A Song For Peace

We take a lot of things for granted. But if we dig a little deeper, we might discover the curious stories behind them.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manky's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild. Our world is
full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book,
all of these amazing tales are right there on display,
just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet

(00:27):
of Curiosities. A lot of great accomplishments have come out
of compromises. The Magna Carta is a powerful example. Drafted
in the year twelve fifteen, the document made a compromise
between King John and his barons, setting the stage for

(00:49):
many elements of the modern democratic process. Marriage is another
of those moments of compromise. What else are the vows
of the bride and groom but a promise to work
hard and stay together, no matter the cost, two sides
coming together to set aside differences and work together building
something that's better than the two individual pieces. Clearly, when

(01:10):
we compromise, we can make great things. But compromise didn't
look possible when the players arrived at Fenway Park back
on September eleventh of nineteen eighteen. It was Game five
of the World Series, and after a long season and
a lot of hard work. The Red Sox were feeling
pretty proud of their accomplishment, so proud, it seems that

(01:31):
they wanted more. Specifically, they wanted a bigger payday for
their championship games. For context, the entire payroll for the
Red Sox organization that year was around ninety thousand dollars
roughly one point five million in modern dollars. Last year,
their payroll was over two million, so it might be

(01:53):
fair to agree that the nineteen eighteen Red Sox were
a bit underpaid. Justified or not. The team disgusted amongst
themselves and decided that if their owner, Harry Frazy, didn't
pony up a little extra dough, they weren't going to
take the field. And with a little over ten thousand
people waiting in the stands, dozens of whom were wounded

(02:14):
World War One veterans, there was a lot of pressure
to make a decision quickly. It took about an hour,
but finally the players and Phrasey came up with a compromise. No,
they wouldn't get a pay raise for their performance that day,
but they would take a moment to honor those veterans.
And how would they do it? With a song? Of course,

(02:36):
Phrasey approached the band that played at each of the
games and leaned in towards the musicians. There was a
brief conversation, and then the men nodded in agreement. A
moment later, the notes of a song rang out, and
everyone in attendance stood up and took off their hats.
At first, the people they're just listened, hypnotized by the
beauty of it all. Slowly, though, more and more of

(02:59):
the millitary service members began to sing along, and others
followed them. By the time the last verse came around,
the entire crowd was bellowing out the words as best
they could, all to the tune of an old British
bar song about getting drunk and flirting with the ladies,
which might sound right if you've ever been to a
baseball game, Except those weren't the words the crowd was singing. No.

(03:23):
The song had been used in America for nearly a
century before that day, with a whole new set of lyrics,
a poem really written by a guy named Francis Scott Key.
It wouldn't be until nineteen thirty one when the Star
Spangled banner would be recognized as the official national anthem.
But at that game on September eleventh of nineteen eighteen,

(03:44):
it became a fixture of another American institution, baseball. You see,
in the years that followed, and inspired by the impact
the song had on the audience that day, Crazy had
it played before each and every Red Sox game, and
in the process did a tradition that's still taking place
today in a wide assortment of sporting events. Yes, the

(04:06):
Star Spangled banner is a wonderful way to honor our
military before each game, but it's important to remember that
it almost didn't happen at all. Today, it's an essential
part of the ballpark experience, and yet in nineteen eighteen,
it was nothing more than a bit of compromise, a
way to get the players out of the dugout and
onto the field. And in the end, though, it's also

(04:28):
a reminder of an even older baseball tradition arguing about money.
Everyone put a lot of hope in Patrick. His father

(04:50):
was a young widower, having lost his wife just a
few years into their marriage, and Patrick was the only
boy among his siblings, which at the time meant that
there was a out of pressure on him. Thankfully, he
showed all the potential of living up to that hope.
He was a gifted artist, producing paintings and illustrations that
blew his peers away and wowed his friends and family.

(05:13):
And he had a way with words that most kids
just didn't, which led the poems and stories that hinted
at an underlying genius just waiting to burst forth and
conquer the world. Patrick's father, though, didn't earn a lot
of money, and he knew as a single parent, looking
at his large family, that there was honestly just no
chance he'd be able to give all of them a

(05:35):
push out into the world. In fact, it would take
all his resources, plus the efforts of the rest of
the kids, to send Patrick off to college, but they
somehow managed. Art school was supposed to be the key
that would unlock Patrick's genius, but not long after arriving
he was headed home. There's even rumor that he didn't
even attend classes, but instead tried his hand at teaching

(05:57):
others how to paint and not me that. But the
process had used up all of the funds his family
had worked so hard to give him. They're one great
hope dashed on the rocks of failure. After that, he
got a local job tutoring others, but it allowed him
a lot of time to socialize, which was good. Patrick
was an outgoing guy, and he happened to live in

(06:20):
an area that was frequented by an artistic crowd musicians, writers, artists,
all of them rubbing shoulders together in the same space,
and he was right there among them. Sometimes he would
even show them his most recent work and they loved
it all. It had to have honestly been incredibly encouraging
to stand in front of his heroes and have them

(06:42):
praise his work and consider him appear. It's easy to
imagine how his family felt about it all too. Sure,
art school hadn't panned out, and the boy had lost
all their money, but he was starting to get the
attention of big players in the art world, so maybe
all their efforts had been worth it after all. But
its sadly wouldn't be. Aside from a few pieces that

(07:04):
got published in small time magazines, Patrick just couldn't seem
to get his career off the ground, and that frustration
and despair started to creep in and rot his drive
and his hope from the inside out. Alcohol and drugs
became his escape. When he lost his teaching job, he
was forced to move back home with his father and siblings.

(07:25):
Not long after, he got a job as an administrative
assistant at the local public transit. No, it wasn't an
artistic job, but it paid real money, and that could
have provided a boost to his efforts in the publishing
world if he treated the job with respect. Instead, he
used it as an opportunity to steal. After all, having
access to the accounting system made it easy for him,

(07:47):
and over his short time there he managed to siphon
off about fift dollars. When he got caught, though the
price was even higher, he lost the job entirely. Sadly,
Patrick's story doesn't end well for him. After all those
attempts to make it big and fight the currents of failure,
he got sick. His father did the best to care

(08:07):
for him, but at the young age of just thirty one,
Patrick passed away, and in doing so, he took all
the hope his father and sisters had placed on his
shoulders with him. They were left to make the most
of their own poor existence, each of them leaning on
the same hobby their brother had writing, and amazingly, despite
their challenges and social obstacles, each of them succeeded. In fact,

(08:31):
each of them wrote and published entire novels of their own.
Anne wrote a book called Agnes Gray, while her sister
Emily became known for her own story, one she called
Wuthering Heights. And there are other sister Charlotte might have
written the most famous of them all, Jane Eyre Patrick
might not have lived up to the hope and hype
his family placed on him, but we can all be

(08:53):
thankful that his sisters far surpassed it all to become
literary legends. Le Bronzes. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me

(09:16):
Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the World of Lore dot com.
And until next time, stay curious. Ye