The photo above doesn't give you an idea of the scale, but the MJ at this time put the broad in broadsheet. It is much wider than newspapers today – probably a good two or three inches.
Although the United States would not enter World War I for another ten months, the conflict was headline news and several front page articles are dedicated to it such as this one.
The Journal was Milwaukee's evening paper and here it appears to be reporting on the opening of the legendary Battle of the Somme which began that day at 7:30A.M. local time in France. (Some film footage of a mine going off that marks the start of the battle can be found at this link. It is a .mov file.) I say "assume" because, although the article notes the battle taking place 16 miles north of the Somme river, the English essentially got their asses handed to them on a plate that first day with 58,000 British soldiers dying. Terrific drive it wasn't. However, it is understandable that the officers at the British headquarters in France weren't too keen on letting that bit of information get out to the public.
While the countries of Europe were continuing their long tradition of fighting each other, things weren't so rosy here in North America.
The Mexican Revolution was ongoing and President Woodrow Wilson was highly unamused at having to deal with Europe on the one hand and instability to the south on the other. Just a few months earlier Pancho Villa and his band of men had run roughshod through New Mexico and now found themselves with Brigadier General John Pershing in pursuit. A mere ten days before this paper was published was the Battle of Carrizal in which Pershing and his troops confronted the Mexican army instead of their intended target, Villa.
One thing that immediately struck me upon looking at the paper was just how many stories or, perhaps a better description would be blurbs, there were. The front page is just full of them. Some are almost tweets. This is in stark contrast to the newspapers of today which have much fewer articles but the ones they do print are quite a bit lengthier. Here are a couple examples of the concise accounts that litter the front page. There must be a couple dozen of them.
I chose this first one for three reasons:
1) I used to live up by Altoona and my stepsister lives there today.
2) It illustrates Wisconsin's "culture of alcohol" which many 21st century Cheeseheads seek to undo.
3) People getting pissed at local government for disallowing a tavern is funny.
4) I guess I'll add a fourth – I had to wonder why this made news in Milwaukee. Altoona is a small town about 250 miles from Milwaukee so why was this considered to be of interest?
Madisonian David Blaska blogs incessantly about how kids these days aren't well-behaved – unlike when he was a child, of course. Things are always better "back in day", aren't they? Using this logic, 1916 should have featured some of the nicest, most obedient children in history. Well, check out what some miscreant in Kenosha did to a 3-year old. Also notice how the paper uses "clew" instead of "clue".
Even 93 years ago there were cries to raise taxes to fund the Milwaukee public schools.
Then as now newspapers had plenty of ads. Take this one for an Overland Roadster. (Overland stopped producing cars in 1926.)
The puffery here is certainly on par with that of today's advertising. And 31.5 horsepower!! So what did your $635 get you?
All that horsepower can get you cruising at 50MPH! Notice the mileage. The more things change…
A bit further in are the entertainment listings. Check out the movies playing at the cinemas in 1916.
You've got your superstars (Gish & Barrymore) as well as your blockbuster (Birth of a Nation) just as we do today.
A page or two later and we're at the sports section. Some athletes were belligerent assholes back then not unlike some are now.
And there's "Shoeless" Joe Jackson before the White Sox became the Black Sox. One small paragraph summarizing a baseball game. When did sports become its own separate section in the paper wherein every game was an epic battle and deemed worthy of 1000 words describing almost every play as if it the world depended on it?
Lastly, we come to the back of the paper which was devoted to classified ads. These are familiar to us although some of the types of ads may not be.
A long way from the feminist movement of the 1960s & 70s. Heck, women's right to vote was still a few years away.
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