Have you ever had that feeling...
May. 20th, 2009 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
likethebeerlooking at news stories, and thinking that they exaggerate the dangers of the world? Well, you're not new to this.
I spent another day looking at our old newspaper on microfiche from 1916 and 1917, and OH. MY. GOD.
People are dying from everything. Just dropping dead in the street, sitting down in a chair and droppin dead at the age of 47, burning--horribly--all the time. Getting appendicitis, and not getting to a doctor in time, getting "infant paralysis" (which I really think was Polio before it was Polio), mangling themselves constantly - chopping off limbs, hitting themselves in the face with an AXE - and all this was just reported in your local newspaper.
March 1, 1917, p. 1 "Herb Scholl received a painful injury to his right eye Tuesday. While opening a box of goods a splinter flew and pierced the eyeball. No serious result is anticipated."
Pierced the EYEBALL.
Wearing protective eyewear while opening a large wooden box? A GOOD. IDEA.
Children died so many times by using a match, and their clothes catching on fire, and usually, it's several days after receiving severe burns before they die. I think sometimes we worry too much about this stuff, every little thing, but having fire retardant children's clothing? A GOOD. IDEA. Kids were dying all the time from this stuff.
I read one story that noted that the fire brigade of Madison, WI, had noted that over 400 fires had taken place in Madison, just in January (1916). These things were mostly caused by home furnaces.
Jesus, I think people who run factories should have 1 day where they just read the local newspapers for a year to see how many people died from horrible injuries in order to understand why we have things like OSHA. And the 5-day work week. And laws regarding child work hours.
And, you know what? This doesn't even touch on the number of people who killed themselves, their family members, who planned the death of family members, that I've read about.
It was really too much after awhile for my sensitive nerves. I now avoid any note of death in this old newspaper, because it's just too much.
Oh, and FLLW went to Japan during this period of time. It's noted in the local newspaper. Honestly, that's not what I'm looking for, but I'll note it when it happens. Turns out that he was due to leave on a larger liner on Dec. 28, 1916, for Japan.
I spent another day looking at our old newspaper on microfiche from 1916 and 1917, and OH. MY. GOD.
People are dying from everything. Just dropping dead in the street, sitting down in a chair and droppin dead at the age of 47, burning--horribly--all the time. Getting appendicitis, and not getting to a doctor in time, getting "infant paralysis" (which I really think was Polio before it was Polio), mangling themselves constantly - chopping off limbs, hitting themselves in the face with an AXE - and all this was just reported in your local newspaper.
March 1, 1917, p. 1 "Herb Scholl received a painful injury to his right eye Tuesday. While opening a box of goods a splinter flew and pierced the eyeball. No serious result is anticipated."
Pierced the EYEBALL.
Wearing protective eyewear while opening a large wooden box? A GOOD. IDEA.
Children died so many times by using a match, and their clothes catching on fire, and usually, it's several days after receiving severe burns before they die. I think sometimes we worry too much about this stuff, every little thing, but having fire retardant children's clothing? A GOOD. IDEA. Kids were dying all the time from this stuff.
I read one story that noted that the fire brigade of Madison, WI, had noted that over 400 fires had taken place in Madison, just in January (1916). These things were mostly caused by home furnaces.
Jesus, I think people who run factories should have 1 day where they just read the local newspapers for a year to see how many people died from horrible injuries in order to understand why we have things like OSHA. And the 5-day work week. And laws regarding child work hours.
And, you know what? This doesn't even touch on the number of people who killed themselves, their family members, who planned the death of family members, that I've read about.
It was really too much after awhile for my sensitive nerves. I now avoid any note of death in this old newspaper, because it's just too much.
Oh, and FLLW went to Japan during this period of time. It's noted in the local newspaper. Honestly, that's not what I'm looking for, but I'll note it when it happens. Turns out that he was due to leave on a larger liner on Dec. 28, 1916, for Japan.
