On this day 101 years ago the Spanish flu pandemic was wreaking havoc on the world - but life carried on in Launceston.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The front page of The Weekly Courier - the predecessor to The Examiner - was taken up by a serialised fiction story called 'His Grace of Pinchbeck' by one Ralph Rodd.
Opening at chapter 20 it's hard to say exactly what it was about, but in this particular section readers of the paper were entertaining themselves with the main character's plotting to "bring about the ruin of the man who had baulked him 30 years ago".
Page 2 was taken up by another short story, followed by an advertisement disguised as a health warning: "When the nerves give way". The advice rings true today. "Men and women with nerves out of gear become irritable and fretful, and are blamed for ill-temper; whereas it is not their fault. Their health is the cause. Often the nerves have given way under the strain of working for the very people who reproach the sufferers. The tired, over-busy wife or mother whose household cares have worn her out; the breadwinner whose anxiety for his family has worried him until he becomes thin and ill, are the nerve-sufferers who become run down."
However, it then goes on to explain that the problem is that the nerves are underfed by red blood cells. It prescribes a dosage of "Dr Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People", which claim to be able to "make new blood and tone up the nervous system" and make the sufferer high-spirited and full of energy and happiness.
Your sixpence for the Weekly Courier also bought you plenty of news.
In March 1919 there were problems with exporting apples to England as not enough space had been allocated on the returning ships.
Wool growers were upset about stringent quarantine measures affecting their ability to sell to the mainland. The problem could be easily solved, they explained, if it wasn't for the federal government's view that "it's only Tasmania".
Rain was needed, the Launceston Show had a record number of entries, and a farmer condemned the practice of rabbit trapping.
On Page 13, following letters from readers, three pages of agriculture and five pages of sporting results, was news about the rest of the Australia and the world.
IN OTHER NEWS: