AtD - (36) pgs 1007 - 1012

Tue Jul 8 10:08:32 CDT 2008

I attempted to send a link to the Woody Guthrie song, The Ludlow Massacre, but apparently the file was too large to make it through.  It's worth looking it up on i-tunes.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Bekah <bekker2 at mac.com>
>Sent: Jul 8, 2008 2:33 AM
>To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: AtD - (36) pgs 1007 - 1012
>
>Starting at page 1007 -
>This whole Ludlow section is written exactly like the history as it's  
>documented in several places on the net - a few mentioned below.  All  
>that deliberate misery-making can get quite depressing.   There is no  
>need here for anything other than a pretty straightforward account  
>(and inserting some characters) - the events speak for themselves.
>
>
>Winter of 1913-1914
>  Stray goes from Trinidad to Ludlow (about 12 miles southeast) where  
>the coal miners had been striking and living in a tent colony since  
>September.
>
>*
>  The tent colony was for those union members who were on strike and  
>therefore had been evicted from their company owned homes.  These
>
>*
>Guns lined up: (!)
>http://courses.ed.asu.edu/margolis/life/homepage_files/image021a.gif
>
>
>Ludlow Massacre:
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre
>http://www.cobar.org/index.cfm/ID/581/dpwfp/Historical-Foreward-and- 
>Bibliography/
>
>Excellent Photo Galleries -( scroll right)
>http://www.du.edu/anthro/ludlow/cfphoto.html
>
>
>Today Ludlow is a ghost town -
>http://www.cultimedia.ch/ghosttowns/htme/ludlowco.htm
>with a monument:
>http://www.flickr.com/photos/surlymonkey/935096702/
>
>*
>
>Photo of the "Death Car"
>http://courses.ed.asu.edu/margolis/life/homepage_files/image010a.gif
>
>"They used an improvised armored car, mounted with a M1895 Colt- 
>Browning machine gun that the union called the "Death Special," to  
>patrol the camp's perimeters. The steel-covered car was built in the  
>CF&I plant in Pueblo from the chassis of a large touring sedan.  
>Because of frequent sniping on the tent colonies, miners dug  
>protective pits beneath the tents where they and their families could  
>seek shelter."
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre#The_mine_strike
>
>*********************
>
>page 108
>Jesse shows up via the Colorado and Southern railway
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:C%26S_RR_map.jpg
>*
>
>Light as torture / darkness as compassion
>"The Colorodo militia were in fact giving light a bad name.  Military  
>wisdom had it that putting searchlights on the enemy allowed you to  
>see them, while blinding them to you, giving you an inestimable edge  
>both tactical and psychological. In the tents, darkness in that awful  
>winter was sought like warmth or quiet.  It seemed like a form of  
>compassion. "
>
>Jesse goes out - comes back smug and the lights are out.
>
>
>*********************
>page 109
>It was a very bad winter - tents collapse from the snow, etc.
>http://www.sangres.com/history/coalfieldwar01.htm
>http://courses.ed.asu.edu/margolis/life/homepage_files/exp01.htm
>(stick around there - the images change)
>
>*
>Strike breakers coming in via cattle cars from Pennsylvania and  
>trains escorted from the Mexican border.
>There were 24 languages spoken in the tent city.
>http://www.cobar.org/index.cfm/ID/581/dpwfp/Historical-Foreward-and- 
>Bibliography/
>*
>Moss Gatlin (Johann Most?) preaches forbearance and violence at the  
>same time
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Most
>*
>The mood grows uglier, women are raped, kids are beaten,  in Trinidad  
>the military attacked women marching in support of the strike, no one  
>killed (to this point)
>see "The Autobiography of Mother Jones" - Part 3:
>http://www.angelfire.com/nj3/RonMBaseman/mojones3.htm
>*
>
>The 2 colt machine guns on armored "Death Car"
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M1895_Colt-Browning_machine_gun
>
>
>Baldwin-Felts "detective" agency.
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin-Felts
>
>"Baldwin-Felts had a reputation for aggressive strike breaking.  
>Agents shone searchlights on the tent villages at night and randomly  
>fired into the tents, occasionally killing and maiming people. They  
>used an improvised armored car, mounted with a M1895 Colt-Browning  
>machine gun that the union called the "Death Special," to patrol the  
>camp's perimeters. The steel-covered car was built in the CF&I plant  
>in Pueblo from the chassis of a large touring sedan. Because of  
>frequent sniping on the tent colonies, miners dug protective pits  
>beneath the tents where they and their families could seek shelter. "
>
>A different pov:  http://www.baldwinfeltsdetectives.com/     (right -  
>just fyi)
>
>*******
>
>page 1010
>Guardsmen are bad news -  blonde - shades of Nazi
>
>Jesse finds a level of evil never expected in adults until now.
>
>Not one but a  whole fleet of Death Specials and the drivers fear  
>they will be the victims.
>
>Jessie denies association with Union group
>
>****
>
>page 1011
>but Jessie also steals  two 30 caliber machine gun rounds to prevent  
>them being shot
>
>Meanwhile,  (and at this point it's April 19, 1914 or so -  the day  
>prior to the massacre)
>Frank Traverse is in Aguilar,  between Walsenberg and Trinidad
>at the 29 Luglio Saloon named for Anarchist Bresci assassinated King  
>Umberto of Italy
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaetano_Bresci
>
>He's checking out a gun - (imaginary? no)
>Benet Mercier
>http://tinyurl.com/63bttu
>(follow links):  http://forums.gunboards.com/archive/index.php? 
>t-20386.html
>
>
>Empire Mine - dangerous
>there was an explosion there killing 13 people in 1919
>NY Times 3 days after Ludlow Massacre:
>http://tinyurl.com/4qvvb5
>
>
>Frank sees a woman  who looks like Michelangelo's Pieta to others:  
>(in case you forgot)
>http://www.saintpetersbasilica.org/Altars/Pieta/Pieta-ah06.jpg
>
>Stray - recognizes Frank and tells him the night's young
>It's Stray - dressed as a "Sister of Charity"
>http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/vol296/issue8/images/medium/ 
>jbk60126fa.jpg
>
>***************
>
>Page 1012
>
>Frank and Stray get reacquainted, there in the bar and  find out if  
>each other is free, relationship wise - Ewball / Ren
>Frank is not just Reef without the loco streak - he's different - not  
>so readable now here in coalfields which were about to explode
>
>Frank:  "They're fixing to do away with all them tents."
>
>"Creeping along,  her nun's shadow in the search light beams..."
>
>
>April 19 - Jesse has gone with Balkan kids -  "It's their Easter or  
>somethin."
>  The Balkan kids" would likely be Eastern Orthodox religion and  
>their Easter falls at some point between early April to early May,  
>following the cycle of the moon.  After several centuries of  
>disagreement, all churches accepted the computation of the  
>Alexandrian Church (now the Coptic Church) that Easter is the first  
>Sunday after the first fourteenth day of the moon (the Paschal Full  
>Moon) that is on or after the ecclesiastical vernal equinox.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
>
>***********************
>