I have been posting interesting bits on my facebook page here bits that I have found out..
From Lisa Sandmeyer on illustrations (the PD has lots of illustrations--almost every paper has at least one) " A paper I worked for in the 1980s had three artists. One was out for lunch and news happened right in front of him. There were no cell phones to call a photographer, so he went back to the office and drew the scene"
I had never seen a obit/notice of death by suicide in the paper, but the Plaindealer has them, they are typically one liners, but suicide at times was more common than I thought, one month had 3. Another bit from Lisa Sandmeyer,
A"ll newspapers used to tell everything In great detail. My great-grandfather’s obit announced he had “dropped dead” and his wife found his body in the grass he was scything when she went to call him for lunch. There was another story in the Topeka paper about a fellow who walked into the barbershop, announced his intentions, and downed a botttle of carbolic acid.
The Washington Post won't run the obit unless the cause of death is included.he decision to stop running stories on private suicides didn't come along until at least the 1970s. Statistics were showing that when suicide was reported, more followed, as people on the edge saw the news of another person's death as permission to follow suit. Back when you were lucky to make it to 60, suicide probably seemed fairly pointless."
From Pat Hrenchir (who in college wrote obits for the Topeka Capital Journal);
"The decision to stop running stories on private suicides didn't come along until at least the 1970s. Statistics were showing that when suicide was reported, more followed, as people on the edge saw the news of another person's death as permission to follow suit. Back when you were lucky to make it to 60, suicide probably seemed fairly pointless."
Eric McHenry on the Langston Hughes family (I have been sending him all the bits I find on them, hopefully I am not annoying him, but I know that he is doing research on this) " That's her! She became Carrie Hughes in the summer of '99. Mollie Langston was principal of the Douglas School, in the Lowman Hill area. She was the estranged (I think) wife of Langston Hughes's uncle Des.
This is one of the more interesting LH-related items in the Plaindealer, because of its tone and the timing of its appearance. Suddenly, in the summer of 1899, Carrie and James announce that they secretly got married back in late April. Then, in late January or early February of 1900, Carrie gives birth to a baby (who did not survive, sadly). Unsurprisingly, some people suspected it had been a shotgun wedding. I *think* Arnold Rampersad authenticated their wedding date of April 30, but I'm not positive about that. And it still might have been a shotgun wedding."
Chiles/Childers dedicate 2 out of the 4 pages of the paper on July 7th, 1899 to the Epsworth League--a Methodist youth organization and the Eastern Star. For the PD which typically is not pro-church and very political/race based this is unusual. Childers gives reasons in his editorial, but it is interesting. It is also interesting to think about does the paper reflect the views of the publisher or the editor? How involved was Chiles as business manager/publisher? Do we ever see Chiles' writing or is the strikingly bold writer Childers or it is someone else???
"The Negro Question" article that appeared in Popular Science monthly is a continuing discussion theme in the PD. Here is a link to save for later..https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Popular_Science_Monthly/Volume_55/June_1899/The_Negro_Question. Like all research this leads to more questions than answers and the reading is like pulling a string, the more you pull the more you realize is still in the ball.
A society wedding in Washington is detailed. The groom wore a "Prince Albert"suit.
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