In the news of the time

The digitalnewspapers.org Web site provides a window into the world of journalism, English and culture through the coverage of news by early Utah newspapers. Some trends that are obvious include:

• The use of peculiar words of the times. A Grand Valley Times story from Dec. 21, 1922, is about a fire at the Woolworth Five and Ten Cent store. Headline: "Yeggs blamed for costly fire." Line from story: "Police believe that yeggs who blew the safe an hour before the fire was discovered were to blame for the blaze."

From the Eastern Utah Advocate on Oct. 31, 1912, comes this headline: "Young Provo nimrods secure a fine buck."

From the Carbon County News of Aug. 12, 1910, was this included in a wedding recap: "Immediately following the ceremony, the party partook of the wedding dinner and all went merry for several hours … "

From the News Advocate of Jan. 29, 1931, was an item about the Price baseball manager having a meeting for fans. "Mr. Shartino has asked that every baseball fan in Price be in attendance in order that an organization may be perfected for the coming year."

• Some reporting that lacked, shall we say, details. Example? This police item — in its entirety — from the Aug. 12, 1910, Carbon County News: "There was a shooting scrape in Helper last Saturday night. When city marshal Delpiaz was asked if he got them he replied that he had one of them. 'The dead one. The one who was killed.'"

• Apparently, struggling to fill space and provide details of all local activities, news that was not really news. This, from the Manti Messenger of Jan. 10, 1919: "The city council met in regular session last Saturday evening with little of importance on the docket, all members present."

• A different sense of objectivity. From the News Advocate of Jan. 29, 1931, coverage of a store explosion was headlined "Natural gas did this!" The photo caption began, "L.B. Hatch had a grocery store at 1064 South Fifth East street, Salt Lake City. He put in natural gas. It blew him up with his store."

The story included snipes about the gas company and competing newspapers: "The gas company press agent, apparently, was able to persuade the Tribune and Telegram that it didn't amount to much and they refused to publish pictures of the blow up and restricted their mention of the matter to an absurd minimum, the Tribune taking three days before they grudging published the fact that gas was responsible for the damage and the injuries." Later in the story: "You can rest assured the gas company were on the job bright and early with two or three crews of men endeavoring to erase the traces of the devastation, but there were too many such to prevent any knowledge of what had happened."