Heaven Help Us!!!

You want these guys on your side in combat… but if peace breaks out, heaven help us!!!

Richard Marcinko

Visit from the Red Cell

  Following the commentary about the forthcoming book, No Easy Day, reportedly by a member of Seal Team SIX, I thought it would be useful to revise and reissue a blog I published April 23, 2011.             

             I was commanding a U.S. Naval Base in Sasebo, on the southern island of Kyushu, Japan 1983-86. Sasebo had long been an important base for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and when the United States occupied Japan at the end of World War II, it became a U.S. base. Our main Japanese base was Yokosuka. 

            We were home port for several U.S.N. submarines and amphibious ships, we had a large fuel depot, an ammunition depot and a large Japanese-run shipyard that we used to repair our ships.

 U.S. Navy Fleet Activities, Sasebo, Japan

                

                Japan, and Americans on bases in Japan, were having a bit of trouble with communist terrorists (like Chukaku-ha) in those days (1986).  The leadership of the Navy determined that it was time to train our personnel in handling terror attacks, sabotage, bombings, and the like. So the Navy ordered a visit from the “Red Cell.”

            The Red Cell was the creation of a Navy Captain and SEAL named Dick Marcinko and so he and his team of SEALS were sent to Sasebo by the Navy to train us. 

           

                SEALs are superb athletes and skilled marksmen --- they can swim for miles, run, lift weights, and kill enemies with their bare hands.  They are very tough, mean dudes.  These guys are the ones you want on your side in a tough situation.  Marcinko also formed Seal Team SIX, and, after several years retired, and continued his various counter-terror training programs as a civilian contractor. 

            He also began writing books. He is the author of The Real Team; The Rogue Warrior's Strategy for Success: A Commando's Principles of Winning; Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior, and more.  I looked at some of these, and the ones I saw were loaded with pretty dirty language.

            The modern-day Seal Team SIX has distinguished itself in many missions all over the world that have never been publicized, and it was that team that conducted the raid in Pakistan in May, 2011 that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

                        The Red Cell that Marcinko brought to Sasebo was a team of mostly enlisted SEALs, and their job was to train my guys about counter terrorism. 

             Their job would be to penetrate our security, and simulate blowing things up, kidnapping personnel, and such.

            In advance of their arrival, we heard how the Red Cell had “attacked” the U.S. Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut.  In one event, they kidnapped the base commander's wife.  Her husband was a Captain Wendell Powell, whom I knew.  His wife was a nice lady, and she was wearing a dress.  The Red Cell men hung her out of a third story window, holding her by her feet, so her dress dropped down and exposed her underwear. 

            We had also heard that Marcinko was a particular favorite of our new Pacific Fleet Commander, a four-star admiral named “Ace” Lyons.  Lyons was not your regular smooth, polite, gentlemanly senior naval officer. 

            And we had heard that the Red Cell had a reputation for drinking a bit too much and raising hell. 

             About the time that the Red Cell was scheduled to arrive in Sasebo, a package arrived at my office.  It was from Hokkaido.  I didn't know anyone in Hokkaido, and suspected that this was a trick of the Red Cell.

            I had a team of Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) men, who are very much like SEALs.  They are also superb swimmers and athletes, and trained to plant demolition charges at enemy targets, swim ashore in enemy waters and disarm or blow up explosives.  Every Navy ammunition depot had them, and their duties were usually just disposing of outdated ammunition.  Like the SEALs, the rest of the Navy considered them “snake-eaters”, a term of great respect and some awe.

Kokeshi Doll

            I called my EOD team.  They came and xrayed the package.  They couldn't detect its contents, so they did what EOD people do whenever in doubt. They took it off a ways from my office and blew it up.

                What they found was it was a well-destroyed Kokeshi doll.  My wife Marty was not happy with me, as it was a doll she had ordered from a Japanese woman who had recently shown her dolls at a craft show at the base.

           

            Marcinko and his team arrived at the base, and immediately went to work, with his men sneaking into secure areas, and simulating what teams of terrorists might do.  They were good, and they trained us brilliantly.  Our security people, our Marines, our Seabees and I were learning very valuable lessons about how to defend our base.  Note that this was 1986, well before the more recent era, when attacks by foreign terrorists are more common.

            It was the final day of the Red Cell’s visit, and we knew that there would be a “grand exercise” --- a major terrorist attack that would require the whole base to respond.  After several days with Marcinko, we knew that he had a flair for the dramatic, so we expected this would be impressive. 

            It just so happened that a retired naval officer was visiting the base, and staying in our Bachelor Officer’s Quarters (BOQ).  He was a retired Captain.  In fact, he had commanded the base just before me, and he was coming back to look into setting up a business relationship with a local cultured pearl impresario.

             My predecessor, while he had been base commander, had apparently formed a rather close liaison with his young Japanese secretary.

             

                Marcinko decided that our Grand exercise would be a terrorist takeover of our BOQ.  I got a call at my quarters at 3 in the morning.  I dressed and rushed down to our security headquarters where an emergency command post had been established.  The Red Cell had locked down the whole BOQ.  They had “captured” a particularly excitable young Navy lieutenant, and had attached an “explosive device” to his head, and had made him take off all his clothes.  The simulated explosive device was set to “explode” if we did not comply with the Red Cell’s demands.  This particular scenario was modeled after an actual terrorist event that had occurred a short time before in the Middle East. 

            Along about daybreak, after several hours of protracted negotiations, the excitable lieutenant decided to escape from custody by the Red Cell and jumped out of a window, and ran, stark naked, across the grass outside the BOQ. 

            There were several BOQ rooms full of women at the time.  These were the wives of officers aboard a submarine that was out at sea, and, although the wives were excused from this terrorist takeover of the BOQ, they were all awake and watching as the lieutenant scampered past, with only a fake explosive device on his head.

            The Red Cell managed to capture the lieutenant, and returned him to custody.  However now we had another problem. 

            The retired Captain, my predecessor, had been “captured” in his BOQ room with the young Japanese secretary.  Apparently she had spent the night there with him, probably briefing him on events in Sasebo.

             All this got wrapped up into the terrorist "event"--- and it became a task to get the girl out of his room quietly.  Of course, all the Japanese on the base, and all our Navy people, found out about it.

                Besides the drama with the retired naval officer and the Japanese secretary, the Red Cell had taken many hostages in an event that closely approximated real terrorist events that had recently taken place.  These guys were good, and everyone learned a lot. Even the retired Captain.

                After it was all over, we invited the Red Cell to our quarters for a cocktail party. One thing I learned is never to have SEALs come to your house for “a drink”.

--end--

Let's change the subject to some diverse books and printed material I'm offering:

Asia, The American Magazine of the Orient, June 1920 Concord, NH: Asia Publishing Co. 96 pp. 23 x 30.5 cm. "Three Palaces" by J.O.P. Bland. Author returns to Asia and describes old palaces in Peking, Seoul and Tokyo, where leaders have gone, except for Tokyo. Very nice photos."Ther Village of Dara's Mercy" by Oscar MacMillan Buck. "An Engineer in Afghanistan" by A.C. Jewett. Includes excellent photos, including detailed descriptions of Kaoos Khan, author's interpreter, bodyguard of Kotwal, or Afghan chief of police, Mohammad Jan Khan, Afghan gentleman and landed proprietor, Safaraj Khan, Kotwal, or chief of police of Koistan district north of Kabul. "Across Siberia in the Dragon Year of 1796" Edited by Stewart Culin. "Maharajas and their Jewels" by Eleanor Maddock. "The Trojan Horse Enters Damascus" by Lowell Thomas. About the remarkable Colonel Lawrence and Allenby. Excellent photos.  "The Mirror of the Russian Stage" by Oliver M. Sayler.  Excellent photos of various plays. Magazine, outer wraps worn, spine worn, good.     (8253) $41.00. Travel                          

The Home Angel, by L.B. Urbino (Levino Buoncuore, d. 1888)  Boston, MA: Wentworth and Company. "Does the reader believe it impossible to live happily, as these good people did, in a community of negroes? Let him pray that his Christianity may be more Christ-like, and his heart so enlarged that he can take in all mankind as his brothers."  Miss Urbino took on a monstrously obscure subject in this novel about interracial marriage.  Written in the years of slavery in the United States, this is the story of Esther Le Gendre, whose  whose father was a fair-skinned count, and whose mother died as she was born.  Esther is a "mulattress", but it's difficult for her to find out her background. She meets her grandfather, a former slave, and learns that her mother was"colored". Novel is written in the elaborate language of the mid-nineteenth century, with much religious reference. Very scarce. 239 pp. 12 x 19 cm. Red cloth on board with blind-stamped and gilt design. Edges worn and  frayed, inside rear hinge cracked. "Mrs. Josie H. Lang" inscribed on front free endpaper. On second free endpaper is a small (3 x 3 cm.) enameled picture of a woman and a man, and an inscription in pencil: "Leavis Collishead G A 2nd 1869". A few light stains on pages, fair. (5705) $70.00. Fiction/Race

American Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowledge for the Year 1833 Fourth Annual Volume 1832 Boston, MA: Gray and Bowen; and Carter, Hendee and Co. Calendar of Celestial Phenomena for the Year; Red snow of the Alps, Showers of Dust, Meteoric Stones, Mirage, Halos, Parhelia or False Suns, Lightning Rods. Part II: Executive Government. President Andrew Jackson receives salary of $25,000 per annum. Senate: Daniel Webster was Senator from MA; John Tyler from VA, Thomas H. Benton, MO, Henry Clay, KY; John Q. Adams of Quincy, MA was Congressman; Benedict J. Semmes was Congressman from MD, James K. Polk Congressman from TN. John Marshall was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Roger Taney was Attorney General. Bank of the United States--a bill rechartering this Bank was passed by both houses of Congress but was rejected by the President. Census shows free white population of 10.526,248, free colored of 319,599 and slaves 2,009,043. Information on each state provides interesting data on railroads constructed, under construction, and planned, and river transportation.  Section on Commonwealth of Virginia contains interesting report on Committee on Slavery  and Removal of Free Negroes, which concluded with resolution that it is currently "inexpedient to make any legislative enactments  for the abolition of slavery." Includes reports on various foreign nations, and a Chronicle of Events for Sept. 1831 to Sept. 1832. 312 pp. 12 x 19 cm. Paper covered book with 4 cm. hole burned in cover; owner name "Fannie P. Matthes" handwritten on cover. Fair. (2555) $79.00. History

 Chief Wets-It Assiniboine (See "Glimpses of Indian Life" in 

American Monthly Review of Reviews

American Monthly Review of Reviews, The; illustrated; October, 1898 Shaw, Albert, Editor  New York, NY: The Review of Reviews Co., 13 Astor Place 126 + 81 pp. 18 x 24.5 cm. This issue is full of comment and criticism of the United States and Pres. McKinley in the Spanish-American War. Brilliant and biting political cartoons, several from German publications, which are smarting at American aggressiveness in Cuba and the Philippines. Criticism of Secretary of War Alger for a mismanaged Cuban campaign. "Medical and Sanitary Aspects of the War" by Dr. Carroll Dunham. Glimpses of Indian Life at the Omaha Exposition: fascinating article about Indians at encampment-- Assiniboines, Jicarilla Apaches,  Sioux, Blackfeet, Omaha, Chippewa, Cheyenne, Crow, Winnebago, Brule-Sioux, Flatheads, Mojave Apache, photos. "The Man at the Helm," William McKinley as War President by Gen. A.B. Nettleton.  The Founder of a Protestant Brotherhood--Rev. Thomas Champness of the Joyful News Mission. Periodical, cover has 2 x 2 cm corner torn off, spine frayed and torn, Table of Contents page misprinted, so that several page numbers do not appear.  Good. (5751)  $19.00. History      

       

 Lustige Blätter

 Lustige Blätter, No.24 XXXIII Jahrg. 202. Kriegs-Nummer, 30 May, 1918 (Famed German weekly humor  magazine, with World War I propaganda) Berlin, Germany: Verlag der Lustigen Blätter, (Dr. Eysler & Co.), G.m.b.H. Cover shows well-dressed African Americans: "Auf dem Broadway in New-York. Is doch Wilson famoose Präsident für uns-- will ganzes weißes Kaffe ausrotten!" Back cover shows Trainer (Pres.) Wilson feeding wine to animals: "Die gedopten Entente-Gäule." Cartoon shows an aged, exhausted Woodrow Wilson losing race to a fit, healthy Kaiser. Large color cartoon makes fun of Marshal Foch. 16 pp. 24 x 32 cm. Paper periodical, spinefold worn, very good. (5816) $20.00. World War I/History/Propaganda

 General McClellan

 Republican Herald and Post, Providence, RI, Saturday morning, October 29, 1864.Providence, RI: Alfred Anthony.  Fascinating  pre-election coverage of national and local news: Campaign to elect Gen. McClellan, running as a Democrat against President Lincoln; Republicans accused of cutting up McClellan flag in Newport, RI. Criticism of voters’ oath proposed by Vice President Johnson. News from Cedar Creek on great victory by Union forces. Defeat of Confederates in battle in Shenandoah Valley. Speech by Pres. Lincoln praises Marylanders on adoption of new constitution. Abraham Lincoln partizans (sic) burn McClellan banner in Washington.  4 pp. 54 x 64 cm. Newspaper, small holes in folds,  good. (6120) $39.00.  Civil War/History

Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net

"When you haven't got a gun..." Part II

 The things you see ….

  Photo courtesy of http://www.ebaumsworld.com/

“The things you see, when you haven’t got a gun!” my dear Mother-in-law used to exclaim when she found herself amongst strange people. 

           I love to watch people.  Yesterday Marty and I made our regular Sunday morning visit to a stretch of pine woods north of Hollis, New Hampshire.  This is the site of the weekly Hollis Outdoor Flea Market. http://www.hollisflea.com/home.html

            Here are acres of tables spread with stuff.  There are old comic books, compact disks, 1940s-era radios, old garden tools, furniture, bottles and jars, kitchen equipment, World War II shell cases, uniforms and souvenirs, stuffed animals and antlers, all manner of recent cribs, strollers, toys, scooters, bicycles, plants, home-made preserves, ball caps and shirts for causes that never quite caught on, and there are trucks that have just disgorged a complete cargo of the stuff people pay money to store somewhere, then either die, get divorced, or just forget about it. 

            These trucks disgorge mostly used clothes, and this stuff is a magnet for the growing South Asian population of New England.  There are many little women pawing through the clothes, while they converse amongst themselves in Tagalog, Khmer, Urdu or perhaps Vietnamese.

            And the people!  Perhaps it is because there is a fried dough concession nearby, as the average shopper at this market seems to be about 100 lbs. above the weight of the average American. 

            There’s a young man wearing a size XXXXXXL T-shirt that says “Mr. Big” and he’s so fat he needs a cane to keep himself steady.  He’s accompanied by an equally fat girl friend.  And they both are covered with tattoos. Trailing them a short distance behind is another very large, older woman, driving an electric cart.  She is also festooned with tattoos.

            I know that many young people today think it is “cool” to have tattoos, but it seems that fat people especially like to embellish their flesh with elaborate skin engravings.  At this show, it seems most people, fat and otherwise, have tattoos, and the men have a lot of extra hair on their faces and head, as well.

            We’re there to look for antiques, and there is one alley, amongst maybe a hundred, where some old-time antique wholesalers are set up. 

            We do antique shows, and you can meet some interesting people at them, as well.    Marty and I did a few shows this summer, in Wellesley and Osterville, Massachusetts, Little Compton, Rhode Island and Camden, Maine.  You don’t see all the fat people with tattoos at these, but they’re still interesting.

When an antique show opens, a few little sharp-eyed men dart into the show, stopping at each booth long enough to sense whether there is anything there that meets their discriminating taste.  These are the pickers, who hope to pick up something worth $500 for $50. 

They look and act a lot like squirrels.  They pause now and then to sniff the air, and see if they smell something worth buying.  You can just see their tails twitching.

After a few moments, all these eager little people are gone, off to greener pastures. 

                Then come the silver and gold buyers. These men sweep each booth with hawk-like precision.  They are on the lookout for precious metals. [At the moment, silver is $27 an ounce, gold is $1619.]

                They will home in on  a beautifully tooled, elegant piece of early 19^th century silver, and see only how much it will bring, melted down.  For anyone who appreciates the work of fine old silversmiths or goldsmiths---- delicate carving, stamping, engraving and chasing...  work that probably took many days to do --- the idea of melting it down seems sinful. 

            These men usually carry a small scale to weigh any treasure they can get their hands on. 

            One started to pull out his little scale in Marty’s booth, and she said, “I’d like you not to do that.  That’s so tacky!” 

                He put away the scale, and used his finely-tuned hands to estimate the weight of a pair of Sterling silver serving spoons.

                Soon, these men have flown on to their next feeding area, and that leaves the regular shoppers.

                One shopper is a doctor who is moving his office to this town.  He and his eight year old daughter cover the whole show, stopping to look at things that interest him—his daughter patiently stands by.  Most everything interests him, as he lugs out a huge and expensive wooden ship model in a large glass case; long, ornate brass candlesticks, six feet tall, paintings, pottery, a Nantucket basket, and more.

                Another shopper is a Caucasian man in a wheelchair, and he is looking for Mexican silver.  He has a young Filipino man pushing him, and his wife is along, too, along with a Buddhist monk.  You don’t see a lot of Buddhist monks at antique shows.

                Antique shows often attract serial talkers.  These are people who come to the show not to look at antiques and perhaps buy.  All they want to do is find someone to talk to.  One young man is very good about talking on any subject. 

                From what I could gather, he is a stochastic deterministic probabilistic mathematician who likes to collect things.  He lives in a house that is scaled perfectly—every room is just a five-ninths the size of a regular room; the ceilings are low, and every angle in the house is measured to perfection. He knows about silver, all about how silver is mined, refined, smelted, how silverware is carved, molded, hammered… and pottery, where you get the clay for fine porcelain, the firing process, the difference between Dresden china, Imari porcelain from Japan, Celadon from China and Korea, English porcelain, the rug weaving techniques of the Kurds, the Bakhtiaris, the Baluchis, Turkomans, Qashqais.  He can tell you about ship models, post cards, brass bookends, 19^th century toys, paintings by known Cape Cod, Cape Ann and other artists, antique advertising; Civil War firearms and uniform buttons. 

                He often drops out of the antique world to tell you about design of a nuclear power plant (he once helped design one, he says); or the finer points of deep sea diving, or celestial navigation, or design of lighter-than-air balloons, blimps and dirigibles. 

Unidentified Stochastic Talker (back to camera) at Elm Bank

                He’s an authority, he tells you, on World War I military history, as well as the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and once studied extinct languages of South Sea Islanders, including the Kuuk Thaayorre, who give compass directions instead of “in front of” or “next to”.

                Once you have been attacked by this man, and he has exhausted all the air in the room, and you have found a way to escape, he moves on to the next unsuspecting victim. 

                A large woman always visits this show, and many others, sweeping in on a large, motorized wheelchair with one of those tiny little Shi Tzu dogs climbing out of her pocket.  She’s followed by her husband, a wiry little man with a cowboy hat and boots.

                Finally, the show is over, and it's time to put all our goods back into the van and head for home.

           

The Personal Navigator offers these books and papers:

Shipbuilder and Marine-Engine Builder, The, September, 1939 Hood, A.G., Editor;  London, England: Shipbuilder Press, 47, Victoria St., Westminster. 58 pp.       25.5 x 32 cm.    Cover shows HMSubmarine Cachalot in adv for Callender Cables. Many ads for shipbuilders and machine builders as Hitler's U-boats were sinking them. Ads for DeLaval, Vickers-Armstrong, Ansaldo in Trieste, Sulzer Bros., W.H. Allen, Sons & Co., Ltd., Carville Engineering, more. Articles include "The Twin-Screw Motorship 'Lochiel'"; story on reconditioning of HMS Erebus; Bio Sketch on A.W. Cluett, OBE, RCNC, Deputy Director of Dockyards, Admiralty; "The Aero-Marine Motor Torpedo-boats"; "Notes from the Shipbuilding Centres" includes photo of HM Cruiser Belfast on trial, and launch of H.M. Aircraft-carrier Formidable. Magazine, slight edge wear, very good. (8251) $32.00. World War II/Naval/Nautical                        

American Mercury, The, A Monthly Review Edited by H.L. Mencken & George Jean Nathan, January 1924; Vol. I No. 1, First Issue Mencken, H.L., Editor 1924 New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. With Mencken as editor one might expect brilliance, and this inaugural  issue has it. The Editorial announces the intent of the new magazine to devote itself pleasantly to exposing the nonsensicality of hallucinations of utopianism and the lot.  The lead article "The Lincoln Legend" by Isaac R. Pennypacker, gives a new and more robust look at the life of President Abraham Lincoln.  His forefathers were iron-masters, capable leaders in their communities, giving a lie to the myth of the simple railsplitter.  As a war leader, Pennypacker compares him with Jefferson Davis, and Lincoln comes up far superior. "The Drool Method in History" by Harry E. Barnes is a humorous attack on purveyors of "pure history" --- the superiority of the Aryans, the discovery of America was by well-meaning religious people; the sole cause of our ancestors' embarking upon wintry seas to come to the New World was religious freedom; Loyalists in the Revolution were a gang of degenerate drunkards and perverts, etc.  "The Tragic Hiram" by John W. Owens is contemporary political commentary, about Borah, La Follette, Hoover and Harding-- but skewering Johnson.  144 pp. 17 x 25 cm. Magazine, writing on advertisement, first page of magazine: "Ruth Schliveh's shower Jan. 19, 1924"… and "Bill Paxton Brown U. 1924."  Very good. (7663) $76.00. Literature/History

Cuban Scouts Going on Outpost Duty

Cannons and Camera: Sea and Land Battles of the Spanish-American War in Cuba, Camp Life, and the Return of the Soldiers; First Edition Photographs and Narrative by Hemment, John C.1898. New York, NY: D. Appleton & Co. This book has been widely reproduced. In this book War Artist John C. Hemment has captured the War in Cuba in excellent, sharp photographs and accompanying text.   Introduction by W.I. Lincoln Adams. Hemment had earlier photographed the Battleship Maine extensively, and when he arrived inCuba he found she had just been blown up. His description of the Spaniards and the Cubans is colorful and portrays the sharp enmity between Americans and Spaniards. Interesting and detailed photos of recovery of parts of Maine, life in American soldiers' camp,  off to the seat of war in Santiago by seagoing transport...  Life with General Shafter and his staff.  Description of photography and developing of film, etc. under combat conditions.  Firing on Morro Castle. Among the Cuban pickets.  About mules in the campaign. Siege of Santiago. The Charge at El Caney.  Our Bold Rough Riders.and Colonel Roosevelt. Return of the Rough Riders. With appendix and index.  . 282 pp. 13.5 x 20 cm. Red cloth on board with decoration on cover showing a sailor cleaning a naval gun; gilt lettering. Edges worn, binding weak, spine faded. Inscription dated 1898 on ffep. Fair. (5261) $42.00. History/Spanish-American War

Our Katie; or, The Grateful Orphan, A Story for Children , with three illustrations by Myers, Sarah A.  1859             New York, NY: Carlton & Porter, Sunday-School Union. Author writes of her childhood and poor Katie, whose mother died, then her father. Author's family took in Katie…Katie in Disgrace….Katie's Reward.  Morality tale. 90 pp. 10 x 15.2 cm.        Dark cloth on board with blindstamped design and gilt lettering on spine. On front free endpaper is "No. 41 Chesterfield Facty S.S. Jan. 1868" 2 cm piece missing from rear spine. Good. (8196) $40.00. Children's

Dartmouth, The, April 1874; published by the students of Dartmouth College and edited by the senior class 1874 Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College. Publication features literary genius of Dartmouth students. Hamilton as a Young Writer describes Alexander Hamilton as a revolutionary pamphleteer.  "A Proposition" by Franz Boyd is humorous piece that suggests boxing up 300 Chinamen and smuggling them through the Upernavik custom-house. "Mr. Webster in Court" relates story of celebrated divorce case (and others) with Webster as counsel, in 1848.  156 pp. 14 x 22 cm. (6502) $32.00. Printed Matter/Educational

India: Map of the Western Railway Showing Mileage of Stations from BombayCentral  ca. 1960 Bombay, India: Survey of India Offices. Map of Western Railway scale 1 inch = 40 miles, shows broad and narrow gauge lines, foreign railways from Mathura in NE toOkha Port and Runn of Kutch in W to Churchgate and Bombay Central in S.  On reverse is map of India showing Western Railway with other foreign lines, and annotation in ink of 25 locations, from Colombo and Kandy to Bombay.  map 44 x 62 cm. Paper map, annotations on India map side list 25 cities with numbers at their location on map.  Good. (8212) $16.00. Maps     

Sweden: Vägvisare Sundsvall och dess Omnejd-- Almänna Norrländska Industri-och Landtbruks-Utställningen I Sundsvall, 1882 [General  Northern Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition,  Sundsvall, Sweden, 1882]  1882 Stockholm, Sweden: P.A. Norstedt & Söner. Folded map and program for  Almänna Norrländska Industri-och Landtbruks-Utställningen I Sundsvall, 1882 [General  Northern Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition, Sundsvall, Sweden, 1882]. Includes price for tickets to events, local points of interest, map of Exhibition grounds, City and area in Sweden including northern part of Gulf of Bothnia, also ads for hotels and other tourist services. In Swedish. 18 panels    9 c 17.2 cm.           Paper on cloth, lightly soiled, very good. (8211) $38.00. Maps/Travel       

Western Journal and Civilian, The; devoted to Agriculture, Manufactures, Mechanic Arts, Internal Improvement, Commerce, Public Policy and Polite Literature, May 1855; Vol. XIII No. VI.    Tarver, M. & Cobb, H., Editors & Proprietors. St. Louis, MO: M. Niedner & Co. 68 pp. 14.5 x 23 cm. First Article, "Love of Money" includes these words: "no enlightened  philanthropist can conclude but that total emancipation would be a curse instead of a blessing to both races. We think we can trace the designs of a wise and benevolent Providence in sending a portion of the African race to our continent to be taught the science of civilization, embracing the precepts and doctrines of christianity, and finally to become the instruments of redeeming the land of their fathers from a state of brutal ignorance and the curse of barbarous superstitions."  "Valley of the Ohio" by Mann Butler, Esq., continued from Vol. XIII no. 5.Life in the early days, after 1781--large migration of young unmarried females took place. Happily the duties of the household were discharged, not by slaves (Would to God that all the West could have escaped the curse and iniquity of slavery) but by white females.  Buffalo roads, tramped by herds of buffalo feasting on luscious herbiage and delicious condiment at salt licks. Description of cabin and cabin furniture.Diet: "hog and hommony"; mush was eaten with sweetened water, molasses, bears' oil or the gravy of fried meat. Geo. Dixon's address before the Iowa State Agricultural Association, October 1845.  Jefferson and Lake Ponchartrain Railroad.  Panama Railroad Completed. Bounty Land Law of 1855."The Adventures of the Last Abencerage" concluded.           Magazine, cover detached and missing 4 x 7 cm top corner. Remainder complete and fair. Overall poor. (8252) $40.00.  History

                                   

Rejected Addresses: or the New Theatrum Poetarum,  Tenth Edition 1813 London,England: John Miller, 25, Bow-Street.  Collection of bizarre "addresses" on the occasion of the reopening of Drury Lane Theatre, completely rebuilt after a fire. Funny, disrespectful, shameless humor.  It is interesting to see how much of this is still funny, nearly two centuries later!  In "'Hampshire Farmer's Address"  there's reference to cheap soup: "soup for the poor at a penny a quart, ...mixture of horse's legs, brick dust and old shoes." 'England is a large earthen-ware pipkin.  John Bull is the beef thrown into it. Taxes are the hot water he boils in. Rotten boroughs are the fuel that blazes under this same pipkin..." 127 + 5 pp. adv. 10 x 16.2 cm. Quarter leather, marbled boards, worn. On front pastedown is bookplate (oriental motif)  of Russell Gray pasted over fine signature of Henry Wilkinson, and on front free endpaper is name, "Russell Gray 1883--" [Russell Gray was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, noted for his ruling granting citizenship to the children born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants working on the railroads.]  Good. (5246) $30.00. Humor

Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net

          

An Antiques Show in a Rhode Island Vineyard

Fine wine and antiques….

Little Compton: Sakonnet Vineyards

          Imagine a pristine strip of Rhode Island, right across the Sakonnet river from Newport, and joining Massachusetts.  Here are miles and miles of green farms, neat slate fences, and fine old homes.  Everything in order—not a blade of grass is out of place.  This is Little Compton, summer refuge for wealthy old Providence families.

            In the middle of this rolling green paradise are Sakonnet Vineyards, with acres of immaculately groomed grapevines. 

           

            Marty and I took part in a very nice antiques show last weekend, under tents right in the middle of Sakonnet Vineyards. 

            The opening event was a reception with elaborate hors d’œuvres and lots of glasses of Sakonnet’s proudest products, like Vidal Blanc 2010 and Petite White, America’s Cup Red and White, and Cabernet Franc 2010.

            There’s nothing like a glass of crisp Petite White to make you appreciate antiques, and these fine people were excellent customers.  I still have a picture in my mind of ladies in filmy, summery dresses, followed by gentlemen in their salmon-colored trousers and loafers, many with rosy cheeks from the Petite White.

            Brian Ferguson and Tom D’Arruda, who own an antiques shop on Wickenden Street in Providence, have been the Little Compton antique show’s promoters for ten years, and they do it with style.  This show benefited Preserve Rhode Island.

            As an indication of  “doing it with style” I was amazed at the roach coach that they brought to the antiques show.  Plouf Plouf Gastronomie appeared in a bright red truck.  This very French, very elegant, upscale mobile eatery was not into plebian American hot dogs and hand sandwiches.  Mais, non!  This truck sold escargots, duck confit, and crème brûlée, goat cheese and beet salad, poulet rôti with mushrooms and a side of pomme frites.

            The truck usually sells its cuisine near the Brown University campus, at Thayer and Waterman streets in Providence.

            Does Boston have a food truck like this?

Plouf Plouf Gastronomie truck

Center of our booth at Sakonnet Vineyards

            On the way to the show:  Friday, August 3^rd, I picked up a rental van from Enterprise and commenced to load it. Son Mark helped with this.  It was a hot day, in the 90s, and by the time the truck was loaded, I was dripping with sweat.  Ahead of us was a two-hour drive to Rhode Island, then two to three hours of unloading* and putting our booth together for the show. 

            Marty ordered me to take a swim, while she finished her preparations.  I took seven minutes to swim at Front Beach in that beautiful, 66-degree water, and that was enough to make me forget all the heat and the sweat. 

  *Son-in-law Ted Mocarski came over to Little Compton to help us unload.

            We’re doing our next antiques show Thursday, August 16^th down at Osterville, MA on Cape Cod.  Osterville is a beautiful little enclave near Hyannis.   That is a one-day show, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Located on the grounds of the Osterville Historical Society, the show benefits the Society. 

Our booth, with Ginger Jars at left, water color by Mary Robbins Murphy in center, and antique silver at right.

The Personal Navigator offers these books and papers:

American Mercury, The,  A Monthly Review Edited by H.L. Mencken & George Jean Nathan, January 1924; Vol. I No. 1, First Issue Mencken, H.L., Editor 1924 New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. With Mencken as editor one might expect brilliance, and this inaugural  issue has it. The Editorial announces the intent of the new magazine to devote itself pleasantly to exposing the nonsensicality of hallucinations of utopianism and the lot.  The lead article "TheLincoln Legend" by Isaac R. Pennypacker, gives a new and more robust look at the life of President Abraham Lincoln.  His forefathers were iron-masters, capable leaders in their communities, giving a lie to the myth of the simple railsplitter.  As a war leader, Pennypacker compares him with Jefferson Davis, and Lincoln comes up far superior. "The Drool Method in History" by Harry E. Barnes is a humorous attack on purveyors of "pure history" --- the superiority of the Aryans, the discovery of America was by well-meaning religious people; the sole cause of our ancestors' embarking upon wintry seas to come to the New World was religious freedom; Loyalists in the Revolution were a gang of degenerate drunkards and perverts, etc.  "The Tragic Hiram" by John W. Owens is contemporary political commentary, about Borah, La Follette, Hoover and Harding-- but skewering Johnson.  144 pp. 17 x 25 cm. Magazine, writing on advertisement, first page of magazine: "Ruth Schliveh's shower Jan. 19, 1924"… and "Bill Paxton Brown U. 1924."  Very good. (7663) $76.00. Literature/History

Cuban Scouts Going on Outpost Duty

Rough Riders at Camp Wikoff

Cannons and Camera: Sea and Land Battles of the Spanish-American War in Cuba, Camp Life, and the Return of the Soldiers; First Edition Photographs and Narrative by Hemment, John C.1898. New York, NY: D. Appleton & Co. This book has been widely reproduced. In this book War Artist John C. Hemment has captured the War in Cuba in excellent, sharp photographs and accompanying text.   Introduction by W.I. Lincoln Adams. Hemment had earlier photographed the Battleship Maine extensively, and when he arrived inCuba he found she had just been blown up. His description of the Spaniards and the Cubans is colorful and portrays the sharp enmity between Americans and Spaniards. Interesting and detailed photos of recovery of parts of Maine, life in American soldiers' camp,  off to the seat of war in Santiago by seagoing transport...  Life with General Shafter and his staff.  Description of photography and developing of film, etc. under combat conditions.  Firing on Morro Castle. Among the Cuban pickets.  About mules in the campaign. Siege of Santiago. The Charge at El Caney.  Our Bold Rough Riders.and Colonel Roosevelt. Return of the Rough Riders. With appendix and index.  . 282 pp. 13.5 x 20 cm. Red cloth on board with decoration on cover showing a sailor cleaning a naval gun; gilt lettering. Edges worn, binding weak, spine faded. Inscription dated 1898 on ffep. Fair. (5261) $42.00. History/Spanish-American War

Our Katie

Our Katie; or, The Grateful Orphan, A Story for Children , with three illustrations by Myers, Sarah A.  1859             New York, NY: Carlton & Porter, Sunday-School Union. Author writes of her childhood and poor Katie, whose mother died, then her father. Author's family took in Katie…Katie in Disgrace….Katie's Reward.  Morality tale. 90 pp. 10 x 15.2 cm.        Dark cloth on board with blindstamped design and gilt lettering on spine. On front free endpaper is "No. 41 Chesterfield Facty S.S. Jan. 1868" 2 cm piece missing from rear spine. Good. (8196) $40.00. Children's

Dartmouth, The, April 1874; published by the students of Dartmouth College and edited by the senior class 1874 Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College. Publication features literary genius of Dartmouth students. Hamilton as a Young Writer describes Alexander Hamilton as a revolutionary pamphleteer.  "A Proposition" by Franz Boyd is humorous piece that suggests boxing up 300 Chinamen and smuggling them through the Upernavik custom-house. "Mr. Webster in Court" relates story of celebrated divorce case (and others) with Webster as counsel, in 1848.  156 pp. 14 x 22 cm. (6502) $32.00. Printed Matter/Educational

India: Map of the Western Railway Showing Mileage of Stations from BombayCentral  ca. 1960 Bombay, India: Survey of India Offices. Map of Western Railway scale 1 inch = 40 miles, shows broad and narrow gauge lines, foreign railways from Mathura in NE toOkha Port and Runn of Kutch in W to Churchgate and Bombay Central in S.  On reverse is map of India showing Western Railway with other foreign lines, and annotation in ink of 25 locations, from Colombo and Kandy to Bombay.  map 44 x 62 cm. Paper map, annotations on India map side list 25 cities with numbers at their location on map.  Good. (8212) $16.00. Maps     

Sweden: Vägvisare Sundsvall och dess Omnejd-- Almänna Norrländska Industri-och Landtbruks-Utställningen I Sundsvall, 1882 [General  Northern Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition,  Sundsvall, Sweden, 1882]  1882 Stockholm, Sweden: P.A. Norstedt & Söner. Folded map and program for  Almänna Norrländska Industri-och Landtbruks-Utställningen I Sundsvall, 1882 [General  Northern Industrial and Agricultural Exhibition, Sundsvall, Sweden, 1882]. Includes price for tickets to events, local points of interest, map of Exhibition grounds, City and area in Sweden including northern part of Gulf of Bothnia, also ads for hotels and other tourist services. In Swedish. 18 panels    9 c 17.2 cm.           Paper on cloth, lightly soiled, very good. (8211) $38.00. Maps/Travel       

Ponkapog Papers, First Edition by Aldrich, Thomas Bailey 1903 Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co. Former editor of Atlantic Monthly published this delightful, if scattered, collection of thoughts, comments and witticisms, written on former Indian reservation near Boston. 195 pp. 11 x 19 cm. Cloth on board, excellent. Ex-lib: Oak Grove School Library. (1242) $28.00. Humor/Literature. 

Rejected Addresses: or the New Theatrum Poetarum,  Tenth Edition 1813 London,England: John Miller, 25, Bow-Street.  Collection of bizarre "addresses" on the occasion of the reopening of Drury Lane Theatre, completely rebuilt after a fire. Funny, disrespectful, shameless humor.  It is interesting to see how much of this is still funny, nearly two centuries later!  In "'Hampshire Farmer's Address"  there's reference to cheap soup: "soup for the poor at a penny a quart, ...mixture of horse's legs, brick dust and old shoes." 'England is a large earthen-ware pipkin.  John Bull is the beef thrown into it. Taxes are the hot water he boils in. Rotten boroughs are the fuel that blazes under this same pipkin..." 127 + 5 pp. adv. 10 x 16.2 cm. Quarter leather, marbled boards, worn. On front pastedown is bookplate (oriental motif)  of Russell Gray pasted over fine signature of Henry Wilkinson, and on front free endpaper is name, "Russell Gray 1883--" [Russell Gray was Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, noted for his ruling granting citizenship to the children born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants working on the railroads.]  Good. (5246) $30.00. Humor

Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net