No. 610
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
June 9, 2023

Cowboys Lassoing the Ballet.

The manager of a dizzy blonde troupe is lassoed by an indignant cowboy at Dodge City, Kansas.
January 18, 2016
...
...

Tag: Beer

Collecting Beer Money.

A gang of female rogues, of the East Side, New York, work a little racket of their own.

9/15/2015

She Liked Her Lager Beer.

A Murray Hill belle, with a fondness for the Teutonic beverage, sets up a keg in her boudoir.

8/24/2015

Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.

6/11/2013
 "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnFor this week's Link Dump, we are proud to have as our host the lovely Dossie!Watch out for the Bonnacon!Some Brooklyn life-saving pets.An escape from Death Row.19th century love gone wrong.The link between fairies and prehistoric sites.An Indian doctor explains early 20th century English etiquette.That time when there was a Masonic Pug Society.The man
More...
Strange Company - 6/9/2023
`
"Male Seminary and Normal School,"Independent BladeNewnan, GeorgiaNovember 2, 1860,(Click image to enlarge) OAPY SMITH'S CHILDHOOD EDUCATION     The Smith family passed down the history that young Jefferson Randolph Smith II had enrolled in "a Sabbath school, and was able to continue his education throughout the war, after the war’s end and on into Reconstruction." I believe the ad from the
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 6/2/2023
Image above, Boston Globe. As the 130th anniversary of the Borden Trial in New Bedford begins, visit our Facebook for daily postings and articles about the Trial of the Century. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/5/2023
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,” is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
More...
Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
The death-house of Sing Sing Prison, on the Hudson River in New York State, was a separate building attached to the south end of the main prison. It housed up to eight condemned men in 8’x10’ cells along the south wall in groups of four separated by a corridor. The cells were 8 feet high with iron bars on the front and brick partitions between the cells and on the top, with space between the top
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 6/3/2023
Manhole mysteries usually involve the ironworks company that made the cover—who worked there, how long they operated. But this time, I’m curious about the abbreviation on a sewer cover found in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “Sewer B.R.” the cover reads. Okay, but what’s the B.R.—Brooklyn Railroad? Borough something? I’m unsure of how old this sewer cover […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 6/5/2023
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 engaged as a carrier of wine, because he and his brother, with the help of […]
More...
Executed Today - 11/13/2020
A Miners' Racket. | New Jersey’s Great Wash Day.

Cowboys Lassoing the Ballet.

Had him on a string

He Had Him on a String.
The manager of a dizzy blonde troupe is lassoed by an indignant cowboy at Dodge City, Kansas. 

One of the variety theatres at Dodge City had for an attraction a company composed of gaudy-stockinged blondes. The performance was awful in its wretchedness, and in no time the boys got uneasy and the whiskey in them began to call for fun. Joe Hooke rose gravely, called the performance to a halt and asked for the manager. The impressive gentleman came into sight on the stage and asked what he wanted. Joe told him that a show, to be a success, should be plentifully sprinkled with local talent. The manager haughtily declined Joe’s offer “to speak a piece.” But his indignation was soon cut short by the whizzing of a lariat and stern reminder that any kicking would speedily be followed by strangulation. Joe mounted the stage and ordered the orchestra to play somethin’ right sneaky like, and began a long piece to the effect that:

In de days of old
We ‘uns all had gold
      In fac’ till quite recen’ly
When we ‘uns held a wake
On New York Jake,
      But cudnt bury’im decen’ly

After that the performance proceeded until one of the boys, taking it into his head that the big fiddle was a nuisance, threw a lasso over the neck of it, and started for the door. The instrument was a complete wreck in a minute. The boys then began to lasso the girls on the stage, who were engaged in an American march, and in less time than it takes to tell it there was not a light burning in the house.


Reprinted from National Police Gazette, December 24, 1887.