Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

The passing news

WANTED -- A GIRL, German, Swede, Nova Scotia, American, or colored, to do general housework; no Irish need apply. Apply 32 Tobey street.

-- Classified ad, Jan. 17, 1887

TO SAY THAT the 1254 patrons of the Boston-Providence game at Messer Park, yesterday afternoon, retired with feelings of utter disgust at the exhibition of puerile peevishness by Charles Radbourn, the heavily-salaried pitcher of the Providence nine, in the eighth inning, would but faintly describe the bitter feeling that prevailed.

- Opening line of game story, Sept. 17, 1884, after a 5-2 Providence loss. Radbourn's win-loss record for the Grays that season was 60-12

A STRONG DETACHMENT of police experienced great difficulty in holding back the crowd from the tracks, and as the engine bore in sight the pent-up enthusiasm was given full vent, and the depot rang with cheers and shouts of thousands of admirers of the champion Grays.

- Coverage of the Grays' arrival home, Oct. 18, 1884

CRANSTON

ALMOST A FATAL DOSE -- On Elm street in this town, lives a family which includes a grandmother, a mother and a babe about three months old. The mother has been using morphine powders for nervousness. A few days ago the grandmother by mistake gave one of the powders to the infant, and it was feared at first that the child would die. The little one remained in a critical condition for some time, but is now getting better and the attending physician thinks it will recover.

- Item on the suburban news page, Sept. 26, 1884

WHIP THIEVES ARRESTED

For some time past persons who have driven to Rocky Point have been annoyed by having whips stolen from their carriages while in the barn at that place. The management has always made good the loss caused by this petty thieving, but it was not until Thursday that the thieves were detected.

- News story, Aug. 30, 1884

THE MAJORITY of the licensed saloons in the city were closed yesterday, some of them having been converted into restaurants, fruit stands, cigar stores, storerooms, etc., while a few were open for the sale of soda . . . There were scores of bartenders promenading the streets, while others were seen with fishing rods and on their way in quest of recreation and amusement.

- From a news story on the start of Rhode Island prohibition, July 2, 1886

THERE WAS no fight in Congress yesterday.

A one-line news article, July 23, 1886

JEFFERSON DAVIS seems to be awakening, after twenty years, to the fact that he has been treated with unparalleled clemency by the government which he sought to destroy, and that he is not likely to go down in history as the martyr he would prefer to be considered.

-- Editorial, June 3, 1885, criticizing the former president of the Confederacy