If Only They Could Have Known… France Tackles the Panama Canal…

August 22, 2022 by · Leave a Comment 

Today I happened upon a Frank Leslie’s Illustrated newspaper from February 14, 1880. On the front cover was a riveting image of Ferdinand Marie, Comte de Lesseps with his engineers in Panama right before the hard work to build the canal was to begin (see below). As I scanned the faces of the 23 men who joined him, I saw serious contemplation, enthusiasm, apprehension and perhaps a bit of excitement. What I didn’t see was horror, which is what seems to me was in the very near future.  Even glancing through this quick summary from Wiki …

” After two years of surveys, work on the canal began in 1882. However, the technical difficulties of operating in the wet tropics dogged the project. Particularly disastrous were recurrent landslides into the excavations from the bordering water-saturated hills, and the death toll from malaria and yellow fever. In the end, insufficient financial capital and financial corruption ended the project. The Panama Canal Company declared itself bankrupt in December 1888 and entered liquidation in February 1889.”

… I walked away shuddering at the thought of what must have been a fearsome scene. It seems fitting that these brave men are enshrined on the cover of a Leslie’s. Hopefully, I won’t be the only one who pauses to take notice…andexplore.

Are Presidential proclamations for thanksgiving and prayer unconstitutional?

June 26, 2017 by · 2 Comments 

Over the years we have written multiple posts featuring noteworthy Presidential proclamations for days of thanksgiving, humiliation, and prayer, and have listed quite a few on the Rare & Early Newspapers website. Not too long ago we came across an issue of The Boston Investigator for November 10, 1880 which contained an article focused on a view that such proclamations are/were unconstitutional. So, although we passionately disagree with this opinion, in an effort to be fair and balanced, we present the article below. Feel free to respond with your thoughts.

The never-ending debate: half full vs. half empty…

April 10, 2017 by · Leave a Comment 

I’ve heard some say with a degree of frustration that approximately one-half of all people view life through a half-empty prism. Of course I’ve heard others express relief that approximately the same percentage of people have learned how to count their blessings. These polar-opposite, life-defining, joy-determining paradigms have been battling it out for quite some time. With this world-view tension as the backdrop, please enjoy the following article from the Findlay (Ohio) Daily Jeffersonian dated December 17, 1880:

The times they are a-changin’… 19th century mixed-racial marriages

October 3, 2014 by · Leave a Comment 

Blog-10-3-2014-Mixed-Racial-MarriagesWhile progress in regards to interracial relations has been both painful and agonizingly slow an 1880’s issue of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat (November 15, 1880) provides a great opportunity for us to see just how far we have come in the last 100 years or so. Sometimes a 1,000 foot view provides a degree of encouragement where a close-up view only draws our attention to the blemishes. Yes, while slow, the times they are in fact a-changin’.