JavaScript disabled or chat unavailable.

Have a question?

We have answers!
Chat Monday-Friday, 8 AM - 5 PM (except MS state holidays)
Phone: 601-432-4492 or Toll free: 1-877-KWIK-REF (1-877-594-5733)
Text: 601-208-0868
Email: mlcref@mlc.lib.ms.us

Monday, September 20, 2010

Dirty Rotten Crums

This blog post originally appeared 5/9/2008.

Microfilm research can be tedious and tiresome. One of the treats microfilm gives in return are jewels like the following.

Wanted-- Fifty healthy cats to rid my place of rats. I will pay one dollar apiece for them if delivered to my residence at nine o'clock this Thursday night.... William Pettibone.
Winona Advance, Winona, MS April 18, 1884

He must have had an enormous rat population! I am vehemently opposed to thinking about that many rats at one time! Did people bring him fifty cats? Did he loose them all at at once like some sort of invading army to ransack and pillage the rat population? What did he do with the fifty cats once they had disposed of the rats? Oh, the things to ponder while scanning microfilm...

$29.50 Reward.... On last Friday night I had the misfortune to leave our Ford truck on the street in front of Campbell's photography gallery and during the night some low down crum maliciously cut my back tire with his pocket knife. I am offering the above reward for the low down scoundrel who done it. It is not the value of the tire I care for, it is the principle involved. I wish that I could have put in print what I would like to say about the scoundrel, but our editor refuses to publish..... Branch Grocery Company.
Winona Times, Winona, MS April 4, 1919

This appeal brought tears to my eyes. This poor man was willing to pay a reward that probably equalled the price of the tire that the lousy crum slashed. It is so very satisfactory to read that it was only the principle of the thing that concerned him! I wonder if any newspaper editors today would have published what the victim wanted to say about that rotten crum? I think I will make crum my word of the day.

-Tracy

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...