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| Simon Lipschutz |
The original Brownie was a basic cardboard box that took 2 1/4-inch square pictures. Because of its simple design and initial price of $1 (equivalent to $31 in 2019) along with the low price of Kodak roll film and processing, the camera was a huge success. After going through several design improvements, the last one was produced in Brazil in 1986.
One of the deadliest hurricanes in history ravaged Galveston on September 8th and resulted in 6,000-12,000 deaths and destroying more than 3,600 buildings. Winds exceeded 145 mile per hour. The magnitude of the disaster could’ve been lessened if the Weather Bureau had not had such poor communication policies.
The storm started picking up about a week earlier and forecasters knew it had passed to the north of Cuba and the Weather Bureau in Washington D.C. predicted it would turn northward and head up the coast to New England. It didn’t.
The National Weather Service was only ten years old and the director, Willis Moore, was an egotistical dolt who was so prejudiced against the Cubans that he shut off the flow of weather information from Cuba to the US. Moore could not accept that the “backward” Cubans could possibly know more than he did about hurricanes. Additionally, Moore had ordered regional forecasters that they could not issue any hurricane warnings without first going through Washington...neither fast nor easy in those days!
A couple days before the storm hit, Isaac Cline, the forecaster in Galveston, began to suspect Washington’s forecast was wrong and he tried to warn the city, but it was too late. Unfortunately, among those dead in the devastated city was Cline’s wife.
Willis Moore had been in office as head of the Weather Bureau since 1895 and held that position until 1913. On April 16, 1913, he was summarily removed from office by President Woodrow Wilson.
Moore had recently sent a letter of resignation to take effect on July 31, but after word of his alleged nefarious efforts to become Secretary of Agriculture leaked out charges were brought against him. President Wilson then withdrew his acceptance of the resignation and fired Moore and referred the subject to the Department of Justice for investigation.
There were other accusations against Moore who was rumored to be living well beyond his means based on his official salary; it was also claimed he had somehow amassed a personal fortune. No chargers were ever brought against him.
Aside from boxing about the only major sport in the US was Major League Baseball which was finally getting the rules standardized. The final standings in 1900 were: 1) Brooklyn Superbas 2) Pittsburgh Pirates 3) Philadelphia Philles 4) Bostong Beaneaters 5) St. Louis Cardinals 6) Chicago Orphans 7) Cincinnati Reds 8) New York Giants
There wasn’t a lot of action in chess in 1900, the year the push-button chess clock was perfected by Veenhoff of Groningen, either.
In early 1900, Geza Maroczy won the 2nd Kolisch Memorial in Vienna, Austria. A few days later on January 19th Thomas Frere (b. December 8, 1820) died in New York City. He was one of the foremost promoters of chess in the US andf wrote Frere's Chess Handbook in 1858.
Other players passing were the 1877 Canadian Champion Henry Howe who died in Montreal on February 12th, the same day as Ellen Gilbert of Hartford, Connecticut. She was a famous correspondence player and called the Queen of Chess. On April 18th Rudolf Charousek, the Hungarian master, died of tuberculosis at the age of 26 in Budapest. On August 12th former world chess champion William Steinitz died in the Manhattan State Hospital, an insane asylum on Ward’s Island in New York.
The virtually unknown Lithuanian master Arved Heinrichsen died in Vilnius on August 23rd. Born November 23, 1879 into a German family in Vilnius (Lithuania, then Russian Empire), he entered a gymnasium secondary school in Riga. After a short stay in St Petersburg, he left in 1896 for Berlin to study there at the faculty of medicine. In the summer semester of 1898 he continued in his studies at the university in Kiel, but in late summer he began to suffer from health problems.
In September 1898 his Berlin doctor diagnosed the beginning of tuberculosis. At the doctor’s recommendation, his parents sent him to Helouan in Egypt where he contracted malaria, which undermined his physical strength still more. He spent the rest of his life in his native town Vilnius where he died at the age of 20.
Frank Marshall and David Baird tied for 1st place in the New York State chess championship, held in New York City. Marshall won the tie-break match. In June Emanuel Lasker won the Paris International, followed by Harry N. Pillsbury. Pillsbury, Schlechter, and Maroczy tied for first in Munich.
The first Western Chess Association (1st US Open) was held in Excelsior, Minnesota and was won by Louis Udemann. The Western Chess Association was founded at that time; in 1934 it became the American Chess Federation. the American team defeated the British team in the annual cable match, scoring 6-4.
At the Manhattan Chess Club the Championship was won by Simon Lipschutz who pocketed $250 which would be worth almost $7,700 in today’s dollars...not bad for a club championship.
The average American worker earned approximately $12.98 per week for 59 hours of work in 1900, or $674.96 a year; that amounts to about $20,700 in today’s dollars. Most workers did not earn that much and there were no paid vacations, holidays or sick leave. A laborer worked and got paid, or did not work and did not get paid.
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| Showalter |
Showalter took home $150 and Hodges $100. The big game in the final round was Showalter vs. Lipschutz. It wasn’t until move 35 that Lipschutz got a material advantage, then after a series of exchanges he had the two Bs vs. a B and N which was sufficient to secure the win. Frank Marshall, at age 22, had not yet reached the level he was to achieve in a few years when he won the very strong tournament at Cambridge Springs in 1904.
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