Tuesday, March 31, 2015

What The Papers Said : Memories Of A Poor Wife And A Bacon Sandwich


Halifax Courier : Saturday 4th April 1868


One cannot help wondering whether Professor Stokes was able to deliver his lecture without notes. He would claim that he could teach his system of memory enhancement in less than three hours and it was all based on his golden rule for memory which was "observe, reflect, link thought with thought and think of the impressions" He would give his students sentences to memorise - here is the one from Exercise 38 : "My memory men may memorise my matchless mouth martyrdomising memory medley". Which reminds me of something I once read in a book .... but unfortunately I have forgotten what it was.


I do know how Mr J G Lee feels. The Good Lady Wife has just set out for the shops in Huddersfield - so I am tempted to issue my own public announcement in a similar vein. However, before we attach too much blame to the poor Mrs Lee we should remember that 1868 was 14 years before the Married Woman's Property Act came into force and at this time married women were not able to own property in their own right. She would have to use Mr Lee's credit card as she was not allowed one herself.


A legal case with a convoluted plot of Morsian complexity. I still can't quite work out who gave who what - but it appears that a watch changed hands in exchange for a pig. The complaint seems to be that the pig died immediately after it was handed over but given the fact that the chap it was given to was a butcher in Sowerby, this is hardly surprising. The judge awarded the plaintiff £1-7-6d in compensation and in return took delivery of some belly pork, a pair of pork chops and a pound of streaky bacon. 

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