News Stories

National news stories tell people what is happening in other parts of the country they live in. International stories tell them about other parts of the world. When we read national and international news stories, we learn what people knew about the world around them and what they thought was important. For example, there are many, many stories in old newspapers about the British royal family. Even the fact that the Prince of Wales decided to wear silk shirts instead of cotton shirts was considered a news story in 1923. This tells us that people in Newfoundland were very interested in the royal family at that time.

Local news stories tell us what was happening in the place where the newspaper was published. This helps us to understand what that place was like. Some of the local stories that appeared in the newspapers 100 years ago were more like gossip than news. For example, in November of 1898, this story was printed in the St. John's Daily News:

An Outrage

About one o'clock yesterday morning, a messenger connected with a certain Water Street...establishment, arrived at his home on Belvedere Street and, not finding everything to his satisfaction, commenced abusing his wife. The poor woman...made some reply in her defense, when the brutal husband jumped up and, catching his wife by the throat, beat her unmercifully about the head and face and then threw her violently to the floor. The parties who live next door, hearing the woman's screams for help, rushed in and found her lying on the floor nearly insensible with blood flowing profusely from the wounds that had been inflicted on her face. When one of the neighbours threatened to call the police, the man left the house and has not returned. Had this been a drunken squabble, it would not have attracted so much attention, but the man was in his sober senses, and what renders the affair more serious is that the women is in a very delicate condition.

This is not the first time this fellow had treated his wife roughly, but this last exhibition of brutality surpasses anything that he has been previously guilty of and may be attended with very serious results.¹

It is hard to imagine a story like that in the news today. What does this tell us about St. John's 100 years ago? It lets us know that St. John's was a smaller place than it is today. We could wonder if people felt closer to their neighbours than they do now. Maybe the person who wrote the story believed he could change the way this man treated his wife by making him feel ashamed.