No. 326
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
September 19, 2016

A Triangular Fight.

September 19, 2016
...
...

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
Fractional house numbers can be found across New York’s older brownstone and townhouse neighborhoods. Usually the half refers to an adjacent carriage house or backhouse, or sometimes even a basement apartment. But as far as I can tell, this is the only 3/4 fractional on a Gotham doorway or entryway. It’s at 184 3/4 West […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 4/20/2026
"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
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
 It's time for this week's Link Dump!Let's dance!That time when an English village was terrorized by a giant rabbit.How the Declaration of Independence made the news.The socialite and the "Titanic orphans."The last victim of the Berlin Wall.Remembering the American Soapbox.Life on one of Lord Nelson's 32-pounders.The hidden communication of animals.British fairies, meet Indian changelings.3I
More...
Strange Company - 4/17/2026
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
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
(New York Journal, May 31, 1896.)On the morning of Memorial Day, May 30, 1896, Mrs. Annie Cunningham had to go to work, while her 13-year-old daughter, Mary (known as Mamie), was home from school for the holiday. Mrs. Cunningham asked Mamie if she planned to go to the parade. Mamie said no, she wasn’t interested, and she planned to do housework and study. At 8:30, she said goodbye to her daughter
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 4/18/2026
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
More...
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 […]
More...
Early American Crime - 2/7/2019
A Man under Her Bed. | Had a High Old Time.

A Triangular Fight.

A Triangular Fight

Three pretty women of Cincinnati, Ohio, have a scrapping match in “The Abbey” with no serious results. 

“The Abbey,” on Spring Grove Avenue, Cincinnati, O., was the scene of a pretty little fight on night recently, between three well-known women named Gertie Roberts, a McFarland street landlady; May St. Clair and Bessie Anderson. The tree women were under the influence of liquor and it was not long before they began to fight among themselves. Bessie called May a hard name and in return was biffed in the eye and knocked down. At this point Gertie Roberts sailed in and went for May and received a good thumping for her trouble. After the women had been separated it was found that Bessie’s eyes were the color of shoe-blacking, and that Gertie’s nose had gone around to attend a tea party with her back hair, while the victorious May was all right. All are now said to be training for the ring.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, September 28, 1889.