Mariachi is a style of Mexican music that originated in the State of Jalisco, in Western Mexico. The story is that in 1907 General Porfirio Diaz ordered a mariachi band to play for visiting U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root, and the general told them to wear charro suits, which became the traditional dress of the mariachi bands. After the Revolution of 1910 mariachi music became more and more identified with Mexican nationalism and patriotism.
With his painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, the Spanish painter Pablo Picasso shocks the Paris art scene in 1907. The painting was presented on an eight foot square canvas at his studio. The painter Derain said “One day we shall find Pablo has hanged himself behind his great canvas.” Matisse was outraged by the painting because he thought it was a joke, an attempt to make fun of the Fauvists and of his paintings in particular. You can read more about this revolutionary work of art at Wikipedia.
January, 1907. At a lavish ceremony, Mohammed Ali Mirza is crowned Shah of Persia in the Royal Palace of Tehran.
February 13, 1907. Suffragettes storm the Houses of Parliament in London to hand a petition to the British government asking them to extend the right to vote to women. Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WPSU), and her four daughters are leaders in the women’s suffrage movement in Britain.
March 22, 1907. Indian-born lawyer Mohandas Ghandi begins protest movement in South Africa against the Transvaal government’s Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance Bill, a law which would require all Indian resident in South Africa register with the police and get a certificate that would have to be carried with them at all times.
June 1907. The Lumiere brothers in Paris, France claim a breakthrough in developing color photography.
June, 1907. In Russia, the Czar dissolves the second Duma or parliament, accusing some representatives of treason.
June-October, 1907. The Second Hague Peace Conference meets to try to limit arms and establish rules for just warfare.
July 19, 1907. Riots break out in Seoul, Korea when the Japanese, who call Korea their “Protectorate”, force Korean Emperor Gojong to give up his imperial authority and appoint the Crown Prince as regent. The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907, signed on July 24, 1907, forces Korea and its government to obey the appointed Japanese resident general.
July 29, 1907. Boer War veteran Sir Robert Baden-Powell officially sets up the Boy Scout organization in London for the purpose of introducing British boys to the disciplines and skill that he learned in the army.
September 6, 1907. The British ocean liner, Lusitania, makes her maiden voyage from Ireland to New Jersey, the fastest ever crossing of the Atlantic in five days and fifty-four minutes.
September 26, 1907. New Zealand becomes an independent Dominion within the British Empire. In 1893, while still under British rule, New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 1907 was awarded to Rudyard Kipling “in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author.”
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
The Shepherd of the Hills is a book written in 1907 by author Harold Bell Wright. The setting is the Ozark mountains of Missouri, and the book was one of those that appeared on a list of required reading for my Advanced Reading Survey class in college. It’s fairly old-fashioned and sentimental, but not a bad read.
Songs of a Sourdough is a book of poetry published in 1907 by Canadian poet Robert W. Service. Two particularly popular ballads in the collection are “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and “The Cremation of Sam McGee.” (Click on the title to either poem to read or listen to the story.)
I’ve decided that on Mondays I’m going to revisit the books I read for a course in college called Advanced Reading Survey, taught by the eminent scholar and lovable professor, Dr. Huff. I’m not going to re-read all the books and poems I read for that course, probably more than fifty, but I am going to post to Semicolon the entries in the reading journal that I was required to keep for that class because I think that my entries on these works of literature may be of interest to readers here and because I’m afraid that the thirty year old spiral notebook in which I wrote these entries may fall apart ere long. I may offer my more mature perspective on the books, too, if I remember enough about them to do so.
Author Note:
Methodist preacher and theologian E. Stanley Jones went to India as a missionary in 1907. He began by preaching to the lower caste Indians, the Dalits, but found his mission as he began to give talks and seminars for the more educated classes. He subsequently became friends with poet Rabindranath Tagore and with Hindu leader Mohandas Gandhi.
Jones sympathized with the burgeoning Indian independence movement. He saw Christianity growing among the Indian people, but it was a Christianity that leaned toward syncretism, a philosophy Jones was sometimes accused of holding himself. However, Jones maintained that he held firmly to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, especially to the person and work of Christ. “I don’t hold my faith,” he said; “my faith holds me. It’s Christ or nothing, and you can’t live on nothing. I’ve been a very ordinary man doing extraordinary things because I was linked up with grace.” (TIME magazine, January 1964)
Mr. Jones wrote many books and articles, but his most popular book, The Christ of the Indian Road, was published in 1925. The book gives an account of of Jones’s work among the Indian people and his presentation of the gospel to them.
Quotations:
Life is bigger than processes and overflows them.
A very severe criticism is beating upon this whole question of missions from many angles and sources. Personally, I welcome it. If what we are doing is real it will shine all the more. If it isn’t real, the sooner we find it out the better.
If those who have not the spirit of Jesus are none of his, no matter what outward symbols they possess, then conversely those who have the spirit of Jesus are his, no matter what outward symbols they possess.
The Christ of the Indian Road by E. Stanley Jones is one of the books listed in the book 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century by William J. Peterson and Randy Peterson. SInce I’m planing a detailed study of the twentieth century sometime in the next couple of years, I think this book would be an excellent resource. In the meantime, here’s the list of 100 books. Of the 100, I’ve read 35 or so, dabbled in a few more. It looks like a good list of what influenced evangelical Christianity, in particular, for better or for worse.
Music: ODE TO JOY, from Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony #9.
Theme: “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” I Corinthians :10
Dr. Van Dyke was a professor of English literature at Princeton University, a lecturer at the University of Paris, Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg appointed by President Wilson, and a Presbyterian clergyman. He wrote the verses to Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee intentionally to be set to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.
Henry van Dyke: “These verses are simple expressions of common Christian feelings and desires in this present time—hymns of today that may be sung together by people who know the thought of the age, and are not afraid that any truth of science will destroy religion, or any revolution on earth over throw the kingdom of heaven. Therefore this is a hymn of trust and joy and hope.”
Brenda: “I had this played at my wedding. It makes me happy as it seems a preview of the Heavenly Host singing.”
Secret Notebooks: “When I was a child in Rhode Island, attending Catholic services with my family every Sunday, we often filed out of our pews to this hymn, following the priest and altar boys in a slow, crowded shuffle to the double doors which had been thrown open to the sun and air. It remains one of my clearest childhood memories, and I can hear the voices of both my mother and my father singing when I recall it.”
Chris: “Beethoven’s 9th owns all other melodies ever composed or ever to be composed.”
Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee, opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!
All Thy works with joy surround Thee, earth and heaven reflect Thy rays,
Stars and angels sing around Thee, center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Singing bird and flowing fountain call us to rejoice in Thee.
Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blessed,
Wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, all who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.
Mortals, join the happy chorus, which the morning stars began;
Father love is reigning o’er us, brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us Sunward in the triumph song of life.
Welsh Title: Arglwydd arwain trwy’r Anialwch
Original (English)Title: Strength to Pass Through the Wilderness
Lyrics: Williams Williams, 1775. Translated to English by Peter Williams (no relation to William).
Music: CWM RHONDDA by John Hughes, 1907.
Theme: By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. Exodus 13:21-22.
Totally cool rendition of CWM RHONDDA by a Welsh Men’s choir:
*William Williams, nicknamed “The Sweet Singer of Wales,” was a medical student when he came under the influence and preaching of evangelist Howell Harris. Williams eventually left medical school and became an evangelist himself and writer of hymns. He wrote over 800 hymns, mostly in the Welsh language.
*Welsh composer John Hughes composed the beloved tune CWM RHONDDA in 1907 for the annual Baptist Cymnfa Ganu (singing festival) at the Capel Rhondda, Potypridd, Wales.
*Three women missionaries in China are said to have sung this hymn as bandits were beating on their door. God was their Strong Deliverer.
*The hymn was sung in Flanders in the trenches by the Welsh soldiers, and it was so melodious that the German soldiers took it up and sang along.
*Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah has been translated into over seventy-five different languages.
*The Welsh to this day sing Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah at outdoor sporting events, especially rugby matches.
Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
[or Guide me, O Thou great Redeemer…]
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
Feed me till I want no more;
Feed me till I want no more.
Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield;
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield.
Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st Thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold:
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer,
Sin, and Satan and the grave,
Sin, and Satan and the grave.
When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee;
I will ever give to Thee.
Musing on my habitation,
Musing on my heav’nly home,
Fills my soul with holy longings:
Come, my Jesus, quickly come;
Vanity is all I see;
Lord, I long to be with Thee!
Lord, I long to be with Thee!
This is the story of how a middle-aged spinster lost her mind, deserted her domestic gods in the city, took a furnished house for the summer out of town, and found herself involved in one of those mysterious crimes that keep our newspapers and detective agencies happy and prosperous. For twenty years I had been perfectly comfortable; for twenty years I had had the window boxes filled in the spring, the carpets lifted, the awnings put up, and the furniture covered with brown linen; for as many summers I had said good-bye to my friends, and, after watching the perspiring hegira, had settled down to a delicious quiet in town, where the mail comes three times a day and the water supply does not depend on a tank on the roof.
And then the madness seized me.
Isn’t that a delicious beginning for a murder mystery? I don’t know why it’s so appealing, but the thought of a middle-aged spinster gone mad, her madness taking the form of renting a house in the country, is amusing and inviting. And of course, such a lapse in sanity can only lead to crime, murder, and mayhem.
Unfortunately, the rest of this 1907 mystery by Mary Roberts Rinehart does not move along quite so swimmingly. I liked the narrator, Miss Innes, and her companion, Liddy, but the rest of the characters were rather flat and one-dimensional. The plot is involved, with more than one villain, and more than one sub-plot, combining together to keep the reader guessing. But I found that three-fourths of the way through the book I didn’t really care whodunnit.
The writing is fun and feels more like the 1920’s than 1907. Rich people near the East Coast drive cars and have telephones and hire servants and hang out at The Club. I sometimes felt as if I were reading an early Americanized Agatha Christie, but where were the quirky characters with such strong motivations to crime? The novel ambles along, people die, but no one in the police department insists on answers to basic questions. The suspects (because they’re rich?) are free to refuse to tell the police detective whatever information they feel disinclined to share—with impunity. Maybe the police were more patient early last century than they are now.
As an historical exhibit in the history of the detective novel, I can see that The Circular Staircase would be of interest to those studying the genre. As amusement for a rainy day, it falls short. But there is that wonderful opening paragraph . . .
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