Almost forgot. 16 years. Time does fly.

Today -100: June 9, 2019: WE WUZ ROBBED

Whether it is part of the anti-American propaganda now more or less prevalent in the French press or an isolated attack is not clear, but Le Matin this morning declares that the credit of inventing the jazz band does not belong to the United States, but to France.

The jazz band idea, it says, originated in Paris in the time of the Directory, whe people went to ball concerts.

"In those days as well as now," it continues, "people did not know what to do to amuse themselves; so they made a noice. Those who had great taste for noise went on to the concerts of the Cat Orchestra."...

The Original Dixieland Jass Band [Eds.: the name was changed to "Jazz" by mid-1917], from New Orleans, went to Chicago to perform Dixieland jazz, a sound that no one there had heard previously. At the time, ragtime was the dominant style and Dixieland was something completely new.

People in New York also wanted to hear Dixieland music. The band was invited to do a gig at the restaurant Reisenweber, which was a trendy location with a nightclub in Manhattan. The band performed there in January 1917.

Shortly afterwards, the record label Columbia came knocking at their door to record them. But the label found the material too hot, too innovative, so the recordings weren't released.

Another label, Victor, then jumped in and recorded two tracks, "Dixieland Jass Band One-Step" for the A side and "Livery Stable Blues" for the B side, on February 26, 1917. It was a big hit, pressed as a 78 rpm record single and sold for 75 cents. It was a remarkable event for the music market and the history of jazz -- as well as a tremendous commercial success.

Poland is officially a country now (again), recognized by the peace treaty,

ALLIES WELCOME POLAND AS NEW NATION
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Cleneceau, in Transmitting Treaty, Explains Purpose of Some of its Provisions
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OPEN WAY FOR HARMONY
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Assure Protction and Equality to Embittered Peoples Incorporated in New State

which includes a provision that Poland has to be nicer to its Jews (Spoiler Alert: it won't be especially nice to its Jews).

In 1890, enumerators' instructions also included the sentence, "In case the person speaks Polish, as Poland is not now a country, inquire whether the birthplace was what is now known as German Poland or Austrian Poland or Russian Poland and enter the answer accordingly as Poland (Ger.), Poland (Aust.), or Poland (Russ.)."[120] Instructions for categorizing immigrants occupied a growing number of dense pages as the bureau struggled to capture with precision the political vagaries that produced languages in 1910 such as Wendish, Lettish, and "Rhaeto-Romanish (including Ladin and Frilulan)," or nationalities such as "Turkey in Europe" versus "Turkey in Asia."
[...]
In 1914 the census director assayed a different use of the same term; he described a forthcoming special report on "racial classes of population," which did not include Indians and Negros; the racial classes were distinguished by country of origin but were all contained within the "white population of foreign stock"[123] The Senate inserted "race" (meaning roughly European ethnicity) into the 1910 census, but the conference committee between House and Senate deleted it.[124] The census director explained to a Senate committee a few months later that " `race' in its broadest sense" should be understood as "five classifications, white, black, Chinese, Japanese, and Indians"--but another expert witness reported that a person born in Austria of Polish origin "is German or some other race--a Pole or a Bohemian" on the census.[125]