Word: tsars
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What made this retort timely was that Willie Bioff had just tied Hollywood producers into knots. On behalf of 1,900* A. F. of L. studio workers, Tsar Bioff had ordered the companies to up wages 10% ($360,000 a year). Likely to be demanded later if he got this much were more raises for many more workers. If the cinemoguls refused, said Willie Bioff, he would not only strike Hollywood studios but through his close connections with unionized projectionists would close 15,000 movie houses throughout the U. S. Although...
...Bolshevik Revolution, until very recently a black day on the Nazi calendar. Although the U. S. S. R. has never rated as a gourmet's paradise, diplomats the world over long ago learned to expect at Soviet Embassy parties as tasty spreads as ever graced a Tsar's table. In hungry Germany the Embassy's guests were not disappointed this time...
...life from then on. But Parry's story is mostly about the Major and his times. Son of the founder and first commandant of Fort Dearborn (later Chicago), a handsome soldier and famous engineer, constructor of the then marvelous Western Railroad of Massachusetts, Major Whistler was engaged by Tsar Nicholas in 1842 to build Russia's first long-distance railroad - from St. Petersburg to Moscow...
Travelers who have never heard of Whistler's Father have remarked that this 400-mile line is one of the straightest on earth. According to legend, the Tsar so ordered it by ruling a line on the map. According to Parry, Major Whistler's skill and economy had much to do with it. A firm Irish Yankee, he was amazed to find Russian engineers behaving like poets, actors, priests and revolutionaries (Dostoevsky graduated from the Imperial Engineering School in 1843). He proudly refused a commission in the Tsar's army, refused to say "Your Majesty" to Nicholas...
Mother Anna joined the Major in St. Petersburg in 1843, bringing young Jimmie and Willie (aged 9 and 7) and Deborah, the Major's child by his first marriage. While Mrs. Whistler glowingly distributed Bible tracts to the Tsar's soldiers, who used them to stuff their boots, Major Whistler saw 30,000 serfs sweating twelve hours a day to make his embankments symmetrical, heard his haughty Russian friends warn against ever giving the serfs a decent meal lest it upset their stomachs. In the evenings the Major solaced himself by playing the flute (he had been "Pipes...