Have you ever had an image of some text, perhaps a digital camera photo of a document, and wished you didn't have to retype the text into your computer? Surfing around looking at technology to digitize text stored as images I came across a free online, no registration website www.free-ocr.com/ You simply give it the address of the image, PDF, JPG, GIF, TIFF or BMP, maximum file size 2MB and the language, and it come back with text you can cut and paste into your document.
As you can see from this sample of a single column from an 1888 Ottawa newspaper the OCR is far from perfect, especially when there's background noise in the image as toward the bottom in this example. For occasional use it's a decent option, and you can't beat it for price.
Order haclbeen rapid, particularly in 
late years. There were now some
7,000 members—belonging to lodges in America and Africa. Lodges
would be established this year in England. The S. O. E. Society seemed
especially adapted to the English c aracter, and was destined to follow
England s drum' beat round the world. The passwords and signs were
for‘the purpose of allaying suspicion, encouraging plainness o speech,
and preventing disorder and inconvenience. T e ritual was symbolical,
dignilied and efective. The subjects of religion and politics were
taboed in the lodge rooms.
- The benelits were $3 per week for I3 weeks and $1.50 per week
for next succeedin 26 wee s; $30 on death of wife; $7 ondeath of
child; $75 on of member. Initiation fees varied from $3 to $15;
weekly fees from 10c to 25C. Twelve men could erect a lodge. '
In Egpland there were 32,®0 benefit societies and one person in
every II the population belo ed to one. Neglect of thrift was the
heaviest charge rought againstngnglishmen. The national sins being
improvidence, pauperism and drunkenness. The helps to thrift in the
Old Country were numerous. The great hindrance to thrift was the poor
aw system. ‘ ’
In England investigators have discovered that there is an enormous
and wilful waste of the earnings of the labouring man, owing to mis-
management in their Friendly Societies——notwithstanding govemment
statutes and inspection the evils have only been partially abated. The
poor rates also are burdensome, and the workhouse system has, as we
ave said, the effect of demoralizing the weak or faint hearted. The
sm expended lpn puplic eaarities are also —enormous—and in many cases
s A 'ty is urt u to t receiver. 0
·' have consequently been advocating a scheme of
national to rerné¢lY national pzuperism. It is stated that $50
paid into state bgieeach individual of t nation before the- age of 2I
_A r ¥l3•.¤§¤te¤:>cElv¤e >pee•miary~bene6ts as follows ;-—Up
toézpyears of age,*§$2 for sickness; after 70- years $1 per
_, ia would- save England and Englishmen enormous
sunrsofmoney, would prevents disappointment amonithe in- `
··sur¢f§; selfereliant. Suc ya pol-
—i°Y‘9f ¤¤¤¤1$ul¤¤ry. had been adopted
in F ranoe, Italy, Switzerland,
, » . ,7 lil ;1'_ > _'· · IA · V
In di6`ered_from those in E§land. Friend-
ly theJS. untri. , and the aver-
¤££ PW ufitwas, or would be soon, a
• as ` eet¤•;ory~beae&rs as follows :——Up
toj76yearsofage,Ҥ$2 pergw for sickness; after 7o- years $1 per
I ct WEQEFQBSIODS P ’ - . _ ,
BQSJWIIE _, ' ea would- save {England and Englishmen enormous
the sumsuimoney, woulduprievente disappointment amongprbein- ‘
pglwysbc self·reliant. Suc _a pol-
at`. I land eenuisleery. had been adopted
lt in `ini , _ Q SIIGGQD in F ranoe, Italy, Switzerland,
T @“.°{h° IB. di8`ered_from those in E§land. Friend-
- IY \h¤¥$e E- ¤¤tri· . and the aver-
age. per " iitsxas, for would be soon, a _
• in I i za.-state 0I' iltsnfance. i ”
- .‘. , .. lj ·- . j .. a L - . . .
* ‘ th first.:'at` which. the four Ottawa;
R indi R\!$S¢ll hademet together for so-
.‘ A ° It would the meeting was intended
as a demonstration; toxestify by our words audapplause that Eng¢ .
»n which _lithrnen»were in.favo'ur df the maintenance of law and order throughput
irv..•rere Her “Maiestv’s dominions; toshow that the S¤nS' of England o_
