy. The evidence, according to the Star–Journal, had been gathered by Officer O’Connell of the Health Squad who patrolled the streets between 3 and 6 a.m. "with an ear alert for the clarion calls of the exuberant chanticleers." Magistrate Leach pronounced the death sentence on the unhappy birds. "This rooster has made a goat out of me," the Star–Journal quoted householder John Sherlock, a former policeman, as saying, "The latest news from Dutch Kills is to the effect that axes and knives are being sharpened and that the doomed roosters will soon sing their final choruses."

Later in the month a rarer animal was in the news as a headline announced "Tasmanian Devil Here." A Star–Journal reporter reassured readers that this notoriously unfriendly beast was safely ensconced at Louis Ruhe’s wild animal farm in Woodside. "Alive only to the rapid residential and industrial growth of our borough, you prosaic residents of Queens Borough, can you imagine a spot in Queens about three and a half acres in area, where is gathered nearly every variety of wild animal, from a boa constrictor to an elephant? Can you imagine a spot in Queens where you can listen to the songs of 4,000 canaries?"

"Several days ago a Star reporter, immersed in the drab routine of the Long Island City Magistrates’ Court, met Ernest Siegfried, manager of Mr. Ruhe’s animal farm, who applied in court to have his revolver permit renewed. Mr. Siegfried invited the reporter to visit him at the animal farm. There was nothing to remind your reporter of the African jungle or the veldt as he rode to Woodside on the car of the New York and Queens Traction Corporation. A few hundred feet from where the car stopped were the tombstones of Calvary Cemetery. The rattle of riveters drew his attention to where the Corona extension of the dual rapid transit system (today’s No. 7 line) was in the course of construction."

Unfortunately, during the tour of the animal farm, the Tasmanian devil "refused to be disturbed from a siesta in the rear of his cage, even by the lure of an interview with a newspaper reporter, and "he grunted angrily" when Mr. Siegfried sought to arouse him. The Tasmanian devil, Mr. Siegfried explained, is one of the rarest of animals, and Mr. Ruhe feels much elated by his possession. Buddy, an eight-month-old lion cub, vied for the honors in this shed with the Tasmanian devil. There was a time when Buddy could be fondled like a pup by Mr. Siegfried. But just now he is beginning to realize the great strength he possesses, and Mr. Siegfried keeps him caged."

The farm at Woodside furnished animals to circuses all over the United States. At that time an elephant would sell for about $1,800, and a lion for $800. Louis Ruhe, one of the largest importers of wild animals in the country, had just sent two polar bears off to delight the audiences of Barnum and Bailey’s. Among the other animals the Star–Journal reporter met was "Hashish," a three-year-old camel who was due to take part in a Coney Island exhibit called "A Street in Cairo" that summer. "He reared and plunged and snorted, meanwhile eyeing with a wicked gleam the curious reporter, who from the pictures he had seen of camels on packages of dates, had been led to believe that the "Ship of the Desert" was a most amiable animal." A friendlier resident was "Jeff," a boxing kangaroo. "Jeff," a five-year-old kangaroo, "frequently consents to don the gloves with the attendants at the farm and is no slouch at defensive or offensive tactics, say the attendants. Managers of the Queensboro and Astoria boxing clubs, take notice!"

That’s the way it was in April 1915!

Compiled by Clare Doyle, Librarian, Greater Astoria Historical Society.