A Night to Remember
Sounds of Silence
Etched clay tablets. Painted cave walls. Carved stone tombs. Rice paper. Rag paper. Papyrus. Mute reminders. Silent screams of humanity. I was here! I mattered once! I was SOMEBODY! From the tallest mountains to the deepest valleys, the spoken word echoes into oblivion. But the written word? Links in a chain. A New York state meadow, strewn with cups, plates, blankets, sits silent after a thundering three-day rock concert. A Pennsylvania Civil War battlefield, filled with thousands of dead horses, hundreds of lifeless soldiers, lies still following a hellacious three-day battle. Ecstasy. Agony. Noises of humanity, bookended by silence. An unsinkable ship, on her maiden voyage, bow vertical as she begins her slide into history, erasing 1600 souls. Screams. Then silence. The written word bears witness to these passing moments. A Rosetta Stone reality. Though whittled by time, enough words survive speaking to our human commonality. Will this present digital age yield such bounty in the future, or will information disappear like an echo? A question only time can answer. Enter the personal diary. Little equates to discovering these historical gems.
Diary ledgers from brothers Edwin & John Arnold, inhabitants of Washington, D.C. from 1897 into the 1930's. Compendiums of historical data as witnessed from front row seats. Edwin served as a postal clerk. Brother John practiced medicine. Each day is carefully committed to the page every night, dated and timed.
Intimate details and revealing emotions fill each page begging the question: Are we writing these journals for ourselves, or for expectant generations? Yes and yes. In these, we discover our theme, our heritage, and ourselves.
A Night to Remember
April 15, 1912...
Appalling catastrophe! Morning extras announced that the new White Star liner Titanic, on her maiden trip to New York, ran into a huge iceberg between 10 and 11 last night and had great holes stove in. Up to this evening, reports had it that the 2000 passengers had been taken off and that the Titanic was being towed into Halifax.
Edwin S. Arnold's diary. One of three brothers living together in Washington, D.C. from 1897 onward . Young, ambitious, they would never fully realize their success in life, a gift to us years beyond their moment in time. Their words leave us with an unpayable debt.
First account from the sinking of the Titanic offers hope, a way to cope. But the reality revealed hours later caused a pause of disbelief, still felt in this maritime disaster 106 years later. Brother Edwin follows the unfolding story each night in his diary, including subsequent Congressional investigations.
The Titanic entry is as chilling today as the day it was written in tears.
At 10 tonight boys are crying "Extra" in great excitement, and the wireless brings the heartrending information that the great ship went down about 2:30 this morning taking with her 1800 persons about 700 having been saved. This $10,000,000.00 ship...carrying cargo valued at many millions with a most distinguished passenger list has thus come to a most untimely end. Its equal is not on record in maritime annals. The Forty-Seventh anniversary of Lincoln's death - 22 minutes past 7 A.M.
The Arnold Brothers
Edwin, a postal clerk. Grant, a government employee, and John, a medical doctor in training, have arrived in the nation's capital from the small central Pennsylvania community of Port Trevorton. These are busy days for a fledgling nation now spreading its eagle wings. The Spanish American war was the springboard onto the world's stage. President Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet sent a worldwide message on its Port of Call circumnavigating the globe. Few missed the message. Edwin and John are devotees to their diaries, filling ledger after ledger, enjoying front row seats to America's expanding empire. They rarely miss a daily entry, decade after decade. One similarity in their work is the note each April 15th. This year the Forty Seventh anniversary of Lincoln's death. Such was the impact of this senseless sacrifice. The death of Abraham Lincoln, as does John F. Kennedy's, lingers long in our nation's collective consciousness.
October 15, 1913...
Attempted assassination of [Teddy] Roosevelt. Shortly before midnight, I was awakened by the shouts of the newsboys excitably shouting "Extra." It was a vivid reminder of the assassination of Presidents Garfield & McKinley...We learned of the shooting of Col. Roosevelt at Milwaukee last evening as he entered an automobile to
The Arnold families, l to r. Doctor John & his wife Isora. Grandma Riehl holding grandson James, child of Edwin (with bicycle) & Anne Riehl. James was Edwin's & Anne's first child, Washington, D.C., ca. 1900
go to the Auditorium to deliver an address. He spoke an hour and a half with a bullet lodged in his breast, and at 3:30 this morning arrived at Chicago and went to the hospital. The wound is severe and there is danger of blood poisoning.
But the Bull Moose survived, such was the dynamic of this president, though personal tragedy would cut him down several years later. Son Quentin, a World War I aviator, was shot down over enemy lines. The Germans, realizing who they had killed, gave him a full military funeral. But the damage was done. Quentin's death broke Teddy's resolve. President Roosevelt went to his grave in 1919. Fatality conquers all comers.
Catch Me If You Can
July 14, 1911...
At 2:30 P.M., Aviator [Harry] Atwood of Boston flew in from College Park, and after lunching at the Willard as guest of the Bureau of Commerce, flew from Potomac Park into the grounds of the White House, where President Taft presented him with a gold medal. It was the first time in history that the White House grounds were entered in this manner. Thousands of people lined the lot to see the incident. I drove up and witnessed it. The words of Dr. John Arnold.
How times have changed. Aviator Atwood received a gold medal. Today, he would receive a sentence. Harry Atwood achieved this flying feat in a Wright Type B aeroplane, having trained with the brothers themselves. Upon liftoff, most observers thought he would never clear the fountain and trees. But this he did. The magnificence of flight. Last seen, he was flying up and over the Washington Monument, vanishing into the limitless sky.
1896 Presidential political campaign button - William McKinley & Garret Hobart, their platform supporting the gold standard, thus the gold bug. Their rival, William Jennings Bryant supported a silver standard, thus his silver bug.
The gold standard reached such a heated debate, the issue created the genesis for L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz. This underlying theme supports the entire plot. Follow the Yellow Brick Road.
These were vibrant times. A nation bursting at the seams. All recorded in vivid detailed delight.
Auld Lang Syne
The best entry is found in one of Dr. Arnold's volumes. On December 31, 1899, he records his thoughts on leaving the old century for the new. His muses are priceless.
Monday, December 31...
End of the year, end of the century. It is now midnight. Bells are ringing, whistles blowing, cannon booming, and horns bugling welcoming the birth of a new year and open a new century...This city of Washington, D. C. at the close of the 19th century is one of the most beautiful in the world, and we are all proud of it. I would enjoy seeing it one hundred years hence.
Careful what you wish for. He continues...
No century in the history of the world has been characterized by such progress. It is extremely doubtful that the coming century can equate it.
Uncle John Arnold with his niece Rosemary and nephew Riehl, Washington, D.C. ca. 1905.
From the doctor's diaries, his words ring out - No century [nineteenth] in the history of the world has been characterized by such progress...from cumbersome horse coach to lightning express trains and automobiles.
[Dr. Arnold's diary entry on December 31, 1899, midnight.]
We have developed from the tallow candle to the electric light. From the quill pen to the typewriter. From the hand printing press to the rotary press and the Mergenthaler linotype. From cumbersome horse coach to the lightning express trains and the automobile. We have also introduced painless surgery, the cotton gin, weaving looms, steam boats, telephones, wireless telegraphy. We have an inexhaustible supply of literature within reach of everybody.
And, in the thoughts of a medical doctor...
Among the greatest discoveries for the coming century I hope the first will be an infallible remedy for tuberculosis, which is too alarmingly prevalent and entirely beyond our control. It is now 1 AM. Happy New Year...Thus have I written these notes so that should this book survive 100 years, anyone reading it may look back to this period and form an idea of things as they existed in the dim irretrievable past. Adieu 19th century. Welcome 20th century.
J.S. Arnold, M.D.
Guest Book, Jacob William Wright, published by The Press in the Forest, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, 1925. In 1905, Carmel formed an Arts & Crafts Club. In 1906, after the San Francisco earthquake devastated the city, many artists moved north to Carmel. With this influx, the art colony flourished. The Guest Book's cover is constructed of cut leather and a tapa style finish; the design appears to simulate the kelp growing along the California coast.
Brother Edwin finishes his final diary in 1909 while John works well into the twentieth century. For these brothers, their diaries had purpose beyond personal.
After serving its purpose for many years the end of this volume has at last been reached. Many incidents entered herein will in years to come prove valuable. At present they seem trivial. Had one of my ancestors a hundred years ago done as I am now doing, what a storehouse of useful data we would now have. It is to be hoped that these efforts may be appreciated years hence by those who come after us.
Edwin S. Arnold
Washington, D.C., July 7, 1909
We can borrow it, steal it, or waste it, but we just cannot control it. Invicta Subaqua wrist watches.
The Arnolds were fine writers, expressing sentiment in ways few could. They viewed the United States as one successful lab experiment. Their confidence reflected the nation's confidence. Their timeless enthusiasm reaches out to us. Words. Never underestimate their power, or their survivability. Especially these...
We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States.