When I go back a hundred years I read these things in the local paper. Local farmers lose several head of stock from rabies. The aftermath of a mad dog scare three months ago results in an enormous loss to farmers. Stock owners of Helendale and Coburn townships are the heaviest losers. . . an article reprinted from Lincoln Center, Kansas reported men held a girl prostrate while hot tar was applied on her naked body. It didn't say why. . . a woman from the southwest of Leonard was taken by a deputy to Wahpeton to verify her insanity. It named her and said her husband referred her. . . a quip quoted one woman who said, "Do not marry a poet," but then asked, "but suppose he doesn't show any symptoms before marriage?" . . . stories and books were published in serial form for the entertainment of the readers. This one caught my eye because I have owned this book for a long time. A large box ad proclaimed, "A new serial story to appear in The Progress: "Burning Daylight by Jack London. It is the best work yet produced by this masterful writer who has roughed it in many fields of adventure. Burning Daylignt is a character fashioned out of the frozen North; how he comes out of the Klondike with wealth won from the obdurate earth, is vanquished and stripped of his millions in Wall Street, regains them, and returning to the west from whence he came, is conquered anew by love, then to renounce his riches, is told in the powerful style of this author who has achieved world-wide popularity. It will be started in The Progress about December 15."
Then I read in the 1885 issue of The Progress some very gory reporting about the execution of Louis Riel who was known as the leader of the half-breeds. Many of the bull whacking ox-cart drivers coming through here were half-breeds and held Riel in high esteem. This is the language used by the old-time newspaper men, "Louis Riel meets his death like a brave man and declines to make a speech upon the gallows. He was told he would have two minutes to pray, and he repeated The Lord's Prayer. He invoked the aid of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and the other saints. Two priests stood by him and to their exhortations to stand firm, Riel said he was not afraid to die. The rope was now adjusted by the hideous looking hangman who also drew the white cap over Riel's face. The suspense was terrible and could not last much longer. When the words Lead us not into temptation were reached the deputy sheriff nodded to the hangman who kept his eyes fixed on him. The drop was nine feet, and the victim fell with terrible force, so that his neck was broken instantly. . . The description went on with the doctor performing the post mortem who said, "The execution was most cleverly performed. No death could be more merciful." Believe it or not I left out many of the descriptive gory details. News was reported a bit differently then.
Then I read in the 1885 issue of The Progress some very gory reporting about the execution of Louis Riel who was known as the leader of the half-breeds. Many of the bull whacking ox-cart drivers coming through here were half-breeds and held Riel in high esteem. This is the language used by the old-time newspaper men, "Louis Riel meets his death like a brave man and declines to make a speech upon the gallows. He was told he would have two minutes to pray, and he repeated The Lord's Prayer. He invoked the aid of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and the other saints. Two priests stood by him and to their exhortations to stand firm, Riel said he was not afraid to die. The rope was now adjusted by the hideous looking hangman who also drew the white cap over Riel's face. The suspense was terrible and could not last much longer. When the words Lead us not into temptation were reached the deputy sheriff nodded to the hangman who kept his eyes fixed on him. The drop was nine feet, and the victim fell with terrible force, so that his neck was broken instantly. . . The description went on with the doctor performing the post mortem who said, "The execution was most cleverly performed. No death could be more merciful." Believe it or not I left out many of the descriptive gory details. News was reported a bit differently then.
