Busy weekend

I just got back from a Boy Scout camping trip with my sons.  There is too much laundry to do and I am too dirty to even think about blogging this weekend.  I'll write next weekend!

Major Henry Rathbone

In honor of President's day, I planned to write something about Abraham Lincoln.  But the  blog took a radical turn when I remembered a story that I heard about Major Henry Rathbone.  He and his fiance, Clara Harris, were the invited guests of Abraham Lincoln to the play at Ford's Theater.  They were seated right next to Mary Todd Lincoln and were in close proximity to the President when John Wilkes Booth entered the room.  Lincoln was shot first and Major Rathbone stood up in order to protect him.  Booth stabbed Rathbone and then made his escape.  He bled profusely and almost died that night due to the fact that every doctor's attention was toward the comatose president.  Luckily, a doctor was prevailed to tend to him at Clara's insistence.  Until recently, that was all that I knew about Major Henry Rathbone.  I never thought about what happened to him later in life, but upon investigation, I realized that his life took a permanently tragic turn that night at the theater.  


Rathbone always felt guilty that he had been unable to save the President's life.  He felt that things could have been different if he had just stood up a little sooner.  His mental state began to slowly deteriorate.  He still married Clara, however, and they went on to have three children.  He retired from the Army two years later.  Rathbone and his family moved to Germany in 1882 when he was appointed to the US Consul in Hanover.  By 1883, his mind had become deranged with overwhelming guilt.  He shot Clara (just like Abraham Lincoln has been shot) and tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself (just like he had been that fateful night at Ford's Theater).  Clara died, but Rathbone's injury was treated.  He was admitted into an asylum for the criminally insane and remained there until his death in 1911.    

Major Henry Rathbone is standing on the left

Why "The Ravens"?

I've had such a busy weekend.  This is the first moment that I have had to sit down at my computer.  The reason why I have been parted from my most beloved computer can be summarized in one word:  Football.  All of my children are obsessed with the game.  They spend their free moments either watching football on tv, watching football clips on youtube, or playing football in the back yard (which is what they are doing right now).  The two oldest boys play on a flag football team named after the Baltimore Ravens.  Their coach is a former NFL player who played on the Ravens when they won the Super Bowl during their 2000 season.  As I was whiling away the hours on the football field today, I began to wonder how the Baltimore Ravens got their name.  I had a pretty good guess.  I thought that it had something to do with the famous story, but I had no idea how it was connected to the city.  So here is a little history of the Baltimore franchise.


Baltimore used to have a football team named the Baltimore Colts, but the team moved to Indianapolis in 1984.  The residents of Baltimore still loved football and were able to lure a new team to their town in 1996.  The Cleveland Browns were ready to make the move, but the city of Cleveland insisted that they retain the name.  Therefore, they had to come up with a new name for their team.  They held a fan contest in Baltimore and "The Ravens" won the vote.  The rejected choices were the Marauders and the Americans.  The reason why the city of Baltimore chose the name is because the famous author, Edgar Allen Poe, spent several years of his life in that city.  In fact, he died there at the age of 40.  One of his most famous works was called "The Raven."

Andrew Carnegie: Philanthropist or Tyrant?

As I was doing some research for the next book that I am writing, I stumbled across Andrew Carnegie's famous essay "The Gospel of Wealth".  In this essay, he describes the necessary elements of capitalism, but he goes one step further and expresses his desire for philanthropy.  He felt that it was his duty to build schools, concert halls, and libraries in order to help the poor improve themselves.  And while Carnegie is famous for his generous donations to the poor, he is also famous for owning the Steel Mill which had one of the most violent strikes in American History.  I was fascinated by this man who professed helping the lower class, but when push came to shove, supported the oppression of union workers.  So I did a little more research on the Homestead Strike of 1892 in order to find out just exactly where Andrew Carnegie's sympathies lay.

Wealthy steel manufacturer, Andrew Carnegie, was on his annual vacation to Europe when the strike at Homestead took place.  He had left his general manager, Henry C. Frick, in charge of the steel mill.  The steelworkers' three year contract was up for renewal and Frick decided to lower their wages.  Frick also announced that he would no longer deal with the union and would only talk to workers individually.  The union balked at the wage cut and tried to get in touch with Carnegie in Scotland.  They had hoped that Carnegie's earlier support of the workers' right to form unions would call him into action against Frick, but he remained silent against their pleas.  Carnegie did, however, keep in constant communication with Frick.  One message to Frick stated "We...approve of everything you do.  We are with you to the end."

Frick, apparently now with the full approval of Carnegie, built a 12 foot high fence around the steel mill and vowed to only admit strikebreakers into the plant.  In order to guard the fence, Frick hired hundreds of  Pinkerton detectives and made arrangements for them to travel on boats down the river to his mill.  The workers discovered the plan to bring in the detectives and waited by the banks of the river.  They warned the Pinkerton detectives not to step off the barge, but they did anyway.  An all-out gunfight commenced which lasted for several hours.  The workers threw dynamite at the boats and they even rolled a burning train car downhill toward the detectives.  The Pinkerton detectives retreated, leaving 3 of their own dead along with 7 strikers.

The workers did not celebrate for long because the governor of Pennsylvania sent troops to bring order to Homestead.  The National Gaurd was used to guard the fence around the mill and would only allow in strikebreakers.  The union tried to hold out, but in the end, many workers conceded and went back to work for less pay and for a longer workday.  The strike leaders were arrested and the union lost all their power in the steel industry.

All of these drastic changes happened while Carnegie was on vacation.  While he did nothing to stop it, Carnegie later declared that he regretted his inaction and support of Frick's strategies.  Years later, Carnegie built a library, concert hall, gymnasium and swimming pool in Homestead in order to help the poor.  But I highly doubt it got much use since the residents were so busy with their twelve-hours a day, seven-days a week work shifts.  Although, maybe they got to enjoy the new amenities on the one day off they got every month.