On the Day of Charles Demuth's Birthday (Cont.)

Elsewhere, an Ohio bank embezzler got five years for taking $30,000. A sewer caved in in Elmira, New York. In Luling, Texas, a hundred vigilantes hanged a man who’d murdered his wife, and in the same town a newlywed shot his wife while she was baking bread. In New Orleans, a prostitute willed her earthly goods to her murderer. In Pittsburgh, another prostitute brought breach of promise charges against one of her married customers. In Washington DC, there was some conjecture over how many grandchildren Daniel Webster had. Local government occupied a single column on page two, with a treasurer’s report and expenditures for street and property repairs. Also, it accounted for a Republican victory celebration at Center Square in Lancaster, where electric lights were turned on for the first time. A "colored delegation" was first to arrive, and its members were "given a rear place in the parade." Without much organization, the parade moved down South Queen Street, "a howling mob composed mostly of boys and drunken men. They were well supplied with fireworks which were set off along the route. This noisy gang frightened up the whole town for about an hour, when the marchers became tired and dropped off. The darkies took this opportunity to have some fun, and after the parade they marched through the town for several hours, angling for beer and making a terrible noise. They were accompanied by a number of whites who had the only money in the party, with which to purchase liquor, and it was a late hour before the people in the centre of the town could sleep."

Page three of the Intelligencer Journal for November 8th contained a write-up of a wedding to suggest that such ceremonies could be just as elaborate in 1883 as they still are over a hundred years later. There was news from Columbia of an army desertion, a break-in at a store, the school board meeting, and the arrival of illumination which had intended to rival that in Lancaster, but all did not go well: "The electric lights, which were erected by the Maxim Light Company, for the purpose of illuminating the city, were tested for the first time last evening, about half past 6 o’clock. Some of them worked very well, but the majority did not, and nothing could be seen but sparks or very dim lights."

Musical entertainments were featured on page three, and, as Lancaster was the first geographical stop for theatrical troupes on their way West from Philadelphia, a full bill was scheduled. On the night of Charles Demuth’s birth, the Fulton Opera House advertised the Gigantean Minstrels, with "great comedians," "jolly end men," "star specialists," "solo musicians," and "superb vocalists" all "blended in ONE HARMONIOUS WHOLE." "The most Magnificent First Part ever seen. The Strongest Olio ever presented and the most laughable comedy every performed. . . . A mammoth Double show for the Single Price of Admission": 35, 50, and 75 cents.

For the following night, Miss Emma Thursby was advertised: "the most eminent living concert singer" in a "GRAND CONCERT." Seats for this started at $1.00, but for 50 cents music lovers could sit in the gallery.

The night after that, Hugh Fay and Billy Harry, "the Monarchs of Fun," were to appear in Irish Aristocracy, "Supported by their Carefully Selected Musical Comedy, The Trick Donkey, Danger, . . . and the famous three handed reel."

The fourth page of the newspaper also ran features: a lengthy poem of rhymed homilies, a how-to-blanch celery lesson, a letter to the editor from a Baptist minister extolling the virtues of an over-the-counter oil guaranteed to cure diphtheria, and the stock market exchanges. But these articles occupied little space. Most of the page was given over to advertisements: Wilcox and White parlor organs, at the end of the block where the Demuth Tobacco Shop had stood since 1770; Metzger & Haughman’s "Cheap Store" on West King — so named in an age when that word carried no negative connotations — for its velvets and cashmeres; Hager & Brother on West King, whose underwear ad took up an impressive amount of space; Watt, Shand & Co, on the square, offered an array of "special bargains"; Fahnestock’s, "next door to the court house," ran a second ad, to offer ladies’ walking jackets, Dolmans, Jersey jackets, Langtry coats, and Ulsters, along with fur-lined silk circulars; John Best & Son, who sold boilers on East Fulton; High & Martin’s China Hall on East King, offering various kinds of glassware, called "Fancy Goods"; also, ads for piles suppositories from Andrew G. Frey on East Orange, oil cloth from Shirk’s Carpets on West King, cough syrup from Charles A. Locher on East King, and photographs from G..E. Rote on North Queen, who had been "compelled to get a VERY LARGE CAMERA BOX to meet the demand."

Here and there an obituary got sneaked in between articles and advertisements, but births went unrecorded on 8 November 1883, and indeed for some years thereafter, so Charles Demuth arrived on the scene unheralded. It would be many years before Lancaster newspapers took note of one of the city’s more distinguished sons. – BK