No. 43
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 29, 2011

Rum on Tap.

August 29, 2011
...
...

Tag: Comstock

Half-dime Novels and Story Papers.

Satan's sure-ruin traps - half-dime novels, five and ten cent story papers, and low-priced pamphlets for boys and girls.

11/14/2015

Society Unveiled.

2/3/2014

Comstockery.

Anthony Comstock was on a personal mission to protect America from vice.

5/1/2012
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
More...
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 […]
More...
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
More...
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
More...
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
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
Caroline Burned! | Hid the Girls' Skirts

Rum on Tap.

Rum on tapKyana, Indiana, 1890 - The women of Kyana, Ind., go to the railroad depot and demolish a cargo of liquor.

The town of Kyana, Ind. Is  greatly excited over an attempt to establish a saloon there over the wishes of the citizens. A tough character prepared a room for a saloon, and received a shipment of liquors which were unloaded at the railroad platform. The women of the town congregated armed with axes, hatchets and hammers, and marched in solemn procession to the depot, where they surrounded the stock of liquors. A prayer was offered and the command was given to destroy the alcohol. In ten minutes every keg was demolished and the contents flowing down the street. The site of the town, which consists of forty acres, was donated by an old gentleman who has been dead thirty years, upon the express condition that no intoxicating liquors should ever be sold within its limits.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette, December 27, 1890


Kyana, Indiana, 1890 - The women of Kyana, Ind., go to the railroad depot and demolish a cargo of liquor.