No. 866
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
May 19, 2026

Dreams a Likeness of her Future Husband.

A Young Lady in Atchison, Kansas, Eats Four Pounds of Wedding-Cake, and in Her Dreams Sees a Likeness of her Future Husband
May 19, 2026
...
...

Tag: Thomas Byrnes

Inspector Thomas F. Byrnes.

3/4/2012

The Sawdust Game

The "sawdust game," was a confidence scam that only swindled those who deserved to be swindled.

1/10/2012

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

Bank Heist

The Audacity of a Professional Thief.

4/3/2011
Via Newspapers.comA ghost that was, you might say, all things to all people was reported in the “Moncton Transcript,” February 1, 1922:London, Jan. 30-Eastbourne is being troubled, or entertained, by a "ghost" mystery.A strange apparition has been seen several times gliding along the Crumbles, near the fishermen's huts, and across Fishermen's Green. As the place is within 800 yards of the spot on
More...
Strange Company - 7/15/2026
"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
The first things I noticed about 2029 First Avenue were the decorative lintels above the second floor windows. Attractively styled for window lintels on upper First Avenue, I figured this stubby holdout wedged beside two brick buildings between East 104th and 105th Streets must have been a former stable. I imagined that those roll-down window […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 7/13/2026
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
The Confession of Mary Cole, 1813.Cornelius and Mary Cole lived in a farmhouse in Sussex County, New Jersey, with their two children and Mary’s widowed mother, Agnes Teaurs. Cornelius bought the property from Agnes in exchange for an annuity of $50 per year for the rest of her life. Mary and her husband did not live happily with Agnes. According to Mary, her mother was always very hard on her,
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 7/11/2026
Join us on our Facebook page as we begin counting down the days to August 4th and all of the events leading up to the day. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 7/7/2026
  [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
Rip Roaring Fun. | Sights and Sounds of Spring.

Dreams a Likeness of her Future Husband.

cake-dream

A Young Lady in Atchison, Kansas, Eats Four Pounds of Wedding-Cake, and in Her Dreams Sees a Likeness of her Future Husband

The old saying that by partaking of wedding-cake overnight, a girl is sure to dream of her future husband, induced a young lady at Atchison, Kansas, to try whether there is any truth in it, and in order to make a sure thing, she ate four pounds of wedding-cake on going to bed. She did dream of some being, but she had no amount of money that could ever induce her to marry him. Served her fight; what businesses had she to eat so much wedding-cake? Those Kansas girls are always overdoing whatever they attempt.


Illustrated Police News, May 20, 1875.