Back To The Future — How ‘Tweet’ It Is

By Nancy K. Crevier

It seems that The Newtown Bee tweets that are keeping today’s Newtown technology-savvy newshounds up to date are really a throwback to Bee issues of yore.

Andrew Phelps of radio station WBUR in Boston and WBUR web developer Will Smith have discovered that The Newtown Bee was leaps and bounds ahead of its time, 100 years ago. In Mr Phelps’ June 24 posting to the WBUR blog “Hubbub,” he pointed out that a 1913 issue of The Bee is a trove of tiny messages, all of which can be compared to today’s online 140-character Twitter “tweets.”

“There are even little advertisements, disguised as regular tweets, throughout the list. Promoted Tweets, if you will,” noted Mr Phelps, who started the Hubbub blog in May of this year to promote happenings in Boston.

So how did The Bee end up as the focus of a Boston blog posting? “Sometimes I cheat,” admitted Mr Phelps, “and my blog is about New England.” When Mr Smith shared with him a copy of the January 3, 1913, Newtown Bee that had belonged to his great-great-great-grandfather, Botsford H. Peet, and which had recently come into his possession, Mr Phelps was as intrigued as the web developer about the style of writing common to that era of newspapers. Newsy bits of information were regularly published on the front page and throughout, most of them no more than several words long — just like modern tweets.

Here’s a sampling of the Bee “tweets” he found in the 97-year-old paper:

Miss Louis Bigelow, Warren Yard and George E. Wilson have sleighs bought of A.M. Briscoe & Son.

Mrs R.N. Betts has been prostrated with a hard cold.

Misses Minnie and Elizabeth Sinnott of Hartford are guests of their brother, Rev George T. Sinnott.

Pratt’s poultry food, Pratt’s conditioner for horses and colts, Pratt’s hoof ointment, Pratt’s ointment and Pratt’s cow tonic are remedies to be relied on. Corbett, Crow & Co. sell them.—[Adv.]

“I have to credit Will with recognizing the updates as ‘tweets,’” said Mr Phelps.

He was quite surprised to Google The Newtown Bee and discover that the paper is still in existence, Mr Phelps said. “I called the front desk at The Bee and found out from the secretary that the paper has been owned by the same family for over 130 years. It’s great when something is around for that long,” he said.

Check out the posting at http://www.wbur.org/2010/06/24/twitter-circa-1913, to view the June 24 posting, and visit the WBUR Hubbub blog for all the goings-on in Boston.