May 19: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1860, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “The nomination of Mr. Lincoln by the Republicans is unquestionably a strong one. The party rejected Mr. Seward, because, while he was the most perfect representative of the party, he also has the greatest number of enemies to the most assailable points in his career. Experience has proved how much influence may attach to a popular catchword, and ‘honest Abe’ will doubtless be the burden of many a speech and song before election time. Mr. Lincoln, it will be recollected, was the nominee of the Republicans in opposition to Mr. Douglas in the contest for the United States senatorship, in which he was defeated. He however succeeded in carrying a majority of the popular vote.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1919, the Eagle reported, “The fifty-third annual report of the Brooklyn Children’s Aid Society has just been issued, and exhaustively covers the work of the organization during the year. The work during the influenza epidemic is compared with the society’s efforts during the infantile paralysis epidemic in 1916. Temporary shelter was given to many cases among the poor people of the borough during the epidemic, especially in cases where parents had fallen ill of the disease and where there were children in the family. Many children were ‘placed out’ or put in boarding places during the epidemic and thus saved from the ravages of the disease. Others have been sent to farms and country places where they can work and build up their little bodies.”
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