My first, and very possibly last, link to the Daily Mail, but this (via MeFi) is an interesting oddity: mugshots of drunks arrested in 1904 in Birmingham.
Nowadays the police description would no doubt concentrate on ethnic identity, but in those days it was complexion – nearly all described as "fresh" though it's not the first word that comes to mind, with the one rather foreign-looking gentleman labelled with the disparaging "sallow" – and shape of face – round, oval, or thin. Professions: hawker, woodchopper, tube drawer, bedstead polisher, groom, japanner, blacksmith…and most of the women labelled prostitutes. Was that really the case, I wonder, or did the police tend to assume that any woman who went out to the pub and got drunk had to be on the game?
"Are you related to any of these people? Or do you know anyone who is?", asks the Mail. "If so, then tell us your story…" Which brings to mind to one of Armstrong and Miller's better sketches:
Mick Hartley 
Leave a comment