No. 536
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 18, 2020

Did the Naughty Midway Dance

Pretty Ida Lawrence gets arrested while entertaining some hackmen in Cincinnati, O.
August 18, 2020
...
...

Tag: Fight

Wrestling Match on a Canadian Steamer.

On the St. Lawrence River.

4/16/2024

Female Wrestling Match in Nevada.

Two female athletes at Virginia city Nevada, indulge in a wrestling match for the championship.

11/8/2022

Knife and Chloroform Duel.

How a Doctor Kept a Morphine Fiend from Killing Him With a Long-Bladed Surgical Instrument.

6/21/2022

Wanted to Sit by the Widow.

A ruffianly brawl at Haman's Hotel, Greensburg, Ind.

5/10/2022

The Girls Biffed Each Other

1/19/2021

Pugilists in Petticoats.

Alleged bout between Annie Russell and Elizabeth Sullivan, two pretty clerks in a Buffalo, N. Y.

4/10/2017

A Triangular Fight.

9/19/2016

An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute.

An Irishman and a Yankee Settle a Dispute Across the Breakfast Table at their Boarding House in New York.

7/18/2016

A Bloody Ruction.

Bayonets and Knives—A Sister’s Influence and Prevention of Murder.

6/12/2015

Chorus Girls Fight.

Two of the charming girls who pose as "living pictures" in Rice's "1492" have a wordy war, which ends in a hand-to-hand conflict.

5/18/2015

Comedian Punches Drummer.

Pete Baker thrashes H. J. Jenkins for trying to flirt with the actor’s daughter in Dayton, O.

3/10/2015

A Woman’s Flat-Irony.

Miss Sallie Utterback, of Shoals, Near Vincennes, Indiana, knocks out a man with a waggin' tongue.

2/17/2015

Thimble Rig A La Mode.

3/18/2014

The St. Patrick's Day Parade.

3/5/2013

John L. Sullivan Saved by a Neck.

11/6/2012

Their Name a Misnomer.

2/28/2012

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
Some alleged encounters with alien beings are definitely more unusual--and frightening--than others.  For example, even the most dedicated UFOlogist would probably want to avoid what supposedly happened to 61-year-old Angelo D’Ambros of Gallio, a mountain town in northern Italy.On the morning of November 24, 1978, D’Ambros went out to gather firewood in a copse.  After he had been
More...
Strange Company - 9/14/2026
  [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
"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
One Week Only!On sale for 99 cents!So Far from Home:The Pearl Bryan Murder"Yes. they drove far from the city,To a place so far from home,There they left her body lyingHeadless and all stained with blood" Buy for 99 centsSale ends Sept. 21More Information
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 9/15/2026
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
Rum on Tap. | Sparking in Tompkins Square

Did the Naughty Midway Dance

Naughty Midway Dance

Cincinnati, Ohio, November 1893 - Pretty Ida Lawrence gets arrested while entertaining some hackmen in Cincinnati, O. 

It was just 2 o’clock the other morning when Ida Lawrence reached Fifth and Vine Streets, Cincinnati, Ohio. She had a jag that would have poisoned an ordinary man.

But Ida was happy. She was still happier when she met with a crowd of all-night hackmen.

“Hello, Ide,” said one.

“Goo’ night,” said Ida.

“Hain’t seen you for a time. Where’ve you been?”

“Me? Where’ve I been? Oh, no place. I guess I ain’t been no place.”

Then she sang:

“On the Midway, the Midway, the Midway Plaisance,
Where the naughty Algiers girls
Do their naughty, naughty dance.”

And she danced a dance that made even the boy on the stone fountain blush. Behind a telegraph pole stood Officer Moffit. He sneaked over and stpped the performance by calling a patrol wagon. The next day he told Judge Gregg about it and the Judge sent Ida out for four months.


Reprinted from The National Police Gazette - November 25, 1893