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Should they part me and whisky?
Newspaper reportage provides insight into the influences effecting change in the structures of societies. While accessing newspapers online for historical research is advantageous, there are disadvantages. Not all years for the Oban Times have been digitised. But, the year 1879 is/was a veritable source of information revealing the cultural, social and economic issues affecting the lives of second and third generation sea-faring families. Drinking has always been a part of the social and cultural milieu in western civilisation and Oban was no different from any other society. News reports for 1879 offer a window into the struggle between the temperance movement, for control of working-class behaviour, and the ruling middle class opposition to the prohibition of alcohol and their discipline of working-class misdemeanours. Looking at the Oban Times over the ensuing two decades would provide an opportunity to observe whether the temperance movement’s emphasis on the moral instruction of; and education of children to bring about self-improvement succeeded amongst working class children of sea-faring families; or whether, in sea-faring culture there is an entrenched culture of drinking. Moreover, when comparing reportage of 1879 with earlier reportage, 1879 seems to be a time when the character’s of ancestors come alive; and the writer seems to be acquainted with the foibles of the working-class.