No. 726
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 05, 2023

December 1860.

Styles for the Month.
December 5, 2023
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Tag: Hotel

Booze Through a Key-Hole.

5/15/2017

The Pawn-Ticket Game.

Pawn tickets make bad collateral.

3/5/2013

It Was Another Kind of Cat.

2/21/2012
Getting around the western Bronx by foot means encountering hilly streets, lots of hilly streets. The pitched terrain comes from ridges of bedrock formed millions of years ago extending into Northern Manhattan. Back in the early 1900s when the Bronx was undergoing urbanization, all these hills posed a challenge to transit engineers, since some roads […]
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Ephemeral New York - 6/15/2026
"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
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/13/2025
Be sure to stop by our Facebook page tomorrow for a Prosecution Marathon of witnesses. Here are the witnesses for Wednesday, June 14th, Day 9 Rufus Hilliard, City Marshal, Mayor John Coughlin, Mrs. Hannah Gifford (seamstress and dressmaker), Anna Borden ( wealthy socialite who was on Lizzie’s grand tour of Europe, distantly related to Lizzie), Lucy Collett (watching the office of Dr. Chagnon day of the murder), Thomas Bowles ( handyman who once rented a room from Addie Churchill and was wa
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/13/2026
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
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
 Stephen Pettus gave Hannah Southworth a glass of drugged champagne and had his way with her while she was unconscious. Hannah became pregnant and for years after, she badgered Pettus to acknowledge that he had ruined her. When all legal means were exhausted, she avenged her honor by shooting him in the back on a Brooklyn street.Read the full story here: Avenging Her Honor.
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Murder By Gaslight - 6/13/2026
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump, where the Strange Company staff is off on an early summer road trip!Daniel Webster prosecutes an "extraordinary case."Is there a planet hidden behind Neptune?A woman's unsolved disappearance.A medieval domestic violence case."London characters" of the early 20th century.Exploring some fairy caves.The actor and the crisis apparition.A bride returns from the
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Strange Company - 6/12/2026
  [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
A Bloody Ruction. | She Liked Her Lager Beer.

December 1860.

December 1860 Styles for the Month.

Fig. 1. Morning robe of cashmere broche in roses, with their leaves. A revers of the same, edged with a narrow rose-fluted ribbon, forms the border, the ribbon extending round the bottom of the skirt. Underskirt flounced with delicate embroidery to the waist, with vest to match. A flounce forming a frill length-wise on the chemisette, which is finished with a ruching at the throat. Solferino net, with ruched silk edge, and tassels.

Fig. 2. Evening dress of pink tulle, with two skirts of doubled crape, strapped with purple satin ribbon, low Grecian corsage, and short, fan-shaped sleeve; flowers for the hair, and garniture for the robe of purple rhododendrons.

Fig. 3. Robe of green silk, with small figure, broche in the same color; skirt with five narrow flounces, edged with ribbon runching; round body, with pelerine cape, and floating waist ribbon, broche in the same colors, and edged with velvet. Small bishop sleeves, with a full seam on the front, covered with ruching, wrist finished with a frill, edged with ruched ribbon. Hat of purple velvet, with a wreath of purple berries in their leaves, across the front.


Frank Leslie's Monthly Magazine, December 1860.