From the Archives of Western Newspapers

Posted on April 20, 2023 by Ryan Dahlman

By Samantha Johnson

Commentator/Courier

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Saturday, April 23, 1910 – The Strathmore Standard and Bow Valley Standard

When the fire took place at Roland Hill’s on Tuesday the new fire engine was not ready for use. The old one was the only one being charged and we want to know why. 

Strathmore’s two junior bank managers have recently been relieving the tedium of handling bank notes and cashing cheques by cleaning up backyards around town. This has much to recommend it, especially for those leading the indoor life. It is good exercise and beneficial to the town from a sanitary perspective. Additionally, beauty may smile at them from back windows and invite the men to supper once the job is complete. 

It will please many to know the large building at the corner of Third Street and Second Avenue is again occupied and will now be a rooming and boarding house. Unoccupied it was an eyesore and many wondered why it remained empty when accommodation is so hard to come by. The building started as a hotel, but the proprietors failed to get a license. The CPR leased it to use as an immigration hall and the Standard used the front room for composing. We believe the new venture will be a success.  

Thursday, April 26, 1918 – Redcliff Review

Robert Hamilton, mine manager, has been home to Lundbrick. He’s back and has taken a house lately occupied by the Rev. W.T. Beattle. Hamilton is bringing his family to swell the population of a great city. 

They say tomorrow never comes. It doesn’t and that’s a fact if you think it over. If we hadn’t been overtaken by the German measles so severely last week, the feelings of the gentlemen listed in “June Weddings” would have been more carefully considered. We wish to make a few comments on that article written by our understudy last week. First, A.E. Farmer has a wife and 10 children back east so won’t be walking down the aisle again anytime soon. Joe Barry, clerk. We don’t know him and possibly a misprint. If not, he has many betrothal problems.

The geese are rapidly flying north these days and the flapping of their wings can be distinctly heard. Throughout town, our geese, to be correct ‘goose necks’, now have streetlamps hanging on them. Let there be light.  

Twenty-eight cars were on the Brick Company’s siding on Sunday night. Things are going now with a might swing. Good luck to Dr. Kohler, Woodcock, Sellhorn, and Lockwood. 

Thursday, April 21, 1927 – Mirror Mail

The idea of adopting a gear shift for a large locomotive is unusual enough, although it is strange it has not been done before. The newest electrical giants with 35,000-horsepower will now haul Pennsylvania Railroad trains, both freight and passenger. These monsters have a driving axle load of 75,000 pounds and will not regularly be slowed down or sped up by running through only three speeds like the automobile. 

The use of eyelids to repair facial defects is one of the latest developments in plastic surgery. Dr. J. Eastman Sheenan of the New York Post Graduate Hospital recently told the Convention of Oral and Plastic Surgeons how he grafted the entire eyelid of a patient over a hole in the cheek. This gave the entire cheek the same pigment and colouring as the rest of the face. The doctor did own that the patient was unable to close his eyelid for several months following the procedure, but gradually the eyelid stretches and drops, resulting in virtually a new one. 

As a general rule, the motorist is held to blame when a pedestrian is struck. The report of Toronto’s Chief Constable for 1926 shows the motorist was at fault in only 202 accidents and the pedestrian in 593. There were 120 cases where responsibility could not be determined. Obviously, the necessity is for greater care by everyone.