O ye dead Poets, who are living still
Immortal in your verse, though life be fled,
And ye, O living Poets, who are dead
Though ye are living, if neglect can kill,
Tell me if in the darkest hours of ill,
With drops of anguish falling fast and red
From the sharp crown of thorns upon your head,
Ye were not glad your errand to fulfil?
Yes; for the gift and ministry of Song
Have something in them so divinely sweet,
It can assuage the bitterness of wrong;
Not in the clamor of the crowded street,
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

In 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution after it barred Marian Anderson from performing an Easter concert at its Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. citing a “white artists only” restriction in the hall’s lease.

After coming to the conclusion that to remain as a member of the D.A.R. implied approval of that action, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt sent the following letter:

My dear Mrs. Henry M. Robert, Jr.:

I am afraid that I have never been a very useful member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, so I know it will make very little difference to you whether I resign, or whether I continue to be a member of your organization.

However, I am in complete disagreement with the attitude taken in refusing Constitution Hall to a great artist. You have set an example which seems to me unfortunate, and I feel obliged to send in to you my resignation. You had an opportunity to lead in an enlightened way and it seems to me that your organization has failed.

I realize that many people will not agree with me, but feeling as I do this seems to me the only proper procedure to follow.

Very sincerely yours,
Eleanor Roosevelt

On Easter Sunday 1939,  Marian Anderson gave her concert, but she performed at the Lincoln Memorial before seventy-five thousand people – black, white, old, and young.  She opened her concert with “America.” The operatic first half of the program concluded with “Ave Maria.” After a short intermission, she sang a selection of spirituals, and then with tears in her eyes, Marian Anderson closed the concert with “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”.

“The good people in this world are very far from being satisfied with each other and my arms are the best peacemaker.” ~ Samuel Colt (1852)

Sam Colt was a young seaman serving aboard the ship Corvo. He was intrigued by all thing mechanical and while at sea took note of the workings of the ship, particularly the capstan and the windlass, rotating machines used to raise ropes, cables, and hawsers. A spark ignited in Sam Colt’s young mind, and Sam quickly conceived the idea of a pistol with a revolving cylinder that would contain several bullets yet be fired through a single barrel. By the time that sea voyage ended, he had carved a prototype for his revolver out of wood.
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Sam patented his idea in 1836 and opened his first gun making plant at the age of 22 in Paterson, New Jersey with the help of a successful uncle. He soon developed & produced the pocket, belt, and holster model pistols along with two types of rifles. Among his first customers was John Coffee Hays of the Texas Rangers, who not only purchased Colt’s revolvers for himself but his men.

Sales for the early guns were slow, however, and in 1842 the factory closed.  When war with Mexico broke out in 1846 US Army Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker wanted a new, more powerful revolver. Colt returned to gun manufacturing, partnering with Eli Whitney Jr. who had a factory in Connecticut, to fill an order for one thousand guns.

The new six-shot revolver, the Model 1847, was named the “Walker”, and it was the largest handgun manufactured by Colt’s company. As Sam Colt remarked, “It would take a Texan to shoot it.”

When it came to the production of revolvers, Colt was a pioneer of interchangeable parts and the assembly line. By 1856, Colt was producing 150 weapons a day, and the reputation of his firearms as accurate, reliable, and of the finest workmanship & design had spread throughout the world. It is estimated that in its first 25 years of manufacturing, Colt’s company produced over 400,000 revolvers

Colt’s success brought him fame & fortune. He became one of the ten wealthiest businessmen in the US, a pillar of the Hartford community, and was awarded the honorary title of “Colonel” by the governor of Connecticut. He and his wife Elizabeth built Armsmear, their private mansion with greenhouses & formal gardens at the western edge of the armory property in Hartford, where it still stands today.

“God made some men (and women) small, and some men large, but Samuel Colt made them equal”

Malcolm Campbell was born in Chislehurst, Kent, England in 1885. He served in the Great War in the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment and in the British Royal Air Force where he achieved the rank of Captain, a nickname that would remain with him the rest of his life.

Campbell loved to fly and he loved to drive fast. He set his first land speed record on June 17, 1922, when he drove at 138.08 mph on the Saltburn Sands in Wales in a Sunbeam V12 with a 350 Horse Power engine, which he named “Bluebird”.

Two years later, he brought another “Bluebird”, also a Sunbeam which had 550 Horse Power to Pendine Sands, South Wales, which he drove at 146.2 MPH. A year later he cranked it up to 150.76 MPH, and on February 4, 1927, again at Pendine Sands Malcolm Campbell achieved 174.88 MPH. in another “Bluebird”, a Napier-Lion with 12 cylinders and 450 Horse Power.

IN 1932 Malcom Campbell came to the United States looking to run on the eight mile stretch of cement hard sands found at Daytona Beach.

He adjusted the placement of the radiator so that the cooling air did not enter the engine compartment, but rushed through the radiator only, and moved the transmission to one side and the driver sat alongside the propeller shaft, thus making the car even lower and less resistant to wind. A larger stabilising directional fin was added.

Even more power was found by substituting a Schneider Trophy supercharged Napier engine for the earlier Lion type. This gave 1,350 horsepower at 3600 rpm, compared with the 900 horse-power of the un-supercharged engine.

As a huge crowd lined the beach, Malcolm smiled for the cameras, before he roared the “Bluebird” along the Florida sands at an incredible 253.96 miles per hour.

Upon smashing the record Campbell pulled up and gives his wife a hug and a kiss.

AGREEMENT Between the United States of America and the Republic of Cuba for the lease (subject to terms to be agreed upon by the two Governments) to the United States of lands in Cuba for coaling and naval stations.

The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba, being desirous to execute fully the provisions of Article VII of the Act of Congress approved March second, 1901, and of Article VII of the Appendix to the Constitution of the Republic of Cuba promulgated on the 20th of May, 1902, which provide:

“ARTICLE VII. To enable the United States to maintain the independence of Cuba, and to protect the people thereof, as well as for its own defense, the Cuban Government will sell or lease to the United States the lands necessary for coaling or naval stations, at certain specified points, to be agreed upon with the President of the United States.”
have reached an agreement to that end, as follows:

ARTICLE I
The Republic of Cuba hereby leases to the United States, for the time required for the purposes of coaling and naval stations, the following described areas of land and water situated in the Island of Cuba:

In Guantanamo (see Hydrographic Office Chart 1857). From a point on the south coast, 4.37 nautical miles to the eastward of Windward Point Light House, a line running north (true) a distance of 4.25 nautical miles;
From the northern extremity of this line, a line running west (true), a distance of 5.87 nautical miles;
From the western extremity of this last line, a line running southwest (true) 3.31 nautical miles;
From the southwestern extremity of this last line, a line running south (true) to the seacoast.
This lease shall be subject to all the conditions named in Article II of this agreement…

ARTICLE II

The grant of the foregoing Article shall include the right to use and occupy the waters adjacent to said areas of land and water, and to improve and deepen the entrances thereto and the anchorages therein, and generally to do any and all things necessary to fit the premises for use as coaling or naval stations only, and for no other purpose.

Vessels engaged in the Cuban trade shall have free passage through the waters included within this grant.

ARTICLE III

While on the one hand the United States recognizes the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba over the above described areas of land and water, on the other hand the Republic of Cuba consents that during the period of the occupation by the United States of said areas under the terms of this agreement the United States shall exercise complete jurisdiction and control over and within said areas with the right to acquire (under conditions to be hereafter agreed upon by the two Governments) for the public purposes of the United States any land or other property therein by purchase or by exercise of eminent domain with full compensation to the owners thereof.

Done in duplicate at Habana, and signed by the President of the
Republic of Cuba this sixteenth day of February, 1903.
T. ESTRADA PALMA

Signed by the President of the United States the twenty-third of February, 1903.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT