There are about four people at IHS who are aware of a very small, very pink room at the very end of the E-wing. This room is the deepest that one can go into the bowels of IHS. In that room, there are four average-looking filing cabinets that contain the annals of IHS Tattler history, dating back 125 years. Here follows a selection.
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Note: The current Tattler does not necessarily endorse the opinions published in historical Tattlers.
April, 1917
ON THE PRESENT CRISIS
By McA. ’18
Who will now raise the partisan cry
When the country’s fate is at stake?
Who would think of faction of party
While we fight for freedom’s sake?
Who will consider his own welfare
When he hears the nation call?
Who would think of his own small self
And let that great cause fall?
God grant that no such one exists
To profain [sic] the home of the free
And mock the honor of that great land
Which stretches from sea to sea.
But Americans are united today;
Stripped of any dissensions we stand,
For Liberty’s cause is the greatest of all
And we’re fighting for Freedom’s land.
March 1918
TATTLES
Early issues have a section of short jokes called “Tattles.”
A great depends on the dressing, when it comes to women and salads.
Mr. L.: “If you attempt to squeeze a solid body it will invariably resist the pressure.”
McL.: “Then you would not consider a girl a solid body, Mr. L.?”
AND HERE’S A CRUEL ONE: “Why are the Germans like the Ithaca Street Cleaning Department? Because they will never clean up the “allies” (!!)
March 1899
LOCAL SECTION
Ask Miss Gaylord if she is fond of popcorn.
Have you had your photo taken? Twelve for a quarter.
Green neckties and ribbons were much in evidence at the High School on March 17.
The chewing gum agent who recently stationed himself outside the High School found no difficulty in disposing of his samples.
Wanted—To know who stole a large box of “fudges” at the Senior reception March 3. The guilty ones will be deservedly punished if their names are given to the young ladies who made the “fudges.”
April 1899
FLAGS FOR OUR NAVY
By Kappa Sigma
It is the boast of the flag department that nowhere in the world are flags so well made as in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where all the flags for the United States Navy are made. Three departments of building Number Seven are occupied by the flag makers, and for more than thirty years, the red, white and blue have been measured, tested, weighed, constructed, and mounted, by those who have become skilled in flag-craft. Not only are the stars and stripes made there but every craft commissioned by the United States governmental must be provided with a full supply of flags of all nations, so there is no recognized governmental whose insignia is not made there.
The foreman, Mr. James Crimmins, is supposed to know more about flags than anyone else in the world. He weighs the bunting, tests the colors, measures the stripes, cuts the cloth, carves out the stars, and inspects the stitches. One apartment is for the measurement of flags. The floor is inlaid with strips and plates of polished brass for the measurement of the flags in length and width, and this measurement must be exact. The width or “hoist” must be exactly ten-nineteenths of the length. The floor of this department which accommodates itself so readily to the dimensions of the largest flags in the world is admirably adapted for a ballroom, and there, semi-monthly, are held the dances which are a social feature of the life of the officers of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. There is another apartment occupied by a score or more women, some of whom have worked fifteen years for Uncle Sam. At one time the entire flag was made by hand, but machine work has usurped hand-labor, and some electricity is to be applied to the machines not operated by foot power.
In the third room is the great chopping block whereon Mr. Crimmins carves out white cotton stars. The cloth is folded twenty times or more, and then a huge brass star is laid on the material and the pattern marked, after which with chisel and mallet the flag-master hew out a whole constellation at once. Every star must be the exact counterpart of every other star. These are then dealt out individually to the sers of star, to be affixed to their firmament of blue bunting. It is an unswerving rule that a certain number of stitches must be employed to each inch of measurement.
The stars are sewed back to back, stitch to stitch. There is no right or wrong side, both sides of the banner are precisely the same. Only expert women are star-sewers. The “device worker” is one frade in advance of the star-sewer and her work is on foreign flags. Some of the finest needle-work done at the Navy Yard is on the flags of Costa Rica and San Salvador.
There is but one worker who finishes the flag. He is a sturdy old sailor who sits on a sailmaker’s bench and mounts each flag on its ropes, sewing the heavy iron rings into place. His hair and moustache are as white as snow, and his florid skin gives evidence of contact with many an ocean breeze.
The governmental has stretching machines, chemicals, and many other things for testing the resistance, colors, etc., of all the flags and a sample which passes these tests successfully is regarded worthy to endure the whims of nature in every clime, on every sea, and to face the bullets of any enemy.
Editorial section in
the April 1917 issue