No. 339
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 19, 2016

Pretty Stars for the Southern Dives.

Fifteen charming chippies make Rome howl while voyaging to New Orleans, Louisiana.
December 19, 2016
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Tag: Banjo

Members of the Banjo and Mandolin Clubs.

Mount Holyoke College, 1898-1899.

4/24/2023

A Surmise.

Take your gun with you if you're going to play on that banjo.

10/15/2018
Riverside Drive is one of Manhattan’s most beautiful and dramatic avenues. It’s also a place of legend and mystery, especially during the Drive’s early decades as a Gilded Age “millionaire colony” rival to Fifth Avenue. Which mansion built in the early 1900s has a basement tunnel leading to the Hudson River? Where can you find […]
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Ephemeral New York - 4/16/2026
"As his son I am proud of hisefforts to succeed in life"Jefferson Randolph Smith IIIArtifact #93-2Jeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) oapy's son hires a legal firm to stop the defamation of his father's name. At age 30, Jefferson Randolph Smith III, Soapy and Mary's oldest son, was protecting his father's legacy and his mother's reputation from "libel" and scandal. He was also
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
Via Newspapers.comHere's one for the Weird Wills file--with a boffo surprise ending!  The "Rockford Daily Republican," April 4, 1911:Buchanan, Mich., April 4 — Shortly before the death of Hodson Burton, five years ago, he talked into the horn of a phonograph and had the record preserved. It was placed in the hands of his lawyer, with the request that it be concealed in his safe. When
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Strange Company - 4/15/2026
Youth With Executioner by Nuremberg native Albrecht Dürer … although it’s dated to 1493, which was during a period of several years when Dürer worked abroad. November 13 [1617]. Burnt alive here a miller of Manberna, who however was lately … Continue reading
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
New York Evening Journal, March 18, 1898.Helen Kahlert, a washerwoman, came home from work at 8:00 on the evening of Wednesday, May 30, 1894. After working all day at a home on Park Avenue in New York City, she climbed the stairs to the humble, second-floor apartment on East 61st Street that she shared with Minnie Weldt. To her surprise, the door was unlocked, and the apartment was dark. Minnie
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Murder By Gaslight - 4/11/2026
Whatever you believe about the guilt or innocence of Lizzie Borden, I have always believed film makers do a great injustice to the story by not beginning at the beginning- the death on March 26, 1863 of the first Mrs. Borden. In the dying moments of Sarah Morse, Emma takes on the weight of the care of her little sister, not yet three years old. Emma herself was just 12 on March 1st. Emma has seen her mother suffer for a long time, seen her pain and loss of little Alice Esther. Emma is old enough
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 3/26/2026
  [Editor’s note: Guest writer, Peter Dickson, lives in West Sussex, England and has been working with microfilm copies of The Duncan Campbell Papers from the State Library of NSW, Sydney, Australia. The following are some of his analyses of what he has discovered from reading these papers. Dickson has contributed many transcriptions to the Jamaica […]
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Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
Seeing in the New Year. | Left His Digits as Souvenirs.

Pretty Stars for the Southern Dives.

Pretty Stars for the Southern Dives

Fifteen charming chippies make Rome howl while voyaging to New Orleans, Louisiana. [more]

New Orleans, Oct. 23, - This announcement was displayed a few days ago in form t of the Pala is Royal, one of the low resorts on Royal street:

“Fifteen distinguished lady artists form New York will make their first appearance here this evening.”

It happened that there were only nine lady artists in the party, and they had arrived that morning from New York. During the six days’ trip by steamer from Gotham the artists had made things decidedly lively for themselves and the ten other passengers who shared with them the accommodations of the first cabin. The artists were not a particularly tough lot, judged by the lowest standards, but they were noisy and untamed, and they made Rome howl whenever the sea was smooth. When the artist ceased to be a novelty, most of the other passengers welcomed a good stiff breeze and the consequent indisposition of the ladies as kindred blessings.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, November 10, 1888.