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Ken's
Corner
Ken’s Corner Mention Make Small Town News
By
Ken Umbach
The December 20th
Ken’s Corner
mentioned the town
of St. Paul, Nebraska,
and the First Presbyterian
Church at 816 Indian
Street. A reader
passed a copy of
the column along
to James Snow, currently
a resident of St.
Paul. Mr. Snow sent
me an e-mail message
in response, and
it seems worth quoting.
This is what he had
to say:
“I recently received a copy of an article you wrote in the Dec. 20, 2011,
Spectrum. It was sent by a friend and co-worker. I grew up in St. Paul, NE and
in 2003, after 36 years working as an Air Traffic Controller (13 in Sacramento)
moved back home. In the 1960s my dad was the pastor of the Presbyterian church
mentioned in your article. The church building in the article burned and was
replaced in 1904. It remains a great old building to this day.
“St. Paul hasn't grown much over the years as our newest count is 2,290.
We are a farming community with a great school system, outstanding medical center,
swimming pool and great parks. We also feel we are a friendly town and welcome
visitors to our historical village, the Nebraska Major League Baseball Museum,
and events held throughout the year. If you ever find yourself in our area please
stop and say hello. I look forward to showing you around.
“Mayor Jim Snow.”
That answered a few questions, especially whether the church I saw in a satellite
view on the Internet was the same as one on a picture postcard I also found online.
No, alas, it is not, as a result of a fire more than a century ago, but it is
in the same place.
I’ve never been to Nebraska, to the best of my recollection, unless the
family passed through the state on the way to visit my grandparents in Michigan
in the 1950s or early 1960s. Rosa has never been there either. It is tempting
to go there and take Mayor Snow up on his offer of a tour. Since he worked here
for years, I don’t imagine that a return offer to show him around Sacramento
would have much attraction.
You might recall that my look at St. Paul started with a postcard mailed 130
years ago, purchased from a stamp dealer at the annual Sacramento philatelic
show. It is a long way and a long time from the neatly crafted handwriting on
that postcard, delivered by a carrier for the U.S. Post Office, to instant communication
across a continent by e-mail. We are living in an amazing time.
• • •
I
had a couple of items left over last week that I could not fit into
the column. I’ll play “catch-up” with them this week.
Both fall into the general category of “the more things change,
the more they stay the same.” Or at least they show that some
problems never seem to go away. Both are from the New York Times, January
24, 1912.
The first, from page 3, is headlined “GETS ALIMONY DODGER: Ex-Wife Meets
Him in Subway and Has Him Locked Up.” It seems that Mrs. Elise S. Miller,
age 30, hauled her husband, Alexander, age 36, before Magistrate Breen in the
Men’s Night Court, in New York. She met up with him in a Subway train (yes,
the Times capitalized Subway), “two and a half years after he had been
ordered to pay her alimony pending a divorce.”
Mr. Miller became abusive during the encounter (he “used loud and profane
language”), and that earned him arrest on a charge of disorderly conduct.
Lacking $500 bail, he was hauled to a jail cell.
OK, unlike some surprising little stories of that era, this one did not make
the front page. But still, page 3 of the New York Times for the arrest of a guy
who stiffed his wife for alimony? (Now we mostly call it “spousal support.”)
Be that as it may, I suspect that most Spectrum readers know someone who has
had trouble collecting spousal support or child support. But how many of the “dodgers” went
to jail for their failures in that regard? A lot of them might have become “loud
and profane” when put on the spot, though.
The other story that caught my eye is headlined “WIVES EXPLAIN DEAR LIVING.
Blame Trusts, Speculators, Husbands, and ‘Lame’ Laws.” The
story, datelined Cincinnati, Ohio, January 23, 1912, reported on how the Cincinnati
Housewives Co-Operative League, in the person of its President, Mrs. J. W. Ellms,
advised the State of Ohio (specific office or agency not specified), regarding “the
chief causes of the present exorbitant prices.”
Some of these reasons still ring true today: “Trusts [big corporations].
Selfish, greedy, and hungry for big profits. Speculation. Prices fixed by gamblers
[presumably meaning commodities speculators] rather than by the cost of production.
Husbands. Not as helpful in home management as they should be.” OUCH on
that last one! Although I’d like to think I am not unhelpful, at least.
Mrs. Ellms went on, citing “Lame laws. Refusal to grant women the right
to vote.” Well, at least that last item was rectified long ago, although
it is not clear what contribution the vote for women has made to holding down
prices.
“In tracing the high cost of living to husbands, Mrs. Ellms attributed
it to their tendency to evade domestic tasks, and said: ‘Half of them don’t
know the price of sugar or how long an incandescent light will last, and, all
unknowingly, they greatly add to the already increased cost of living.’” She
advised that both husband and wife “should keep household accounts ...
and balance up and see if they agree.” She added, “I don’t
know why a husband should not know when the flour is getting low as well as the
wife.” Take THAT, gentlemen! Check those cupboards today!
Curiously, the article concluded, “Six women agents of the Bureau of Labor
of the United States Department of Commerce and Labor are in Cincinnati secretly
making an investigation of the high cost of living.” Well, they could not
have been TOO secretive, as their activities were mentioned in the New York Times.
By the way, if you are keeping score, The Bureau of Labor long ago became its
own cabinet-level Department, separate from the Department of Commerce.
Have a comment or a
story to share? E-mail me at ken@umbachconsulting.com. or
write in care of Spectrum. Really!
• • •
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