Monday, July 5, 2004

100 years ago: At Scarborough police court a young girl from Leeds, who claimed to be seventeen years old but who looked to be only twelve or thirteen, was charged with being drunk. It ap-peared that the girl was found on the south sands, helplessly drunk, and was taken to the police station in a cab. The prisoner had told the court that an un-named Militiaman had given her the drink, and so she had only got into that state because of him, but the courts were not sympathetic towards that defence. One of the women from St Mary's Mis-sion promised to see the girl safely home, and so the magistrates decided to dis-charge her.

50 years ago: Postmen in York seemed to run less risk of being bitten by dogs than their colleagues elsewhere. Only one case was reported about every three months, and, as there were 300 postmen in York, the odds against being attacked was well in their favour. This led colum-nist Mr Nobody to ask why dogs go for the postman's pants, various reasons for which were advanced. Some people said it was because the dogs don't like the postman's bag, uniform, irregular ap-pearance and letter-box rattling, but a more ingenious theory was put forward - that dogs were driven to distraction by the smell of the dye used on Post Office uniforms.

25 years ago: It was the end of an era, as the last public gas lamps in York flick-ered out for the last time. The two lamps, one in Scarcroft View and the other in Chaucer Street, were soon to be dismantled, renovated and prepared for electricity. It would cost the council £100 to buy the old lamps from the Gas Board, have them converted, painted and gold-leafed, a scheme which had already graced Peter Lane, The Three Cranes Passage, Scott's Passage and Straker's Passage. There were still some privately-owned ones in the city, but the paper did not reveal their whereabouts as the cop-per gas lamps were worth more than £200, and were much sought after "sec-ond-hand".

Updated: 09:00 Monday, July 05, 2004