Our look at the BHHA Collection continues with another old Swedish item, the Calmar News, dated August 6, 1817. Calmar (Kalmar) is a seaport city located in the province of Smaland in southern Sweden. This newspaper contains mostly news about sea traffic and world events. Below is a translation from the back page world trivia section:
“Constantinople May 26th The local kadi or director of police has received several complaints of the very expensive and low quality of bread baked by the local bakery. The baker was arrested and taken to court to answer the complaints and was found guilty. The sentence orders all the bad bread to be given to the poor, and the baker forbidden to bake bread for one year. If after the year, he again is found guilty of poor merchandise, the following punishment will be awarded. First offense: A nail will be forced through his ear and depending on the size of his crime, he will be forced to stand in an upright position for several hours. Second offense: He will be suspended from a beam so high that he will barely be able to touch the floor with his toes. Third offense: If after offending three times, he will be decapitated.”
How the criminal justice system has changed.
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