1912: Fighting Words
“Thos. Fronesack, 1415 Ashland ave., thrashed unidentified man because he claimed he had more beautiful baby than Fronesack.”
~From The day book. (Chicago, Ill.), 29 July 1912. Chronicling America.
1931: Tattoo Marks May Prove Girl of Royal Blood
"European experts in heraldry are studying a minute design reconstructed from bits of the tattooed skin of Marthe, a Normandy shepherd-woman and beggar, 40 years old, who may prove to be the illegitimate daughter of a duke and a princess belonging to illustrious royal families of Europe.
All that is known of Marthe, officially, is that she was sent to the orphanage of the Assistance Publique in Paris in 1890, when she was four. Like most of these waifs, Marthe was put in the hands of farmers and became a shepherd girl in Normandy, subjected to constant harsh treatment.
Marthe lived as best she could through 35 years of her life, mostly by begging for her food. Then in 1924, a doctor treating her discovered 10 scars on her body. He recognized them as tattoo marks which had been burned more than 30 years before.
On the doctor's advice the scars were examined by experts who concluded that, as a baby, she had been tattooed by a clever artist with 10 identical coats of arms and that before she was three or four years old the marks had been clumsily removed by painful operations.
The traces which remain, examined by a magnifying glass, show an escutcheon of an alliance between two celebrated families. It is a question whether this was done by her parents and then cut out when they decided to return to their families, who may have had no knowledge of their love tryst in Paris, and put the girl in the orphanage.
The experts in heraldry have reported no trouble in identifying parts of two royal coats-of-arms and hope to conclude their work shortly, so that Marthe can take some legal action to claim her share of a heritage.
The official records in the French government show that the birth certificate of the shepherd-beggar had been tampered with in the great volume of the 1st Arrondissement. Certain marginal annotations had been scratched out and there is no clue from that record as to who her parents may have been."
~From The Breckenridge American (Breckenridge, Tex), July 29, 1931
1955: Tamara Rees
"Will Lecture - Tamara Rees, paratrooper turned 'woman' by sex surgery, poses on the stage of a burlesque theater in Los Angeles with her new husband, J.E. Courtland, III. Couple will lecture on 'straight psychology.'"
~From Breckenridge American (Breckenridge, Tex.), July 29, 1955
1931: Very new and distinguished
~From The Breckenridge American (Breckenridge, Tex), July 29, 1931
He's cool
~From The Breckenridge Daily American (Breckenridge, Tex), July 29, 1921
1900: She Was Buried Under an Alleged Hypnotic Spell
"Joseph Harris of Knoxville, Tenn., who claims to have served two terms in the Tennessee penitentiary, was arrested tonight charged with mistreating his 15-year-old war, Vannie Campbell. She claims he threatened her life and mistreated her while he was under the influence of drugs. She was buried under an alleged hypnotic spell at Richmond, Ky., for two days by a traveling hypnotist. Harris says the girl is still under the hypnotic influence and that the charges are false. The girl says she was not under the hypnotic spell constantly while in the grave and was taken up every night. The girl was sent to the children's home and Harris to jail."
~From The Houston Daily Post (Houston, Tex.), July 29, 1900
1840: Romantic Love
~From Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston, Tex.), July 29, 1840