Thanksgiving Day in Milwaukee for 75 years Told by Newspaper Files

Posted by :Yance On : November 30, 2013
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I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving Day! This was an article from the Milwaukee Free Press newspaper of 1910 which told many stories from 19th century papers, a few of which I reproduce here. The Free Press existed from 1901 until about 1918.


Milwaukee Free Press, Thursday, November 24, 1910

Thanksgiving Day in Milwaukee for 75 years Told by Newspaper Files

By Lucy E. Strong

Thanksgiving Day is an American institution, distinctively. There is none more American, not excepting the Indian or baseball.

And while baseball may have as firm a hold -almost- upon the nation as has Thanksgiving Day, it has not the dignity which a long, long, long, tried and true affection gives to Thanksgiving Day.

Since 1621, when Governor Bradford of the Massachusetts Bay Colony proclaimed the first Thanksgiving feast, turkeys and pumpkin pies, nuts, apples, mince pies and native wines have been consumed in festive quantities and prayers of thanksgiving have been offered once every year lest the people of this broad land forget the bounteous provision for them by the Father of us all.

The piece de resistance of that first communal celebration of Thanksgiving Day in Plymouth, when all the village gathered about one banquet board, was, perforce, turkey, and wild turkey at that, for no other meat was so easily obtainable. This primitive bird established himself on that occasion, nearly three hundred years ago as the bird of birds for the Thanksgiving feast, and to his barnyard descendants he has bequethed the proud distinction.

But while the custom of giving thanks for the blessings of the year prevailed in the early colonies it did not rapidly spread to other districts of the United States. So late as the 50’s Milwaukee papers are printed without any reference to a Thanksgiving proclamation or celebration and no notice is made of any church services or other events to differentiate the last Thursday of November from other days. But in the past half century the day has become better established as a national holiday with each succeeding observance and now it would be hard indeed to wean this nation from its custom, which has made the day pre-eminently one of family reunions and of pleasures, and although the religious observance is not so generally emphasized as in the past, still congregations of goodly size gather in the different churches.
In the 1860 Thanksgiving newspapers, mention was made of an ovation given Carl Schurz, upon his return to Milwaukee from a political campaign conducted in Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York.

A copy of November 27th, 1861 issue of a Milwaukee tri-weekly sheet, puts in agate all of its Thanksgiving “stuff”, which consisted of the proclamation of Governor Alexander W. Randall; everything else was seemingly crowded out by the war stories, given under such heads as “Fort Pickens Opens Fire on the Rebels!” “Bragg Take the Bombardment Coolly!” “Warrington Burned on the First Day!” “The Cause of Blenker’s Resignation Made Known!” “General McClellan Censures Him!” The next succeeding issue prints a front page story of a Thanksgiving function, described as “a public assemblage held in the Newhall house,” at which Judge John F. Potter, who was passing through Milwaukee en route for Washington D.C. to enter congress, made a speech.

In the editorial printed the next year on Thanksgiving, November 27, 1862 a portion reads: “We have two distinctly American holidays, Thanksgiving and July 4th.

“The one calls out universal jollification, shouting, hurrahs and the noise of gunpowder; the other gathers together the scattered members of families to unite in devotion.”

Still no mention of the day being set aside for football or theater is found.

In 1865 the first suggestion of Thanksgiving “sports” crept into the newspaper columns. The paper told the story of a race on the festive day between the tug “Muir” and the tub “Tifft” being respectively the property of Captain Porter and Henry Starkey.

An item in this issue from the “Associated Press reporter” says there is no doubt a law will pass congress enabling heirs of soldiers who died in southern prisons to collect commutations for rations during the time the deceased soldiers were confined in the prisons.”

Where Vice Runs Riot – Milwaukee Sentinel, April 1, 1894

Posted by :Yance On : November 11, 2013
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Here is a late nineteenth century newspaper story when a moral battle was being waged in Milwaukee. Priests and do-gooders were trying to get the city to shut down “dens of vice and sin” in downtown but the battle was hard to fight as many politicians were either “on the take” or sympathetic to “business interests”.

Milwaukee Sentinel, April 1, 1894


SEVERAL DIVES ARE RUNNING IN FULL BLAST.

Iniquitous Dens Licensed as Liquor Shops by Ald. Fehr and His Associates-Places Where Young Girls and Boys Go-Scenes Witnessed and Described by a Sentinel Man.

A good deal has been said of late about stall saloons. Many people no doubt have a very imperfect and indistinct idea of what these resorts really are. There are in fact places where liquor and refreshments are sold and where the privacy of “stalls” may be secured, which are among the most respectable of the saloons in the city. The term as it is used in the newspapers and as it should be understood does not apply to these places, but to the lowest kind of resorts, where men and women are received promiscuously, where young girls are often enticed-often the resorts of criminals, and as Father Keogh said, “if they are not houses of ill-fame in the worst sense of the word, they are the feeders for them.”

The police officers of the city made a directory of these disreputable resorts-it might have been considerably enlarged. The facts were presented to the Common Council as reasons why they should not be relicensed, yet a majority of the aldermen, including Herman Fehr, the Democratic nominee for mayor, voted to license nearly all of these places. Under the surveillance of the police many of these disreputable resorts have been a little more careful in conducting their places since then, and some of them have abandoned altogether the stall feature of their saloons. There is, however, much yet to be done if Milwaukee is to be purged of all these dives. Perhaps police vigilance as of late has been relaxed. A tour made by a Sentinel reporter through some of the blacklisted places certainly shows that there are many which never ought to have been licensed and which a reputable board of alderman surely will not again license.

A reporter was detailed to visit the stall saloons that were licensed by Ald. Fehr and his colleagues in the Common council last summer in the face of the protest of Chief of Police Jannsen and the opposition of many aldermen. The good work of the police, the obliquy of the reputation they required during the agitation last summer, or the hard times that set in, have militated against the success of the stall saloons that were duly licensed nine months ago not more than a dozen are now conducting business on the stall plan. Many of the proprieters either sold out their places, took out their stalls or went out of the business.

DIEDERICH’S OLD PLACE.

Prominent among the places that have been obliterated is that kept by H. L. Diederichs, on River street. This den was thus described by the police as one of the “lowest and toughest dives in the city.” Diederichs has gone out of the business and the old stand is now classified in the ledgers of the police as a straight house of ill-fame. There is no license there now, and pop and soda water are dispensed at the bar. When the reporter entered the place on his round the scene that the room presented was a hideous one. The air was as thick with smoke as was the air of the Liederkranz hall at 3 o’clock on the afternoon of the Democratic city convention. A crowd of men and women were standing at the bar. Dock men, railroad men, sailors and laboring men, with the clay soil clinging to their boots, were there, and for each man was a woman clad in garments that would pass for a Mother Hubbard. Along the wall were seated other women, some apparently “engaged.” others with their eyes on the door, waiting to get their claws on a bird of passage. Two new male arrivals-one tall and slender, the other short and fat, were seized on by correspondingly built sylphs in pink dresses, who expressed in various ways a perfect willingness to be entertained bibulously and musically.

Behind the bar-room were the stalls, and through the open doors came the sinister sound that the mixture of profanity and laughter in female voices makes. Nothing was sub rosa, and the girls exercised their wiles with brazen effrontery. The one redeeming feature of this establishment when it was at its worst was that there were no boys visible in the crowd, and that the women appeared to be quite capable of taking their own part. This picture applies to the place as it appeared last summer, when Diederichs kept it as a stall saloon, and the council voted to license it. Last night the character of the crowd was changed. It had diminished and the soft drinks were not very much sought after. The same gauzy costumes and painted faces were seen peeping out from every side as the outside door opened, but the stalls had vanished.

SHELDON’S TROUBLESOME DIVES.

John Sheldon’s two stall saloons (located on Wells street and on Third street respectively) were next visited. These two places are giving the police more trouble now on account of their stall work than any others in the city. Eight girls were taken out of the two places within a week. The Wells street place is at 223 Wells. Entering the place from the street by the main entrance-it ought to be understood that there are many entrances to these stall saloons-the unsophisticated person would think he had made a mistake and entered some other saloon than the notorious place that Sheldon keeps. It is a little square room, the only furniture of which is a little bar, and ice-box and a lunch counter without any lunch on it. There is no one in the house apparently but the bartender, who furnishes any beverage that is desired by the customer. As one sips his liquor, resting his foot on the iron footrail, he enters into conversation with the bartender, who allows that business is dull and that politics have not helped things yet.

WOMEN WITHIN CALL.

“Would you like to sit down?” asked the bartender suddenly, and with a view to investigating the mysteries of the stalls, the reporter consents. The bartender starts back and opens a door concealed by the ice-box, showing an entry. A little square room the size of a good sized dry-goods box, with a round table and four chairs, are at the end of the passage. The newspaper man and his companion take seats, and the bartender disappears with an order for drinks. As he disappears, however, there is a swish of skirts and two robust female forms appear. They are fat and once might have been fair, of the uncertain age. they looked very much alike. As they seemed to belong there, a question on the subject elicited the information that they had only just arrived through the “ladies’ entrance,” and that they had been on the lookout for a drink. Would they drink? Yes, but beer was not strong enough. What was their favorite? Cocktails. Ring the bell, and the bartender appears with “cocktails for the ladies.” He seems to know their drinks by intuition. The women thought they were talking to detectives, but their minds were disabused on learning that the visitors were politicians bound for the barbers’ ball. They had just arrived from Omaha, they said, and didn’t like Milwaukee. After a few minutes’ discussion with the women, in which it developed that they were not ingenue by any means, the reporter and his friend made their escape from the dingy hole, and the fat girls returned presumably to their loop-holes of observation to take notice of the next fly that would enter the spider’s web through the front door.

At Sheldon’s Third street place (No. 192) there were no girls visible. There were a couple of men outside the bar, one of whom wore the Fehr badge. The bartender said they were all going to vote for Fehr. The police took five girls out of the place during holy week.

A COMBINATION DEN.

Al Schissler’s place, at 236 Fourth street, was next visited. The number of stalls and rooms-the upper floor being occupied with private rooms which are kept by the saloon man for couples-is twelve, and from each is an electric bell which is connected with an indicator back of the bar. Above the indicator is a very good campaign picture of Ald. Fehr. Another is attached to a green and white Hazel Kirke sign on the side of the stall. The stalls are separated from the saloon and from each other by partitions eight or nine feet high. Two young girls were taken out of this place last week, the saloon being constantly under police surveillance. The stalls were partly occupied, as the ringing of the electric bell told frequently, although it seemed to be an off night for the sports. A voice, which seemed to be the voices of the half-drunken woman, came from one of the stalls in the phrase, “The h–l you did!” and other remarks that might have been well-timed and suited to the limited capacity of her companion. One of the men who stood at the bar as the reporter entered seemed to hear a voice that he knew, for he said, “I guess I’ll go in a minute,” and pushed into the stall. He was greeted in the ordinary friendly manner of the rough, “Hullo, you —- —- pup,” and seemed to like it, for the indicator bell rang and the bartender proceeded to fill and order for two glasses of bock beer.

In half an hour more people used the side door than the front door, and the patter of feet was heard on the stairway that led to the more roomy quarters above.

HAS DAYTIME PATRONAGE.

Schissler’s place is patronized as well in the day as at night. There are few hours in the day when couples are not seen by the neighbors wending their way along the street till they reached the corner when they separated, the girl going in by the private entrance on Cedar street and the man by the front door on Fourth. The reporters observed a childish couple-neither of the two apparently over 18-enter the place in this way not two weeks ago. It is charitable to hope that these meetings are harmless, and that the men and women and boys and girls who go there meet simply for political purposes or to drink a glass of beer together. It is an excellent place for one interested in the problems of nature to study the workings of the worst type of stall saloons that is to be seen in the city.

BEWAILS HIS POOR BUSINESS.

Mulcahey’s place at 174 Fifth street was quiet when the reporter reached it at 10:30. This is a small place, with stalls up stairs. The bartender bewailed the bad times, saying that the politicians had not been around since the caucuses. Just then there was a rap on the hall door and female voices were heard, ascending to the upper regions.

FREQUENTED BY YOUNG BOYS AND GIRLS.

Joe Dalman’s place at 134 Third street, known as the Columbia, was doing a lively business that night, but the detectives spoiled it for the time being. As the reporter stood at the bar contemplating his face in the glass, two officer’s in citizens’ clothes came in. their mission was to take out two young girls whom they knew were there, but the girls escaped by the back door. The place is frequented, the officers say, by young girls and young boys.

SOME OF THE OTHER SALOONS.

Joe Streeter’s place at 86 Second street is a stall saloon, and is a convenient hang-out for the element of politicians that reside on lower Clybourn street. As the reporter entered the place a rather rocky-looking man was led in the side door by a fat girl with puckery eyes and raven-colored cuffs.

A number of other so-called stall saloons were visited where there was no “company” and a number of others where there were no stalls. “The Ko-Ko” at 41 Biddle street has been turned into a restaurant. The saloon kept by Joseph Preiss at 64 Johnson street was presided over by Mrs. Preiss. She said that she “had no girls anymore.” At the hotel of Christian W. Brink, 286 Fifth street, a pretty brunette in a loose pink gown was shaking dice with a stout built elderly man, at the bar, while Mrs. Brink stood at the bar and acted as an umpire. The girl told one of the party, who expressed a wish to make better acquaintance with her, that she expected to go to St. Louis Tuesday and would be unable to see him. The girl acted as cup-bearer and cigar-dispenser for the company in general, flitting around the saloon like a dragon moth. Another girl was visible in a rear apartment. She was similarly attired, but did not come out to join the company in the saloon.

The Milwaukee Ornamental Carving Company

Posted by :Yance On : September 19, 2013
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This ornamental workshop was one of the large, early companies specializing in large sculptures in the city. It was founded by two German immigrants in 1886; Carl Kuehns and Otto Papke. Carl was a woodcarver and Otto was an artistic plasterer. Together they created numerous works of art and mixed with the large groups of German artists and artisans downtown.

The article mentions the work of the company included the lost statue of Germania that was removed from the Germania Building after the start of World War 1. Other sculptures that were done by Carl Kuehns include the Pabst statue of King Gambrinus, the statue of Aurora which was at the old Schlitz Palm Garden downtown, and he even carved circus wagons for Ringling Brothers.

The following article is from the Milwaukee Journal of February 17, 1906 and gives a general overview of the company.

The Milwaukee Ornamental Carving Company

While other cities are boasting of their magnificent statues along their boulevards, of their beautiful decorations in places of public interest, Milwaukee can go them one better by declaiming that the works of art about the city are the products of Milwaukee artists. When the city desires to erect a monument commemorative of some brave deed or historic event, Milwaukee artists are called upon to do the work. When the local citizen wants to build a structure calling for artistic interior decorations of bronze and stone, he can find the best workmen in this city.

The Milwaukee Ornamental Carving Co. is famous throughout the northwest for its artistic work. In a recent article the Western Builder says: “The firm has won high reputation of producing the finest kind of modeling, which, because of its trueness of detail, is recommended by many of the most prominent architects in the United States.”

The firm was organized in 1886 with C. Kuehns and O. H. Papke as proprietors. Mr. Kuehns is a sculptor of the highest ability, having been graduated with honors from the Academy of Arts in Berlin, Germany. The firm has done a great deal of work for the theaters, churches and public buildings of the city. Among the familiar local objects of art which are the products of this firm is the bronze statue over the entrance to the Germania building, three large reliefs in St. Stanislaus church, and other work of equal ability. The large Statue of Liberty in the old Exposition building was also the work of Mr. Kuehns. The trade of the firm is not confined to the local field. all the ornamental interior decorations in the residence of Col. W. H. Morgan of Alliance, O., were made by this Milwaukee firm. The firm also has produced artistic designs for a number of the largest cathedrals throughout the country, The firm employes nearly fifty skilled workmen in their special lines.

Do You Remember Schlitz Park?

Posted by :Yance On : September 11, 2013
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This is another article in the series written by Frederic Heath in the Milwaukee Leader during 1920-1921. I posted a few others earlier this year and will post more later on.

Schlitz Park at North 8th & W. Brown has gone through many name changes over the years and is now known as James W. Beckum Park. The hill mentioned in the article remains, one of the only reminders of the park’s past. Many of the other parks mentioned were scattered around the older parts of the city and have either become public parks or have been sold and developed. Shooting Park has become Clinton Rose Park on King Drive and Burleigh.

Milwaukee Leader, March 24, 1920

DO YOU REMEMBER?
SCHLITZ PARK IN THE EARLY 80’S?

BY FREDERIC HEATH

The Milwaukee public park system put the private parks and beer gardens into the discard, but any valued memories remain of the private gardens, and in many ways they played an important part in Milwaukee’s history. There was Quentin’s park, Shooting park (now Pabst park), Miller’s garden, Milwaukee garden, National park (Bielfeld’s garden), etc. Outside the first two, these are all gone.

Quentin’s park became Schlitz park, and is now the city’s Lapham park. Here are a few other old time gardens, just to revive your memories: Johannesburg garden, (Ninth and Galena), Rose Hill park, Little Paris (Klein Paris), Schneider’s park (35th & Vliet) where the Socialist-Democrats held their first picnic, Neumiller’s park, and so on. Quentin’s is recalled as it was when it became Schlitz park, and particularly in the early 80’s when the Schlitz park theater was at the zenith of its well deserved fame.

THEATER BECAME FAMOUS.

Through the summer comic operas and the like were given, under Otto Osthoff, as lessee, by companies of the best obtainable artists, and it had the town virtually at its feet.

Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic operas, Pinafore – which ridiculed the British navy – Pirates of Penzance, full of beautiful melodies, etc., had just burst into a world-sweeping fame. Billie Taylor, The Mascot, Chimes of Normandy, Olivette and others ranking second to the Sullivan operas, were also given, with The Bohemian Girl for good measure. Digby Bell, Milwaukee born, came to the park with Orpheus and Euridice, and scored tremendously. James Peake was one of the Park Opera Co. stars.

In those days the street railways ran open side step cars in summer, with seats running clear across.

SCENE OF MANY PICNICS.

But the park opera had its day and waned out. Many other attractions came to the park and even minstrel companies, and it was the scene of many a Labor day picnic, nationality picnics, band concerts, and political mass meetings.

The park hill still remains, and it is an interesting fact that early day historians always claimed it was an artificial eminence, heaped up by Indians in the uncharted past. There was an observatory on top of it from which in later years a huge flashlight swept the city. The old pavilion, refreshment room, bowling alleys and veranda drinking tables, near the Eighth street entrance, was torn down some years ago.

One of the First Milwaukee Produced Films

Posted by :Yance On : September 8, 2013
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With the film festival coming up, we should remember that locally produced films are not a new thing. “Milwaukee Love” was probably one of the earliest photoplay films shot in Milwaukee and starred a local amateur cast. It was a silent movie and played at the Strand at 5th & Wisconsin for it’s debut at the end of May, 1926.

This article tells about the movie and was published in the Milwaukee Journal from May 23, 1926. What has happened to the film and many others like it is anybody’s guess but they are most likely lost forever. Many films from this era were printed on highly unstable nitrate film which at best, would slowly disintegrate over many decades. At worst they would spontaneously combust taking a building along with them.

See Milwaukee on the Screen

Large Audience at First Night of Amateur’s Film

All the thrill of a first night performance came to the members of the cast of “Milwaukee Love,” when the newest of the local movies was flashed upon the Strand screen Saturday.

The audience of first-nighters was large and enthusiastic, ready to give generously of their laughter and applause for the home town folks who did their camera bit to entertain. Crowds flocked to the Strand all day Saturday and, judging from their response, the comedy thoroughly pleased them and convinced even the most skeptical that an amateur production can be highly entertaining.

“Milwaukee Love,” produced with a Milwaukee cast by Director William Steiner of the Hudris Film Company and sponsored by The Journal will continue at the Strand through Friday.

Our Hero Makes Good

Anita Alsberg as the heroine and Robert Johnson as the hero, who make good despite all obstacles, both perform exceptionally well and screen splendidly. Chauncey Yockey as Papa Atherton proves that he can quit his job as head of the Elks any time and sign up with Lasky or Metro-Goldwyn. Mrs. A. E. Copeland as Mama Atherton gives a finished portrayal of a difficult role.

The youngsters, Christine Thompson as Baby Atherton, and Ira Gonyan as the newsboy do a Baby Peggy and Jackie Coogan that is most appealing.

Love, well it is a serious matter to many folks, is treated in a deft and lightsome manner in “Milwaukee Love.” That love conquers all seems to be the theme of the picture and certainly this portrayal of local love conquers any objection to laughter. The comedy scenes, which are numerous, drop plenty of laughs.

Open-Mouthed Villains

Warwick Beauchamp and Jack Curtis as the villains, lying on the ground with their mouths open after supposedly being killed by a bomb, is more than funny. Full of laughs, too, is the proposal scene, where Robert Johnson, the hero, embraces the heroine with the fervor of Strangler Lewis throwing an opponent for a third fall.

The picture finishes with a kaleidoscopic view of Milwaukee streets on a busy day, on which the pedestrians demonstrate all the animation of Keystone coppers rushing to a riot call.

1908 Jung Beer Ad

Posted by :Yance On : September 5, 2013
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The Jung Brewery grew out of an earlier affiliation with Otto Falk and Ernst Borchert. By the time Prohibition was enacted in 1919, it strangled all Milwaukee breweries and only the largest were able to diversify enough to survive. The Jung Brewing Company by this time was growing but unfortunately did not have the diverse holdings to survive.

A few of its remnants could be seen until recently. The main office building of the brewery was still standing at 783 North Water Street until it was torn down in 1984. One of the last standing buildings in its brewery complex at 5th & Cherry was torn down a few years ago. An earlier building off of Pierce Street which was part of the Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Company barely stands and may be renovated if money and support can be found.

1951 Hiawatha Line

Posted by :Yance On : September 2, 2013
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Back in the early 1950’s rail was the best way to get from place to place and the Milwaukee Road served the Midwest well. This ad from the Milwaukee Journal listed the costs and speed of the Hiawatha line to get to Minneapolis/St. Paul. The afternoon train took you there in a quick 5- 1/2 hours. Now the Amtrak Hiawatha line is potentially coming back with service which we haven’t seen in awhile.

509 West Wells St – 1967

Posted by :Yance On : August 19, 2013
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Back before the Wisconsin Center convention center there was the Time Insurance Building at 5th & Wells. Back before the Time Insurance Building there was the Wells Hotel. It was made up of several small buildings which had rooms for rent and taverns and diners on the ground floor. These smaller buildings with diners and taverns were found in all corners of downtown. They were places for socializing during the day when people had simpler lives.

You would stop in for a morning coffee and a plate of eggs before work and find a small hole in the wall next door for a cold bottle of Schlitz after work. The smallest diners had enough business on a daily basis that they could stay around for decades. Slowly, progress eroded and closed up these places. The old buildings with lower rents to keep them in the black were still plentiful through the 70’s but those older buildings were torn down regularly. The last real old-school diner was the Michigan Street Diner between Water and Broadway but some old timers may remember Lenrak’s on Old World Third, the Belmont Cafe, Heinemann’s, etc. George Webb’s shares some of the feeling of these places but there was a character to these old restaurants with a patina of the “accumulation of the years”.

Do You Remember Newspaper Row?

Posted by :Yance On : July 22, 2013
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The Milwaukee County Historical Society had a photo on their blog not too long ago showing Mason Street looking west of Broadway taken during the 1880’s. The exact same photo was used in this article from the Milwaukee Leader explaining the history of Newspaper Row. This was another article in the series by Frederic Heath on Milwaukee’s early history.

DO YOU REMEMBER? Newspaper Row Back in the ’80s

Milwaukee Leader, February 19, 1920
BY FREDERIC HEATH

To about 1910, Milwaukee still had a newspaper row. It was located on Mason St., below Broadway. Many newspapers were born there, nursed at the usual terrific expense and then sent upon their way. Some died aborning and some scarcely survived teething time.

In the accompanying view, this portion of Mason St. is shown as it looked in the late ’80s. About all that remains intact today is the building at the corner in the left side of the picture, now the home of the Kuryer Polski, and the old Kirby house at the corner of East Water St. Across from the Kirby is he old Brodhead Blk., now replaced by the First National Bank skyscraper.

Papers Combine.

The Kuryer Polski building formerly was the home of the German Herold. The building was erected by the publisher, W.W. Coleman, who was an able man in his line, and built up a tremendous business with many different editions and auxiliary publications. His greatest competition came from the Germania of George Brumder, then published at West Water and Cedar Sts. Eventually the papers were consolidated.

Next to the Herold Bldg. is seen the old Sentinel Bldg. In its business office for years one of the head clerks was William George Bruce, secretary of the Commerce Association. Editors and reporters were on the second floor and the printers on the top floor.

Across the street with the old Daily News office – not the Daily News of more modern times, but the Democratic organ of which Col. E.A. Calkins was for a time editor. A door or so further east was the old See Bote building, P.V. Deuster’s establishment.

Fight Changes Names.

A famous newspaper fight of those days transformed The News into the Republican and News, with Horace Rubins as editor, and eventually “got” The Sentinel, the name of which was changed for a time by the consolidation to Republican and Sentinel. From the old Republican and News office, across the street, Dr. E.W. Magan, as editor, issued a small afternoon daily called The Daily Dispatch, but it did not live long.

On the same side of the street, across the alley further west, where Marnits the Tailor now is located, there was located the Sunday Telegraph, started by Calkins and with which Col. J.A. Watrous was later identified. The type was set on its own premises on the second floor and the printing done in the basement of the Herold Bldg.

A door or two west of The Telegraph Bldg, with the old Freie Presse Bldg, a paper that is now but a memory, along with its editor, whose name was Siegl.

Old Haunts Recalled

Next to the See Bote office was the old Kahlo saloon, a veritable newspaper man’s home, while at the corner, seen at the right side of the picture, there was the old Quiet House of Adam Roth, also a haunt for newspaper men. On the top floor the Press Club had its quarters in those days. The building is now replaced by a high structure.

The list of newly born newspapers would not be complete without mention of The Daily Journal. It first saw the light from a room near the corner of The Herold, or Kuryer Polski Bldg., the windows of which appear in the picture. Lute Nieman, former managing editor of The Sentinel, was the editor, and the financial angel was Mike Kraus. Nieman and his assistant, William Bowdish, sat about a long table, grinding out as sensational yellow stuff as their imagination permitted, and the paper had a tough reputation during the time it was “catching on.” How Nieman and Bowdish managed to live has never been explained. Later on, Niemann married into a wealthy family and The Journal became very respectable.

Times Have Changed

Mason St. o’ nights is tame and quiet now, but in the real days of Newspaper Row it was noisy with printers, racing printer devils, clattering mail wagons, boys with handcarts filled with mail bags and reporters darting about or foregathering in the establishments already named. It was the ceaseless clank of old style newspaper presses, and over all the smell of printers ink that is anise to the nostrils of the newspaper man.

But all this is gone. Newspaper Row is scattered. The city is big and newspaper methods have changed.

The Milwaukee Fish Fry

Posted by :Yance On : July 19, 2013
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Fish Fries have seemingly been around forever. But when did they become a huge Milwaukee tradition? Where did they begin? The answer may surprise you.

July 9, 1933 – Milwaukee Journal

Fish Fry Taste Conquers City in Wake of Return of Beer

“Fish Fry. Fridays. 8 p.m. to 12 p.m.”
“Fish Fry. Free. Fridays. All Day.”
“Fish Fry. Tuesdays and Fridays. 9 p.m. to 12 p.m.”

These and hundreds of similar signs in the windows of taverns, beer gardens and hotels throughout the city and suburbs tell the story of the popular hold the fish fry has taken on Milwaukee. On Friday nights thousands of people, young and old, go out to eat fish and drink beer, listen to music and song, and while away a few sociable hours. The fish fry is the city’s latest fad – a hobby that has developed into immense popularity since 3.2 beer became legal. Never has the town had such an appetite for fish.

But the fish fry is also serving as a center around which some of the better drinking places are reviving the spirit of sociality which in beer days was known as “gemuetlichkeit.” The fish fry is becoming a sort of family affair, a weekly event which father and mother and even the youngsters are attending. Sister brings her boyfriend and brother his best girl. It is an inexpensive past time. A dollar goes a long way.

Credited to Speakeasies

Who started the fish fry craze in Milwaukee? None other than the cunning operators of the “speakeasies.” According to the manager of a downtown hotel, it was one of the best-known speakeasy owners who stumbled on the idea. To offset his outrageous prices for drinks, he served free fish. It promoted good feeling and struck a popular chord with the night rounders. His competitors copied the idea and long before beer came back the fish fry was a popular institution here.

When beer returned and taverns were opened in such numbers that few owners could make money, the costly free lunches of other days were replaced by a weekly fish fry. The beer drinkers fell for the idea, and today a thousand or more taverns are serving fish lunches, but most of them only on Friday nights.

The free Fish Fry is a simple affair. A piece of boned perch or a boned pike, with a slice or two of rye bread is served. A good customer will probably buy several beers before he finishes his fish.

Revive Family Nights

Some of the taverns and beer gardens that cater to family trade fell into the fish fry stunt and ask their customers to bring their families on Friday nights. Now many of these places every Friday night serve almost as many women as men. Fish dealers say that some of the taverns have become their best customers. buying from 5 to 50 pounds for Friday night’s lunches.

“Fish lunches are popular, but just now fish is so expensive that even with increased beer sales on Fridays we do not make much profit,” said a tavern keeper, who has considerable family trade. “Some people eat and buy only a nickel glass of beer. But others are more liberal. Fish and beer is a good combination. I believe it will go just as well in winter as in summer.”

Not all the fish fry lunches are free, however. Some of the places of the beer garden type, serve more elaborate fish lunches, furnish music and entertainers and do everything they can to promote that old spirit of “gemuetlichkeit.” A charge of 10 cents for a fish plate lunch is made. It consists of fried boned perch or boned pike, rye bread and butter, cole slaw or potato chips, and a pickle. To give these fish parties every Tuesday and Friday nights is a more democratic air, at one of the beer gardens near the City Hall, the linen tablecloths are removed and the lunches and beer served on the beer table tops.

Recalling Old Days

An orchestra plays beer music, mostly old and popular pieces that bring back memories of the nineties and the early part of the century. German favorites are not overlooked. As the evening progresses and the crowds get into the right mood, out steps a young woman, making her way among the diners while a large chart of verses is hung on the wall. She is going to sing “Schnitzelbank.” The young woman knows her stuff and in a few minutes everybody is singing with her.

“Singing is always an important part of our program,” said the manager of this place. if we can revive the spirit of the former beer gardens, with the whole family went and was entertained in a wholesome way, we feel well compensated. Milwaukee is responding.”

Not all fish fry parties are public affairs. Not long ago at a resort north of the city a large private fish fry was held that was attended by 80 invited guests. The lunch started with a spiced herring and a carefully prepared sauce. Then came fried boned fish and potato chips, coleslaw, radishes, pickles and onions, and lots of rye bread and butter. The beer steins were kept filled. An orchestra played and following dinner the chairs and tables were removed and the rest of the evening spent in dancing.

Popular in Homes

Fish Fry parties are becoming popular at many Milwaukee homes. Just now, Milwaukee is decidedly fish minded.

Fish prices just now are high, far higher in proportion than meat. Boned perch, mostly from Lake Erie and Green Bay, is selling at 27 and 28 cents a pound. Undressed perch is about 18 cents a pound. Boned pike is worth 32 cents a pound, while the price for undressed pike is about 20 cents a pound. Trout also are high and so are whitefish. The former sells for about 25 to 30 cents a pound. Whitefish costs more.

The city’s fishing fleet consists of about a dozen fishing tugs, but some of them have been laid off for the summer because the catch has been small.

“It costs about $60 to 65 dollars a day to operate a fishing tug,” said a south side fisherman. “Last year perch were quite plentiful, but this year they are so scarce that we are hardly catching any at all. Sometimes a boat brings in less than a hundred pounds of fish for the entire day’s work. Trout are just as hard to catch. The day when we caught whitefish near Milwaukee is gone.

Experts Give Recipe

Fishermen say that many people spoil good fish because they do not fry it correctly. Fish should be carefully dressed and scaled, say these experts, then be dipped in beaten egg and rolled in corn meal, or cracker or bread crumbs. A kettle of hot, deep fat or oil should be ready and the fish submerged in the fat immediately after the crumbs have been applied. The crumbs should not be allowed to get soggy before the fish is dropped in the hot oil or fat. Fried in deep fat the cooking will be uniform all over the fish and a fine crisp, brown fish is assured. Fried in a pan with but a little lard or not enough to submerge the fish results in uneven cooking.

Milwaukee years ago was noted for its fish dinners. At that time the resort at Whitefish Bay was known throughout the country for its whitefish meals. On Jones Island “Gov.” Kanski and later another well-known islander, named Plambeck prepared delicious fish dinners. They also had crab lunches. But Jones Island is no longer what it used to be.