Pages of History – Harrison Gray Otis and His Fight for the Open Shop

Most of the articles I have found dealing with Gen. Harrison Gray Otis were written after the 1910 bombing. Here’s a 1908 article that is shockingly positive given the current view of the old boy. Otis is a polarizing figure. Few people are neutral about him and most are vehemently critical, responding to his polemics as if he hadn’t died in 1917 but were still writing them. With every new book,  he seems to get a bit more like the lost twin of Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam;  the  angry old walrus who died without a friend in the world except for his family. I stumbled across this article in going through James Bassett’s citations for his ill-fated book. The Argonaut was a San Francisco weekly founded in 1877 and edited by Holman from 1907 to 1924. In its early days, the magazine featured Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Bret Harte.