8 Sept 2014

YE OLDE VICTORIAN MEDIA MONDAY POST.

My nana always used to say that today's newspapers were tomorrow's fish and chip wrappers. Ah, those were the days when our supper came wrapped in last nights Evening Chronicle rather than those awful cardboard/polystyrene boxes. I swear the ink only added to the taste.

Anyway, I digress.

This came to mind this weekend when Mr T shared this 1899 article with me. 

 One in a series of bizarre episodes culled from 19th century newspapers by author Jeremy Clay, The Drunken Monkey Who Smashed Up A Bar* reports on what happened when a Coney Island jackanape had a cocktail (or two) too many. 

According to the Manchester Evening News, September 1899, it is said that having been refused anything further to drink the monkey forgot his manners and started to throw around glasses and bottles, knocking one patron senseless with a bottle of whisky before knocking out the front teeth of the proprietor with a bottle of Vermouth until the police were called and order restored.

* The links to other articles in the Victorian Strangeness series can be found here.


 

14 comments:

Kelly said...

How funny!

Just think...if you ever run out of present day material to share with us (doubtful, as there will always be folks doing crazy, stupid, funny things), you can always dip into the past.

StarTraci said...

I love the monkey story. As funny as his actions is the fact that he was in a bar, at all!
Have a wonderful Monday!
:-)
Traci

Suko said...

Thank you for this Monday morning amusement, Tracy! What a fun and funny story!

@(o・ェ・)@

Melissa (Books and Things) said...

Makes you wonder why they served a monkey in the first place. LOL

Unknown said...

What an ill mannered monkey. Someone should have raised him better :)

anilkurup59 said...

Delinquency of a Primate

Brian Joseph said...

Such monkey business went on back then....

Arti said...

Hahaha, this is so funny! I wonder how many such amusing interesting stories might lay buried in the newspapers that came out ages ago - thanks for digging out this one for all of us.

brandileigh2003 said...

Oh, what a monkey

Stephanie Faris said...

The liquor laws must be REALLY relaxed there if monkeys are served in bars!

The Bookworm said...

lol about the newspaper ink and about the drunken monkey!

So many books, so little time said...

Technically Tuesday now but thank you for making a long day end on some humour :D

Lainy http://www.alwaysreading.net

P.s I signed your petition for the wee hedgehogs

Yvonne @ Fiction Books Reviews said...

Hi Tracy,

Now I know where you get the ideas for all your Monday Media Posts from. All that ink from the fish and chip wrappers, has been rewriting itself into Victorian news articles, with the drunk as a skunk monkey, just illustrating that nothing much has changed in the last century, in some of our less than salubrious drinking establishments!!

Yvonne.

Literary Feline said...

Haha! That is hilarious. :-) Thank you for sharing, Tracy.