I was standing in a pub the other day, reading the writing on the wall, when I discovered that newspapers 200 years ago were just as banal as newspapers now. The pub in question (The Royal Mile Tavern) has a copy of the Edinburgh Advertiser from March 26th 1822 pasted up conveniently near some bar-stools. It seems editors then recycled trivia from other local papers in the same way editors now recycle it from wire stories.
For your amusement and delight, banality 1822-style:
Bees swarm
Bees Swarm
Prisoners want to escape
Prisoners want to escape
Prisoners don’t escape
Prisoners don't escape
Student nicks paper
Student nicks paper
Thief nearly gets away
Thief nearly gets away
Thief does get away
Thief does get away
Men get drunk
Men get drunk
Man gets wet
Man gets wet
Lads attack policeman
Lads attack policeman
And the cute one right at the end:
Cows on ships
Cows on ships
So it seems that lazy, unimaginative and gossipy news reporting is not new. But when it’s almost 200 years old it does become fun.
