In browsing the old Hawaiian newspapers, I came across some interesting statistics. The Inspector General of Immigration, C.N. Spencer, visited various sugar plantations quarterly and reported on how many immigrants were on each plantation, and which nationality the plantation owner preferred. I assume that as bringing laborers to Hawaii was costly, the plantation owners were…
Category: That’s Old News
That’s Old News: Every House Shall Have a Microfiche Reader
When going through old newspapers I sometimes read the other articles on the page. Yeah, I’m that easily distracted. I was looking at the obituaries in a Daily Review newspaper from 1971 when this headline caught my eye… Microfiche was Going to Change Our Lives Remember the good old days when every household had a…
That’s Old News: What the heck was Mother’s Friend?
We often look back a hundred or two hundred years ago and think of it as the “simple life”. Hard work and none of the problems of modern life. But, was it really that way or did they just have different problems? I found this ad in a January 1906 issue of the San Francisco…
That’s Old News: Fire at McBryde
On April 28th, 1911, someone set fire to the cane fields at McBryde Sugar Plantation. The fire had been spotted early and was quickly put out. This had been the third fire on the plantation in only a couple of days. The first may have been set by sparks from a locomotive. Then, a second…
That’s Old News: Political Support
I found this brief article in the 30 Jun 1912 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle: A recall was being issued in San Francisco of three politicians. The East Oakland Progressive League was throwing it’s support behind the politicians and against the recall. Listed as one of the members of the East Oakland Progressive League…