Helen Korngold Diary: October 27-November 2, 1919

Helen Korngold, December 1919, New York City

Helen's father has been ill for some time. After graduating from Washington University, Helen quit one teaching position and was a temp at a school she loved. She has been home doing housework and worrying about her father. He is finally rallying.

October
Monday 27
Up & around

Tuesday 28
May get up tomorrow

Wednesday 29
Up & around quite a bit. I don’t like this housekeeping.

Thursday 30
Pop is much better

Friday 31
Up for the most part

November
Saturday 1
Junior Council meeting – Pop is all right. We went to grandma’s today.

Sunday 2
We all feel relieved Pop ate dinner with us.

*****

In the news:

An army surplus store was opened in the city.

The coal workers have gone on strike and the newspapers report limited supplies at local dealers.



GOMPERS SAYS INJUNCTION ONLY INCREASES BITTERNESS President of Federation Asserts Court Order Raises New Issues and Won't Fill Empty Stomachs. By the Aneiated Press, WASHINGTON, Nov. 1.
Samuel Gompers, speaking for organized labor last night, declared the injunction in the coal strike case "can I'nly result in creating new and more disturbing issues, which may not be confined solely to the miners."

The statement, issued jointly by Gompers, Vice President Woll and Secretary Morrison of the Federation, after they had protested to Attorney-General Palmer against the-action of the Federal Court at Indianapolis, follows: "Throughout the period of the war and during the nation's time of stress the miners of America labored patiently, patriotically and arduously, in order that the principles of freedom and democracy might triumph over the forces of arbitrary authority, dictatorship and despotism.

"When armed hostilities ceased to undertake to suppress the legitimate last November the miners found themselves in the paradoxical position where their intensive labors were being used to further enrich the owners of coal mines and merchants dealing in coal by the immediate reduction of the mining of the coal."

Of course, the mine owners readily conceived that an overabundance of mined coal would seriously disturb the high prices of coal and endanger their large margin of profits.

On the other hand, the miners found that with the constantly rising cost of necessaries of life and with their income reduced more than 50 per cent because of idleness, they had reached the limit of human endurance.

Orderly and improved processes were invoked to negotiate a new understanding with the mine owners and which would enable the miners to work at least five days during each week throughout the entire year, and allow them a wage sufficient to enable them to live decently and free from any of the pressing uncertainties of life.

In attempting to negotiate this new understanding and relation, the miners found that their plea for continuous employment would destroy the mine owners' arrangement to curtail the mining of coal so as to continue exploiting the public with high and exorbitant prices.

The mine owners very cleverly met the Issue by appearing willing and anxious to negotiate, but only if the miners would first throw aside the only power at their command to gain a respectful hearing and fair consideration the decision to strike whenever it was demonstrated fair dealings did not prevail.

We are now faced with a coal strike of vast magnitude. The Government now proposes to intervene because of a possible coal shortage. Apparently, the Government is not concerned with the manipulation by the mine owners which has made for present coal shortage and undue unemployment of the miners for the last 11 months.

Instead of dealing with those responsible for this grave menace to the public welfare, it now proposes to punish those who by force of circumstances have been the victims of the coal barons' exploitation. The miners are now told the war is not over and that all war legislation is still in force, and if reports received here are correct the Government intends to apply existing war measures, not against the owners of the coal mines, but against the coal miners.

The Government has taken steps to enforce war measures by an injunction and it lias restrained the officials of the United Mine Workers from counseling, aiding or in any way assisting the members of this organization for relief against previous conditions of life and employment.

It is almost, inconceivable that a Government which is proud of its participation in a great war to liberate suppressed peoples should now undertake to suppress the legitimate aims, hopes, and aspirations of its own people. It is still more strange that a nation which may justly be proud of its Abraham Lincoln should now reverse the application of the great truth be enunciated when lie said that as between capital and labor, labor should receive first and foremost consideration.

The injunction against the United Mine Workers bodes for ill. An injunction of this nature will not prevent the strike, it will not fill the empty stomachs of the miners, it may restrain sane leadership, but will give added strength to unwise counsel and increase bitterness and friction. This injunction can only result n creating new and more disturbing issues, which may not be confined solely to the miners.

These views were presented to Attorney-General Palmer in a conference lasting nearly two hours by President Gompers. Secretary Morrison and Vice President Woll, of the American Federation of Labor.

Palmer said he told the union men that they were at liberty to say to either side in the strike that the President is ready to act immediately to have the controversy settled amicably whenever the strike is called off.

"I explained the necessity for the action," Palmer said, "and the manner in which this case must be differentiated on its facts from all other cases in which injunctions have been used. I have been opposed and the administration has been opposed to government by injunction, were by employers might use the processes of the courts on an ex-parte hearing to force their employees into submission.

This is the Government itself, using its own courts to protect itself from paralysis. It is not an injunction obtained by employers, not for the benefit of employers, not to settle the controversy, but to save the people of the entire country from disaster. It doesn't affect the right of a man to work when he pleases.
CLIPPED FROM
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis, Missouri
01 Nov 1919, Sat  •  Page 2

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 2, 1919



St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Nov. 2, 1919
My husband owns this machine!

Helen Korngold Diary: October 20-26, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Helen and her family have been distraught over her father's illness.

October
Monday 20
A trifle better

Tuesday 21
Still in bed, but he is very sick yet.

Wednesday 22
Improved.

Thursday 23
Lots of guests – Mr. Sigler, Lipshitz, Russack, Steiner, Thurmond. Grandma – Mrs. Levy

Friday 24
Pops still in bed.

Saturday 25
Guess he can’t get out so soon.

Sunday 26
He is much better. Mrs. Waldman & Aunt Jennie came

Notes:

Oct 26
Aunt Jennie Frey Rosenblum (1873-1953) was Helen's maternal aunt.
Jennie married Jonas Rosenblum. Jonas and Jennie were granted a divorce on November 29, 1898. Jonas remarried in 1904.

Like her sister Beryl, Jennie was a music teacher. The 1910 US Census for St. Louis shows Jennie and her son Irl living with her parents. Irl became an attorney.

Feb. 22, 1911, from St. Louis Post-Dispatch:


July 9, 1953 death notice in St. Louis Globe-Democrat:

*****

The Frey family history:

Benjamin Frey b. 1816 in Rzeszow, Galacia, Austria, immigrated in 1865.

He married Yitel Kressel and they had child David Joshua Frey b. 1840 in Rzeszow.

David married Sophia Hertz (b. 1846 in Germany and d.1929). The 1880 US Census for St. Louis shows he ran a clothing store; in 1900 he was a traveling salesman. David tragically died in December 1901 as this St. Louis Globe-Democrat article reports:



David and Sophia had children Beryl and Jennie, music teachers; Abraham Benjamin, lawyer and judge; Helena; Joseph who was a druggist; and Eva, Helen's mother.

Sophie died in 1929.


December 19, 1928, St. Louis Globe-Democrat newspaper article of Judge Frey's retirement:


"Judge A. B. Frey was the guest of honor at a testimonial dinner given last night at the Hotel Coronado, in recognition of his record on the bench from which he will retire the first fo the year. The dinner was attended by 500 of his friends. most of them attorneys, and the members of the St. Louis bench. Former Mayor Henry W. Kiel acted as toastmaster at the dinner. at which addresses bearing on the service of Judge Frey during his tenure of office were given by a number of his associates. Judge Frey himself spoke in appreciation at the conclusion of the program. Walter J. G. Neun, attorney and president of the Board of Aldermen made the first address in which he spoke of the reputation and standing Judge Frey has admired among his fellow members of the bar. When Judge Frey retires, Neun said he will leave a clean record and will retain the regard of his fellow lawyers as a man who has worked hard and who deserves every tribute and praise which can be paid to him. Judge Frey displayed an unusual amount of fairness and consideration in all the cases brought before him, Neun said, and always assisted lawyers In their problems. Judge Henry A. Hamilton did great work for the instruction of his successors in the profession. and that his relations to the other judges were always indicative of a great desire to co-operate. and to carry out the dictates of justice. Judge Hamilton praised his practical knowledge and willingness to give considerable time to research." 

April 21, 1930 article The St. Louis Star and Times on Joseph Frey assuming editorship of The Modern View newspaper:

Dec. 15, 1931 article in St. Louis Star and Times:

****

In the news this week in 1919:

October 20, 1919, article from the St. Louis Star and Times



WIDE HIPS AND HIGH COLLARS PARIS has many ways of obtaining the new silhouette. So clever are the methods of producing It that they sweep away every objection to things that suggest panniers and hoopsklrts. The straight, narrow little frocks that have been so dear to feminine hearts appear uninteresting' beside the new arrivals. In a most Ingenuous manner they have eliminated all the undesirable features of the wide hip silhouette, leaving only what is charming. These new things make a clever psychological appeal for permanent success, not only through the adding of something new which every woman loves, but through the expression of youth in their lines. There is also a change in the waistline of our newest clothes. Now it has been dropped to Just below the normal, which we have always considered a trying point at which girdle the figure. So this is only- further evidence of the cleverness j expressed in our new clothes, because the longer waistline tends to flatten the figure from back to front when the sides are extended, so that there is absolutely no curve in spite of the so-called hip draperies. The bodice appears as curveless as a child's figure, thus bringing a great deal of youth into these designs. We may, therefore, dismiss the fear of making cur figures appear older which made us so loathe to abandon the straight chemise dress. Every woman is interested in knowing some of the ways In which this new silhouette is obtained. One French designer makes a straight black satin dress of chemise type and girdles it about two inches below the normal curve at the waist; then, on either side of the dress, she places narrow panels which support ever so many frills of beige colored lace, billowing one over the other from the waistline down to about eight inches above the hem. The black underdress Is very skimpy, so that the frilled panels In no way take away from the close outline of the figure. In coats the hip extension is attained both through the cut of the garment itself and through stiffening devices. Many coats have actual crinolines Introduced in their interlining. A model from Premot has sling-like pocket arrangements through which slips a girdle of fur. The bodice of the coat is cut to a very low waistline and a high Diretcorie collar bordered with fur is added. This may be said to be one of the most interesting coats to appear at the recent French openings. Many of the new dresses have high muffling collars. Some are of the Directoire type; others arc. of the straight, round, wrinkled style. Judged from a standpoint of beauty and becomtngncss they add nothing to the new dresses. Many of them are detachable, permitting them to be easily removed if desired.

Helen Korngold Diary: October 13-19, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Helen's family faces a crisis.

October
Monday 13
My last day at Maplewood. I just hate to leave. Everybody was lovely – teachers & youngsters too. Well, I was a big fool to turn down Mr. Richmond’s offer, but it’s too late to regret.

Tuesday 14
Papa is sick. Don’t know what’s wrong. Spent a sleepless night of it.

Wednesday 15
Pop is getting worse. I can’t imagine what we are going to do. Hope he gets better.

Thursday 16
Pop is still suffering. Makes it so hard for him.

Friday 17
Eloise is here. Thank goodness.

Saturday 18
Pop had a terrible night. He’s so weak.

Sunday 19
Worse and more of it. No time.

*****

I wish I knew more about Jacob Korngold's illness. I checked the newspapers and did not see any communicative illnesses mentioned. I don't find an Eloise on the family tree. 

October 14, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times articles:

This article provides an idea of what Helen's teaching income would be when she became full time: $850 a year for a graduate of Harris Teaching College where Helen's sister Otilia* graduated in 1925.

Idea beauty in 1919:

October 15, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times articles:

There was a great fear of Bolsheviks, or Reds, who could foment unrest by supporting unionizing. The newspapers are filled with articles about unionizers being arrested. A nationwide coal strike was going on at this time. It was warned the Midwest only had three weeks of coal left.

October 18 , 1919, St Louis Star and Times, cartoon on prohibition:

In 1919, Percy Grainger (1882-1961) had left the army and was offered the position of conductor of the St. Louis Orchestra! He decided to continue his career as a concert pianist.

Oct. 21:

*****

*1925 Harris Teaching College graduates including Helen's sister Otilia

Helen Korngold Diary: October 6-12, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Helen is enjoying her temporary teaching job at Maplewood High School.

October

Monday 6

At it again. I certainly like it.

Tuesday 7

Too bad Sudie likes this job. I like it too.

Wednesday 8

Getting along fine

Thursday 9

There are some [illegible] that are in that Soph class, but all the others are dear.

Friday 10

This was a fine day. Good lessons & senior dance. Danced with the principal & some of the classy boys & girls.

Saturday 11

I certainly liked this school.

Sunday 12

Satellites – Ed Stiff

Notes:

October 11

On March 2 of the year, Helen went to Temple Society with Ed Stiff (b. 1895).

In the news:

On October 2, 1919, President Wilson was found by his second wife Edith after he suffered a stroke. The newspapers reported that he was doing fine when actually Wilson was totally incapacitated. "The president had a good night's sleep," Rear Admiral Grayson reported to the paper. "His condition is favorable." On October 6, Wilson was reported as "Eager to Return to Work."

It was an outright lie. In fact, Edith ran the country until Wilson's term of office ended in 1921.

Oct. 11, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, fashion sketches from the Veiled Prophet's Debutant ball Organized in 1878, the social group patterned their ball after Mardi Gras. 

In 1919 the Queen was Marian Franciscus.

An October 7, 1919, St. Louis Post-Dispatch article avers that women are more beautiful without corsets.

"The first physician with whom I talked was pretty, blue-eyed, blonde-haired Dr. Radmila Lazarewitch, representing Serbia at the conference. Her husband is attached to the Serbian Legation in Washington. "Women," she said, "are not only more healthy without corsets; they are more beautiful and charming. That is why I do not believe they should be put on any healthy young girl. If the corset is to be worn at all, it should be by the fat woman of forty who is not strong enough to hold herself properly, or by the woman who has had an operation and whose muscles have not regained their strength and elasticity. Think for how many hundreds of years women lived without corsets before they were invented!"

Dr. Lazarewitch went on to explain how exercise and good posture can help women keep an attractive shape." 

Helen Korngold Diary: September 29 through October 5, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Continuing Helen Korngold's 1919 diary...
After several boring weeks at home, Helen gets a teaching position substituting at Maplewood High. She likes it much better than Wellston.


September
Monday 29
Washing. I didn’t help.

Tuesday 30
Finished up ironing.

October
Wednesday 1
Substituting at Maplewood High. I’m crazy about it. Can’t see why I didn’t take that job in the beginning. I was a big fool.

Tuesday 2
I certainly like Maple

Friday 3
Mr. Richmond & Gooch are dears

Saturday 4
Such nice children, too. Yom Kippur

Sunday 5
The school was beautiful.

NOTES:

Friday 3

A Wilbur I. Gooch appears on the 1920 St. Louis Federal Census working as a high school teacher. He was born in Minnesota in 1885 and was married to Nellie, age 22.

In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper of October 5, 1919, the licensing of auto drivers is discussed.

"A recommendation that every employed person driving an automobile should be compelled, by State law, to pass an examination and take out a license, is one of the remedies proposed for automobile accidents in the report of the June grand jury, submitted yesterday to Judge Klene. It was pointed out that in 1918 there were 420 persons killed in accidents and that the number in 1917 was 510. Many Of the deaths were due to automobile accidents, besides numerous persons crippled or injured. The estimate was made that damage from automobile and vehicle accidents alone amounts to 1525,000 a year."

Sales on fall fashions:



And a shipment of antique and modern Chinese embroidery arrived:

A SALE OF Chinese Embroidery Work
We have received a shipment of wonderful antique and modern hand-embroidery work from China and are placing it on sale tomorrow. Owing to lack of space in the Oriental Bazaar, this merchandise will be displayed on Squares on the Main Floor, as well as in the Sixth Floor Oriental Bazaar.
Mandarin Coats, besides being worn as negligees, may be cut and made into scarfs, runners and lamp shades. The colors and embroidery are beautiful. Prices are $10 and $15 Mandarin Skirts, beautifully embroidered on background of orange, red, blue, yellow, black and green. At $3, $5, and $15 each.
Even for children there are Mandarin Coat Suits, all-over embroidered, at $5 and $7.50
A special group of Obies, used as sashes to adorn the flowing gowns of Japanese women. Exquisitely woven in brocades, suitable for fancy bags, $5 and $10 apiece.
Sleeve bands that may be used for scarfs and other decorative uses. They are here in the greatest abundance of designs and colors, at $1.oo, $1.50 and $2 per pair. Skeleton Doilies by the hundreds. Little hand embroideries, so arranged as to be ready to be appliqued on doilies, table runners, lamp shades, etc. Your choice, 15c, 25c, 50c and $1 each.
 Mandarin Squares for fancy work, circle and oblong shape, $1.98 and $2.98
On sale on Squares 15, 16 and 17 on Main Floor, and in the Oriental Bazaar on Sixth Floor.

State-of-the-art home equipment promised to "eliminate the drudgery of hard work."

Outfit three rooms at $139.50 or $2.50 a week! $2.50 adjusted for inflation would be $37.07 today. What a bargain!


I love this Black Jack gum ad. My dad bought it and other Adams gums in the 1950s. You can find Black Jack today at specialty stores. I saw it in JoAnne Fabrics!

And I loved these brownies or elves making candy.

What an adorable ad of children's toys!


A whole page of movie, theater, and vaudeville-

Helen Korngold Diary: September 22-28, 1919

Helen quit her first teaching position and is back at home, bored. After all the excitement of her senior year at Washington University and a trip to Colorado, these last months have been dull. Even her birthday does not deserve much attention in her diary.

September
Monday 22
Wash day again.

Tuesday 23
Received pictures & letters from Mae – she’s engaged

Wednesday 24
I was ironing today

Thursday 25
Ironing – party

Friday 26
I was pretty blue. Ida left for Portland.

Saturday 27
This was my birthday.

Sunday 28
Not much doing

Notes:

Sept. 26

Ida Goodman's address appears at the beginning of the diary as in Monument, KS. Helen wrote Ida a letter on April 10. On May 1, Helen wrote, "Ida is here! I drove over to see her. She's darling." On May 2, Helen wrote that Ida came for dinner and they stayed up until midnight talking. On June 29 and July 30, Ida also came to Helen's home.

I have not been able to pinpoint Helen's friend in the records.

Researching in The Jewish Voice on Newspapers.com, I discover an Ida Goodman was a Sabbath School teacher at Montefiore Congregation. There is an Ida Goodman married to the St. Louis Zionist Chapter founder Sam Goodman. There are lots of Ida Goodmans as a married name!

I found an August 1818 wedding of an Ida Goodman to a George Willis of Kansas City. But no Ida Goodman marrying in 1919! 

In the news, there was a national steel strike involving riots and deaths; the ice dealers reported that cooler weather saved St. Louis from an "ice famine," the ice being depleted after a long, hot summer; and there were 2,000 dead from a hurricane striking Texas.

I noted this article in the Sept. 23, 1919, St. Louis Star and Times because Helen was friends with Florence Funston, mentioned in the diary on Jan. 8, 1919. The Funston Brothers were digging a foundation for a new building when a 'prison' was discovered.

Century-Old Cellar, Apparently a Slave Prison. Excavated Here Men Digging for Foundation of New Building at Fourth and Market Streets Find Sub-Cellar With Barred Window and Fire Place.

Excavation of ground at the southeast corner of Fourth and Market streets for the new eight-story building for Funsten Brothers & Company yesterday revealed a prison-like sub-cellar apparently constructed about 100 years ago when Broadway lit the western boundary of St. Louis. 

The odd formation of the cellar, apparently unattached to any of the buildings that had surrounded or covered it lent color to the belief that it might have been a part of the old fort that was in the vicinity In the early days. This belief, however, Is not shared by Walter B. Douglas, vice president of the Missouri Historical Society. 

The cellar was about 25 feet square, and lay about 50 feet east of the Fourth Street line and about 80 feet south of the south line of Market Street. It's walls excepting the south wall have been torn up to make way for the new $700,000 building for the fur exchange. The top part of the wall had been covered and an alleyway built over it. 

About six feet from the eastern wall, apparently, was a flue that led upward from the basement, while five feet west of this was an iron-barred window about three feet square. Because of its prison-like appearance, it gave rise to the belief that it was the burial place of Pontiac, the Indian chief murdered at Cahokia, Ill., in 1769 and brought to St. Louis for burial by Gov. St. Ange de Belle-rive. 

Mr. Douglas examined the excavation yesterday to find out whether there could be any connection between the cell-like basement and the famous Ottawa chief. "I came to the conclusion that the cellar, while very old. was constructed many years after Pontiac's death," said Douglas. "The bars, for instance, are of cast iron, and if they had been put in before Pontiac's death they would have been wrought iron. Apparently, the place was constructed for the slaves of St. Louis families. The fireplace to the left of the barred window shows that it was built with a view to habitation. In addition, the contractor tells me that the flooring was apparently of cobblestones." 

Douglas said the cellar could not have had any connection with Pontiac's burial place, because, so far as he can learn, the spot where the Indian was burled was about seventy-five feet south of the south line of Market street halfway between Fourth Street and Broadway. He called attention to-the tablet to the Indian's memory on the left wall of the Broadway entrance to the Southern Hotel, which he said as placed there merely because it was the nearest available place to the grave. Nor could the building have been any part of the old fortification, which stood north of Elm Street between Broadway and Fourth Street and extended northward for about seventy-five feet north of Walnut street. 

Douglas said that there was an old graveyard north of the old fortification for the burial of those who could not be Interred in the cemetery of the Catholic Church. Pontiac, not being a member of that church, consequently, was buried in the cemetery north of the fort, which would be south of Market Street between Fourth Street and Broadway. 

The date of 1815 was fixed as the date of the building by Judge Douglas from the fact that the structure which originally covered it was of brick. The oldest brick building in St. Louis, according to Judge Douglas, was erected in 1813. He is of the opinion from the character of construction that the cellar was constructed some time afterward. 

CLIPPED FROM

The St. Louis Star and Times

St. Louis, Missouri

23 Sep 1919, Tue  •  Page 3