Gilded Times

Jim Crow Laws: Causing Hatred and Discrimination

Two days ago, Jane Smith was rushed to the hospital after jamming her fingers into one of the machines at Hamilton Manufacturing Company in Massachusetts, at 7:23 PM.

Was this a consequence for working in such a large factory, or was this due to poor labor condi-tions? Ms. Jane is 16 years old with 5 younger siblings. Her income at Hamilton Manufacturing Company is supplying her family with food and water back home. Doctors have requested a further investigation of the working conditions at Hamilton Manufacturing Company because Jane is having

trouble mentally recovering. A nurse caring for Jane has told reporters, “She yells constantly that her job is too repetitive and she does not want to go back. I do not understand the conditions at this factory but I have heard that the transition from country life to urban life is very difficult.” Her family lives miles apart from her in Connecticut and doctors are still trying to contact them to let them know what hap-pened. Boston Associations have enforced strict curfews, mandated church attendance, provided their workers with a healthy diet, and maintained a high degree of cleanliness. Unfortunately, it has come to

our attention that Hamilton Manufacturing Company does not treat their workers like they do. Jane Smith has worked for Hamilton Manufacturing Company for 6 months, so in turn; they are paying for half of Ms. Jane’s medical bills. It has been 2 weeks since Ms. Jane’s incident and she is recovering very well. “It’s very pleasant feeling to know that Hamilton Manufacturing Company is on my side and willing to help me get back on my feet,” says Ms. Jane.

By: Sara Nguyen

Hamilton Factories Help Pay for Woman’s Medical Expenses

This picture shows how whites and blacks had to use different water fountains.

This picture shows how whites and blacks had to use different rest-rooms.

This picture shows how whites and blacks had different movie theatres.

Ever since the Jim Crows laws were first enacted in 1876, racial segregation has been extremely evident in all parts of the country. Because of these laws, African American’s have not been able to share schools, public places, restrooms, and restaurants with white people. Everywhere you look there are signs that divide the whites from the blacks.

Being an African American in this age and time is not anything I would wish for someone. I, along with many other colored men, are treated as if we are the scrap left-overs in a dumpster, being spit on as we walk the so called “free” streets of America. These laws have deepened the hate and racism whites have for blacks, and in return, the blacks have come to hate the white race even more as well. The slogan for these laws is “separate but equal,” but if all blacks are

truly considered “equal” to whites, then why is it that we are kicked out of restaurants, and then sent to the back for the food scraps? Why is it that our innocent young children are not even given the opportunity to learn in decent environments with-out being discriminated against? All these laws have done is instilled hate into ignorant citizens who simply choose to not like a person because the color of their skin.

The majority of the white race believes that African Americans are “untouchables” simply because the color of their skin. They believe that we are incompetent and ignorant, and that we are physically incapable of learning anything worthy on our own. The white race believes that the Jim Crow Laws are morally good simply because they truly believe that they are better than the African American race as a whole.

The whole entire idea of whites being superior to African Americans is just flat out wrong. As stated in our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal.” By having and enforcing these Jim Crow Laws, we are going against the founding father’s mor-als for this country. If we were all truly considered equal, then there would not be separate bathrooms or separate anything for that matter.

I believe that the Jim Crows Laws should be termi-nated forever more. As long as we have enforced segregation of any sort, any shot of freedom and fairness to all will be shot to hell.

By: Haley Ringo

ter of the money involved had been supplied to the rail-way by Congress through loans and land grants. As the Union Pacific plunged into debt, Oakes Ames sought to prevent Congressional inves-tigation by permitting lead-ing members of Congress to buy Credit Mobilier stock at greatly reduced prices.

The Government, mean-while, had allowed its claim for its loan of bonds to become a second mortgage instead of a first mortgage. They permitted the Union Pacific Road to issue first mortgage bonds, which took precedence as a lien on the road. The Government lien thus became almost worth-less as the new mortgage amounted to all the value of the road. The proceeds of

this extraordinary transaction went to swell the profits of the Credit Mobilier, which had nothing to pay out except for the mere cost of construc-tion. This also explains why some of the bonuses of the latter company were paid in Union Pacific bonds. As a result of these processes, the

bonded debts of the railroad exceeded its cost by at least $40,000,000. The punish-ments for such behavior were surprisingly lenient howev-er, and the Credit Mobilier Company and Congressman Ames were merely publicly censured.

By: Britni Garza

On March 27th, at 4:30 in the afternoon, both Oakes Ames, and Oliver Ames were discovered for having created a colossal scandal involving your tax payer’s money. These officials of the Union Specific Railroad Company made excessive profits for themselves at the expense of both American taxpayers and minor stock-holders of the railroad.

Actual constructions of the railroad were originally $50,000,000, but because of them “awarding” themselves, the whole cost came out to be $94,000,000. One quarter

Since the mid-1800’s, the Chinese have been coming into our country, and tak-ing the jobs of hard working Americans. Do not look at these immigrants as allies to this country, and do not think that it was these Chinese immigrants who transformed this country. Because these immigrants worked for very little pay, Americans were fired or denied a job sim-ply because owners and bosses knew that they could pay immigrants less.

All of this trouble started during the gold rush when many people from around the world came to the United States so that their lives could prosper. The most immigrants during this time migrated here from China. I believe that these “Chinamen” should have stayed in their own country and prospered there. They should not have come to America and taken away our chance to prosper! It is because of them that many of our own countrymen are still in poverty. One fired miner, Joe Smith, stated:“…it’s all

because of them that I can’t support my wife and kids let alone support myself…if they hadn’t come here I would’ve had a good place to stay…”

Not only have the Chinese immi-grants robbed our prosperity, but they are also destroying our culture. For years now they have been the ones creating our transcontinental railroad, instead of our own countrymen. The railroad should have been built only by Americans, to symbolize our strength as a country. These Chinese immigrants have also been making their own towns called “China Towns”. In these “China Towns,” they only speak their own language, and do not incorporate our culture into their own. In 1882, the government finally came to their senses and passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act stopped the immi-gration of Chinese to America. With this act, America will have time to repair the strong nationalism our country once had without the Chinese, and we will get back the jobs that the Chinese have stolen from us.

This photo shows the route the Transcontinental Railroad took.

Credit Mobilier: American Scandal

page 1 March 11thGilded Times

By: Armun Shakeri

Chinamen: Robbers in Disguise

Dear Editor, As a hardworking Chinese immigrant, I am

deeply saddened and affected by Congress’s decision to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act allows the United States to sus-pend Chinese immigration, a decision that is intended to last for 10 years. Speaking for the Chinese race as a whole, we came to America to help you build the America Transcontinental Railroad. We have been a great help to the United States, and ever since the gold started becoming hard to find, you no longer wanted anything to do with us. We tried to make a living in San Francisco being paid below minimum wage. This country has blamed us for “depressed wage levels.” Why? Simply because they feel that we were “stealing” their jobs. I ask you all as a country to have a heart. If you really care about all people as a country, you would repeal this law immediately and let The United States become the country it’s supposed to be. This is supposed to be the country of the free, the country of happiness where you can pursue your dreams no matter where you come from or what you look like.

With much concern,Jane Garza, May 18th 1882

By: Jane Garza

Letter to the Editor

On July 14, 1890, congress enacted the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. This act, written and named after Senator John Sherman, required the U.S. Government to purchase nearly twice as much silver as before in 1890. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act was passed in a direct response to farmers and miners who were in great debt.

The farmers have been in dept recently due to inflation that was caused by the overproduction of their products. They urged congress to pass the Silver Purchase Act in order to boost the infla-tion of the government and to pay their

debts with cheaper dollars. Miners have been mining vast majorities of silver in western mines, hoping that the govern-ment will increase the demand for silver by bringing the price of silver up so that miners can make a profit. A farmer John Smith states:“I really like the idea of Congress having this new act…it will really help me pay off those gosh darn debts that I need to pay.”

With this act in place, the United States has purchased millions of ounces of sil-ver, becoming the world’s biggest silver purchaser. As a nation, we are in grave danger of going off our gold standard because of the amount of silver being purchased. If this happens, most experts agree that it will “cripple America’s internal trade” and the U.S. congress would probably not be able to bounce back.

This is a political cartoon displaying the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.

By: Armun Shakeri

Sherman Silver Purchase Act

This picture is praising the Chinese Exclusion Act.

George Custer, the son of a black-smith, was born in New Rumley, Ohio, on 5th December, 1839. The family was poor and when he was ten, Custer was forced to live with his aunt in Monroe. While at school, he met his future wife, Elizabeth Bacon, the daughter of a judge. Custer did odd jobs for her fam-ily, but was never allowed into her fam-ily’s house. Custer wanted to become a lawyer but his family could not afford the training, so he decided to become a soldier instead. He attended the Military Academy at West Point, and when he finally graduated in 1861, he was placed 34th out of a class of 34.

After leaving West Point, he joined the staff of General George B. McClellan. During the American Civil War he witnessed Bull Run , Antietam and Gettysburg. Custer emerged as an out-standing cavalry leader and at the age of 23, was given the rank of brigadier general. He then took command of the Michigan Brigade. Custer developed a reputation for flamboyant behavior. He led his troops into battle wearing black velvet trimmed with gold lace, a crim-son necktie, and a white hat. He claimed that he adopted this outfit so that his men “would recognize him on any part of the field”.

Custer’s behavior continued to be erratic. In July 1867 fifteen of his men

deserted during a forced march along the Republican River. Custer ordered a search party “to shoot the supposed deserters down dead, and to bring none in alive.” Soon afterwards he deserted his command in order to spend a day with his wife. As a result of these actions, he was arrested and charged with disobeying orders, deserting his command, failing to pursue Indians who had attacked his escort, and ordering his officers to shoot down deserters. Found guilty, he was suspended for a year without pay. His army career ended June 25, 1876, at the battle of Little Big Horn, which resulted in the extermina-tion of his immediate command and a total loss of around 266 officers and men.

In August, 1864, Custer joined Major General Philip Sheridan in the final Shenandoah Valley campaign. Sheridan and Custer, along with 40,000 other soldiers entered the valley and soon encountered troops led by Jubal Early who had just returned from Washington. After a series of minor defeats, the Union Army eventually gained the upper hand. His men now burned and destroyed anything of value in the area, and after defeating Early in another large-scale battle on 19th October, the Union Army took control of the Shenandoah Valley.

On the 1st of April, Philip Sheridan,

American author and humorist, and a friend to presidents, artists, industri-alists, and European royalty, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, more commonly known as Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri, November 30, 1835, two weeks after Halley’s Comet came in to contact with the closest it had ever been to Earth. Before Mark died he said, “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccount-able freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.’”His prediction and hope for going out with Halley’s Comet was accurate. He died of a heart attack the day after the comet’s closet approach to Earth in 1910.

Mark Twain’s mother Jane, and Father John had seven children, mark was the sixth. When he was four years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port town. Hannibal is where he got his inspiration for both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In Twain’s early years, he worked as a printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. At night, he would educate himself by going to libraries and engrossing himself in every book he could get his hands on. Soon after, he met Horace E. Bixby, who influenced him to get his steam-boat pilot’s licenses. Twain worked on Steamboats until 1862 when the American Civil War started. During this time, Twain wrote a sketch, “The Private History of a Campaign That Failed”, which claimed he and his friends had been Confederate volun-teers for two weeks before disbanding their company. He was neutral after that, but developed into more of a radi-cal as his life progressed.

Mark Twain met Charles Langdon who would later become his brother-in-law while touring Europe and the Middle East. Langdon showed Twain a picture of his sister Olivia, and Twain claimed to have fallen in love at first sight. Mark Twain met Olivia Langdon in 1868, were engaged a year later, and married in February 1870 in Elmira, New York. The couple lived in Buffalo, New York from 1869 to 1871. In 1871, Twain moved his family to Hartford, Connecticut. There, he and Olivia had three daughters, Susy, Clara and Jean. They were married for a wonderful 34 years until Olivia died in 1904.

Mark Twain had many interests including parapsychology, science and scientific inquiry, and he was a member of the Society for Psychical Research. He patented three inventions,

ncluding an “Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments” (to replace suspend-ers), a history trivia game, and a self-pasting scrapbook. Twain has written 103 different short stories, essays,

fiction and non-fiction including, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) etc.

There have been numerous schools that have been named after him such as Mark Twain Elementary School in Houston, Texas, Mark Twain Intermediate School in New York, and Samuel Clemens High School in San Antonio, Texas. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts created the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which is awarded annually to students grades four through eight by the Missouri Association of School Libraries. Mark Twain was an out-standing author, father, husband and realist. He gave his life to others, and through his literature people have had the opportunity to experience all aspects of life in an exciting way.

By: Haley Ringo

Obituaries

Louis Sullivan, an American Architect known to be the “Father of Modernism,” was born to an Irish-born father and a Swiss-born mother on September 3, 1856 of whom both immigrated to the United States in the late 1840’s. on April 14, 1924, while growing up mostly in the country sides of Massachusetts, his grand-mother took care of him.

Louis loved to spend a lot of his time in Boston. During this time, he developed his fascination with build-ings and decided he would one day become a structural engineer/archi-tect. After graduating high school, Sullivan studied architecture brief-ly at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Learning that he could both graduate from high school a year early and pass up the first two years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sullivan entered MIT at the age of sixteen. After one year of study, he moved to Philadelphia and talked himself into a job with archi-tect Frank Furness.

In 1890 Sullivan was one of the ten architects from the Eastern U.S. that was chosen to build a major struc-ture for the “White City”, which was the World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893. Sullivan’s massive transportation building called “Golden Door” stood out as the only forward-looking design in the White City. Sullivan’s buildings were the only to receive extensive recogni-tion outside America, receiving three

medals from the Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs the following year.

Sullivan holds a legacy of being the first modernist. His forward-look-ing designs clearly anticipated some issues and solutions of Modernism. For example, the Carson Pirie Scott Store, designed by Louis Sullivan in 1899, marked the high point of the functional tradition in Chicago schools. It’s the foremost American example of the transformation of util-ity and structure into powerful archi-tecture.

One architect Louis Henry Sullivan worked for during the next six years was Dankmar Adler, who was so impressed with Louis Henry Sullivan’s drawing talent and his ability to devise architectural show that he made Louis Henry Sullivan a junior partner between 1881-1882. By 1883 Sullivan became a partner in their new firm called Adler & Sullivan. Adler& Sullivan designed approximately 180 buildings.

Louis Sullivan believed that the exterior of a building should reflect its interior structure and its functions. His designs and creations changed the future. His ideas sculpted the many architects ahead of him. Sullivan died with a successful life of many buildings to represent himself on April 14, 1924. Without this mag-nificent man, we would not have the conceptions of buildings that we do today.

By Sara Nguyen

Mark Twain Louis Sullivan

George Custer William Sherman and Custer attacked at Five Forks. The Confederates, led by Major General George Pickett, were overwhelmed and lost 5,200 men.

On hearing the news, Robert E. Lee decided to abandon Richmond and President Jefferson Davis, his family and government officials, was forced to flee from the city. By the end of the war Custer had been brevetted for brave and praiseworthy services on five occasions.

In January 1866, Custer’s commis-sion as major-general expired and he reverted to his 1862 rank of captain in the Regular Army. However, in July, 1866, he was commissioned lieutenant colonel and was also given the honorary rank of major general. He became second in command of the newly created Seventh Cavalry. Custer was posted to Fort Riley in Kansas and spent the winter of 1866-67 preparing his troops to take part in the Indian Wars. Custer’s remains were disinterred and given a military funeral at West Point after his death, June 25, 1876.

By: Britni Garza

Weather Forecast for the Week

Gilded Times

This political cartoon is portraying the Credit Mobilier.

This political cartoon is portraying how hard life was for child labor workers.

This political cartoon portrays the hatred America has towards Native Americans.

TODAY - Mostly sunny early. Clouds increase during the day. High: 67. Winds: NW 5-10.

FRIDAY- A few showers, isolated t-storm. Low: 42. Winds: NW 10.

SATURDAY- Mostly sunny, breezy & cool. High: 64. Winds: NW 15-20.

SUNDAY- Mostly clear. Low: 43. Winds: NW/W 10-15. ncipit in utem zzrit in henibh ecte di

MONDAY - Mostly sunny early. Clouds increase during the day. High: 69. Winds: NW 5-10.

TUESDAY- A few showers, isolated t-storm. Low: 42. Winds: NW 10.

WEDNESDAY- Mostly sunny, breezy & cool. High: 67. Winds: NW 15-20.