1892

Society

1892. President Harrison loses his bid for reelection. Grover Cleveland succeeds him.

1892. Homestead, Pa., steel workers strike the Carnegie-Phipps mill in June and are refused a union contract by managing head Henry Clay Frick who calls in Pinkerton guards to suppress the strike. Men are shot on both sides. Frick himself is shot and stabbed by Polish-American anarchist Alexander Berkman, but recovers. Union organizers are dismissed and the men go back to working their 12-hour shifts after nearly 5 months of work stoppage.

1892. A presidential proclamation opens some 3 million acres of former Arapaho and Cheyenne lands in Oklahoma to settlement.

1892. Economic depression begins in the U.S. but the country has 4,000 millionaires, up from fewer than 20 in 1840.

1892. A gasoline buggy produced at Springfield, Mass., by Charles and Franklin Duryea may be the first U.S. motor car.

1892. French atuo makers Rene Panhard and E.C. Levassor produce the first motorcar to be equipped with pneumatic tires.

1892. The American School of Osteopathy is founded at Kirksville, Mo., by Andrew T. Still. His practice eschews use of drugs. It will spread quickly, and most states will eventually accord it legal recognition equivalent to that of orthodox medical practice.

1892. A "pledge of allegiance" for U.S. school children to recite October 12 in commemoration of the discovery of America 400 years ago is written by former clergyman Francis Bellamy.

1892. James John "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, 26, scores a knockout in the 21st round September 7 at New Orleans to take the heavyweight title from the "Boston Strong Boy" John L. Sullivan in the first title-match prizefight to be fought with padded gloves.

1892. The Dalton gang from Oklahoma Territory arrives at Coffeyville, Kan., the morning of October 5 intending to rob two banks, but the aroused townspeople meet the gang with heavy gunfire. Former train robbers Robert Dalton and his brother Grattan fall dead.

1892. The Sierra Club is founded by John Muir and others to protect America's natural environment.

1892. The New York legislature creates Adirondack Park, setting aside the nation's largest forest reserve.

1892. The Populist party polls more than a million votes in the U.S. presidential election as farmers register their protest against the railroads and against farm machine makers.

1892. The first successful U.S. gasoline tractor is produced by Waterloo, Iowa, farmer John Froelich.

1892. Famine cripples Russia, but by late January some 3 billion barrels of U.S. flour are enroute to relieve the starvation that is killing millions.

1892. New York's immigrant receiving station moves to Ellis Island.

Literature

"Ward No. 6." Anton Chekhov. Russian. 1892. Story. Gradual disintegration of the head of a mental hospital. Neglects the miserable condition of his patients. Withdraws into private study, thought, alcohol. Finally unable to communicate with anyone. Unscrupulous assistant has him committed and he experiences the miserable treatment for which he has been responsible. Realization of his part in the horror comes just before his death.

The Weavers. Gerhart Hauptmann. German. 1892. Play. Silesian weavers' rebellion in 1844. Their ghastly conditions and economic plight. One version is in dialect; the other version in High German. The weavers are the collective hero.

Barrack-Room Ballads. Rudyard Kipling. British. 1892. Poetry. Celebrates the British soldier and army life thorughout the Empire. Ballad meters. Cockney diction.

"Fuzzy Wuzzy." Rudyard Kipling. British. 1892. Poem. Celebrates the bushy-haired warriors of Sudan who fought Gordon and Kitchener.

The Master Builder. Henrik Ibsen. Norwegian. 1892. Play. Spirit of the artist trying to surpass its limitations. Conflict of one's needs and the needs of others. Fear of being crushed by a new generation of architects as he crushed builders before himn. Tries to build a castle in the air but falls to his death.

Pelleas et Melisande. Maurice Maeterlinck. Belgian. 1892. Play. Girl found wandering in the forest is married to her rescuer, but she falls in love with his brother.

"Gunga Din." Rudyard Kipling. British. 1892. Poem. In praise of a Hindu water-carrier for a British Indian regiment.

Lady Windermere's Fan. Oscar Wilde. British. 1892. Play. Lady W's mother saves her from the rash step of running away with Lord Darlington.

In the Midst of life. Ambrose Bierce. American. 1892. Stories (26). Life subject to accident, coicidence. Twist endings.