General Chat

Fag Ash Note…..STEAD was a Journalist

Further reading W. T. Stead & the Virgin Trade: A "Special and Secret Commission of Inquiry" http://www.attackingthedevil.co.uk/worksabout/virgin.php

"Child of Thirteen Bought for £5" tells the story of the innocent and oblivious Lily, who is procured, subjected to chloroform, and left in a locked room of a fashionable London brothel:"And then there rose a wild and piteous cry...like the bleat of a frightened lamb... 'There's a man in the room! Take me home; oh, take me home!'". The man was Stead, and the child was Eliza Armstrong, whom he had procured from her own mother, just to show how easily it could be done.

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL

Truth, Jan 1 1885

I learn that the committee of the Football Association have passed a resolution legalising professionalism “under stringent conditions.“ This will be submitted to the general meeting Jan 19, when the resolution, which consists of nine separate clauses, will probably become law. As I have long advocated this step, I am glad to see the authorities at last adopting it.





THE ELIZA ARMSTRONG CASE

Morning Post,

November 11 1885

W. T. Stead, Samson Jaques, Rebecca Jarrett, and Louise Monrey, were tried yesterday at the Central Criminal Court for an indecent assault* on Eliza Armstrong. The Jury found Madame Monrey guilty, and the other defendants guilty of aiding and abetting.
Mr Stead, on this and the previous convictions for abduction, was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, R. Jarrett to six months, S. Jaques to one month, and Madame Monrey to six months, the last sentence only being with hard labour.



*This refers to the “test case” staged by Stead to expose the evils of White Slave Traffic- ED

More...more......more...........

they're great!!

GLANCE INTO THE FUTURE

Ainsworth Magazine 1842

The year of our Grace 1942:--- I am standing on Shakespeare’s Cliff, or what remains of it, wondering at the ruins of the railroad, and waiting for the daily post from Australia. I see a speck in the clouds. And hail the harbinger of news. The postman alights for half-a-second (his regulation breathing time), folds his wings, sucks in a concentrated lozenge the virtues of a quart of London Porter, blows his nose with an asbestos pocket handkerchief, and is off again like a rocket, before I have seen whether my letters have the postmark of Adelaide or of Sidney.


Fag Ash Note:- caoutchouc = Untreated natural rubber….rubber that has not been hardened (vulcanized) by treatment with sulphur

Word automatically changed it to ankle so I had to re-write it :-)

Not sure exactly where I read this, but had heard that it was a fashion at one time to write letters to friends, with every day words, differently spelled, just so's not to make the letter too boring......not as we do, as in noo for new, which is in effect slang, but maybe labor instead of labour ........I do say maybe here...as I would have to find where I read this to verify, unless someone else can do this for me.

hi lil lol

glad you said they were written like that cause you know some people do not like it when fings ain't spelt correcly lol...

keep em coming

jetxx

NEW FASHION FOR CHILDREN

Ackerman’s repository,

December 1824

CHILD’S DRESS--- A short German frock-coat of superfine bottle-green cloth, with rows of gilt buttons in front, and braided round the bottom of the skirt with a little tasteful ornament on each side. Nankeen vest, and Trowsers trimmed at the ancles: worked Spanish collar, or fluted Cambric frill.



Fag Ash Note : trowsers and ancle really were spelled like that.
Nankeen = a durable yellowish-brown cotton fabric
Cambric = a thin white linen or cotton fabric

RURAL RIDE

Cobbett’s Weekly Register,

Aug 9 1823

The wheat where it has begun to die, is dying of a good colour, not black, nor in anyway that indicates blight. It is, however, all backward. Some few fields of white wheat are changing colour; but, for the greater part, it is quite green; and, though a sudden change of weather might make a great alteration in a short time, it does not appear, that the harvest must be later than usual…..

If we were now to have good, bright, hot weather, for as long a time as we have had wet, the whole of the corn, in these southern counties, would be housed, and a great part of it threshed out, by the 10th of September. So, that all depends on the weather, which appears to be clearing up in spite of St Swithin.

This Saint’s birthday is the 15th July; and, it is said, that, if rain fell on his birthday, it will fall on forty days successively. But I believe that you reckon retrospectively as well as prospectively; and if this be the case, we may, this time, escape the extreme unction; for, it began to rain on the 26th June; so that it rained 19 days before the 15th of July; and as it has rained 16 days since, it has rained in the whole, 35 days, and, of course will satisfy this wet soul of a saint. Let him take his five days; and, there will be plenty of time for us to have wheat at four shillings* per bushel.

*20p

Thanks for that Carol,

Did find that too....read it last year, facinating is right especially if you also find one of your anscestors there.

BEWARE OF BAD BOOKS

The Visitor, or Monthly instructor

Dec 1836

Books could be named, were it not that there is a possibility that even the information conveyed in naming them might be perverted, which seemingly, could not be excelled by all the talents in hell, if the object were to pollute and ruin. These are to be found everywhere. I do entreat my young readers never to look at one, never to open one. They will leave a stain upon the soul which can never be removed.

I believe a single page from Byron, which has done more hurt to the mind and the heart of the young than all his writings have ever done good. But he will quickly pass from notice, and is doomed to be exiled from the libraries of all virtuous men.



Fag Ash Note:- He got that wrong then.

Thanks for looking Kitty, I had a quick look too....maybe the name has been changed or it has been demolished......shame if it has.

Found lots of Jolly Butcher pubs, don't know the area at all to see if one of them could have a connection though.

I love these snippets Susan.

Thank you.
xx

A “FLASH HOUSE”

Times, January 1823

BOW-STREET :---- YOUTHFUL DEPRAVITY. ----

For a considerable time past, the inhabitants of Clare-Market and its immediate neighbourhood have had occasion to complain of a nuisance of the worst description---- namely, what is called a Flash house, kept by a man named BYEFIELD, in Clements-Lane in which some part of the market is situate. It is a public house called the JOLLY BUTCHERS, and has been for months past the daily resort of young thieves and prostitutes of the very lowest grade.


In the day time dozens of them were to be seen about the door, insulting persons as they passed, and not infrequently despoiling the passenger of some part of the contents of his pockets. At night was held what is called a “Free and Easy”, a singing club, at which girls and boys were permitted to assemble, without regard to age, character or condition, and sing and drink as long as the chose……..


At the close of the office business, the male prisoners were chained together and conveyed to prison. Their conversation, while for a few minutes they remained in an outer room, and the extreme levity they displayed when they got into the street, were really shocking. They appeared rather proud than ashamed of their disgraceful situation.



Fag Ash Note :-- Spect the pub could'nt have asked for a better advertisement…..also.. not much changes over the years……

wonder if the pub is still there…..would be great to be able to pass this snippet onto them to frame it for their wall.

They are actually from an old out of print book I have, Michael, called.......

NEWS FROM THE PAST 1805-1887

The Autobiography of the Nineteenth century
Being a miscellany of Newspaper accounts of
Wars, Riots, Coronations, Murders, conspiracies, Scandals, Fashions, shipwrecks, spoting events, reforms, Inventions, &c, &c, &c.

Have tried to put up a mixture . Glad you like them too Liz. It does help to put meat on the bones of research and some of them do make me chuckle whilst others are quite sad.

Thanks Susan - you have the knack of finding some real gems! xxxxx Michael

yes it does liz, i would love to be able to back and watch for just an hour or two:)

invisible lol
jetx

Thanks for these Susan - brings history alive. Liz

JANE EYRE

Quarterly Review 1848

Jane Eyre, in spite of some grand things about her is a being totally uncongenial to our feelings from beginning to end, We acknowledge her firmness ---- we respect her determination ---- we feel for her struggles ; but for all that, and setting aside higher considerations, the impression she leaves on our minds is that of a decidedly vulgar minded woman---one whom we should not care for as an acquaintance, whom we should not seek as a friend, whom we should not desire for a relation, and whom we should scrupulously avoid as a governess.


The question of authorship, therefore, can deserve a moments curiosity as far as “Jane Eyre” is concerned, and though we cannot pronounce that it appertains to the real Mr. Currer Bell and to no other, yet it appertains to a man, and as many assert, to a woman, we are strongly inclined to affirm.

Hya Newby.....Newby C I take it? Welcome back.

Yes so did one side of mine. Heartbreaking to read about those times of deprivation

Did you see the building of the first motorways documentary last week? ( 1959 )....fascinating!.....how mostly Irish built it and the way they lived while doing so.....lots of film. hope it is on again as I missed the first episode.

There was a saying that if all the Irish ( and descedants ) went back to Ireland it would sink

( no offence meant.....an Irish GG auntie told me that one )

Susan , (Fag Ash) good to see you and thanks for this thread . My ancestors got fed up of potatoes an came over at that time , so here I am ... LOL xxxx