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This newspaper page contains 19 articles. Subscribers can read the full text of each article.
Newspaper
Preston Leader
Location
Preston, Victoria, Australia
Date
Apr 17, 1915
Page
5
Special Overseas Letter from London notes British resilience amid German naval threat. Merchants plan defenses including water jets and ramming, while shortages push labor shifts toward women. Prices rise gently, but supply lines remain robust. spring is celebrated as a mood of resolve and readiness for April offensives.
London residents describe night streets utterly dimmed by night blackout and shopfront whitewashing while daytime life shows mixed resilience. The city’s cosmopolitan mix grows with Belgians and French papers, soldiers returning from the front share grim tales, and a Guardsman recalls two brothers killed in combat.
Sydney Dooley and Dorothy Moore wed before Rev Charles Jones in a Reform Church of England ceremony staged on a theatre set at The White City. Both wore formal gowns as guests watched a transformed sanctuary backdrop, with bridesmaids and train bearers. The couple received a £25 gift and a wedding breakfast before departing for Katoomba amid confetti and cheers.
The text argues that a man's regular vocation and daily work determine his character more than any other source, shaping his capacity to do good and act with benevolence. It emphasizes that opportunity for virtue lies in ordinary duties, not distant pursuits.
A wartime narrative describes a sunlit morning near a ruined village in Flanders, a procession of bound prisoners, and a Belgian mill tale. A Wesleyan minister rides with medical units to a dressing station where a somber burial unfolds under enemy fire as a cross is raised and prayers are spoken.
The article links irritability to exhausted nervous force and sleep loss. It cites mothers losing sleep over children, spouses strained by heavy nerves from wealth chasing, and youths irritable from long study and late socializing, concluding quietness signals real strength.
The Belgian king, disguising himself in a market outfit, entered a Antwerp butcher shop to challenge profiteering during a siege. He asked for a pound of steak, faced an inflexible price, and revealed his identity to stop the extortion. The crowd praised the sovereign as he denounced the butcher and left.
Comic exchange about vandalizing a tombstone. The joke hinges on adding the word friends to a quip about someone’s effort. It presents a lighthearted defacement scenario and a pun on the phrase he did his best.
Two soldiers trade jokes about the Kaiser and Kitchener in a railway carriage. The exchange satirizes leadership and power with wordplay on German figures. The piece notes that frequent bad temper breeds resentment that can alienate loved ones over time.
Citizens at drill with Landwehr and Landsturm in Melbourne produce humor and chaos as volunteers rush for non commissioned roles. Veterans guide recruits, uniforms clash with practice, and the scene hints at strong home defense spirit despite comic friction. Amid stagey rows and muddy battlegrounds the officers struggle with drilling norms and eye alignment.
The Hawkesbury hen in New South Wales outpaced the American champion with 258 eggs in a year, continuing to lay amid global turmoil. The article lauds the Australian hen's reliability, noting a rest on weekends and asking what value Germans would place on such a prolific food producer.
A wartime feature recalls Princess Alexis Karageorgeviteh praising Serbian women who run farms, shops, and factories while men battle Austria. Her husband Prince Alexis organized war trophies and textiles to sell in London to aid the Red Cross, highlighting women’s pivotal wartime labor and the burden of 70,000 Austrian prisoners.
The piece recalls officials in Prussia and a Privy alon aristocrat who for years served as a counter hand in a New Zealand post office. He, of noble birth, handed out letters while an old lady sought letters for herself. The clerk asked about her name after she left, remarking on the amusing incident. The tale is said to be true.
A fragmented verse laments patriotic war zeal and media manipulation, railing against cost of conflict, priests and preachers, and the empty cheer of victory while weaving a stray love exchange about a girl asking a lover if he has kissed others. The tone blends satire and personal moment amid broader martial imagery.
In Neutral Bay Sydney Miss Fletcher runs a cat breeding operation, promoting Persian and Meralan cats as a new industry. She explains demand from wealthy buyers for refined pedigrees, outlines color varieties and breed standards, and discusses cross breeding results and potential show classes.
A correspondent reports experiments using potassic cyanide injected into tree trunks to kill scale insects like Icerya purchasae and other borers. The method, tested on Spanish broom, an old peach tree, and an orange tree, appeared to kill pests without injuring the trees, with peaches remaining safe for feeding.
A long ladies letter laments uneven praise for Belgian flag day work and flawed knitting efforts. It notes a social wedding at St Johns Toorak with Governor and Lady Stanley, plus Easter crowds at Healesville and a humorous "Society Mystery" about a skipped marriage plan and a secret kept by women.
A storm drives a ferry across the loch as passengers gather in fear. The ancient ferryman speaks with the mate then addresses the passengers, declaring that they will cover expenses in case of any disaster, given the dangerous conditions and uncertain fate ahead.
An elderly patient in a long illness offers the physician a “handsome legacy” in his will as a thank you. The doctor, contemplating the prescription, asks to review it once more before finalizing the altered terms.
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