Russian Censors Study Esperanto

Esperanto: A force for
free speech!

It’s not like they were seeking to bring the world together in unity and peace. They were more afraid of what the Esperantists might be writing. This was one of the worries that Marcus Zamenhof, Ludivick’s father, had about his son’s creation. New language: not going to go over well with the Czarist officials. It’s entirely possible that Marcus Zamenhof’s motivation for destroying the predecessor to Esperanto, lingwe uniwersala, was not so much “don’t waste your life on this crazy dream,” but “don’t jeopardize my job,” since the elder Zamenhof had become a censor.

Marcus Zamenhof was still alive when Esperanto came to the attention of the Russian censors. He couldn’t have been happy about it. The censor’s office probably wasn’t happy when the censor assigned to study the language “died within a couple of weeks of learning the language.” Least happy would be the poor man who died, though I don’t think we can implicate Esperanto in the matter.

The United States has a long-standing tradition of freedom of the press, and so there hasn’t been a need for censors. The Sedition Act of 1798 was a notable blot on this tradition, and ironic given the role of seditious newspapers in spurring the Revolution. Its successor, the Sedition Act of 1918 was upheld by the Supreme Court, but subsequent decisions would seem to make clear a constitutional right to criticize the government.

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Bloggers Like Perez Hilton

This is an actual magazine.
People read it.
Not people like me.

Well, not this blogger. I actually find celebrity gossip kinda boring.[1] Actually, in context, the phrase meant “such as” or “including.” It did leave me to wonder what constitutes a blogger “like” Perez Hilton. Gay male bloggers? Ouch. That makes me “like” Perez Hilton.[2] Anyone with a blog? Maybe it’s just anyone who blogs about celebrities.[3]

An item on the blog Towleroad has the headline “Lance Bass Says Perez Hilton Bullied Him into Coming out in 2006,” but that’s not what the story says. (This is probably the closest this blog is ever going to get to celebrity gossip.[4]) Hilton is referenced in two statements made by Mr. Bass.[5]

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Sexual Perversion in Washington

There'll be a hot time in the old town tonight.

When I look into the backgrounds for these old stories, I feel like a combination of a private detective and the town busybody. It does take some sleuthing; checking other newspaper accounts to see if I can find out more about the people involved in the story, looking at public records that might shed some light on the matter (for the record, the dead have no privacy rights). Sure, when I look into an early-twentieth century sodomy accusation there’s prurient interest involved. Look: people from a century ago having sex. Forbidden sex.

That’s an important part too. I only have to read the comment on articles about same-sex marriage. I would like to think that referring to gay men as “sodomites” was some queer linguistic habit of a century ago, but the comment still gets made in 2014.[1] It would probably be both difficult and expensive to get the court transcripts of whatever transpired on Friday, November 8, 1901, but the Sunday Morning Globe of Washington, D.C. makes it seem worthwhile, since the testimony “revealed the most indescribable details of sexual perversion,” which the Globe assured its readers were “too filthy and demoralizing to even write about.“

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Sodomy Arrest Leads to Suicide

Convicted by the paper though he
didn't survive to be tried

A somewhat grim story from the news archives, but I felt that this story, with all its gray areas needed to be told. I ran into a total brick wall on researching anything, although there are some errors in the article (which makes things tough). Here are the particulars: a man was arrested on a charge of sodomy on July 15, 1915. When he learned that several complaints were being made against him, he attempted suicide, being successful on the second attempt.

Other details are less clear. The Ward County Independent gives the man’s name as E. O. Edwards (not helpful in finding additional details), and his age as 21. The North Dakota death indexes give his age as 36. So was he born in 1894 or 1879? Which record do you believe? The article also notes that the officials notified the dead man’s brother, “a locomotive engineer, at Lance, Nebr.” There’s no such place. Nor does it show up on a list of Nebraska ghost towns. There is a town called Alliance, and when I checked the census records, I found a John W. Edwards, who worked as a railroad engineer, probably the brother mentioned in the article.

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His Excessive Passions Were Unlike Those of Other Men

Joseph Carp:
an early gay identity?

A list of criminal cases in the June 30, 1883 edition of the St. Paul Daily Globe, of St. Paul, Minnesota, has a number of interesting items among the twenty-five cases disposed of by the very busy Judge Burr, on June 29th.

Among these were the case of Ms. Hausdorf, who was found to have “abused Mary Reimer in unladylike manner with her tongue.” The article notes that Mrs. Reimer responded in kind. They were bound to keep the peace. Remember in the future, Mrs. Hausdorf, to abuse your neighbors in a ladylike manner.

Less decisive was the case of Swan Anderson and Gus Langren, who “were charged with assaulting and insulting a German woman with a name unpronounceable. They plead not guilty, and witnesses failed to identify them as the ones who made the assault.” The two young men fingered others, but the witnesses failed to identify them.

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