On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 04:51:15 UTC, r_ogus@... (Roy Ogus) opined:

A few times I've come across the following curious phrase in a death notice
during the early part of the 20th Century. For example, in a 1922 death
notice in the New York Times for a person who died in NY, and who evidently
had family in Chicago and Los Angeles, I found the following phrase which
was included in the notice:

"Chicago, Los Angeles papers please copy"

Does anyone know whether other newspapers would actually copy the death
notice in their own newspapers, or do something else with the information?

I wouldn't know if papers in other cities would actually copy the
announcement.

It would seem unlikely that they would run their own death noticed, if the
death notices were paid items. If not, what did this phrase actually mean?

Just curious!

There are, of course, circumstances in which even an obituary notice can
represent news, and be worth printing even without fee.

The sentence means exactly what it says. My guess is that the obituary would
be copied if the deceased were reasonably prominent, and if his departure
could be of interest to the local readership. I doubt if such a sentence
would be printed (or if it were, would be effective) in a newspaper of
strictly local readership: an editor of the Los Angeles Times would be
unlikely to ever see it in e.g. the Poughkeepsie Journal, whereas it might
catch his eye in the New York Times.

If your interest should progress beyond idle curiousity, you might search
Chicago and Los Angeles newspapers that appeared a few days after the
sentence that you saw. It's easy enough.


--
Stan Goodman, Qiryat Tiv'on, Israel

Searching:
NEACHOWICZ/NOACHOWICZ, NEJMAN/NAJMAN, SURALSKI: >from Lomza Gubernia
ISMACH: >from Lomza Gubernia, Galicia, and Ukraina
HERTANU, ABRAMOVICI, LAUER: >from Dorohoi District, Romania
GRISARU, VATARU: >from Iasi, Dorohoi, and Mileanca, Romania

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