1925 Headlines to Keep the Mice Out
Yesterday, J found the original owner's Sunday paper being used between the floorboards of the first floor and the ceiling of the basement. She was trying to solve a plumbing mystery.
(Click on the images to make them larger)
Using newspaper this way was actually pretty common. It discouraged mice from scooting upstairs in those days (since reading the history of the neighborhood, which was a series of low mud hills between two rivers in Chicago back then, mice were the least scary thing to be crawling up from your basement!) It also provided some inexpensive insulation since heading out to Lowes or Home Depot was not an option in those days.
But the ink they used for newsprint? Still yucky.
We wanted to try to uncover some of the 1925 headlines or even preserve a few pages, but the paper was crumpled and brittle. A lot of it fell to pieces in our hands. The comics. The advertisements. Tantalizing bits of copy that didn't make whole sentences. But some pieces stayed with us for a few minutes...
Wow. The Blackhawk Building might be 22 WHOLE STORIES!! :) I wish I knew where this was in Chicago. I'm looking into it.
And then some serious near miss tragedies...from a collision at sea (which isn't mentioned in other historical records I could easily access) to bombs from Chinese pilots threatening Americans on trains in Asia (not to mention actually FALLING on other people).
Bungalows and cottages "built for two" were the rage...but we knew that.
Then there were some "oogy" parallels that I couldn't help seeing...it's 1925. The country has just been through a sharp little recession in 1920 - 1921 after a odd decade of prosperity. In 1920, everything just kind of fell apart for a year or so. In 1925, the country was in this strange little speculative phase. Everything is great! Or is it? Because in 1929, we slid into the Great Depression. Yuck. And, being the systems thinker that I am (and was paid to be), I can't help wondering...are we in our speculative phase? Where the media and reality are out of sync? I hope I'm wrong. I really do.
1925: Oil companies announce record dividends...
1925: Realty is booming...
Yet, there IS some hope that history isn't repeating itself :) The Chicago River, although an engineering marvel, really never did become "one of the world's MOST IMPOSING waterways." For example, compared to the Panama Canal...
Although, in it's own little way, it really gets nutty on St. Patrick's Day.
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Comments
Hey guys - been reading your updates daily. When I opened a window downstairs in our old 1904 Adobe in Bisbee Az, I came across three pages out of the 'Bisbee Times' dated January 4, 1949. There was a story about some Nazi Trial, and other bits - it was a shame these time capsules dont allways survive very well.
Ryan
Posted by: Ryan Price | December 17, 2003 8:40 AM
Ryan--
I know! It's kind of a bummer, these little bits of history.
Posted by: jmo | December 17, 2003 9:57 PM
And so we say hurrah for microfilm!!
Posted by: Anonymous | December 18, 2003 4:51 PM
Hmmmm.. just remembered, a while ago I read a book about the German POWs that were housed in Arizona, for 'the duration'. Some of them escaped/attempted to escape, but were recovered.
God bless, Christine
Posted by: Christine | May 24, 2004 9:25 AM