September 18: ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
ON THIS DAY IN 1913, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported, “Finding nothing in the Brooklyn baseball situation over which to rejoice, we step in fancy lightly across the bridges, or through the tube, and mentally shake the horny fin of Frank Chance in congratulation upon his at last getting the New York Americans out of last place, a position they have occupied since September 22, 1912. Chance had sense enough when he was signed last winter to manage the Yankees not to claim anything for the team this season, and you can believe us or not, he would have had to have taken it out in claiming. Chance started the campaign with a team that looked good on paper and looked punk on the field. It was necessary for him to start at the bottom and build, without one outstanding star around which to form a team. Not a member of the Yankee squad was a household word, so to speak, and every player on the list had to fight for his life. If he had remained in last place until the robins nested again it would have been no reproach to Chance, and, therefore, the fans have all the more reason to felicitate him upon getting as high as seventh, even if he stays on that rung of the ladder a paltry few minutes.”
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ON THIS DAY IN 1931, the Eagle reported, “WASHINGTON (AP) — Activities of some detective agencies in New York are being investigated by the Labor Department as a result of discoveries made during its inquiries into alien smuggling rings. Secretary [William] Doak said today that special agents of the department, working under Murray W. Garsson, Special Assistant Secretary of Labor, had found that certain agencies were promising aliens protection against deportation. These agencies, it was said, claimed to have influence with immigration officers. Some of the aliens described as having paid the agencies a fee were said to be legally in the United States. ‘It has been learned definitely,’ Doak said, ‘that aliens have been receiving from so-called detective agencies offers of protection from deportation and other things, mostly imaginary, with which it was said they might be threatened. In the specific cases thus far turned to the light the charge in each case was $25 as an initial payment.’”
Brooklyn Boro
View MoreNew York City’s most populous borough, Brooklyn, is home to nearly 2.6 million residents. If Brooklyn were an independent city it would be the fourth largest city in the United States. While Brooklyn has become the epitome of ‘cool and hip’ in recent years, for those that were born here, raised families here and improved communities over the years, Brooklyn has never been ‘uncool’.