From the Archives of Western Newspapers

Posted on March 19, 2026 by Sunny South News

By Samantha Johnson
For Southern Alberta Newspapers

March 17, 1894 – The Daily Telegram (Nanaimo)

Yesterday, over 100 people assembled at Harbour View in San Francisco to watch Joseph Leuvenmark, champion high-diver of the world, perform one of his daring feats from a 75-foot tower. Leuvenmark’s highest dive is from 82 feet. He is scheduled to perform again on Sunday. (Note: Leuvenmark died of a burst blood vessel in the stomach on March 20, 1894, which he sustained when making the 75-foot dive reported above).

The French warship, Magon, on which Admiral Da Gama sought refuge, cruised off the coast for a short time before returning to port. There, she transferred Da Gama and eight other insurgent officers to a Portuguese warship. It is known Admiral Da Gama was seeking refuge under the British flag, but the captain of the ship he wished to sail on denied him passage.

A London hospital has been sounding a note of alarm regarding the extent to which the habit of tea drinking is indulged. Over 207 million pounds of tea was consumed in Britain last year. They claim the country is yielding with all the weakness of an inebriate to the disease of nerve and stomach excessive tea drinking brings on and say the current generation are now drinking more tea of lesser quality and taking it stronger.

March 19, 1908 – The Advertiser and Central Alberta News (Lacombe)

An adjourned session of the council was held on Saturday evening and Councillor Kent brought up the misuse of lanes by the public who throw manure and other debris onto them. He stated it cost the town $300 in 1906 and somewhat less in 1907 to remove these manure piles from the lanes and it was time a bylaw should be enforced against this nuisance.

H.P. Moberly, who was one of three officials selected to hold a poll north of St. Albert, is again on the government pay list. The three officials rode out on the prairie but did not get to within several hundred miles of the polling district. Instead, they invented 150 names, wrote them in the poll book and submitted 150 ballots for the government candidate. Moberly pleaded guilty and paid a fine and was again on the pay of the government within a few months of his conviction.

The unfortunate incident, when an Olds player struck a Lacombe player over the head with his stick, that occurred at the Olds-Lacombe match on Monday night spoiled what would have been a good game of hockey. This event will certainly aid in perpetuating the reputation of the Olds team for playing dirty hockey. Additionally, the manner in which a number of spectators undertook to adjust the difficulty, is also not to be commended. The Olds player will answer for his conduct in court and the trial is in progress as we go to press.

March 17, 1921 – The Manitoban

The problem of accommodation at the University of Manitoba came to the fore in the 1914-15 academic year and for two years temporary and most unsatisfactory expedients were resorted to until, in the Fall of 1916, the old law courts building was placed at the disposal of the University. This met fairly well during the war, but proved wholly inadequate for the unprecedented increase in enrollment following the declaration of peace. Some changes have temporarily met the demands for new accommodation for students but has not solved in any permanent way this perennial problem of a growing university.

Today, Winnipeg is the wonder city of Canada, it is the Chicago of Canada and the gateway to the greatest extended agricultural territory in the north temperate zone. West of the Great Lakes, Greater Canada begins and the vast interior plain stretching northward for 2,000 miles from the USA boundary is an empire in itself. From Winnipeg, over 100 million square miles of territory extend, producing in excess of 350 million bushels of grain annually, which is recognized as the fastest growing market in the world.

Canada’s first comic, The Goblin, a monthly humorous magazine published by students at the University of Toronto, is a screamingly amusing publication. It rivals the Cornell Widow, the Boston Tech Voodoo or any of the other American colleges humorous publications. The magazine is a promising venture and portrays and interprets situations that are purely Canadian.