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A Song For Peace · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manky'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. A lot of great accomplishments have come out
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  Speaker 1: of compromises. The Magna Carta is a powerful example. Drafted
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  Speaker 1: in the year twelve fifteen, the document made a compromise
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  Speaker 1: between King John and his barons, setting the stage for
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  Speaker 1: many elements of the modern democratic process. Marriage is another
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  Speaker 1: of those moments of compromise. What else are the vows
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  Speaker 1: of the bride and groom but a promise to work
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  Speaker 1: hard and stay together, no matter the cost, two sides
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  Speaker 1: coming together to set aside differences and work together building
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  Speaker 1: something that's better than the two individual pieces. Clearly, when
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  Speaker 1: we compromise, we can make great things. But compromise didn't
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  Speaker 1: look possible when the players arrived at Fenway Park back
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  Speaker 1: on September eleventh of nineteen eighteen. It was Game five
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  Speaker 1: of the World Series, and after a long season and
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  Speaker 1: a lot of hard work. The Red Sox were feeling
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  Speaker 1: pretty proud of their accomplishment, so proud, it seems that
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  Speaker 1: they wanted more. Specifically, they wanted a bigger payday for
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  Speaker 1: their championship games. For context, the entire payroll for the
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  Speaker 1: Red Sox organization that year was around ninety thousand dollars
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  Speaker 1: roughly one point five million in modern dollars. Last year,
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  Speaker 1: their payroll was over two million, so it might be
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  Speaker 1: fair to agree that the nineteen eighteen Red Sox were
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  Speaker 1: a bit underpaid. Justified or not. The team disgusted amongst
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  Speaker 1: themselves and decided that if their owner, Harry Frazy, didn't
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  Speaker 1: pony up a little extra dough, they weren't going to
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  Speaker 1: take the field. And with a little over ten thousand
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  Speaker 1: people waiting in the stands, dozens of whom were wounded
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  Speaker 1: World War One veterans, there was a lot of pressure
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  Speaker 1: to make a decision quickly. It took about an hour,
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  Speaker 1: but finally the players and Phrasey came up with a compromise. No,
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  Speaker 1: they wouldn't get a pay raise for their performance that day,
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  Speaker 1: but they would take a moment to honor those veterans.
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  Speaker 1: And how would they do it? With a song? Of course,
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  Speaker 1: Phrasey approached the band that played at each of the
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  Speaker 1: games and leaned in towards the musicians. There was a
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  Speaker 1: brief conversation, and then the men nodded in agreement. A
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  Speaker 1: moment later, the notes of a song rang out, and
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  Speaker 1: everyone in attendance stood up and took off their hats.
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  Speaker 1: At first, the people they're just listened, hypnotized by the
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  Speaker 1: beauty of it all. Slowly, though, more and more of
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  Speaker 1: the millitary service members began to sing along, and others
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  Speaker 1: followed them. By the time the last verse came around,
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  Speaker 1: the entire crowd was bellowing out the words as best
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  Speaker 1: they could, all to the tune of an old British
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  Speaker 1: bar song about getting drunk and flirting with the ladies,
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  Speaker 1: which might sound right if you've ever been to a
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  Speaker 1: baseball game, Except those weren't the words the crowd was singing. No.
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  Speaker 1: The song had been used in America for nearly a
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  Speaker 1: century before that day, with a whole new set of lyrics,
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  Speaker 1: a poem really written by a guy named Francis Scott Key.
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  Speaker 1: It wouldn't be until nineteen thirty one when the Star
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  Speaker 1: Spangled banner would be recognized as the official national anthem.
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  Speaker 1: But at that game on September eleventh of nineteen eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: it became a fixture of another American institution, baseball. You see,
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  Speaker 1: in the years that followed, and inspired by the impact
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  Speaker 1: the song had on the audience that day, Crazy had
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  Speaker 1: it played before each and every Red Sox game, and
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  Speaker 1: in the process did a tradition that's still taking place
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  Speaker 1: today in a wide assortment of sporting events. Yes, the
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  Speaker 1: Star Spangled banner is a wonderful way to honor our
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  Speaker 1: military before each game, but it's important to remember that
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  Speaker 1: it almost didn't happen at all. Today, it's an essential
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  Speaker 1: part of the ballpark experience, and yet in nineteen eighteen,
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  Speaker 1: it was nothing more than a bit of compromise, a
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  Speaker 1: way to get the players out of the dugout and
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  Speaker 1: onto the field. And in the end, though, it's also
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  Speaker 1: a reminder of an even older baseball tradition arguing about money.
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  Speaker 1: Everyone put a lot of hope in Patrick. His father
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  Speaker 1: was a young widower, having lost his wife just a
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  Speaker 1: few years into their marriage, and Patrick was the only
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  Speaker 1: boy among his siblings, which at the time meant that
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  Speaker 1: there was a out of pressure on him. Thankfully, he
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  Speaker 1: showed all the potential of living up to that hope.
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  Speaker 1: He was a gifted artist, producing paintings and illustrations that
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  Speaker 1: blew his peers away and wowed his friends and family.
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  Speaker 1: And he had a way with words that most kids
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  Speaker 1: just didn't, which led the poems and stories that hinted
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  Speaker 1: at an underlying genius just waiting to burst forth and
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  Speaker 1: conquer the world. Patrick's father, though, didn't earn a lot
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  Speaker 1: of money, and he knew as a single parent, looking
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  Speaker 1: at his large family, that there was honestly just no
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  Speaker 1: chance he'd be able to give all of them a
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  Speaker 1: push out into the world. In fact, it would take
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  Speaker 1: all his resources, plus the efforts of the rest of
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  Speaker 1: the kids, to send Patrick off to college, but they
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  Speaker 1: somehow managed. Art school was supposed to be the key
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  Speaker 1: that would unlock Patrick's genius, but not long after arriving
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  Speaker 1: he was headed home. There's even rumor that he didn't
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  Speaker 1: even attend classes, but instead tried his hand at teaching
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  Speaker 1: others how to paint and not me that. But the
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  Speaker 1: process had used up all of the funds his family
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  Speaker 1: had worked so hard to give him. They're one great
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  Speaker 1: hope dashed on the rocks of failure. After that, he
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  Speaker 1: got a local job tutoring others, but it allowed him
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  Speaker 1: a lot of time to socialize, which was good. Patrick
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  Speaker 1: was an outgoing guy, and he happened to live in
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  Speaker 1: an area that was frequented by an artistic crowd musicians, writers, artists,
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  Speaker 1: all of them rubbing shoulders together in the same space,
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  Speaker 1: and he was right there among them. Sometimes he would
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  Speaker 1: even show them his most recent work and they loved
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  Speaker 1: it all. It had to have honestly been incredibly encouraging
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  Speaker 1: to stand in front of his heroes and have them
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  Speaker 1: praise his work and consider him appear. It's easy to
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  Speaker 1: imagine how his family felt about it all too. Sure,
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  Speaker 1: art school hadn't panned out, and the boy had lost
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  Speaker 1: all their money, but he was starting to get the
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  Speaker 1: attention of big players in the art world, so maybe
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  Speaker 1: all their efforts had been worth it after all. But
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  Speaker 1: its sadly wouldn't be. Aside from a few pieces that
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  Speaker 1: got published in small time magazines, Patrick just couldn't seem
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  Speaker 1: to get his career off the ground, and that frustration
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  Speaker 1: and despair started to creep in and rot his drive
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  Speaker 1: and his hope from the inside out. Alcohol and drugs
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  Speaker 1: became his escape. When he lost his teaching job, he
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  Speaker 1: was forced to move back home with his father and siblings.
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  Speaker 1: Not long after, he got a job as an administrative
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  Speaker 1: assistant at the local public transit. No, it wasn't an
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  Speaker 1: artistic job, but it paid real money, and that could
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  Speaker 1: have provided a boost to his efforts in the publishing
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  Speaker 1: world if he treated the job with respect. Instead, he
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  Speaker 1: used it as an opportunity to steal. After all, having
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  Speaker 1: access to the accounting system made it easy for him,
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  Speaker 1: and over his short time there he managed to siphon
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  Speaker 1: off about fift dollars. When he got caught, though the
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  Speaker 1: price was even higher, he lost the job entirely. Sadly,
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  Speaker 1: Patrick's story doesn't end well for him. After all those
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  Speaker 1: attempts to make it big and fight the currents of failure,
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  Speaker 1: he got sick. His father did the best to care
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  Speaker 1: for him, but at the young age of just thirty one,
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  Speaker 1: Patrick passed away, and in doing so, he took all
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  Speaker 1: the hope his father and sisters had placed on his
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  Speaker 1: shoulders with him. They were left to make the most
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  Speaker 1: of their own poor existence, each of them leaning on
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  Speaker 1: the same hobby their brother had writing, and amazingly, despite
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  Speaker 1: their challenges and social obstacles, each of them succeeded. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: each of them wrote and published entire novels of their own.
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  Speaker 1: Anne wrote a book called Agnes Gray, while her sister
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  Speaker 1: Emily became known for her own story, one she called
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  Speaker 1: Wuthering Heights. And there are other sister Charlotte might have
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  Speaker 1: written the most famous of them all, Jane Eyre Patrick
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  Speaker 1: might not have lived up to the hope and hype
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  Speaker 1: his family placed on him, but we can all be
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  Speaker 1: thankful that his sisters far surpassed it all to become
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  Speaker 1: literary legends. Le Bronzes. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
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  Speaker 1: tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
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  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
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  Speaker 1: Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
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  Speaker 1: another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
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  Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all
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  Speaker 1: about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
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  Speaker 1: And until next time, stay curious. Ye