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 – TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1915
The weather for today will continue to be hot and humid. There will be clear and bright skies with light winds from the south. The local weather bureau informs us that this is the hottest September 14th in the city’s history. The high will reach 92° with the low about 72°.
Mrs. Rosaline Braun lives in the far southwestern end of the city called Elmwood on 81st Street near Suffolk Avenue. She is a widow and prides herself on her independence and self-reliance. Anyone passing the 4 houses she owns in that sparsely occupied area would today find her “pointing” a house. She works high up on a scaffold as confident as any man doing the job and she is apparently just as good. She also does her own painting and wallpapering. Her tenants complained last winter that one of the houses was cold. After investigating she concluded the spaces between the bricks need to be filled to solve the problem. So six weeks ago she purchased mortar and tools, built her own scaffolding and went to work. Of course she does not let this work interfere with her daily household duties. Just recently she hired an unemployed man to help her, this now allows her more than enough time to tend to the washing and cooking in her own home.
Mrs. Rosaline Braun
Central High School has notified 50 students that they will be dismissed immediately. The students fall under a new rule which holds that any student who fails twice in one term’s work cannot continue at the school. The rule was instituted because the faculty determined that no additional money or time should be wasted on mentally deficient or lazy boys that can’t meet the requirements. The only exception is for athletes who will not fall under the rule until next year.
On the crime beat, Miss Donie Staney, whom some call a Gypsy Queen is in jail tonight charged with fortune telling and making false promises. Miss Staney is 18 years old and a striking beauty with black hair, black eyes, bright white teeth and deep red lips. Her accuser is Louis Piacanpino and his wife. Mr. Piacanpino owns a business at 1705 Carpenter Street and paid Miss Staney $35.00 for a good luck spell to protect him from accidents. Mrs. Piacanpino also gave the girl a $10.00 shawl and a $20.00 diamond ring for a luck spell to protect her child. It is illegal to sell such “goods” in this city.
In International news, there is growing fear that 2 more countries will soon be drawn into the war. Dispatches from both Sofia and Bucharest speak of growing hostilities between Bulgaria and Rumania and actual border clashes may have already taken place between troops of the two countries.
GET YOUR COPY OF PHILADELPHIA: THE WORLD WAR I YEARS BY JUST CLICKING ON THE LINK BELOW OR STOP IN AT YOUR NEAREST BARNES & NOBLE OR OTHER BOOK STORES.