Category: Life
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The Stranger Within the Gates
New York state passed its first antidiscrimination law in 1895, yet in 1921 it was still being flouted by businesses in all sorts of underhanded ways. But, of course, in actual practice, the suave young hotel clerk practices just such discriminations every day in the week. If he sees you coming and registers his inward […]
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Our Kill-Joy Autocracy
Prohibition’s ratification was but one piece of evidence revealing a larger trend: by 1921, wrote columnist Charles Hanson Towne, America was being run by “killjoys.” There is one maddening phase of all this nonsense — a point that pricks a sensible citizen to the bone — and that is the fact that the minority who […]
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Mrs. Grundy On the Job of Reforming the Flapper
In 1921, a debate raged among people over a certain age: how to reverse this disturbing new trend of young “flapper” women? In a general way the plans can be pigeonholed into two groups. There is the plan to chaperon [sic] the flappers on automobile rides and dances. And there is the diametrically opposed plan […]
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Should Women Choose Their Mates?
As women gained voting rights and more independence in 1921, a debate raged: should women choose their mates? Maude Radford Warren gathered several young men and women together to discuss the question for the New York Times Magazine. This concept was so novel that first it had to be defined. “Choosing,” said one of the men, […]
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Too Much “Verboten”
This 1921 column made an interesting case for why Prohibition should be ignored: because the constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race was also being ignored. Charles Hanson Towne wrote for the New York Times Magazine, describing his hypothetical monologue on the stand if he was arrested for drinking: I know what I […]
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Americanization by Addition
When immigrants from certain more “expressive” European countries would move to America circa 1921, the prevailing culture of the U.S. forced them to bottle up their emotions. In the old countries art was the outlet for emotions — not, as with us, a thing that you put in a frame or on a talking machine. […]
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Pocket Flask and Younger Set
By the second year of Prohibition, a generational divide had emerged: young people used hip flasks to consume alcohol, while older people mostly did not. Something has really happened to cleave the Young Generation of today from the generations that have gone before it. Something specific has happened in the history of sociology to mark […]
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The Downtrodden Sex
In 1920, the year women were given the right to vote, this column argued it was unfair that women now had equal voting rights as men without the same potential military draft obligations. In this the newly enfranchised female citizen enjoyed a distinct advantage over the male. The latter must with his citizenship assume military and other burdens, while […]
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Turning Tide in the Domestic Servant Market
In 1920, New York City “domestic servants” like cooks and houseworkers cost $65 or $75 a month, down from $80 or $90 a year prior. Why? Workforce supply was catching up with customer demand, due to immigration and women losing factory jobs they’d temporarily held during World War I. For the New York housekeepers, it would […]
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Dead Letters Among the Laws
In 1920, it became illegal to drink alcohol. But during ancient Greek times, at certain celebrations it was illegal to be sober. How far we’d come. From a 1920 New York Times article: Laws which have been nominally enforced for decades have became dead letters, some of them without going through the form of repeal. Is […]
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