It happened inNew Jersey
Archived article from Oct 29, 1999
These little-known facts of New Jersey history were uncovered by Marc Mappen, associate dean of University College-New Brunswick. His commentaries can be heard on "New Jerseytimes," a radio program produced by Rutgers' Office of Television and Radio and broadcast on stations throughout the state.
The great canary funeral In Newark's teeming Little Italy neighborhood in the year 1920 there lived an immigrant cobbler named Emidio Russomano, who had a pet canary named Jimmy.
As with all earthly creatures, Jimmy died -- reportedly after choking on a watermelon seed.
If Emidio had buried Jimmy's little corpse in the backyard or put it out with the trash, the story would have ended here. But, instead, Emidio decided to make a big thing of Jimmy's demise.
In his shoe-repair shop, Emidio set out Jimmy in a tiny coffin surrounded by flowers, candles and a crucifix. Somber music came from a phonograph. After the viewing, the coffin was put in a hearse, and Jimmy was taken away to his final resting place while a 15-piece band followed behind playing funeral dirges. The whole event cost $200.
An estimated 10,000 people lined the streets to watch the procession. Reporters and photographers covered the event. According to newspaper accounts, there was much giggling from the mourners.
This episode, recounted in Peter Immerso's 1997 book, "Newark's Little Italy," is considered one of the most elaborate pet funerals of all time and has been so listed by the Guinness Records people. But maybe there was a deeper meaning to it all than just a spectacular farewell to a beloved pet.
The year 1920 was at the tail end of a long period of world mortality. Some 50 million people died on the battlefields of the First World War and in the influenza epidemic that swept the world at the war's end. It is likely that every person in Newark had lost a friend or relative.
Maybe the great canary funeral was seething with satire. The cobbler Emidio Russomano and the people of Newark were showing that they could laugh at death -- even though, as they knew and we know, death always wins in the end.
The ghost of Barnegat Bay Before he became rich and famous by writing "The Red Badge of Courage," New Jersey author Stephen Crane eked out a few dollars as a free-lance writer.
One of his stories was a Jersey Shore ghost tale published in a New York newspaper. Great literature it's not, but nice and creepy it is.
Crane tells of the specter of a woman in white who haunts the beach near Barnegat Bay. In life, she was a beautiful young maiden in love with a hand-some sea captain. But she quarreled with him, and he departed on a long ocean voyage to Buenos Aires. She realized her mistake and spent mournful days, weeks and months on the beach, waiting for a glimpse of her beloved's ship.
Then, one night, a ferocious storm struck the coast. The maiden could see a sailing ship breaking up under the lashing of the waves. Dead bodies washed up on the shore. One of those corpses was taken up by a great wave and dashed at her feet.
It was her dead sea captain, finally returned from his voyage.
Now, says Crane, if you walk along that lonely stretch of the shore at night, you will pass the ruins of her cottage. You will get the dreaded sense that something is behind you. Do not turn around. For if you do, you will see the fearful ghost of the young lady. Crane described her as a "moaning, mourning thing of the mist," with gleaming eyes and disheveled hair.
She will ask if you know where her lover is, and if you cannot answer, you will be found the next day, dead on the shore.
So if you're planning to go on vacation to the Jersey Shore and are tempted to take a walk on the beach late at night, it might be better to take in a movie.
The attack of the U-boats On January 25, 1942, less than two months after Pearl Harbor, a Nazi submarine attacked a tanker just off Wildwood, N.J. The thunderous explosion was heard as far away as Atlantic City.
continued...
Page 1 of 2
Next >
|
