How an unknown Post writer of 1907 thought we would live in Paradise

Aug 28 2007 by Staff Reporter, Liverpool Daily Post

BACK in 1907, the Daily Post published an account of what Liverpool’s birthday celebration in 2007 might be like. Here is a little of our look into the future:

“The pageant of 1907 marked the beginning of the end of what we may call the 19th-century period. The men who lived in it believed that their human race had remained asleep, or half asleep, until the mechanical applications of steam and electricity were discovered; then, they thought mankind woke up, and life suddenly began to be worth living.

To us, looking back- wards, the unrest of this period seems not far re- moved from insanity. Hap- pily, it was but a transient symptom of human activity.

We smile when we think of the men who grew prouder of themselves and their city as they discovered swifter and swifter methods of getting away from it, whose idea of happiness was to career about the land on evil-smelling machines at 50 miles an hour. Our own noiseless appliances enable us to travel through the air at treble that speed if need compels. But there are scores of our best and wisest citizens who have never been further away from Liverpool than their legs will carry them.

Why should it be otherwise? There is no more beautiful city in the world; there is no learning which our own university cannot supply. We need not go away to seek health. The man who prizes wealth has ample opportunity to gain it here. But we have learned that wealth is not everything. The great benefactor who banished cancer from the world was a young doctor who lived in the Beech Avenue leading to the old quarry, then known as Rodney Street, and he never earned much more than his bread and cheese.

Few men nowadays waste their time in the mere accumulation of money. On the other hand, we have no ugly poverty; the drink plague was eradicated many years ago; by a short and sharp surgery, we removed the hopeless criminal class, we taught our people the holiness of beauty as well as the beauty of holiness. Today no ugly sounds and sights offend our ears and eyes; no stain of dirty smoke ever dulls our skies; on a smooth day on our river you may see a dark pebble on the white sand at the bottom. Why should we want to rush about? May we not smile when we look back on the grime and turmoil of the past. The pageant of 1907, like that of yesterday, began with a charming display of 2,000 schoolchildren, and we read with amazement that each child was provided with clean garments and a coloured sash. Our own children yesterday appeared in their pretty school clothes and each wore a garland of flowers grown in its own garden.

The fair ladies who appeared in the pageant of 1907 went dressed as Greek goddesses or in early English costumes, since a procession clad in the garb of the time would have been intolerable. The lady chosen by the committee of selection to represent Liverpool in yesterday’s procession is an Irishwoman, the wife of a stonemason at present working on the Hall of Industry. Needless to say, she wore her customary attire, and it was universally declared that no more perfect vision had ever been imagined. In conclusion, we may mention that the choir of yesterday which filled the steps of St George’s Hall sang the 48th Psalm to music by Handel while the chief magistrate took his place, and the 47th Psalm to music by Beethoven while the Liverpool procession formed up on the platform. At the end, the vast assembly rose, bared their heads and sang “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” It is pleasant to know that now, when all the wars of sects and churches are for ever ended, men of all kinds, whatever their differences of belief may be, can harmoniously unite in ascribing honour and praise to the Giver of all Good Things.”