We’ve all heard the longstanding tales of alligators running rampant in the sewers of New York City. The logic goes that baby gators were purchased as pets, either in local pet stores or by tourists vacationing in Florida. After quickly outgrowing the confines of their owners’ apartments, they were flushed down toilets and into the sewer system, where they soon bred and infested the labyrinthine network of pipes tunnels beneath Manhattan.
The sewer component first entered into the myth three years later, after a gang of teenage boys spotted a moving shape beneath them as they shoveled snow into an open manhole cover near the Harlem River. Using a makeshift lasso, they were able to snag the animal’s neck and haul it to surface – where they quickly realized they caught a live alligator. The gator lunged and, in response, the boys beat it to death with their shovels. After dragging the carcass to nearby garage, it was determined that the beast weighed 125 pounds and measured some seven-and-a-half feet in length.
When no gators turned up, May decided to take a look for himself. Upon visiting an undisclosed location somewhere in the five boroughs, he stumbled upon a so-called “colony” of the creatures – which measured roughly two feet apiece — living in the sewers’ shallow waters. Highly distressed by his discovery, May claimed that he had all of the animals exterminated, though no corroborating account as ever emerged to verify his story.
America during the red scare was a very different place. The main fears of the day were not the goings on of the Middle East or the walls between countries; rather, people feared the loyalties of their own neighbors. As the Cold War with Russia emerged at the end of World War II, the lure of communistic thought sent shivers down the spines of patriotic Americans. Everywhere one looked someone was being accused of socialist ties, communist sentiments and worst of all, spying for the Russians. One of the most highlighted cases from the post war period was that of Alger Hiss.
Born in Baltimore in 1904, Hiss studied law at John Hopkins and Harvard and began a promising career as law clerk for the prestigious Oliver Wendell Holmes. From this esteemed beginning, Hiss went on to hold a number of positions in the Roosevelt Administration. America in the 1930s was a nation of unrest and uncertainty about the viability and longevity of the capitalist system. The stock market crash of 1929 coupled with the Dust Bowl in the mid west, left many searching for alternative ideologies.
One of these searchers was Whittaker Chambers. Chambers came from a broken Philadelphia home and in 1924 began to see the failure of his home life as an analogy for the failure of the capitalist system. In 1925, he became a devout Marxists and joined the communist party. Later, Chambers would defect from the party and become one of its biggest enemies.
As Chambers affirmed his commitment to the Communist ideology, Hiss held a number of important offices in the United States government. Work with the department of Agriculture and State Department led Hiss to serve as Roosevelt’s assistant during the Yalta Conference in 1945 and Secretary General of the newly formed United Nations. In 1949, Hiss left public office to work towards international peace as the president of the Carnegie Endowment. A rich and diverse career would have been Hiss legacy if Chambers and his associates hadn’t made him the target of an FBI espionage investigation.
Whittaker Chambers was a writer and editor who while working for TIME magazine confessed to being a communist during the 1930s before the House on Un American Activities. He chose to point to Hiss as a fellow believer who had worked actively in the party from 1933 to 1938. The FBI and NSA investigated the State department during the time Hiss served and found what they believed to be evidence of Hiss disloyalty.
After two grand jury trials, the first resulting in a hung jury, Hiss was sentence to five years in prison after being found guilty of spying for the Russians. Documents from the Yalta conference in 1945 indicated a Russian American spy was with FDR at the conference. This coupled with Chambers’ accusation was enough to put Hiss away for five years and destroy the reputation of one of America’s dedicated civil servants. Hiss tried to prove his innocence throughout his life, suing both Chambers for libel and the United States government fort wrongful imprisonment.
It would take until 1992 for Russian documents that showed Hiss had no involvement with espionage to surface. Hiss passed away just four years later in 1996. And even after his death and the lack of material evidence, historians still remain divided on the guilt or innocence of Alger Hiss.
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The trial set the precedent for many things to come including by some accounts, the McCarthy era, the election of Richard Nixon, the founding principals of the modern conservative movement and even the election of Ronald Reagan. The story of Alger Hiss does show the gravity of accusation and the means by which fear of other ideologies can be carried to extremes. | |||||||||||
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Father’s Day is a well known holiday celebrating dads, forefathers, and male parents in general. It is a fairly recent holiday and was instituted as a complement to the established Mother’s Day celebration. Father’s Day was created in the early years of the 20th century and it usually consists of family activities such as gift giving or dining out. Dads around the world probably have closets full of bad ties given over the years since fathers are notoriously difficult to find an appropriate gift for.
The history of Santa Claus is so embedded in the psyche of modern society, that no matter that religions change, are rejected and revised time and time again, faith in a magical figure that gives out toys to children remains with us. Whether he is called Sinta Klaus, Santa Claus, Father Christmas or old Saint Nick, the gentleman in red seems an almost permanent fixture in the history of western civilization.
Towards the end of the third century of the Common Era, Nicholas of Turkey, (often believed to have been either a bishop or monk or at the least a man of spiritual nature) had a reputation for extreme generosity. Early stories tell accounts of marriage dowries given to young girls without fathers and presents given anonymously (through open door or window) to poor children and orphans. As the legend goes, Nicholas secretly traveled by horse (or deer and sleigh in another version) across the region distributing gifts to worthy recipients, although accounts do differ. Whatever he did and however he traveled, Nicholas set an example that sent a resounding message.
In modern Germany, December 6 is the day traditional families set their shoes in front of the fire along with food for the deer (or horses) and wait for Sinta Klaus to show up in the middle of the night, feed his furry friends and replace empty shoes with ones full of candy and sweet treats (compare with the hanging of stockings here).
