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On the date

Tuesday, May 10, 1921

From the day

Perspective: The Street Photographer · Sight

The flash powder stings my eyes as I capture a copper-buttoned veteran scowling at the newsboy’s headline; they’re calling heroes slackers today, and the Bronx is ready to boil over. Behind him, a dapper fella in a pinstripe suit checks his reflection in a storefront window featuring the latest medical marvel, insulin, which some say is the cat's pajamas for the sickly. I dodge a child clutching a limp Raggedy Andy, my lens catching the flicker of a movie poster featuring those strange mechanical "robots" that have everyone talking about the future. It's a mad world where a man can be branded a deserter by a printing press or have his heart’s truth teased out by a newfangled polygraph machine.

Memories from that day

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The Headlines

FIVE WAR VETERANS LISTED AS SLACKERS ON NEW BRONX LIST; Out of 20 Branded as Deserters by Board No. 10, 25 Per Cent. Served in Army. SOME HAVE DISCHARGES Ratio, if Kept Up Throughout Country, Would Unfairly Stigmatize 40,000 Men. NOT ONE ARREST MADE HERE Martin Conboy Says Evaders Are "Infrequent Animals," but Sees Good in Publication of Lists. Received Honorable Discharge. Times Files Gives Evidence. FIVE WAR VETERANS LISTED AS SLACKERS No Trace of Real Evaders. Conboy Discusses Situation. Mistakes the Exception, Says Conboy.

Read in The New York Times →

Best-selling Sheet Music

The Sheik of Araby

Harry B. Smith & Ted Snyder

The must-have

Raggedy Andy

Slang

Slang of the decade

General

applesaucebaloneycheaterscrush

Flapper

bee's kneescat's pajamasgiggle watershebahotsy-totsy

Gangster

big cheesebump offstool pigeongatfall guy

Catchphrases of 1921

  • Ain't we got fun?

Tech Check

Robots (The Term 'Robot'), Polygraph (Modern) & Insulin (Medical Tech).

Cost of Living (1920)

Loaf of Bread

$0.11

Gallon of Gas

$0.30

Average Home

$6,296

New Car

$575

Meanwhile

  • Post-WWI RecessionSevere deflation and collapse of agricultural prices.

Time Elapsed

38,377 days ago

(105 years, 52 days)