Day by Day 1921

A day by day listing of worldwide and local events in the year 1921. (This is the Long Years Between - 1921 document, without the written scenes between main characters.)

1921

January

1st - Jeremiah Bolan turns himself in for the killing of Monk Eastman following a firestorm of criticism against the Bureau of Prohibition for his hiring, especially given a past dug up by newspapers, including a history of liquor dealing. Bolan defends the killing as self-defense, and is convicted of manslaughter, three to ten years in prison. United States Representative Lester B. Volk of Brooklyn severely criticizes the Prohibition Bureau over the incident, stating that it “was only one instance demonstrating the need for improvement in the personnel of the (Prohibition) enforcement core.”

7th - The New York Evening Post publishes a report from New York City’s Department of Public Welfare stating that the rate of the number aof admissions to the city’s alcoholism wards has doubled since the beginning of Prohibition.

9th - The trial of Godfrey Lowell Cabot comes to an end, as his lawyer is able to achieve a not-guilty verdict on a technicality. Coakley thunders, in another open letter, that the trial is only further proof to both the power and the corruption of his accusers, bent on destroying the Irish in Boston.

13th - British troops manning a checkpoint at O’Connell Bridge, Dublin, open fire on a crowd of civilians, killing two and seriously wounding five.

14th - The ''New York Times exposes an illegal liquor ring operating in the office of the Bureau of Prohibition’s New York state director, Charles O’Connor. Using liquor permits, O’Connor and three former employees of the bureau had set up a system to divert legally warehoused liquor to be sold on the black market.

20th - Under the leadership of Michael Brennan, the IRA in Clare ambush an RIC lorry in Glenwood, killing six RIC men, including RIC District Inspector William Clarke, with the escape of two wounded. The IRA take the weapons and over 1000 rounds of ammunition. In reprisal, British forces burn 21 homes in the vicinity and arrest 22 people.

21st - Charlie Chaplin, a beloved international star since 1916, releases his first feature length film, The Kid, the story of a friendship between an orphan and Chaplin’s famous character, the Tramp, as they struggle to survive through poverty and city life. A combination of comedy and drama (billed as “A picture with a smile - and perhaps, a tear.”), it is the first comedy to combine such elements. It is wildly successful, enhancing the already prodigious popularity of Chaplin, its star, writer, producer and director.

28th - British troops in County Cork are tipped off about an upcoming IRA ambush by a local Loyalist, Mrs. Lindsay, and are able to capture five IRA Volunteers and kill two others. In reprisal, the local IRA execute Lindsay and her chauffeur, James Clarke.

February

1st - Cornelius Murphy of Millstreet, County Cork, is the first IRA Volunteer to be executed under martial law.

14th - Supposedly in support of a peasants and workers rebellion there, Soviet forces invade Georgia.

15th - Under Charlie Hurley, an IRA column from the 3rd Cork Brigade mounts a disastrous attack on a train transporting British soldiers at Upton County Cork. 3 IRA Volunteers are killed and 3 more captured, 6 civilian passengers are killed and 10 wounded in the crossfire. 6 British soldiers are wounded, 3 seriously.

17th - In an interview with the New York World, Henry Ford defends The International Jew articles published by his newspaper, and their primary source ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'', saying, “The only statement I care to make about the Protocols is that they fit in with what’s going on.”  Ford emerges as a respected spokesman for right-wing extremism and religious prejudice.

- Clergymen in Philadelphia, responding to the new clothing trends which have dress hems nine or more inches off the ground, introduce what they refer to as the “moral gown”, a very loose fitting outfit for women, with sleeves that reach just below the elbows and a hem that comes within seven and a half inches of the floor. Parisian dress makers respond derisively to the outfit, saying, “fellows in America are always trying to suppress something. First it is alcohol, then it is tobacco and now it is the liberty to dress as one pleases.”  They further characterize the outfit itself as “resembl(ing) a sack.”

20th - 12 IRA soldiers are killed in Clonmult, County Cork by British soldiers and Auxiliaries who surrounded and ambushed them in a house. The soldiers alleged a false surrender and killed everyone in the house, as well as wounding four other Volunteers and capturing a further four, with only one able to escape. Suspecting an informer is to blame, the IRA kill six suspected informers in the following week.

24th - Famous Anti-Saloon League campaigner William Anderson unleashes a tirade against New York City Mayor Hylan and NYPD Commissioner Richard E. Enright, who both were in attendance at the Police Lieutenants’ Benevolent Association’s annual dinner the night before, where alcohol was clearly being served and a retired police lieutenant was arrested later in the night for disorderly conduct and intoxication. Anderson calls Hylan “a blatherskite monument to the political folly of the electorate of New York City,” and further lambasts both men for presiding over a “drunken orgy.”

25th - After heavy fighting, Soviet forces capture Tbilisi, the Georgian capital and declare the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. They continue to march forward, aiming to conquer the rest of the dying state, which they soon do.

28th - The five IRA Volunteers captured using Mrs. Lindsay’s information are executed by firing squad, along with one other Volunteer.

29th - In retaliation for the previous days executions, the IRA shoot and kill 6 off-duty British soldiers and wound 5 more in numerous attacks in Cork.

March

4th - President-Elect Warren G. Harding takes the oath of office and assumes the Presidency. His first official act is to banish the sentries Wilson had placed to guard the White House and let the American public roam the grounds as they please. The act seems to symbolize the return of the government to the people.

5th - Harry M. Daugherty, a political insider, assumes the office of Attorney General of the United States.

6th - The Mayor of Limerick, George Clancy, former mayor Michael O’Callaghan, and Volunteer Joseph O’Donoghue are shot dead in their homes during the night by George Nathan, a British intelligence agent, assisted by an Auxiliary.

10th - A large British force carries out a large scale sweep at Nadd, Cork, finding and surrounding a house with six members of the IRA inside. Two are able to escape, but the other four surrender, at which point they are immediately shot dead.

11th - After some debate, Dail Eireann officially declares war on Britain.

19th - The IRA Cork no. 3 Brigade, comprising roughly 100 men, under Tom Barry, engages 1200 British soldiers at Crossbarry, County Cork. The IRA are able to avoid capture, inflicting between ten and thirty killed on the British side, losing 3 Volunteers, with 3 more wounded.

21st - The Kerry IRA attack a train at the Headford junction near Killarney. The British report 7 soldiers dead and 12 wounded, the IRA two Volunteers and three civilians dead.

April

3rd - Vincent Fouvarge, an IRA informer, is shot dead near a golf course in London, England. A note is left saying, “let spies and traitors beware. -IRA.”

5th - New York State Governor Nathan Miller signs the Mullan-Gage Enforcement Law, an incredibly strict state-level equivalent of the Volstead Act which furthers the powers of law enforcement as related to Prohibition by making it a crime to carry liquor on one’s person without a permit and shifting to the accused the burden of proof as to whether the liquor was owned legally. It also mandates that violators be tried in the Court of General Sessions, the main criminal court of New York State, against the opposition of nearly every district attorney in the state, who claim they will be inundated with liquor cases. According to the press, the law effectively makes carrying a hip flask in New York the legal equivalent of carrying an unlicensed handgun (which will get you about one year worth of jail time). Miller is careful to state that the NYPD, who had been trying to dodge the bullet on Prohibition enforcement, will play a major part in enforcing the Mullan-Gage Law. William Anderson calls it “the most amazing state enforcement law in the country,” while the New York Times publicly opposes it, saying it would “require the placing of a policeman in every saloon.”  Prohibitionists around the country work to pass similar laws in other states.

12th - A week after the passage of the Mullan-Gage Law, New York City police have pursued an aggressive anti-liquor campaign, making more than 400 Prohibition-related arrests and seizing over a million dollars worth of illegal liquor. Wayne Wheeler, the famous leader of the Anti-Saloon League, personally extends his congratulations to Commissioner Enright, adding “The whole country is watching with great interest your splendid efforts.”  According to Enright, the Mullan-Gage Law has doubled the workload of the New York City police department.

17th - Massachusetts Attorney General J. Weston Allen files petitions for the removal of Nathaniel A. Tufts and Joseph C. Pelletier from their offices of District Attorney for Middlesex and Suffolk Counties, respectively. He also files a petition for the disbarment of lawyer Daniel Coakley and former District Attorney for Middlesex William Corcoran. Further, Allen announces the upcoming trials for Tufts and Pelletier for the taking of bribes, fraud, and blackmail to occur before the five justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the first time in 60 years for the Supreme Judicial Court to preside over any disbarment proceedings. Tufts, a Mayflower-descendant and Republican, like Attorney General Allen, will be tried first, beginning in September.

23rd - Two Black and Tans are killed by two IRA gunmen in central Belfast. As they make their escape, they exchange fire with other RIC men and two civilians are injured in the crossfire. Loyalist gunmen kill two innocent Catholic civilians in reprisal, and further, uniformed RIC men assassinate the Duffin brothers, well known Republican activists.

30th - New York newspaper the Irish World highlights a new trend in behavior in response to Prohibition, noting that “one of the most surprising results of our new policy is that many who were entirely indifferent to alcohol have begun to drink it out of a sort of defiance of that kind of legislation, and because it requires secrecy and smartness.”   Many other papers and social commentators are noticing the same thing.

May

13-15th - A general election for the parliament of Southern Ireland is held, with Sinn Fein winning 124 of new parliament’s 128 seats unopposed. Its elected members refuse to take their seats, however, meaning that under the Government of Ireland Act, Southern Ireland’s parliament would be dissolved and it ruled as a crown colony. The English government is unable to establish control, however, and over the 14th and the 15th of May, the IRA kills 15 policemen, marking the complete failure of the Coalition Government’s Irish policy.

19th - The Emergency Quota Act is signed into law by President Harding, restricting the amount of incoming European immigrants allowed into the U.S. to 3 % of the number of residents in the U.S. from the same country as the incoming immigrant in the Census of 1890. Said to be a measure to protect American culture, the Act itself cuts legal immigration rates by more than half and is harshly criticized as being enacted in response to the millions of Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. The fact that the Census used as a benchmark is arbitrarily 1890, before the influx of Jewish immigrants, lends credence to this accusation.

24th - Northern Ireland holds its first general election, with Sir James Craig elected the 1st Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.

25th - The Dublin IRA occupies and burns the Custom House, the center of local city government in Dublin. The building and IRA are quickly surrounded by hundreds of British soldiers, resulting in the deaths of 5 IRA Volunteers and 3 civilians and the capture of about 80 IRA Volunteers. This remains the biggest single loss for the IRA during the course of the war so far.

June

2nd - The IRA’s West Mayo Flying Column ambushes a convoy of RIC and Black and Tans, killing nine and wounding four. The remaining 17 surrender and their arms are seized. Despite official allowance and the fact that the Black and Tans are known for particularly brutal retaliation, the remaining prisoners are allowed to go free, resulting in much of the surrounding countryside going into hiding. The IRA themselves avoid retaliation by hiding for a time in safe houses scattered throughout the countryside. Despite the setback in Dublin 9 days previous, the IRA are increasingly successful in their guerrilla warfare against the British.

6th - The British government calls off their policy of house burnings as official reprisals against rebel activity in Ireland, making a reconciliatory gesture in an attempt to establish diplomacy and to ease the international criticism aimed at them for their actions in Ireland.

10th - The Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 is signed into law by President Harding, a landmark bill that establishes the framework for a modern federal budget, rather like budgetary boards for businesses. Specifically, it creates the Bureau of the Budget, a subsidiary of the Department of the Treasury, to overlook the preparation of the annual federal budget and to supervise its administration in the various agencies of the Executive Branch. Charles G. Dawes, former Comptroller of the Currency under McKinley and former General, serving during the Great War, is announced as the head of the new Bureau. The act is part of the new view of politics taken by the Harding administration, not only friendly to business but as like business as possible, a view that Dawes agrees with and enforces.

22nd - King George V of England, making the first such gesture by the British government in response to the Irish War of Independence, delivers a speech to the Parliament of Northern Ireland, calling on “all Irishmen to pause, stretch out the hand of forbearance and conciliation, to forgive and to forget, and to join in making for the land they love a new era of peace, contentment, and goodwill.”

24th - The British Coalition Government’s Cabinet decides to propose talks with the leaders of Sinn Fein.

27th - The Black Sox trial begins in Chicago with the selection of jurors.

July

2nd - Irish-American heavyweight champion of the world Jack Dempsey defeats challenger Georges Carpentier in a four round knockout while 91,000 people watch, the largest audience ever assembled in boxing history. It is also the first fight broadcast nationally via the radio, reaching thousands more.

-Long deferred due to political haggling over American membership in the League of Nations (which didn’t happen) President Harding finally signs a resolution declaring peace with Germany.

4th - Thousands of ethnic New Yorkers march against Prohibition in a protest parade up Fifth Avenue. The march includes people of Irish, Italian, German, and Negro descent, among others, all carrying American flags and holding signs protesting their treatment under Prohibition. Luminaries like New York Mayor Hylan, veterans groups, a contingent from the Grand Army of the Republic and others march with them.

9th - A truce is reached between Eamon de Valera, political leader of Southern Ireland, Michael Collins, military leader of Southern Ireland, and David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the UK, to be effective July 11th.

10th - The IRA stage an ambush in Raglan Street in Belfast, killing two policemen, sparking a riot in west Belfast, a pitched fight between Catholics and Protestants in the region. 16 civilians, 11 Catholics and 5 Protestants, lose their lives and 161 houses are destroyed, 150 of which were Catholic owned. The riots and shootings continue over the next two days, causing the deaths of four more civilians.

-A fifth child, and third daughter, is born to Rose Kennedy, daughter of former Boston mayor John Fitzgerald. She is named Eunice Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy’s husband, a banker named Joseph P. Kennedy, away on business at this time, is reportedly “very happy.”

11th - The truce goes into effect. Most IRA Volunteers consider it to be a temporary respite, and continue recruiting and training new Volunteers. Official violence continues in Northern Ireland and unofficial violence continues in Southern Ireland.

14th - Negotiations for a treaty between the UK and the Irish begin.

19th - Former Vice Presidential Candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt is denounced for his actions as Assistant Secretary to the Navy in 1919, along with then Secretary to the Navy Josephus Daniels, by the Senate Committee for Naval Affairs. The Committee accuses both men of using “enlisted men...as participants in immoral practices for the purpose of obtaining evidence,” which practices are “of an unprintable nature.”  The committee also makes public the findings of a naval court-martial, which reported that Daniels’ and Roosevelt’s actions in a particular investigation were “reprehensible.”  Roosevelt rejects the denunciation, claiming it was delivered by the two Republican members of the Committee, while the Democratic member issued a minority opinion. He said further, “This business of using the navy as a football of politics has got to stop.”

22nd - Assistant State Attorney George Gorman, lead prosecutor in the Black Sox trial, reveals that the confessions of former White Sox players Cicotte, Jackson and Williams, have disappeared. He further casts aspersions on Arnold Rothstein as the culprit. The case against the players and the gamblers begins to crumble.

23rd - Responding to growing public anger over the Mullan-Gage Law, particularly to Commissioner Enright’s decision to post police officers in cabarets and nightclubs which had repeatedly violated Prohibition laws, resulting in hundreds of officers effectively doing nothing for entire shifts, New York City’s Corporation Counsel announces that the city will not defend police officers in any court action related to illegal searches stemming from Mullan-Gage enforcement, stating, “New York is still at the mercy of the Federal enforcement crew...but it need not also be at the mercy of its own police.”

- In response to the pleas of New York judges and prosecutors concerning the enormous backlog of as yet untried Mullan-Gage cases (almost 10,000 by now, mostly held up because the law required these to be felony jury trials), Governor Miller calls a special session of the State Supreme Court to address that backlog. Called the “rum court” by the press, this session treats Mullan-Gage violations as misdemeanors with felony penalties, allowing the cases to be tried without juries. The special session disposes of hundreds of Prohibition cases with a 70 percent conviction rate over seven weeks, but still leaves 300 cases untried as it ends, with the backlog growing back daily.

30th - New York City Police Detective Charles Tighe goes berserk after four men ignore his announcement of a raid in a Ninth Avenue Saloon, smashing up the saloon and beating customers with his nightstick. When a crowd gathers to see what the commotion is about, he attacks them, beating people at random, even women and children, according to eyewitnesses. He appears to be intoxicated. After being subdued by other local police, he is charged with assaulting 40 people and sentenced to two years in Sing Sing. This is one instance in a pattern of police abuse connected with Prohibition across the country.

August

2nd - After deliberating just three hours, the jury for the Black Sox trial returns a verdict of not guilty for all those accused.

3rd - Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Commissioner of Baseball, announces that he is banning the eight now-acquitted Black Sox players from the game for life, despite the acquittals.

16th - 18th - Writing for The Times, Philip Graves exposes The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a forgery, a plagiarism of Maurice Joly’s 1864 political satire ''Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu.''

22nd - William J. Burns, celebrated and controversial detective, head of the William J. Burns International Detective Agency, is confirmed as Director of the BI.

25th - Franklin D. Roosevelt is stricken by a disease, possibly polio, and hospitalized. It seems likely he will make a full recovery.

27th - Mabel Walker Willebrandt becomes the first woman to serve as Assistant Attorney General of the United States. She is the highest ranking woman in the federal government and oversees the division of the Justice Department specifically dealing with federal taxation, federal prisons and the enforcement of Prohibition.

28th - The newest Fatty Arbuckle film, Crazy to Marry, is released. It’s an immediate success, continuing the incredible career of its star, now a multi-millionaire.

30-31st - 18 people are killed during street battles in Belfast, 9 Protestants and 9 Catholics.

September

4th - The New York Times reprints the articles from The Times exposing The Protocols of the Elders of Zion as a forgery. Henry Ford’s ''The Dearborn Independent continues to publish its International Jew'' articles.

8th - The first Miss America Beauty Pageant is held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with the winning contestants of other beauty pageants across the country competing there to become “Miss America.” Though promoters are careful to stress the wholesome, traditional look of the woman on display, they nonetheless parade before 100,000 spectators in their bathing suits. Margaret Gorman of Washington, D.C., wins the contest, of particular note being the one-piece bathing suit she wore in contrast to other girls, dressed in bathing suits closer in resemblance to summer dresses and not as form fitting as the one-piece. The one-piece bathing suit skyrockets to popularity among Americans.

- Aspiring actress Virginia Rappe dies of a ruptured bladder in Hollywood. Her friend, “Bambina” Maude Delmont, reports to the police that they had both been at a party three days earlier, during which comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle raped her. Police surmise his weight during the act caused her bladder to rupture, leading to her death, and charge him with the rape and murder of Virginia Rappe.

24th - Violence continues in Belfast, with a grenade being thrown at a loyalist mob as they advanced towards a nationalist part of the city; 2 are killed and over 20 injured.

31st - The newspapers have picked up the story of the death of Virginia Rappe, particularly William Randolph Hearst’s ''San Francisco Examiner'', covering the story in lurid, graphic detail, reporting that Arbuckle crushed Rappe with his weight and raped her with a foreign object, commonly reported to be a long block of ice. The newspapers, and most of their reading public, assume Arbuckle’s guilt. Hearst is said to boast the scandal is selling more newspapers than the sinking of the Lusitania.

October

1st - District Attorney Nathaniel Tufts is refereeing at a football game in New Jersey, a part time occupation of his, when he is handed the news of the decision of his trial. He is convicted of “wilful misconduct,” and removed from his position as District Attorney of Middlesex County. He receives the news stoically. The trial of District Attorney Joseph C. Pelletier is set to begin on the 20th of December, 1921.

2nd - Joseph Pelletier shocks Boston with the announcement that he will run for mayor in the upcoming December election. In a speech announcing his intentions, Pelletier blames his recent troubles on the actions of “bigots” in the Yankee dominated Watch and Ward Society, Boston Bar Association, and Good Government Association. He declares this upcoming mayoral contest to be a battle between the “blue bloods and the new bloods”, a decision of “whether the classes or the masses will rule.” Also running is John R. Murphy, former head of the Finance Commission that investigated Curley’s first term for financial improprieties and fire commissioner under incumbent Mayor Peters, as well as two other candidates, Charles H. Baxter, a Back Bay Republican expected to go nowhere, and Charles O’Connor, school committeeman, businessman and recent newspaper owner, who is also expected to garner little attention. Finally, former mayor James Michael Curley is running for his second term. It is speculated that the popularity of Curley and Pelletier among the same population, Irish-American voters, could be their undoing and result in a win for Murphy, the GGA endorsed candidate.

9th - The delegation from Dail Eireann arrives in London, negotiations begin in earnest.

- Prohibition agents in New York almost start a riot when they attempt to force their way into Game 4 of the World Series, between the Yankees and the Giants, by claiming they are on “official business.” When denied entry by ticket takers, they refuse to leave until the police forcibly remove them from the line while angry fans look on. Federal Prohibition Commissioner Roy Haynes issues new orders barring agents from using their badges to gain admission to places of amusement.

14th - Numerous Boston newspapers publish “A Letter to the Women of Boston from Mary E. Curley,” advocating for the election of James Michael Curley, based on his record, particularly in relation to the immigrant and ethnic poor of the city and in support of women’s causes, and also because of his “warmheartedness,” his genuine love and respect for the people of Boston. Curley himself calls for Irish-American women to register and vote so as to counteract the registration drive among women conducted by the GGA against Curley.

15th - A Bronx grand jury, totally discouraged by the complete disregard for constitutional rights and proper search procedures shown by police enforcing the Mullan-Gage Law, subpoenas Commissioner Enright to personally explain the tactics of his officers. Unsatisfied by his explanation, the grand jury publicly recommends that the Mullan-Gage law be repealed.

21st - The Sheik, an adaptation of the best-selling Edith Maude Hull novel of the same name, premieres. The film is a romance between a British girl and the Arab Sheik who captures her. Controversial for a toned down rape scene (which was decidedly not toned down in the book, and which controversy was at least half as much due to what some critics felt was a disservice to the “moral” of the book by obscuring the rape, a key part of the British girl’s necessary submission to male authority) and the following romance between the rapist, the Sheik, and the rape victim, the British girl, the film is an instant and abiding success, securing star Rudolph Valentino’s status as a film star and sex symbol for decades to come. Partially out of faithfulness to the book and partially out of satisfying film censors, who would never allow a miscegenous relationship to be portrayed on screen, the film climaxes with the revelation of the Arab’s British and Spanish parentage.

26th - Frances Scott Fitzgerald, child of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, is born.

November

11th - The Unknown Soldier, an unidentified American soldier brought back from France, is interred in a three level marble tomb as a monument to all the soldiers who have fought and died for America. A solemn ceremony is held in their honor, and the speeches given are broadcast to crowds assembled throughout the United States. A radio craze begins sweeping the nation.

11th - 18th - Margaret Sanger, renowned and reviled birth control activist, holds the First American Birth Control Conference in New York City. As the last day draws to a close, police raid the meeting, though Sanger is soon released. The American Birth Control League is founded.

12th - Delegates from the United States, Japan, England, China, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal meet in Washington for the Washington Conference for the Limitation of Armaments, called the “Arms Parley” by the press. Convened to discuss the prodigious amount of ship building going on in the U.S., Britain, and Japan, the Conference hopes to head off any future conflicts over the Pacific Ocean, in which all the represented nations have some stake. Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, chairman of the conference, opens with a detailed program of what he hopes to achieve, that being a ten-year naval holiday among all represented nations, during which no ships would be built; the abandonment of all capital-shipbuilding plans; the scrapping, by the U.S., Britain, and Japan, of almost two million tons of ships built or building; and the limitation of replacement kept to a 5-5-3, ratio, of the U.S., Britain, and Japan, respectively. His daring speech and proposal is met with thunderous applause.

14th - The trial of Roscoe Arbuckle, charged with manslaughter, begins. It quickly takes on circus proportions, with Arbuckle fans booing prosecution witnesses and cheering defense witnesses, particularly Arbuckle himself. His estranged wife, Minta Durfee, appears regularly in the courtroom to support Arbuckle. District Attorney Brady parades a slew of witnesses, a local nurse saying it was very likely Arbuckle raped Rappe and bruised her body while doing so, a criminologist claiming to have found Arbuckle’s fingerprints smeared with Rappe’s blood where the party took place. However, the local nurse, Betty Campbell, reveals in cross-examination that Brady threatened to charge her with perjury if she didn’t testify against Arbuckle. The defense also produces a hotel maid, who testified that she had both cleaned the hotel room before the investigation even began and had not found any blood in it. Numerous doctors attested that the ruptured bladder could have been caused by any number of things, even cancer. Arbuckle presents a good image when taking the witness stand, answering clearly and directly.

21st - 25th - 30 people are killed during violence in Belfast.

30th - With Boston’s mayoral race coming closer to the election and Curley, Pelletier, and Murphy still going strong, the city is in a political furor. Predictions are that Curley and Pelletier will tear each other apart, allowing for Murphy, backed by the GGA and therefore assured of the votes of the Brahmins and Republicans, to assume the mayoralty. In the midst of this a local paper makes a stunning surprise announcement - a press agent boasting that Curley is so confident of his victory and his rightness for the people of Boston that he’s willing “to leave it to anyone in Boston who knows anything about the fight” to pick the best candidate to go against Murphy. A phone call to Mrs. Curley confirms the candidate’s willingness to put the fate of the city to an arbitrator, to decide between Curley and Pelletier, the latter hotly engaged in a legal contest over allegations of fraud, bribery, and extortion.

- James Craig blames Sinn Fein for the recent violence in Belfast and calls for increased enrollment and police enforcement. The Divisional Commissioner of the RIC in Northern Ireland orders his men to regard the truce as non-existent.

December

1st - Pelletier has already named his representative, a Daniel Gallagher, to meet with Curley’s man and decide who should decide between them. Curley’s press agents announce that Curley has chosen Teddy Glynn, a stalwart of his for the last couple decades, as his representative. Glynn immediately makes himself scarce, though his flaming red hair renders his attempt almost comical in nature.

- ''The Scientific Monthly'' publishes “Studies in Infant Psychology,” a study conducted and written by Dr. John B. Watson and Rosalie Raynor Watson. It details the soon-to-be infamous “little Albert study,” wherein a baby is conditioned to react in fear towards random stimuli (a rat, a rabbit) by clanging on a pipe whenever he touches it. It’s considered a fairly significant, if controversial, advance in the scientific study of behaviorism.

2nd - Teddy Glynn is found out and meets with Daniel Gallagher, representing Curley and Pelletier, respectively. Negotiations conclude with the announcement of an arbitrator, who will hear arguments from Glynn and Gallagher in support of their candidates at the Parker House after accepting signed withdrawal statements from both candidates, and then decide. The man chosen for this is William Monaghan, elected leader of Ward 2 and long time Democratic powerhouse in the city.

3rd - The New York Times declares that corrupt, brutal, and undisciplined Prohibition agents have turned Prohibition itself into a farce. William Ross, the United States attorney for Brooklyn, complains of the agents he has encountered that “many of the (bureau’s) men were absolutely crooked, and a still larger number absolutely inefficient.”

4th - The trial of Roscoe Arbuckle concludes. After 44 straight hours of deliberation, the jury returns deadlocked with a 10-2 not guilty verdict, and a mistrial is declared. Arbuckle must go to trial again. Members of the jury reveal that one holdout was a woman named Helen Hubbard who had stated in private that she would vote guilty “until hell freezes over,” refusing to discuss it or even look over any of the court documents.

6th - Negotiations for the Anglo-Irish Treaty are finished. The provisions are that British troops will withdraw from most of Ireland, and that the Irish Free State would be a self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth of Nations, with the British Monarch as the head of that dominion. Members of the Irish Free State’s Parliament are required to take an Oath of Allegiance to the Irish Free State, with a secondary part to “be faithful to His Majesty King George V, his heirs and successors by law, in virtue of the common citizenship.” Northern Ireland is given the option of withdrawing from the Irish Free State, with a Boundary Commission created in the event of withdrawal to decide where the boundary between the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland will be. Britain will retain control of a number of ports for its own security and the Treaty will hold superior status in Irish law, meaning it supersedes any future Irish National Constitutions in the event of a conflict.

- Northern Ireland immediately opts out of the Irish Free State.

13th - James Michael Curley defeats John Murphy in the race for Mayor of Boston. Beginning in March, he will serve his second term in the office.

14th - The Dail opens debate on the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The debates are caustic, with the current Irish government split nearly in half on whether to approve it or not. In particular, Eamon de Valera stands against it, and Michael Collins stands for it.

18th - The New York Times reports a story containing the words of one New York Prohibition agent, stating, “Give me the money and I’ll dry up the place in a jiffy...But it will take money and plenty of it.” He further stated that enforcing Prohibition in New York was possible, but that “it will take a great deal more money than the Government will ever consent to spend to make it dry.” The Bureau of Prohibition continues to be totally underfunded nation-wide.

- Reflecting on the recent re-election of James Michael Curley for Mayor, the New York Times states, “Presumably the GGA connotes in too many Boston minds the Back Bay, evening dress, Rolls Royces and ‘the interests,’” equating Curley’s victory to his skillful technique of aligning his enemies with groups like the GGA, and aligning the GGA with anti-Catholic, anti-ethnic, anti-immigrant and anti-Irish sentiment.

20th - The trial of District Attorney Joseph C. Pelletier begins. Former District Attorney William Corcoran, under indictment for the same crimes as Pelletier, Coakley and Tufts, turns state’s evidence, testifying against the other three and confessing to three counts of accepting bribes and obstruction of justice. Summing up the trial, Attorney General Allen excoriates Pelletier, stating that, “The sword of justice was placed in his hands and he has made of it a highwayman’s club. He has used the scales of justice to weigh the price of corrupt favors.” Attorney for the Defense Senator James A. Reed of Missouri delivers a four hour summation, in which he suggests that the entire motive for the trial is anti-Catholic prejudice and a Watch and Ward vendetta, citing Pelletier’s exemplary service in the Knights of Columbus and the naming by Pope Benedict XV of Pelletier as a knight of the Order of Saint Gregory, a high honor. He finishes by comparing Pelletier to “a gallant steed” and the Watch and Ward society to “a lizard (who) fastened his crooked teeth into his flank and there hung on until, at last, the glorious steed, whose feet had spurned desert sands, whose nostrils had drunk in the breath of morning, was dragged down to death.”

25th - William J. Burns announces that he’s cracked the Wall Street bombing, blaming the attack on Lenin and Communist spies in New York, of the latter each were paid $30,000 for the job. However, his “source” is quickly exposed as a swindler who worked as a professional stool pigeon for the Burns Detective Agency in New York, and the evidence is revealed to be a complete invention. The case remains unsolved.

- Coco Chanel, the famous Parisian clothes designer mainly responsible for the “look” of the flapper, and the subsequent revolution in women’s fashion and social acceptability, releases Chanel No. 5, a perfume line meant to complement her clothing designs, the Chanel Suit. This release is a further step towards uninhibited, willful sexual expression as part of the new independence of the modern woman.