Saturday, May 28, 2011

Fair at Gravesend and Suspicious Quotation Marks

FAIR AT GRAVESEND.--This evening the splendid affair will be brought to a close, and there will undoubtedly be a rich and racy time. It is held in the basement of the church at Gravesend, and the room is decorated in a manner that the cunning fingers of Eve's fair daughters alone know how to accomplish. This is the first fair that the ladies of Gravesend have ever attempted, but we are forced to state from personal inspection that it affords the most fascinating scene we have ever witnessed. The sale opened yesterday afternoon, and the attendance from all parts was so full that on closing for the night the unprecedentedly large sum of $400 had been received.--From Gravesend it is but a short distance to Coney Island, and those who go down from the city can in almost " no time " combine the pleasure of chatting with the ladies with the allurements of a visit to the cool sea-beach.

--Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Thursday, July 30, 1846

This actually reads very much like stories I caught in the 1921 Casa Grande Bulletin. Small town newspapers, I suppose.

I like the early use of suspicious quotation marks, too.

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