A Minnesota Century: News 100 Years Ago
by Annie Feidt
December 27, 1999
A Minnesota Century home.

RealAudio 3.0

Before radio, TV and the Internet, people got their news from the daily papers. Breaking stories clattered across the wires to newspaper offices around the country. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, two pennies bought you one of four daily papers. What stories made the Twin Cities papers 100 years ago this month? Grab your slippers, find a comfortable chair and your favorite coffee mug for our final edition of the Minnesota Century series.

	See images of some of the content in the turn-of-the-century Minnesota newspapers.

NEWS OF THE Anglo-Boer War dominated headlines of the local papers in December 1899. The war broke out on October 11th of that year, after the Dutch farmers who occupied two independent republics within South Africa, refused to allow the British to mine the region's new found wealth in gold.

December 27th
Minneapolis Tribune
War Situation in South Africa At A Glance.

British troops are now halted on their northward march in South Africa by overwhelming hordes of Boers, and apparently must await large reinforcements before they can again take the aggressive. In the east, General Butler has fallen back from the Tugela river and is now more than 20 miles from his objective point of Ladysmith, having made practically no progress.

The war lasted another two-and-a-half years but the British, who outnumbered the Dutch more than five to one, eventually overtook Boer troops. The treaty of Pretoria in May 1902, transferred both Boer republics to British rule.

In the United States, the last decade of the 19th century brought a tide of new immigrants. More than 4 million arrived in America, often encountering a deep intolerance. Hostility towards African Americans escalated as Jim Crow and lynch-mob terror pervaded the South. The newspapers chronicled their experiences, although not always sympathetically.

The Minneapolis Journal
Barbarous
Maysville, KY.- Dick Coleman, the Negro murderer of Mrs. Lashbrook, who has been in jail, was taken from the officers by a mob of 1,000 men and burned at the stake. The mob, led by the husband of the Negro's victim, dragged the shrieking criminal through the principal streets of the town, bound him to a small tree, set fire to brush heaped about him, and stood guard until he was dead.

The rope had torn and terribly lacerated his neck and his face was beaten up. His death was slow and, writhing in terrible agony, was hooted and glared at by the thousands of people standing on the edge of the pit.

The Pioneer Press
Not For Negroes
Governor Candler of Georgia has signed a bill passed by the legislature last week that hopes to compel railroads and sleeping car companies to provide separate sleeping cars for whites and blacks.

Governor Candler disregarded the protests of Booker T. Washington, Bishop H. M. Turner and other notable Negro leaders who made forcible objection to the bill on the ground that it is prejudicial to the right of Negroes and will inflict great hardships on them compelling them to ride in the "Jim Crow" smoking cars when passing through Georgia.

The constitutionality of the law will be tested in the courts. The Supreme Court of Georgia has decided the separate passenger car law is constitutional.

The Pioneer Press
Undesirable Immigrants
The Treasury Department is disturbed by the constant inflow to the country of undesirable immigrants. During the past two months more than 60,000 immigrants arrived in the country and the greater percentage has come from the Slavonic countries of Southern Europe.

The Minneapolis Journal
Cut His Whiskers
When Mr. Stein landed at the barge office from Europe, he had one of the longest and thickest beards that ever passed through the Sandy Hook immigration office.

A custom-house man searched the beard for smuggled property and then passed it along to health authorities. Mr. Stein was led off to the Long Island College Hospital where authorities said, "Take off his whiskers and shave his head, then give him a bath."

Said Mr. Stein: "Free! This country is not free. Even in my own land they would not have done that to me which they have done in this place. If there is justice in America, I will get it, but I fear there is none."

One of the things that hasn't changed much in past 100 years is the amount of space newspapers devote to advertisements. Usually they fade into the background, but occasionally an entertaining slogan gives you a chuckle or offers some sound advice.

Ad: Don't step on a rat to kill him. When you want to rid your home of all kinds of household vermin, why not do it in the easiest, surest, cleanest and cheapest way: by using Stearns Electric Bug and Roach paste? Rats eat the paste, which consumes them and dries up all of the rat but the skin and bones so that there is nothing left to smell.

Stearns Electric Paste has been made for over 20 years. Thousands and thousands of housekeepers have used it during that time, and we have never had one single complaint.

Ad: What an awful strain on the nerves continued menstrual suffering is! Now the awful enervating drains of the falling of the womb, and the acute pains in the head, back and lower limbs have been completely banished by Wine of Cardui. Thousands of women are suffering. They are silent sufferers; heroines in the cause of modesty. To try Wine of Cardui, is to be cured by it.

Local news was filled with stories about industrial growth, petty crime and fashion. Many papers included a society page recounting the previous day's most important social engagements. One December edition of the Pioneer Press includes an article about an informal yuletide dancing party that gives a detailed account of how the rooms were decorated. But the news was serious too. On December 27th, the St. Paul Dispatch recounted an effort to clean up the city's police department.

Nice Kettle of Fish
Detective Meyer was before St. Paul Mayor Kiefer today for alleged intoxication and conduct unbecoming a member of the police department. Meyer has been a member of the police force but a few days, having been chosen by the Mayor as a man on whom he could depend to assist him in "purifying" the department. The detective retaliated, accusing three well known members of the police department with falsehood and conspiracy.

The Minneapolis Tribune
He Lost Three Turkeys
There was not a happier man in Minneapolis than Edward Barry last week. His wife had asked for one turkey for Christmas dinner and he had bought one. But going to his home on the East Side, he saw an alluring light and a crowd of men making merry and indulging in the pernicious turkey raffle. He wandered in.

By the time Mr. Barry was wandering homeward, three long turkey necks were dragging behind him on the dusty sidewalk. Charmed with his success and happy with jovial companions, he consented to go in and have one small drink to celebrate success, and that was the reason he had no turkey for dinner Christmas day. He laid down his turkeys on a table, had his drink, and when he turned around, his turkeys were gone.

The Minneapolis Tribune
Bracing
The atmosphere in the vicinity of Minneapolis at the present is of the invigorating kind. The city yesterday, for the first time this season, saw the thermometer go below the zero mark. In the morning the weather was cloudy, and in the afternoon the sun appeared for a time. No snow is yet in sight, and the weather man is making no promises in that direction.

Despite some objections, most of the world will be celebrating the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the third millennium this New Year's eve. But 100 years ago, local newspapers held off the festivities one more year, until a true mathematical century had passed. To clear up any confusion, the Minneapolis Journal offered this explanation.

This Does Settle It
What is a century? A hundred things of the same kind, for example, 100 years. Does it take 100 full years to make a century? It certainly does. Can one century begin before another century ends? Not without lapping, and that's against the rules of the game. Will this century, the 19th century, go right to the last second of 1900 before it has rounded out 100 full years? Of course it will. But what about the pope saying the 20th century would begin just after midnight January 1st, 1900? Whisper - the pope didn't say it. He merely stated that the year 1900 would "usher in" the 20th century.

That's the news for the month of December, 1899. These few reports are, of course, just a small sample of what Minnesotans were reading 100 years ago. If you'd like to learn more, all four turn-of-the-century Twin Cities dailies are archived on microfilm at the Minnesota History Center.