When Things Go Wrong

 

From time to time
everyone suffers an accident.
It's bad luck. It's fate.
It's life.

And after every accident
we are forced to puzzle over
how it happened.
Did something break?
Was some idiot not looking? 
Could it be my fault? 

Nahhh!
Sometimes it's just

Panne désespérée
~ 
Desperate failure

In this colorful picture an automobile appears to have struck something that has left its front wheels askew. The driver and two male companions mull over the cause while in the back seat a female passenger nonchalantly checks her hair and hat.  

The artist is Fritz Schönpflug (1873–1951), an Austrian postcard illustrator whose keen eye painted hundreds of clever caricatures of the people living in his native city of Wien (Vienna) during the last years of the Hapsburg Empire. Check this Schönpflug link for more of my stories on his postcards.

His playful cartoon was poking fun at a relatively new recreation in Wien at the time, riding around town in a motorcar. In the 1900s the automobile was a luxury vehicle designed to compete with horse-drawn carriages that for centuries had conveyed wealthy people around city streets. But, like any novel invention, as soon as people adopt a new thing, they figure out ways to get into trouble. The breakdown or crash of an automobile was not unlike similar accidents with horses and wagons. But for Schönpflug the fun was watching people try to figure out what went wrong.

This postcard was sent on 3 July 1913 from Glons, a village of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium.

* * *

Sometimes a mishap
thankfully involves
no one else but ourselves.
The accident then produces
a moment of quiet reflection
as we contemplate our brush with destiny. 
What is our purpose in life?
Or,

Kdybych jen věděl, co ten uzel má znamenat! 

~
If only I knew what that knot was supposed to mean!

A poor fellow is hung up in a tree branch after crashing his car into it. Since he is speaking Czech there may something lost in the translation of the punchline, but I think it refers to the way some people used to tie a knot in a handkerchief to remind them of some task or appointment.  

The artist of this postcard is Carl Robert Arthur Thiele (1860 – 1936), also known as Arthur Thiele. He was a contemporary of Fritz Schönpflug but came from Leipzig, Germany. I've featured a lot of his humorous postcards on this blog. Check out more under the Thiele label. Thiele (pronounced "Tee-la") was very prolific and produced thousands of different scenes in series with different themes. This card is part of a set made in the late 1920s or early 30s. This particular card has a typewritten address and handwritten message in Czech but no postmark. However the writer did include date numbers 1/10-30 for 1 October 1930. 

* * *

Typically it's the bumps in the road
that trip us up most often.
In those instances
it's always best to keep
a firm hold on the situation. 

One reason I love Fritz Schönpflug's illustrations is that his pictures beautifully capture motion which photographs at the time were unable to do. In this postcard an open-top motorcar has just hit a stone road marker tossing the driver and his passengers into the air. Like the previous cartoon, Schönpflug and Thiele do not portray car accidents as horrific as they became in our modern era. Of course the speed and weight of vehicles was then much lower than it is today resulting in more injuries than deaths.

This card was never posted but Schönpflug's signature has 904 after it which stands for 1904. 

* * *

It's a universal truth
that the best lessons in life 

come when we have a narrow escape
from a terrible accident.
This is especially true
when a close friend is involved.

Quel bonheur!  Tu as échappé au massacre! 

~

What a joy! You escaped the massacre!

This illustration shows a pretty young lady on the roadway after her automobile has slammed into a utility pole. As she struggles to get up, she sees that her teddy bear is dazed but unharmed. The person who sent the card added a little stick figure and caption to the picture but I couldn't translate the word. 

This postcard was also painted by Arthur Thiele and is possibly a companion to the previous one in the same series. The card was sent from Brussel~Bruxelles, Belgium on 29 June 1934. 

To demonstrate how civil authorities in other parts of the world
responded to the increasing problems of automobile accidents
here is a British Pathé road safety film entitled
The Other Man Reel 2 (1950-1959).

It begins with a rather officious British constable and halfway through
changes to children in toy cars and an example of a careless driver.

For more entertainment value, again courtesy of British Pathé,

here is an American 1949 public service short
filmed in Los Angeles, California.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where something old is always something new.

A Circus in Cuba

 

Waiting for a train
is an activity everyone should appreciate.
Maybe not children, but at least most adults
know that it's a test of patience and often stoicism.
You can never trust a railway clock or timetable.
A train will leave only when it wants to. 
It pays no attention to a passenger's watch or schedule.

This group of people appear to have given up on their train
as they are not even on the platform anymore
but literally sitting/standing on the tracks.
They don't look like a random throng
but seem more organized and orderly
as they've brought along a brass band for entertainment.

Perhaps their composure is because
they all operate on the most reliable of all timetables.
For when that band plays they know for sure—

It's Showtime at the Circus! 

The full photo postcard has a handwritten caption.

Circo Canaries - Season 1922-23
CUBA

This odd mix of people are members of a traveling circus in Cuba. On the railway carriage behind them are stenciled letters "Ferrocarril de C" which is Spanish for "Railway of Cuba". And below the carriage windows, partly blocked by the people, is a poster that spells "Circo Canaries". This postcard was mailed from Habana–Havana, Cuba on 3 May 1925 to Maude Bernard of Limestone, Florida. 

Havana  May 1st
Dear Maude
We are off to
States  Sunday
Tatsie (?)

{The kindly old fellow pictured on the red stamp is Máximo Gómez (1836–1905), who, according to his Wikipedia entry, was "a Cuban-Dominican Generalissimo in Cuba's War of Independence (1895–1898). He was known for his controversial scorched-earth policy, which entailed dynamiting passenger trains and torching the Spanish loyalists' property and sugar plantations—including many owned by Americans."}

I was attracted to the picture for several reasons, obviously for the brass band on the left, and also the writer's endorsement that this was a circus troupe. But it's also from Cuba and I rarely come across musician/entertainer photos from that part of the world. Since Cuba in our time remains behind a political wall, I did not expect to find any Cuban online libraries or digital archives, but with internet research I've learned you'll never find anything unless you go looking for it. Amazingly I easily found not only a perfect reference to this circus, but a photograph that was in an American periodical, too. 

Circus Report
25 February 1974

Fifty-one years after these people had their picture taken waiting for the train, Circus Report, "America's Favorite Circus Weekly", ran a picture supplement in the 25 February 1974 issue of its newsletter. It included a grainy photo of the "Gran Circo Canaires, a Cuban show, was snapped season of 1923-'24.  Among acts appearing above are the Arley Duo, Original Three Bernards, Great Frederic and Company, Koch Tam Kia Trroupe; May and Cherry, bar act, and a Mr. Gordon, who presented a boxing kangaroo."

It's interesting that this photo is not identical to my postcard but still shows the same people rearranged in front of the passenger carriage. The camera has not moved but the women in white previously seated are now standing. Even the parasol is in the same position. What more could I find about the Circo Canaries? Well, for one thing, it could also be spelled Circo Canarias.  

Gran Circo Canarias herald circa 1910-1929
Source: Milner Library Digital Collections,
Illinois State University, 

One of the useful archives for circus related ephemera is the Milner Library of Illinois State University. They have a huge collection of circus route books, photos, ephemera and handbills. And as luck would have it, they have a handbill of the Gran Circo Canarias that fits with the performers in my postcard and named in the Circus Report. It's a single double-sided page (which I've combined here in one image) that has no date. The Milner Library archivists have given it a date range from 1910 to 1929, but looking closely at the faces, I think it dates from around 1923-24. Pictured on the front is a trio of Chinese acrobats, two men and a woman, from Hong Kong who were given top billing. In the center of the postcard's photo are three Chinese faces and the woman seated left is a very good match for the woman on the playbill. 

However the real star is unfortunately not in my photo. He's probably relaxing inside a crate in the baggage carriage.

A boxing kangaroo or Kanguro Boxeador must have been a primo act for the Circo Canarias since in Cuba boxing has always been a popular sport. I wonder if the kangaroo ever lost a bout. With only a couple dozen performers the Circo Canairas was a small outfit, essentially a one-ring circus. It probably managed to tour the island using just a few rail cars. A troupe like this would have got to know each other better than in the gigantic American circuses which traveled on long special trains with several hundred workers and performers.

For any circus, large or small, a band was the most important component to the show. It announced the beginning and end of the performances, provided appropriate music and sound effects to accompany each act, and in general set a festive tone for the spectacle that is a circus. 

Technically the band of the Circo Canaries was a bit of a hybrid ensemble with a clarinet and a violin. But there was one unusual instrument that caught my attention when I first saw the postcard listing on eBay. It's called an ophicleide. And in this context it's like seeing a kangaroo in a brass band.

The ophicleide is an odd brass instrument that I have featured several times on my blog. Check out:  The Cadet Band of Augusta, Maine;  The Happy Couple; or  Monsieur le Curé and his Ophicleide. It is basically a long conical brass tube with a mouthpiece at one end for the player to buzz into and a large flared bell at the other for the sound to come out. But instead of using valves and extra bits of plumbing to lengthen the instrument like on a tuba or horn, the ophicleide has instead several large holes along its twisted-up length that are covered by keyed pads similar to those on a saxophone. Except that on a saxophone pressing a key closes the hole but on an ophicleide it opens them. 

It was invented in the early 19th century as a louder brass instrument family designed to come in several sizes from soprano to contrabass like the saxophone. It's name means "serpent with keys" The one used in the Circo Canarias band looks like the more common bass ophicleide. It became obsolete when the tuba was invented and by the 1870s was rarely found in European or North American bands or orchestras. But in South America, especially in Brazilian choro bands, the ophicleide found enough enthusiasts to keep it an accepted part of their musical ensembles.  

The handbill for the Circo Canarias had short descriptions for the different acts. Two paragraphs were devoted to the lead clown, Robertini and the Gran Orquesta or grand orchestra.

Robertini 

Clown Excéntrico Musical; el idolo de los Niños; Robertini Cómico; con sus chistes mantendra en constante hilaridad al público; Robertini Excéntrico Musical: deleitara la concurrencia con l'rozos de Opera. Operetas y asuntos cubanos, para lo cual presentará una completa colección de instrumentos raros.

Gran Orquesta Villarena, compuesta de once Profesores, con un extenso repertorio, todo moderno, desde el danzón Cubiche hasta el Fox-Trot Americano, y los aplaudidos Potpourrits, que tanto dicen del sentir cubano.

>>>>>>>>>

Robertini 

Musical Eccentric Clown; the idol of the Children; Robertini Comic; with his jokes he will keep the public in constant hilarity; Robertini Musical Eccentric: he will delight the audience with touches of Opera, Operettas and Cuban affairs, for which he will present a complete collection of rare instruments.

Great Villarena Orchestra, composed of eleven Professors, with an extensive repertoire, all modern, from the Cubiche danzón to the American Fox-Trot, and the applauded Potpourrits, which say so much about the Cuban feeling.

Robertini's clowning specialty sounds like he played multiple musical instruments in a humous way. I think he might be the man seated on the rail next to the tuba. If he used novelty instruments that might explain the presence of the ophicleide in the Villarena Orchestra. Certainly in the ophicleide photos and images that I've collected, the ophicleide was thought to be pretty funny. But that may be due to clumsy unmusical players. When it is played well, the ophicleide actually deserves full credit as a solo instrument every bit as capable and agile as a euphonium.

Here is a terrific group from Brazil
which features Everson Moraes on Ophicleide,

Thiago Osório - Bombardino

Paula Borghi - Violão

Lucas Oliveira - Cavaquinho

Gabriel Leite - Pandeiro

performing a tune entitled

Ophicleide e Bombardino - Boêmia Terra

Looking at the people gathered on the train tracks in my postcard, you would not immediately think they were circus performers since they are not in costume. Without their uniforms of sequins, spangles, and bright colors they look, well, just like normal folk. I don't think this was a photo intended to be sold as a souvenir of the Circo Canarias. It looks like a private photo one would share with a friend. The message on the card is also too simple to be from an American tourist. "We are off to States Sunday." Who would send that to an auntie, a neighbor, or a sweetheart? This was a brief note to a friend. Someone who would understand the group and location. Probably a  member of the Canarias troupe who was finishing out its winter season. But who exactly was Maude Bernard of Limestone, Florida? Was she a member of the "Original Three Bernards" who, according to the 1974 report in Circus Report, played with the Circo Canairas in 1923-24?

The answer is yes, she was.

The Billboard
1 December 1923

The Original Bernards left today for Tampa, Fla., from where they sail December 8 for Cuba, opening their second season there with the Circo Canarias.  The Bernards have only the highest praise for the Cuban circus and look forward to another pleasant season.

In the 1920 census for Limestone, Florida, a tiny rural community about 50 miles east of Sarasota, I found Maude Bernard, age 30, living with her husband Floyd Bernard, 35, a Merchint (sic), Drugstore Retail, with their son, Howard, age 12. That didn't seem like a place that a circus performer would live. However it was odd was that their respective birth places, Floyd - Iowa; Maude - Indiana; and Howard - Illinoise (sic)  made them the only Yankee family from Northern states that their neighbors in this very Southern state would know.

But with a little more research on the "Original Bernards" I discovered that this act was a pair of Equilibrists who had a great talent for balancing on thin wires and doing thrilling stunts. The act had started around 1906 and played fairs, parks, carnivals, and circuses. At one point they tured with the Great Ringling Bros. Circus before it merged with Barnum and Bailey. Their early notices described them as "America's Peerless Equilibrists. Magnificent wardrobe and elaborate paraphernalia, combined with youth, personality and ability." From other brief reports, it seemed they lived near St. Louis but had a farm in Florida, where they rested in the winter.

Then in 1912 the "Original Bernards" took out a large advert in The Billboard, the trade newspaper  for entertainers, and it included both addresses in St. Louis, Missouri and Limestone, Desoto County, Florida.

The Billboard
14 December 1912

The pictures showed that these equilibrists balanced on each other as well as on wires and ropes. The advert stated, "This act is strictly arranged for out-door amusement and Strictly Independent. No agent is authorized to book this act. We will not contract through an agency." The warnings and use of "Original" suggest that the Bernards had competitors that either mis-booked them or used their name in some shady show business fraud.

Cooksville IL Enterprise
12 September 1913

The next year another notice in a smalltown Illinois newspaper printed a full portrait of the "Original Bernards" and gave their forenames, Floyd and Maude. Looking at the Circo Canarias handbill's list of artists, the top act is Floy Bernald (a.k.a. Floyd Bernard) Trio. 1 senorita v 2 caballeros.  Acrobatas de Salon, ccontorsionistas y Alambristas. On the flip side is an illustration of the Bernards' act with little vignettes of Floyd and Maude Bernard in the lower corners.

That settled it. Ten years after their picture appeared in an Illinois newspaper, in the winter of 1922-23 Maude and Floyd were booked for a tour of Cuba with the Circo Canaries. They were just one of a surprising  number of acrobatic/balancing acts on that tour, too. A year later, one of their friends, Tatsie, sent a picture of the troupe along with a note about the end of that circus's season.  I think Maude Bernard is the woman seated right in that photo by the train and Floyd Bernard is behind her right shoulder wearing the straw boater hat. 

The Original Berards' act involved balancing on high tension wire ropes and walking along slack or "swinging" lines. They jumped or tumbled off barrels and each other. Their risky and daring stunts gave audiences a thrill in an age before television and film would make such feats commonplace. 

Darlington WS Democrat
15 August 1915

In this 1915 notice for the Big White Fair in Darlington, Wisconsin, Floyd and Maude are pictured in two of their stunts. Floyd on the left is balanced on a wooden barrel and on the right Maude is stepping along a tight rope. Both are holding a large parasol umbrella for balance. A parasol very like the one in front of Maude in the photo.

Herman MO Advertiser-Courier
26 July 1916

Some of their notices included more illustrations of their act. In this one from a carnival in Herman, Missouri, Floyd and Maude are positioned standing on each other up in a way one might if you didn't have a ladder to reach a ceiling light fixture. There is also a detailed sketch of figures tumbling off barrels that weirdly resembles an early computer arcade game.

Desoto County News
21 June 1923

In the summer of 1923 the Original Bernards were now the Three Original Bernards, I think because their son Howard, now age 15, had become a regular member of the act. In a carnival notice published in their Florida county newsweekly, various figures are doing handstands and splits on slack wire, balancing on a pole, or climbing stairs on their hands. In the center is a vignette photo of the Bernard trio. It's an unsophisticated illustration that has the look of a child's drawing. Perhaps Howard was the artist.

The last newspaper reference that I found for the Original Bernards was in the summer of 1931. They seemed to have played fairs, carnivals, and circuses all over the United States and evidently Cuba and maybe other places south of the border in the wintertime when American circuses retired to rest and restore.

On 14 July 1956, Floyd and Maude Bernard celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The Tampa Tribune ran a nice report for the occasion. 

Tampa FL Tribune
15 July 1956

Floyd and Maude originally planned their wedding for July 13, but in 1906 the 13th was on a Friday, and besides they were then on tour with the Ringling Circus and on Friday there was a show to do. So they waited a day and good fortune blessed them. Their son Howard had continued as a circus artist and like his parents had married a circus performer, too. Now his two daughters were part of the show as well. The were called the "Bernadinos.

"Mrs. Bernard admits jokingly that she has made her husband 'walk a tight rope' for a half-century, but both say they never have lost the sense of balance that has kept the act together."

The report included two closeup portraits which are what I've used to compare to the 1923 postcard photo. Maude's thin face and gentle smile seems a very close match to me, but I could be completely wrong. Though the men on the far right in the photo have similar square jaw and eyes as Floyd in 1956 does, I think he would likely stand near his partner and wife. The only question remaining is who is the third Bernard? Is it the young man in dark coat and white hat standing just behind  Maude? Maybe. But I think I will leave this mystery a question for Bernard descendants to answer. 

In May 1966 the Tampa Tribune ran another story on the Bernards. Floyd had just been inducted a few weeks before into the Circus Hall of Fame to honor his contribution to the art of equilibrists and recognizing his long circus career since first walking a tight wire at age 14. The reporter asked Floyd, "Will the circus survive and come back?"

"Yes," thinks the old circus veteran. "But never in its big gaudy three-ring version.  There will always be small tent shows, one ring shows like 70 years ago.  One act at a time and with real clown acts."  In spite of TV, the circus won't die, Bernard said, as he rubbed that aching knee.

The Original Bernards led a full life that surely had more thrills and spills than ten married couples could ever count.  Floyd Merril Bernard died in December 1976 at the age of 91. Maude Quayle Bernard passed away in March 1989 at the age of 100. 

It's rare to find so many newspaper references from so few details on a postcard. What startles me is that this postcard must have come from the estate of Maude Bernard. It was a small memento from a friend of a shared adventure in beautiful Cuba. The bonds of friendship in the circus world must have been close. Who wouldn't want to listen to the stories of the Circo Canarias they could tell? The the tears, the mishaps, the laughs, the frustration waiting for a train. We can only imagine. Time machines don't pick up that kind of detail. 

The Original Bernards and their fellow circus performers of the Circo Canarias were some of the hardest working people in show business. They developed special talents and skills that were strange and wonderous at the same time. But unlike other ordinary jobs, an acrobat or equilibrist must maintain supreme concentration to be successful in their field. You got to keep your balance on the tight rope of life. Otherwise it's one step too far and that's the end of the show. Permanently.   

And for an extra bonus,
I can't resist including another video
of the same ophicleide soloist, Everson Neves de Moraes,
performing a catchy tune called Polca Coisa 
in his own brass quintet where he plays all the parts himself!
It has all the best qualities of circus music
that I'm sure the musicians of the Gran Circo Canarias
would have been eager to add it to their repertoire
just for the Original Bernards's act.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where climbing a mountain

can be as easy as taking a train.

Notes from a Time Traveler

 

I am a time traveler. Nearly every day I set off on a journey to meet people in some far-off place in the infinite dimensions of history. However my span of infinity is actually pretty narrow as modern time transport technology has strict limitations. Generally it's some date between 1845 and 1945, though occasionally I'll end up somewhere during my lifetime. 

Most of my encounters with people of the past are very brief, only lasting a split second really. Sometimes we might be properly introduced, but typically they remain nameless. And, due to the fleeting brevity of this moment, I am invisible to their eyes, so they never know that I can see them. I tend to seek out musicians, though once in a while I'll be attracted to other showbiz occupations like dancers, singers, or comedians. Lately I've become fascinated by aviators and artists. 

When I do learn who these vintage people are I like to ask questions about their life, their family, and in the case of musicians, their instruments and musical ensembles. Unfortunately in that blink of an eye that we connect they don't talk much, so it's a real challenge to get answers. In fact the time goes by so fast that I'm lucky if I can determine a location or a decade of when I first make their acquaintance. 

Today, in honor of the special 750th weekend of the Sepia Saturday Club (more about that later), I thought I would present a few of my antique friends whom I've renewed contact with on my time travel adventures in just the last few weeks. They should be familiar to longtime readers as I have already featured  them  in previous stories here on my blog. One is the gentleman that begins this post. He is the celebrated Norwegian violinist Ole Bull. I've grown so found of him that I often set the controls on my time machine to go visit him. But first I'll bring back a new souvenir of one of my favorite child performers.

I first introduced these three boys in July 2022 in my story The Little Vernon Brothers. They are Sidney Clyde Vernon, the tallest boy holding a violin, born 1878 in Elgin, Ontario, Canada; Howard Alexander Vernon, the boy with a piccolo, born 1881 in Marshalltown, Iowa; and Percival Lessington Vernon, the youngest with the long blond hair and a cello, born 1884, also in Marshalltown.  The three brothers are accompanied in this picture by their mother, Mary Jerusha Vernon, who is seated at a reed organ.  

This cabinet card was produced by the Holdridge studio of Trenton, New Jersey, at 223 East  State Street. The other four photos I have of the "little" Vernon brothers were taken by photographers in Marshalltown, Iowa; Beloit, Wisconsin; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That photo is of the whole family with their mother Mary and their father, Edward H. Vernon, an accountant who evidently was successful enough to support moving his family around the country. 

This photo from New Jersey shows Sidney at his tallest so based on my previous research I think it was taken around 1895-96. This photo was also the only one that came with a caption for the "Little Vernon Brothers" so it was clearly intended to be a promotional photo for their performances. Unlike a troupe of vaudeville theater entertainers, the Vernon family played at churches and society halls. Their repertoire was designed to appeal to a family audience with an emphasis on Christian songs, hymn tunes, and wholesome folk tunes, interspersed with recitations of poetry. This review from 1895 describes one of their concerts in Goshen, New York.

Goshen NY Democrat
14 March 1895

The entertainment in the Presbyterian church last Friday evening was a success.  It was well attended, considering the condition of the roads.  The Little Vernon Brothers are all they are recommended to be.  Sidney, the eldest, who plays the violin, has a very fine touch; Howard, the next, plays the piccolo well; and Percy, the child who plays the violincello, is a prodigy, is natural and homelike on the stage, plays his part perfectly and sings just as well.  His childish movements on the stage are a strong hold on the public. 

_ _ _

The Vernon brothers began performing in 1889 in Marshalltown, Iowa and continued giving regular concerts around the country until about 1899 when they were not so little anymore. By the turn of the century the Vernon family was living in Detroit and the boys were beginning higher education. What I find remarkable is that all three brothers entered seminaries and became ordained ministers, two in Baptist churches and one in a Presbyterian. Reader's can find out more in my original story of the Vernon brothers. 

* * *

One genre of postcards that I regularly search for is "orphan bands". I few weeks ago I spotted this one and recognized it as a picture of a children's band that I featured on this blog back in 2018. There are 14 boys and girls holding musical instruments, mostly brass, and dressed in nice Sunday best. They called themselves "The Jolly Entertainers". I told their story in two parts, The Children's Home Band of Des Moines, Washington and Mr. Draper's Children's Home Band of of Des Moines, Washington. This "Children's Industrial Home" was established and run by Mr. Herman M. Draper, seen here seated center holding a cornet. A native of Canada, Draper was born in Ontario in 1857, but immigrated to the United States in 1882. As a young man he pursued a career as a music teacher, specifically for chorus and voice using a music education technique called Solfège which uses syllables for the musical scale pitches, i.e. Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti. 

In 1887 he taught music in several Nebraska public schools where he developed his own methods for teaching elementary music. Ten years later in 1897 he moved to Calumet, Michigan where he was employed as a superintendent of an orphanage of about 50 children. In 1906 after a dispute with the orphanage's board of governors Draper and his wife left Calumet and "took" six children with them to Seattle where he decided they could operate a smaller but more compassionate orphanage in the Pacific Northwest. After a couple of years in Seattle, in 1908 the orphanage moved to Des Moines, a small village on Puget Sound named by its first settlers after the much larger Des Moines, Iowa.

Draper wanted it to be a self-supported private orphanage so he trained his young charges in various practical trades including music and printing. I have two other postcards with the same image that date from the summer of 1910, but this one has a notice on the back that is not on the others. It reads:

Help us pay for

OUR HOME

We own a complete printing outfit and

our boys are printers;  send us an order

for cards, letter heads, bill heads, etc.

We guarantee satisfaction   and

We need your help.

But there is a message too, which cliched the sale for me. 

Geo. saw these
children as he
came from     
Seattle the    
other day.     
He wanted the
little girl marked
X  but they would
not let her      
go.               

The message is a bit ambiguous since the writer is not identified and we don't know if Geo(rge) is age six or sixty.  So it is both charming or creepy depending on ones interpretation. But the X mark is actually on the back just above the U in OUR. It corresponds to the little girl seated right with an alto horn. 

This postcard was produced at a time when Mr. Draper was beginning to take his children on short tours in the region. He had some success so purchased a small bus and organized more trips to Oregon and California. In 1925 he undertook the biggest adventure taking 22 children on a year-long tour of the United States playing benefit concerts everywhere they could. It made the pages of newspapers all across the nation.

Sadly Mrs. Annie Draper died on 13 April 1927. Her husband, tragically followed her just four days later before her funeral, succumbing to a heart condition. Herman M. "Daddy" Draper was 70 years old. He and his wife had cared for over 300 children at their orphanage. It's an inspiring story of perseverance, dedication, and love. Here's the link to part one.

* * *

We met this handsome violinist in my three part series Ole Bull, Adventures in America, part 1, part 2, part 3. He is Ole Bornemann Bull (1810–1880) a Norwegian violin virtuoso who was one of the first violinists in the early 19th century to create a successful career as a concert soloist. By 1837 Ole Bull was performing hundreds of concerts each season in Europe that established him as the equal of other Romantic musical artists like his contemporaries: Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), Robert Schumann (1810–1856), Franz Liszt (1811–1886) and the great Italian violinist  Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840), whom he tried to emulate as a violinist and composer,  too. But no concert artist of his time ever covered as much distance in traveling the world as Ole Bull. 

My series on Ole Bull focused on a set of carte de visite photos that were produced by a Chicago photographer in the winter of 1867-68. This was during his third tour of America just after the end of the Civil War. He made his first tour in 1843-45 and his second tour in 1852-57. This happened to be when photography was just becoming popular as a new portrait art form. However early photographs like daguerreotypes and ferrotypes of the 1840s and 1850s were each singular positive images and could not be easily duplicated. In the 1860s when the carte de visite, or cdv, were introduced the process used a negative image on a glass plate which allowed multiple copies to be printed quickly and cheaply. It was the perfect medium for an entertainer who wanted pictures to promote themselves. In 1867 Ole Bull clearly recognized the value of cdvs as souvenirs for devoted fans. 

Since publishing my Ole Bull series in January 2021, I've acquired even more photos of him, including more cdvs from Chicago, a ferrotype–tintype, and recently last month a couple of larger cabinet card photographs. The first one shows Ole Bull seated in a relaxed pose. His hair is long but now quite white. The photographer was S. W. Felt of Chicago, a different photographer than the one who made the cdvs in 1867-68. This photograph could have been taken during Ole Bull's fourth appearance in America in 1871-72 when he played Chicago in March 1872. That was just  five months after the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the city center's theater district where he had last performed. But I think this image fits better with his fifth tour from 1876-77 when reviewers took note of the "snow in his hair." The photograph print is a bit soiled and abraded but I like that his name is written in pencil on the front. I'm not certain yet, as the simplicity of his name makes it easy to reproduce, but I think it might be Ole Bull's real signature. 

This second cabinet card of Ole Bull is very clear and well preserved, requiring little correction of contrast. It shows a 3/4 view of him with his violin and bow in playing position. The photographer was J. P. Moore of Meriden, Connecticut. Ole Bull's face and expression resembles his other photo, so I think this may date from 1876-77 too. 

Bull returned to America once more in 1878 but reports describe him as diminished,  no longer fit as a fiddle as some might say. He did play a final concert in Chicago in May 1880, but concern over his poor health forced him to return to his home in Bergen, Norway where he died on 17 August 1880. Readers can read about the exciting adventures of Ole Bull's 1867-68 tour by starting at this link.

Most of the musicians I meet in my time machine are mute, their stories and biographies locked away in the secret vaults of history. Ole Bull is a rare exception as there are literally thousands of newspaper reports, letters, and books on his life. It makes it much easier to know the man, but more difficult to puzzle out exactly when his photos were taken. I'm planning a reprise story on Ole Bull so I can display these two photos alongside the other new photos I've found. Stay tuned.

* * *

My final photo is a postcard that just arrived in the post a few days ago. It's obviously not a picture of a musical group but, as the caption says. it's a track team from E.P.H.S. Those initials stand for East Palestine High School and some of these boys appeared in my three part series The Glee Club of East Palestine, Ohio - part 1, part 2, part 3. 

East Palestine, Ohio is another place I frequently check out in my time machine, specifically during the period from 1906 to 1910 when one young man in particular was a student there. Here he is seated on the floor in front, one of ten members of the track team and the only one with a dark African complexion. His name is James Aaron Washington and I'm rather proud to have figured out who he was, as he did not grow up in Ohio but in Asheville, North Carolina, the city where I now live. 

This photo was taken in 1909, either in the spring or maybe the previous fall of 1908. In 2024 this picture is not unlike thousands of similar high school team photos. But in 1909 it was exceptionally rare to see a Black student sitting as an equal with fellow White students. America's terrible legacy of slavery continued in the post-Civil War era with society strictly divided by race using countless harsh laws to enforce racial segregation. How James Washington came to be in eastern Ohio was the first question I asked in part 1 of his story.  Certainly in 1909 North Carolina a young African-American man would never be accepted as a member of a high school athletic team, much less photographed with one. There are still many questions I want to ask but may never get an answer. 

This postcard is also an example of when I get to hear someone from the past speak across the vastness of the spacetime continuum. It was sent to Mrs. C. E. Oliver of Pittsburg, Pa. on 19 May 1909, perhaps care of Mercy Hospital.

Will be up Saturday
if my head gets
well.  I will have to
jump against the
same fellows that I
jumped against Saturday

The boys competed in springtime track meets against other high school teams in the region. A year later in May 1910 there was an all-county contest with four schools and the East Palestine Reveille Echo reported that Washington placed second in the 220 yard dash and Oliver got third in the running broad jump. But their rivals as Lisbon High still took the most points to win the championship leaving East Palestine to settle for a 2nd place. 

If you look closely some of the boys have medals pinned to their shirts. James has one and the boy behind  him on the right has six. The boy to the left is the same boy in the E.P.H.S. Glee Club photos wearing a top hat. I believe his name is Cecil Oliver. He and James sang duets in the Glee Club concerts. Could he be the son of Mrs. Oliver writing for some sympathy on this postcard? Yet another question that may go unanswered. 

This is actually the second photo postcard I've found of the E.P,H.S. track team with young James Washington. The other one is dated 1908 and is even more remarkable because James is not the only Black athlete in the group. That photo is in the Postscript at the end of  part 3.   

James Aaron Washington's story took another surprising turn when I discovered that after high school he returned to North Carolina; attended Shaw College in Raleigh; got married in Asheville, raised a family there; and then in the 1920s moved to Washington, D. C. where he worked for the U. S. Post Office. That's all explained in part 2.  

But the biggest surprise was to learn that his son, James Aaron Washington Jr. became a noted civil rights attorney, a law professor and dean at  Howard University in D. C., and later a judge to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia appointed in 1971 by President Richard Nixon. But more significant was that Professor James Washington Jr., the son of the young man in East Palestine High School's Glee Club and track team, was also one of the advisors who helped to craft the 1954 case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka which became a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that U. S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools were unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools were otherwise equal in quality. That's a real story of bending the arc of justice.

I am a time traveler.
Even just a glimpse of a moment in time
can contain millions of threads of history.
Some lead backwards and some forward,
but they all weave into an amazing fabric of time.
That's why I keep alert when I'm in my time machine.
You never know when you might meet an old friend.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone is celebrating

the art of vintage photos.

This is my 724th post on my blog TempoSenzaTempo — Time Without Time. I first joined the Sepia Saturday club hub pub on January 8, 2011, number 56. I submitted A Mystery Band which seems incredibly brief compared to my usual output (like this one) in 2024. It took me a few more weekends before I settled into the idea of following Alan's theme image, but since February 2011 I have participated in nearly every Sepia Saturday, which makes about 690 weekends. That's a lot of postcards and photos.

I never expected that my hobby of collecting vintage musician photos would become the passion it is today. (Some people, like my dear wife, think it might be an illness.) But the inspiration really came from meeting fellow time travelers who shared my interest in telling stories about old photographs. It's sad to say that many of those bloggers have faded away into the Sepia Mists. But I am very grateful for all that I learned from reading each blogger's stories and gaining a different perspective on writing, collecting, analyzing, research, and presentation on this wonderful medium of the internet. I continue to delight in every blogger's contribution to Sepia Saturday. Thank you, Alan, for keeping the Sepia Saturday club pub going and offering up a fascinating image every week. I look forward to Number 1000. I'm pretty sure I'll still have enough photos in my collection to make a good match.