A new feature on this blog for the next 13 weeks or so will be the Paperwall.    These are small excerpts from very old newspapers that were used as wallpaper backing in a house I used to live in.   When I redid the bathroom and pulled down the walls, these were exposed.   I kept a majority of the very large pieces and have scanned them and poured over them for interesting bits and pieces.    The newspapers I can identify are The Des Moines Leader of Des Moines, IA;  The Sheffield Press of Sheffield, IA; and The Weekly Constitution of Atlanta, GA.   There were only two datelines I could find — November 16th, 1886, and October 30th, 1888.   The sheer age of these papers and that they’ve been preserved this long is impressive.    I found it terribly interesting to see what they had to say.

For some historical context, Cleveland was President, the Civil War just got over in 1865 and everyone’s still recovering; the Washington Monument was just opening and Jack the Ripper was terrorizing London.   Kodak was just being patented, and the National Geographic Society was just being formed.

Our first selection from these ancient tomes is rather appropriate to the current government administration and the health care reform debate and some of the rhetoric that has been tossed about by both Democrats and Republicans; apparently, this is an age-old battle and some things…well, never really change:

Transcription:

Title:  (indeciperable) Kept Its Word

Has it fulfilled the promises on which it was restored to power?  You remember how your republican neighbors told you, and doubtless some of you feared, that if the democrats came in again they would bankrupt the country, pay off the rebel debt, pension the rebel soldiers, re-enslave the negroes, reduce the wages of the workingman, repudiate public obligations, refuse pensions to union soldiers, and throw both public and private businesses into disorder.

Which of these gloomy predictions has been verified?  On the other hand, what promise of the democratic party has not been kept, so far as the short limit of intervening time would permit?

Was it tariff reduction? A democratic president recommended and a democratic house passed a good reform bill and it will become law if permitted by a republican senate.  Was it civil service reform…. (end)

Politics:   The never-ending circle of drama.