Bygone News - 100 years ago and over

Was I Forced To Leave Dens Park?

(By Jimmie Bellamy)

(“Why is Bellamy leaving Dundee?” is a question that has often been asked since the news came out that the brilliant outside-right had signed for Motherwell. In the following article the player himself tells the reason – Ed. P.J)

To the average football follower – among that class I number many of my most valued friends – there must be something of a mystery, in my leaving Dens Park, and just as I had qualified for a benefit. Read more......

Dundee Labour Exchange – Windows Smashed

Overgate was on Thursday the scene of a startling incident which created some excitement. About nine o’clock those in the lower part on the thoroughfare had their attention arrested by the crash of breaking glass, followed almost immediately afterwards by another noise of the same character. Read more......

Union Carters’ Threat

TaybridgeFurther trouble is threatened amongst Dundee transport workers. Carters who are members of the North of Scotland Horse and Motormen’s Association are keenly averse to working alongside non-Union employees who have accepted the increase of wages which the Union men secured for them, and still remain outwith the Union. Read more......

Folk-lore Section for the Museum

An interesting department has just been introduced in the Dundee Museum in the shape of a section devoted to folk-lore.

The objects are placed in one of the cases in the south room of the Museum, Albert Square. They show how superstitions of a very early time have survived. Allusion may be made to a few special examples. There is, for instance, the hyoid bone of a sheep, which is worn by fisherman on the Yorkshire coast as a charm against drowning. Cures for toothache are supplied by the digging feet of a mole and a by a water worn pebble. Cramp was supposed to be averted or cured by carrying a fossil tooth, a nut of the Daldinia Conceuticra, known as “cramp nut” and by digging feet of the mole. Rheumatism was cured by fragment of crude amber, or by an astragalus bone. To ensure luck in fishing the Lancashire fishermen carried a spider shell; while for luck generally it was usual in Wiltshire to wear a perforated copper coin. Flint arrow heads, boiled in water, which was given to the cows to drink, was sovereign cure for “grup”, while a holed stone – usually a pre-historic whorl – tied to the horn of a cow prevented the pixies from stealing the milk. There are two familiar specimens of brass work frequently seen on horse harness, though few know their significance. These are the “lunar type” and the “solar-and-heart type”, which are worn by horses to avert the effects of the evil eye. Read more......