Saturday Morning, November 30, 2024

Trenton Makes the World Takes

A slight breeze streamed down State Street spinning the weathervanes to the northwest. Degreeing in the mid 40's, the day was chilly for October. And no one noticed. A student parade celebrating Education Day and numbering 20,000 participants filled the road. Exuberance abounded. Cheers from the curbside propelled the entourage forward. The day was one of several planned to celebrate Trenton, New Jersey's 250th anniversary, a high-water mark along the Delaware.

Stoneware jug from Siegmund Baron, a wholesale liquor distributor, 11 ½" H. →

Business card of Jacob Rittmann for his wine, liquor, & cigar bar named Hamilton View. Both men represented the business spirit in Trenton, New Jersey. Mr. Baron appears in the 1900 Trenton Business Directory. Mr. Rittmann's address is listed in the 1920 Trenton Business Directory. Neighbors. Competitors. Symbiotically linked for the betterment of their community. ↓

Everyone participated. Like a massive serpent, the students and their floats wound through the city finally arriving at Five Points, the spot of the Revolutionary War Battle Monument. There, the crowd gathered for a full retinue of speeches, all punctuated with applause and hoorahs. A good feel moment.

Saturday's auction will include a selection of ephemera from Trenton, New Jersey lost in the Mists of Time.
Some of the most amazing bits and pieces have appeared.

Afternoon hours passed amid this delightful delirium. For many students, it was a day free from classes. For the parents, it was a celebration for the community they had created. Few cities prospered as Trenton did. State capital and a thriving entrepôt. As daylight waned into twilight the weathervanes spun north. A stiffer, more abrasive breeze arrived. Except for an extra coat or two, no one noticed. But, in the next several days, a nightmare would descend upon this Babylon-by-the-sea in a way no one could have ever anticipated.

An unusual treasure discovered. These are two Solicitor's Permits required by law for selling alcohol in the state of New Jersey, all overseen by the Commissioner of Alcoholic Beverage Control. One permit establishes a connection between William Rittmann (Jacob's son) and the Peoples Brewing Co., Lalor & Lamberton Streets, Trenton. The second permit covers the dealings between William Rittmann and John Trommer representing the Trommer Beer Co. 1947-48 & 1948-49 respectively.

Buddy, can you spare a dime?

October 29th, 1929. The day of the student parade. Sixty miles away, the New York Stock Market was collapsing. Millionaires in the morning, paupers in the evening. Thousands of equity dollars vanished as the Dow Jones average plummeted. Fear pushed many investors out of skyscraper windows. This trickledown economics soon enveloped the entire country and world.

Photograph by Mr. William L. Beckmann, 621 Second Street, Trenton, NJ. This image has all the earmarks of the Education Day Parade held in Trenton, October 29th, 1929, Black Tuesday. The float is a rendition of the Mott School, named for Major General Gershom Mott, the home grown hero serving in the Civil War. 8" x 10"

The Great Depression. Much has been written, words never expressing the exasperation. Panic. Hopelessness. In Trenton, factory after factory fell dark. One corner business after another closed. Banks disappeared. Employment lines were eclipsed by bread lines. A financial collapse permutating.

Postmarked postcard dated 24 May, 1910.

Blow Out at Camp Worth, Browns Mills in-the-Pines, N.J. This spot was a favorite resort getaway. The area included Mirror and surrounding cedar water lakes. This along with homeopathic minerals were sought for medicinal cures against tuberculosis & asthma. Critique on reverse describes this Italian band in terms of the times.

By Christmas life was a skeleton for what it had just been. Not a slap-in-the-face, but a powerful punch. Homes were lost as was self-esteem. Railroad yards became encampments. Hamilton's Duck Island on the Delaware River an asylum. Starvation spread faster than disease. Infectious wounds. No safety nets. No unemployment checks. No golden parachutes. Nothing. Just each other.

Two 1909 VDB S pennies.

Love of money is not the root of all evil. Addiction to collect ad nauseam? Well, that might just rank right up there.

For those fortunate enough to maintain employment, hours were slashed, incomes cut. Many policemen and teachers worked without pay. Yesterday offered easy street. Today you slept on them. A living hell with no end in sight. Why?

The Perfect Storm

Clues foreshadowed, all visibly ignored. During the 1920's, stock speculation, a something for nothing attitude, spiraled market prices upward. The higher the stock price, the greater the participation. A win win situation. Irrational exuberance. Carnival promises.

Questar Field Model Telescope, with tripod and hard case.
From a closed home of a gentlemen who forever bought the best.

Margin accounts, a financial technique to multiply winnings, arrived in Emperor clothes. As stock prices rise, investors borrow additional funds to buy more, essentially a credit line. But, when the stock falls, participants must cover their position with cash, backing the loan. Without those dollars available for a stop gap, and most don't have them, the market falls. In 1929, it tumbled, crunching the economy. The reaction would be like stopping an avalanche with a snow shovel. In Trenton, the effect was compounded. The Roebling family, heirs to a steel cable fortune, had just sold their family company months before the downturn and placed their profits in the stock market. As Roebling goes, so goes Trenton. A most dangerous epitaph worthy the Oracle of Delphi.

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dancing Bones

Greater problems caused far greater pain. World War I German bonds had their moment. The severe penalty meted on Germany at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 following the Great War was a trigger awaiting a finger. When the stock market collapsed, the US Treasury, desperate for cash, called in their German bonds. The purpose of this financial vehicle was to rebuild Germany into a healthy participating economic partner. Bonds are a long-term obligation, never meant to be a short-term note.

1960 Life promotional advertising brochure targeting regional markets.
Inserts include Piels beer ads and a celebrity Main Event boxing poster. Each bout offered a glimpse at people like Zsa Zsa Gabor and Jerry Lewis.

To compensate, Germany printed a massive number of Marks to meet the demand. Injecting currency into an economy is incendiary. Inflation exploded. The finger. Financial disaster swept Deutschland, snowballing, opening the door for one certain dictator named Adolf Hitler. The Roaring Twenties had impacted the world stage. The backbone is connected to the hip bone, the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone...

Coda

Trenton would work its way out of the 1930's. World War II's production demand opened the factories once again. The stock market rose. Post war, America was the only industrial center standing so employment continued well into the 1960's. But overseas competition, greater demands from the unions, and corporate heads with little empathy for labor added to this new age headache. But people reinvent themselves. Always. Younger generations carry the torch of dreams. All it takes is time. At last check, the weathervanes were pointing east. A sign of rain and growth. Tomorrow's crops assured.

German loofah Santa toy, 5 ½" L.

The gallery gives all of us a chance to explore many lives, multiple topics. Human experience through the lives we touch. And you believed this was just an auction? Au contraire.