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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 3, 2019)
A4 THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2019 OPINION editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher DERRICK DePLEDGE Editor Founded in 1873 JEREMY FELDMAN Circulation Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production Manager CARL EARL Systems Manager WRITER’S NOTEBOOK SCRAPS OF THE PAST A family scrapbook serves as time machine to 1919 I t may be what my grandmother Hilda Bell observed, “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down and her mom had in mind a century ago on the Farm (After They’ve Seen Paree?)” when they made a World War I scrapbook: For a look at how our local area around the capturing the mood of that explosive time for Columbia estuary began bouncing back from the benefi t of an unknown grandchild. war, I turn as I often do to my newspaper’s Anyone who has ever set foot in an antique old bound volumes. Our news to this day is mall or junk store — the difference between largely invisible to outsiders, but Pacifi c and the two is fuzzy — has probably wandered Clatsop counties have long benefi ted from past dozens of scrapbooks. I’ve heard mak- robust journalism. (There is, incidentally, ing them is still a hobby, but it seems they were about to be an exception to our invisibility most popular from perhaps 1880 to 1940, when with the imminent publication of a major inexpensive color printing produced billions of New York Times Magazine article about images and newspapers were at their pinnacle. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforce- Most of these amateur archives have long since ment’s local impacts.) gone into landfi lls, victims of mildew and indif- Here are some items and observations ference. I did the same last year, culling a few from the fall of 1919: things from my mother-in-law’s odorous mod- • Immigration was much on people’s eling scrapbooks and consigning the rest to minds — not Hispanic people but war oblivion. brides and European fi shermen. “A news However, my cousin Mary Silsby — an hon- item tells of 40 French brides of Ameri- orary aunt who shares my idolization of fam- can soldiers setting sail from New York ily artifacts — recently sent me a much more for their native land, leaving their hus- interesting 1917-19 scrapbook mark- bands behind. … It is likely that ing the start of the Great War through its many war weddings were based immediate aftermath. Although its water- on nothing more serious than stained cover isn’t promising, its contents military glamour and that when are immediately accessible to any of we this was gone and the young few who can still channel my mater- men had returned to civilian life nal grandmother’s uncommon strains of the charm vanished.” In its 1919 humor, rural romanticism and uncom- session, the “Oregon Legisla- MATT plicated love of country. It is a precious ture passed a law providing that WINTERS peek into the mind of fi shing licenses a loved and constantly can be issued missed woman. I didn’t only to citi- know her mother, who zens,” with a essentially died of pov- few narrow erty in 1932, but there exceptions. are clues about her in its Immigrants pages, too. here were on It opens with a full- the receiving page photo of President end of this Woodrow Wilson with protectionist a doughboy clutching measure. his carbine on the fac- • “Gill- ing page. It closes with netters a photo of heroic wartime “food czar” Herbert operating in the lower harbor (on Hoover. In between are pages of magazine and the Astoria side) are making fairly newspaper clippings, postcards from the front, good hauls of chums, but only a ration coupons and government propaganda. small number of silversides are This is some of what caught my eye: being taken. As the chums bring • Most touching to me are images of strong, fi ve cents a pound, the returns to the fi shermen are good.” Ten cents a idealized women playing active roles in the war: pound was paid for silversides, or coho as they A female fl ying ace with her bomb, a soldier in the same uniform as the man beside her, a nurse are now more commonly known. The Columbia at a soldier’s bedside. I see grandma in all these, River Compact, a treaty ratifi ed by the U.S. Sen- never a bystander, always a model of strength. ate in 1915, was starting to be noticed by 1919, • “Save fruit pits and nutshells of all kinds much to local chagrin: “That compact robs the for gas masks” and “Save that shovelful of coal states of Washington and Oregon of their indi- a day for Uncle Sam.” vidual sovereignty and places it in the hands of • The original lyrics to “Over There,” includ- the Oregon Fish and Game Commission….” ing “Johnnie, get your gun, get your gun, get • Editorializing “Cut us loose,” the Chi- your gun; Johnnie, show the Hun you’re a son nook Observer on Oct. 31, 1919 urged merg- of a gun.” ing southern Pacifi c County with Wahkiakum • A Christmas postcard from a sweetheart to County. “In the immediate future the southwest grandma: “Just had inspection of rifl es, bunks portion of Pacifi c County will have far less busi- and personal appearance. Thanks to say I passed ness and trade relations with the north end than fairly well. I wish I could be with you Xmas and it has now, which is merely nominal and limited hope you will get my bits of writing for Xmas: to paying taxes … All the live wires of this end hope we will get plenty of writing paper now of the county are favorable to this change.” there is a Y.M.C.A. establishment here now. • Luscious red cranberries of the Centennial That is where I got this card. So Hilda write as and other varieties grown on the bogs of Clat- soon as you get my letter. My love to you …” I sop County are in the local market and are also don’t know who this was. Perhaps he died. She being shipped to other parts of the Northwest, married my grandfather soon after the war, but reminding one of the approach of Thanksgiv- always kept this note. ing day.” • With the maiden name Schreckengust and • On Oct. 24, 1919 advocating a cross-river lots of German genes, great-grandma and her ferry service — Capt. Fritz Elfving acted on daughter seem to take pains to demonize those the suggestion in the summer of 1920 — the dastardly Huns: “Armistice terms make Hun Observer said, “The lower Columbia river is pay for each drop of blood,” “Stamp out the now coming into its own. Astoria is develop- Hun.” ing and moving forward with prodigious strides Our scrapbook’s fi nal pages brim with in population, trade and wealth. It is bound to images of children hugging returning daddies increase rapidly in the future. The lower Colum- and hints of normality. Looking back, we know bia river can now be distinctively called Astoria that the 1920s were a prosperous time for many territory. … Let us all get together and pull for a Americans, while at the same time the Ku Klux Columbia river ferry.” Klan ran rampant in the South and the Pacifi c • “Notice: Fort Columbia, Wash., Oct. 20th. Northwest. A deep economic depression struck Owing to lack of funds for expense of opera- parts of the farming sector — another of my tion, it will be necessary on and after Nov. 1st to great-grandmothers committed suicide after charge 5 cents admission to the Moving Picture the family’s dryland wheat farm went bust in shows, to all persons not resident on the Mili- Montana. tary Reservation.” Racist tropes evident throughout our old • Logging remains a hazardous occupation, family scrapbook, directed at inhuman German but it’s horrifying how routinely men lost their Huns, may strike us as odd today. An enemy lives in our woods a century ago. An October from 1917 to 1945, Germany — of which the 1919 example from Big Creek Logging Co.’s Huns were one ancient ethnic group — has Knappa camp: Charles Fulton was instantly since World War II been among our closest killed and his companion John Warner severely allies. We ordinary Americans ought to always injured when “Suddenly the cable slipped, strik- resist efforts by the powerful to paint entire ing Fulton across the abdomen and cutting him nations as irredeemable villains. Sad to think nearly in two. He dropped to the ground dead. that our thirst for vengeance against the Ger- Warner was hit a glancing blow, his chest being mans helped set the stage for Hitler and World crushed, his back injured and his forehead cut War II. and bruised. … The dead man was about 40 years of age. … Tattooed on his breast were an Back home upturned dagger and the word ‘Madagascar,’ Aside from always welcoming insights about indicating he was a native of that country.” He departed loved ones, I’m also intrigued with had no known relations around here. glimpses in the old scrapbook of America’s All these nearly forgotten hard-working peo- lost times. Although the U.S. got off relatively ple of a century ago deserve to be folk heroes. lightly in World War I — 116,561 killed — it We wouldn’t be here without them. wrenched a generation out of complacency and Matt Winters is editor of the Chinook sent them tumbling into an adventurous time Observer and Coast River Business Journal. He of amazing change. As a song title of the time lives in Ilwaco. Photos by Matt Winters An illustration from 1917 or 1918 portrayed a female pilot with a bomb made to kill hated Huns, as Allied propaganda labeled all German enemies. It hints at the growing surge in female empowerment in the U.S. in the fi rst decades of the 20th century. LEFT: World War I helped lead to advances in roles for women and ushered in reforms including the right to vote. RIGHT: A poster pasted into a family scrapbook demonizes the German soldiers of World War I. A Christmas postcard to my grandmother from a sweetheart at the front.