Historical gore

Gems from a Web site, Murders and Outlaws: Early Murders and Bizarre Deaths in Kaufman County, 1860-1930:

A C Stark, ex-sheriff of Rockwall County was murdered at Lawrence.
*Subsequent article:
Lawrence times - 21 Jun 1877 - George W Garner murdered A C Starks.  Garner's wife procured some poison, visited her husband in the county jail and they both were found dead there hours later, though evidence indicated she had a broken neck.

Augustus Weimer, formerly of Terrell but recently living in Dallas, was stabbed and killed by W H Shanks, a little, bow-legged, red-headed carpenter of that city.

Two of William Bateman's boys were gathering peas on the farm.  They quarreled and the eight year old stabbed the twelve year old in the heart, killing him.

Henry Hill, colored, was shot and killed Monday at the residence of his wife in Happy Hollow.  His son, Temp Hill, age 13, was arrested for homicide.  Witnesses stated Mr. Hill was after the boy with a rod.  He was a coke fiend and an unbearable nuisance. [A note indicates that Temp Hill was acquitted, no doubt with the gratitude of the community for ridding them of the unbearable nuisance.]

The remains of A B Clark, were found scattered along the railroad tracks near Crandall Thursday night.  The remains were carried to Crandall in a tow sack.

Wade through more of this stuff here. And you thought newspaper were slanted and people were tough in 2010.

Doomed republic

Herself just got back from a couple days of grandmothering in Austin. Came in bearing ribs from City Market in Luling. May the giving hand never falter. She went up to the state archives to do some genealoging and found she couldn't get into the monster parking garage. Asked someone in the history center and was told that American Idol was doing auditions and the garage had started filling up at 4 a.m. These morons believe that they are gonna be stars. All the morons in the country think they are gonna be stars, likely because they turn on their TVs and see morons just like themselves.
The DJIA dumped 265 points today, there are places in Cali with basic unemployment upward of 20%, the Russian wheat harvest is so low that they are limiting international sales, and these ninnies think they're gonna be rock stars. I'm telling you, the republic is doomed.

Late-breaking news

It's late Friday night, and who could resist this collection of journalistic tritetudes from the LA Times?

Lookie here

A connection from the Denver Post to a photo site showing some engrossing color photos of America in 1939 to 1943. You've got some of those famous Russell Lee Pie Town, N.M., photos but in color. I'm pretty sure Rosie the Riveter is eating with her friends in Picture #64. Scenes range from the Rockies to the rural South and big cities in the North. It's engrossing to look at those people 70 years back and think of how their lives were lived.

Why the Europeans are sometimes superior

In this country, we tend to follow as celebrities some of the trashiest and dreariest people imaginable, small-bore vulgarians with no impulse control. Look how much better the Spanish do this. From the Independent of the UK:

The Duchess of Alba, the grandest grandee in Spain, is said to be able to cross the country from north to south without leaving her estates, and possess as many titles as the Queen of England and of higher rank. But despite wealth and her bluest of blue blood, Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, 82, is being denied her heart's desire after her children scotched her plans to marry an antique dealer 24 years her junior.

Read it all here and be amazed how LiLo pales when up against against a really interesting celeb. Pipe the duchess's list of titles at the bottom and consider her forebear, the Duchess who probably posed for the Goya 'Maja' paintings.

Apparently there were complaints from some source, perhaps the lady's husband, about the fairly innocent nude, so Goya put some clothes on her and made her more lascivious and nekkid when clothed than when nude. Those Alba girls are such cut-ups.

All my life I wanted to see the Goya paintings in the Prado in Madrid and finally made it when I was 60. You should go to Madrid now; you could fall over dead during the holidays and miss this.

Attn Bayrat

For a well-known author, sportsman, and raconteur who requested it, here is the site that we will euphemistically call 'Things my children destroyed.' Even if you're not the Bayrat, you might find some familiar things in this collection of mass destruction by kiddies.

Sunday night stuff

Was across the street this afternoon talking to my role model for aging and helping keep his wine surplus under control. One good topic is always how badly things have deteriorated for working America.

Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French chronicler of early America, was once misquoted as having said: “America is the best country in the world to be poor.” That is no longer the case. Nowadays in America, you have a smaller chance of swapping your lower income bracket for a higher one than in almost any other developed economy – even Britain on some measures. To invert the classic Horatio Alger stories, in today’s America if you are born in rags, you are likelier to stay in rags than in almost any corner of old Europe.

Read the whole heartbreaker on the degeneration of American middle class here. It's from the Financial Times, a proper UK-published mag.
If I were young and frisky and wanted to see the world, I'd go off and teach English in faraway places. This, however, is an ad I wouldn't be responding to: Native speaking ESL teachers wanted immediately by Mongolia’s most prestigious ESL School. That ESL job site is fun to look at, notwithstanding.
Here's an interesting piece by Sen. Jim Webb, Saltine-Va., that ran on the WSJ editorial page.
And from a south-of-the border blog, Blog del Narco, these gory pix, photos of a Mexican massacre not too far from the busiest international land crossing in the US. This is an fascinating blog to browse, an aid to understanding just how terrible things are on the other side of the river.