The Washington Post - 24.02.2020

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entrepreneurs had b een touring around the country for two years. That s ummer, h e brought the whale to the nation’s c apital. The rather tattered cetacean s at o n a set of r ail cars at t he Washington waterfront. Newspaper ads asked: “ Have you seen t he Whale?” Odlum must have w anted h is own w hale, h is own show, his own fame. He c ertainly needed his own m oney. I can see how he would have turned t o Boyton for advice. In O ctober, Boyton sent O dlum a letter: “The man to work a jump from the E ast River Bridge is Richard K. Fox; write him. I will see h im again and will speak to him.” The East River Bridge was t he original n ame for the Brooklyn Bridge. Fox w as the p ublisher o f the Police Gazette, a tabloid, and a promoter of prize fights. He would know the “sporting m en” of New York. He w ould know how to make a scheme pay. In tomorrow’s column: The fateful l eap. [email protected] Twitter: @johnkelly

 For previous columns, visit washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.

became a one-man c ircus attraction, inviting paying customers to watch him demonstrate the suit and p ull wonders from a little v essel called Baby Mine. This was a tin supply boat — not q uite three feet l ong — Boyton towed behind the suit. Boyton listed its contents as: “signal rockets, thermometer, b arometer, chronometer, maps, charts, revolver, s hotgun, ammunition, hatchet, rubber cement and patch cloth, bowie knife, small spirit stove, notebook, pen a nd ink, cup, knife, fork, spoon, coffee kettle, frying pan, quinine, cigars, brandy ( for m edicinal purposes only), a few bottles of S t. Jacobs Oil, and ten days provisions.” St. Jacobs Oil? It w as a liniment Boyton was paid t o promote. Its main ingredient w as c hloroform. It a ppears that Boyton and Odlum met in 1 879 when the m an in the r ubber suit was d oing his show on the Potomac. Odlum was gaining his o wn notoriety, competing i n swimming r aces and b etting p eople he could stay underwater l onger than a nyone else. T he two would occasionally perform together. In 1 882, B oyton purchased a 60-foot-long stuffed whale t hat

propel himself through the w ater like a floating Michelin Man. Attach a little sail to your legs, and y ou’d b ecome a human s loop. Boyton planned t o publicize the s uit b y boarding a steamer bound for E urope — the Q ueen — and j umping off after i t had sailed few hundred miles from New York Harbor. T he captain quashed that, b ut d uring the course of the v oyage, B oyton convinced him of t he suit’s v alue. The captain allowed him t o leave the s hip a s it neared Ireland. Boyton paddled ashore i n the teeth of a storm. Soon, Merriman was advertising the rubber suit i n U.S. newspapers. I t cost $50. Travelers could also r ent o ne for their voyage. It w as as if today’s nervous airline p assengers could lease parachutes. The late 1 9th century was the age of Buffalo Bill and P.T. Barnum. Boyton was a kindred spirit. He d emonstrated the s uit to Queen Victoria. He c rossed the E nglish C hannel i n it and floated d own the R hine. Back in t he United S tates, he traveled t he Mississippi and Missouri, paddled t he Great Lakes on his back, and s hot the rapids o n the James River. He

enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 1 5. After h is service, he hired himself o ut to foreign navies. In 1874, Boyton was in Atlantic City, where h e oversaw the lifesaving service for t he beach. That w as the y ear that Boyton, in the w ords of h is publicity materials, “commenced his peculiarly romantic career in a rubber s uit.” The suit — Patent No. 128,971 — was the i nvention of a n Iowan named C.S. Merriman. Made o f vulcanized rubber, it r esembled a bulky w et s uit a nd could be inflated like a life preserver. Here’s h ow a contemporary described it: “[The suit w as] m ade in two parts, joined a t the waist b y a round iron band, o ver which t he rubber-cloth was so well secured as to be quite w atertight. T he head was c overed by a hood, concealing all but the e yes, mouth and n ose. In t he back of the headpiece, there was an air- chamber, w hich, when filled, gave the v oyager a very comfortable pillow. A long the s ides were two more large air-chambers, and still a couple below, t o support the legs.” By floating on his b ack and wielding a paddle, a person could

Paul Boyton said
he t raveled the
world t o publicize
the l ifesaving
qualities o f his
amazing r ubber
suit. Along the
way, h e was sure to
publicize the
amazing Paul
Boyton. Like any
good showman, B oyton was e ager
to draw a crowd a nd m ake a buck.
Catherine Odlum was
co nvinced he’d d rawn in her s on,
Bob Odlum, t hen k illed him.
As I wrote in y esterday’s
column, “ Prof.” B ob Odlum was a
Washington s wimming instructor
who in 1878 o pened a n indoor
pool on E Street N W called the
Natatorium. A financial f ailure,
the Natatorium closed its doors in

Three years later, Odlum
became the first person to jump
from the B rooklyn Bridge, e gged
on, his m other insisted, by
Boyton.
Who w as Paul B oyton and how
did h e cross paths w ith t he ill-
fated O dlum?
Boyton — he was f orever
grousing that j ournalists
misspelled his name “Boynton” —
w as born i n Ireland in 1 848 a nd
grew up in Pennsylvania. He

The wild exploits of Paul Boyton, the showman in the rubber suit

John
Kelly's

Washington

results from Feb. 23

district Day/Dc-3: 9-6-0 Dc-4: 8-9-0-2 Dc-5: 9-3-0-2-9 Night/Dc-3 (Sat.): 7-5-4 Dc-3 (Sun.): 2-8-5 Dc-4 (Sat.): 7-0-2-3 Dc-4 (Sun.): 3-2-8-3 Dc-5 (Sat.): 7-5-6-9-3 Dc-5 (Sun.): 0-2-8-9-4

maryland Mid-Day Pick 3: 0-6-8 Mid-Day Pick 4: 8-3-9-7 Night/Pick 3 (Sat.): 5-6-9 Pick 3 (Sun.): 1-0-4 Pick 4 (Sat.): 6-6-3-9 Pick 4 (Sun.): 6-5-3-9 Match 5 (Sat.): 2-16-20-24-39 *37 Match 5 (Sun.): 7-9-24-34-38 *22 5 card cash: 10S-9S-5D-2D-7S

Virginia Day/Pick-3: 9-8-9 Pick-4: 3-7-1-5 cash-5: 5-7-11-28-29 Night/Pick-3 (Sat.): 0-6-2 Pick-3 (Sun.): 0-5-2 Pick-4 (Sat.): 8-0-4-2 Pick-4 (Sun.): 3-9-4-8 cash-5 (Sat.): 10-11-12-17-19 cash-5 (Sun.): 8-15-16-31-34 Bank a Million: 13-17-19-28-32-37 * 6

multi-state games Powerball: 25-37-39-61-62 **11 Power Play: 3 cash 4 Life:5-26-32-46-50 ¶2 *Bonus Ball **Powerball ¶ cash Ball

For late drawings and other results, check washingtonpost.com/local/lottery

lotteries

tHe district

Victims in double homicide identified

Two teenagers h ave been identified as t he victims i n a double homicide S aturday in the Brightwood neighborhood. And on Sunday, police say a man was killed in a shooting in Ivy City. Police said Wilfredo To rres, 17, and Jaime Zelaya, 1 6, were shot about 5 p.m. i nside a four-story brick apartment building in the 6000 block of 13th S treet NW. Zelaya l ived there. To rres lived a block away. A woman w as also wounded. Her injuries were not life-threatening, police said. Police said t hey went to the building after receiving reports of gunshots. They f ound To rres and Zelaya i n a hallway with multiple gunshot wounds. To rres was pronounced dead at the s cene. Z elaya was taken to a hospital, w here he d ied. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham said S aturday t hat the victims m ay h ave been targeted, but n o motive was given. Meanwhile, police said one man was killed and two others wounded Sunday in a shooting in the 2 00 block o f Okie Street NE. — M ichael E. Ruane, Paul Duggan and M artin Weil

maryland

Man struck and killed in Montgomery County

A pedestrian w as hit b y a car and k illed Saturday night in Montgomery County, p olice said. The man died a t the scene o f the i ncident, at New Hampshire Avenue a nd Lockwood Drive in the White Oak area, p olice said. He w as hit shortly after 9 p.m., according to police. T hey said the driver r emained a t the s cene. — M artin Weil

Virginia

Two armed robberies reported in Arlington

Two armed robberies occurred Friday at g arages in the Pentagon City area of Arlington. Police said they appeared to be the latest i n a series of such i ncidents in that area. In t he first case, p olice said the victim was sitting i n his parked car i n a garage i n the 1100 block o f South Hayes Street a bout 10:25 p.m. when a robber with a gun k nocked o n his window. T he victim got out and w as assaulted. The victim screamed and the robber r an, police said. They s aid the v ictim’s i njuries were minor. Police said a nother victim was carjacked in a garage in the 9 00 block o f Army Navy Drive. The robber c onfronted the victim, showed a gun a nd d emanded the victim’s k eys. He f led, apparently in the victim’s c ar, police said. Officers chased t he vehicle, b ut it was d riven at “extreme s peed” and w as last seen entering the District, police said. Police described the suspect in that incident a s a black m an in his mid-20s, about 6 feet t all and 170 pounds with short black hair and l ight f acial h air. He w ore a black jacket, dark jeans a nd dark sneakers, police said. — M artin Weil

local digest

gomery), the bill sponsor, has said that the legislation is needed to keep Maryland competitive. She said Maryland lags behind neigh- boring states in advancing sports betting because the issue has to go before voters during election years. The constitutional amendment approved in 2008 that allowed casinos in Maryland in- cluded a provision that such ex- pansions required voter approv- al. Nearly 60 percent of voters were in favor of the referendum. Revenue from expanded gambling is one option the legislature is considering to help pay for the expensive, once-in-a-generation public school overhaul recom- mended by the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Ed- ucation, also known as the Kir- wan Commission. According to the poll, a large majority of residents said they have read or heard “nothing at all” about the commission or its recommendations, which include an expansion of prekindergarten, higher salaries for teachers and

more vocational and job training. Almost all of the residents said they agreed that public schools should offer more job and vocational training programs and that teachers’ salaries are too low. While a large majority of residents (69 percent) said they don’t think public schools receive enough money from the state, nearly as many (64 percent) also said they don’t t hink local schools use the money they get effectively. Fewer than 1 in 3 people said they would support higher taxes if it resulted in additional or better state government services. “There is a high level of support for education. And then you see where the rub is. Marylanders feel like they are taxed too much,” Kromer said. “When asked about more services and more taxes, you see the plurality saying keep everything the same.” The poll, which was taken be- tween Feb. 13 and 18, surveyed 713 people. It has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points. [email protected]

BY OVETTA WIGGINS

As Maryland lawmakers con-
sider legislation to permit sports
betting — and weigh whether to
use the resulting tax revenue for
K-12 education — a new poll finds
residents are deeply divided over
whether such gambling should be
legalized.
Forty-nine percent of Mary-
land residents oppose expanding
gambling to allow sports betting
at race tracks, casinos or stadi-
ums, according to a Goucher Col-
lege poll released Monday. Forty-
five percent support legalizing it.
Meanwhile, 47 percent of re-
spondents said they support on-
line sports betting and 43 percent
oppose it.
Mileah Kromer, the director of
the Sarah T. Hughes Field Politics
Center at Goucher, said the divi-

sion was similar to that seen in previous polls. She said it is not clear whether respondents are aware that lawmakers are dis- cussing using gambling proceeds to steer more money to public schools. “They are divided now,” Kromer said. “But my guess is that because public education is important to people, you’d see different numbers if they made that connection.” For weeks, the Senate Budget and Ta xation Committee has been hammering out details of sports betting legislation, including deciding which venues should be eligible to receive a license. Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder began wooing state and local lawmakers last month, offering the possibility of the team staying in Maryland if

he is allowed to offer gambling. State lawmakers are headed toward passing legislation that would allow sports betting. But under current law, voters would have final say, and would have to approve the legislation in a ballot referendum in November for it to take effect. The General Assembly is also debating whether to ask voters to take themselves out of the pro- cess of deciding whether the state expands gambling in the future. That bill, which requires a constitutional amendment, has passed in the Senate and is await- ing action in the House. Under the measure, the General Assem- bly would have the authority to decide whether to allow new forms of gambling, without put- ting that decision on the ballot. Sen. Nancy J. King (D-Mont-

maryland

Poll: Residents split on sports betting

BY HANNAH NATANSON

Abraham Lincoln couldn’t stop
thinking about the oak tree.
It was April 1865, a few days
before the end of the Civil War —
and a little more than a week be-
fore Lincoln would die by an assas-
sin’s bullet at Ford’s Theatre. The
16th president, his wife and a few
friends were visiting Petersburg,
Va., the site of months of warfare
that left tens of thousands dead
and devastated the countryside.
Lincoln first spotted the oak —
standing alone at the edge of the
city — on the trip out. Before his
return to Washington, he demand-
ed that the entire party disembark
and look at t he “magnificent speci-
men of the stately grandeur of the
forest,” as one observer remem-
bered it.
“So there he is, admiring this
one tree that survived the battle of
Petersburg,” s aid James Ta ckach, a
professor at Roger Williams Uni-
versity. “And why? Was he saying
nature endures even among the
follies of man? Or was he saying,
‘gee, we’ve got to protect those
trees, too many have been lost’?”
Lincoln never wrote about the
experience, but Ta ckach thinks he
knows the answer: “I can’t h elp but
pick the latter: He knew the coun-
try was going to have to heal envi-
ronmentally.”
It is “eminently fair” to label
Lincoln the nation’s first “green
president,” said Ta ckach, the au-
thor of “Lincoln and the Natural
Environment,” which explores the
famous president’s relationship
with nature. While in office, Lin-
coln enacted several pieces of legis-
lation — including the Yosemite
Grant Act, which set aside thou-
sands of acres of California forest
— that laid the groundwork for
future U.S. efforts to preserve, pro-
tect and study the environment,
historians said. The Yosemite Act
in particular proved crucial, help-
ing inspire Theodore Roosevelt to
expand America’s national parks
system.
Lincoln was spurred to act by
the massive destruction inflicted
on the American landscape by the
Civil War; by his own love for na-
ture; and by early warnings from
some authors and politicians that
human activity could damage the
natural world, Ta ckach said. He
was probably the first U.S. presi-
dent to face these kinds of reports,

according to historian Vernon Bur- ton. “Noted writers start to write about deforestation, over-hunting, certain species being wiped out, and you see Lincoln learning from that [and] trying to do something about it,” said Burton, a Clemson University professor of history and author of “The Age of Lincoln.” “ He becomes aware of that; he’s trying to do something about it when he dies.” Lincoln’s l ove affair with nature began during his childhood — spent in a dirt-floor log cabin in “extremely rural” countryside, according to Burton. The future president milked cows, cleaned out barns and forked away manure, gaining an intimate knowledge of, and appreciation for, the natural world, Burton said. That w orld changed dramatical- ly during Lincoln’s lifetime as the United States underwent rapid in- dustrialization, transitioning from an agricultural society to an urban one. When Lincoln was born in 1809, 90 percent of Americans lived on f arms, Ta ckach said. By the end of the 19th century, o nly a third did. It was a change Lincoln helped fuel. Lincoln was an avid supporter of “internal improvements”: railroad building, canal construction and other infrastructure projects, according to Ta ckach. The Whigs, Lincoln’s first political party, saw internal improvements as the key- stone of their policy platform. These kinds of projects un- doubtedly had a negative effect on the environment, Ta ckach said. Allen Guelzo, a Princeton Uni- versity historian who has written several books about the president, said he disagreed with the idea that Lincoln was environmentally minded. Guelzo noted that Lincoln was “ardent” on the subject of the Transcontinental Railroad, which he helped build by passing the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862. “Envi- ronmentally speaking, a disaster,” Guelzo said. Even worse, Guelzo said, Lin- coln signed into law the Home- stead Act of 1862, which allowed any U.S. citizen who had not taken up arms against the Union to claim a 160-acre plot of western land for a small fee. That, too, was an “environmental fiasco,” according to Guelzo.

“That was the single biggest privatization of public resources in American history,” Guelzo said. “I think Lincoln was concerned with the environment largely in terms of what could be extracted from it.” But Lincoln was genuinely pained by the Civil War’s devastat- ing impact on the countryside, Ta ckach said. Throughout the four years of bitter conflict, soldiers on both sides cut down trees, burned fields and polluted bodies of water. “I believe it was during the Civil War, when he realized the damage being done to the environment, that he became a greener president,” T ackach said. Even before the war, Americans were publishing poetry, books and articles decrying man-made changes to nature, especially deforestation. Newspaper editor William Cul- len Bryant wrote an editorial in the 1840s calling on New York City to set aside green space for the public, a plea that ultimately led to the creation of Central Park. Henry David Thoreau penned poems and essays praising the wildness of nature and lamenting the h yper-civilization of towns. And in 1864, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, George Perkins Marsh, published “Man and Nature,” which argued that mankind’s behavior can nega- tively affect the atmosphere — es- sentially predicting climate change. Lincoln was paying attention.

“He was a critical thinker, and smart, so he could see the logic of what was happening,” Burton said. In the first three years of his presidency, Lincoln signed into law four key pieces of legislation that helped shape American envi- ronmentalism for at least the next century, h istorians said. In May 1862, he signed a law establishing the Agriculture De- partment. Lincoln had a specific vision for the department: It w ould “study agriculture, and make sure we were doing it the right way,” Ta ckach said, rendering farming more efficient and less toxic to the environment. Research conducted by USDA scientists ultimately transformed American farming; in recent years, the agency has pro- duced groundbreaking studies ad- dressing the dangers of climate change. Just two months later, Lincoln signed into law the Morrill Land Grant College Act, which donated thousands of acres for use by public colleges — so long as the schools agreed to offer programs in engi- neering and agriculture. Then, in early 1863, he signed a bill found- ing the National Academy of Sci- ences, a nonprofit group of aca- demics charged with providing “scientific advice to the government.” Like the USDA, the academy has published vital work on climate change. In 1864 came Lincoln’s crown- ing environmental achievement:

the Yosemite Grant Act. That law declared Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove — together total- ing about 39,000 acres of gorgeous California wilderness — as protected areas, owned by the state, that must be kept pristine for public enjoyment. It w as the first time in U.S. history that a parcel of land was desig- nated exclusively for public use, Burton said. And, he added, it laid the groundwork for the National Park Service. “He saved these thousands of acres of land, including spectacu- lar sequoia trees,” Burton said. “It was just monumental,” T ackach said. All the while, the Civil War raged. The conflict stretched from April 1861 to April 1865, costing hundreds of thousands o f lives and splitting the nation — a divide that lingers today. It dominated Lin- coln’s waking thoughts and tor- mented him at n ight, records show. “So he is fighting for the survival of democracy and at t he same time enacting this kind of legislation. It’s p retty amazing,” Burton said. It’s also probably the reason no one thinks of Lincoln as an environmentally friendly president, Burton and Ta ckach said. For most Americans, Lincoln’s legacy is en- twined completely — exclusively — with the Civil War and the end of slavery. Those two things “just overshadow his environmental agenda,” T ackach said. Both Burton and Ta ckach said they are certain that, had Lincoln not been assassinated by John Wil- kes Booth, he would have passed pro-environmental legislation during his second term. Lincoln was well on the way to developing a strong “environmental ethic” when he was slain, Ta ckach said. The professor pointed to Lin- coln’s S econd Inaugural Address as evidence. “He says we need to bind up the nation’s wounds, we need to take care of the country every which way,” Tackach said. “A nd I think he meant environmental damage done here, too: We’ve got to heal the nation’s wounds environmentally.” [email protected]

Fr om retropolis, a blog about the past, rediscovered, at washingtonpost.com/ retropolis.

retroPolis

Lincoln wanted postwar environmental healing, historians say

aSSociateD PreSS Photo archive President Abraham Lincoln meets with Gen. George B. McClellan, sixth from left, and McClellan’s staff at Antietam, Md., in a photo made in 1862 by famed Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner.

The Washington Post - 24.02.2020

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