Sunday, July 16, 2017

Waking Up In 1882 and a Giveaway

We Raise Authors in Mississippi: Christian Fiction
authors, Natalie Monk & Pam Hillman
Pam Hillman here, giving a hearty welcome to my cousin (3rd, 4th, 5th? We've forgotten, and we're both too busy writing to do the math again. :) and fellow Mississippian, Natalie Monk. Natalie's first book, Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection, releases this month and I'm so excited for her! Take it away, Cuz!

Hello, everyone!

For this post, I wanted to give you a few nibbles of what you might read in the morning newspaper if you woke up in Newark, NJ on April 23, 1882.

(Did anyone else thing of Back to the Future and Marty McFly here?)

In 1882, we know there are no smartphones, no internet, no blogs, no television, no social media. Phonographs and moving pictures are all the rage, and metal detectors, roll film cameras, and player pianos are still fresh out of the inventors’ workshops, but cash registers aren’t due for a couple more years.

Let’s say you wander (from wherever you wake up) to find a local newspaper and see if it’s truly 1882. Maybe you’re on Broad Street. Society ladies, wearing the famous “S” bend silhouette, pass by on the arm of their dapper counterparts, who carry a cane and wear the most ridiculous looking derby hats. :)

You hear a newsboy call out from across the wide, cobblestoned walk, “Get your Sunday Call! Only 5 cents! ‘CITY HALL FRAUDS: FRESH DISCOVERIES BY THE EXPERT.’ Read all about it! ‘INCREASE OF COUNTY EXPENSES,’ ‘NEW ASYLUM FOR THE INSANE.’ Get your weekly news!” See him on the street corner there? His cap pulled down snug, a sheath of papers under one arm and ink smudged fingers waving a single copy of the merchandise. 

Realizing you have no current money with you, you sidle up to the big-eared little chap and ask if you can check the date of publication. He glowers at you and tells you to shove off in somewhat colorful terms. Eyebrow raised, you tell him you’ve just come from the future, 2017 to be exact, and want to check the day’s date. He drops the paper and runs.

The issue falls open to the second page, where you glimpse the heading of the first column as you pick up the era’s most relevant form of media.


Sunday Call Column Header

It is indeed 1882. And it’s been quite the interesting week. (Some photos taken from the previous issue for April 16.)  
Milk Inspectors

Heart-breaking Mystery
Crime, Weather, and Business
Humpty Dumpty for Entertainment
Notes on Latest Fasion
Robber Committed
Social Issues and History in the Making
     

The Scoop on Who's Who in Newark
Unclaimed Letters
Now if you’re like me, you’ll want to do some exploring (as soon as you’ve recovered from the fact you’ve traveled over one-hundred and thirty-five years into the past of course). Maybe you decide to go window shopping at the many businesses lining Broad Street. But first, I’d want to see what everyone is advertising, because after all, #bargains. 
Want Ads for Babysitters

Tickets West

Reward for Lost Wallet that Must Hold Important Information

Look Out for Those Mosquitoes!

Newly Widowed Florist and Fake Hair

Parks and Dancing

Embroidery, Braiding, Pinking...

Extravagant Incentives to Buy Soap

Forest Excursions and Tasty Woodland Restaurant Fare

Fun & Games to Pass the Time

Confectionery Celery Drops for Liver Problems

Creative Acrostic Ad

Cruise Ship Excursions

Dance Lessons
Recreation and Social Events
Wives Praised and Esteemed
Finally, as you stroll and read, you turn into a sweet-smelling shop, slightly cooler than the rest. The sugary smell of ice cream draws your attention to the counter where a proprietor wipes his hands on a towel, eyeing your newspaper. “Don't have my advertisement in there yet, but the prices are good. Ten cents a plate, fifteen a pint.”

Congratulations, you’ve just stepped into the setting for the first scene of my novella, “For Richer or Poorer”, part of the Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection, which released this month! The story takes place three years later (1885) as my impoverished heroine hunts a wealthy husband at Walsh’s Ice Cream Shop while dressed in her employer’s gowns. Here is the ad for Walsh's, taken from the May 14, 1882 issue:

 


These photos are taken from Google archives of The Sunday Call, later named The Newark Sunday Call, one of several newspapers published in Newark at the time. The Sunday Call ran from 1872 to 1946 and also dabbled in radio broadcasting. According to www.oldnewark.com, The Sunday Call was the first to broadcast a World Series baseball game and host a children’s story radio hour.

Comment Fodder:

I admit, I enjoy sitting down to the newspaper with a cup of coffee or tea, though I don’t take the time as often as I would like.

  • Do you read the newspaper? Daily? Weekly? Occasionally?
  • With the emergence of television, internet, and smartphones, some believe newspapers are a dying relic. What do you think?
  • Do you hope newspapers hang around for a few more years or are you satisfied with newer media options?


Author bio:

Natalie Monk is an award-winning writer of historical romance. She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. A preacher’s daughter from North Mississippi, Natalie loves porch swings, old movies, and meeting readers through her website: www.nataliemonk.comFacebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.


About the book:

In order to bring her starving family to New Jersey, Polish immigrant and housemaid Marcella Lipski must marry wealth…so she dons her employer's discarded ball gowns and goes husband hunting at Newark's tourist spots. There's just one problem. Ella can't speak a speck of English. She considers herself blessed to secure free English lessons from a poor-but-mysterious cart driver—until she loses her heart in the process.

This book can be found at: 

I’m giving away a paperback copy of my debut novella in the Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection to one winner in the U.S., and one e-copy of the collection to an international reader. Comment with your email address (substituting AT and DOT to foil the trolls) to be included in the drawing.

47 comments:

  1. Thank you for you interesting post. I really enjoy a newspaper. I subscribe to our local newspaper and our very small hometown newspaper. Everyday except Saturday, I have a paper to read. I would hate for the newspaper to fade away.

    mauback55 at gmail dot com

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Melanie! Your local paper has 6 issues? Wow! Ours only comes out once a week. Well, the Meridian Star and the Jackson Daily comes out weekly, I think.

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    2. Hi, Melanie! A paper a day sounds fun! The Vicksburg Post runs once weekly. But there is always plenty to enjoy and entertain.

      A small town newspaper sounds very interesting, since I love to know what's going on locally, especially with people I know.

      Best wishes in the giveaway!

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  2. We used to take the newspaper and I would read it occasionally. I would hate to see the newspapers done away with because it would be another thing of our past that the current society had decided to do away with. It would be a shame.

    Blessings,
    Cindy W.
    countrybear52 AT yahoo DOT com

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    1. That's so true. But with the online social media, so few people are paying for subscriptions. Our local newspaper is struggling.

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    2. I feel the same, Cindy. A lot of things in today's culture seem to be so temporary. (Snap chat etc.) I sometimes wonder if my grandchildren will ever know the joy of saving newspaper clippings in their keepsake boxes.

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  3. No newspaper here. Haven't gotten it for a long time. Wecrely on some TV news, mostly local and have taken to news feeds on the internet. Lovely, creative way to show your research! Interesting information! Look forward to your book! paulams49ATsbcglobalDOTnet Thanks.

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    1. Paula, thanks for stopping by. I think you're like most.... me included. We rely on the internet and social media to give us our news. It's just a sign of the times, I guess.

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    2. Hi, Paula! I enjoy online news, because it is fast and always available. A newspaper takes me much longer to peruse, since I consider it more leisure reading than informative reading.

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  4. I do not read the newspaper nor have ever subscribed to the newspaper. Thanks for the chance :)
    jslbrown2009 at aol dot com

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    1. Lisa, thanks for stopping by. I'm with you. Even years ago before Facebook and other means to finding local news, I wasn't much of a newspaper person. My parents had a subscription to the local paper and my husband might get a paper most weeks for news. My father-in-law still loves to read the local papers.

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    2. Hi, Lisa! Interesting! Thanks for stopping by. Best wishes in the giveaway!

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  5. I have always enjoyed regional newspapers for the usually interesting mix of national and local news, features, home and travel segments, etc., plus the ads. Fun article! The Collections are always good reads and a means of following known and new authors.
    dixiedobie at yahoo dot com

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    1. CC, now we have a real newspaper reader! :) Yes, aren't the collections wonderful? I've been in 5...maybe 6, and the books are SO pretty and the stories are great. And it's always fun to have a connection with all the other authors too.

      AND since this is Natalie's DEBUT release, we're mega excited for Natalie!

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    2. CC, I love reading collections, especially when I'm craving a good fiction read but feel pressed for time. Novellas give me the character journeys and the happily-ever-after I'm looking for in record time! Glad you enjoyed the article! Best wishes in the giveaway!

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  6. this was an interesting post today. it would sure be interesting to wake up in the past. I used to read the paper every Sunday. now? not at all. I am just not interested in all the negativity that it contains. I pickup a little good stuff on my computer. I do remember growing up and they had so many comics. the best part. haha. thanks for a chance. thanks for putting this article together.
    quilting dash lady at Comcast dot net

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    1. Lori, I'm like you. It does seem that negative or "bad" news sells papers, just as it increases ratings for tv stations. So, like you, not a fan of bad news.

      The papers back when Natalie's story is set certainly had their fair share of reporting on murders, fires, robberies, etc. but it was also a place to disseminate news of all kinds. Like Natalie's photo of unclaimed letters telling folks to go to the PO to tell them to ask for the list of advertised letters. Could you imagine that in today's papers? :)

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    2. Hi, Lori! Good point. One neat thing about the paper in the city where I live, is the occasional full page photo feature, done by a man who's goal is to show God's glory through pictures of local nature. Always encouraging to see! Thanks for stopping by!

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  7. The heroine is gutsy since she can't speak English! Looks like a trip through time I would like to take.
    Martha
    josieringer(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. Martha, she does sound like a feisty heroine! I can't wait to read Natalie's story in this collection. :)

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    2. Hi, Martha! I'm always amazed when I read about historical immigrants who came to America with next to no knowledge of the language and little to their name except raw determination and a willingness to work hard. Folks much braver than I am! Thanks for coming by!

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  8. I like to read the newspapers but our local one has gotten so expensive I don't subscribe. I follow a local website for the news although it is not the same as leafing through the paper. Very interesting post! Thanks for the chance to win a copy of this book. d[dot]brookmyer[at]yahoo[dot]com

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    1. Donna, it's unfortunate that the newspapers have to increase subscription rates to stay afloat in this virtual day and age. :(

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting.

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    2. Hi, Donna! Good to see you again! Our local newspaper had a website where they post all their articles, and in order to read the full pieces, you must take action to agree--or decline--to answer tiny surveys from their sponsers. I thought this was an innovative way to offset the cost of switching to web articles. Hopefully this will allow the paper to hang around for a few more years.

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  9. Last year, after much indecision, we stopped subscribing to a daily newspaper. It had gotten to be very expensive but to this day, I miss going to my mailbox and pulling out the paper! We do get a local paper that us published once a week and I eagerly look forward to Wednesday. I hope that there will always be published newspapers but I don't know if they will eventually be a thing to recall. Thanks for sharing these newspaper clips and congratulations on your new book!
    Connie
    cps1950(at)gmail(dot)com

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    1. Connie, my mother is the same way. She can't wait for the mail to run. I think ours comes out on Wednesday as well.

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    2. Hi, Connie! My grandmother is a speedy reader of our local paper. The first sections she checks are the obituaries and the yard sales. :)

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  10. Do you read the newspaper? Daily? Weekly? Occasionally?
    I rarely read the newspaper anymore, my husband does and gives me any highlights I may be interested in. We've talked about stopping our subscription but haven't yet decided. I don't even watch the news on TV. The only thing I look forward to, is the weekend ads for my local grocery store.

    A lot of people get the news off the internet. My husband follows national news that way. I'm not sure it's a dying trade, there are still people who love the real thing in their hand. I can see it staying for a while :-)

    I get enough news via other avenues, except for grocery ads. Even those you can download an app on your phone to look up the weeks sales. I'd still like to see the newspaper hang around for a long time. But I can also see where the world is going away from it.

    Thanks for sharing the interesting articles from 1882! It's fun to see what life was like back then :-) Thanks also for the giveaway, love the looks of this collection. Barbour is my favorite publisher for novella sets.

    teamob4 (at) gmail (dot) com

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    1. Trixi, thanks for stopping by. I'm with you. I'd like to hope newspapers will stay around, but I'm not sure the model is sustainable with so many people getting news online.

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    2. Trixi, those grocery ads are great, aren't they? One local paper near my former address featured a store which included bits of wisdom and a weekly Bible verse in its grocery ads. I loved seeing this and felt it was a sweet and complimentary reflection of the community.

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  11. This looks like a fantastic subject and I am sure I will enjoy reading this. My husband picks up a newspaper several days in a week and we enjoy reading it~~

    magnolias_1(at)msn(dot)com

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    1. Judy, good to see you here in HHH. When my father-in-law gets a Sunday paper, and we eat Sunday dinner with them, everybody is looking through the paper to see what the news is. :)

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    2. Hi, Judy! The thing I most enjoy from reading my local news is the sense of community and updates. Thank you for stopping by!

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  12. Guys, I'm headed to church, but will catch up with you later. Natalie will be in to visit later as well. We both hated that her post fell on a Sunday. Such a difficult day to welcome you all to HHH and spend time with our Lord at the same time.

    Rest assured, we haven't forgotten you all! :)

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  13. What a great post. I enjoyed seeing the clippings from The Sunday Call. Some of the clippings remind me of saved family clippings through the years.

    I enjoy reading our local newspaper 6 days a week. I look forward to reading your novella "For Richer or Poorer" in Of Rags and Riches Romance Collection. These novella collections are always great to read. Thank you for the giveaway.
    marilynridgway78 [at] gmail[dot]com

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    1. Marilyn, that's so nice that your local paper comes out 6 days a week. Glad to hear that it's thriving! :)

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    3. Hi, Marylin! Photocopies and scanned records of newspapers are so valuable to authors, and fun to dig into! Glad you enjoyed the post! Best wishes in the giveaway!

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  14. This was so much fun. Thanks for the stroll down a street I couldn't go on myself. Loved it. I don't want to be entered into the giveaway, as I already have a copy so if I do win, "spin again"!!! Thanks.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, Connie! Amazing the things found in the newspapers of yesteryear. :)

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    2. Hi, Connie! Thank you for joining in the fun!

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  15. Really this is interesting to read this post as it takes me to the ancient time of 1882 and make me to realize different things that I did not know before.
    Emma Charlotte | TheAcademicPapers.co.uk

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    1. Hi, Emma. Thanks for coming by. Glad you found the post interesting.

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    2. Hi, Emma. Thanks for coming by. Glad you found the post interesting.

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  16. Emma, welcome to the HHH blog! So glad to have you visit. 1882 was so vastly different to our lives today that it does feel pretty ancient, doesn't it? Blessings on your day, friend! :)

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  17. Thank you for the interesting post! No, I don't read the newspaper.

    psalm103and138 at gmail dot com

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  18. So much information can be found about our history from newspapers including genealogy. I have found obituaries, articles and even pictures of my ancestors in old newspapers. What a find! Thanks for the post and the giveaway. Good luck everyone.

    princessdebbie1_2000(at)yahoo(dot)com

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