No. 656
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 11, 2022

Spoiled the Chappies’ Fun.

Policemen of Aurora Ill. Break into a famous resort during an orgy and capture some well-known young
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October 11, 2022
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Tag: College

A Great Game of Football.

Fair college students engage in a rough-and-tumble chase after the pigskin.

11/7/2023

Revelry Rampant.

The orgies indulged in by Yale students and their female friends.

8/15/2023

Members of the Banjo and Mandolin Clubs.

Mount Holyoke College, 1898-1899.

4/24/2023

Seeing in the New Year.

Jolly sport among the giddy Vassar girls, fun in the forecastle, and a lonely New Year’s Eve on the desolate prarie.

12/26/2016

Collegians at Football.

12/10/2013

Hid the Girls' Skirts

8/22/2011
CHARLES WILLIAMSON
alias: PERRINE
BANK OF ENGLAND FORGER

Explore the 5 Great Families of the city’s Gilded Age in a live online class with Ephemeral New York!

If you’re curious about New York’s Gilded Age, then you’re familiar with certain recurring family names—like Astor, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Roosevelt. But what made these elite families so influential? How did they reshape and rule the city’s business and social worlds while leaving a lasting impact on the city of today? Starting July 29 […]
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Ephemeral New York - 7/10/2026

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

"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
Amen.

Weekend Link Dump

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Strange Company - 7/10/2026

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

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Executed Today - 11/13/2020

The Confession of Mary Cole.

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,
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Murder By Gaslight - 7/11/2026
On the Russians.

Countdown to the Crime

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
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Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [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
Shocking Youthful Depravity. | Dogographs.

Spoiled the Chappies’ Fun.

Spoiled the Chappies'

Policemen of Aurora Ill. Break into a famous resort during an orgy and capture some well-known young men of the town. 

The little city of Aurora, Ill. Is famed for its schools and its society, and it is also famed for having one of the fastest resorts of the demi-monde in the country. The other morning about 4 o’clock, a crowd of very well-known young sports of the town were having a high old time with the girlies, when the police made a raid on the place. They captured a fine crowd. Four of the prisoners will be compelled by the city to do a little time.

Reprinted from National Police Gazette, January 16, 1896.

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