On this page we will look back at life in the city during the war years. Here we will provide the visitor with the stories making the news, what was happening in sports and entertainment, city politics, the social scene and the prominent people at the time. We will also recount the events occurring in the war on that day. So, check back each day for new editions.
To share your family or neighborhood stories, please email PhillyWWIyears@gmail.com
TODAY IN PHILADELPHIA – THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1915
Philadelphia will see increasingly cloudy skies today and through the night with probable showers tomorrow. Today’s high will reach 71° with the low about 52°.
A one legged woman may lose an arm as a result of an accident at Broad & York Streets. Mrs. Marion McDonald of Camden was sitting in the automobile of Frank Shannon of Boston when it was struck by an autotruck belonging to Barber Asphalt Paving Company. The impact flipped the automobile over pinning the passengers under it and severely damaging Mrs. McDonald’s right arm. Physicians at Samaritan Hospital believe they may have to amputate the limb.
In business news, the A.B. Kirschbaum Company, Broad & Carpenter Streets, has received an order from the Italian government for the production of 350,000 overcoats for its army. The company now employs 2000 persons in its workshop. Previously the Kirschbaum Company had produced 100,000 uniforms for the French army.
Modern medicine attempted but failed to cure John Gosman, 2923 Hurley Street, of being the “worst boy in the neighborhood”. Young John is 15 years old and has been arrested numerous times for fighting and robbery and sent to the House of Detention. Also the boy has a terrible temper and has threatened his mother and sisters when he has one of his “episodes”. In order to cure him an operation was conducted at Philadelphia Hospital in the summer of 1914. Doctors opened his skull to relive possible pressure on his brain that they thought might be the cause of his temper and criminality. But it didn’t work. The boy was arrested again attempting to rob the house of a policeman. Today Judge MacNeille sentenced him to the Glen Mills Reformatory for an indefinite term.
On the sports beat, the Boston Red Sox have won the American League pennant today without having to play an inning. They were helped to the crown by the St. Louis Browns who beat the 2nd place Detroit Tigers this afternoon knocking the Tigers out of the race. The Phillies are up in Boston where Eppa Rixey had a very bad first inning giving up 4 runs and was pulled from the game. Moran’s boys lost 8 to 2. And after 11 losses in a row the A’s won one in Washington 4 to 3.
WAR NEWS
It has been learned that on September 27th Lieutenant John Kipling (shown below), the only son of the famed British author and Nobel Prize Laureate Rudyard Kipling, is missing in action at the Battle of Loos in northern France. Lieutenant Kipling is 18 years old and serves with the Irish Guards.
On the western front, French troops have penetrated the German line in the Champagne region about 15 miles east of Rheims. On the eastern front, the Russian offensive on the Dvinsk-Vilna line is having some success. The Germans have been forced back about 25 miles.
GET YOUR COPY OF PHILADELPHIA: THE WORLD WAR I YEARS BY JUST CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW.