A day for random history

[byslantedlight]

I've just had a notice about renewing my subscription to the British Newspaper Archive, which is a fabulous thing, but which I have not made enough use of to justify. Trouble is, when I got to the site with the intention of cancelling, I come across little snatches like this, and I don't want to cancel at all... a tea race! Earthquakes in Scotland! 'orrible murder, and the intrepid police surgeons of 1867!

Reynolds Newspaper, 19th May 1867
"The latest advices from China are to the effect that six ships have entered for the great tea race to England, viz, the Ariel, Serica, Taitaing, Taeping, Stir Launcelot, and Black Prince. Although the Ariel won the run home last year by a neck, the shippers of the new season's teas this year have to a certain extent transferred their favours to the Black Prince as the winner..."

More sadly:
"About nine o'clock on Tuesday morning the dead body of a newly-born child was found in the first-class waiting-room at the Victoria Station, London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. The body, which was that of a full-grown and healthy child, showed signs of having met its death by violence, the neck bearing marks which left little doubt that it had been strangled. No linen, or anything by which it might be identified was found with the child, it simply being wrapped up in brown paper. It was conveyed to St. George's Hospital, and meanwhile the police are making inquiries with a view of ascertaining the perpetrator of the deed."

"The district of Upper Strathearn and adjacent places have been visited by a succession of pretty smart shocks of earthquakes during the last two or three days. At a little past ten o'clock on Wednesday night a rather severe shock was felt at Comrie, and was followed by another about ten minutes afterwards at Greenloaming Railway Station - a distance of about eleven miles from Comrie. Both shocks were distinctly felt. Between seven and eight o'clock on Thursday, and at an early hour on Friday morning, shocks past over the district, and although there was little shaking of the earth, apparently the noise accompanying the shock, which resembled distant thunder or the discharge of cannon, was heard over a large district. Immediately after the shocks of Wednesday rain poured down in perfect torrents, and has continued with very little intermissions since. At Comrie, which appears to be the seat of the strange phenomena, earthquakes have not been so frequent as this season since 1839."

"At the fortnightly meeting of the Royal Geographical Society, on Monday night... In a few opening remarks, he said it would be a search in vain for the explorers to go into the interior of Africa in quest of Dr. Livingstone, and it was only their intention to go to the spot where he is reported to have been killed, and put to rest the doubt whether he is dead or not. Her Majesty's government has granted a sum of money in aid of the expedition, and Lord Stanley and the Admiralty have behaved most liberally in furthering the designs of the society. Mr. E.T.Young, a clear-headed and well-acclimatised young man, who knows the river Zambezi and the people in the country which he has to traverse, will take charge of the expedition, which consists of three others besides himself. They will take the little iron and steel boat now building at Chatham, have it carried across the country till they reach a point above the rapids, and then sail for the northern end of Lake Nyassa, which is only twenty or thirty miles from the spot where Livingstone is reported to have been murdered, and then get authentic information. He would remind his hearers that a caravan of Arab traders had passed within ten miles of the spot within a month or two after the alleged murder, and the report they heard was that Dr. Livingstone had passed into the friendly country beyond..."

And of course the Correspondence section...
- "The last execution for attempted murder took place a few years ago at Chester."
- "You could get on board a man-of-war at Portsmouth or Plymouth"
- "We are not acquainted with any work on hatching and rearing pheasants. We do not send private answers through the post."
- "If the husband knew that the woman was using a false name, the marriage was illegal; but if he did not know it, it was a legal one. We do not undertake to send private answers by post."

And then of course the police reports - forensics clearly established already in 1867...
"...on analyzing the stomach he found four grains of arsenic therein. There was no other cause to account for death, the other organs being very healthy. The arsenic was found in differnet directions in the body, and had evidently been administered in large quantities. There was enough in the child's stomach to cause the death of two grown-up people. In the female child's stomach there were dark patches which contained arsenic, a quantity of which was also found in the intestines. On examining the "rat poison" he observed that it had the appearance of husky meal. Under the microscope, starch granules were seen without any appearance of mineral matter. The powder weighed forty grains, was tasteless, and without smell. On testing it he could not discover arsenic, mercury, or other mineral poison, but there were some indications of a poison called veratria. He was of the opinion that in both cases the deaths were occasioned by arsenic, and he had never had two clearer cases of poisoning by arsenic than the two now under inquiry."
And there Ripper Street tries to convince us that Homer Jackson has such an innovative and exotic profession!

I do have some rather fab Victorian-lads artwork, that would go nicely at the end here, but I'd need loxleyprince's permission to re-post it...? *name-links hopefully*

Of course the other problem with the British Newspaper Archive is that it's so easy to be distracted from work... *headdesk* I have an early deadline today too, as well as a shorter late one, but it's Friday, and if I can get it done then I have four days off in a row! Holidaaaaay! *g*