China in the 20th Century

The Rape of Nanking 

by Iris Chang

Japanese soldier uses bayonet to kill Chinese civilian 

who has been tied to a pole, Nanking, 1937.

          If you live near Rockport, and you are interested in our world and what is going on, and what has been going on, come join us for a meeting of the History Book Club. 

            Read a book about Israel and Palestine in the 20^th and 21^st Centuries, or one about any aspect of Israel and the Israelis, or anything about Palestine and the Palestinians.  Read about efforts to bring Palestinians and Israelis together, or about the wars between Israel and their Arab neighbors… about Gaza or the Six Days’ War, or Hezbollah, Fatah or Hamas. 

            On Wednesday, February 27^th we’ll meet at the Rockport Library and discuss what we’ve read.  7 p.m., in the Trustees’ Room.

            Perhaps you have personal experience in the region.  Come and join the discussion!

            In March, we’ll read a book of our individual choices about Mexico or Central America from 1900 to 2013.  You pick the book, read it and come and join the discussion, Wednesday, March 27^th. 

            In April, we’ll read about Africa, from 1900 to 2013.  Any subject—the independence movement of the 1960s, Rwanda, the Congo, Zimbabwe and Mugabe, South Africa and Mandela, Idi Amin and Uganda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso, Angola, Tunisia, Algeria  ---- your choice!  We’ll meet April 24^th.

            In May we’re looking at BRIC-- four big, powerful countries all in a similar stage of advanced economic development:  Brazil, Russia, India and China.   We’ll meet May 29^th.

            We had a great discussion at our meeting this week.  Our topic was China in the 20^th Century. 

            Dick Verrengia reported on the life of Richard Baum.

           

China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom  by Richard Baum

University of Washington Press, Mar 15, 2010 - Biography & Autobiography - 342 pages.

            Unless you live there, and speak perfect Chinese, it’s hard to understand China, but we gain great insight from people like Richard Baum, who had dedicated his life to being a “China Watcher”.

            This illuminating memoir reflects on 40 years of learning about the People's Republic of China through China watching, the process by which outsiders gather and decipher official and unofficial information to figure out what's really going on.

            Dick Verrengia gave us a tremendous bonus, and it’s the kind of thing that makes our meetings so interesting. 

            At the end of World War II, Japan was defeated, and the United States and its allies were the victors.  However, there were still some 1 million Chinese soldiers all over China, and the United States military had the job of making sure they evacuated rapidly.  Our job was made much more difficult because in China the Nationalists (Kuomintang, under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek) and the Communists (People’s Liberation Army, under Mao Tse-Dung) were fighting their own war.  All during World War II they’d been fighting each other as well as the Japanese.

            Dick Verrengia was a young Marine, part of the First Marine Division, sent to North China.  It became a Marine regiment sent to protect the Chinese rail lines, carrying coal between Beijing and the coast.  Shipping millions of tons of coal was vital  for the millions of shivering Chinese in that first winter after World War II ended.  Young Dick found himself as a train guard, riding trains loaded with coal.  A lot of his time was spent in the city of Qinhuangdao a port city in northeastern Hebei province of North China. It is about 300 km east of Beijing, on the Bohai Sea, the innermost gulf of the Yellow Sea. Its population in 1945 was some 300,000, but now (2010) it is 2,987,605.  

            Dick related how one day a quarter of a million Chinese communist troops came marching in, led by a fat Chinese general in a fur coat, riding in a Packard open-top sedan. 

            The general demanded that the Americans leave at once.  Dick’s commanding officer, a Lieutenant Colonel who was drunk most of the time, speaking through an interpreter, demanded that the Chinese leave or his Marines (some 150) would drive them (some 250.000) out. 

            Cooler heads prevailed, however, and the American Marines evacuated. 

            Next, Beverly Verrengia reported on The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers by Richard McGregor.   HarperCollins, Jun 8, 2010 - History - 336 pages.

            This is an investigation into China's Communist Party and its integral role in the country's rise as a global superpower and rival of the United States.

            In The Party, Richard McGregor delves deeply into China's inner sanctum, showing how the Communist Party controls the government, courts, media, and military, and how it keeps all corruption accusations against its members in-house. The Party's decisions have a global impact, yet the CPC remains a deeply secretive body, hostile to the law, unaccountable to anyone or anything other than its own internal tribunals. Richard McGregor offers a captivating portrait of China's Communist Party, its grip on power and control over China, and its future.

            Next, Rick Heuser reported on

The search for modern China by Jonathan D. Spence. Norton, 1991 - 876 pages.

            In this widely acclaimed history of modern China, Jonathan Spence achieves a fine blend of narrative richness and efficiency. Praised as "a miracle of readability and scholarly authority," (Jonathan Mirsky) The Search for Modern China offers a matchless introduction to China's history.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

          Next, it was my turn.

Chang, Iris, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II.  1997. New York, NY: Basic Books. 290 pp.

            My family and I lived for three years in Japan.  Actually, we lived in the home that had once been occupied by the commander of the Imperial Japanese naval base in a city near Nagasaki.  I never, not one time, ever caught even a tiny glimpse of the characteristic of the Japanese military that led them to do the horrible things that they did countless times during World War II.

            The Rape of Nanking is the story of how the Japanese army in December 1937 systematically raped hundreds of thousands of women, then killed them; in mass killings they murdered men, women and children, shooting them, bayoneting them, whacking off their heads by sword, then dumped hundreds of thousands of corpses into the Yangtze river, until the river ran red with their blood. 

            The author of this book, Iris Chang, was a young Chinese American woman, and she received many awards for this book, and for others she wrote. Her grandparents barely escaped death in Nanking.

             This book appears to be well researched.  She went through hundreds of drawers of files to find the story of how the Imperial Japanese Army attacked Shanghai, then marched overland to seize the capital city of Nanking (Nanjing).  The Japanese Army promised Chinese army troops humane treatment, then bound their hands, and marched them off to be machine-gunned and bayoneted, hundreds at a time.   This horror took place over six weeks in the city of Nanking.  The Japanese murdered some 300,000 civilians during this time.

            The Japanese Army committed atrocities in many other places in their invasion of China.  They are quoted in numerous records of saying that they did not look upon the Chinese as humans, but rather like pigs, “except you could eat pigs.”

            Ms. Chang writes about a few Americans and Europeans living in Nanking who were responsible for creating a safety zone in the city that saved hundreds of thousands. One particularly helpful person was a German named John Rabe.  He was a member of the Nazi party, and used his swastika armband to intervene when Japanese were about to kill Chinese.  While the Japanese sometimes ignored the pleas of other foreigners, the sight of that Nazi armband usually did the trick.  Ms. Chang called him the “Oskar Schindler of Nanking.” (Schindler was the Nazi who saved some 100,000 Jews from the Holocaust in Europe.)  She tells stories of an American woman, Minnie Vautrin, and a Nanking-born American surgeon named Robert Wilson, who risked their lives countless times to save many thousands of Chinese.

            Ms. Chang writes about “A Second Rape” in noting how American schoolchildren learn about Hitler’s gas chambers, about the diary of Ann Frank, and about our bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they know nothing about Nanking in 1937.  In Japan, there is a “soothing perception” of history that either ignores the Japanese massacre at Nanking, or puts a decidedly Japanese spin on the actions of the military. Japanese ultranationalists have threatened everything from lawsuits to death, even assassination, to opponents who suggest that these textbooks are not telling the next generation the real story.  And it is not just the ultranationalists in Japan who have tried to airbrush this part of their history. 

            In her epilogue, Ms. Chang sets down three lessons from Nanking:

1.      Civilization itself is tissue-thin. Japan’s behavior during World War II was less a product of dangerous people than of a dangerous government.  The Japanese Army for years had created a Samurai culture of unspeakable cruelty to each other, for starters.

2.      The role of power in genocide.  Those who have studied the patterns of large-scale killings throughout history have noted that the sheer concentration of power in government is lethal.

3.      The third lesson, one that is perhaps most distressing of all, lies in the frightening ease with which the mind can accept genocide, turning us all into passive spectators to the unthinkable.  The Rape of Nanking was front-page news across the world, and yet most of the world stood by and did nothing while an entire city was butchered. The international response to Nanking was eerily akin to the more recent response to the atrocities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Rwanda.  And, since publication of this book, the massive killing now in Syria.

            Ms. Chang’s book has received harsh criticism from some quarters, particularly in suggesting that the Japanese have tried to soft pedal or suppress this part of their history.  She was hounded and criticized harshly, and became very depressed.

            In November, 2004 Iris Chang took her own life… perhaps one more victim of The Rape of Nanking.

-end-

The Personal Navigator offers these books:

Lydia Ann's Autograph Book, 1849-1910    1841    New York, NY: J.C. Riker, 129 Fulton St. 35 + 4 pp.  15.5 x 19.4 cm. Elegant little autograph album with full-page floral illustrations and (mostly)  full-page sentimental writings of Lydia Ann's friends over the years, from 1849 to 1910. Inscriptions begin with Sarah from South Natick in 1849, include Lizzie W. from Boston, 1857; Sue Parker and Mary Odiorne in Cohasset, 1860; Priscilla in Boston in 1852; Carrie S. Watson in Lynn, 1867; Delia Wilson in Lynn, 1866; M.F. Palmer in Lynn, 1868; more. Leather album with elaborate gilt embossed design and six floral illustrations and tissue guards. Leather album with embossed gilt decoration, boards warped, slight wear to heel and toe of spine, very good. (5827) $65.00.  American Originals/Autograph Book

                                                                                                                                   

To Lydia Ann,

“Forget me not,”

When thy lovely form is kneeling,

When at eve the prayer is stealing,

“Forget me not.”

When  thine eye is fondly beaming,

And the burning tears are streaming,

When thy soul of heaven is dreaming,

“Forget me not.”

Lizzie W.         Boston, July, 1857

North Atlantic Patrol, The Log of a Seagoing Artist by Coale, Griffith Baily, Lieutenant Commander, USNR 1943            New York, NY: Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. 51 pp. 19 x 27 cm.     Designated as one of four combat artists commissioned by the U.S. Navy in 1941, LCDR Coale made the fateful North Atlantic Patrol that ended in the sinking of USS Reuben James on Oct. 31, 1941.  Coale's book describes, in words and his black and white drawings, life on patrol, in ports, and especially the rescue of 44 members of the Reuben James.  Woody Guthrie wrote a song about the Reuben James sinking that became a patriotic rallying cry during World War II. Decorated cloth on board, clean, text block clean, but dust jacket fastened to back cover by adhesive at top. Book is good, nonetheless, but dustjacket is in two pieces and poor. (5801) $24.00. Navy/World War II       

Early Starrs in Kent & New England  (With Starr Family Association booklet, 1937)        by Ballou, Hosea Starr  1944 Boston, MA: Starr Family Association. 141 pp. + 8 pp.    15.5 x 23.2 cm. Compilation of a series of articles on the forbears of the Starr family in the U.S. and England, together with an 8-page Starr Family Association booklet published in 1937. Includes articles on English Ancestry, Early Life in County Kent, English Baptismal Records, Dr. Comfort Starr Arrives in New England, The Monhegan Island Episode, Rev. Comfort Starr Graduates from Harvard, more.Includes frontispiece photo of author.  Red cloth on board with gilt lettering, moderate wear, text block tight and clean, inserted papers very good, book very good. (8310) $50.00.  Biography                        

                                                                                                                                               

Enigmas of Life by W.R. Greg Greg, William Rathbone 1873     Boston, MA: James R. Osgood and Company. Greg (1809-1881) offers in this book some suggested thoughts, based upon his outlook after having reached the age of 60. In his Preface he sets forth the framework for his thought: "..it becomes possible at once to believe in and worship God, without doing violence to our moral sense, or denying or distorting the sorrowful facts that surround our daily life." Greg takes on Malthus' discouraging theory of geometric progression of populations against arithmetic growth of sustenance, in "Malthus Notwithstanding". He takes on Darwin in "Non-Survival of the Fittest".  322 pp. 12.6 x 19.4 cm. Maroon cloth on board with Gilt titles, minor wear and blotches on cover. Inscription on front endpapers: "Louise Grant, 1873". Very good. (8297) $27.00. Educational/Philosophical

Looking Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy 1889 Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Author Bellamy in this wildly popular (in 1887) looks a century into the future in his fictional account by a man, born in 1857, who goes to sleep and awakens 113 years later at the end of the 20th Century.  He describes radically new social and industrial institutions, in a very upbeat and optimistic look backward, yet into the future. There is a strong look of socialism in this "new world", one which Marxists quickly admired.  Includes a Postscript by the author responding to a review of his book in the Boston Transcript of March 30, 1888.            475 pp. 12.4 x 19 cm.    Dark green cloth on board with black lettering. Moderate wear. Bookplate and inscription on front free endpaper: "F.E. Porter".Very good.         (8298) $96.00. Fiction/Philosophy

Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net

Memories of cold times…

 

Cold.

Peredelkino, outside of Moscow. Photo shows the Church of the Transfiguration.

It’s c-o-l-d!  All the cold weather we’ve been having in New England has caused me to think back when I was really cold…. and Russia comes to mind.

Russia.  One day the Station Chief of our embassy in Moscow invited my son and me to join him and several other CIA people on a cross-country ski outing.  They chose the beautiful rolling hills at what used to be the dacha of  author Boris Pasternak.  Imagine, here we were, just 25 kilometers from the Kremlin, out skiing with a bunch of CIA guys.  It conjured up in my mind some kind of James Bond scene. 

            These guys were very athletic, and good at cross-country, and we flew across the fields like greased lightning.  One guy carried a flask of pepper vodka in his backpack, and when we’d stop, he’d offer everyone a swig. 

            Fortunately, the outing did not include any exotic Soviet female spies, a la Bond, nor even any of the grungy kind of real KGB agents who usually tailed us.

            But I remember it being really COLD.

             I was assigned as Naval Attaché in Moscow, 1981-83.  Most of our work consisted of traveling to other cities where we could observe the USSR in all its glory.  As a naval officer, I led a group of two naval officers and one Marine officer and some of us were on the road nearly all the time. 

            Most of our trips consisted of catching the midnight train from Leningrad Station en route Leningrad (now St. Petersburg).  We would arrive in that far northern city about 8 a.m.  and a driver would pick us up and take us to the American Consulate.  We kept a small four-wheel drive vehicle, a Soviet Niva, at the Consulate for our business.  As soon as we dropped our bags at the Consulate, we would get in the Niva and start our travel around the city. 

            Our job was to observe as much as possible of the construction of new warships at the many shipyards in and around Leningrad.  We would also observe what ships were in the harbor, and in the Neva River, including barges and ships, which traveled back and forth in the Soviet canal system.

            Some of the time, we would park our Niva and get out and walk, often in heavy snow, to get the best look at a particular intelligence target. 

            The KGB knew when we had filed to travel to Leningrad, and they generally followed us wherever we went.  Sometimes they followed us closely; sometimes they kept their distance. 

            Usually our routine included a walk along Lieutenant Schmidt’s Embankment of the Neva, where we could see a lot of ships tied up all along the embankment.   The KGB assigned a crew of “goons” to keep an eye on us there.  The head goon was a fellow we called “Fats.”  He had followed generations of western attachés.

            Slogging in that snow along Schmidt’s Bank was a cold exercise. 

            Sometimes we would be driving to view various shipyards, and stop for a lunch break at Harry’s Pie Shop.  Its real name, in typical Soviet fashion, was probably “Lunch Shop No. 237” or such.  Harry’s was a place that turned out really greasy pirozhki,  little pastries, stuffed with shredded cabbage or meat.  And if it were meat, you didn’t want to know any more about the meat.   They served these little pies with glasses of hot tea, loaded with sugar.  Or, you could walk outside the shop and find a little man with a portable tank, selling kvass or beer.  Kvass is a lightly-fermented drink made from stale bread.  The beer was watery and fairly tasteless.     If you decided to buy a glass of kvass or beer, it would set you back about ten cents U.S., and you got to drink out of the same glass the previous customer had used. 

            So, out of the cold we would come, to stand at the high tables in Harry’s, and eat a couple of pastries and drink sugary tea.  Then, back we would go to the snowy world of Leningrad. 

            Russians wear marvelous fur hats, which are quite comfortable in cold weather.  However, there is an ethic that they observe:  Real men don’t put the flaps down until it is “Minus dvadsat gradusov” or –20° C., which equates to –4° F. Russians say that only drunks and students put the flaps down in warmer temperatures. 

            Moscow traffic policemen are recruited from Siberia, I am told.  You see them, in their long gray coats, standing in the middle of the road, directing traffic for hours, in the bitterest weather.  These guys must have a layer of fat on them like a walrus, to withstand that cold. 

            

And now we live on Cape Ann in Massachusetts.

           

.Winter swimmer in the Neva

USS Sablefish

            Submarines.  Life in a diesel submarine on patrol could be very cold.  We were assigned to patrol a barrier up off Iceland.  This was peacetime (1961-62) but we were always practicing for the time when the whole Soviet submarine force would pour out of Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and other northern ports and head for the coast of the United States. 

            We would patrol at best sonar listening depth—maybe 150 feet—for several hours, and then, when it was dark, we’d come to periscope depth, and if the coast was clear, we’d put up our snorkel and light off our diesel engines and charge the batteries. 

In the North Atlantic it is usually pretty rough, so the snorkel valve would open and shut as the waves hit it.  If the valve would stay shut for a minute or so, the engine, which required a lot of air to operate, would suck the air out of the submarine, and particularly out of your ears, until it got to such a vacuum that it would shut down the engines. (That may explain why I wear hearing aids today. That and the guns.)

            Difficulty charging meant that we tried to economize on that battery. In addition to proceeding at about three knots, we kept the heaters on only the bare minimum, and we didn’t use water except to drink.  It was really cold in that boat.  No showers, no shaving. 

            Soon it would come time to surface, and we’d race up to the bridge and set the watch.  In those waters, the heavy waves were usually crashing over the bridge, so you wore full immersion suits, and you strapped yourself on to your station so a wave wouldn’t wash you overboard.  There were just two lookouts and the officer of the deck up there, and it could be cold, and wet. 

            We made a long snorkel transit one time during the winter, from waters off Iceland to Massachusetts Bay. It was near zero degrees F. when we surfaced and motored on the surface toward Salem, MA, and ice was forming all over our decks.  I remember watching the fishermen I saw, out in this miserable weather, glad that I didn’t have their job. Shortly afterward, it was time to go back out to sea, and when we dove, we couldn’t submerge! All that ice on our decks made us very buoyant.   Soon, though, several tons of it broke loose, and we submerged, sinking like a rock!  We recovered, but it was scary.

            We’d been at sea for a couple of months, and since we were entering port the next day, and we’d eaten all the potatoes stored in the officers’ shower, we could take showers. Even though the shower was only 30 seconds long, it was hot and wonderful!

[Portions of the foregoing were originally published in my Blog of May 9^th, 2011.]

Now, the Personal Navigator has books and papers to offer:

Seamen's and Boatmen's Manual, The; Original and Revised by J.K. Davis, Chaplain, Troy, N.Y. First Edition   1847    New York, NY: Robert Carter, 58 Canal Street. 179 pp.     9.5 x 15.7 cm.  Rare religious guidance for Seamen and Boatmen. Address on Profane Swearing; address to youths employed as drivers on the canals; The Coming of Christ; Jonah in the Ship; Jesus in the Ship; The Sailor's Last Letter; The Orphan Sailor Boy; more. Chaplain relates his experience in saving souls aboard ship.   Blindstamped cloth on board with gilt lettering on spine. Two cm. crack on front hinge on cover, some pages foxed, last 7 pages dogeared; good. (8131) $100.00. Religious/Nautical                                               

Household, The; Weekly Supplement to the Detroit Free Press, 1882--Bound volume for the whole year of 1882, 52 issues         1882     Detroit, MI: The Detroit Free Press        208 pp. 28 x 38 cm.       Bound volume collection of 52 issues of "The Household" for Year 1882. Interesting letters from readers, including Southern Plantation tale about Aunt Polly. Whose fingers were prone to stick to things that she fancied. Her mistress thought Aunt Polly had secreted some newly made sausage in a special place, but alas, it was a long black snake!  Interesting letter from a "Cherokee" from Indian Territory. Recipe for Mashed Salt Cod from Oleta in Sacramento, Cal. Oyster Pie from Mrs. S.M.C. in English, Ind. "Hellespont" in Michigan writes about "Woman--her Rights and Prerogatives". Mollie in Bismarck, Dakota Territory sends recipe for Cracknels and Irish Cabbage.  "Hums" in Tombstone, Arizona Territory writes about religious observances in the West, and how she has organized charity dinners and raised good money to build a local church. "Castle Dare" from Albany writes nearly two columns about her adventure on an overnight trip on a locomotive, arriving full of soot and grime home again. Ads for Sozodont, Dr. Price's Flavoring Extracts, Royal Baking Powder, Dobbins' Starch Polish, James Pyle's Pearline, Neilson's Secret for the Complexion, Drt. Gouraud's Oriental Cream or Magical Beautifier, Ridge's Food for Infants and Invalids, Madame Griswold's Patent Skirt-Supporting Corsets, more. Bound volume of four-page newspaper supplements, worn, good. (8182) $48.00. Women's

Guinea Gold, American Edition, Monday, January 1, 1945 Port Moresby, Papua-New Guinea: U.S. Army/Royal Australian Army. 4 pp. 26.2 x 39 cm.     This unique World War II newspaper, published in New Guinea and flown daily to U.S. and Australian troops all over South West Pacific command, often scooped the world, since General MacArthur released his communiqués to them 20 hours before they were released to the world press.  This issue's lead story, on first day of 1945:  "German Salient Shrinking: Berlin Says Patton's Attack Now ‘A Major Offensive’". Report from Moscow that two Russian envoys, carrying white flags were shot yesterday while carrying out negotiations for the surrender of the Germans and Hungarians in besieged Budapest.  "Must Occupy Japan to Win Peace, Says Nimitz." C-in-C Pacific Fleet Admiral Nimitz stated from Saipan Sunday that Japan will have to be occupied to win the peace. "Archbishop of Greece is Regent; Prime Minister Papandreou May Resign." Report from London: Nazi Seapower has been virtually destroyed by the Royal Navy in 1944.    Newspaper,  small tears in folds, fair.     (8208) $39.00. World War II     

Boston Courier  Semi-Weekly, Thursday, August 13, 1829 Boston, MA:  J.T. Buckingham, Editor and Proprietor. This is a lively Boston paper from the time when Andrew Jackson was President.  "Letters from a Boston Merchant"  recalls that in last chapter he said that Japan was "Paradise of Dogs"--- rambling discussion about hunting for dogs and dog-hospitals.   Refuge for Destitute Mosquitoes…  relates tale of a man on the Dorchester flats where the mosquitoes are as large and as hungry as in Turkey, and of man who bet he could strip bare and lie naked for five minutes with mosquitoes.  Japanese have taste for fine gardens. "Extinction of Egypt" dissertation on course of the Niger, speculation on physical extinction of Egypt.  Commentary on Boston Newspapers reports opinions of Mr. Ruffleshirt, Mr. Neverchange, Mr. Firebrand, Mr. Scrupulous and Mr. Sugarplum.  Adv. with illustration of Patent Sponge Boots for Horses' Feet.  See James Boyd, 27 Merchants' Row. 4 pp. 39 x 53 cm. Newspaper, worn, fair. Name "G. Wilkinson" written at top of front page. (8078) $30.00. Newspapers/History

Boston Courier  Semi-Weekly, Thursday, January 7, 1830  Boston, MA:  J.T. Buckingham, Editor and Proprietor. Editorial critical of discourse in Congress in Washington re debate about distributing proceeds  of the public lands by Mr. Polk. "Where words abound much fruit of solid sense is seldom found."  Commentary on the "Jacksonism" of Mr. Thomas D. Arnold of Tennessee. Report of proposal by DeWitt Clinton to build a railroad from New York to the state of Missouri.  Report from France notes that French journals continue their "harpings" suggesting that the days of the French monarchy are numbered. 4 pp. 39 x 53 cm. Newspaper, worn, fair. (8056) $24.00. Newspapers/History

 Travel Diary of Mrs. Harry Worcester, 1954 handwritten by Worcester, Mrs. Harry 1954. West Swanzey, NH: ephemera 28 pp. 10 x 16 cm. Leather "Travels Abroad" Diary: Mrs. Harry Worcester records trip she and husband took from Keene, NH to NYC, thence from Idlewild Airport via KLM Lockheed Constellation first to Gander, Nfld, then to London, then to Brighton by train; Banquet at Strand Hotel; met Mayor Dudley; back to London, tour, then by train to York, touring, visit The Shambles, on to Edinburgh; touring Scotland, then to Glasgow and steamer to Belfast, N. Ireland; train to Dublin; Dun Laoghaire then steamer to Holyhead, and train for  Caernarvon, Wales; Criccieth to Bristol, then London; flight to Chaumont, France; Harry visited places where he trained during World War I; Neuf Chateau, Verdun; Paris, Chalons-sur-Marne; sleeper train to Basel, CH, then Lucerne, Zurich, then another sleeper for Calais; rough crossing to Folkestone, then to London; flight home on KLM Connie to Shannon, Gander and Idlewild.  Green leather Travel Diary (only 28 pages of entries) with unused pencil in loop, very good. (7644) $30.00. Travel/Ephemera

Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net

Many are talking, but who's listening?

Are we having a conversation?

I’ve never seen anything like it.  Since the election November 6^th, 2012.  We have a whole country of people, most of whom have an opinion.

Many are talking, but who’s listening?

There was a terrible shoot-out in Newtown, Connecticut, and 20 children and seven adults were killed.  Right away, people started talking about gun control.

Others, fearing that the “gun control nuts” would prevail, went out and bought guns.

The sides began to take shape.  The people who zealously defend their right to bear arms dug in their heels, and did everything to deflect any suggestions of “gun control”. 

The people who feel that the first action after one of these mass shootings should be to control guns went on the offensive. 

Commentators big and little, left and right, Liberal and Conservative, NRA and anti-NRA, all had a solution, and were quick to pronounce non-solutions by the opposition.

People who live in quiet, comfortable towns, like here in Rockport, and presumably in Newtown, CT, were inclined to see the solution as banning the ownership and sale of guns.  Especially automatic rifles and large magazines. 

People who live on farms, or in little towns in Texas and Wyoming, who have lived with guns all their lives, see this as yet another attempt by the Liberals to stamp out a basic freedom.

People who live in the inner city, where gangs frequently attack one another, and people often die from gun shots, perhaps see this whole discussion as so much noise about nothing.

NRA people continue to tell us that it’s not the guns, but the people.

Gun control advocates are sure that if we can ban all weapons, the problem will lessen. 

NRA people reply that when all guns are outlawed, only the outlaws will have guns. 

NRA people dig in their heels, and refuse to concede even the slightest hint of limiting the right of Americans to buy, sell, keep and use firearms.   They suspect, and perhaps with good reason, that the opposition would gladly take away the right of all Americans to bear arms.

Surely, there are those who see no reason for anyone to have a firearm.

The NRA people correctly called attention to the point that events like Newtown, and Aurora,  Tucson, Virginia Tech and Columbine are all carried out by people who are somewhat deranged.

All or nothing.  Who is having a conversation?  Who is listening?  

In terms of finding a way to lessen the possibility of yet another mass shooting in a school, or a movie theatre, or at a mall, shouldn’t we be talking about trying to reduce ALL of the contributing factors?

What if we did a much better job of identifying people who demonstrate certain characteristics of mental illness?  In our digitally-connected world today, we busily collect all manner of data.  Shouldn’t there be some way of creating a data base of people who have demonstrated mental illness?

In that same digitally-connected world, we can enter the VIN number of any automobile and find out where it is, where it was last sold, and if it were ever involved in an accident.

Why shouldn’t we be able to track any firearm from manufacturer to dealer to owner? 

And for collectors, or anyone who has more than a few firearms in his possession, shouldn’t that be something that local law enforcement knows about? 

Why shouldn’t it be possible to create a system whereby any prospective gun owner must submit a nationally recorded application?   And, if that applicant has a criminal record or a report of mental illness, shouldn’t he be singled out for individual handling?

In most small towns, and perhaps even in large cities, the police have a list of the bad eggs.  They know the guys (and perhaps some gals) who continually run afoul of the law.  Drugs.  Firearms.  Domestic abuse. Petty theft.  These people deserve protection from unlawful search and seizure, and all the other constitutional protections, but still these people should be on a data base, so that when they try to acquire a firearm, signals go off.

I realize that in creating such intersecting data bases, we would be heading into a diabolical world where Big Brother knows everything about everyone.  But whether we like it or not, we are already there.  It’s just that Big Brother knows a lot, but is missing some things that could serve to protect the public.

How do we maintain the individual protections to keep each of us free from being hauled in for questioning and imprisonment without due process of the law?  How do we continue to protect the innocent, when we know so much about everyone?

And, while we know so much about everyone, shouldn’t we be able to know those additional bits which may prevent the next guy with a history of mental illness getting his hands upon an arsenal of weapons, including high-capacity guns and magazines? 

It’s time for us to examine our constitutional protections, and think about them in the light of providing the right of each of us, even little children, to that most basic right—to life.

The Personal Navigator.

Noah Pozner, d. Dec. 14, 2012

Shucking Oysters

Shucking Oysters on Chesapeake Bay

African-American Oyster Shuckers

(Courtesy Florida Archive, 1909)

                My grandfather owned an oyster business in Virginia, up on Chesapeake Bay about 1900.

            He had a whole crew of African-American men and women shucking oysters, and when my Dad was little he remembered how they would sing the old Negro spirituals as they worked.  Man, could they shuck those oysters!  I imagine quite a few of those people had been slaves just 35 years before that.

           

            Marty asked me to get her a couple of 8 oz. containers of fresh shucked oysters today, but everywhere I went, they were out.  So I decided to buy some oysters in the shell.  How hard could it be to shuck oysters?

            I brought the oysters home, and Marty brought out an oyster shucking knife and told me about being sure to cut the muscle, and to save the nacre.  I came from the Gulf Coast, and should have been an old hand at opening oysters, but I guess I missed that experience until now.

            So I did what any pioneer would do—I looked up “shucking oysters” on Google, and soon was watching a video of a guy shucking oysters expertly. 

            It’s simple.  You just hold the oyster flat side up, hinge end toward you, and place the knife in where you see a tiny crack.  You slide the knife in about a half inch and pry the shell open, then cut the muscle on the top shell, so the oyster is just lying in the bottom shell, waiting to be slurped.

            I was doing this over the sink.  The expert had advised that I might find that a screwdriver opens the oysters easily, and results in less chance of knifing yourself if your hand slips.  And you should wear an oven mitt, also to prevent hurting yourself.

            The first oyster I was trying to shuck was not very cooperative.  I couldn’t find any place to stick the knife, and then the shell squirted out of my gloved hand and went down the drain. That's where the garbage grinder is. Of course, my hand is too big to get down there to retrieve it, and I started trying to find a long set of tongs. 

            In the past I have used the vacuum cleaner—I stick the suction down the drain and pick up whatever I've dropped down there.  It’s usually a silver spoon or other such valuable item. 

            That didn’t work because the shell was too heavy. 

            Finally, using tongs, I retrieved it. 

            By now, I had shucked ZERO oysters, and I was already worn out. 

            I was thinking about those old African-Americans, singing and shucking, probably 100 oysters while I was messing with the vacuum cleaner!  I thought about those huge piles of shells.

            Soon I managed to open an oyster. 

            Not bad.

            Then another.

            But the one I had retrieved from the drain was one tough customer.  I still couldn’t find any place to stick the knife.  I just stuck the knife in the general vicinity and hammered the shell on the wooden cutting board near the sink, and finally the shell started to come apart—in pieces. 

            This was not going to be a well-shucked oyster.  And the nacre? Forget it.

Oyster shells. Shiny material is nacre.

            I don’t think I will become a master oyster shucker. 

The Personal Navigator offers these books and papers:

The Way, The Truth and the Life; a Hand Book of Christian Theosophy, Healing, and Psychic Culture, A New Education, Based upon the ideal and method of the Christ by Dewey, J.H., M.D.1888         Buffalo, NY: J.H. Dewey, M.D. 408 pp.    13.5 x 19 cm. Author, "actively engaged in the practice of medicine", brings forth his study of the remarkable developments connected with specific religious experiences, particularly the study of the life of Christ. "Is Christ to be Superseded?" "Christ the Perfect Way"; "True Basis of the Higher Education", "Method and Specific Processes", "Spirituality the Only Basis"; Appendices I, II, III and IV; index.           Dark brown cloth on board with gilt title on cover and spine, minor wear to heel and toe of spine, cover lightly mottled. Inscription on ffep: "To Louise Grant From Mrs. C.B. Sawyer, Chicago, May 30th, 1889."  Very good.(8313)            $26.00. Religious/Faith Healing                          

Early Starrs in Kent & New England  (With Starr Family Association booklet, 1937)        by Ballou, Hosea Starr  1944 Boston, MA: Starr Family Association. 141 pp. + 8 pp.    15.5 x 23.2 cm. Compilation of a series of articles on the forbears of the Starr family in the U.S. and England, together with an 8-page Starr Family Association booklet published in 1937. Includes articles on English Ancestry, Early Life in County Kent, English Baptismal Records, Dr. Comfort Starr Arrives in New England, The Monhegan Island Episode, Rev. Comfort Starr Graduates from Harvard, more.Includes frontispiece photo of author.  Red cloth on board with gilt lettering, moderate wear, text block tight and clean, inserted papers very good, book very good. (8310) $50.00.  Biography                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

  

Enigmas of Life by W.R. Greg Greg, William Rathbone 1873     Boston, MA: James R. Osgood and Company. Greg (1809-1881) offers in this book some suggested thoughts, based upon his outlook after having reached the age of 60. In his Preface he sets forth the framework for his thought: "..it becomes possible at once to believe in and worship God, without doing violence to our moral sense, or denying or distorting the sorrowful facts that surround our daily life." Greg takes on Malthus' discouraging theory of geometric progression of populations against arithmetic growth of sustenance, in "Malthus Notwithstanding". He takes on Darwin in "Non-Survival of the Fittest".  322 pp. 12.6 x 19.4 cm. Maroon cloth on board with Gilt titles, minor wear and blotches on cover. Inscription on front endpapers: "Louise Grant, 1873". Very good. (8297) $27.00. Educational/Philosophical

Looking Backward 2000-1887 by Edward Bellamy 1889 Boston, MA: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. Author Bellamy in this wildly popular (in 1887) looks a century into the future in his fictional account by a man, born in 1857, who goes to sleep and awakens 113 years later at the end of the 20th Century.  He describes radically new social and industrial institutions, in a very upbeat and optimistic look backward, yet into the future. There is a strong look of socialism in this "new world", one which Marxists quickly admired.  Includes a Postscript by the author responding to a review of his book in the Boston Transcript of March 30, 1888.            475 pp. 12.4 x 19 cm.    Dark green cloth on board with black lettering. Moderate wear. Bookplate and inscription on front free endpaper: "F.E. Porter".Very good.         (8298) $96.00. Fiction/Philosophy

Lucile by Owen Meredith, pen name for Edward Robert, first Earl of Lytton (1831-1891). Family Edition, illustrated by H.N. Cady 1888        New York, NY: Frederick A. Stokes and Brother.  Lucile by Owen Meredith, pen name for Edward Robert, first Earl of Lytton (1831-1891). Author dedicates this edition to his father, the noted novelist Lord Bulwer-Lytton. Romantic narrative poem about Lucile, beloved by two bitter rivals, English Lord Alfred Hargrave and French Duke of Luvois.  352 pp. 17 x 25 cm. Decorated brown cloth on board, moderate wear, including edge wear. Front and rear inside hinges cracked. Inscription on ffep: "Abbie E. Dewey, July 14, '88." Good.        (8300) $48.00. Poetry

Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, The, Vol. I, March 31 to Dec. 31, 1832 by Knight, Charles 1832 London, England: Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Lord Brougham was the instigator of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in London in 1826, and it published its first weekly eight-page issue in March, 1832.  The intent was to spread knowledge amongst the poor, and this little paper was distributed all over the UK, selling 200,000 copies at its peak.  Publication ceased in 1844, after demand had faded and publishing expenses grew too great. Articles in this first volume did not patronize the uneducated--Charing Cross, now greatly improved, illus. with woodcut.  Pompeii, with woodcut, recently discovered, article takes readers on a walk through the city. British animals: The Dormouse, and the Mole, with illus. "On the Choice of a Labouring Man's Dwelling"; History of Somerset House, with illus.  Sugar, its agriculture and production. Statistical Notes on the population of England and Wales. Instruction of the Deaf and the Dumb. "London Bridge"--old bridge is almost pulled down and the Thames now sweeps through the five broad arches of the new bridge.Review of "Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin". The British Museum--article describes obelisks, with illustration. "The Natural Bridge of Virginia" with illustration from the largest state in the American Union. "Mahogany" (Swielenia mohagoni) notes that until recently only the rich could afford a mahogany table, but now (1832) anyone can. All about cutting and transporting from Honduras. Many more abstruse topics for the poor. 389 pp. + index 18 x 28.5 cm. (11½” tall). Marbled boards with calf spine, front cover detached, text block has damp stain on first 85 pages, yet good.  Overall, poor.    (8269) $92.00. Educational    

                                                                                                                                                    

Sermons by the Late Rev. George Shepard, Professor in Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me. With a Memorial by Prof. D.S. Talcott, first edition           1869     Boston, MA: Nichols and Noyes. 368 p.  13 x 19..5 cm.   This book today is widely circulated in Print on Demand and electronic versions, but this original 1869 edition is the one that captured the attention of so many. Rev. Shepard (1801-1868) preached the Gospel, and was unsparing in his criticism of slavery.  At his death he was praised by the noted abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison. Memorial by Prof. Talcott relates life and brilliant theological path of Rev. Shepard, from birth in 1801 in Plainfield, CT on to preaching in Hallowell, Maine and Professorship at Bangor Theological Seminary. "The Diversions from Preaching" criticizes popish influences in the contemporary Protestant churches. "The Eclipsed Luminary" preaches from Matthew. When the Christian ceases to shine, and darkness comes in its place, it is very great darkness. "Salvation in  no Other" from Acts iv. 12. "The Shipwreck of Paul" from Acts xxvii. 22, 31. Better to put trust in God, rather than bolts and planks. "Elijah the Tishbite" from I Kings xvii. 1. "Not Fit for the Kingdom" from Luke ix.62, preaches a stern message for the converted. "The End at Hand" from I Peter iv.7. and more.           Decorated brown cloth with gilt design and lettering on spine. Engraving of Rev. Shepard at frontispiece. "Nellie Grant" stamped on ffep and "Isaac Hills" written in pencil. Clean and tight copy. Very good. (2929) $48.00. Religion                                                                                     

Sovereigns and Courts of Europe, The by "Politikos" with Portraits, Authorized Edition 1893     New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company. 439 pp. w adv. 12.8 x 19.6 cm. This book today is widely circulated in Print on Demand and electronic versions, but this 1893 authorized edition  captured the attention of many for its gossipy "insider-story” style. Sultan of Turkey-- mysterious 1876 death of ex-Sultan, five days after he was deposed on plea of insanity. Alexander III of Russia's story begins with death by horseplay in 1865, assassination of his father, Alexander II in 1881 and Alexander III's accession to the throne, celebration for half a million common folk at one huge dinner... William II, Emperor of Germany, whose birth in 1859 was heralded all over Berlin by a 101-gun salute. Death of Victor Emanuel I, first king of unified Italy brought great sadness, and King Umberto I is now king.  He is the only man generally respected in Italy, author writes. Book ends with long section on Queen Victoria of England, whose portrait serves as frontispiece.            Decorated maroon cloth on board with gilt and red printing. Slight edge wear and worn spot on back cover. Inscription on ffep: "Happy New Year dear Nellie (Grant), 1893 Angelina P. Loveland." Very clean and tight. Very good. (2939) $36.00.  Biography      

                                                                                   

Song of the Sower, The by William Cullen Bryant, illustrated with Forty-two Engravings on Wood           1871 New York, NY: D. Appleton and Company. 48 pp.     17 x 23.5 cm. This book today is widely circulated in Print on Demand and electronic versions, but this 1871 edition is truly an elegant work of art.  Add to that the owner carefully slipped poetry from newspapers in the 1880s and put them in the pages, but didn't stain the pages.  Beautiful engravings by Winslow Homer capture the misery and drama of the civil war, and the lot of the Mill Girl.  Also engravings by Griswold, Fenn, Hennesy, Bushing, Hows,and Nehlig.  Elaborately decorated brown cloth on board with gilt edged pages. Inscription on ffep: "’ Merry Christmas’ To my dear  ‘Loudel’ from Angie, Dec. 25th 1871." Slight wear at heel and toe of spine, else very fine.  (2940) $50.00.  Poetry                                                                         

Contact me at scoulbourn1@verizon.net