Why old news?

Welcome to my 19th CENTURY NEWS blog where the past comes to the present. Here are a few reasons why you might want to read old news.

• You can read about history as it was actually happening.
• You can learn about what day to day life in the 1800s.
• You will become more grateful for modern conveniences.
• You will be able to astound your children.
• You will amazed and sometimes horrified at the odd and interesting stories.
• You will be entertained by an abundance of humor.

READ ABOUT HISTORY AS IT WAS ACTUALLY HAPPENING

Have you ever heard the story of the Titanic Death Ship? I hadn't until I discovered it in a 19th century newspaper and it is still one of the most moving pieces I've ever read.

LEARN WHAT DAY TO DAY LIFE WAS LIKE:

Outhouses. Muddy main streets. Horrific accidents caused by cooking over fire. Medicines laced with cocaine for adults and children. Wool to card and cloth to weave so there would be clothes to wear. Newspapers are an excellent resource for genealogists wanting more information on the times and places where their ancestors lived. Even the advertisements are of interest.

BECOME GRATEFUL FOR MODERN CONVENIENCES

No explanation necessary.

ASTOUND YOUR CHILDREN

 I won't soon forget the reaction of our four-year-old granddaughter when I told her that TV didn't exist when I was her age. Today you can broaden the horizons of children with stories of no internet or cell phones.

BE AMAZED AND SOMETIMES HORRIFIED AT ODD AND INTERESTING STORIES
People have always loved stories and always will. It seemed a shame to me to leave so many of them hidden away on microfilms or digital newspaper websites so I began collecting a wide variety of stories and compiling them into Kindle books. Here are a few favorite stories from my books:

• An English electrical journal has discovered the following popular fallacies concerning lightning: That chewing the splinters from a tree struck by lightning will cure a toothache; that such splinters will not burn; that the bodies of those killed by lightning shock do not become corrupt; and that no one is killed by lightning while asleep.
• Dr. Dio Lewis now comes out with an edict that tomatoes are a medicine and not a food and should be eaten only when prescribed by a physician. And all the same, some people propose to subject good old bourbon to the same proscriptive and prescriptive process.
• Richard Crawley says killing is fun and brained his mother with an axe.  The murderer is tall, has a fair complexion, a face indicative of stupidity, and carries himself very erect.
• At the gate of the cemetery at Avignon, in France, the parents of a child certified to have died of croup, insisted on having the coffin opened to take a last look.  The child was found breathing, and was expected to be saved.
• The Indians of Paraguay eradicate their eyebrows and eyelashes, saying that they do not wish to look like horses.
• Colorado convicts made counterfeit silver dollars in the penitentiary at Canon City.  The coins are so well executed as to deceive anyone.
• A steam calliope began to play just as it was passing the courthouse of a New England town. The judge stopped the argument and ordered the officers of the court to abate the nuisance. They informed the court that a circus procession was just passing, whereupon the whole assembly, bench, bar, officers and criminal, rushed out into the street without their hats, and in the excitement of the moment the prisoner made good his escape.
• A newly laid egg was taken from a nest in Ballard County, KY a few days ago upon which appeared the legend: “Judgment Day, August 1882.”  The wonderful egg has been on exhibition in Pulaski County for the past few days and thousands of people have flocked to see the phenomenon. Dr. W. Brown has thus far failed to satisfy the majority of the superstitious that acid, deftly applied by expert hands, caused the legend.  The excitement is very great, and is likely to do some harm.

BE ENTERTAINED BY AN ABUNDANCE OF HUMOR

• The census takers are instructed to count only the people and to omit the cats, which the Examiner says were included in Ft. Worth.
• The Rev. Mr. McLeod of Indianapolis has come out against “progressive euchre” on the ground that the craze has become so general it is almost impossible to get a respectable attendance at prayer meetings, which leads the profane to suggest that the prayer meetings possibly are not so progressive as euchre.
• A Maine young man has perfected an invention for starting a kitchen fire in the morning without getting out of bed. Its principal effects may be indicated by the divorce dockets.
• A Chicago minister had great trouble by a large number of his congregation determining to have front seats. Finally he put up a notice saying this privilege would be granted according to age. The effect was as desired, and most of the ladies sought seats far in the rear.
• Somebody has discovered the astonishing fact that among the 1,000 convicts in the Virginia penitentiary there is not a single lawyer.

There are still lessons to be learned from those times.   

• Did you ever wonder about what life was like without mailmen in a city of 25,000 people? 
• Did you know some stories went viral and would be printed in as many as 60 newspapers around the country?
• Did you know that divorce was quite prevalent? Or that many marriages lasted over half a century, especially among the pioneers of our country?
• Did they have dirty political campaigns back then? They did. 
  
• Have you ever imagined what transportation must have been like? Think pedestrians, horses, cars, streetcars, and trains all sharing the same roads without stop signs, crosswalks, or crossing gates. 
• What about the crimes and criminals in the days when lynchings far outnumbered legal executions?

 Study the past if you would define the future. —Confucius.