No. 754
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
June 18, 2024

Evading the Liquor Laws in Denver.

Colorado. - Evading the liquor law in Colorado Springs, as witnessed by the Frank Leslie Transcontinental Excursion Party.
June 18, 2024
...
...

Tag: Alabama

A Skeleton King with a Silver Crown.

The strange relic of departed greatness found in a Livingston (Ala.) cave by a youthful explorer.

7/24/2017

Floating Circus.

Spaulding & Rogers’s Floating Circus Palace.

4/11/2016
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!Our host for this Friday is the handsome mascot (name unknown) of the S.S. Custodian, a cargo ship that was active during the first half of the 20th century.New research into the Battle of Hastings.The wonders of Mayan astronomy.The importance of horses in the Mughal Empire.A famous film of Bigfoot is probably a hoax.  I know, shocker.What it was like
More...
Strange Company - 3/27/2026
"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
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
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
National Police Gazette, January 28, 1882Mrs. J.W. Gibbons was away from her home in Ashland, Kentucky, on December 23, 1881. She left behind her 18-year-old son Robert, her 14-year-old daughter Fannie, and 17-year-old Emma Thomas (aka Carico), who was staying with them. Mrs. Gibbons returned the following day to find her home burned to the ground and all three inhabitants dead.Read the full
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 3/28/2026
Stores come and go; office buildings gain and lose tenants. But the grief really hits when a shuttered movie theater remains empty, stripped of posters, concession signs, even the theater’s name. This is what remains of the Beekman Theater at 1271 Second Avenue, between 65th and 66th Streets. It showed its last film before abruptly […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 3/23/2026
  [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
Maids and "Missuses." | The Recent Escape

Evading the Liquor Laws in Denver.

Colorado

Everyone who visits pleasant and well-built Denver takes a run down to Colorado Springs, on the Denver and Rio Grande narrow-gauge railroad, a distance of eighty-five miles. After inspecting the magnificent Garden of the Gods, the village of Maniton and the Falls at the head of the tile Pass, the traveler is apt to acquire a thirst, which water highly impregnated with alkali will not quench; but, alas for the thirsty traveler! Colorado Springs is a temperance town. However, nothing is impossible to those who are in earnest. Close to the depot is a hostelry, yclept the Pike's Peak House,where an announcement in English and German informs the wayfarer that meals can he had for the moderate stint of forty cents. Entering the house, one finds an empty room; a door in a wooden partition admits into an inner apartment, where four Hoosiers are playing the interesting game of the "devil amongst the tailors." Presently a German approaches and inquires what is wanted, and being informed that there exists a laudable desire for lager-beer, he replies: “Shust put a quarter in dot hole, and de beer gomes up quick!"

Accordingly the tourist approaches a wooden wall, and perceives a slit in the board, dirty from use. He drops in a twenty-five cent piece and says, addressing no one in particular and speaking in a very sepulchral tone, "A quart of beer." With magic celerity a sliding panel is revealed, which goes up. and on a bracket there appears a jug of the foaming beverage. Taking it out, imbibing the contents, and replacing the jog and glass, the panel slides back into its place, and the truly Arabian Nights' entertainment is at an end. Subsequently the traveler is informed that anything in any quantity in the drinking line can be obtained hi the same mysterious manner at this oasis for the thirsty traveler in the emperance Desert.

President Barnard, of Columbia College, the Rev. Dr. Armitage, and a number of other gentlemen, left New York City on the 18th for a trip to the Rocky Mountains, stopping at Denver and Colorado Springs. This information will be valuable to them in case they should require any stimulants, as it will enable them to satisfy their thirst promptly and without embarrassing inquiries; for even their distinction will not secure them exemption from the Territorial liquor laws.


Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 7, 1877.