At the turn of the previous centurywhen both my grandfathers were slowlygetting the hang of walking, toddling, one in tenof the adult population were employed as domesticservants. Fewer than this in Hyde, becausewe didn’t have the houses, the basement quartersbut it’s an indication of the reality that existedwhen the world reached a certain date, andturned modern. Britain created concentrationcamps for women and children in South Africaand thousands died of malnutrition, butthere were other measures, obviouslyChekhov wrote Uncle Vanya, Picasso paintedLa Moulin de La Galette, and a zeppelin airshipdrifted rigidly, serenely, above Lake ConstanceBirmingham founded a universityA year later, Queen Victoria was murderedby fate’s crooked arrow (or simply over-eating)Edward VII,Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, replaced her (even fatter)A Paris brothel had a special chair builtto accommodate himHe might have suffocated someoneLenin arrived in SwitzerlandHeidi welcomed him with no knickers (but)Vladimir Ilyich wasn’t interestedIskra has a new editor, concentrateThe times are changing, brother. Steven Taylor