July 20: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1842, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle quoted the Barre Gazette: “The following is said to be an approved method of killing fleas: Place the animal on a smooth board and pen him in with a circular hedge of shoemaker’s wax, then as soon as he becomes quiet, commence reading to him the doings of Congress during the present session, and in five minutes he will burst with indignation.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1911, the Eagle reported, “By a vote of ten to six the Board of Estimate today repudiated the agreement reached between the members of the McAneny Committee and the Interborough Rapid Transit Company for the operation of the Manhattan subways on the East Side and above Fifty-ninth street. By a vote of eleven to five the board then accepted the alternative plan of the McAneny Committee, awarding to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company the amplified city system of subways. The alignment of Controller William A. Prendergast with Mayor William J. Gaynor and John Purroy Mitchel, president of the Board of Alderman, defeated the Interborough. Immediately after the defeat of the Interborough Company, Chairman George McAneny pressed the alternative referring to the Brooklyn company to the front. He secured the necessary support and the passage of his plan. Mayor Gaynor deferred from this second action of the board. He first advised against the action and, when his advice was unheeded, declared solemnly that the City of New York had conferred upon him, as mayor, a separate and independent power of rejection or acquiescence over the routes of the B.R.T. plan.”
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