Category: 1900-1949

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1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – No Johnny No No No No, 1938

Illegal games, The Weekend Book, 1938

Some Friday No Fun today. It’s not just swearing that was a no-no in the 1930s. Here are some card, dice and wheel games that were designated illegal way back in the midsts of time. They are “Ace of Hearts”, “Faro” (or “Pharoah”), “Bassett”, “Hazard”, “Passage” and “Roly-Poly”.

All the games have hundreds of years of provenance. “Passage” (also known as “Passe-dix”) was an ancient dice game and “Ace of Hearts” and “Roly-Poly” formed elements of what is now “Roulette”.

The card game “Faro” was once the most widely played gambling game in England. My 1950 edition of game bible “Hoyle’s Games” says it is “rarely met with in the domestic circle…..chiefly, it may be said, because the game has for long been in pretty bad odour through the large sums of money that may be lost at it and through the almost unlimited opportunities that are afforded to (and often taken by) an unscrupulous banker to “fleece the lambs”. It is a pity; because Faro, when honestly played, is one of the best of all the banking games.” “Bassett” was a variation of this.

“Hazard” was a dice game mentioned in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”, with rather complicated rules – http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazard_(game). Not a million miles from the League of Gentlemen’s wonderful Go Johnny Go Go Go Go:

A judge’s ruling upheld their illegality in 1935, as well as all card games that were not based on pure skill (therefore meaning all card games would technically be illegal according to this judgement, as there is always the element of chance with cards).

Some info on the ruling is here in The Spectator’s archive – http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/4th-october-1935/11/when-bridge-is-illegal

There’s no mention of the games in the latest gambling legislation, however. But they’re not on the list of games approved for play in casinos, although this is probably because they’re not played anymore anyway – http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/pdf/list%20of%20approved%20casino%20games%20%20-%20july%202008.pdf

Categories
1900-1949 Food & Drink

Vintage recipes – Gruel, 1930

Essex Cookery Book, 1930

I always thought gruel was a slightly thinner version of porridge.

But I found this recipe in the “Essex Cookery Book” of 1930 by K. A. Willson and Margaret Hussey, and it turns out it’s almost homeopathic porridge, so tiny is the quantity of oatmeal – 1 tablespoon to a pint of water or milk.

It’s featured here as invalid cookery, which admittedly sounds like a perfectly fine use for it. But those having to actually survive on versions of this were pretty hard done by. No wonder Oliver Twist wanted more.

(As a side note, you may be interested to learn that the tradition survives these days in the form of the old favourite Horlicks which is technically gruel – http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruel)

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1900-1949

Smoking Racket, 1935

Smoking in "Keep Fit", Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935

Looking at The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, it feels like it would be remiss not to have a look at what it says about smoking. After all, it seems like smoking was the Universal Hobby back in the ’30s.

The chapter on “Keeping Fit” is largely in accordance with current thinking apart from pretty high expectations exercise-wise. I daresay there’s a couple of people out there these days not getting the recommended daily amount – “An hour’s hard singles [tennis] is considered by physiologists to represent the minimum amount of daily exercise for the average man.”

But when it comes to smoking, they’re not quite so strict. Smoking “may do no great harm”, although it’s better to “knock off” the fags if you’re an athlete.

Smoking in "Keep Fit", Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935
Smoking in “Keep Fit”, Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935

Meanwhile, in The Weekend Book, they’re positively in love with tobacco. It’s a cure-all, the joys of which are detailed in a little poem that was very much removed in later editions of the book:

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Jogging the Lemon, 1935

The Universal Book of Hobbies and Handicrafts, 1935

Today’s fun is an indoor game for those who own a number of lemons and, trickier, multiple walking sticks. Having tried this myself, I can only concur with the statement “Until you have tried to poke a lemon along in this fashion, you have no idea how unruly a thing it may be.”

“Jogging the Lemon – This is an amusing race game, for which a fairly large room is needed with a clear floor. Any number can take part. Each competitor holds a walking stick, and with the point of this he must jog a lemon up the room and back again. No hitting is allowed. Until you have tried to poke a lemon along in this fashion, you have no idea how unruly a thing it may be.”

Categories
1900-1949 Pharmaceuticals

Take the Blue Pill, 1938

Titbits Book of Wrinkles, 1938

“Titbits Book of Wrinkles” from 1938 is another one of my favourite type of book – the compendium of knowledge. “Wrinkles” in this book mean “tips” or, as in the (slightly annoying) word of the moment, “hacks”.

This is an oddity from the “Medicine” section – a recommendation to take the “Blue Pill”.

This inspired a bit of history-surfing. I found out that this blue pill was also called “blue mass” and was quite popular as a cure-all in the nineteenth century.

Abraham Lincoln liked them and they may have caused him to suffer the effects of mercury poisoning earlier in his life – http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/07/0717_lincoln.html

But doesn’t 1938 seem a bit late for recommendations to eat mercury?

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1900-1949 War

Hidden Treasures – Somebody Else’s Heirloom, 1940s

Algerian 50 Centime note, 1941

I have a small Sailor’s Bible, issued during World War Two.

But the reason I bought it was because of the hidden treasure I found inside – anything extra found inside an old book being a joy only slightly ahead of finding the previous owner’s name and date on the flyleaf.

But it feels like these should be with someone else, heirlooms from their granddad perhaps. Maybe he had no family, maybe they didn’t know this was here, or maybe they were just pretty unsentimental about this kind of thing. My Grandma was in the unsentimental camp – she threw out the love letters sent to her by Grandad, and would sympathise with this view, I expect.

There’s an Algerian 50 centime note hidden between the pages:

And further on, a heart-wrenching love poem from the Sailor’s wife, Annie, talking about the wasted years of separation:

I have such a sensation of a microcosm of time here – a bible with, possibly, emergency money hidden inside and a poem to remind him of home and raise morale. I wonder if the position of the money, on the page telling the story of the scapegoat, was significant at all.

Categories
1900-1949

Easter Eggsplained, 1938

The Weekend Book, 1938

Ever wonder how the date for Easter is worked out? The Weekend Book from 1938 can help you out.

Simply get a degree in maths and then use the below formula to easily find out the date for any given year.

Categories
1900-1949 Food & Drink

Vintage Recipes – The Good, the Bad and the Calf’s Head, 1910

My potato surprises

This is the almost unfortunately-named Mrs Dora Rea’s Cookery Book, from 1910.

This is a lovely cookbook, very sensible and everyday, and largely lacking in Victorian and Edwardian aspic-y froufrou. Full of recipes that are easily followed today.

A few cookery quirks of the time were the emphasis on “nitrogenous” foods (what we’d call protein now) and “invalid cookery”, sickroom cooking being taken very seriously before the advent of Heinz Tomato Soup.

It also turns out that there was good reason that British cooking was derided for its treatment of vegetables. Here’s a recipe instructing how to cook carrots:

Yes, that’s boil between one and two-and-a-half hours, then chop into mush. I wouldn’t boil carrots to make baby purée that long.

At this time they were also keen on cooking heads to make brawn. Otherwise known as “head cheese”, a name that gives me terrors.

Although it’s at least a step above the gothic-sounding “blood tongue” – http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_tongue

It seems like a lot of effort to go to, when the end result is still a head. All that removing of snout bone, tongue and brains. Shudder.

But there are loads of great things in here. I’m as mad about cooking as I am about history and I love testing out old recipes. This is “Potato Surprise”, a 100% delicious concoction that I make with the leftovers from yesterday’s sausage and mash (I have to make extra especially so there’s enough for leftovers, of course).

Mrs Rea’s Potato Surprises
1/2 pound of cooked sausages
1 1/2 pounds mashed potato
Salt and pepper
1/2 ounce butter
(Unmentioned – an egg, breadcrumbs and oil)

Melt the butter and mix with the potatoes, also seasoning.
Divide sausages into small pieces.
Cover each with potato, make into a ball, brush with egg, cover with breadcrumbs.
Fry in hot fat.

Nb. Love the old spelling d’oyley. Makes it infinitely posher-sounding.

Categories
1900-1949 Adverts Ephemera Pharmaceuticals

The Liverpool Virus, 1913

Pharmacist's receipt for The Liverpool Virus rat poison, 1913

I’ve recently discovered the thrills of the “ephemera” section of Ebay. Not least, the word “ephemera” itself which is now vying for the position of my favourite word, alongside “nebula”.

I was looking for old playing cards, and am now the proud owner of some gloriously grotesque Edwardian Happy Family sets. But I was enthralled by the other random and delicate stuff that has survived, almost by accident.

I now have all manner of old bits and pieces, including Liverpool pharmacy receipts from 1913 – the days when names were taken and logged on the paperwork, all the better to know who’d suspiciously been purchasing arsenic after a case of poisoning. They included this receipt for “The Liverpool Virus” rat poison:

Which feels rather like crucial evidence at the start of either an Agatha Christie, or a zombie film.

But the thing I really like about the ephemera is that they are a handy jumping off point into history. A little tangible clue to inspire a bit of history-surfing.

I’ve discovered resources I didn’t know of, like the joys of the Old Bailey’s archive of court case transcripts. I’ve found out about the ship SS Homeric from a letter written on board to a friend in 1932. Leatherhead bus routes in the 1920s from an old bus leaflet. And I’ve been perusing the British Medical Journal archives on account of an outbreak of severe enteritis caused by this “Liverpool Virus” rat poison in 1908. It turns out despite the manufacturer’s claims that it was safe for humans, it very likely contained some form of salmonella.

Advert for The Liverpool Virus
Advert for The Liverpool Virus

I’m especially fascinated by the pharmaceuticals of the Victorian and Edwardian era – the hard drugs you could buy over the counter, and the potentially dangerous snake oils that promised to fix you up and paint the garden gate while they were at it (and I’m speaking as someone who was rather severely quizzed by a doctor last week as to why I even owned a bottle of Piriton).

Some more information is on this blog (another bonus, discovering so many of the informative blogs people are writing out there): http://jsbookreader.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/the-liverpool-rat-virus-strikes.html

Categories
1900-1949 Games

Friday Fun – Human Sacrifices, 1938

Human Sacrifices, the Weekend Book, 1938

This is a game for the more robust personality. In the wrong crowd, this is not so much a way to break the ice at parties, as a way to crash into a bloody great iceberg. The kind of game they’d make everyone play in the Big Brother house if they wanted to cause murder.

In short, a vengeful god demands sacrifices and a piece of paper is passed round the group who have to mark on it who they would sacrifice first, and that person has to leave the room. This continues until there are only two people left, and this is where it gets slightly confusing. The instructions say to call out the name of the person least worthy to survive, but if there’s only two left then I’m not sure how it would work. Unless the we’re-not-worthy sacrificed in the hall outside are the ones shouting…?