An old Edwardian newspaper which came to light . . .

During this general tidy up, I came across a few half-pages of a very old newspaper which we once found in an old trunk we had bought.  It must be early Edwardian in date (1902-4) - all the usual adverts for pills for Liver &Stomach Complaints (Dr King's Dandelion and Quinine Liver Pills), Tooth-Ache could be cured instantly if you took Bunter's Nervine, and Kaye's Worsdells Vegetable Pills were more valuable than diamonds (apparently!)

There is a tribute to Crimean Heroes:

"Three Crimean veterans - Trooper Daniel Deering, 4th Light Dragoons, one of the "Six Hundred"; Thomas Hames, aged eighty-two, of the 95th Foot, and Colour-Sergeant Thomas Francis, aged eighty-five, were interred at Nottingham on Monday.  Nearly a score of survivors of the campaign attended, and formed quite a picturesque body of grey-hairefd men, who bore themselves with soldierly uprightness.  One of their number was Colour-Sergeant Turnbull, wearing twelve medals, four of which belonged to two sons who fell in South Africa.  Military honours were paid at the graves, and beautiful wreathes were sent by the local branch of the Crimea and Indian Mutiny Veterans' Association."

And this report of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition (which took place 1902 - 04):

"Mr Ferrier, secretary of the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, on Monday received a letter from Mr W S Bruce, leader of the expedition, who says:  "We have reached the south-eastern extremity of the Weddell Sea, discovering there a great barrier of ice, part of the Antarctic Continent.  We have gone 215 miles further south than last year, and 180 further than Ross in this part of the Antarctic regions.

We got beset here in 74S, 23W and were frozen in for a week, from the 7th to the 12th of March.  When he got out by chance, I thought it wisest not to proceed further in trying to get south north-east. We sounded from here up to Gough Island and, from Gough Island to the Cape, revolutionising the map of the South American Ocean by finding relatively shallow water where specially deep water was expected."

Then there some amazing little snippets (how much truth in one or two is debatable!)

A German professor has caused a storm in American temperance circles by advising the students of Chigaco University to drink more beer, as it is the best aid to a scholarship. 

Black Diamond are only found in the Brazilian province of Bahia.  They are usually found in river beds, and are brought up by divers.  Others are obtained by tunnelling mountains.  The largest specimen ever found was worth £4,000.  (Allowing for inflation, this - at the end of last year - would have been the equivalent of £478,953.63 - blimey!)

A spectator in a Japanese theatre, on payment of a small extra fee, is permitted to stand up; and the person behind him cannot object, although the latter'sview of the performance is obstructed. (Why would you want to stand instead of sit I wonder?)

More than 524,000 acres of land in the Indian possessions of Great Britain are devoted to the cultivation of tea, nine-tenths of the area being in Assam and Bengal.  Production is officially estimated at 191,250,000 pounds.  (I wonder how much tea is produced today?)

Finally - the dubious bit -

The heart of a vegetarian beats on an average fifty-eight to the minute; that of the meat-eater seventy-five.  This represents a difference of 24,000 beats in twenty-four hours.