IOO YEARS AGO THIS WEEK (31st AUG. - 6th SEPT. 1920)
This week's stories include a claim of profiteering by a Church Street café, St Helens Ladies play in Morecambe, Beechams want to know if newspaper readers are "only middling" and there are some extraordinary stories in strike editions of the Liverpool Echo.
We begin on August 31st with an advert from the Co-op's Tailoring Department in the Tuesday edition of the St Helens Newspaper: "Suits To Measure – £5. Grand Offer for the September Dividend Sale – Good Reliable Tweeds and All Wool Blue Serges".
The Newspaper also reviewed the opening night of the Hippodrome's music hall fare this week. The Orpheus Trio went down a storm providing "the most harmonious melodies" with the audience "loth to let them go at the end of their charming and refined entertainment." In a change of programme to that advertised, The Four Charltons appeared. They were gymnasts and equilibrists performing chair balancing acts and the like. The Newspaper wrote that they: "…gave a splendid exhibition which was greeted with the most hearty applause. A spectacular juggling sensation provides a thrilling ten minutes in the hands of The Huntings, and dainty dancing and singing are the features of the act presented by The Frasers."
"Are You Only Middling?", was the headline to an advert from Beechams in the Western Evening Herald on the 31st. The ad continued: "Now it frequently happens that the condition known as “only middling” is due to a deranged digestive system. Owing to irregular meals, worry, life at high pressure, or some other cause the complex machinery of digestion has been thrown out of order for the time being.
"You will be acting in your own best interests if you take immediate steps to deal with this “only middling” condition. The wisest course to pursue is to seek the aid of that simple, safe, and highly efficacious medicine, Beecham's Pills. They give tone to the stomach, stimulate the liver, regulate the bowels, and purify the blood."
On the 2nd The Stage magazine was published and contained this large advert for a play which had just been in St Helens: "A Proved Success – The Spectacular Fairy Melange, BUZZ ALONG in six magnificent scenes. The greatest attraction on the road. Last week at Theatre Royal, St. Helens, broke all existing records for twice nightly. Beating pantomime biz. Hundreds unable to obtain admission Saturday night."
The musical comedy featured a fairy fountain and lots of singing and dancing. A review of a performance of 'Buzz Along' in Nelson said: "The outstanding feature of the production is its spectacular side. Some striking tableaux vivant were shown, with hundreds of jets of water playing in a glorious prismatic colour scheme. The revue itself is full of good things – plenty of humour, charming singing, and dainty dancing, making the entertainment one of the best we have seen for some time."
On the 3rd Martha Moulds from Cowley Hill Lane appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with profiteering. The case was brought by the town's Profiteering Committee, which had been created last year in the wake of public concern over high prices in shops. Martha ran the Broadway Café in Church Street and a commercial traveller called Cummings complained that lunch for him and his wife had cost 9s 10d.
This he said was excessive when he could have paid 3s 6d for each meal elsewhere. Mrs Moulds told the court that Mr Cummings had ordered individual dishes and the price would have been lower if he'd asked for a combined lunch with smaller portions. Evidence was given by witnesses that the prices charged were fair and so the magistrates dismissed the case. The several profiteering committees in the district – Rainford had one and, I think, Haydock too – had precious little to do. They were set up to assuage public anger over price hikes during and after the war. People had so little experience of inflation that the mainly false assumption was made that shopkeepers were exploiting their customers.
Both St Helens rugby league teams – the Saints and the Recs – won their Northern Union games on the afternoon of the 4th. During the evening at Morecambe, the St Helens Ladies football team took on a Dick, Kerrs side from Preston in aid of the local branch of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers' Association. The event attracted 1,000 spectators, a somewhat lower number than usually watched these games.
The Lancashire Evening Post wrote: "Prior to the match, the Mayor of Morecambe (Alderman J. K. Birkett) entertained both teams to tea at the King's Arms Hotel, and his Worship also visited the football ground to perform the ceremony of “kicking off.” Mr. James Cooper, the Morecambe and former Rochdale half-back, discharged the duties of referee, attired in football costume." Unfortunately the St Helens side was thrashed 6 – 0. The ball used in the game was afterwards auctioned for £3 6s to help boost the funds.
At Christmas I'll be describing the match played at Goodison Park between St Helens Ladies and Dick Kerr's that was attended by nearly 40,000 people and raised thousands for charity. Despite the tremendous good work that ladies football teams did, the men running the Football Association would soon ban the playing of the women's game on member grounds. That was on the basis that the sport was "quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged", with the ban lasting fifty years.
No editions of the St Helens Reporter or Newspaper were published in September until the 14th of the month due to an unofficial printers strike. This stopped newspapers from being printed within the Liverpool / Manchester area for a couple of weeks, which has not helped me one bit in writing this article! However the Liverpool Echo published a number of one-page strike sheets, which contained some curious snippets of news. So to compensate for a limited amount of local news this week, here are a few choice items from the Echo with headlines and text as printed:
• MARRIED TO HER FATHER – Anna Belle Jones of Baltimore asks for annulment of marriage with her father whom she believed to be her step-father. There are two children.
• FAMINE HORRRORS – Thousands starving in China. Many parents selling children. Whole families have committed suicide.
• PIG-RINGED BY MASKED MEN – Old woman, residing near French Park, Roscommon, recently had three pig rings inserted in her body by masked raiders, for continuing to supply milk to police after warnings to the contrary. Three men concerned in the outrage were tried before a Sinn Fein Court and sentenced to two years' exile.
• TRAGEDY OF FALLING PLANE – Aeroplane fall in Paris suburb among group of children playing in public park killing 3 and injuring 10.
• TURNED PARENTS OUT – Poole labourer named Newbury obtained ejectment order against aged parents on ground that he required house for his family. Alternative accommodation offered refused as unfit for human habitation.
• A PIONEER OF BICYCLING DEAD – Mr. James Plowright, a mechanical engineer, who has just died at King's Lynn, was the first man in England to make a bicycle. He copied the first "boneshaker" brought over from France. Mr. Plowright's first bicycle was built entirely of iron, with clattering iron wheels, but later he introduced iron-shod wooden wheels. Subsequently he made the tall ordinary.
• THE WIDOWS WON’T BE WARNED OFF – Mr. Green, the Tottenham magistrate, in addressing a woman who complained to him that she was unhappy with her second husband said: "You women will take these risks. You have been married before. You know all about it. You are more or less dissatisfied with the married state, yet when you become a widow you go and get married again."
• TRIED TO BLOW UP HIS HOME – An attempt to blow up his home with a self-made bomb resulted in Wm. White Batey, a Bedlington miner, being charged at Blyth with having unlawfully caused an explosion. Batey is an ex-soldier who served in France, and is stated by his wife to suffer from shell-shock. Sergt. Graham said considerable damage had been done to the house by the explosion. He added that on being arrested, Batey said, "Take me away out of this. I tried to blow it up. I made a bomb like those we made in 1918 and set her off". Accused was remanded for a week.
• LIVE SHELLS IN DUST-BIN – Two live shells of the Hotchkins type were among refuse about to be tipped into furnaces at Nottingham Corporation destructor. One shell rolled out of the trolley, and, but for this, the presence of the other would not have been known, and the destructor would have been wrecked. The shells were apparently war souvenirs, and had evidently been placed in the ash-bin by some person afraid of keeping them.
• THE “LIFE FOR EVER” BEGINS IN 1925 – According to the Hon. Judge J. F. Rutherford, president of the International Bible Students Association of New York City, now in England, those who live until 1925 will never die. Although not absolutely certain, he rather favours 1925 as the year of the millennium, because like 1914, it is suspiciously referred to in the Bible as the date on which upheavals are going to happen. Everybody knows that upheavals happened in 1914 and Judge Rutherford has come over here to tell the glad tidings at the Albert Hall next Sunday that “millions now living will never die”.
• FIRST A GIRL AND THEN A BOY – Because, instead of a boy, his wife gave birth to a girl, George Kenrick, naval electrician, got drunk on brandy; shouted to everyone he met – including a policeman – that it was a girl; had to have four men to carry him to the police station, and there smashed up the cell. He confessed that he was so mad that he could have thrown the doctor downstairs, and felt like killing everybody in the house. Weymouth magistrates said it was just a case of mental torture, and advised Kenrick to sign the pledge.
Next week's stories will include trouble at Parr Labour Club, the baby suffocated through overcrowding, the girl housebreakers of Gladstone Street, the violent lodger of Fingerpost and the great anti-profiteering campaign in Duke Street.
We begin on August 31st with an advert from the Co-op's Tailoring Department in the Tuesday edition of the St Helens Newspaper: "Suits To Measure – £5. Grand Offer for the September Dividend Sale – Good Reliable Tweeds and All Wool Blue Serges".
The Newspaper also reviewed the opening night of the Hippodrome's music hall fare this week. The Orpheus Trio went down a storm providing "the most harmonious melodies" with the audience "loth to let them go at the end of their charming and refined entertainment." In a change of programme to that advertised, The Four Charltons appeared. They were gymnasts and equilibrists performing chair balancing acts and the like. The Newspaper wrote that they: "…gave a splendid exhibition which was greeted with the most hearty applause. A spectacular juggling sensation provides a thrilling ten minutes in the hands of The Huntings, and dainty dancing and singing are the features of the act presented by The Frasers."
"Are You Only Middling?", was the headline to an advert from Beechams in the Western Evening Herald on the 31st. The ad continued: "Now it frequently happens that the condition known as “only middling” is due to a deranged digestive system. Owing to irregular meals, worry, life at high pressure, or some other cause the complex machinery of digestion has been thrown out of order for the time being.
"You will be acting in your own best interests if you take immediate steps to deal with this “only middling” condition. The wisest course to pursue is to seek the aid of that simple, safe, and highly efficacious medicine, Beecham's Pills. They give tone to the stomach, stimulate the liver, regulate the bowels, and purify the blood."
The musical comedy featured a fairy fountain and lots of singing and dancing. A review of a performance of 'Buzz Along' in Nelson said: "The outstanding feature of the production is its spectacular side. Some striking tableaux vivant were shown, with hundreds of jets of water playing in a glorious prismatic colour scheme. The revue itself is full of good things – plenty of humour, charming singing, and dainty dancing, making the entertainment one of the best we have seen for some time."
On the 3rd Martha Moulds from Cowley Hill Lane appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with profiteering. The case was brought by the town's Profiteering Committee, which had been created last year in the wake of public concern over high prices in shops. Martha ran the Broadway Café in Church Street and a commercial traveller called Cummings complained that lunch for him and his wife had cost 9s 10d.
This he said was excessive when he could have paid 3s 6d for each meal elsewhere. Mrs Moulds told the court that Mr Cummings had ordered individual dishes and the price would have been lower if he'd asked for a combined lunch with smaller portions. Evidence was given by witnesses that the prices charged were fair and so the magistrates dismissed the case. The several profiteering committees in the district – Rainford had one and, I think, Haydock too – had precious little to do. They were set up to assuage public anger over price hikes during and after the war. People had so little experience of inflation that the mainly false assumption was made that shopkeepers were exploiting their customers.
Both St Helens rugby league teams – the Saints and the Recs – won their Northern Union games on the afternoon of the 4th. During the evening at Morecambe, the St Helens Ladies football team took on a Dick, Kerrs side from Preston in aid of the local branch of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers' Association. The event attracted 1,000 spectators, a somewhat lower number than usually watched these games.
The Lancashire Evening Post wrote: "Prior to the match, the Mayor of Morecambe (Alderman J. K. Birkett) entertained both teams to tea at the King's Arms Hotel, and his Worship also visited the football ground to perform the ceremony of “kicking off.” Mr. James Cooper, the Morecambe and former Rochdale half-back, discharged the duties of referee, attired in football costume." Unfortunately the St Helens side was thrashed 6 – 0. The ball used in the game was afterwards auctioned for £3 6s to help boost the funds.
At Christmas I'll be describing the match played at Goodison Park between St Helens Ladies and Dick Kerr's that was attended by nearly 40,000 people and raised thousands for charity. Despite the tremendous good work that ladies football teams did, the men running the Football Association would soon ban the playing of the women's game on member grounds. That was on the basis that the sport was "quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged", with the ban lasting fifty years.
No editions of the St Helens Reporter or Newspaper were published in September until the 14th of the month due to an unofficial printers strike. This stopped newspapers from being printed within the Liverpool / Manchester area for a couple of weeks, which has not helped me one bit in writing this article! However the Liverpool Echo published a number of one-page strike sheets, which contained some curious snippets of news. So to compensate for a limited amount of local news this week, here are a few choice items from the Echo with headlines and text as printed:
• MARRIED TO HER FATHER – Anna Belle Jones of Baltimore asks for annulment of marriage with her father whom she believed to be her step-father. There are two children.
• FAMINE HORRRORS – Thousands starving in China. Many parents selling children. Whole families have committed suicide.
• PIG-RINGED BY MASKED MEN – Old woman, residing near French Park, Roscommon, recently had three pig rings inserted in her body by masked raiders, for continuing to supply milk to police after warnings to the contrary. Three men concerned in the outrage were tried before a Sinn Fein Court and sentenced to two years' exile.
• TRAGEDY OF FALLING PLANE – Aeroplane fall in Paris suburb among group of children playing in public park killing 3 and injuring 10.
• TURNED PARENTS OUT – Poole labourer named Newbury obtained ejectment order against aged parents on ground that he required house for his family. Alternative accommodation offered refused as unfit for human habitation.
• A PIONEER OF BICYCLING DEAD – Mr. James Plowright, a mechanical engineer, who has just died at King's Lynn, was the first man in England to make a bicycle. He copied the first "boneshaker" brought over from France. Mr. Plowright's first bicycle was built entirely of iron, with clattering iron wheels, but later he introduced iron-shod wooden wheels. Subsequently he made the tall ordinary.
• THE WIDOWS WON’T BE WARNED OFF – Mr. Green, the Tottenham magistrate, in addressing a woman who complained to him that she was unhappy with her second husband said: "You women will take these risks. You have been married before. You know all about it. You are more or less dissatisfied with the married state, yet when you become a widow you go and get married again."
• TRIED TO BLOW UP HIS HOME – An attempt to blow up his home with a self-made bomb resulted in Wm. White Batey, a Bedlington miner, being charged at Blyth with having unlawfully caused an explosion. Batey is an ex-soldier who served in France, and is stated by his wife to suffer from shell-shock. Sergt. Graham said considerable damage had been done to the house by the explosion. He added that on being arrested, Batey said, "Take me away out of this. I tried to blow it up. I made a bomb like those we made in 1918 and set her off". Accused was remanded for a week.
• LIVE SHELLS IN DUST-BIN – Two live shells of the Hotchkins type were among refuse about to be tipped into furnaces at Nottingham Corporation destructor. One shell rolled out of the trolley, and, but for this, the presence of the other would not have been known, and the destructor would have been wrecked. The shells were apparently war souvenirs, and had evidently been placed in the ash-bin by some person afraid of keeping them.
• THE “LIFE FOR EVER” BEGINS IN 1925 – According to the Hon. Judge J. F. Rutherford, president of the International Bible Students Association of New York City, now in England, those who live until 1925 will never die. Although not absolutely certain, he rather favours 1925 as the year of the millennium, because like 1914, it is suspiciously referred to in the Bible as the date on which upheavals are going to happen. Everybody knows that upheavals happened in 1914 and Judge Rutherford has come over here to tell the glad tidings at the Albert Hall next Sunday that “millions now living will never die”.
• FIRST A GIRL AND THEN A BOY – Because, instead of a boy, his wife gave birth to a girl, George Kenrick, naval electrician, got drunk on brandy; shouted to everyone he met – including a policeman – that it was a girl; had to have four men to carry him to the police station, and there smashed up the cell. He confessed that he was so mad that he could have thrown the doctor downstairs, and felt like killing everybody in the house. Weymouth magistrates said it was just a case of mental torture, and advised Kenrick to sign the pledge.
Next week's stories will include trouble at Parr Labour Club, the baby suffocated through overcrowding, the girl housebreakers of Gladstone Street, the violent lodger of Fingerpost and the great anti-profiteering campaign in Duke Street.
This week's stories include a claim of profiteering by a Church Street café, St Helens Ladies play in Morecambe, Beechams want to know if newspaper readers are "only middling" and there are some extraordinary stories in strike editions of the Liverpool Echo.
We begin on August 31st with an advert from the Co-op's Tailoring Department in the Tuesday edition of the St Helens Newspaper:
"Suits To Measure – £5. Grand Offer for the September Dividend Sale – Good Reliable Tweeds and All Wool Blue Serges".
The Newspaper also reviewed the opening night of the Hippodrome's music hall fare this week.
The Orpheus Trio went down a storm providing "the most harmonious melodies" with the audience "loth to let them go at the end of their charming and refined entertainment."
In a change of programme to that advertised, The Four Charltons appeared. They were gymnasts and equilibrists performing chair balancing acts and the like. The Newspaper wrote that they:
"…gave a splendid exhibition which was greeted with the most hearty applause.
"A spectacular juggling sensation provides a thrilling ten minutes in the hands of The Huntings, and dainty dancing and singing are the features of the act presented by The Frasers."
"Are You Only Middling?", was the headline to an advert from Beechams in the Western Evening Herald on the 31st. The ad continued:
"Now it frequently happens that the condition known as “only middling” is due to a deranged digestive system. Owing to irregular meals, worry, life at high pressure, or some other cause the complex machinery of digestion has been thrown out of order for the time being.
"You will be acting in your own best interests if you take immediate steps to deal with this “only middling” condition.
"The wisest course to pursue is to seek the aid of that simple, safe, and highly efficacious medicine, Beecham's Pills. They give tone to the stomach, stimulate the liver, regulate the bowels, and purify the blood."
On the 2nd The Stage magazine was published and contained this large advert for a play which had just been in St Helens:
"A Proved Success – The Spectacular Fairy Melange, BUZZ ALONG in six magnificent scenes. The greatest attraction on the road. Last week at Theatre Royal, St. Helens, broke all existing records for twice nightly. Beating pantomime biz. Hundreds unable to obtain admission Saturday night."
The musical comedy featured a fairy fountain and lots of singing and dancing. A review of a performance of 'Buzz Along' in Nelson said:
"The outstanding feature of the production is its spectacular side. Some striking tableaux vivant were shown, with hundreds of jets of water playing in a glorious prismatic colour scheme.
“The revue itself is full of good things – plenty of humour, charming singing, and dainty dancing, making the entertainment one of the best we have seen for some time."
On the 3rd Martha Moulds from Cowley Hill Lane appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with profiteering.
The case was brought by the town's Profiteering Committee, which had been created last year in the wake of public concern over high prices in shops.
Martha ran the Broadway Café in Church Street and a commercial traveller called Cummings complained that lunch for him and his wife had cost 9s 10d.
This he said was excessive when he could have paid 3s 6d for each meal elsewhere.
Mrs Moulds told the court that Mr Cummings had ordered individual dishes and the price would have been lower if he'd asked for a combined lunch with smaller portions.
Evidence was given by witnesses that the prices charged were fair and so the magistrates dismissed the case.
The several profiteering committees in the district – Rainford had one and, I think, Haydock too – had precious little to do.
They were set up to assuage public anger over price hikes during and after the war.
People had so little experience of inflation that the mainly false assumption was made that shopkeepers were exploiting their customers.
Both St Helens rugby league teams – the Saints and the Recs – won their Northern Union games on the afternoon of the 4th.
During the evening at Morecambe, the St Helens Ladies football team took on a Dick, Kerrs side from Preston in aid of the local branch of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers' Association.
The event attracted 1,000 spectators, a somewhat lower number than usually watched these games.
The Lancashire Evening Post wrote: "Prior to the match, the Mayor of Morecambe (Alderman J. K. Birkett) entertained both teams to tea at the King's Arms Hotel, and his Worship also visited the football ground to perform the ceremony of “kicking off.”
"Mr. James Cooper, the Morecambe and former Rochdale half-back, discharged the duties of referee, attired in football costume."
Unfortunately the St Helens side was thrashed 6 – 0. The ball used in the game was afterwards auctioned for £3 6s to help boost the funds.
At Christmas I'll be describing the match played at Goodison Park between St Helens Ladies and Dick Kerr's that was attended by nearly 40,000 people and raised thousands for charity.
Despite the tremendous good work that ladies football teams did, the men running the Football Association would soon ban the playing of the women's game on member grounds.
That was on the basis that the sport was "quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged", with the ban lasting fifty years.
No editions of the St Helens Reporter or Newspaper were published in September until the 14th of the month due to an unofficial printers strike.
This stopped newspapers from being printed within the Liverpool / Manchester area for a couple of weeks, which has not helped me one bit in writing this article!
However the Liverpool Echo published a number of one-page strike sheets, which contained some curious snippets of news.
So to compensate for a limited amount of local news this week, here are a few choice items from the Echo with headlines and text as printed:
• MARRIED TO HER FATHER – Anna Belle Jones of Baltimore asks for annulment of marriage with her father whom she believed to be her step-father. There are two children.
• FAMINE HORRRORS – Thousands starving in China. Many parents selling children. Whole families have committed suicide.
• PIG-RINGED BY MASKED MEN – Old woman, residing near French Park, Roscommon, recently had three pig rings inserted in her body by masked raiders, for continuing to supply milk to police after warnings to the contrary.
Three men concerned in the outrage were tried before a Sinn Fein Court and sentenced to two years' exile.
• TRAGEDY OF FALLING PLANE – Aeroplane fall in Paris suburb among group of children playing in public park killing 3 and injuring 10.
• TURNED PARENTS OUT – Poole labourer named Newbury obtained ejectment order against aged parents on ground that he required house for his family. Alternative accommodation offered refused as unfit for human habitation.
• A PIONEER OF BICYCLING DEAD – Mr. James Plowright, a mechanical engineer, who has just died at King's Lynn, was the first man in England to make a bicycle. He copied the first "boneshaker" brought over from France.
Mr. Plowright's first bicycle was built entirely of iron, with clattering iron wheels, but later he introduced iron-shod wooden wheels. Subsequently he made the tall ordinary.
• THE WIDOWS WON’T BE WARNED OFF – Mr. Green, the Tottenham magistrate, in addressing a woman who complained to him that she was unhappy with her second husband said:
"You women will take these risks. You have been married before. You know all about it. You are more or less dissatisfied with the married state, yet when you become a widow you go and get married again."
• TRIED TO BLOW UP HIS HOME – An attempt to blow up his home with a self-made bomb resulted in Wm. White Batey, a Bedlington miner, being charged at Blyth with having unlawfully caused an explosion. Batey is an ex-soldier who served in France, and is stated by his wife to suffer from shell-shock.
Sergt. Graham said considerable damage had been done to the house by the explosion. He added that on being arrested, Batey said, "Take me away out of this. I tried to blow it up. I made a bomb like those we made in 1918 and set her off". Accused was remanded for a week.
• LIVE SHELLS IN DUST-BIN – Two live shells of the Hotchkins type were among refuse about to be tipped into furnaces at Nottingham Corporation destructor.
One shell rolled out of the trolley, and, but for this, the presence of the other would not have been known, and the destructor would have been wrecked. The shells were apparently war souvenirs, and had evidently been placed in the ash-bin by some person afraid of keeping them.
• THE “LIFE FOR EVER” BEGINS IN 1925 – According to the Hon. Judge J. F. Rutherford, president of the International Bible Students Association of New York City, now in England, those who live until 1925 will never die.
Although not absolutely certain, he rather favours 1925 as the year of the millennium, because like 1914, it is suspiciously referred to in the Bible as the date on which upheavals are going to happen.
Everybody knows that upheavals happened in 1914 and Judge Rutherford has come over here to tell the glad tidings at the Albert Hall next Sunday that “millions now living will never die”.
• FIRST A GIRL AND THEN A BOY – Because, instead of a boy, his wife gave birth to a girl, George Kenrick, naval electrician, got drunk on brandy; shouted to everyone he met – including a policeman – that it was a girl; had to have four men to carry him to the police station, and there smashed up the cell.
He confessed that he was so mad that he could have thrown the doctor downstairs, and felt like killing everybody in the house. Weymouth magistrates said it was just a case of mental torture, and advised Kenrick to sign the pledge.
Next week's stories will include trouble at Parr Labour Club, the baby suffocated through overcrowding, the girl housebreakers of Gladstone Street, the violent lodger of Fingerpost and the great anti-profiteering campaign in Duke Street.
We begin on August 31st with an advert from the Co-op's Tailoring Department in the Tuesday edition of the St Helens Newspaper:
"Suits To Measure – £5. Grand Offer for the September Dividend Sale – Good Reliable Tweeds and All Wool Blue Serges".
The Newspaper also reviewed the opening night of the Hippodrome's music hall fare this week.
The Orpheus Trio went down a storm providing "the most harmonious melodies" with the audience "loth to let them go at the end of their charming and refined entertainment."
In a change of programme to that advertised, The Four Charltons appeared. They were gymnasts and equilibrists performing chair balancing acts and the like. The Newspaper wrote that they:
"…gave a splendid exhibition which was greeted with the most hearty applause.
"A spectacular juggling sensation provides a thrilling ten minutes in the hands of The Huntings, and dainty dancing and singing are the features of the act presented by The Frasers."
"Are You Only Middling?", was the headline to an advert from Beechams in the Western Evening Herald on the 31st. The ad continued:
"Now it frequently happens that the condition known as “only middling” is due to a deranged digestive system. Owing to irregular meals, worry, life at high pressure, or some other cause the complex machinery of digestion has been thrown out of order for the time being.
"You will be acting in your own best interests if you take immediate steps to deal with this “only middling” condition.
"The wisest course to pursue is to seek the aid of that simple, safe, and highly efficacious medicine, Beecham's Pills. They give tone to the stomach, stimulate the liver, regulate the bowels, and purify the blood."
"A Proved Success – The Spectacular Fairy Melange, BUZZ ALONG in six magnificent scenes. The greatest attraction on the road. Last week at Theatre Royal, St. Helens, broke all existing records for twice nightly. Beating pantomime biz. Hundreds unable to obtain admission Saturday night."
The musical comedy featured a fairy fountain and lots of singing and dancing. A review of a performance of 'Buzz Along' in Nelson said:
"The outstanding feature of the production is its spectacular side. Some striking tableaux vivant were shown, with hundreds of jets of water playing in a glorious prismatic colour scheme.
“The revue itself is full of good things – plenty of humour, charming singing, and dainty dancing, making the entertainment one of the best we have seen for some time."
On the 3rd Martha Moulds from Cowley Hill Lane appeared in St Helens Police Court charged with profiteering.
The case was brought by the town's Profiteering Committee, which had been created last year in the wake of public concern over high prices in shops.
Martha ran the Broadway Café in Church Street and a commercial traveller called Cummings complained that lunch for him and his wife had cost 9s 10d.
This he said was excessive when he could have paid 3s 6d for each meal elsewhere.
Mrs Moulds told the court that Mr Cummings had ordered individual dishes and the price would have been lower if he'd asked for a combined lunch with smaller portions.
Evidence was given by witnesses that the prices charged were fair and so the magistrates dismissed the case.
The several profiteering committees in the district – Rainford had one and, I think, Haydock too – had precious little to do.
They were set up to assuage public anger over price hikes during and after the war.
People had so little experience of inflation that the mainly false assumption was made that shopkeepers were exploiting their customers.
Both St Helens rugby league teams – the Saints and the Recs – won their Northern Union games on the afternoon of the 4th.
During the evening at Morecambe, the St Helens Ladies football team took on a Dick, Kerrs side from Preston in aid of the local branch of the Discharged Sailors and Soldiers' Association.
The event attracted 1,000 spectators, a somewhat lower number than usually watched these games.
The Lancashire Evening Post wrote: "Prior to the match, the Mayor of Morecambe (Alderman J. K. Birkett) entertained both teams to tea at the King's Arms Hotel, and his Worship also visited the football ground to perform the ceremony of “kicking off.”
"Mr. James Cooper, the Morecambe and former Rochdale half-back, discharged the duties of referee, attired in football costume."
Unfortunately the St Helens side was thrashed 6 – 0. The ball used in the game was afterwards auctioned for £3 6s to help boost the funds.
At Christmas I'll be describing the match played at Goodison Park between St Helens Ladies and Dick Kerr's that was attended by nearly 40,000 people and raised thousands for charity.
Despite the tremendous good work that ladies football teams did, the men running the Football Association would soon ban the playing of the women's game on member grounds.
That was on the basis that the sport was "quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged", with the ban lasting fifty years.
No editions of the St Helens Reporter or Newspaper were published in September until the 14th of the month due to an unofficial printers strike.
This stopped newspapers from being printed within the Liverpool / Manchester area for a couple of weeks, which has not helped me one bit in writing this article!
However the Liverpool Echo published a number of one-page strike sheets, which contained some curious snippets of news.
So to compensate for a limited amount of local news this week, here are a few choice items from the Echo with headlines and text as printed:
• MARRIED TO HER FATHER – Anna Belle Jones of Baltimore asks for annulment of marriage with her father whom she believed to be her step-father. There are two children.
• FAMINE HORRRORS – Thousands starving in China. Many parents selling children. Whole families have committed suicide.
• PIG-RINGED BY MASKED MEN – Old woman, residing near French Park, Roscommon, recently had three pig rings inserted in her body by masked raiders, for continuing to supply milk to police after warnings to the contrary.
Three men concerned in the outrage were tried before a Sinn Fein Court and sentenced to two years' exile.
• TRAGEDY OF FALLING PLANE – Aeroplane fall in Paris suburb among group of children playing in public park killing 3 and injuring 10.
• TURNED PARENTS OUT – Poole labourer named Newbury obtained ejectment order against aged parents on ground that he required house for his family. Alternative accommodation offered refused as unfit for human habitation.
• A PIONEER OF BICYCLING DEAD – Mr. James Plowright, a mechanical engineer, who has just died at King's Lynn, was the first man in England to make a bicycle. He copied the first "boneshaker" brought over from France.
Mr. Plowright's first bicycle was built entirely of iron, with clattering iron wheels, but later he introduced iron-shod wooden wheels. Subsequently he made the tall ordinary.
• THE WIDOWS WON’T BE WARNED OFF – Mr. Green, the Tottenham magistrate, in addressing a woman who complained to him that she was unhappy with her second husband said:
"You women will take these risks. You have been married before. You know all about it. You are more or less dissatisfied with the married state, yet when you become a widow you go and get married again."
• TRIED TO BLOW UP HIS HOME – An attempt to blow up his home with a self-made bomb resulted in Wm. White Batey, a Bedlington miner, being charged at Blyth with having unlawfully caused an explosion. Batey is an ex-soldier who served in France, and is stated by his wife to suffer from shell-shock.
Sergt. Graham said considerable damage had been done to the house by the explosion. He added that on being arrested, Batey said, "Take me away out of this. I tried to blow it up. I made a bomb like those we made in 1918 and set her off". Accused was remanded for a week.
• LIVE SHELLS IN DUST-BIN – Two live shells of the Hotchkins type were among refuse about to be tipped into furnaces at Nottingham Corporation destructor.
One shell rolled out of the trolley, and, but for this, the presence of the other would not have been known, and the destructor would have been wrecked. The shells were apparently war souvenirs, and had evidently been placed in the ash-bin by some person afraid of keeping them.
• THE “LIFE FOR EVER” BEGINS IN 1925 – According to the Hon. Judge J. F. Rutherford, president of the International Bible Students Association of New York City, now in England, those who live until 1925 will never die.
Although not absolutely certain, he rather favours 1925 as the year of the millennium, because like 1914, it is suspiciously referred to in the Bible as the date on which upheavals are going to happen.
Everybody knows that upheavals happened in 1914 and Judge Rutherford has come over here to tell the glad tidings at the Albert Hall next Sunday that “millions now living will never die”.
• FIRST A GIRL AND THEN A BOY – Because, instead of a boy, his wife gave birth to a girl, George Kenrick, naval electrician, got drunk on brandy; shouted to everyone he met – including a policeman – that it was a girl; had to have four men to carry him to the police station, and there smashed up the cell.
He confessed that he was so mad that he could have thrown the doctor downstairs, and felt like killing everybody in the house. Weymouth magistrates said it was just a case of mental torture, and advised Kenrick to sign the pledge.
Next week's stories will include trouble at Parr Labour Club, the baby suffocated through overcrowding, the girl housebreakers of Gladstone Street, the violent lodger of Fingerpost and the great anti-profiteering campaign in Duke Street.