No. 681
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
December 14, 2024

Beauty as a Shield.

Beauty Conquers avarice and outlawry "We won't rob this house to-night."
July 24, 2012
...
...

Tag: Entertainment

She Whipped the Dude.

Young man who guyed performers in a New Orleans theatre was severely corrected.

10/29/2023

Why Wouldn't a "Wild East" Show be Popular, Too?

Here are a few features for it.

10/24/2023

Mabel Punched the Swell.

How Miss Livingston, the well-known singer, resented an insult at Macon, Ga.

4/16/2018

Done Up by Dizzy Blondes.

A special from Canajoharie, Sept 26, says: Duncan Clark, manager of Clark’s Female Minstrels, will probably not visit the Mohawk valley again very soon.

6/20/2016

Chang and Eng, The Siamese Twins.

A characteristic group, representing Chang and Eng, the Siamese Twins, with their wives and Children.

2/29/2016

Mdlle. Carlotta de Berg.

Mdlle. Carlotta de Berg, at the New York Circus, Fourteenth Street.

5/5/2015

She Had a High Old Time.

8/13/2013

Shooting at the Elevated.

After-dinner pistol practice at the trains that rush by windows

5/7/2013

Serpent and Dove.

10/2/2012

Spectacular Scenes & Sights Down on the Jersey Coast

Poster for the 1898 Broadway show "Have You Seen Smith?"

7/17/2012

McGinty Survives!

10/30/2011

Trixie Got the Best of It.

Two Little Gem Theatre, Buffalo, N. Y., Soubrettes have a scrap on account of a man.

10/8/2011

The Astor Place Riot

8/15/2011

Belles of the Bowling Alley.

The athletic diversions of an association of dashing damsels in their club rooms in Chicago. 

6/6/2011

Duel of the Divas.

The question of who was more beautiful, Lillian Russel or Lola Montez was settled by two cowpokes in the Nevada desert in the 1890s.

5/30/2011

A Newspaper Man’s Plight

Denver Col., October 1892 – Correspondent Jake Hirsh cowhided by indignant Lizzie Gonzales, an actress, in Denver.

5/22/2011

The Cardiff Giant

Cardiff, New York, October 16, 1869.

4/10/2011

Did the Naughty Midway Dance

Pretty Ida Lawrence gets arrested while entertaining some hackmen in Cincinnati, O.

3/28/2011

Chorus Girls in a Panic.

An unruly horse causes great excitement in the Metropolitan Opera House, this city.

3/14/2011

Crush Collision!

Crush, Texas, September 15, 1896

2/24/2011
 "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnThis week's Link Dump is so big, it had to be hosted by a septet!Yet another case of a spouse deciding to say it with arsenic.Mr. Morgan's magnificent library.The collapse of one of the world's first known governments.The Ghoul of Gettysburg.The healing power of music.What we are learning about Neolithic architecture.The pyramids at Giza are
More...
Strange Company - 12/13/2024
Included in yesterday’s trip to Fall River was a stop at Miss Lizzie’s Coffee shop and a visit to the cellar to see the scene of the tragic demise of the second Mrs. Lawdwick Borden and two of the three little children in 1848. I have been writing about this sad tale since 2010 and had made a previous trip to the cellar some years ago but was unable to get to the spot where the incident occured to get a clear photograph.  The tale of Eliza Borden is a very sad, but not uncommon story of post partum depression with a heartrending end. You feel this as you stand in the dark space behind the chimney where Eliza ended her life with a straight razor after dropping 6 month old Holder and his 3 year old sister Eliza Ann into the cellar cistern. Over the years I have found other similar cases, often involving wells and cisterns, and drownings of children followed by suicides of the mothers. These photos show the chimney, cistern pipe, back wall, dirt and brick floor, original floorboards forming the cellar ceiling and what appears to be an original door. To be in the place where this happened is a sobering experience. My thanks to Joe Pereira for allowing us to see and record the place where this sad occurrence unfolded in 1848. R.I.P. Holder, Eliza and Eliza Ann Borden. Visit our Articles section above for more on this story. The coffee shop has won its suit to retain its name and has plans to expand into the shop next door and extend its menu in the near future.
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 2/12/2024
I was born too late to experience a Horn & Hardart Automat firsthand. But if I was around during the automat era—which peaked Midcentury and ended with the closure of the last Manhattan automat in 1991—I think I could get the hang of how to purchase food. Still, maybe the Automat concept was a little […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 12/9/2024
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
In 1898, Mrs. Ida Deane, of Dover, Delaware received a box of chocolates by mail from an anonymous sender. When she served them at a dinner party four people died of arsenic poisoning. Was it sent by Cordelia Botkin, the mistress of Ida’s husband?Read the full story here: Murder by Mail.
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 12/14/2024
Soapy STAR notebookPage 14 - Original copy1882Courtesy of Geri Murphy(Click image to enlarge) OAPY SMITH IN CALIFORNIA♫ California's the place you outta to beSo he loaded up his grip and moved to Grass Valley ♪ This is page 14, dated 1882, the continuation of deciphering Soapy Smith's "star" notebook from the Geri Murphy's collection. A complete introduction to this notebook can be seen on
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 11/26/2024
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
A Slippery and Subtle Knave – The Bank Sneak. | Spectacular Scenes & Sights Down on the Jersey Coast

Beauty as a Shield.

Beauty

Beauty Conquers avarice and outlawry “We won’t rob this house to-night.” 

A Midnight Picture that Prevented a Robbery

A couple of desperados who had been committing many acts of crime were recently captured and lodged in a Galveston (Tex.) jail. While confined one of them gave a reporter an extended account of their lives and adventures. According to the narrative, both are more or less imbued with that spirit of gallantry so much admired by young ladies and men of a romantic turn of mind. Situated in the outskirts of the city is a wealthy merchant’s residence, and rumor had it among the outlaws that it was a “good crib to crack.” Both of these men determined to try their luck, and alter a little trouble effected an entrance. On turning their bull’s-eye lanterns on the room they discovered two handsome ladies, daughters of the merchant, locked in each other’s arms, sleeping sweetly. The sight of so much loveliness and innocence unnerved them for the purpose in view. Their sense of chivalry was touched, and after a few moments of admiration they retraced their steps, each admitting that it would be a shame to commit an act that would injure the feelings of two such lovely girls. Beauty proved more potent than avarice.

 

From The National Police Gazette, October 30, 1880