This Day in History: November 16

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November 16, 1880

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Medicinal Cigarettes

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Cigarettes were often prescribed by Victorian-era doctors for lung ailments. Note that advertisements such as this, for Danforth’s Bronchial Cigarettes, appeal to the individual sufferer (without a prescription?) of all Catarrhal affections (neuralgia, hoarseness, headache). And these cigarettes purify the breath! Rush to any druggist in the city and buy some now!

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Definition: noun- catarrh, and adjective- catarrhal

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Pathology. inflammation of a mucous membrane, especially of the respiratory tract, accompanied by excessive secretions.

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Lawrence Daily Journal of Lawrence, Kansas, on November 16, 1880.

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Don’t Forget Thanksgiving

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Lincoln’s Presidential Proclamation (1863) set aside the last Thursday each November for Thanksgiving. Prior to this event, annual proclamations were sometimes made. FDR moved the celebratory day up by one week, securing the fourth Thursday of November for the holiday. See more about this in my post on Victorian Era Thanksgiving Celebrations.

Isn’t it interesting, 17 years after the national declaration, Governors still made a statement?

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The Daily Commonwealth of Topeka, Kansas on November 16, 1880.

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THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION.

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In accordance with the Proclamation of the President of the United States, I hereby appoint Thursday, November 25th, 1880, to be kept throughout the Territory as a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer.

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Let us keep it with the same devotion that our fathers did who instituted the custom. Let it be a day of rest to all; abstaining from all secular labor and devoting the day to joyful thanksgiving for the blessings that we as a people have enjoyed.

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Let us pray that the blessings of the Father may still be upon our Territory, our local institutions and our homes; and while we are giving thanks let us especially remember those who are desolate and oppressed, so that the words of the Master may be said unto us: “I was an hungered and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in; naked and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me.”

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Given at the Executive Department, Helena, Montana, this November 3d, A.D. 1880, and of the Independence of the United States, the one Hundred and fifth.

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By the Governor, B.F. POTTS.

JAMES H. MILLS, Secretary.

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~ Transcribed from (poorly legible) scan of The Independent Record of Helena, Montana, published November 16, 1880.

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Prairie Fires

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Three related brief postings are almost amusing. Each comes from the same page of The Daily Commonwealth of Topeka, Kansas. Who paid the newspaper to ensure the advertisement was on the correct (most monetizing) page?

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