No. 757
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 07, 2024

Shark Fishing off Cobb's Island, Virginia.

Aquatic Sport on the Virginia Coast.
July 7, 2024
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Tag: Kansas

Cowboys Lassoing the Ballet.

The manager of a dizzy blonde troupe is lassoed by an indignant cowboy at Dodge City, Kansas.

1/18/2016

A Terrible Punishment.

A father revenges an outrage on his daughter by pulling the wretch asunder; near Junction City, Kansas.

8/28/2012

Hid the Girls' Skirts

8/22/2011
Via Newspapers.comCalvin is among the literary cats who have been immortalized in prose.  Originally part of the household of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Calvin eventually made his home with author Charles Dudley Warner.  After the cat died, Warner wrote the following biographical essay, which was often republished in various late 19th century newspapers and periodicals.  This
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Strange Company - 9/9/2026
  [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
"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
Sadie and Clarence.In April 1894, the murder of Montgomery Gibbs, a successful attorney, caused great excitement in Buffalo, New York. He was found shot to death in a driveway on Delaware Avenue with no clues to the killer’s identity. The police and newspapers investigated the crime, but they had no solid leads, and it remained unsolved. Then, in October, they received a tip that Clarence
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Murder By Gaslight - 9/5/2026
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
A Pullman Parlor Car. | Knocked Dead by a Meteor.

Shark Fishing off Cobb's Island, Virginia.

Shark-Fishing Aquatic Sport on the Virginia Coast.

The body of water between the outlying islands and the main coast of the eastern Virginia Peninsula swarms at certain seasons of the year with sharks, and the sport of catching them, while not altogether without danger, has a strong attraction for adventurous fishermen. There are two kinds, the blue and the yellow, the latter attaining a large size. The island (Cobb’s) at which our sketch was made is a favorite resort of sportsmen.


Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, November 9, 1889.