A story to show how much things have changed in over 120 years in Blantyre.
On Sunday 9th July 1899, patrolling police officers found 4 young miners playing cards in the street at Dixon’s Rows, Stonefield at 4 o clock in the morning. They were taken into custody.
The same officers then made their way to Craighead Rows, just off Glasgow Road and on the same Summer night arrested 2 young miners who were playing handball against a wall. These men were also taken into custody to the cells in Glasgow Road.
On the following Monday, all 6 Blantyre men appeared in the Justice of Peace Court. Two were fined 30s or 21 days imprisonment, the other four, ten days prison.
Upon reading this report, which included all the details you read above, I concluded that something else was going on here. Perhaps intoxicated or causing a breach of peace. However, the likelihood was that there was some sort of gambling taking place.
Times have indeed changed. These men, were appeared to be simply entertaining themselves with friends on a Saturday Summer night and received prison sentences. It all seems very harsh now.
Fantastic to hear about things that happened in Blantyre many years ago and how everything has changed. If you were put in prison for such simple things there would be no room in our prisons and likely no crimes on our streets now either.