[Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip Contents]
It might be an idea, if you’re particularly sensitive to distressing information and details to have a look under each video to see what will be discussed prior to hitting the play button.
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We had 3 articles in this episode. All with some relation to marriage by pure coincidence.
– We had a marriage between a lass and her uncle’s executioner.
– A wedding between a couple both on the verge of their centenaries.
– The last was a lass spared judicial punishment on the oath of a sailor, a stranger to her, offering to marry her & make her his responsibility.
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3 episodes related in this episode.
– We had the story of Helen Oliver who lived as her brother John until found out & convinced into resuming life as a woman. (This story was relayed in our Gender-Fluidity in Scottish History episode.)
– Then an article on Table Turning in relation to contacting the dead.
– Finally, we had the murder of a gentleman, with his murderer having been found decapitated on the nearby railway line. [Trigger warning likely required for this one.]
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4 articles in this episode.
– Wife absconds with house contents after leaving husband at a friends’. He went on to take his own life. [Suicide trigger warning for this one.]
– 70 year old lord marries the 35 year old mother to his children in secret.
– A query as to why women should not be viable assets to the workforce in the Royal Mail post offices.
– Finally, we had a runaway horse & cart with a near miss by the driver.
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Seemed as though we had a few Hallowe’en appropriate articles for this one.
– Cult leader’s body found preserved in follower’s home on his death.
– John Coulter dies only for it to be discovered he was a woman all along.
– Woman almost buried alive. (Unfortunately a super common occurrence.)
– To finish, we had a ghost story from Westmorland.
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For this episode we had 4 stories from 3 sources, with 2 being of pretty much the same line as each other.
– Gold miner in the USA takes a shortcut down a snowy ravine & almost catches on fire due to the speed of his descent.
– Cat alerts owner to a thief hiding under her bed.
– Woman almost buried alive. (Again.)
– Woman thought to be dead but found the next to day to be actually deceased, though her position had changed, her bindings had been loosened, & her eyes were now open & staring…
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4 articles from 4 sources here. We got through them fairly quickly. Only the first article, if any, requires a trigger warning.
– Decapitated, anonymous, body found in shallow grave with head between his legs. (Yorkshire Gazette, 21st February, 1824.)
Put me in mind of This.
– A grenadier, who had been such for 14 years, discovered to be a woman when she gave birth. (Caledonian Mercury, 23rd July, 1724.)
Gender-Fluidity in Scottish History.
– Girl falls asleep with her feet in a basin of hot water, waking 8 hours later, & finds she has lost the use of her feet & legs. (North British Daily Mail, 11th March, 1852.)
– Hen, apparently, lays 2 eggs with raised writing on them, suggesting some kind of religious intervention. (Elgin Courant & Morayshire Advertiser, 29th October, 1858.)
This was the only Similar Occurrence I found.
Welcome back for another run of the randomness that is the Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip. Not really the need for trigger warnings this time around.
– Trap consisting of a goose & a hole in the ground manages to capture both a man & a wolf. The end isn’t what you’d assume from this combination. (Caledonian Mercury, 2nd January, 1832.)
– Young lad’s bad habit is almost the end of him. (Dundee Courier, 22nd May, 1873.)
– Hawaii on the cusp of being “annexed” by the USA. (Edinburgh Evening News, 13th July, 1897.) https://www.nationofhawaii.org/timeline/ & https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/struggle-hawaiian-sovereignty-introduction.
– Missing woman found to have hidden herself in a chest in the attic for a fortnight before her husband found her by chance. (Scotsman, 29th May, 1841.)
– Finally we had a few examples of sins that incurred a cost for forgiveness, to which the poor had no resort. (Falkirk Herald, 31st March, 1870.) Which had put me in mind of this happening, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/06/finnish-businessman-hit-with-121000-speeding-fine.
Welcome back for another run of the randomness that is the Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip. Just the one trigger warning (for horse lovers), not counting the word “Scotch” being included – I know some folk choose to get triggered by this word when it’s not in relation to whisky but they need to understand Scots/Scottish/Scotch were used interchangeably even by Scots back in the day – unsure when it started to annoy people…
– Irish Peeress decides to have Scotsman arrested in Westminster for wearing his full Highland regalia. (London Packet & New Lloyd’s Evening Post, 23rd July, 1821.)
– Servants’ decision to tie horses up in an occupied field goes horribly wrong for them when they return to find their equestrian friends have been attacked. (Perthshire Courier, 3rd August, 1843.)
– Man finds himself naked out on the streets of Glasgow’s east end & believes he’s been robbed, though it seems a crazy case of sleepwalking. (Public Ledger & Daily Advertiser, 8th December, 1824.)
Welcome back for another run of the randomness that is the Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip. The theme of this episode was, apparently, lack of resolution. Many of the 5 articles we go through in this one, being short offerings, left more questions than they answered.
– To begin we had 4 men killed by thunder & lightning. Or perhaps they were distracted by the weather & were killed in another random fashion, or each in different ways. Who knows? (Caledonian Mercury, 9th August, 1731.)
– Then we have an English MP concerned about an impending munitions scandal, set to rock the country & lessen Britain in the eyes of those watching from abroad. This was a year prior to the beginning of WWII. A debate on the issue can be read on Hansard (https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1938-11-17/debates/19f1087e-9ef4-4230-9281-47576e76fe2c/DebateOnTheAddress). A “serious delay in the execution of the programme of re-armament stated to be necessary by the Service Departments for national safety,.. both to secure efficiency and prevent waste and profiteering.” seemed to be the main issue at hand. That “the Secretary of State for Air said that this year we were going to spend £200,000,000 [£11,139,024,070 today] on the Air Force, whereas in 1934 the figure was £19,000,000 [or £1,058,207,286 today].” A striking difference of £10,080,816,784. Which is a crazy amount! (Dundee Courier, 17th November, 1938.)
– Next up we had a very Strange Attack in a Railway Carriage where a young man was stabbed with a penknife in his neck. It had me totally bewildered. There was also no resolution, in that, while the victim appeared to survive, it’s not known what became of his assailant. (Edinburgh Evening Courant, 27th May, 1862.)
– Then it was a short article, with the surprise ending of a Dr & his patient having expired and shaken off their mortal coil at the very same moment as each other. There’s no suggestion of what the individual causes may have been. (Oxford University & City Herald [OUCH], 27th August, 1814.)
– To finish us, we had “several people” dying after drinking tainted lemonade in Wichita, Kansas. Tainted with what, we were left unaware. On checking it turns out the lemonade was made by Corry & Co. That there appeared to be nothing wrong with the lemonade & that there was only citric acid within it. This was emphasised in later newspaper by stating that it “thus prov[ed] that the too common practice of adulterating lemonade by sulphuric acid had not been followed”! I had to read that sentence a few times and I still cannot believe sticking sulphuric acid in anything that was to be drunk could be in anyway close to being a “common practice.” That after investigation the lemonade was found to be “entirely free from lead, copper, or any other impurity.” The ‘Cork Constitution’ for 30th June, 1890, gives us a wee bit more information, “One hundred persons who drank lemonade at a picnic at Wichita, Kansas, yesterday, were seized with symptoms of poisoning. Three have since died, and numbers of other cases are expected to have fatal termination.” (Alloa Advertiser, 23rd August, 1890.)
Welcome back for another run of the randomness that is the Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip. It’s been a wee while. Not sure this collection gave us a theme. We’ve 4 articles we go through in this one, being short offerings & ending on a not so positive ending – Trigger warning for suicide in this one.
– To begin we had a once in a few thousand years occurrence when a number of new year’s celebrations combined on the same date. (Inverness Courier, 9th November, 1854.)
– Next we have a “Devil-Fish” caught in Loch Long. (Dundee Courier, 27th June, 1873.)
– Then we had the Glamis Castle Ghost, which seems to have something to do with a “dread secret” kept by the family of Strathmore. (Forfar Herald, 11th January, 1889.)
– Lastly we had a gentleman in Berlin who set folk up to be shot by tossing money from his balcony before taking the quick way down to ground level. (Dumfries & Galloway Standard, 16th September, 1846.)
Welcome back for another run of the randomness that is the Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip. It’s been a wee while. Not sure this collection gave us a theme. We’ve 4 articles we go through in this one, being short offerings & ending on a not so positive ending – Trigger warnings for; accidental death, theft of kittens, assassination of children, unintentional child suicide, death by lightning & accidental killing of a flock of sheep, in this one. As it was just that kind of night, added to by the recording software only pretending to work at the end.
– Man plays a joke(?) on a friend who both then had something of a drunken brawl, before the man broke his leg, dying of his injuries. (North British Daily Mail, 2nd August, 1876.)
– Bored chicken steals kittens from their mother. (Glasgow Morning Journal, 20th August, 1858.)
– Young children killed in front of their mother by an apparently murderous couple. (Fife Herald, 21st October, 1824.)
– To end we had 3 incidents noted in the same article; 2 children accidentally kill themselves with arsenic; during a lightning strike, a woman, and a horse were killed, along with a gentleman whose leg was “scorched;” and a farmer who killed his flock of sheep by providing them with a dubious cocktail that included “oil of vitriol,” or sulphuric acid. (Star, 16th April, 1814.)
Welcome back for another run of the randomness that is the Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip. 3 articles this time & only chaos kittens to contend with, no tech issues encountered in this one. – Trigger warning for building collapse leading to entrapment of survivors & death to the unfortunate majority.
– First up we had an apparently insane man, who climbs a tree to get to heaven, before dropping back to earth sane. (Caledonian Mercury, 24th June, 1843.)
– Next we had the complete collapse of a 6/7 storey sugar house in Glasgow, resulting in the death of 14 and injury to about 5 workers. (Fife Herald, 2nd November, 1848.)
– Finally, we ended with an “odd marriage,” where the widowed master of a house decided one morning to marry the first member of household staff that answered his bell. This apparently turned out alright for everyone involved. (Aberdeen Evening Express, 13th June, 1893.)
Welcome back for another run of the randomness that is the Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip. 3 articles for this one, there was a fourth but tech issues meant the sound was all messed up in a way that sound editing wasn’t able to solve – still setting everything back up after my computer super failed on me – the mic should be fine for the next one.
– Firstly, we have an apparently accidental drowning of a man after getting into a fight with his friend. (Edinburgh Evening News, 1st December, 1877.)
– Next we had a story of a female corporal in the Italian army, who was wounded (later dying of her injuries) during the battle of Custozza – we learned during our Gender-Fluidity in Scottish History episode for Independence Live that this was far from uncommon. (Dundee Advertiser, 26th July, 1866.)
– Finally, we finish with some strange sightings from the east coast of Scotland, that seemed for a minute as if we were going to get into a discussion of cryptid sightings. In this case it seemed more likely it was a result of some strange weather or lighting anomalies. (Caledonian Mercury, 5th August, 1844.)
Welcome back for another run of the randomness that is the Newspaper Article Lucky-Dip. 4 articles this time and unfortunately my mic is still causing problems & extra work… – Trigger warning for discussions surrounding burial while alive, those with Taphophobia may not enjoy that much. It’s the last article pulled from the hat, if you fancy hearing about the others.
– First up we had a mother of 3 who befriended another woman, then decided to make out she was only play-acting and that she was really a man, not just any man, but the son of the king & queen. It was, apparently only on their marrying that it was discovered she’d been female the whole time. (Dundee, Perth, & Cupar Advertiser, 18th October, 1853.) – Gender-fluidity in Scottish History.
– Next we had a roman plaque found requesting the return of a lost ring. In a crazy coincidence, said lost ring was found 33 miles away. (Aberdeen Press & Journal, 19th December, 1866.) – For more information – https://crimsonket.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-sylvianus-ring-at-vyne.html
Then we had a runaway train with no-one onboard to stop or mitigate its progress. A fireman (not the kind we know & love today, rather the man whose job it was to stoke the boiler) chased it on another train and jumped from one to the other to halt its journey, in an act of sheer death-defying heroism. (Scotsman, 4th January, 1866.) – Scottish Railway Incidents.
– Finally, we ended with the sad story of a woman who was almost buried alive. Fortunately the undertaker’s assistant realised there were subtle signs of life, though the shock of coming to in her (open) coffin likely meant she didn’t survive long at all afterwards. (Brechin Advertiser, 11th February, 1879.) – List of patents, including that shown – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/sponsored/people-feared-being-buried-alive-so-much-they-invented-these-special-safety-coffins-180970627/
Sound issues galore, again. Even after attempts to rectify it, it sounds worse than in the last few videos. I’ll really have to work out a solution to this before we have another episode, I think. I’m on it, regardless. Not really any trigger warnings for this one, unless you have a fear of locusts and sleepwalking incidents.
– In the first article a man-made iron nail is apparently discovered within a rock that cracked on being dropped, leading to questions as to who made it prior to the rocks having formed. (Dumfries & Galloway Standard, 7th January, 1852.)
– Then two lads have a lucky escape when struck by lightning, seemingly “out of the blue,” as they say. (Glasgow Evening Citizen, 26th April, 1880.)
– Thirdly a Glasgow sheriff suggests an additional punishment for wife beaters. (Greenock Telegraph & Clyde Shipping Gazette, 10th July, 1897.)
– Then we have a report of a huge cull of locusts in Arles, France. (General Evening Post, 8th July, 1819.)
– Finally we end with a sleepwalker falling headfirst from a window after hanging on for some time. Only injuries were recorded as a result of the incident. (Dundee Courier, 11th January, 1877.)
Using a lapel microphone, everything crossed you feel it sounds better. Trigger warnings for unnoticed death, wildlife predation of the deceased, the hurried burial of a deceased person in proximity to a living space, and the accidental removal of limbs.
– Our first offering is a 3-parter; firstly strangers potentially endangering themselves on the ice due to misunderstanding the meaning behind a sign; then an elderly miser dies alone in his squalid home despite having a fairly large financial stash; finally an elderly woman returns home from a substantial amount of time spent perambulating around Scotland begging for her living with a large pay-off. (Caledonian Mercury, 8th February, 1830.)
– The next paper has an elderly woman dying in her residence, which was a cellar, amongst others also living there. Her “room mates” on finding out she had passed (apparently quite some time after the fact) buried her in what you would expect to be one of the last considered places. Her story making the news would be due to the authorities having found out. (Dublin Evening Post, 17th June, 1824.)
– The third paper had 2 articles for us; the first being a woman who was obviously very skilled at playing the gentleman; and the second and last was the awful story of a father of seven who got far too close to a saw at a time when health & safety truly wasn’t often a consideration. (Dundee Courier, 8th May, 1861.)
Welcome to another random article pick from past eras. No trigger warnings out the hat for this episode, which is nice.
– Our first offering tells us about something of a “madness epidemic” doing the rounds in Vienna. (Perthshire Advertiser, 13th June, 1850.)
– The next article out the hat gave us the story of a sleepwalking child who jumped out of a 25 foot high window, believing his house was on fire. He suffered no apparent injuries. (Aberdeen Press & Journal, 28th March, 1878.)
– The third pick out the hat gave us a ghost story to end with. The spirit was apparently that of a late wife, seemingly poisoned by her husband. I wasn’t able to find out whether those assertions were borne out at all in a court case or conviction. (Aris’s Birmingham Gazette, 25th January, 1762.)
Welcome to another episode of newspaper randomness. We had articles out the hat for this one. TRIGGER WARNING for murder (actual & attempted) involving decapitation.
– The first article was relating the tale of a Mr Warr who ended up married, seemingly against his will, to the daughter of a tribal chief. (Elgin Courant & Morayshire Advertiser, 31st July, 1846.)
– The second article relates a schoolmaster’s horrific murder of his aunt & attempted murder of his mother. (John o’ Groat Journal, 26th January, 1844.)
– The third is a far more light-hearted story of a sleepwalker recruiting his recently awoken friend into helping him hold a house up. (Elgin Courant & Morayshire Advertiser, 20th May, 1853.)
– The final article tells us of a deceased unknown man found in the basket of a grounded hot air balloon. (London Telegraph, 11th October, 1824.)
Welcome to another episode of newspaper randomness. We had 3 articles out the hat for this one.
– The first was about a Silesian death tradition. (Ross-shire Journal, 15th December, 1882.)
– Next we ask why women shouldn’t be whipmakers. (Glasgow Saturday Post, and Paisley & Renfrewshire Reformer, 22nd June, 1861.)
– Then we end with how an Aberdonian historian became the butt of the joke. up. (Aberdeen Evening Express, 31st March, 1951.)
Welcome to another episode of newspaper randomness. We had 4 articles out the hat for this one, which may have been a mistake… Trigger warning for discussion of suicide, though you should be good for the first 3 articles.
– To begin we have the heroism of a gent who saved a young lad from drowning. (Jedburgh Gazette, 16th May, 1874.)
– Then we have a miser who was willing to cut his nose off to spite his face. (Witness, 9th September, 1840.)
– Thirdly we have the astonishing intimation of the death of a gentleman who was apparently 120 yrs old! (Caledonian Mercury, 22nd November, 1731.)
Welcome to another episode of newspaper randomness. We had 4 articles out the hat in this episode.
– To start us off we have a female sailor who was found out. (Dundee, Perth, & Cupar Advertiser, 30th August, 1859.)
– Next we have 3 calves born in a way that seemed to frighten some of the more credulous locals. (Perthshire Courier, 7th May, 1835.)
– Then there the relation of a sentry at Holyrood Palace taking the notion to go with his musket to take pot-shots at the denizens of Edinburgh. No fatalities having occurred. (Dundee Courier, 12th October, 1864.)
– Our fourth and last article has a series of coincidental & lucky breaks noted during warfare. (Dundee Courier, 17th April, 1900.)
Welcome to another episode of newspaper randomness. We had 4 articles out the hat in this episode. Trigger warnings for accidental death by truss (1st article) & shotgun(?) blast to the pelvis (4th article).
– To begin we hear about a stage extra in the theatre having died in an act of slapstick. (Magnet (London), 27th January, 1845.)
– Then it’s a relation of farm-servant, Tommy, having been discovered on giving birth. (Elgin Courant & Morayshire Advertiser, 5th September, 1856.)
– Thirdly we have a strange change of the atmosphere leading to gas lamps giving out a green light while the sky turned purple. (Dundee Courier, 9th December, 1880.)
– Our last article is about a farmer killed with his own gun after getting into a brawl with a gamekeeper. (Perthshire Courier, 7th September, 1815.)
Welcome to another episode of newspaper randomness. We had 3 articles out the hat in this episode. Trigger Warning for the first, being the accidental death of a child.
– To begin us we have a child who fell while holding a stick, which went up his nose. (Lincolnshire Free Press, 13th July, 1897.)
– Then we had a Cockney superstition which supposedly leads folk to the thieves of their belongings. (Edinburgh Evening Courant, 16th June, 1832.)
– The ex-Queen of Naples becomes an “it” and seemingly genderless in an anecdote. (Fife Herald, 3rd October, 1861.)
Welcome to another episode of newspaper randomness. We had 4 articles out the hat for this one. Trigger warning for death by poisoning.
– We begin with a report of a poisoning after a group of 4 friends all drank from a glass which had contained Naphtha. (Glasgow Evening Citizen, 11th May, 1880.)
– Next up is details of an incident in which a keeper of the Humane Society House jumped into the River Clyde at Glasgow Green, thereby saving a woman’s life. He is then set upon by her friends(?) (Sun, 11th July, 1823.)
– Then we have some soldiers, stationed in Edinburgh, who dug up the remains of an elderly woman, for unknown reasons, only to then abandon their charge in an uninhabited house. (Caledonian Mercury, 6th April, 1736.)
– Our final article, much like our first, is regarding the supposed poisoning of Andrew Johnson, prior to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. (Dunfermline Saturday Press, 27th May, 1865.)
Welcome to our last episode of newspaper randomness for this series. We had 3 articles out the hat for this one and no trigger warnings to note.
– Galician women appeal to the Austrian Emperor for the right to fight for their country, even willing to do so without pay. (Dundee Courier, 29th December, 1864.)
– Note of the marriage of a woman who, disguised as a man, succeeded in becoming the Captain of a regiment of Hussars. (Aberdeen Press & Journal, 3rd July, 1811.)
– A seashore find ends up causing an unexpected explosion. (Lennox Herald, 28th June, 1890.)
– The ‘Times Malta’ published an article, 16th February, 2024, that may be of interest to some. It includes Paul Gauci’s story – https://timesofmalta.com/article/deadly-killers-thermos-butterfly-bombs-wwii.1082433
Hope to see you back for Series 3!
Very Fortean!