Editor's note. Although eventually this page will list ALL of
the keywords in the OLD NEWS FILES section, the list is presently not very
complete. Also, most of the newspaper issues haven't been fully keyworded
yet.
MORE ON KEYWORDS
RACISM,. Attitude toward race is very different today than
it was 100+ years ago.
Racism usually indicates a bias, disdain or mistrust against persons
from some other
races or ethnic cultures. In general, "foreigners" (other
than the English or Scottish, or
sometimes Scandinavian), seemed to be looked down on. Many with less
education
or natural status were judged undesirable. As successive waves
of immigrants came
to America, gradually the groups who had been here longer were less
disdained than
the newcomers.. At varying times, signifying someone as Irish,
Italian, or even
German, could be a slur. Conversely, the words just announced
a person's
origins. It was as common for newspapers -- at least in this
part of Oregon -- to state:
Will Smith, colored, or Mike Fiero, the Italian, as it was to say
George Banks from
Chicago, or Mr. Nash the Englishman. Sometimes we have no
way of separating the
slurs from the facts. But we do know that much of the populace
did not hold in high
regard the Native Americans (who were then always called Indians),
Asians, Mexicans,
and black persons. Therefore, my keyword "racism" signifies
all items about the
aforementioned races. It may also just signify the fact of other
nationalities, religious,
or ethnic groups. For sometimes we are unable to separate the
slurs from the facts.
The keyword sometimes appears as -- racism-ethnic. Also, the keyword
ethnic-origin, or
just origin, may be used for other nationalities that were sometimes looked
down on, such as
the Irish, Italians, etc., but where no slur appears intended.)
SRH stands for Shipping, rivers, and harbors.
In some issues I've used the further subdivisions:
Srh-ocean Srh-ship Srh-Capt____ [of seagoing
vessel] Srh-dock Srh-harbor
Srh-freight Srh-trade (such as the Orient trade or the coasting
trade (regularly scheduled
sailing trips up and down parts of the U. S. Coast.)
Srh-river Srh-[name of River] Srh-Capt____ [of riverboat] Srh-dock
Srh-harbor
Srh-dredging (to deepen shipping channel) Srh-boat
Some entries carry both Srh-(creek, river, bay: a waterway for commerce
and travel),
and the same designation for a town or geographical area. (Such
as Locale-LampeyCreek
and Srh-LampeyCreek;Srh-CoosBay and Locale-CoosBay.)
Towns and Locales.
TOT-followed by name (or abbr.) of town signifies villages and hamlets
on Oregon's South
Coast. OT-followed by name or abbr indicates a town or hamlet
beyond this region, even
in another part of US or the world. Locale-(followed by name
or abbr.) identifies some
other geographical landmark or location. Sometimes Tot-, OT-, or
Locale- (with hyphen,
and a space between hyphen and next keyword, means there are multiple
name
designations within an item.) It is often well to search under
both the consolidated
name (CoqR, or CoquilleR, or Coquille River; LowerR or lowerRiver.
L.R. or LR;
upperR or upperRiver or U.R or UR ) and the name or entry as it is likely
to appear in
text: (on the Coquille, Coquille Valley, Coquille river Lower river.)
Hyphens or converged words [in the keywords] simply adds further
explanations.
Thus, "misc-word" is a classification under the subject "misc" (miscellaneous),
for an expression or
unusual usage.
Novelty- (followed by a noun) is one example of an novelty enterprise,
that is, not a common retail business
or heavy industry. (Novelty-brick: brick making; novelty-grist, grist
or flour mill
(as opposed to a lumber mill). Novelty-wood is not regular sawmilling
of commercial
lumber, but such commodities as matchwood (the sticks, or blanks
from which to saw
matchsticks) to make matches; novelty-broom, the manufacture of broomhandles,
or
sometimes entire brooms.
Lbr, mill, sawmill, logging (or log) and timber, or timber lands,
designate industry in timber
harvest and manufactory.
RR-CBR, or RR-local, denotes the local shortline railroad service;
RR-outside (or RR-other)
refers to railroads or spur lines beyond the South Coast of Oregon. RR-natl
is a national or
long line. Sometimes RR category is further broken down. RR-phy
(physical: the cars,
locomotives and tracks, car shops or roundhouses). RR-depot, the
buildings maintained
for passengers and freight-check. RR-spur: branch tracks off the
main line, which are likely
to be logging railroads or connections to isolated towns or to send
products to shipping
points.
RR-hopes (sometimes noted as RR-dreams) refers to hopes for bringing rail
service to the
South Coast, or later, the idea of an extension to join local RR service
to the national system.
Coal: any reference to coal: veins, operations, fuel. In many
of the documents it's
currently presented as other-coal. Beaver Hill coal, from the
largest coal mine in
Southwest Oregon, has its own keywords, commonly Beaver Hill, Tot-BH,
BH coal, etc.
Other keywords aren't documented here yet.
Of course not all keywords or sub-words appear in every document.