Monday, January 24, 2005

100 years ago: Various means were tried to put a curb on juvenile smoking, and one of the most successful known was the RED Brotherhood. Started in 1901 in Cornwall, the organisation had a small beginning, but now numbered over ten thousand members. The Brotherhood extracts a promise from each member not to smoke before the age of 16 years, "which should not be a hardship for any boy", and some good results were attained in the suppression of cigarette smoking among boys. At that time an attempt was being made to bring the brotherhood into great prominence in Yorkshire, and all who condemned the practice of boys smoking were invited to communicate with the headquarters in Leeds, something that a columnist was heartily endorsing.

50 years ago: The man who paid his hotel bill after a three-day stay in Glasgow 111 years ago would, no doubt, have been very surprised to see that prosaic document lying on Mr Nobody's desk, he thought. Commonplace to him, the columnist thought it of interest because of the prices charged for the various items which were ordered. Perhaps the most surprising thing was that, on the day of their arrival, the gruel cost them just as much as the brandy - 9d. Their breakfasts totalled 4s, dinners 6s to 7s 6d, an extra whisky and soda was priced at 1s, and the total charge for "apartments" was 11s. Add to this 1s for cab hire and 2d for Seidlitz powder, and the final bill for the stay amounted to £1 16s 11d. For this quick peep into the past the columnist was indebted to a local reader, two of whose ancestors paid this bill on their honeymoon.

25 years ago: A farmer from Crambe near Malton was a man who knew his geese from his ganders. "You turn them upside down and rattle them," he said, explaining his sex-defining techniques. But a quick flick and an experienced eye proved he had trouble on his hands, after he discovered that a consignment of ten goslings contained six ganders, many more than any well-organised pond should have, as they would fight with each other and put the geese off laying. So he advertised his surplus-to-requirements ganders in the Evening Press, for sale or exchange, saying: "I'm willing to take anything - if someone wants to offer a sewing machine or a Rolls Royce, I'll listen."

Updated: 09:19 Monday, January 24, 2005