No. 796
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 11, 2025

This Soubrette Played Faro.

To win a bet she played in the "combination" at Butte Mont.
February 11, 2025
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Tag: Gambling

A Female Card Sharp.

A female gambler detects an opponent cheating and rakes in the pot.

6/2/2026

The New City of Leadville.

A gambling saloon on one of the main streets of Leadville.

6/24/2025

Bucking the Tiger

In a Cheyenne gambling Saloon.

10/7/2024

The Scandal Which Agitates St. Louis.

Astounding Revelations of a Low Cunning and Vile Curiosity in One of the Proprietors of the Grand Opera House.

7/23/2024

"Bet Anything You've Got."

Jim Tuttle startles a faro bank party, at Gold Hill, Neb.

12/13/2022

A Female Gambling House in Boston.

They call it the "retreat" because of its charming privacy and apparent obscurity.

5/31/2022

A Woman Gambler in Nevada.

She Bucks the Tiger and Quits $200 Ahead.

3/29/2022

Forex news live

Two female athletes at Virginia City, Nevada, indulge in a wrestling match for the championship.

11/9/2021

Renewed Activity of "The Finest."

The Police Succeed in Breaking Up Another Gambling Establishment.

5/14/2018

They Ran a Snide Game.

A “friendly” poker scheme exposed at Bogota, N. J., by one of the players squealing.

6/13/2016

Take a Chance?

Many a one, who otherwise would not contribute a dime, will take a chance in a lottery.

9/9/2014

Thimble Rig A La Mode.

3/18/2014

New York Society Classified.

11/27/2011

The Old Shell Game

7/18/2011

The Bunco Game

The term “bunco” has come to mean to any type of swindle, but in the 19th century it usually referred to a confidence game involving crooked gambling.

5/17/2011
Via Newspapers.comOne for the “mini mysteries” file: This unresolved poisoning case was reported in the “South Wales Argus,” February 8, 1934.How did cyanide of potassium, used for electro-plating, find its way into a teacup from which a girl of 20 drank tea and died shortly afterwards? This was the mystery inquired into at Sheffield on Wednesday.An inquest was held on the girl, Lilian Charlotte
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Strange Company - 10/28/2026
  [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
This week, we feature a guest post by Don Everett Smith Jr., author of The Goffle Road Murders of Passaic County (History Press, 2011).   In a previous post on Murder by Gaslight, “Revisiting the Goffle Road Murders,” Don presented an excerpt from his book. This week’s post, “The Three Hangings, Lycoming County,” examines the 1880 murder of Andrew Miller in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
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Murder By Gaslight - 10/24/2026
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
Concert Saloons Changed to Skating Rinks. | Pick-pockets "Working the Crowd.''

This Soubrette Played Faro.

Soubriette

The three-night date which a snap extravaganza company played in Butte, Montana, a short time ago, will be remembered for a long time by some of the leading citizens of that very enterprising town. In the first place the bunch of girls who came with the show, and who, in fact, were the show, were the jolliest lot that ever smoked cigarettes or knocked the heads off champagne bottles.

They had seen something of the world, they had, and so when a swell sport of the town invaded the rooms behind the scenes and said there was a cold hundred in it for any girl who would go around to the Combination house and play out a deal of faro in tights, half a dozen of them jumped at him so quick that he almost lost his balance. He didn't want them all so he picked out the one that pleased him most, Nadage De Witt. He engaged a carriage for her after the show and after she had wrapped up well to keep those precious legs of hers warm, she was bundled in. She made the hit of her life when she stepped into, the brilliantly lighted faro room, and the created the biggest sensation Butte has known for some time. She took a seat at the layout and was staked to a $50 stack of chips. She played out three boxes, when she got up from the chair with $160 to the good, which with the $100 she earned by her appearance, made $260 clean. She tells the story herself now and is very anxious to get with any theatrical companies intending to play Butte. Do you blame her?


National Police Gazette, January 25, 1896.