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The Wrong Foot · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Benky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
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  Speaker 1: full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
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  Speaker 1: all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
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  Speaker 1: just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet
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  Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Make enough people mad and they'll associate your
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  Speaker 1: name with whatever awful thing you did forever. When the
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  Speaker 1: Civil War and the abolition of slavery wiped out much
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  Speaker 1: of his tobacco business, Dr Samuel Mud teamed up with
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  Speaker 1: John Wilkes Booth. It was Dr Mud who fastened a
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  Speaker 1: splint around Booth's broken leg and helped him escape. Although
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  Speaker 1: the saying did not originate with him, the doctor is
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  Speaker 1: often linked to the insult your name is Mud. Charles
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  Speaker 1: Cunningham was another man with an unfortunate name, and he
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  Speaker 1: had only himself to blame. Cunningham was a land agent,
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  Speaker 1: a high ranking member of an estate who managed the
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  Speaker 1: landowner's property by collecting rents and supervising maintenance. Cunningham worked
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  Speaker 1: for a man named John Creighton, third earl arn Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Aaron had come from a family dripping with aristocracy. He
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  Speaker 1: was also a member of the House of Lords as
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  Speaker 1: well as a Knight of the Order of St Patrick,
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  Speaker 1: but he would go on to be remembered most as
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  Speaker 1: the man who hired Charles Cunningham. Cunningham was a well
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  Speaker 1: educated man who had joined the military when he was
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  Speaker 1: only sixteen. His travels with the thirty ninth Foot Regiment
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  Speaker 1: took him from London to Belfast and finally to Dublin
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  Speaker 1: around eighteen fifty. He married shortly after that and decided
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  Speaker 1: to stay in Ireland permanently. Cunningham lived all over the
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  Speaker 1: country too, but he eventually found a more permanent home
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  Speaker 1: in County Mayo. Lord Aaron owned a home there. He
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  Speaker 1: had hired Cunningham to be his agent, which gave him
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  Speaker 1: oversight over fifteen hundred acres. Cunningham was now in charge
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  Speaker 1: of farmers, servants and other household staff, the kind of
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  Speaker 1: power that he believed had been ordained by God and
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  Speaker 1: passed on to those who deserved it. That sort of
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  Speaker 1: classism didn't sit well with the estates, tenants, the farmers,
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  Speaker 1: who resented the rules and regulations their new boss had
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  Speaker 1: put in place. They also hated the exorbitant rents that
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  Speaker 1: Cunningham was tasked with collecting for the Lord. Tenant farmers
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  Speaker 1: had almost no rights, and although they had least the land,
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  Speaker 1: the land's owner could evict them without notice, even if
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  Speaker 1: the rent was current and paid on time. The farmers
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  Speaker 1: had tried before to organize against landowners. They called for
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  Speaker 1: the three f's, fair rent fix, city of tenure and
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  Speaker 1: free sale. In other words, they were tired of paying
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  Speaker 1: a lot of money for no security. When a member
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  Speaker 1: of Parliament named Charles Stewart Parnell heard about their plight,
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  Speaker 1: he stepped into help. It wasn't just about helping the underdog, though.
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  Speaker 1: He needed the farmers on his side to further his
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  Speaker 1: agenda for Irish independence. Parnell and the newly formed Land
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  Speaker 1: League went to work. He gave speeches and riled up crowds,
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  Speaker 1: laying the groundwork for an uprising that had been years
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  Speaker 1: in the making. Cunningham was set to collect the rents
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  Speaker 1: from the Lord's tenants in September of eighteen eighty. The
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  Speaker 1: crops had not been as plentiful as in past years,
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  Speaker 1: so the Lord gave them a ten percent discount as
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  Speaker 1: a show of good faith. But it wasn't good enough,
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  Speaker 1: it was still too high. The farmers demanded at least
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  Speaker 1: twenty five percent off their rent, but Lord Aaron scoffed
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  Speaker 1: at them. Either his farmers would pay or they would
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  Speaker 1: be forced to leave. Cunningham got to work securing eviction
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  Speaker 1: notices against eleven tenants who refused to pay. After three
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  Speaker 1: notices had been delivered, though one tenant named Mrs Fitzmorris
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  Speaker 1: turned them away, she waved a red flag outside her
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  Speaker 1: home to let everyone else know what was going on.
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  Speaker 1: Her neighbors joined her and started throwing rocks and manure
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  Speaker 1: at the men until they left. Soon all of Cunningham's
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  Speaker 1: servants quit. No shops in the nearby town would serve him.
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  Speaker 1: He wasn't beaten or intimidated. His punishment was far worse.
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  Speaker 1: He was ignored ostracized by the community, and he didn't
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  Speaker 1: exactly do himself any favors when his letter to the
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  Speaker 1: Times was published, in which he referred to his tenants
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  Speaker 1: as a howling mob. Soon September turned into October, and
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  Speaker 1: Cunningham was in danger of losing a fortune in crops
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  Speaker 1: if they weren't harvested soon. Since the farmers and laborers
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  Speaker 1: had all left and had threatened anyone who dared help him.
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  Speaker 1: The Irish government deployed a small army of fifty men
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  Speaker 1: to help pull the crops. The endeavor ended up costing
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  Speaker 1: Cunningham his job with the estate, as well as several
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  Speaker 1: thousand pounds. He left County Mayo for Dublin, where he
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  Speaker 1: stayed for a few days before heading to England. Now
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  Speaker 1: he would have stayed longer, but his hotel had received
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  Speaker 1: numerous letters from potential guests who swore they would never
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  Speaker 1: stay there again if he was given a room. A
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  Speaker 1: year later, a new law was introduced, titled the Land
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  Speaker 1: Law Act of eighteen eighty one. It stated that landlords
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  Speaker 1: could no longer evict tenants on a whim, and establis
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  Speaker 1: fixed terms of fifteen years for rent the people at
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  Speaker 1: one As for Cunningham, he slipped into the United States
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  Speaker 1: to visit some friends, the few he still had left
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  Speaker 1: who lived in Virginia. He had to use his middle name, however,
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  Speaker 1: as his last name had come to symbolize the treatment
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  Speaker 1: he'd endured back in Ireland, not Cunningham. Cunningham was his
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  Speaker 1: middle name. No, Charles real last name would go down
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  Speaker 1: in history as the term for the process of ostracizing
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  Speaker 1: bad businesses Charles Cunningham Boycott. To become an expert in
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  Speaker 1: one's field takes serious devotion. Hundreds, even thousands of hours
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  Speaker 1: must be spent practicing and perfecting. Attorney Judith Cogan studied
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  Speaker 1: harp at Juilliard School in New York City, and experience
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  Speaker 1: she documented in her nineteen eighties seven book Nothing but
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  Speaker 1: the Best. In the book, Cogan discussed the long hours
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  Speaker 1: spent by students practicing their art until late into the night.
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  Speaker 1: There was no time or tolerance for goofing off at Juilliard,
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  Speaker 1: but the dedication paid off in the end. Robin Williams,
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  Speaker 1: Yo Yo Ma and Nina Simone are just some of
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  Speaker 1: the school's famous former students who went on to great
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  Speaker 1: success later in life. Jean Baptiste Lally also dedicated his
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  Speaker 1: life to his passion music, and in a way, it
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  Speaker 1: was this passion that would inevitably kill him. Lally was
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  Speaker 1: born in Florence, Italy, in sixty two. While the rest
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  Speaker 1: of his family didn't show much interest in music, he
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  Speaker 1: devoted a love for it with the help of a
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  Speaker 1: Franciscan friar who taught him how to play guitar. From there,
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  Speaker 1: Lally went on to study the violin, which enabled him
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  Speaker 1: to entertain crowds on the street during Mardi Gras when
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  Speaker 1: he was only fourteen years old. He would play his
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  Speaker 1: violin and dance while dressed up as a harlequin. A
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  Speaker 1: French aristocrat named Rodre de Lorraine was taking with Lally
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  Speaker 1: street performances. He offered to bring him back to France
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  Speaker 1: to work with his niece on her Italian It was
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  Speaker 1: a wise decision for Lally, who found himself studying with
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  Speaker 1: the popular composers of the day who spent time at
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  Speaker 1: the young woman's home. Lally quickly made a name for
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  Speaker 1: himself among the French elites to his musical abilities and dancing.
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  Speaker 1: It had earned him the nickname Baptiste and great street artist.
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  Speaker 1: After de Lorraine's niece was exiled in sixteen fifty two,
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  Speaker 1: Lally also left. He continued to study music and perform,
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  Speaker 1: eventually becoming a composer himself. A young Louis the fourteenth
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  Speaker 1: had performed with him in a production of the Ballet
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  Speaker 1: Royal de la Louis, after which he hired him as
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  Speaker 1: his royal composer. Lally demonstrated such musical acumen that he
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  Speaker 1: was made the Superintendent of Royal Music. Once Louis took
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  Speaker 1: over the government, he was taken with writing new pieces,
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  Speaker 1: such as instrumentals, vocal arrangements, and operas to be performed
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  Speaker 1: for the court by royal musicians and dancers. Lally was
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  Speaker 1: prolific during the years that he wrote for King Louis.
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  Speaker 1: He was also quite animated. Musical performances were different in
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  Speaker 1: the seventeenth century than they are today. Conductors didn't often
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  Speaker 1: use small batons to direct the tempo of their arrangements. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they wielded giant staffs that they would slam into the floor,
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  Speaker 1: making loud sounds to mark the speeds the musicians had
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  Speaker 1: to follow. Seven was a difficult year for the royal family.
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  Speaker 1: Louis had lost his affection for Lally due to the
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  Speaker 1: composer's sexual orientation, which went against the king's beliefs. Still,
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  Speaker 1: Lally held him in high regard, so when Louis underwent
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  Speaker 1: surgery for an infection, the composer celebrated his recovery with
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  Speaker 1: a performance of today Um, a hymn based on the
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  Speaker 1: Apostles creed. Composers such as Mozart and Verde had done
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  Speaker 1: their own renditions, but only lullies ended with a bang.
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  Speaker 1: He conducted with gusto, bringing his staff down hard on
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  Speaker 1: the floor beneath him. It rang out among the royal
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  Speaker 1: courts like thunder. Now I think we can all agree
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  Speaker 1: that music is special. It can consume us unlike anything else.
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  Speaker 1: It is all encompassing. Our other senses take a back
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  Speaker 1: seat as we listen to the melodies that churn our
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  Speaker 1: emotions inside us. Perhaps that's what happened to Lally. He
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  Speaker 1: got lost in his music as he banged his staff
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  Speaker 1: pointed and down onto the floor, but instead of striking
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  Speaker 1: the floor, the sharp staff pierced something else, his own foot.
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  Speaker 1: In the heat of the moment. Consumed by the music,
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  Speaker 1: he had accidentally impaled himself with his conducting staff. Before long,
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  Speaker 1: an abscessed formed, which turned into gang green. Lally was
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  Speaker 1: given one of two options. He could either have his
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  Speaker 1: leg amputated to save his life, or he could let
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  Speaker 1: the illness take him. Lally refused the amputation, telling doctors
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  Speaker 1: that he would rather die than give up what he
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  Speaker 1: called his dancing leg. Two months later, he got his wish.
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  Speaker 1: The gang Green spread throughout the rest of his body
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  Speaker 1: into his brain, eventually killing him. His death wasn't in vain, though,
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  Speaker 1: as the incident helps spawn the search for alternatives to
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  Speaker 1: the heavy and now deadly conducting staff. Small sticks, sheets
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  Speaker 1: of paper rolled into thin tubes, and even bare hands
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  Speaker 1: were used in lieu of the instrument that had killed
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  Speaker 1: Jean Baptiste Lali. Lali's death might have been tragic, but
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  Speaker 1: one thing is clear. At least he died doing what
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  Speaker 1: he loved. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of
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  Speaker 1: the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts,
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  Speaker 1: or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast
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  Speaker 1: dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky
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  Speaker 1: in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award
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  Speaker 1: winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series,
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  Speaker 1: and television show, and you can learn all about it
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  Speaker 1: over at the World of Lore dot com. And until
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  Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.