Historical Miscellany

Washington’s troops in the “hard winter”

| Paul Havemann

Think it’s cold? Some of us are experiencing record-low temps. Don’t like snow? Many of us do not appreciate two-foot snowstorms.

But… imagine, if you can, George Washington’s troops at Morristown NJ in the “hard winter” of 1779-1780 in conditions far harsher than we’re experiencing. Worse, even, than the terrible winter at Valley Forge a few years earlier. Most of the men were pretty much outside.

Sub-zero temperatures. Twenty snowstorms. “Shelter” was a log cabin shared by a dozen men and barely heated, if they could find something to burn. There was never enough to eat, and the snowstorms and icy roads made it almost impossible to get supplies to the troops.

The troops’ clothing was threadbare, if not in tatters. The lucky soldiers might have shoes; many went barefoot. Many didn’t survive. And yet they soldiered on. They fought for freedom. For their children. For us.

As we await the next storm, let us remember, and give thanks for, those brave soldiers who made American independence possible despite tremendous obstacles.

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The Pocket Telephone – in 1919

| Paul Havemann

I discovered this gem about eight years ago while browsing through an old newspaper. “The Pocket Telephone” was drawn by a British bloke, W. K. Haselden, in 1919. It’s as amusing as it was prescient.

“The latest modern horror in the way of inventions is supposed to be the pocket telephone. We can imagine the moments this instrument will choose for action!”

The prescient fellow was named William Kerridge Haselden – call him W.K. – the first staff cartoonist for The Daily Mirror, one of Britain’s most popular papers at the time. He started his employ in 1903 and worked there for about 40 years. He became a national figure during the Great War, churning out a series called “Big and Little Willie” that lampooned Kaiser Wilhelm and his son. After the war the Kaiser, in exile in Holland, admitted they had caused him irreparable damage.

Haselden produced hundreds of cartoons for The Daily Mirror, many of which share this same satirical tone and focus on modernity’s absurdities. I’ll post others in this vein when I find them.

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