IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (29th MARCH - 4th APRIL 1921)
This week's stories include the gross act of indecency committed in St Helens Market, extraordinary claims of third degree treatment at Sutton Police Station, a baby is abandoned in Thatto Heath and the rising cost of making a telephone call.
We begin on March 30th when two men appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a "gross act" in the market. Although precise details were not reported, it appears that the men had entered a secluded part of the market place after the stalls had closed in order to commit a homosexual act. Constable Reynolds told the magistrates that he found 26-year-old Norman Astles from Appleton and Samuel Pigott of Prescot Road in St Helens in an "extraordinary position" and at once arrested them. Pigott ran away but was captured by PC Tinsley – despite some violent resistance.
Astles claimed to be a music hall artist and female impersonator and PC Tinsley said that in manner and speech he was very much like a woman. The constable added that Astles was "small and talked in a simpering way, and he was painted and powdered on the cheeks and his lips were coloured." Despite being caught in a compromising position and Samuel Pigott running off and resisting arrest, both men strenuously denied the offence. The courts treated homosexual acts very seriously and if found guilty the pair would likely be handed stiff prison terms.
So denial was their only course – however their explanations to the magistrates were very weak. Norman Astles said he had been going home when the other man spoke to him. He insisted that they were simply standing together talking when the police suddenly appeared and in the struggle to get away his clothing became disarranged. He had done nothing wrong – Astles insisted – and had never been arrested before.
However Samuel Pigott – a colliery worker – said he had been arrested scores of times (although not for a sexual offence) and had bolted because he thought the police might accuse him of going into the market to break into a stall. Both men were committed for trial at the next assizes hearing in Liverpool in April – (to be continued…).
The Liverpool Echo on the 31st detailed the new telephone calling charges that were coming on stream on the following day. Although those stated were specific for Liverpool, I doubt the St Helens charges would have been much different. With the technology still primitive compared to what we have today, the system was quite convoluted and the call rate so complex that it required a lengthy explanation and an illustration in the paper.
However to simplify it all, a 3-minute local call within a 7-mile radius of Liverpool was fairly cheap at 1½d. To put that into some context the average price of a pint of beer was then around 6d and so you wouldn't want to make too many local calls. However the cost shot up the further the distance, with 3-minute trunk calls of 100 miles costing 2s 7½d. According to my calculations, telephoning London from St Helens for between 3 and 6 minutes would have cost over 12 shillings, when most people were earning around £3 per week.
Not that many people in St Helens could either afford or need a phone, unless you were well off. Who could you call? None of your friends were likely to have one. All calls then had to go through the operator and I expect the quality of the lines was quite poor – especially as the distance increased.
Public telephone kiosks would not begin to be introduced until later in the year and so the Echo told its readers that the "public call office" fee was rising from 2d to 3d. These were the telephones available for members of the public to use within places like the main post office in Church Street in St Helens. Your threepence would only cover 7 miles and (I think) last just 3 minutes. So Liverpool to St Helens (and presumably vice-versa) would have cost at least a tanner. The above cartoon was published in the Liverpool Echo and shows such a public call office telephone.
Extraordinary claims of "third degree" police tactics were made in court on the 31st. That was after four St Helens boys had been charged with maliciously obstructing the railway. The court heard that on January 10th engine driver John Twist had been travelling from Haydock to Southport Colliery in Parr. Suddenly his loco struck a pit prop that had been deliberately placed on the railway line and after careful examination, two more props were discovered further on. More seriously, two sets of points had been vandalised. One was fastened down with lashing chains and the other was jammed with stones, dirt and pieces of wood. The prosecution stated that if the engine had continued its journey, it would have been thrown off the line.
Inspector Bowden told the court that almost six weeks after the event the four lads had been taken to Sutton Police Station for questioning. One of the two defence solicitors was the outspoken Jeremiah Haslam Fox and there was no love lost between him and the police. Last February in court he had angrily accused the St Helens Chief Constable of bringing a case against one of his neighbours in order to get at him. Fox then said: "To hit me this poor woman had been brought into the court. It was a dastardly, mean effort to get at a man that they could not look straight in the face."
Now he made a range of accusations of police malpractice against the boys, none of which were named in newspaper accounts. First he complained they had been arrested without a warrant. To that Inspector Bowden explained that the boys had not been arrested but had simply been taken to the station to help with enquiries. The Liverpool Echo reported the rest of the dialogue like this:
"Mr Fox – Is it a fact that three boys were actually screaming in the police station? Inspector Bowden – No. Witness also denied that the boys were threatened with a hosepipe or that they were put in the cells. Mr Fox – Was a bottle held under one of the boys' noses as if to poison him? Inspector Bowden – No. I never heard such ridiculous statements in my life. Mr. Fox asked why the boys were not taken to the Town Hall [police station] for this third degree. Inspector Bowden – If there was any idea of a third degree they could have been taken to the Town Hall just as well as to Sutton."
Fox then accused the police of trickery in their dealings with the boys. To that the prosecuting solicitor accused Fox of making a despicable statement. The case was adjourned.
The coal industry was in deep trouble with exports down and imports from other countries on the rise. The government had run the mines during the war but on March 31st returned them to private ownership. That day was the also the deadline that the owners gave to the miners to accept tough new conditions or lose their jobs. As we know, coal mining was a dangerous, difficult occupation and to have their wages slashed and working hours increased was anathema for the mineworkers. So on April 1st all those men who refused to sign new contracts were locked out of their pits – effectively on strike, which meant dreadful hardship for many families in St Helens for several months to come and upon which I will report.
The Runcorn Examiner mentioned on the 1st that the St Helens Book Club dated back over a century. In fact they provided quite a precise date for its formation of January 15th 1813, a fortnight before Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' was published. I expect the quarterly club meetings were held in The Fleece – or perhaps the Raven.
The Examiner also had a camera advert. "Don't leave your holiday happiness behind you this year", it said. "Make sure of your Kodak and your Kodak will make sure of your happiness. Kodak pictures will save your holiday memories."
A baby was abandoned in Thatto Heath on the 2nd – in an unusual fashion. A woman aged about 20 spoke to several children playing in South Street, off Elephant Lane, at about 8:45pm and asked them where the nearest public house was. Upon being directed she asked a boy to take care of her child – who was four to six weeks old – while she went in the pub but never returned. Abandoning babies was a very common practice and rarely were their mothers found. On April 12th the prosecutor in a case at Clerkenwell Police Court in London would say: "The workhouse schools of St. Pancras are practically full of abandoned babies", and in May a ten-day-old baby would be found inside Westminster Cathedral.
Last Thursday the St Helens Star published a very interesting profile of St Helens Ladies football team (pictured above) and their great rivals Dick Kerr's of Preston. On the 2nd the Dudley Chronicle gave a detailed account of how a record crowd of 15,000 had watched the two teams play yet another charity game. It was the first ever women's football match to be played at the packed Dudley County Ground and Dick Kerr's won 2 - 0.
The newspaper criticised the performance of the St Helens side, saying: "The glass girls were wandering about far too much", adding that "many of them were still the slaves of their feet", arguing they should have headed the ball more. Lizzie Ashcroft as featured in the Star piece would not be making her debut for St Helens Ladies for a week or two – but Lily Parr played and scored for Dick Kerr's.
On the 4th Elizabeth Brophy from Phythian Street appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with a breach of the peace. She told the magistrates that the man that she'd been shouting at had broken her heart and then fainted in court. After recovering Elizabeth explained that she had been keeping company with this man but he had "thrown her over" and then made a serious statement about her. This had caused her to be greatly upset and the sympathetic magistrates bound Elizabeth over to be of good behaviour.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Echo that caught my eye this week was this shocking story that bore the headline: "Negro Branded By The Ku Klux Klan": "The first branding of a negro in the Southern States since the recent reorganisation of [the] Ku Klux Klan (a secret self-protection society of Southern whites) occurred on Friday evening at Dallas, Texas, when the Klan leaders inflicted this punishment on Alex Johnson, bell-boy at a local hotel, who had been discovered in a white woman's room. Johnson was taken to a lonely spot by the “Solemn Fifteen” circle of the Klan, and placed on trial (says the London “Daily Express”).
"Johnson told a sordid story of night life in the hotel where he was employed, and insisted that he was with the white woman at her own invitation. The famous Ku Klux circle was formed round Johnson by the “Solemn Fifteen,” with a fiery cross burning in the centre of the circle, and Johnson was given the choice of the death penalty or accepting twenty-five lashes, signing a pledge never to associate with another white woman, and being branded. The negro chose the latter, and thereupon received the twenty-five lashes, signed the required pledge, and had the letter “K” thrice burned into his forehead with silver nitrate. He was then taken back to the hotel, and left on the doorstep."
Next week's stories will include the stone throwing boys of Sutton Manor, the police's eviction of a former policeman, the young Irishman who walked round St Helens town centre hitting people and the St Helens fruit merchant and the stolen apples.
We begin on March 30th when two men appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a "gross act" in the market. Although precise details were not reported, it appears that the men had entered a secluded part of the market place after the stalls had closed in order to commit a homosexual act. Constable Reynolds told the magistrates that he found 26-year-old Norman Astles from Appleton and Samuel Pigott of Prescot Road in St Helens in an "extraordinary position" and at once arrested them. Pigott ran away but was captured by PC Tinsley – despite some violent resistance.
Astles claimed to be a music hall artist and female impersonator and PC Tinsley said that in manner and speech he was very much like a woman. The constable added that Astles was "small and talked in a simpering way, and he was painted and powdered on the cheeks and his lips were coloured." Despite being caught in a compromising position and Samuel Pigott running off and resisting arrest, both men strenuously denied the offence. The courts treated homosexual acts very seriously and if found guilty the pair would likely be handed stiff prison terms.
So denial was their only course – however their explanations to the magistrates were very weak. Norman Astles said he had been going home when the other man spoke to him. He insisted that they were simply standing together talking when the police suddenly appeared and in the struggle to get away his clothing became disarranged. He had done nothing wrong – Astles insisted – and had never been arrested before.
However Samuel Pigott – a colliery worker – said he had been arrested scores of times (although not for a sexual offence) and had bolted because he thought the police might accuse him of going into the market to break into a stall. Both men were committed for trial at the next assizes hearing in Liverpool in April – (to be continued…).
The Liverpool Echo on the 31st detailed the new telephone calling charges that were coming on stream on the following day. Although those stated were specific for Liverpool, I doubt the St Helens charges would have been much different. With the technology still primitive compared to what we have today, the system was quite convoluted and the call rate so complex that it required a lengthy explanation and an illustration in the paper.
However to simplify it all, a 3-minute local call within a 7-mile radius of Liverpool was fairly cheap at 1½d. To put that into some context the average price of a pint of beer was then around 6d and so you wouldn't want to make too many local calls. However the cost shot up the further the distance, with 3-minute trunk calls of 100 miles costing 2s 7½d. According to my calculations, telephoning London from St Helens for between 3 and 6 minutes would have cost over 12 shillings, when most people were earning around £3 per week.
Not that many people in St Helens could either afford or need a phone, unless you were well off. Who could you call? None of your friends were likely to have one. All calls then had to go through the operator and I expect the quality of the lines was quite poor – especially as the distance increased.
Extraordinary claims of "third degree" police tactics were made in court on the 31st. That was after four St Helens boys had been charged with maliciously obstructing the railway. The court heard that on January 10th engine driver John Twist had been travelling from Haydock to Southport Colliery in Parr. Suddenly his loco struck a pit prop that had been deliberately placed on the railway line and after careful examination, two more props were discovered further on. More seriously, two sets of points had been vandalised. One was fastened down with lashing chains and the other was jammed with stones, dirt and pieces of wood. The prosecution stated that if the engine had continued its journey, it would have been thrown off the line.
Inspector Bowden told the court that almost six weeks after the event the four lads had been taken to Sutton Police Station for questioning. One of the two defence solicitors was the outspoken Jeremiah Haslam Fox and there was no love lost between him and the police. Last February in court he had angrily accused the St Helens Chief Constable of bringing a case against one of his neighbours in order to get at him. Fox then said: "To hit me this poor woman had been brought into the court. It was a dastardly, mean effort to get at a man that they could not look straight in the face."
Now he made a range of accusations of police malpractice against the boys, none of which were named in newspaper accounts. First he complained they had been arrested without a warrant. To that Inspector Bowden explained that the boys had not been arrested but had simply been taken to the station to help with enquiries. The Liverpool Echo reported the rest of the dialogue like this:
"Mr Fox – Is it a fact that three boys were actually screaming in the police station? Inspector Bowden – No. Witness also denied that the boys were threatened with a hosepipe or that they were put in the cells. Mr Fox – Was a bottle held under one of the boys' noses as if to poison him? Inspector Bowden – No. I never heard such ridiculous statements in my life. Mr. Fox asked why the boys were not taken to the Town Hall [police station] for this third degree. Inspector Bowden – If there was any idea of a third degree they could have been taken to the Town Hall just as well as to Sutton."
Fox then accused the police of trickery in their dealings with the boys. To that the prosecuting solicitor accused Fox of making a despicable statement. The case was adjourned.
The coal industry was in deep trouble with exports down and imports from other countries on the rise. The government had run the mines during the war but on March 31st returned them to private ownership. That day was the also the deadline that the owners gave to the miners to accept tough new conditions or lose their jobs. As we know, coal mining was a dangerous, difficult occupation and to have their wages slashed and working hours increased was anathema for the mineworkers. So on April 1st all those men who refused to sign new contracts were locked out of their pits – effectively on strike, which meant dreadful hardship for many families in St Helens for several months to come and upon which I will report.
The Runcorn Examiner mentioned on the 1st that the St Helens Book Club dated back over a century. In fact they provided quite a precise date for its formation of January 15th 1813, a fortnight before Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' was published. I expect the quarterly club meetings were held in The Fleece – or perhaps the Raven.
The Examiner also had a camera advert. "Don't leave your holiday happiness behind you this year", it said. "Make sure of your Kodak and your Kodak will make sure of your happiness. Kodak pictures will save your holiday memories."
A baby was abandoned in Thatto Heath on the 2nd – in an unusual fashion. A woman aged about 20 spoke to several children playing in South Street, off Elephant Lane, at about 8:45pm and asked them where the nearest public house was. Upon being directed she asked a boy to take care of her child – who was four to six weeks old – while she went in the pub but never returned. Abandoning babies was a very common practice and rarely were their mothers found. On April 12th the prosecutor in a case at Clerkenwell Police Court in London would say: "The workhouse schools of St. Pancras are practically full of abandoned babies", and in May a ten-day-old baby would be found inside Westminster Cathedral.
The newspaper criticised the performance of the St Helens side, saying: "The glass girls were wandering about far too much", adding that "many of them were still the slaves of their feet", arguing they should have headed the ball more. Lizzie Ashcroft as featured in the Star piece would not be making her debut for St Helens Ladies for a week or two – but Lily Parr played and scored for Dick Kerr's.
On the 4th Elizabeth Brophy from Phythian Street appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with a breach of the peace. She told the magistrates that the man that she'd been shouting at had broken her heart and then fainted in court. After recovering Elizabeth explained that she had been keeping company with this man but he had "thrown her over" and then made a serious statement about her. This had caused her to be greatly upset and the sympathetic magistrates bound Elizabeth over to be of good behaviour.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Echo that caught my eye this week was this shocking story that bore the headline: "Negro Branded By The Ku Klux Klan": "The first branding of a negro in the Southern States since the recent reorganisation of [the] Ku Klux Klan (a secret self-protection society of Southern whites) occurred on Friday evening at Dallas, Texas, when the Klan leaders inflicted this punishment on Alex Johnson, bell-boy at a local hotel, who had been discovered in a white woman's room. Johnson was taken to a lonely spot by the “Solemn Fifteen” circle of the Klan, and placed on trial (says the London “Daily Express”).
"Johnson told a sordid story of night life in the hotel where he was employed, and insisted that he was with the white woman at her own invitation. The famous Ku Klux circle was formed round Johnson by the “Solemn Fifteen,” with a fiery cross burning in the centre of the circle, and Johnson was given the choice of the death penalty or accepting twenty-five lashes, signing a pledge never to associate with another white woman, and being branded. The negro chose the latter, and thereupon received the twenty-five lashes, signed the required pledge, and had the letter “K” thrice burned into his forehead with silver nitrate. He was then taken back to the hotel, and left on the doorstep."
Next week's stories will include the stone throwing boys of Sutton Manor, the police's eviction of a former policeman, the young Irishman who walked round St Helens town centre hitting people and the St Helens fruit merchant and the stolen apples.
This week's stories include the gross act of indecency committed in St Helens Market, extraordinary claims of third degree treatment at Sutton Police Station, a baby is abandoned in Thatto Heath and the rising cost of making a telephone call.
We begin on March 30th when two men appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a "gross act" in the market.
Although precise details were not reported, it appears that the men had entered a secluded part of the market place after the stalls had closed in order to commit a homosexual act.
Constable Reynolds told the magistrates that he found 26-year-old Norman Astles from Appleton and Samuel Pigott of Prescot Road in St Helens in an "extraordinary position" and at once arrested them.
Pigott ran away but was captured by PC Tinsley – despite some violent resistance.
Astles claimed to be a music hall artist and female impersonator and PC Tinsley said that in manner and speech he was very much like a woman.
The constable added that Astles was "small and talked in a simpering way, and he was painted and powdered on the cheeks and his lips were coloured."
Despite being caught in a compromising position and Samuel Pigott running off and resisting arrest, both men strenuously denied the offence.
The courts treated homosexual acts very seriously and if found guilty the pair would likely be handed stiff prison terms.
So denial was their only course – however their explanations to the magistrates were very weak.
Norman Astles said he had been going home when the other man spoke to him.
He insisted that they were simply standing together talking when the police suddenly appeared and in the struggle to get away his clothing became disarranged.
He had done nothing wrong – Astles insisted – and had never been arrested before.
However Samuel Pigott – a colliery worker – said he had been arrested scores of times (although not for a sexual offence) and had bolted because he thought the police might accuse him of going into the market to break into a stall.
Both men were committed for trial at the next assizes hearing in Liverpool in April – (to be continued…)
The Liverpool Echo on the 31st detailed the new telephone calling charges that were coming on stream on the following day.
Although those stated were specific for Liverpool, I doubt the St Helens charges would have been much different.
With the technology still primitive compared to what we have today, the system was quite convoluted and the call rate so complex that it required a lengthy explanation and an illustration in the paper.
However to simplify it all, a 3-minute local call within a 7-mile radius of Liverpool was fairly cheap at 1½d.
To put that into some context the average price of a pint of beer was then around 6d and so you wouldn't want to make too many local calls.
However the cost shot up the further the distance, with 3-minute trunk calls of 100 miles costing 2s 7½d.
According to my calculations, telephoning London from St Helens for between 3 and 6 minutes would have cost over 12 shillings, when most people were earning around £3 per week.
Not that many people in St Helens could either afford or need a phone, unless you were well off.
Who could you call? None of your friends were likely to have one.
All calls then had to go through the operator and I expect the quality of the lines was quite poor – especially as the distance increased.
Public telephone kiosks would not begin to be introduced until later in the year and so the Echo told its readers that the "public call office" fee was rising from 2d to 3d.
These were the telephones available for members of the public to use within places like the main post office in Church Street in St Helens.
Your threepence would only cover 7 miles and (I think) last just 3 minutes.
So Liverpool to St Helens (and presumably vice-versa) would have cost at least a tanner.
The above cartoon was published in the Liverpool Echo and shows such a public call office telephone.
Extraordinary claims of "third degree" police tactics were made in court on the 31st.
That was after four St Helens boys had been charged with maliciously obstructing the railway.
The court heard that on January 10th engine driver John Twist had been travelling from Haydock to Southport Colliery in Parr.
Suddenly his loco struck a pit prop that had been deliberately placed on the railway line and after careful examination, two more props were discovered further on.
More seriously, two sets of points had been vandalised. One was fastened down with lashing chains and the other was jammed with stones, dirt and pieces of wood.
The prosecution stated that if the engine had continued its journey, it would have been thrown off the line.
Inspector Bowden told the court that almost six weeks after the event the four lads had been taken to Sutton Police Station for questioning.
One of the two defence solicitors was the outspoken Jeremiah Haslam Fox and there was no love lost between him and the police.
Last February in court he had angrily accused the St Helens Chief Constable of bringing a case against one of his neighbours in order to get at him.
Fox then said: "To hit me this poor woman had been brought into the court. It was a dastardly, mean effort to get at a man that they could not look straight in the face."
Now he made a range of accusations of police malpractice against the boys, none of which were named in newspaper accounts.
First he complained they had been arrested without a warrant.
To that Inspector Bowden explained that the boys had not been arrested but had simply been taken to the station to help with enquiries.
The Liverpool Echo reported the rest of the dialogue like this:
"Mr Fox – Is it a fact that three boys were actually screaming in the police station? Inspector Bowden – No.
"Witness also denied that the boys were threatened with a hose pipe or that they were put in the cells.
"Mr Fox – Was a bottle held under one of the boys' noses as if to poison him?
"Inspector Bowden – No. I never heard such ridiculous statements in my life.
"Mr. Fox asked why the boys were not taken to the Town Hall [police station] for this third degree.
"Inspector Bowden – If there was any idea of a third degree they could have been taken to the Town Hall just as well as to Sutton."
Fox then accused the police of trickery in their dealings with the boys.
To that the prosecuting solicitor accused Fox of making a despicable statement. The case was adjourned.
The coal industry was in deep trouble with exports down and imports from other countries on the rise.
The government had run the mines during the war but on March 31st returned them to private ownership.
That day was the also the deadline that the owners gave to the miners to accept tough new conditions or lose their jobs.
As we know, coal mining was a dangerous, difficult occupation and to have their wages slashed and working hours increased was anathema for the mineworkers.
So on April 1st all those men who refused to sign new contracts were locked out of their pits – effectively on strike, which meant dreadful hardship for many families in St Helens for several months to come and upon which I will report.
The Runcorn Examiner mentioned on the 1st that the St Helens Book Club dated back over a century.
In fact they provided quite a precise date for its formation of January 15th 1813, a fortnight before Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' was published.
I expect the quarterly club meetings were held in The Fleece – or perhaps the Raven.
The Examiner also had a camera advert. "Don't leave your holiday happiness behind you this year", it said.
"Make sure of your Kodak and your Kodak will make sure of your happiness. Kodak pictures will save your holiday memories."
A baby was abandoned in Thatto Heath on the 2nd – in an unusual fashion.
A woman aged about 20 spoke to several children playing in South Street, off Elephant Lane, at about 8:45pm and asked them where the nearest public house was.
Upon being directed she asked a boy to take care of her child – who was four to six weeks old – while she went in the pub but never returned.
Abandoning babies was a very common practice and rarely were their mothers found.
On April 12th the prosecutor in a case at Clerkenwell Police Court in London would say:
"The workhouse schools of St. Pancras are practically full of abandoned babies", and in May a ten-day-old baby would be found inside Westminster Cathedral.
Last Thursday the St Helens Star published a very interesting profile of St Helens Ladies football team (pictured above) and their great rivals Dick Kerr's of Preston.
On the 2nd the Dudley Chronicle gave a detailed account of how a record crowd of 15,000 had watched the two teams play yet another charity game.
It was the first ever women's football match to be played at the packed Dudley County Ground and Dick Kerr's won 2 - 0.
The newspaper criticised the performance of the St Helens side, saying: "The glass girls were wandering about far too much", adding that "many of them were still the slaves of their feet", arguing they should have headed the ball more.
Lizzie Ashcroft as featured in the Star piece would not be making her debut for St Helens Ladies for a week or two – but Lily Parr played and scored for Dick Kerr's.
On the 4th Elizabeth Brophy from Phythian Street appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with a breach of the peace.
She told the magistrates that the man that she'd been shouting at had broken her heart and then fainted in court.
After recovering Elizabeth explained that she had been keeping company with this man but he had "thrown her over" and then made a serious statement about her.
This had caused her to be greatly upset and the sympathetic magistrates bound Elizabeth over to be of good behaviour.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Echo that caught my eye this week was this shocking story that bore the headline: "Negro Branded By The Ku Klux Klan":
"The first branding of a negro in the Southern States since the recent reorganisation of [the] Ku Klux Klan (a secret self-protection society of Southern whites) occurred on Friday evening at Dallas, Texas, when the Klan leaders inflicted this punishment on Alex Johnson, bell-boy at a local hotel, who had been discovered in a white woman's room.
"Johnson was taken to a lonely spot by the “Solemn Fifteen” circle of the Klan, and placed on trial (says the London “Daily Express”).
"Johnson told a sordid story of night life in the hotel where he was employed, and insisted that he was with the white woman at her own invitation.
"The famous Ku Klux circle was formed round Johnson by the “Solemn Fifteen,” with a fiery cross burning in the centre of the circle, and Johnson was given the choice of the death penalty or accepting twenty-five lashes, signing a pledge never to associate with another white woman, and being branded.
"The negro chose the latter, and thereupon received the twenty-five lashes, signed the required pledge, and had the letter “K” thrice burned into his forehead with silver nitrate. He was then taken back to the hotel, and left on the doorstep."
Next week's stories will include the stone throwing boys of Sutton Manor, the police's eviction of a former policeman, the young Irishman who walked round St Helens town centre hitting people and the St Helens fruit merchant and the stolen apples.
We begin on March 30th when two men appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with committing a "gross act" in the market.
Although precise details were not reported, it appears that the men had entered a secluded part of the market place after the stalls had closed in order to commit a homosexual act.
Constable Reynolds told the magistrates that he found 26-year-old Norman Astles from Appleton and Samuel Pigott of Prescot Road in St Helens in an "extraordinary position" and at once arrested them.
Pigott ran away but was captured by PC Tinsley – despite some violent resistance.
Astles claimed to be a music hall artist and female impersonator and PC Tinsley said that in manner and speech he was very much like a woman.
The constable added that Astles was "small and talked in a simpering way, and he was painted and powdered on the cheeks and his lips were coloured."
Despite being caught in a compromising position and Samuel Pigott running off and resisting arrest, both men strenuously denied the offence.
The courts treated homosexual acts very seriously and if found guilty the pair would likely be handed stiff prison terms.
So denial was their only course – however their explanations to the magistrates were very weak.
Norman Astles said he had been going home when the other man spoke to him.
He insisted that they were simply standing together talking when the police suddenly appeared and in the struggle to get away his clothing became disarranged.
He had done nothing wrong – Astles insisted – and had never been arrested before.
However Samuel Pigott – a colliery worker – said he had been arrested scores of times (although not for a sexual offence) and had bolted because he thought the police might accuse him of going into the market to break into a stall.
Both men were committed for trial at the next assizes hearing in Liverpool in April – (to be continued…)
The Liverpool Echo on the 31st detailed the new telephone calling charges that were coming on stream on the following day.
Although those stated were specific for Liverpool, I doubt the St Helens charges would have been much different.
With the technology still primitive compared to what we have today, the system was quite convoluted and the call rate so complex that it required a lengthy explanation and an illustration in the paper.
However to simplify it all, a 3-minute local call within a 7-mile radius of Liverpool was fairly cheap at 1½d.
To put that into some context the average price of a pint of beer was then around 6d and so you wouldn't want to make too many local calls.
However the cost shot up the further the distance, with 3-minute trunk calls of 100 miles costing 2s 7½d.
According to my calculations, telephoning London from St Helens for between 3 and 6 minutes would have cost over 12 shillings, when most people were earning around £3 per week.
Not that many people in St Helens could either afford or need a phone, unless you were well off.
Who could you call? None of your friends were likely to have one.
All calls then had to go through the operator and I expect the quality of the lines was quite poor – especially as the distance increased.
Public telephone kiosks would not begin to be introduced until later in the year and so the Echo told its readers that the "public call office" fee was rising from 2d to 3d.
These were the telephones available for members of the public to use within places like the main post office in Church Street in St Helens.
Your threepence would only cover 7 miles and (I think) last just 3 minutes.
So Liverpool to St Helens (and presumably vice-versa) would have cost at least a tanner.
Extraordinary claims of "third degree" police tactics were made in court on the 31st.
That was after four St Helens boys had been charged with maliciously obstructing the railway.
The court heard that on January 10th engine driver John Twist had been travelling from Haydock to Southport Colliery in Parr.
Suddenly his loco struck a pit prop that had been deliberately placed on the railway line and after careful examination, two more props were discovered further on.
More seriously, two sets of points had been vandalised. One was fastened down with lashing chains and the other was jammed with stones, dirt and pieces of wood.
The prosecution stated that if the engine had continued its journey, it would have been thrown off the line.
Inspector Bowden told the court that almost six weeks after the event the four lads had been taken to Sutton Police Station for questioning.
One of the two defence solicitors was the outspoken Jeremiah Haslam Fox and there was no love lost between him and the police.
Last February in court he had angrily accused the St Helens Chief Constable of bringing a case against one of his neighbours in order to get at him.
Fox then said: "To hit me this poor woman had been brought into the court. It was a dastardly, mean effort to get at a man that they could not look straight in the face."
Now he made a range of accusations of police malpractice against the boys, none of which were named in newspaper accounts.
First he complained they had been arrested without a warrant.
To that Inspector Bowden explained that the boys had not been arrested but had simply been taken to the station to help with enquiries.
The Liverpool Echo reported the rest of the dialogue like this:
"Mr Fox – Is it a fact that three boys were actually screaming in the police station? Inspector Bowden – No.
"Witness also denied that the boys were threatened with a hose pipe or that they were put in the cells.
"Mr Fox – Was a bottle held under one of the boys' noses as if to poison him?
"Inspector Bowden – No. I never heard such ridiculous statements in my life.
"Mr. Fox asked why the boys were not taken to the Town Hall [police station] for this third degree.
"Inspector Bowden – If there was any idea of a third degree they could have been taken to the Town Hall just as well as to Sutton."
Fox then accused the police of trickery in their dealings with the boys.
To that the prosecuting solicitor accused Fox of making a despicable statement. The case was adjourned.
The coal industry was in deep trouble with exports down and imports from other countries on the rise.
The government had run the mines during the war but on March 31st returned them to private ownership.
That day was the also the deadline that the owners gave to the miners to accept tough new conditions or lose their jobs.
As we know, coal mining was a dangerous, difficult occupation and to have their wages slashed and working hours increased was anathema for the mineworkers.
So on April 1st all those men who refused to sign new contracts were locked out of their pits – effectively on strike, which meant dreadful hardship for many families in St Helens for several months to come and upon which I will report.
The Runcorn Examiner mentioned on the 1st that the St Helens Book Club dated back over a century.
In fact they provided quite a precise date for its formation of January 15th 1813, a fortnight before Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' was published.
I expect the quarterly club meetings were held in The Fleece – or perhaps the Raven.
The Examiner also had a camera advert. "Don't leave your holiday happiness behind you this year", it said.
"Make sure of your Kodak and your Kodak will make sure of your happiness. Kodak pictures will save your holiday memories."
A baby was abandoned in Thatto Heath on the 2nd – in an unusual fashion.
A woman aged about 20 spoke to several children playing in South Street, off Elephant Lane, at about 8:45pm and asked them where the nearest public house was.
Upon being directed she asked a boy to take care of her child – who was four to six weeks old – while she went in the pub but never returned.
Abandoning babies was a very common practice and rarely were their mothers found.
On April 12th the prosecutor in a case at Clerkenwell Police Court in London would say:
"The workhouse schools of St. Pancras are practically full of abandoned babies", and in May a ten-day-old baby would be found inside Westminster Cathedral.
On the 2nd the Dudley Chronicle gave a detailed account of how a record crowd of 15,000 had watched the two teams play yet another charity game.
It was the first ever women's football match to be played at the packed Dudley County Ground and Dick Kerr's won 2 - 0.
The newspaper criticised the performance of the St Helens side, saying: "The glass girls were wandering about far too much", adding that "many of them were still the slaves of their feet", arguing they should have headed the ball more.
Lizzie Ashcroft as featured in the Star piece would not be making her debut for St Helens Ladies for a week or two – but Lily Parr played and scored for Dick Kerr's.
On the 4th Elizabeth Brophy from Phythian Street appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with a breach of the peace.
She told the magistrates that the man that she'd been shouting at had broken her heart and then fainted in court.
After recovering Elizabeth explained that she had been keeping company with this man but he had "thrown her over" and then made a serious statement about her.
This had caused her to be greatly upset and the sympathetic magistrates bound Elizabeth over to be of good behaviour.
And finally the non-St Helens item in the Echo that caught my eye this week was this shocking story that bore the headline: "Negro Branded By The Ku Klux Klan":
"The first branding of a negro in the Southern States since the recent reorganisation of [the] Ku Klux Klan (a secret self-protection society of Southern whites) occurred on Friday evening at Dallas, Texas, when the Klan leaders inflicted this punishment on Alex Johnson, bell-boy at a local hotel, who had been discovered in a white woman's room.
"Johnson was taken to a lonely spot by the “Solemn Fifteen” circle of the Klan, and placed on trial (says the London “Daily Express”).
"Johnson told a sordid story of night life in the hotel where he was employed, and insisted that he was with the white woman at her own invitation.
"The famous Ku Klux circle was formed round Johnson by the “Solemn Fifteen,” with a fiery cross burning in the centre of the circle, and Johnson was given the choice of the death penalty or accepting twenty-five lashes, signing a pledge never to associate with another white woman, and being branded.
"The negro chose the latter, and thereupon received the twenty-five lashes, signed the required pledge, and had the letter “K” thrice burned into his forehead with silver nitrate. He was then taken back to the hotel, and left on the doorstep."
Next week's stories will include the stone throwing boys of Sutton Manor, the police's eviction of a former policeman, the young Irishman who walked round St Helens town centre hitting people and the St Helens fruit merchant and the stolen apples.