A Winnipeg man restoring an old mirror that once belonged to his grandmother made a timely discovery earlier this week when he found a 100-year-old newspaper hidden inside the frame.
On Monday, Doug Jentsch, 65, noticed a June 10, 1919 edition of the Western Labor News: Special Strike Edition No. 21 attached to the back of the mirror. He’s had the mirror for 27 years but just decided to fix it up this year.
“I had some time on my hands so I thought I’d give it a try,” he said.
Reading the paper was an eye-opener for Jentsch.
“It struck home that this actually happened -- this was a real event,” he said.
“I’m aware of the strike and I’ve been aware of it for years growing up in Winnipeg. It’s a significant event in our history but it never really touched home until I read that.”
According to the Manitoba Historical Society’s website the Western Labor News published a daily bulletin to keep strikers informed.
Jentsch believes the paper, used as a spacer placed between the back of the mirror and a piece of wood, would’ve been put there in 1919.
“I looked at the date and then I saw the headline and realized it was almost 100 years ago today,” he said.
Jentsch said the mirror hung in a hallway in his grandmother’s Winnipeg home until she died.
He doesn’t believe she had any involvement in the strike but the historical significance still resonates.
“It was a very violent time,” said Johnson of the strike. “We take for granted some of the things we have to live with that people a hundred years ago had to fight for.”
Jentsch plans to hang on to the paper for now but thinks it belongs in a museum or archives.
