World To Burst; John D. Blamed

Detroit Free Press, November 17, 1910

Detroit mystic Jacob Forlow held the belief--he considered it a seismic theory--that the Earth's mantle being so compromised from the boring of oil, would collapse in upon itself.

Chiefly to blame for this cataclysmic event was none other than oil tycoon John D. Rockerfeller.

The veracity of his claims held widespread sway over the general public despite their reticence to openly tout or bemoan the postulation.

The only caveat to this universal claim to truth was that it would take centuries for the "bursting" to occur. Further complicating the equation is the prospect for a Green New Deal. But surely Forlow considered that feeble attempt into the mathematics. Cross cancel and divide, I say, because oblivion awaits us either way.

Forlow's foray into predictions had only ripened to doom and gloom when he mastered the taming of the weather. Meteorological ascents being the barometer which differentiates the mere mystic from the sage.

Detroit Free Press, June 29, 1911

Dodges Her Ancestral Ghost By Loafing On Halloween

Detroit Free Press, October 28, 1910

As a Halloween offering I will present this article about show girl Esther Lee whose family suffered many Halloween tragedies throughout the family tree. So while her acting troupe Midnight Sons was in town performing at Detroit's Garrick Theater she was taking the day off.  The story is as follows:

Esther Lee, show girl in the "Midnight Sons" company, playing at the Garrick theater this week, refuses positively to play on Hallowe'en. Miss Lee's family history for generations back is a chapter of calamities on witches' night, and she inherits the ancestral dread of goblins.

No one to look at the sprightly, insouciante Esther as she cavorts upon the Garrick stage would take her for a haunted mortal, which she is. Miss Lee is pursued by shadows, literally trailed by a family ghost, which she has never seen. The ghost has materialized for nearly every member of her family but herself, and she admits to hourly anticipatory qualms.

The ghost first made its appearance at the castle of her ancestral relative, Count Von Getlar in Holland. The apparition struck a gardener dead. Since that coup, it has been pretty constant in materializing on Hallowe'en.

When Miss Lee's branch of the family transplanted to Georgia, the ghost took passage. It followed them Beaufort, South Carolina. Finally they left their beloved south for Newark, New Jersey, by way of escape. Again enter the ghost.

An uncle of the young woman flew in the face of destiny by playing at Robinson's Opera House, Cincinnati, on that fateful Hallowe'en in 1892 when the great dome fell. A little brother was badly burned when playing with fire on the eve three years ago.

All these reasons decide Miss Lee not to play. She is afraid of bringing destruction on any company which includes her on the night of October 31. During the rest of the year, she entertains a wholesome dread of her unhappy, wandering ancestor, for it has been known to appear at sundry and diverse times without fair warning.

Miss Lee denies that she is superstitious; she is "merely on her guard."  "I know show girls are expected to have a past," said Miss Lee pensively, last night. "And to be haunted by it on Christmas eve, but it's worse to be haunted by other people's pasts on Hallowe'en."