The Golden Age of Headline Writing

[George Thompson]

Dave Wilton writes:


> I'd earlier posted a citation for "dope" from a headline in the L.A. Times
> of 2 May 1888:
>
> "'Dope' Fiends. Police Officers Raid A Notorious Den. A Sallow-faced
> Pipe-hitter and a Nude Female Captured--A Disgrace to Civilized Los
> Angeles--The Unfortunate Girl Weeps Bitter Tears."
>
> (It's a shame they don't write headlines like this anymore.)
>

This one is pretty nice, too, made nicer by the fact that the story is about the college my wife attended -- though she was not a classmate of these naughty girls.

FOUR ERRING GIRLS.  Their Sin Was That They Played a Game of Euchre.  It Was in Classic Westminster Late at Night.  "I'll Order You up!" Heard "Prexy" Ferguson, as He Walked the Halls, and He Quietly Entered the Room Where the Pretty Players Sat -- Tearful Beauties.  The World, March 12, 1890, p. 1.  (top of the page, too, right under the masthead; and "Special to the World")

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org