A Reddit account that has since been deleted asked the people of r/AskReddit, "If we had the internet back in the 19th century, what do you think the clickbait titles would be?"
While time travel doesn't exist (yet, allegedly), people love to think about what would happen in the past if something already existed, or if a modern object or person were to find themselves plunked back in the past.
And combining the oddities of the Napoleonic era through the Belle Époque with clickbait articles found on the internet? Well, Redditors didn't disappoint with their creativity. They posted ideas of everything from President Abraham Lincoln reaction articles to superstitions about horses and, most shocking, the suggestion of a woman revealing her ankles.
There were also those who pointed out that, really, human nature has been pretty consistent, and paper boys of ye olden days would be the clickbait articles of the day.
u/w1n5t0nM1k3y wrote, "I'm pretty sure that the 19th century didn't have any lack of the same tactics. Paperboys standing out on street corners basically invented 'clickbait' in order to sell more papers by yelling out catchy headlines to make people want to buy the paper."
Check out 18 of the best 19th-century clickbait titles according to Redditors below...
1. Lincoln, 54, Slams Confederacy in Late Night Tweets After Rally at Gettysburg
2. Women near you want to show you their ankles—Click here!
3. Is Your Horse Plotting Against You? Experts Say Yes
4. You Won’t Believe What They Found Beneath the Orphanage Floorboards
5. The Truth Behind the Queen's Scandal: Why Her Crown Hides a Dark Secret (It's Not What You Think)
6. Why your Bourgeoisie boss hates Karl Marx (And you should too)
7. This Mad Inventor Built a Flying Machine! (Spoiler: It Crashed in the Thames)
8. Ten ways to hide syphilis—you won't believe number seven
9. Arsenic: The miracle chemical in future medicine!
10. Phrenologists don’t want you to know this one secret
11. The new metal discovered by Hans Christian Ørsted is remarkable for no less than five reasons
12. Miner Strikes Gold in California... But What He Dug Up Next Will Leave You Breathless (And Toothless)
13. Abraham Lincoln went to watch a play in Ford’s Theatre. You won’t believe what happened next!
"Hint: It blew his mind!"—u/Juan_Calavera
14. Has Giles Corey returned from the grave?
"Harumph! Rapscallions equivocate two-fold. Neighboring constituencies disguise intentions by employing synonymous wordplay, labeling diplomats to the common man as neerdowells." —u/ChapterSpecial6920
15. 10 Signs Your Corset Is Slowly Killing You (Number 7 Is Terrifying)
16. This one simple trick cures milk leg, dropsy, and the vapors
17. The rumours that surround Queen Victoria's Scotsman are truly scandalous!
18. The remarks made by President Lincoln at Gettysburg beggar all belief!
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