On today’s date 153 years ago, Christmas Day, Saturday, December 25, 1869, notorious sixteen-year-old outlaw John Wesley Hardin (1853-1895), the son of a Methodist preacher, was playing cards at the town of Towash in Hill County, Texas, & had won many hands when a town tough, Jim Bradley, a big loser, suddenly jerked forth a knife & threatened: “You win another hand & I cut out your liver, Kid.” Hardin was unarmed at the time & politely excused himself. He went to his room & strapped on two six-guns.
☞That night, Hardin stepped into the main street of Towash wearing his two revolvers. Down the street stood Jim Bradley, who also wore a gun & had been looking for Hardin. Hardin walked toward Bradley who cursed him & then fired a shot in Hardin’s direction, the bullet missing its mark. Hardin’s hands flashed…
Heart-wrenching: 100 year old veteran breaks down, cries for America
“The things we did, the things we fought for and the boys that died for it, it’s all gone down the drain. Our Country’s gone to hell” pic.twitter.com/0TGrxVBq2N
— Kari Lake for AZ Governor (@KariLake) July 2, 2022
This is one of the nicest and most gentle articles I’ve read in a while with no politics, no religion and no racial issues – just food for thought..
You know, time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years. It seems just yesterday that I was young and embarking on my new life. Yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went.
I know that I lived them all. I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams. However, here it is, the last quarter of my life and all the other ‘Baby Boomers,’ but it catches most of us by surprise.
How did I get here so fast? Where did all the years go and where did my youth go?
I remember well seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that I was only on the first quarter and that the fourth quarter was so far off that I could not visualize it or imagine fully what it would be like.
Yet, here it is. My ‘Baby Boomer friends are retired and getting gray. They move slower and I see an older person now. Some are in better shape than me and some are in worse shape than me. But, I see the great change.
They are not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant, but like me, their ages is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we would become.
Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day and taking nap is not a treat anymore. It’s mandatory, because if I don’t take one of my own free will, I fall asleep where I sit.
And so, now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and agility and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did. But at least I know that, though I am on the “Last Quarter” and I am not sure how long it will last, and that when it is over on this earth, it is over. A new adventure will begin!
Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn’t done; and things I should have done, but truly, there are many things I am happy to have done.
It’s all in a lifetime.
So, if you’re not on the “Last Quarter” yet, let me remind you that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life do it quickly. Don’t put thing off too long. Life goes by so quickly.
So, do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether you’re on the “Last Quarter” or not. You have no promise of tomorrow or that you will see all the seasons (quarters) of life. So, live for today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember, and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things you have done for them in all the past years.
‘Life’ is a gift to you.Be Happy!Have a great day!
In 1911, the Triangle Waist Company occupied the top three floors of the 10-story Asch Building in New York City. The building was east of Washington Square Park, on the northwest corner of Greene Street and Washington Place in Greenwich Village. The Triangle Waist Company made women’s blouses, which were called “shirtwaists” and employed approximately 500 workers. These workers were mainly females who were young Italian and Jewish immigrants. They worked for nine hours each weekday and seven hours on Saturdays. They were paid between $7 and $12 per week, which was the equivalent of $197 to $337 per week in 2021 dollars. Source: (Wikipedia/color).
On Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire started in a scrap bin under a cutter’s table on the 8th floor. There was of course speculation as to the fire’s origins, with an article in The New York Times suggesting it may have been caused by the engines that ran the sewing machines, and Collier’s published articles related to patterns of arson in the garment industry as products fell out of fashion. The Insurance Monitor noted that insurance for manufacturers of shirtwaists was “fairly saturated with moral hazard” since the garment had recently fallen out of fashion. The owners of the company, Blanck and Harris, had had four earlier suspicious fires at their companies, but they were not suspected of arson in this case.
Working in the factory prior to the fire. Source: (Barbara’s Bookstore/colorized).
The Fire Started In A Scrap Bin
The scrap bin contained cuttings accumulated over two months prior to the fire, and the Fire Marshal later concluded that the fire was likely caused by an unextinguished match or cigarette in that scrap bin. Smoking was banned in the factory, but the cutters sometimes snuck smoke breaks, exhaling cigarette smoke through their lapels. There were hundreds of pounds of scraps in the wooden bin, which was under a wooden table, and hanging fabrics surrounded it, allowing for the fire to quickly spread out of control. Once the fire broke out, a bookkeeper on the 8th floor used a telephone to call employees on the 10th, but there was no way to reach those on the 9th. There were, of course, exits, which included two freight elevators, a fire escape, and stairways to Greene Street and Washington Place. The workers were unable to use the Greene Street stairs because of the flames, and management kept the door to the Washington Place stairway locked as they wanted to keep workers from taking unauthorized breaks, stop theft, and keep union organizers out. The key was held by a foreman who had already escaped using a different route. Some workers were able to escape via the Greene Street stairway, fleeing to the roof. Others packed themselves into the elevators while they were still operational. The fire escape was flimsy and not properly anchored to the building. Workers crowded onto it to flee the flames, and it collapsed with the heat and weight; 20 victims fell to their death on the concrete below.
People crowded to witness the scene. Source: (Library of Congress/colorized).
Some Escaped Using The Elevators
The first fire alarm was sounded by a passerby who saw smoke pouring from the 8th-floor window. Although the fire department arrived quickly, their ladder could only reach the 7th floor. Joseph Zito and Gaspar Mortillaro, the elevator operators, were able to help many people get to safety as they traveled three times to the 9th floor, but the rails of Mortillaro’s elevator buckled with the heat. Zito was unable to use his elevator after people pried open the doors and tried to slide down the cables or jump into the empty shaft, which warped the car and made it unusable.
People began to jump from the windows to escape the fire; 62 men and women jumped or fell to their deaths. All told, 146 garment workers died, 123 women and 23 men. They ranged in age from 14 to 43.
The fire carts pulled by horses. Source: (Library of Congress/Wikipedia/colorized).
Some Fled To The Roof
When the fire broke out, both owners were at the factory with their children. They were able to flee to safety on the roof and were followed by some of the workers. One of these women, Rose Freedman, was almost 18 on the day of the fire, and she became a lifelong supporter of unions as a result of her experience. The last living survivor, she died at 107, on February 15, 2001.
After the fire. Source: (US Department of Labor/colorized).
The Aftermath
Both owners were indicted on charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter, but they were found not guilty. They were, however, found liable of wrongful death in a civil suit in 1913 and had to pay the plaintiffs $75 for each victim. Incidentally, their insurance company paid Blanck and Harris $60,000 more than their reported losses, which amounted to approximately $400 per victim. Blanck was arrested again in 1913 for locking the factory door during working hours and was fined only $20. After the fire, the New York State Legislature created the Factory Investigating Commission, and New York State became one of the leaders in labor reform. One of the witnesses, Frances Perkins, would start to work towards reform. She would later be appointed United States Secretary of Labor, making her the first female Cabinet member.
A woman helping Santa Claus pack his trunk in a 1942 Chevrolet Special DeLuxe Fleetline Aerosedan. 🎅 Credit: Imbued With Hues. pic.twitter.com/FbJ0QcCF5r
There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "...truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity--it is simply true and that is the end of it" - Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” - Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
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