Reminded me of this Gif I had in my collection
Posted on 03/10/2009 3:15:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
For nearly 150 years, Abraham Lincoln's pocket watch has been rumored to carry a secret message, supposedly written by an Irish immigrant and watchmaker named Jonathan Dillon.
Dillon, working in a D.C. watch repair shop in 1861, told family members that he -- by incredible happenstance -- had been repairing Lincoln's watch when news came that Fort Sumter had been attacked in South Carolina. It was the opening salvo of what became the Civil War.
Dillon told his children (and, half a century later, a reporter for the New York Times) that he opened the watch's inner workings and scrawled his name, the date and a message for the ages: "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a President who at least will try."
He then closed it up and sent it back to the White House. Lincoln never knew of the message. Dillon died in 1907.
The watch, meanwhile, was handed down and eventually given to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. It didn't run anymore. No one had pried open the inner workings in ages. The old watchmaker's tale was just that.
And then Douglas Stiles, Dillon's great-great grandson, alerted Smithsonian officials to the family legend last month. He was a real-estate attorney in Waukegan, Ill., he explained. He'd heard the legend around the dinner table as a kid, but had just discovered a New York Times article from 1906, quoting Dillon as telling the story himself.
Truth? Lore?
This morning, in a small conference room on the first floor of Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, officials decided to find out.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Almost Yes BUT ... here is a link to an active article about it and the Dentist, Dr. Jack Mallory. General Tojo, IJA, was imprisoned until he was hung on December 22, 1948.
The pertinent facts are quoted below ...
The military procedure for dental appliances was to engrave the name, rank, and serial number of the individual on the dentures themselves, Mallory explains. His colleagues pressured him instead to put the phrase “Remember Pearl Harbor” on the dentures.
After thinking it over, Mallory decided to go through with the prank, but to do it in a way that was less obvious and thereby safer—by using Morse code to write the message. He carefully drilled the dots and dashes into the dentures, engraving them with an unforgettable slogan forever ingrained in the American people’s minds. Only his roommate, Foster, knew what he had done, however.
However the outcome was that when the story got out locally, upper command had Dr.Mallory grind the message off of the dentures. I do find it interesting that one of the most notorious and defamed leaders of Imperial Japan got dentures from the US Government for the last 6 months of his life. Thanks for bringing this piece of history to my attention.
In 1861, Lincoln only sought to preserve the Union and the secession was driven by a desire to protect and promote slavery. The evidence is clear on both counts.
Yes, I've come to understand that you are a firm believer in pre-emptive silliness, over time. Particularly where the War Between The States is concerned.
Carry on.
You beat me - I found the same story and got too deep in reading it! /smile
I hope his wish comes true someday and someone finds his messages. That would be fun for everyone.
Whenever I hear about this sort of thing, I'm always reminded of the Warner Bros. cartoon titled One Froggy Evening. A construction working finds a frog (Michigan J Frog, for trivia buffs), which sings show tunes... but only when the man around to hear and for no one else. It soon drives him to ruin.
One Froggy Evening(^) at YouTube.
That’s an awesome picture of Lincoln.
But the hidden message didn’t mention slavery.
In fact, what he did write hardly seems worth the trouble.
Reminded me of this Gif I had in my collection
Pretty cool story,
Thanks.
If it were my boyhood home, you'd find (really) old Playboys, an Aurora slot car that pissed me off, and perhaps a fossilized doobie or two...
But the excerpt sure gave that impression for anybody too lazy to read the whole thing. :)
Bummer, I hoped I might find a portion of the long lost Confederate Treasure. ;)
Mouse skeletons are interesting, (ever disect an owl pellet?) BUT gold and coins would be more useful. lol
Thanks nightmare tonight. lol
Once you put all that in there did you have plans to get it back out?
No, of course not. They were intended to be lost forever.
If you first don't secede, obfuscate.
Maybe I will put “I hate housework” on the back of a new cabinet I am getting for the kitchen. lol
When we gutted the kitchen of our 1804 farmhouse in 1998, I left a letter in a canning jar and placed it in the wall above a door. My husband, son and mom and I signed it. I told the future residents what a terrible president Clinton was!!! LOL!!
call nicolas cage.
I hear ya!
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