From the Archives of Western Newspapers

By Samantha Johnson
For Southern Alberta Newspapers

May 2, 1883 – The Prince Albert Times and Saskatchewan Review

A successful trial was recently made in London of an electrical streetcar. The car ran a distance of four miles in a satisfactory manner.

No doubt the oldest inhabitant of Ontario, P. Patterson departed this life recently in Otterville, ON. He is said to have been 120 years of age.

A bill has been introduced in England to increase the time during which the solemnization of marriage can occur. Presently, it is between 8 a.m. and noon, which will lengthen to 6 p.m.

Any boys who can’t exert themselves so much as to play lacrosse, baseball or cricket will find a ring and lots of marbles at the Times office they can amuse themselves with if they feel so inclined.

May 2, 1902 – Ponoka Herald

Al Cole engaged in a preliminary boxing match with Will Campbell at Wetaskiwin on Wednesday night. He returned with a black eye, but his only comment was, “you ought to see the other fellow.” A match for scientific points will likely be arranged between the two in the near future.

Daily mail service is now in vogue both north and south between Calgary and Edmonton. Local service between the towns remains the same, only three times a week.

A letter has been published in the papers of Saline County, Nebraska by one Ed Zedneck of Ponoka. Who Ed is, we don’t know, but he’s certainly a capital liar and takes the bakery with his vivid imagination and ability for expressing the views of others. Ed wrote there are so many fools in Alberta he could get nothing to do. We are glad there is one less fool than when Ed was here.

May 6, 1915 – The Oyen News

The first Panama hat of the season was observed here in town on Monday.

There is a chance Great Britain may follow the example of Russia in the wholesale habituation of the water wagon. Lloyd George made a veiled threat in a recent speech, saying workmen in the armament factories need to resist the lure of drink to sufficiently put in a full week’s work. England, as well as all of Europe, are partially on the water wagon. Russia has gone more wholeheartedly by wiping out the manufacture of vodka in one stroke. France comes a close second and England has radically cut down on saloon hours and now there is this intimation from government they may embrace the water wagon more fully.

The Little Things of Dress is the title of an article published by a local paper. We know what those are, they are those ding-busting damn fasteners. Oops, sorry censor, we should have printed ‘dome’.

This has been called a gold war, and so it is in a sense. However, it is even more emphatically a copper one. Cut off the supply of copper, and sooner or later the war would come to an end. That is because the red metal enters into the composition, to a greater or lesser degree, of nearly all the munitions of war.