The Gilded Age – Empowering women through fiction and history.

Fun and Mischief: Halloween in the Early 20th Century

It’s Halloween in the United States today, and if you live in America, you likely already have bags of candy stashed on the front table near your door, expecting little nippers to come knocking and calling “trick or treat!”

Halloween these days is a relatively tame affair where fun is the name of the game. It means dressing up in costumes, taking the kids door to door to get candy, and for some, attending a party or settling on the couch to watch spooky movies (I already have my collection of classic horror films geared up). But in the early 20th century, kids had a very different idea of what constituted “fun” for Halloween. Mischief and mayhem were the order of the day (or, I should say, the night).

What do I mean by mischief? Watch this clip from the 1944 classic film Meet Me in St. Louis. The film is set in 1904 and gives a pretty accurate glimpse of how kids celebrated Halloween in the early 20th century. In the scene, kids build a bonfire, throwing in anything flammable they can get their hands on (and one suspects some of the chairs they’re throwing into the fire might have been ripped off neighborhood porches). Then, they huddle together, trying to figure out who they’re going to torture with their bags of flour (yes, knocking on someone’s door and throwing flour in their face was a thing back then). That was the turn-of-the-century’s idea of Halloween fun.

Photo Credit: A non-grotesque and non-creepy Halloween costume of a witch, 1910: jamesjoel/Flickr/CC BY ND 2.0

This scene also shows how kids dressed up for Halloween over one hundred years ago (and if you’re curious to see more costumes from this era, you can look here). Unlike today where we’re more likely to see cute costumes on smaller kids and spooky-fun costumes on older kids, kids used whatever they could find around the house. The results were creepier and, in some cases, even grotesque.

Trick-or-treating is an organized affair in the 21st century. In the neighborhoods in my area, the local newspaper designates specific days (not necessarily October 31) and times when trick-or-treaters can go around town. In the early 20th century, things were a lot more chaotic. Kids would go trick-or-treating in parades and they could become quite unruly. And did they get candy? Not always. Until the mid-20th century, kids got whatever was lying around. That could be a toy or a game the child of the house didn’t want anymore or some non-candy goodies or fruits or nuts (which would make many moms and dads very happy today).

But what really characterized early 20th-century Halloween was mischief. In addition to the bonfire and the flour-in-the-face, it wasn’t unusual for kids to vandalize homes belonging to people in town they didn’t like or even steal things off their lawn or porch (in the film clip above, one of the adults warns her children to return a neighbor’s hammock after they steal it). I remember when I was a kid, Halloween meant you were at risk of being “egged” (having kids throw rotten eggs at your house) if you didn’t open the door and give out candy. Thankfully, that practice has largely gone out of style.

Want to have even more Halloween fun this year? Come solve a mystery with the protagonist of my Adele Gossling Mysteries series as she helps search for a missing child from the community Halloween party! You can get this story (plus a novella and other goodies) only if you sign up for my newsletter here.

The Treatment of the Chinese in San Francisco after the 1906 Earthquake

Today is a special day for the people of China as it’s National Day of the Chinese Republic. On this day in 1911, a group of revolutionaries led a revolt against the Qing Dynasty. They overthrew the imperial rule that had dominated for centuries, declaring the country a republic. You can read more about the revolution here.

Why am I mentioning this? First, we are all connected to one another in some way, so knowing about the history of other countries besides our own is part of that connection. Second, I’ve come to appreciate the struggles of the Chinese not only in their own country but in others as well, especially during the early 20th century. In fact, it was researching the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and the rebuilding that happened afterward for my upcoming book, Murder Among the Rubble, that led me to not only appreciate the way the Chinese were treated during this time but also to include this community in that book.

Photo Credit: Chinatown, Waverly Place at Clay Street, 9 April 1900 (six years before the earthquake), glass plate negative: San Francisco Public Library/Flickr/CC BY NC ND 2.0

San Francisco is known as a liberal city that opens its arms to all and celebrates its diversity. But it wasn’t always this way. Many ethnic groups like the Latino and Asian communities, experienced abominable racism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Before the earthquake, the Chinese, who numbered about 15,000, were seen as instigators of corruption and vice. They were regulated to a twelve-block radius known as Chinatown and forced to live under squalid conditions. Many couldn’t find decent work and resorted to earning a living with businesses catering to the tourist trade or related to vices, such as opium dens and prostitution houses. The community was stereotyped as one without morals and willing to engage in criminal activity such as the slave trade. This stereotype was so prevalent that a film made in 1965 portraying the Chinese in Chinatown in this way garnished protest from Asian-American actors and led to the creation of the East West Players. I wrote about that here.

When the earthquake hit San Francisco in 1906, Chinatown was, like eighty percent of the city, destroyed. About two-thirds of the Chinese living there fled to Oakland (where they weren’t welcomed – if you can stomach it, read this article that appeared in the Oakland Herald and really shows the attitude toward the Chinese at the time). The other third remained in the city.

Photo Credit: Chinatown after the earthquake, 1906, Harold B. Lee Library: Picryl/Public Domain

The committee that was formed after the earthquake to oversee the rebuilding was faced with what to do with these people. The remaining Chinese were first placed in makeshift tents on Van Ness Avenue, far away from any of the main camp locations, but officials feared they would slowly migrate back to their ruined homes in Chinatown (more about why this was a concern to the committee later). So they were transferred to the Presidio to a separate camp on the other side of the reservation, far away from the main camps populated by Caucasians. Their tents were much smaller, and the food, supplies, and medical attention they received were inferior to those of the whites.

During the rebuilding phase after the earthquake, one of the biggest debates was the question of the fate of Chinatown. Logic would dictate the city would rebuild Chinatown where it had been before, just as they were rebuilding all other neighborhoods in the city. But the real estate of those twelve blocks was prime and businessmen who had been trying to get their hands on it for years saw an opportunity to steal it from the Chinese (since records of their leases would have been burned in the ires). These businessmen tried to get officials to move Chinatown to Hunter’s Point, a remote part of the city used by the Navy shipyard at the time.

Luckily, they did not succeed. The Chinese community in San Francisco, though relatively small, was not without a voice or its supporters. A delegation consisting of American-Chinese and Chinese authorities like the Consul-General of San Francisco called upon the governor to protest against the move, threatening to cut off commercial ties with China. The delegation made the following powerful statement: “America is a free country, and every man has a right to occupy land which he owns provided that he makes no nuisance.”

Photo Credit: Chinatown in San Francisco (in all its glory), taken 2 December 2007 by Tony Webster from Portland, OR: Hiku2/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.0

Moved by this plea (and by the idea of losing trade relations with China), officials nixed the idea of moving Chinatown to Hunter’s Point. Chinatown was rebuilt where it had stood before the earthquake and where it still stands today. The area lost its reputation for vice after the earthquake when the city “cleaned up” such places as the Barbary Coast and Chinatown. Instead, it became a tourist attraction, rebuilt with ornamental gates, panoramas, and pagodas. It’s now one of the most popular places to visit when in San Francisco.

If you want to find out more about how the Chinese faired after the San Francisco earthquake, be sure and check out Murder Among the Rubble, coming out at the end of this year. You can pick up a copy for preorder now at a discount on all online bookstores.

If you love fun, engaging mysteries set in the past, you’ll enjoy The Missing Ruby Necklace! It’s available exclusively to newsletter subscribers here. By signing up, you’ll also get news about upcoming releases, fun facts about women’s history, classic true-crime tidbits, and more!

Works Cited:

“Chinese Make Strong Protest”, San Francisco Chronicle, 30 April 1906. https://sfmuseum.org/chin/4.29.html. Accessed October 4, 2024.

Working Women’s Tragedy: The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911

Photo Credit: A cartoon referring to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire depicts a factory owner, his coat adorned with dollar signs, holding a door closed while workers shut inside struggle to escape amid flames and smoke, 1911, artist unknown (name illegible), International Ladies Garment Workers Union Photographs: Kheel Center, Cornell University/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

Today is Labor Day in the United States. Sadly, much of the meaning behind this day has been lost in the fanfare of celebrations and BBQs. Labor Day is about celebrating the strides made by working men and women in America in establishing more humane conditions, like the 8-hour work day and work environments that don’t resemble old sweatshops.

To say working women especially didn’t have it easy in the 19th and early 20th centuries is a gross understatement. They had to endure extremely low wages (more so than working men), long hours, unsafe and unsanitary conditions, and harassment from all sides. Even with Progressive Era reforms, change came very slowly.

Probably the most famous example of the consequences of the injustices working women had to face during this time was the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. I became fascinated with this piece of women’s history when I saw a PBS special a long time ago. The story, in fact, was part of what inspired me to write historical fiction. I have somewhere in my files a story idea based on this event which may or may not get written and published someday.

What intrigued me then and now is the question of who were the victims of the fire. From the list of 146 workers who died in the fire, only fifteen were men. And yes, I counted them (there’s a list on the Cornell University website of all of the victims here.) That means that 131 women died in the fire. According to historical documents, we know they were immigrant women, mostly of Italian and Eastern European origin. A quick scan of the list mentioned above shows the majority of these women were between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five.

But what do we really know about them? The Cornell University list doesn’t give us much more than their names, ages, nationalities, how long they had lived in the United States and their addresses. In other words, statistical data that’s easy to locate in historical records.

But what was their life like? To answer this question, we have put ourselves in their place. Many of these women had been in America for less than five years. They came with their families and carried with them hopes and dreams of a better life. Some were escaping persecution like the pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe. Others came from Southern Italy where hardship and few job opportunities were the norm.

What they got instead was extreme poverty, misery, and exploitation. Their work week was hardly the 9-to-5 schedule we know today. It was not uncommon for these women to start their workday before the sun went up and end it well after the sun went down. They worked ten or eleven hours a day, every day (no weekends off here!) with only a tiny break for lunch.

How much were they paid? An average of six dollars a week, roughly equivalent to $210 today (that’s less than $11,000 a year – imagine trying to live on that in post-COVID inflation times!) To add insult to injury, these women often had to bring their own materials to work (like sewing needles) because their employers refused to provide them. That’s like coming to work and bringing your own laptop and printer!

They not only worked long hours for little pay, but they also experienced severe indignity and humiliation. In most cases, they were so closely watched, that they didn’t even have the freedom to go to the ladies’ room whenever they needed it. Doors were locked and kept locked, ostensibly because employers were afraid they would steal materials and smuggle them out during working hours or leave for an extra long bathroom break. This was, in fact, one of the reasons why the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire turned into a tragedy of massive proportions. There was one entrance that would have offered escape for the workers but to get to it, they had to open the doors, and the doors were locked and bolted.

The fire escape leading from the upper floors where the fire hose and ladders didn’t get to was in such bad shape that it collapsed when workers tried to use it as an escape from the fire.

Photo Credit: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire escape after the fire, 1911, photographer unknown, International Ladies Garment Workers Union Photographs: Kheel Center, Cornell University/Flickr/CC BY 2.0

These women also worked in appalling conditions. The floor was littered with dirt and debris from the work they did and never cleaned. Sanitation was a joke. For the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, most of the materials, like cotton and paper, were highly inflammable. Reports lay blame on this waste lying around for the quick spreading of the fire. How quick? Everything was over in less than twenty minutes.

Things did begin to change in the latter part of the 1910s, partly as a result of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy. In New York, where the tragedy occurred, the state legislation passed thirty-six bills regarding labor laws. Around the country, fire laws were put in place to ensure buildings and workers worked in safety.

In San Francisco, my favorite city and the birthplace of my protagonist for the Adele Gossling Mysteries, building safety laws were in place a little earlier because of the city’s own tragedy — the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. My book, Murder Among The Rubble, coming out at the end of this year, includes not only a murder mystery but also a little background on the earthquake and its aftermath. You can preorder it here.

Beating The Heat In the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Today ends the Dog Days of Summer for this year. Those are the days that are said to be the hottest of the year. But this year, it seems as if the dog days will never end. Here in Ohio, we’ve gotten extreme heat warnings with detailed instructions on what we need to do to keep safe. Last week, a friend of mine living in the southern part of the United States posted a screenshot of the dangerous heat warning they were getting in their area, with temps predicted to reach 115 degrees!

We know heat waves are no joke even in the 21st century with all our amazing and convenient ways to beat the heat (hello, A/C). But in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they were even more dangerous. Our beloved air conditioning was only invented in 1902 and didn’t start appearing in homes until 1914. And keep in mind we dress very differently today than people did then. Why does that matter? Think about what we would do if we couldn’t dress in short-sleeved or sleeveless shirts, flip-flops, and shorts in the summer. If someone (especially women) would have gone out in such clothing in the 19th or early 20th centuries, people would have been shocked, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that person would be arrested for indecent exposure. Not to mention women wore layers and layers of clothing, especially in the first half of the 19th century. Those petticoats and bustles weren’t exactly a great way to beat the heat.

So how did people combat the heat in the 19th and early 20th centuries? They had to get creative.

Photo credit: Children on the streets of New York City trying to beat the heat with the park water fountain, 1908, Library of Congress: LoC Public Domain Archive/No known restrictions

Since we know the greatest threat to human life during a heat wave is dehydration, people had to utilize whatever water sources they could find. Keep in mind running water was still not a common thing in homes until the 1930s. However, since horses were the mode of transportation in the 19th and early 20th centuries drinking fountains were more plentiful so people could water the horses. These were not the days when most people just popped a bottle of water in their purse or backpack. So fountains were a main source of water when out and about. And many of us have seen photographs of people using fire hydrants to squirt water all over the streets and kids playing in the water. That wasn’t just a form of fun for them — it was a real way to stay safe in the summer heat.

Water is always a great way to cool off in any decade. One of my students recently said he goes to the pool every weekend to get away from the heat. People in the 19th and early 20th centuries did the exact same thing. Escaping to the pool or the beach where they could not only experience a cooling swim but also have an excuse to shed some of those layers was a great way to handle the hot summer weather.

One of the worst things about heat waves is that it makes it harder to sleep at night. In the eras before the A/C, Mother Nature provided the best cooling system. It wasn’t uncommon for people to sleep outside. This could be on porches or fire escapes, but many people who didn’t have those options would scurry to the beach and sleep right on the sand. And city and town parks were places where people set up their beds and slept for the night. Even the White House had a porch where President William Taft slept outside in a heat wave and later, President Woodrow Wilson made it his office so he could catch the breezes on hot summer days.

We have to remember that refrigerators weren’t a common household appliance until the late 1920s (and even then, only for the rich) so homes had ice boxes that needed big blocks of ice to keep food cool. And where did they get this ice? From the iceman, of course! The iceman became everybody’s best friend during a heat wave. They would give chips of ice to people to help them cool off (for a price, of course) and some ice men even let children lick at a big block of ice (needless to say, sanitary standards back then were not what they are now).

And finally, there’s the old stand-by that we still use today: the fan. However, electric fans didn’t become available until the early 20th century and even then, most people still didn’t have the electricity to run them so they weren’t commonly used. But paper fans were and it wasn’t unusual to see people carrying around with them folded fans or paddle fans to keep cool in the heat.

Think I’m making all this up? Take a look at these photographs from the early 20th century!

If you want more about what life was like in the early 20th century, don’t forget about my Adele Gossling Mysteries! You can get the first book in the series for free at any online bookstore. All the information you need to grab your copy is here.

Not only that, I have a box set for Books 4-6 coming out at the end of this month. How would you like to get 3 books for a great discounted price? You can preorder the box set here.

Medicinal Purposes: The History of the Hot Toddy

For centuries, alcohol was used as an alternative to medicine. In the mid-1800s, hard liquor like whiskey, rum, and gin were given to babies (I kid you not) to help with teething and doctors would even recommend a hot toddy to an infant who was having trouble sleeping. If that shocks you, bear in mind the consensus is that the hard liquors in the 19th and early 20th centuries were weaker than they are today (which is one reason why they drank so much more then than we do today).

In Book 2 of my Adele Gossling Mysteries, the hot toddy plays a vital role in the murder (spoiler alert: It’s not the murder weapon). Hot toddies bring visions of a cold night in Dickensian London with the wind whistling outside, the snow falling, and people cozying up by the fire with the warm drink to warm themselves up and soothe their nerves before bed.

Photo Credit: Hot Toddy, Frank Moss Bennett, 1929, oil on canvas: Picryl/Public Domain

The main ingredients of a hot toddy, as we know it today, are, as one of my characters in Book 2 describes it: hot water or hot cider “if Mr. Poland brings it around”, sugar, lemon juice, whiskey, and “the trimmings” which include a slice of lemon and a cinnamon stick.

Ironically, the hot toddy wasn’t hot when it first appeared. And its ingredients weren’t much like the hot toddy we know today. British soldiers serving in India in the 19th century were sent expensive beer, among other provisions, and to make it stretch, they would water it down with water and fermented palm sap.

Later in the century, the drink started to take the form we know it today with add-ons like lemon, cinnamon, and sometimes honey and became popular in Britain. As mentioned above, it was used for medicinal purposes, such as to ward off colds and coughs before we had the kind of medicines we have today.

When exactly the hot toddy moved from a cold cocktail to a hot drink is questionable. Some speculate it was the Scotch who made it hot to accommodate the cold and damp weather of their country. Others say that, since the toddy was used as medicine, people started to heat it up as it made those medicinal properties that much more potent.

The hot toddy is, of course, associated with Britain, but it made its way to America in the 1880s. Americans preferred to call it a “hot scotch” and, while the British hot toddy could use a variety of hard liquors, the Americans mostly stuck to scotch as the alcohol of choice in the beverage. If you’re into cocktails and never tried a hot toddy, you can check out this site for some interesting recipes.

And if you’ve never read A Wordless Death, the second book of the Adele Gossling Mysteries, I invite you to check it out, as it’s at a great discount for this entire month! You can get the details here. And don’t forget that Book 1, The Carnation Murder, is always free! Check that one out here.