“Officers on duty on sidewalks will keep people moving on the right or left hand side of the walk as the case may be and arrest gangs that rush through in the opposite direction. The officers will take no halfway measures with this class— toughs will be shown promptly and effectively that they must behave themselves.
“Gentlemen, crowds are reliably expected to be enormous. The array of attractions for Buffalo’s all-week carnival, which will extend from September 1st through the 7th, is bewildering to say the least. We will have our work cut out for us.
“The carnival will begin on Monday, Labor Day, with a salute of 100 guns at sunrise. In the morning there will be a trades parade of workers, with scores of industrial floats. The Venit Monument will be dedicated by the Italian Societies. In the afternoon there will be a rowing regatta in the Erie Canal, for which the Mutual Rowing Club has been training all summer—haven’t we, Jim Sullivan?” The men applauded and laughed, knowing both Jim’s historical dedication to the group he’d founded and the fact that Chief Regan’s own seventeen-year-old son Dave Regan was presently one of the Mutuals’ star athletes.
“My son David will be rowing in the Mutuals’ four-man juniors crew against Toronto. Them Canuks sure got a crack organization up there, so if any of yous are at the canal for the race, help cheer my boy on along with me, won’t you please?”
The men applauded enthusiastically for the Chief’s pride and joy.
“Then there will be the yacht club races, band concerts, and in the evening a grand display of fireworks almost twice as large any held last year, and we all remember how chaotic last year’s displays were. So we need to be on our guard. Accidents happen. We hope not, but we need to be prepared.
“Free daily exhibitions are scheduled at the Albright Art Gallery and at the Buffalo Historical Building. These are expected to attract thousands of visitors. We anticipate these events will be mostly trouble-free with a minimum of hooliganism among the art and Historical Society crowd but, well, you never know. Some of them Society ladies...”
The men laughed loudly at this.
“Firemen’s Day, Tuesday September 3rd will be notable for a grand parade of marching uniformed and volunteer firemen from all over New York State, Northern Pennsylvania and Southern Ontario, numbering in the many, many thousands. Rochester, Toronto, Hamilton, Elmira, Erie, Pittsburgh and all points between. They say we can expect as many as twenty thousands of firemen. On the same day there will be boat races, an illuminated automobile parade and a balloon ascension.
“Wednesday September 4th is Canadian Day, when we expect about thirty thousands of our fine neighbors to the north to come across the bridges to celebrate with us once more—and we all do love our Canadians: they’re never any trouble, they’re polite and they spend lots of their money with us, so treat them especially well. With the Queen’s Own of Toronto and the Thirteenth Regiment of Hamilton presenting, great things are expected of that day.
“The most popular feature of the entire week on the evening of Canadian Day will be the Grotesque Parade, Buffalo’s own portrayal of the Mardi Gras. A lot of money will be spent on this spectacle as well, and with so many present in disguise we need to keep on our toes for those who might take advantage of their anonymity to attempt to cause trouble or carry out misdeeds.
“Perhaps the big day of all days will be McKinley Day, on Thursday the 5th, when Vice President Fairbanks, New York’s Governor Hughes, John G. Milburn and other distinguished men and women will be all here. I don’t have to tell you that we need to keep extra sharp eyes on anybody who might want to approach the Vice President or any suspicious-looking individuals in the crowds. We don’t know yet whether Mr. Fairbanks will want to greet well-wishers or not, but we will keep you posted as to his plans. Former President Grover Cleveland had canceled his plans to visit due to illness, but this morning I received an inquiry from his secretary, so it is possible he may change his mind and attend. If so we will need to make heightened arrangements. We should know in short order what to expect from the former President. ”
Regan surveyed all assembled, paused and said, “Remember Czolgosz and his ilk,” referring to president McKinley’s assassin and anarchists like Emma Goldman.
“Besides the impressive dedication exercises at the new McKinley monument in Niagara Square with dignitaries, there will be a grand parade of United States troops with over 1,000 Canadian troops joining in.
“Friday the 6th means Buffalo Fraternal and Irish Day, and the evening parade will be a chief event for the general public, as well as for pick-pockets and molesters who believe they can successfully practice their criminal skills shielded by the cover of darkness in these large crowds. The parade will take place beginning at dusk and all the floats will be brightly illuminated, so we won’t have an easy time of it. The Fraternal Orders in Buffalo are scheduled to include up to 25,000 marchers in this grand spectacle. We can expect 75,000 spectators or more. East-siders will be amassing in a grand display of fireworks, which will be given on Friday evening at the old circus grounds. Sports on that day will include over thirty games as well as a shooting skill exhibition.
“Saturday the 7th will be the highlight to the whole week for many young participants as the students from every school in the vicinity will take part in a grand coordinated presentation of pageantry representing the history of America, from the landing of Columbus down to the present time. Floats illustrating the history of our city will also be in the parade.
“On Sunday September 8th all of Buffalo’s houses of worship will host special services. A church committee now working to get as many of the former members of Buffalo religious organizations, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish to attend their old church or synagogue on that day. We don’t anticipate much criminal activity on Sunday but with all the visitors in town we have to remain alert to the possibilities in any case.
“Surgeons and ambulances will be at the service of the public twenty four hours a day. Health Commissioner Wende will have charge of the details of the relief work to be done during Old Home Week, although the matter will be under the supervision of Dr. Roswell Park, our local chairman of the Red Cross Society.
“Dr. Goodale will be in charge of the four relief stations. One station will be at the yard of the Central Presbyterian Church, a second at Lafayette Square, a third at the D. E. Morgan Building on the ground floor end, and the fourth near Police Headquarters. No charge will be made for services rendered at any of these stations. Without hesitation, accompany anyone to a station who you think needs attention.
“The hospital ambulances will be stationed at different parts of the downtown district ready for service in any emergency. Dr. Frenzak will be in charge of those. A corps of schoolboys under the direction of Mr. Allison, director of playgrounds, will distribute water to the thirsty along the line of the parades. The Crystal Water Company will supply the water free of charge.
“Acting Mayor Fuhrmann has ordered all banners that are stretched across Main street pulled down during Old Home Week. Mayor Adam is still in Scotland and fully supports this, although County Clerk Price is already challenging the order, as he happens to be chairman of the advertising committee for the Hamburg Fair. And he has quite a few banners up. We will rip down any remaining banners on the last day of August and send the bill to the advertisers.
“You all know your individual assignments, but no matter what your designation or rank, everyone is to act as a detective. Pay mind to all the week’s events as well as to those assigned to you even if you are not directly associated with them because we will be moving men to wherever they may be needed as that day’s events may dictate. We must be flexible. Stay safe, gentlemen. Keep your eye on your partner, and let’s make this the safest and most successful Old Home Week in the nation.”
The men uttered a collective “Whew!” trying to absorb the dizzying schedule that lay ahead. The Buffalo Police Department’s men would be going nonstop all week, with very few hours off.
The Grand
Illumination
◆◆◆
Alderman John P. Sullivan’s number five child, twelve-year-old Genevieve, fussed at the breakfast table, their servant girl Sophie barely able to contain her young charge’s excitement about the approaching week’s events. Genevieve was the most enthusiastic Buffalo Booster the Alderman had yet encountered and thus of her he was proud as punch.
Genevieve’s brothers and sisters rather had a good time poking fun at her Buffalo-mania as well as all her other little preachy quirks. “Papa, make them stop!” she’d whine. Her father would reply, “If you’re going to proselytize and express unpopular opinions, Jean Delores, you’d best get used to defending them.” Genevieve had decided over the summer that she didn’t like her baptismal name, and re-christened herself Jean Delores. Her mother was not happy about this.
“It’s probably just a phase.” JP said, comforting his wife.
Jean Delores was lecturing her siblings about the momentous importance of the upcoming week. She announced, “I want to read you all something from the newspaper everybody, since none of you seem to be taking this seriously.” The little article of rules from the Morning Express was then broadcast across the table to those had not yet managed to escape the dining room:
Don’t Knock, But Boost Well
and Ignore The Whisperers.
Don’t go out of town.
Don’t act downhearted.
Don’t get mad if anybody asks the way.
Don’t neglect any opportunity to
make our visitors feel at home.
Don’t agree with anybody when they knock Buffalo.
Don’t complain if you are jolted out
of the even tenor of your way.
Don’t say “Oh, the city is just swamped
with people.”—help ‘em onto a raft even if it bothers you.
Don’t fail to do your part toward making the doings a success.
Jean Delores folded her newspaper and resumed eating. “That is all,” she concluded. Her sister Mazie then grabbed the paper, her eye having caught something near the bottom of the page.
“Oh my gosh! Chiquita is coming to Old Home Week!” she cried.
Annie shot up from her chair to admonish her daughter. “Mazie, what did I tell you about cursing? Perhaps you’ll want to stay home with Sophie while the rest of us attend the illumination?”
Sophie, the Sullivans’ Polish servant girl, was horrified that she might end up being punished right along with Mazie. She had been looking forward to the illumination for weeks.
“No, Mother. I’m sorry,” Mazie said insincerely. “I just got caught up in the excitement. I won’t say “gosh” again.”
“Mazie!”
Mazie cringed, pretending she didn’t mean to repeat the curse word.
“I’ll go to confession Saturday afternoon Mother, I promise! I’m sorry. Please!” Mazie was thirteen, at an age where she enjoyed testing her mother’s limits. “Listen to this, Mama.” She read from the paper:
Chiquita, The Midget, Will Show
Here All Old Home Week.
The smallest Old Home Week visitor has arrived. It is Chiquita, the midget who created some excitement on the Pan-American midway by eloping with an Erie, Pennsylvania boy, seventeen-year-old Anthony Woeckener by name. The midget will be one of the attractions at Luna Park. Since leaving Buffalo she has traveled mostly in the West and in Mexico. She has just come from the Jamestown Exposition, which, she says, is a frost. She hasn’t expanded a particle since, but when asked how she had fared since her exposition days, she chirped: “Fine, don’t you see how much I have grown?”
Woeckener denies that there has been any trouble between him and his wife. There were rumors of a divorce.
“Mama, that boy that Chiquita married is over six feet tall! And she’s close to forty! It’s a scandal! Can’t you just imagine it?”
“Mazie! You calm yourself down and get your chores done! I want that room of yours spic and span.”
“Mama, Jenny makes a mess every time she goes in there. Why do I have to clean it all by myself?”
“Don’t call me Jenny! My name’s Jean Delores! Papa, tell her!” Genevieve wailed.
“Oh Lord...” JP whispered to himself.
The Alderman reminded all those present at Café Sullivan that they were still not quite finished assembling their costumes for their family Schnitzelbank troupe appearance in the Grotesque Parade.
“Jenny, is your schuper painted yet?” asked the Alderman as he finished his oats.
“Pa, it’s not a scooper, it’s a beer glass.” Jean Delores didn’t try to correct her father for using her former name.
“Schuper, not scooper. That’s what a schuper is, Honey. A beer glass. Is it finished?’
“No, not yet, Pa.”
“Tonight, everyone, we will all gather here after supper and finish as many of the costumes as we can. Those of you who are finished can help the ones who are not. Daniel, is your bratwurst almost done?”
“I’m the dinke frau, Pop.” corrected Daniel as he sipped his scalding hot Postum, one pinky in the air. “Actually, it’s Tom over there who’s the big sausage.” Daniel shot a bemused smile to Tom.
Tom said, “Cousin Jim said he might want to be the bratwurst. Me and Mildred can be kurz und lang. She’s too little to march by herself. I can put her on my shoulders.”
“That’s very nice of you, Thomas,” complimented his mother with an appreciative smile. Mildred looked up from eating from her bowl of rolled oats, grinning at her big brother, her hero.
“All right. At any rate, children, this evening we will do our best to complete this project, because school starts Wednesday.”
“But Pa, they already proclaimed Thursday a civic holiday, so what sense does it make to get all ready for school when nothing much can even happen?” reasoned Mazie. “And besides, with all the people arriving in town, a lot of the teachers might not even be able to make it through the city to get themselves to school.”
The Alderman had to agree Mazie had a point. Opening school at the height of Old Home Week was obviously a miscalculation, and was sure to throw the city, already in tumult from all the festive events, further into turmoil.
“Regardless, me wee boils and goils,” he brogued, “we will assemble here and busy our little fingers to get this project completed, and then we’ll have a dress rehearsal.”
Jenny was to wear the beer glass upside down on her head, like a giant hat, and she was not excited about looking like a fool in front of all those people.
“But that’s whole the point of the Grotesque Parade!” admonished Mazie, “We’ll all look like fools. Every one of us. It’ll be fun, Jenny—just you wait and see.”
◆◆◆
The entire First Ward was geared up to attend as many of the Old Home Week events as work and duty would allow. Most of the week’s functions did not involve any expenditure save for the trolley fare downtown, although it was not too far for the more energetic First Warder who might wish to hoof it. Certainly all the children were excited as it would be their final summer hurrah before the school year commenced.
Because Jim Sullivan would be on detective duty the entire week, the combined Sullivan families, along with assorted Saulters, Nugents, Driscolls and a few neighborhood strays planned to attend the Grand Illumination together on the Saturday evening before Labor Day.
Alderman John P. would help officiating the illumination ceremony from the grand reviewing stand in Lafayette Square. He had planned to leave for downtown much earlier than the family, but Annie put a halt to that idea.
“I must go early Annie, I am one of the organizers,” said JP officiously.
Annie had tired long ago of arguing with her husband about his family duties. She no longer asked. Instead, she told. Back at the turn of the century her New Year’s resolution was to simply state her demands and not back down. She was still practicing this.
“Yes JP, you want to go early to hob
and to nob and to lord over everyone so they know you’re in charge. But your family needs you to be in charge here.”
“Thomas and Jim Jr. can help handle the children, Annie.”
“The family comes first, JP. You are the head of the family. We will all go together.”
With that, Annie turned and walked off.
And so Alderman Sullivan, his wife Annie, all the kids, Sophie the servant girl, Detective Jim’s wife Hannah and their three offspring rode together, taking the Hamburg Street trolley. JP had initially proposed the family sit with him in the grandstand but they all groaned at the idea. The children wanted to have fun, not be on public display “like some circus freak show” as Mazie had so insultingly. according to her parents, put it. Annie wanted to take in the crowded scene with Hannah and her nephews and niece, not be again stuck in some official capacity as “Mrs. Alderman.”
The entire entourage boarded the streetcar at the beginning—or the end, depending on one’s point of reference, of the Sycamore-Chicago Line right in front of the side-by-side Sullivan houses. The Alderman had seen to it that the line was extended all the way to the river to conveniently service his family’s needs, claiming the Union Furnace’s legions of workers as his main concern for doing so. The families hopped aboard, excited. The cars were the older type, open to the elements on the sides, the seats long wooden benches extending the width of the car. The trolley jerked and swayed up Hamburg Street to Perry, Perry to Chicago, then Chicago to Swan where the car reached its occupancy limit. At Chestnut it passed an empty car going in the opposite direction, its pantograph sending sparks flying through the air with the distinctive odor of a sultry summer night’s lightning storm. Then it creaked up Chestnut to South Division to Washington, where everyone got off. The crowd was already thick as they walked en masse the few final blocks to Lafayette Square and the mammoth reviewing stand decorated with white bison heads.
Murderers, Scoundrels and Ragamuffins Page 33