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Reflecting on 2020 as we approach Thanksgiving…
November 23, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
“Count your blessings, name them one by one…”
2020 has certainly been quite the year. There’s no doubt it came with more than its share of difficulties; however, history is pregnant with years fraught with an abundance of pain, suffering, and death. I admit, there have been occasions when the onslaught of bad news has weighed heavily upon my mind, but thankfully, there have been more than enough moments when I’ve been checked back from allowing negative thoughts to win the day.
Such was the case when I took notice of the November 18, 1918 issue of the Springfield Republican (see below). In the midst of the horrors brought on by the Spanish Flu Epidemic, President Woodrow Wilson continued the presidential tradition of proclaiming a day for thanksgiving and prayer. What particularly caught my attention was seeing the bordered text of the Thanksgiving Proclamation surrounded on three sides by WWI reports from all over the world, a mere 6 inches from an article updating the readers of the current death toll of the pandemic. “A rose among thorns” came to mind, followed by a flashback to my childhood – as I could almost hear my (recently deceased) mother’s words yet again: “No matter how bad you think things are, there are people throughout the world who have it much worse than you do. Never stop counting your blessings.” Of course I wouldn’t always immediately comply, which prompted her follow-up: “Wipe that sour look off your face before it gets stuck that way.”
So, it is with these thoughts in mind I hope, wish, and pray for our “collecting” family to have a Thanksgiving overflowing with… thanksgiving.
When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Refrain:
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God has done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.
Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will keep singing as the days go by.
[repeat refrain]
When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings—money cannot buy,
Your reward in heaven, nor your home on high.
[repeat refrain]
So, amid the conflict whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.
[repeat refrain]
Lyrics by Johnson Oatman, Jr.
Snapshot 1945… America’s youth are too soft…
November 12, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
WW2 was finally over, but much was to be done. Trials, international agreements, boundaries of country’s which had been conquered by the Nazis… What to do with the millions who had lost their homes due to destruction, fleeing life-threatening circumstances, or having been carted off to concentration camps? What about the abundance of parentless children? How to rebuild? Who would pay for the rebuilding of countless areas of devastation? What about the atom bomb? What does this new power mean?
In the midst of all of these critical and time-sensitive concerns at the forefront of President Truman’s mind, one which caught my eye was found on the front page of a Wilmington Morning Star (NC) from October 24, 1945. What do we do to prepare our nation for future conflicts? While a great question, his focus was thought-provoking:
The youth of America are too soft, and something needs to be done, now!
The image below shows a portion of both Truman’s thoughts and his plan of action – initial steps which would eventually blossom into President Eisenhower’s “President’s Council on Youth Fitness” in 1956. These actions, along with similar measures taken over the 40 years to follow, led me to wonder whether it is time to take a look at this question once again. After all, raising up the next generation to be characterized by the fragile term “snowflakes” does not bode well for the future of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. 
Announcing: Catalog #300 (for November, 2020) is now available…
October 30, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 300 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 300 ($250+)
- Combined Catalogs (current, w/ remnants of previous)
Don’t forget about this month’s DISCOUNTED ISSUES.
The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days,
upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.
They Put It In Print (1918)… “The 19th Amendment fails by 1 vote…”
October 26, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Does one vote matter? Does every vote count?
Since the passage of the 19th Amendment, the impact of women on the political climate, and therefore, on both the course and civil fabric of the United States cannot be understated. Since 1964, more women have voted in presidential elections than men – as measured by both actual quantity and as a percentage of their respective genders. While this “right” was not realized until 1920, few know that the (women’s suffrage) Amendment nearly passed two years earlier, but came up short by a single vote. Sadly, not all Senators were present to vote. How do we know? They put it in print in The Christian Science Monitor (Boston) dated October 2, 1918. 
Harper’s Monthly & The Self-Made Man – Still Learning…
October 12, 2020 by Stephanie Williams · Leave a Comment
By natural inclination, I spend a fair amount of my spare time delving into the “women’s publications” within the Rare & Early Newspapers collection. Consequently, the title of the Editor’s Table of an 19th century issue of Harper’s New Monthly dragged me in, and in the spirit of fair play I decided to dissect and disseminate the contents, using the writer’s three questions.
Who is the Self-Made Man? In the author’s view, this is not the man who achieved much because of education, as education is an outside influence that detracts credit from the man. However, a self-made man can be educated. The one who is not educated, but rises to success in spite of the lack, is not necessarily self-made, as success does not equal the morality required in a self-made man.
What is the Self-Made Man? Again, this is not the one who commits good deeds, although a self-made man will be characterized by them. “The difference between the two characters is a moral one. It springs from the presence or absence of the humanitarian spirit. It is all the difference between the pure love of truth and the love of opinion.”
What is his true position for good or for evil among the powers of the age? Finally, all the negatives are set aside and the author clearly promotes a man who is driven to find truth — not in new discoveries or insights, but in the wisdom of the ages that has been tested by time, and continues to be trustworthy. Ultimately, the author highly esteems the members of the Protestant Reformation, and the things they accomplished. “It was an age where old truths were brought to light and re-established as old truths. It was a most serious age; it was a modest age; and in all these respects, especially in the latter, it differed widely from our own.”
The final condemnation of the modern era, male and female, is contained in the author’s closing remarks:
All the writings of every kind during that remarkable period, and, we may even say, the century that followed it, would not present so much of this frothy self-laudation, as may be heard in one Hope Chapel meeting of ‘strong-minded women’ and ‘self made’ men.
My collecting story… P.S. from City of Industry, CA…
October 8, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Below we continue our series in which we post the “stories” graciously submitted by our collecting friends during the pandemic of 2020.
The Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum in the City of Industry, California, east of Los Angeles, interprets the region’s history from 1830 to 1930 and, among the approximately 30,000 artifacts in the artifact collection are hundreds of historic newspapers, most dating to the 1870s, a key time period in our interpretation. Among the more unusual of the papers is the first of twelve issues of the “Willow Dale Press,” an amateur paper published by 13-year old Florence Carter and her 10-year brother, Arthur, children of rancher and developer Nathaniel Carter. The family migrated in 1874 from Lowell, Massachusetts to the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles for a reason many others did: health. Nathaniel Carter suffered from serious pulmonary issues and the temperate climate of the valley proved to be a balm for his ailments. The Carters, who bought their 17-acre spread from George Stoneman, a Union Army general during the Civil War and future California governor, and christened it “Willow Dale.” Widely known for its picturesque location, fine home, and its landscaping, Willow Dale was photographed by Carleton Watkins, famed for his images of Yosemite. The site is in today’s city of San Marino, very near the Huntington Library, Art Galleries and Botanical Gardens.
The Carter siblings were provided with a small foot-treadle operated press with a self-inking action made in Boston and which produced a dual-column sheet measuring 6 inches by 9 inches. The duo’s sheet was among many so-called “juvenile papers” published throughout the nation as literacy rates skyrocketed. This first issue, for January 1879, appeared late the following month, as one of the major dailies in Los Angeles, the Herald, noted in its Christmas 1878 edition that “we are indebted to our editorial confreres of the Willow Dale Press for a handsome chromo of the ‘Village Mill’,” this chromolithograph produced on their press being a free gift with a subscription, a savvy marketing tool for the young entrepreneurs, who were appealing “to our young friends” in making their “editorial bow.”
In fact, Florence and Arthur felt compelled to state “one of us has hardly reached, while the other has just entered our teens, and so our readers as they look over the paper will please pass judgment accordingly.” They intended “to present each month, a good selection of reading matter, with articles which will be written expressly for this paper.” They also added that “we will be glad to receive communications from any of the young folks, also charades, enigmas or conundrums which are original.” Moreover, the Carters expressed a willingness to exchange with other like publications and made the offer to “each month present for THE OLD FOLKS a column which we hope they will find interesting and profitable, as we find it the most profitable to us.” Another promotion was that a person who secured the most subscribers would get 500 cards with more than 200 types to choose from and room for up to three names, while the second and third highest producers would receive 300 and 100 cards, respectively. Elsewhere, the pair advertised for the “latest styles” in New Year’s presentation cards.
Humor, or the attempt at, proved to take up much of the space in the issue, including this example: a small store about ten feet by twelve in East Los Angeles [a neighborhood now known as Lincoln Heights] has three large signs—MARKET—upon it, which nearly cover the building. Florence said we rode along, she did not think they need “Mark-It” any more. Another bit of humor was reprinted from the popular Youth’s Companion, and told of a woman who got chills from sitting on a rock until she learned that it was a block of ice covered with carpets to delay its melting. For the “Old Folks Column,’ that consisted of an ad for a local doctor, a nearby nursery, and for the well-known resort, the Sierra Madre Villa, which was north of the Carter’s place.
Though the paper moved up in summer to a larger size of 9 ¼ x 7 ¼ with three columns and a new masthead with an increase in the subscription rate to 25 cents per year, at which time the Herald acknowledged receipt of the sixth issue and called the Press “a spicy, readable sheet,” the Carters only kept the journalistic endeavor going to the end of 1879. Two issues were produced by their father because Florence and Arthur took a long trip to see their maternal grandmother in Northern California. When the paper folded, the 
explanation was that the closure was due to “school work, baseball and archery,” these being childhood concerns that made eminent sense for the practical business decision reached by the young proprietors.
Just after the shuttering of the paper, the Carters moved to a new 103-acre tract known as “Carterhia,” while Nathaniel developed another 1000 acres and developed the town of Sierra Madre at the base of the chain of mountains once known by that name and later changed to the San Gabriel range. Florence later married a prominent Y.M.C.A. official in Los Angeles and raised a family. After she was widowed, she worked as a librarian and a Christian Science practitioner. Arthur, who remained at Sierra Madre, became a ranger in the newly created national forest in the mountains above the town and ran the Carter’s Camp resort in Big Santa Anita Canyon above Sierra Madre. Later, he was an orange grower in town, where he and his wife raised their family.
So, while the Willow Dale Press was short-lived, it was significant in that it was the first amateur or juvenile paper in greater Los Angeles and, in fact, was the first paper at all in the western San Gabriel Valley, as even the new town of Pasadena did not have one until the early 1880s.
As additional “stories” are posted they will be available at: MY COLLECTING STORY. We did this many years ago as well – and their posts are also included.
My collecting story… B. C. in Trion, Georgia..
October 5, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
Below we continue our series in which we post the “stories” graciously submitted by our collecting friends during the pandemic of 2020.
I am the published author of over a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction. A few years ago, my publisher suggested that I write a book about Kathryn Kelly, the wife of “Machine Gun” Kelly and also the “brains” behind the crimes they committed over several years. What little I could find about K
athryn was interesting, but since no other books had ever been written about her, research was difficult. I turned to the FBI Vault of historical documents and personally interviewed people who lived during the Great Depression and the “Gangsta” Era. And then I came across “Timothy Hughes: Rare & Early Newspapers.” It was like finding a gold mine. I was able to access the newspapers from that time period that followed the crimes and eventual arrest of Kathryn Kelly and Machine Gun Kelly. With this information, along with the other research I had gathered, I wrote the book, Kathryn Kelly: The Moll behind Machine Gun Kelly. It was recently optioned for a major film. The newspaper I have saved for my collection is “The Bethlehem Globe-Times” – Tuesday, September 26, 1933. On the front page is the headline: “Machine Gun” George Kelly Is Captured. The sub-headline reads: Desperado Surrenders Without Resistance – Wife Is Also Taken Into Custody.
As additional “stories” are posted they will be available at: MY COLLECTING STORY. We did this many years ago as well – and their posts are also included.
Announcing: Catalog #299 (for October, 2020) is now available…
October 2, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 299 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 299 ($250+)
- Combined Catalogs (current, w/ remnants of previous)
Don’t forget about this month’s DISCOUNTED ISSUES.
The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days,
upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.
They Put It In Print (1848)… “Lincoln that is, political gold, Illinois tea…”
September 25, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
A tremendous wag, hilarious, upright, a real gem… We recently uncovered the earliest “feature” article we’ve ever found regarding Abraham Lincoln – buried on the back page of the The Greensborough Patriot (NC) dated September 16, 1848. On the heels of gold having just been discovered in California, another golden-nugget was slowly becoming unearthed on the opposite side of the country – before the very eyes (and ears) of the nation. Although Lincoln was a relatively unknown senator from Illinois, a reporter heard him speak before The House and was impressed enough to take the time to record his observations. It appears this reporter, along with a host of others, would be drawn to the qualities which would set him apart from the pack, and would eventually propel him into the history books. How do we know? Back in 1848, they put it in print:
I can imagine, as articles such as this began to circulate, that the folks back in home in Illinois began to talk in Lincoln’s ear, and…
The first thing you know ol Abe’s politically extraordinaire,
Kinfolk said “Abe move away from there”.
Said “The Capitol” is the place you ought to be”
So they loaded him on a train and he moved to D.C.
The UNITED States would never be the same.
Announcing: Catalog #298 (for September, 2020) is now available…
September 1, 2020 by GuyHeilenman · Leave a Comment
- Catalog 298 (in its entirety)
- Noteworthy Catalog 298 ($250+)
- Combined Catalogs (current, w/ remnants of previous)
Don’t forget about this month’s DISCOUNTED ISSUES.
The links above will redirect to the latest catalog in approx. 30 days,
upon which time it will update to the most recent catalog.