September 1875 News – The Courts, an Alligator Attack and the Fat Man’s Association
The Courts
A Dangerous Female – Belfast Morning News 6th September 1875
The Belfast Morning News reported on the case of a woman “of desperate appearance” named Alice Connolly who was brought up in custody of Acting-Constable Adam Pickett.
Pickett testified that he arrested the accused in North Queen Street Belfast the previous night for using obscene language in the presence of others travelling on that street. When he told her that she was under arrest she struck him repeatedly and “when seated on the car on her way to the Police Office she took one of his fingers in her mouth and bit it, and became so violent that only for the assistance he received she would have thrown the both off the car”.
As this was the accused’s fifty-ninth appearance in court a penalty of two months’ imprisonment was imposed.
Obstructing the Thoroughfare – Weekly Northern Whig 25 September 1875
Charles Wilson, Divis Street, was summoned by Constable Joseph Courtenay for having obstructed the thoroughfare in Divis Street on the 18th of the month.
The constable reported that, about 8:30am, the accused commenced washing the windows of his establishment, throwing buckets of water at the windows ignoring those trying to pass by. People heading to work in the mills had to step off the footpath and proceed on the road.
On being made aware of the incident Constable Joseph Courtenay advised Mr. Wilson to wash his windows at a time when people were not hurrying to or from work and suggested that he should also be mindful of the inconvenience caused to pedestrians trying to pass by on the footpath. However as the Constable turned away, the defendant threw another bucket of water at the windows forcing passing females off the footpath for fear of being soaked. Mr Wilson was then arrested.
In court Mr Wilson gave assurances that, in future, he would wash his windows at an earlier hour when few would be passing by. He was ordered to pay the costs of the prosecution.
A Perfect Nuisance – Belfast Morning News 17th September 1875
A ‘decrepit old man‘ named Charles Dogherty was brought into the court charged with being drunk in Winetavern Street on the previous night. The prisoner, carrying a crutch, was brought to the dock in the arms of two constables helping him to keep on his feet. The prisoner repeatedly shouted “police,” “murder” etc. The two constables had to support him in the dock for the duration of the case.
Sub-Constable Mulhern, in evidence, said that he came across Dogherty in Winetavern Street the previous night. Dogherty, clearly drunk, was assaulting passers-by with his crutch. He approached the accused, whereupon Dogherty shouted that he would beat any “bloody peeler” and attempted to strike constable Mulhern with his crutch.
It was noted that Dogherty “was a perfect nuisance on the streets” as, when drunk, he would frequently lie down in a doorway beating the door with his crutch until he was forcibly removed or arrested.
The prisoner was sent to jail for a month. He was removed from the dock in the same way that he had been brought into it, in the arms of the constables.
Correspondence / Opinions
Poison by Wallpaper – Impartial Reporter 30 September 1875
The Impartial Reporter carried a report on the findings of Charles A. Cameron, M.D. and Fellow and Professor of Chemistry, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland on the dangers posed by wallpaper in our homes.
Professor Cameron stated that “cases of arsenical poisoning” had been reported on occasion where walls were covered with wallpaper coloured green. This was down to the “arsenite of copper” used to dye the paper.
Lately however Professor Cameron had come across a case where arsenical poisoning occurred even though the wallpaper was not coloured green. Mr. Jones, a gentleman residing in New Ross, noticed that his family was suffering severe symptoms usually attributed to arsenic. He arranged for the wallpaper used in his house to be examined. Of seven different colours of wallpaper it was found that six had traces of arsenic… poisoning anyone unfortunate enough to breathe in the dust.
The paper was immediately removed from the walls with an immediate return to good health by those previously suffering.
The Century of Blondes – Weekly Northern Whig 11 September 1875
On 11th September 1875 the Weekly Northern Whig reprinted a Paris Letter in Lippincott’s Magazine on the growing popularity of “blondes”
It is clear that the 19th century is to be the century of blonds like the 16th, just as the 17th was that of the wig, and the 18th that of powder. All women are blonde nowadays, South as well as North.
Nestor Roqueplan once said, “God gave blonde hair to the women of the North to console the men for having no sun.” But now the Southern women make themselves blonde by the use of fairy waters, or simply by bathing their hair in ammonia.
Paris Letter in Lippincott’s Magazine
Noting the allure of hair (“If the eyes have ravaged hearts since the creation of the world, the hair has also intoxicated many lips with its perfume”) the writer concedes that blonde hair has been celebrated throughout the centuries:
“Venus was blonde, and Helen; still fairer was Daphne – all antiquity worshipped fair hair”.
Many women, past and present, attempt to achieve blondeness through the use of wigs. “Roman ladies persisted in buying their hair of the German and Gallic women“. Indeed, in Brittany there is a song which says that “for 2,000 years the girls of the country have sold their hair, and to-day they furnish the same commodity to our fashionable courtesans”.
The achievement of blonde hair through artificial means however infuriated many. Ovid raged in vain against the use of light coloured wigs.
The author quotes Spanish Queen Isabella on the fashion for blonde wigs: “Is it not an insanity?” (Queen Isabella’s reign in Spain ended in 1868 when the army took control of the country, forcing her to escape to France). The Queen, we are told, “holds her ground and refuses to dye her hair. She retains that Spanish coronet of jet black tresses until her time comes to assume the austere crown of white“. This sentiment is obviously shared by the author.
Morbid Sensationalism – Impartial Reporter 30 September 1875
Some observations from an Impartial Reporter correspondent on the popularity of “morbid sensationalism” throughout all classes in society:
The barbarian is extravagantly fond of dress and so is the Belgravian belle.
Fire-water is equally irresistible to the savage and to the great mass of our population.
‘Penny Dreadfuls’ and the ‘Police News’ delight the vulgar; while Miss Braddon and a host of other writers supply the upper ten thousand with the same material, glossed over, perhaps, with a layer of sentiment and conventional propriety.
It is instructive to note how a flagging, listless conversation suddenly brightens up upon the merest suspicion of a tit-bit of scandal.
A murder is a perfect godsend to the daily and weekly press, especially in the dead season, when five or six columns of close print is devoted to narrating the smallest detail in connexion with it.
Every one deprecates this morbid hankering after the sensational, yet every one panders to it.
It appears that not much has changed.
Advertisement
Other News
A Struggle with an Alligator – Belfast Morning News 1st September 1875
On the 1st September 1875, the Belfast Morning News published an extraordinary account of a struggle between a man and an alligator on the Back Bay of Biloxi, Mississippi.
On the 7th of the previous month around sundown, two little girls, daughters of Mr. Elam R. Blackwell, were bathing in the bay immediately in front of his dwelling. Without warning the girls were attacked by an enormous alligator.
The eldest girl, aged seven, was holding her two year old sister by the hands in the shallow waters when suddenly her little sister was snatched from her and borne quickly from the shore. The elder sister screamed in horror, attracting the attention of her father 30 yards away.
Realising that his children were in some peril, Mr. Blackwell, who is an active and athletic man, rushed rapidly to their assistance, and arrived at the spot just in time to discover his little daughter being borne out into the bay by an alligator.
The agonised father, realising that the alligator would disappear from the surface on reaching deeper waters some 40-50 yards out, “leaped madly into the water in pursuit of the would-be destroyer of his daughter“. The alligator, now seemingly aware of its pursuer, increased its efforts to reach the end of the shallow waters.
Fuelled by a combination fear and desperation the father succeeded in reaching the alligator and grasped his child by the arm around ten feet from the deep water drop.
“The alligator, which all the while held the child’s foot in its mouth, perceiving itself overtaken, and alarmed and confused by the boldness of the assault, released its hold and made its way rapidly into the deep water in front of it”.
Belfast Morning News 1st September 1875
The father, completely exhausted, lifted his child out of the water and returned to the shore, placing the child in the arms of its mother. Amazingly, the little girl was unhurt, with the exception of bruises on her foot, made by the teeth of the monster.
The Fat Man’s Association – Weekly Northern Whig 11th September 1875
Fat men’s clubs were most prominent during a time when societal attitudes towards male obesity were largely positive: being overweight was seen as a sign of economic success, and was also thought to correspond with kindness and good humor. The first fat men’s club was founded in New York City in 1869.
Fat men’s clubs declined in the 20th century as male obesity transitioned to being perceived as a primarily negative trait.
Wikipedia.org
On 11th September 1875 the Weekly Northern Whig reported on the ninth annual clambake of the Fat Man’s Association which took place at Gregory’s Point, Connecticut noting that American newspapers gave “some interesting particulars of the festivity, and of the individuals who took part in it”.
Special conveyances of special strength had to be employed to take the guests to and from the shore where the “bake” was held.
William Perkins, the president of the association, weighing 373lb, or nearly 27 stone, though he is only 26 years of age, was brought from Waterbury in a box car.
Mr. Sherwood (320lb) was most studious of his dignity. He came from New Milford on four seats of a passenger car, having been skilfully got in and out of the car by a gang of platelayers armed with crowbars, levers, and screw-jacks.
Prior to dinner the bar-room of the hotel was crowded by great men enjoying a drink before the commencement of the weighing for new members. (No one under 200lbs was eligible for membership).
“The fat men”, says one reporter, (evidently at a loss for a simile) “came down to Gregory’s Point like the hippopotami on the fold and the sands trembled beneath their tread.”
Apart from visitors, there were about a hundred members of the association present, or about twelve tons in all.
After the feasts, “over a ton and a half of vice-presidents were elected for the ensuing year”.
Having consumed a substantial amount of food and drink the ninth, and most successful, annual gathering of the Fat Man’s Association was brought to a close.
‘Varieties’ Wit and Wisdom from the Impartial Reporter 23rd September 1875
Grave sentiments are best expressed on tombstones.
An artist of the pencil at Fort Edward, by the surname of Chimney, is said to draw well.
A Chicago man closed his testimony In his action for divorce from his wife as follows:
“I don’t want to say anything against the woman, judge, but I wish you could live with her a little while.”
Link to Previous Monthly News
Previous monthly news stories can be viewed here Monthly News of 150 Years Ago
Help Us Find New Readers
Belfast Entries is hobby website produced entirely by a retired husband & wife featuring articles on our shared history, memories and entertaining stories of our past. The stories are free to all. If you like our posts please help us to grow our readership by sharing the posts. A growing readership would be very much appreciated.
If you enjoy Belfast Entries please consider a small donation
If you wish to To help us meet website creation/ maintenance costs please click the coffee cup below to learn how to make a small donation. Please note that every contribution is valued and that we will acknowledge your contribution below (forename only or “Anonymous” if you prefer).
Donations this month 3
Thank you Damian
Thank you Sinead
Thank you R. Meharg
We had 2 donation last month.
Copyright Notice
Belfast Entries posts & photos are our intellectual property and copyrighted to us. Where we use photos that do not belong to us, it is because we believe them to be in the public domain or shared under a Creative Commons licence with appropriate attribution. None of our content or images can be used without our consent. Note that a link to our Copyright & Takedown notice is included in the website footer on all pages.
0 Comments