#dailycolonist1915 - News out of Victoria, British Columbia, 100 years ago:
The general buzz this week is on Russian advances in the Carpathian Mountains. The articles are all short on specifics, even in comparison to the heavily censored news from the Western Front, as all the news from the Eastern European theatre seem to be, so none of them were really worth "clipping". Suffice to say that the Russians have advanced through at least two Carpathian passes into Hungarian territory. The more interesting articles and advertisements from this week follow:
- Tuesday, April 6, 1915
- An interesting article in the "Women's Realm" section on the growing numbers of woman entering the workforce with advice for women on how to hold a job more permanently and advance their careers. [Interesting because the general opinion in my experience is that this is a World War II phenomenon, which may well be true in the United States, but as this article shows, this started in World War I in Canada since, unlike the U.S., Canada was in the war right from the get-go and a far greater percentage of the male population in Canada took up arms.]
- An interesting article in the "Women's Realm" section on the growing numbers of woman entering the workforce with advice for women on how to hold a job more permanently and advance their careers. [Interesting because the general opinion in my experience is that this is a World War II phenomenon, which may well be true in the United States, but as this article shows, this started in World War I in Canada since, unlike the U.S., Canada was in the war right from the get-go and a far greater percentage of the male population in Canada took up arms.]
- Wednesday, April 7, 1915
- Front page article refers to German submarines as "pirates" (in keeping with the editorial published the previous Wednesday) for attacks on a hospital ship and merchant ships.
- On Tuesday an estimated 1,500 unemployed men riot in Vancouver, stealing food from grocers and restaurants along Cordova Street after being denied further relief work by the Vancouver city government. [I tried looking up more about this and it seems this event is forgotten by history.]
- Victoria city news include two speeding tickets for motorist, one of which was for $50 for exceeding the speed limit of 15 mph on Fort Street. [Note that a house in a nice neighbourhood in Victoria rents for $10-15/month at the time. $50 is a pretty hefty fine!]
- Thursday, April 8, 1915
- Story on German prisoners of war in Maidenhead, England almost completing an escape tunnel.
- Illustrated ad for a live corset-modelling event at Spencer's Department Store.
- Friday, April 9, 1915
- A shipment of 150 areoplanes for Russia arrives in Tacoma by C.P. Rail for shipping to Vladivostok aboard a Japanese freighter [World War, indeed!]
- American chemical companies are gearing up to produce fabric dyes no longer available from Germany [Dyes derived from coal-tar were first invented in 1856 by German chemist A. W. Hoffman working in London at the time. German chemists and industry remained leaders in the field up to this point.]
- Saturday, April 10, 1915
- Illustrated ad for "20th Century Suits"
- Editorial where the Colonist responds to Liberal criticism (The Daily Colonist is an unabashedly Conservative newspaper) [This bit of partisan bickering would not be out of place in a modern blog. Also note that the Conservative Party of 1915 is not the same party as the far-right, Teabagger wanna-be, Reform-party radical, "You won't recognize Canada when I'm done with it" Harper Conservatives that currently bear the name.]
- City news notes that mail dispatched from England on March 26 has now arrived in Victoria [a little reminder of life without e-mail.]
- A [fantastically racist] illustrated ad for shoe-polish.
- Another article on German submarine "piracy".
- Prime Minister Robert Borden reports that Canada's forces now number 101,560 men (all volunteers) [from a population of 7.9 million. In comparison, the U.K., with a population over five time greater at 41.7 million had a force of about 300,000 to 400,000, not counting colonials, at the time—although is difficult to find numbers that differentiate between men from the U.K. and colonials. An easier comparison is the United States, with a population well over 12 times that of Canada at about 100 million, in their second month of the war—June 1917—had a force of 390,000 men.]
- Two-page wide photograph of the Governor General H.R.H. Prince Arthur, the Duke of Connaught [third son of Queen Victoria, and father to Princess Patricia for whom the Princess Patricia Light Infantry are named] inspecting the Second Canadian Contingent in Montréal. [Then as now, the Governor General is the commander-in-chief of Canadian forces.]
- The four-page Sunday section on "The Great European War" includes a page on the Russian advances in the Carpathians and a page on rail-mounted mobile artillery [tanks and self-propelled artillery are still being developed and the British Mark I tank and Gun Carrier Mark I do not go into battle until 1916.]
- Monday, April 12, 1915
- [no paper on Mondays]
[source: http://www.britishcolonist.ca/dateList.php?year=1915 ]
