Time for a light-hearted break

[shraby]

Love how they used to write in the old newspapers! Notice these are both front page articles.

And The Cop Took Fred Carus Under His Care.
Fred Carus was arrested by officer Sniffins Monday night and
landed in jail. Fredrick had taken aboard an extra supply of
red-eye and it converted him into a regular "fire-eater". He
was looking for trouble and he didn't care where he found it.
He was wild and wooley and was ready to scrap anybody.

"Come on boys." The officer requested him to behave himself
and told him he would take him in charge. Fred thought
different however, and he would be only to glad to have a
"go" with the cop. When patience ceased to be a virtue the
Policeman took him in charge and landed him in jail. He was
taken before Justice Markham late yesterday afternoon,
pleaded guilty to the charge of being drunk and disorderly
and was fined $7.35. This he promised to pay to-day and he
was given his liberty.
March 8, 1899 P.1

WILL TAKE A REST.
Louis Rod Gets Sixty Days In County Jail For a Jag.
Louis Rod, who makes his home with the family of John Espen
on Franklin street, will spend sixty days at the county jail
in payment as the result of a little misunderstanding he had
Tuesday evening. Louis is of a happy-go-lucky disposition and
when he gets on the outside of a few beers it is almost
impossible for him to restrain his joy. Tuesday evening he
was about town with the boys and he went just a "few." He
returned to his boarding place rather late in the evening
and became quite hilarious. He danced, sang and in fact did
most everything that could be imagined. The songs he warbled
didn't suit Mr. Espen and he requested him to "dry up." This
was more than Louis could stand and he made a pass at John,
and a fight was the result. A warrant was sworn out for his
arrest on a charge of asault and battery and he was brought
before Judge Craite yesterday afternoon, found guilty and
in default of money to pay a fine, he was sentenced to "do"
sixty days time.
March 9, 1899 P.1

[shraby]

1. Am I the only one who enjoys the style of writing?

[Brickbat]

2. They are quaint, but there can be a lot of pain behind the stories.

It's easy to have an old-timey piano score bouncing along in one's head when reading these, but these could be alcoholics who had no way of dealing with their problems. The writing itself is funny; the stories themselves are not, is how I see it.

[ET Awful]

3. Not at all, I enjoy it quit a bit.

I can't say I've ever heard the phrase "outside of a few beers" before. I like it :).

[geckosfeet]

4. There may be someone else somewhere - but it's not me!

Entertaining though, it is.

[Frustratedlady]

5. I love those old stories...not just those types of situations, but

so many other vivid descriptions of neighborhood arguments, city hall meetings, domestic battles, etc.

When I was tracking family history, I would find my attention diverted by some squabble or another while checking out the archives of local newspapers. It was nothing to read a description of some wife chasing her wayward husband down the street while swinging a broom, or out of a saloon where she found him gambling away the week's take home pay.

One thing I found disturbing was their practice in obituaries of listing a woman as the wife of John Smith, never as Mary Louise Smith...the son as the son of John (maybe Mary) Smith, along with the age and perhaps the cause of death. If a woman or child didn't "belong" to a prominent man/family, their death wasn't newsworthy.

[shraby]

6. I've seen obits up into the 1970s with the deceased woman

only called Mrs. ____. I've also put many online that have the husband's name, the parent's names, the children's names and no first name of the woman who died.

Also in the births, the husband always got the congrats in the paper, even if the woman died a few days later from childbirth. Her name was never mentioned in the birth announcement, and believe me, many many women died in childbirth.

Whether the situations are about unhappy occurences, or just in fun, the style of writing was unique and something we are apt to never see again. The editors/writers poked fun at just about anyone they had a mind to..I've also seen them admonish people for a second child in the family who drowned for not watching them more carefully and at parents of children who allowed the youngsters to handle guns. They pulled no punches, but called a spade a spade for the most part.

[Armstead]

7. I hate to admit it but in the 1980's.......

I was editor of a local weekly newspaper, and we had a feature called Police Blotter that did similar items in a version of that breezy style (short ones)...It was the most popular feature in the paper.

Although in my defense, we only did it for minor crimes, not for anything involving violence.

[shraby]

8. That's what I find in the old papers. Quite often the local

sheriff was the butt of the jokes when a "bad" guy got away from him because he bungled the job a bit. I even had one editor write a regular obituary for the city because a large business had burned down and wasn't being replaced.

[Frustratedlady]

9. Our paper still lists the arrests, but they are strictly details. I was trying to

remember when they quit referring to Blacks when describing a crime. For instance, Sam Cooper, a 6' 5" Black man, was arrested....

You never saw them identified as Mexican, Asian, Caucasian, etc.