WOMAN SURVIVES B’KLYN BRIDGE JUMP! (1900)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** Yellow Journalism was in its heyday in 1900, and Joseph Pulitzer’s “World” was right up there at the top of the whole heap of it. This is an example of the hype that existed back then, drawing readers into a version of the world that was part real and part made-up. The subject of this splashy front page story, Marie Rosalie Dinse, came to be the second woman to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge. Dinse, amazingly, survived this “mad leap,” surprising the physicians who attended her. While the New York World reporter who wrote this story included a number of facts in his story, he also took liberties to suppose a number of many more, weaving an account that was sure to enthrall readers and – more importantly – sell newspapers: “As she crossed the bridge the river looked so restful,” read the World article. “There was peace there. “She sought it.” The truth was, simply, she lost money is a boarding-house speculation. After the fall, she was taken to an asylum for treatment. Follow @BrownstoneDetec Share ———————————————————————————————————————– The Brownstone Detectives Brownstone Detectives is an historic property research agency. Our mission is to document and save the histories of our clients’ homes. From our research, we produce our celebrated House History […]
THE DIRTY, JERKY, FOUL “L” TRAIN (1892)
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** In 1892, the “L” Train was killing Brooklynites. At least if you were to read Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World in the early 1890s, that’s the impression you would have gotten. The campaign that the newspaper developed to improve elevated service would have had you believe that the elevated train (the “L”) – which delivered passengers from the Brooklyn Bridge to their homes throughout the borough (and vice versa) – was just as liable to kill you as to get you safely home. If you had spoken to an “L” Train rider back then, too, you would have had further proof that all of this was true. Today, while the mode of travel and the specifics thereof, at their base, are different from those which we have at our disposal, many straphangers’ complaints concerning the slowness of the subway, the dirtiness of the cars and stations, and the lack of train cars, ring as true today as they did 125 years ago. Which begs the question, “Has anything really changed?” Here follows some of the prize-winning….ahem…..yellow journalism illustrations that may better illustrate the problems existent in 1892. “The crowding and pushing that you have witnessed to-night could be avoided if the Company would only put on more trains,” stated one rider. […]
