“Hod is the first on deck to see smoke…”
cheechako: “Newcomer,” in Chinook Indian trade jargon.
“There is some folks say the pine air is good for you but Clarence is not one of them…”
carolina special: A train, powered by a green-and-gold-trimmed steam locomotive, which ran from Charleston, SC to Cincinnati, OH. It consisted of mail and baggage cars, coaches, a diner and Pullmans. In 1904 the Carolina Special collided head-on with a local train in New Market, Tennessee. More than one hundred people were killed.
“The only part that bothers Royal is when the doctor sits on the stool to stare into the hole in the head of his pizzle…”
fort missoula: Fort Missoula was established by the United States Army in 1877, on land that is now part of the city of Missoula, Montana, in order to protect white settlers in Western Montana from possible threats from the area's Native American tribes (such as the Nez Perce). Beginning in 1888, the fort was home to the Buffalo Soldiers of the 25th Infantry Regiment. While stationed at Fort Missoula, the 25th Infantry tested the practicality of soldiers traveling by bicycle by conducting numerous training rides, including one that took them all the way to St. Louis, Missouri. Fort Missoula was turned over to the Department of Immigration and Naturalization in 1941 for use as an alien detention center for non-military Italian men (merchant seamen, World's Fair employees, and the crew of an Italian luxury liner seized in the Panama Canal). At one time the fort housed over 1,200 Italian internees, who referred to the fort as “Camp Bella Vista.”
sprunt’s: James Sprunt was a textile magnate in Wilmington, NC, who with his brother William owned the largest cotton-brokerage firm in the U.S. at the turn of the century. He had been a purser on the Confederate blockade-runner Lilian during the Civil War.
hampton institute: The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute was founded in 1868 by General Samuel Armstrong. He was interested in moral training and a practical, industrial education for Southern blacks. Hampton received much of its financial support in the years following the Civil War from church groups and former officers and soldiers of the Union Army. One of the many Civil War veterans who gave substantial sums to the school was General William Jackson Palmer, a Union cavalry commander and Quaker from Philadelphia, who later built the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and founded Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“In the last few years it has been the Italians, Guglielmo Tell mostly, or Un Ballo in Maschera, or something new by Puccini…”
bundoks: Tagalog word for “mountains.” Became corrupted by American soldiers into “boondocks”—any distant posting.
the intramuros: Located along the southern bank of the Pasig River, the Intramuros is Manila's oldest district, having been built by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century. Its name means “within the walls”; the district is surrounded by thick, high walls and moats. During the Spanish colonial period, the Intramuros was considered Manila itself.
teatro zorilla: The Teatro Zorilla was located at the corner of Calle San Pedro (now Evangelista) and Calle Azcarraga (now Recto) in Manila. Many Italian companies performed at the Zorilla, which closed during the early years of the Philippine-American War, but soon reopened, often presenting seditious zarzuelas to protest American rule.
katipunan: The Katipunan was a Philippine revolutionary society founded by anti-Spanish Filipinos in Manila in 1892. Initially, the Katipunan was a secret organization; its discovery in 1896 helped lead to the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution.
dr. rizal: José P. Rizal (1861-1896) was the leading advocate for reform in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era. He was an accomplished linguist, ophthalmologist, sculptor, painter, educator, farmer, historian, playwright, journalist, poet, essayist, and novelist, whose most famous works are the novels Noli me Tangere (1887) and El Filibusterismo (1891), which inspired dissent among reformers and revolutionaries. On his return to Manila from university in Europe in 1892, Rizal founded La Liga Filipina, a predecessor of the more radical Katipunan. The league advocated moderate social reforms through legal means, but was quickly disbanded by the governor. Rizal had already been declared an enemy of the state because of the publication of his novels, and in 1892 he was exiled from Manila. In 1896, as the rebellion fomented by the Katipunan became a full-blown revolution, Rizal issued a manifesto disavowing the unrest and declaring that the education of Filipinos and their achievement of a national identity were prerequisites to freedom. He volunteered to serve the Spanish Army as a physician in Cuba, but instead he was arrested and sent to Manila to stand trial. On the morning of December 30, 1896, Rizal, thirty-five years old, was shot to death by a firing squad at Bagumbayan Field.
hermano terrible: In the Masonic order, the hermano terrible is the man who guides a neophyte through his initiation ceremony. Emilio Aguinaldo, Andrés Bonifacio and José Rizal were all Freemasons.
ateneo: The Ateneo de Manila University is a private Jesuit-run university in Manila. It was created in 1859, when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila to the Jesuits. After the U.S. began to occupy the Philippines in the early 1900s, the Ateneo lost its government subsidy and became a private institution.
correo de ultramar: A radical Manila newspaper.
the hero of paombong: Gregorio del Pilar y Sempio (1875-1899) was the second youngest general in the Philippine Revolutionary Forces during the Philippine Revolution and the Philippine-American War. On September 3, 1897, del Pilar disguised himself and ten other soldiers as women, entered the town of Paombong unhindered, attacked the Spanish garrison, and confiscated fourteen Mauser rifles. This feat caught the attention of General Aguinaldo, who invited del Pilar to join the circle of revolutionary leaders camped at Biak-na-Bato. When the Philippine-American War broke out on February 1899, del Pilar led his troops to a short victory over Major Franklin Bell in the first phase of the Battle of Quingua, but subsequent engagements against the Americans all ended in defeat. On December 2, 1899, del Pilar led sixty Filipino soldiers against the Texas Regiment (the 33rd Infantry Regiment) in the Battle of Tirad Pass, a delaying action to cover a retreat by Aguinaldo. The five-hour standoff resulted in del Pilar's death after he was shot in the neck.
“Hod is working on the wagon road three miles out of skaguay, felling trees and dragging logs through the mud with a chain rig, when a dude strolls up with the road boss…”
“White folks’ hair is easy…”
governor russell: Governor Daniel Lindsay Russell, Jr. (1845–1908) was the Republican governor of North Carolina from 1897 to 1901. In the 1898 election, Russell and the Republicans joined with the Populists in a combined fusion party, but the persistent and effective white-supremacy campaign waged by the Democrats drowned out nearly all other issues. Russell, who had served as a captain in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, issued a proclamation criticizing attacks associated with the Red Shirts and calling for a peaceful election. On November 8, he traveled home to Wilmington and cast his ballot without incident, but he barely made it back to Raleigh. A group of armed Red Shirts boarded the train at Hamlet looking for the governor, but Russell had been tipped off and was hiding in the baggage car.
the redeemers: The Redeemers were a political coalition in the South during the Reconstruction era. They were the Southern wing of the Bourbon Democrats, who were the conservative, pro-business wing of the Democratic Party. Once in power, they typically cut government spending, shortened legislative sessions, lowered politicians’ salaries, scaled back public aid to railroads and corporations, and reduced support for public education. They also worked to change voter registration rules to strip most blacks and many poor whites of their ability to vote.
scalawag: Scalawag was a nickname for Southern whites who supported Reconstruction following the Civil War. Joseph E. Worcester’s 1860 Dictionary of the English Language defined scalawag as "A low worthless fellow; a scapegrace." Scalawag was also a word for low-grade farm animals.
“Here's Soapy's other n-----…”
“Father, please forgive the tardiness of my correspondence, but we have been in transitu of late and the regular mail schedule is not in effect…”
sgt. mingo sanders: Mingo Sanders, born in Marion, SC, enlisted in the Army on May 16, 1881, and arrived in Missoula with Company B of the 25th Infantry in 1888. Partially blind from an explosion, he was the oldest and most experienced member of the Bicycle Corps at age 39. In the Spanish–American War, Sanders helped capture the Spanish-held fort of El Viso near El Caney, then served in the Philippines. He received the Medal of Honor after rescuing five American prisoners.
“The screw is supposed to sever your spine at the base of the neck before you are choked by the collar…”
juan tamad: “Lazy John”—a character in Philippine folklore noted for extreme laziness. In one story, he is buried by monkeys who think he is dead. The Philippine ilustrado class often disparaged peasant men by likening them to Juan Tamad. The American equivalent would be Joe Blow.
“Carnaval was invented by spies…”
ambassador de lôme: In 1898, Enrique Dupuy de Lôme, the Spanish Minister with the Portfolio of Cuban Affairs at the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C., sent a private letter to his friend, Don Jose Canelejas. The letter was stolen and released by Cuban revolutionists to Hearst correspondents. In it, the minister wrote disparagingly of U.S. President William McKinley, and on February 9, the letter was published in the New York Journal, precipitating calls for military action against Spain.
“The art of it lies in what first strikes the eye, and what that in turn stimulates in the mind of the reader…”
“A crowd of men have gathered in front of the Mondamin, listening to Jeff Smith up on a barrel of nails…”
the march of the flag: The “March of the Flag” was a speech by Senator Albert Beveridge opening the Indiana Republican Campaign on September 16, 1898. It was made the Republican campaign document for Indiana, Iowa, and other states, and was widely quoted and plagarized.
fitzhugh lee: Fitzhugh Lee (1835–1905) was the nephew of Robert E. Lee, and a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War. Upon the declaration of war between Spain and the United States he re-entered the army, becoming one of three ex-Confederate general officers made major generals of United States Volunteers. Fitzhugh Lee commanded the VII Army Corps, but took no part in the actual operations in Cuba. He was military governor of Havana and Pinar del Rio in 1899.
joe boyle: Joe Whiteside Boyle was merchant seaman, businessman, and fight promoter before the Gold Rush lured him north in 1897. By 1909, he was in charge of one of the two corporate mining giants in the Klondike and became known as “The King of the Klondike.” With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Joe left the Yukon and offered to finance and equip a machine-gun unit of fifty men for the Canadian Army. Too old to see active combat, he was given the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel. When America joined the war in 1917, Boyle embarked on a mission to get the Russian train system working. That winter, he became involved in the supply of food to starving, defeated Romanians, after which he arranged for Romania's crown jewels and archives to be moved to Moscow to keep them out of German hands. He later arranged for their return, and allegedly had an affair with Queen Marie of Romania.
“In the drawing there are a half-dozen young men standing aimlessly, many with their hands in their pockets, as if in line for a free lunch…”
“Hod rides the Utopia back to seattle with the other beaten men…”
bill hogan: “General” Bill Hogan, an unemployed teamster and member of the Western Federation of Miners from the Moulton Mine in Butte, Montana. led an offshoot of Coxey’s Army, commandeering several Northern Pacific freight engines to transport his fellow protestors across Montana. U/S/ infantry troops barricaded the line just west of present day Forsyth, stopped the train, arrested the men, and transported them to the jail at Helena. Of the six hundred or more volunteers who had filled the ranks of Hogan's Army, only the General and forty-two of his troopers were actually tried for seizing property without a proper warrant. In the end, William Hogan was sentenced to six months in jail, while the remainder of the defendants received thirty-day sentences.
“If the coolies are curious about Diosdado they don’t show it…”
“If Uncle Wicklow got any second thoughts about being a colored man’s colored man, he keeps quiet about it…”
the bellamys: The son of a prominent local doctor, John Bellamy was a Wilmington lawyer and Congressman and close friend of future president Woodrow Wilson. He invited the White Government Union to use his law office for meetings.
the de rossets: One of Wilmington’s leading families. The Armand de Rosset house, on 3rd and Market, was used as the city’s Confederate headquarters during the Civil War.
mist’ miller: Thomas C. Miller was an African-American deputy sheriff, mail carrier, liquor dealer, coroner, realtor, and pawnbroker who loaned money to both blacks and whites in Wilmington. He was ordered out of town during the coup, and died in Virginia in 1903.
captain sigsbee: During the Civil War, Captain Charles D. Sigsbee was involved in the bombardment of Fort Fisher, which protected the Confederate blockade runners that operated out of Wilmington, NC. On Feb. 15, 1898, he was onboard the Maine as its commander. Sigsbee and the surviving crew abandoned the ship after the explosion.
paley:William “Daddy” Paley (1843–1924) was hired by Edison in March 1898, and took his first “war views” the same month, showing U.S. troops ready for embarkation in Florida. In June, he joined the dozens of journalists following the troops as they invaded Cuba, and was soon known among the war correspondents as “the Kinetoscope Man,” distinctive both for his own bulk and for the novel camera he operated. Within days his camera malfunctioned, and living out in the open, constantly soaked by the rain, he went down with fever and almost died on the voyage back to America.
“Hod hacks at the chalky ground as tow-headed mormon boys crawl beside him…”
“The game is friendly till the ladies arrive…”
“The game is friendly till the ladies arrive…”
“Wu sits back among the crates as his assistant pores over a page of sums, clacking an abacus…”
“Leadville is a wound festering between the Mosquito Range and the Wasatch Mountains, a high-plains sprawl of new-built structures surrounded by treeless hills pocked with diggings, hills that at closer look are only piles of tailings excreted from the holes men have torn into the earth…”
“Here we scribe truth in hot lead…”
“In Denver they don’t make him undress…”
“The Americans are there before the sun comes up…”
“Quiroga sits on his platform, surveying the bowed heads below…”
“The White Admiral sits in a wicker chair in his quarters on the flagship of the victorious Fleet…”
“Tampa is a fever dream…”
“Hod looks up from the chow line at Camp Alva Adams and can see the flophouse he stayed in the night before he enlisted…”