A multiple-deck headline in The York Dispatch on Tuesday evening, Oct. 6, 1891, tells how a man took his life. Such detailed stories were common in that day. Background posts: West York ritualistic suicide forgotten by many, but investigators remember and Abraham Lincoln's 'melancholy' and The bad, and yes, the good of the Great Depression in York County.
With nostalgic thoughts about newspapers of yesteryear in mind, readers sometimes pose two questions about modern newspapers:
Why are there so many typos today? And why are papers today so sensational?
The first concern can be addressed by taking a scroll through newspaper microfilm. There they are, typos on most every page. In those hot lead days, it was difficult and expensive to change typos, even if they were caught in advance.
And as for sensationalism, the above headlines lead off a blow-by-blow story about how a York man poisoned himself to death, typical of the day... .
