No. 797
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
February 18, 2025

Concert Saloons Changed to Skating Rinks.

Drinks Served by Wantons on Wheels.
February 18, 2025
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Tag: 1860s

A Lunatics Ball.

Ball of lunatics at the Asylum, Blackwell's Island, East River, N. Y.

10/10/2023

The Merry Wives of Boston.

Such is Boston morality and such is woman's fidelity.

1/5/2021

Burning of Steamers at Cincinnati.

Burning of Steamers on the Ohio River at Cincinnati May 17, 1869.

9/17/2018

A Velocipede Riding-School.

Scene in a velocipede riding-school, New York City.

9/10/2018

On The Beach at Newport, Rhode Island.

On the Beach at Newport, Rhode Island.

9/3/2018

Great Base Ball Match.

Great baseball match between the Atlantic and Boxford Clubs of Brooklyn.

4/23/2018

In Consequence of the New Liquor Law.

In consequence of the new liquor law, this is the ingenious manner in which a worthy teuton friend of ours takes his family out for their Sunday rambles.

4/9/2018

An Adventure with a Sea-Lion.

With open mouths and protruding tusks, they warn the intruder agents too near an approach.

3/26/2018

Foundering of the Titania.

One of the most thrilling disasters at sea that has happened for many years.

2/26/2018

A Magical Duet on the Guitar.

An extraordinary account of a mathematician, mechanician, and musician named Alix.

1/8/2018

Thrilling Railroad Accident.

Startling accident at the draw bridge of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad, Federal Street, Troy, N. Y., Saturday, Sept 23.

11/6/2017

A Train of Cars Rushing Through Fire.

Traveling through fire—Fearful peril of a railway train, at Cedar Swamp, on the Eastern Railroad, Maine, Sunday, Sept. 17

10/23/2017

A Human Rat Eater.

An employee of the Boston Gas Works boasted his ability to kill a rat with his teeth.

8/14/2017

December 1860.

Styles for the Month.

12/5/2016

The Terrific Leap at Niblo’s Garden, From an Aerial Apparatus.

The original and daring aerial representation by Thomas Hanlon, now performed by him every evening at Niblo's Garden.

1/11/2016

Mdlle. Carlotta de Berg.

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

5/5/2015

Surf Swimming at Hawaii, Sandwich Islands.

Faahee, or surf-swimming, is a favorite pastime with the natives of the Sandwich Islands.

4/21/2015

The White Porpoise.

We give in our present number a correct sketch of one of the largest specimens of the Porpoise that has ever been seen.

3/16/2015

Murderous Assault by a Wife on Her Husband.

10/6/2014

An Undertaker’s Assistant’s Mistake.

8/26/2014

Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner.

11/26/2013

Burglary Tools.

2/11/2013

The Advent of Spiritualism.

A simple schoolgirl prank spawned a new belief with millions of followers.

9/4/2012

Copper.

8/20/2012

A Slippery and Subtle Knave – The Bank Sneak.

7/31/2012

Kate Warne.

Kate Warne, America’s first female detective.

5/30/2012

Melancholy Boat Accident.

4/24/2012

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.

3/27/2012

The Cardiff Giant

Cardiff, New York, October 16, 1869.

4/10/2011
 Welcome to this week's Link Dump!Just watch out for Strange Company HQ's resident flirt.How the California Gold Rush birthed the modern world.The sound of King Tut's trumpets.I suppose the moral here is, if you're going to commit murder, make sure that the victim is someone nobody will mourn."Enigmatic tablets" from the Bronze Age.How a kitten joined an Ohio construction crew.19th century
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  [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
"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
(Illustrated Police News, April 3, 1886.)Agnes Anastasia Long moved out of her parents’ home in East Attleboro, Massachusetts, in April 1882. With her many male suiters, she was considered the black sheep of the family. Her father had enough of her bad behavior and, according to the Boston Herald, “refused to permit her to darken the threshold of his humble home.”She took a job at Streeter
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/22/2026
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
Crooks at the Capitol. | This Soubrette Played Faro.

Concert Saloons Changed to Skating Rinks.

rolerskating One of the most deplorable features of the skating rink boom is that many of the worst of the concert gardens and dance houses in and near the Bowery have been turned into rinks, wherein the skating has all the evil environment characteristic of the places.

The interior of one of the ten•cent skating rinks in Chatham Square was formerly used as a low dance hall. A visit the other night showed that the tables and chairs for drinkers remained in place; so did the placards relating to beverages, along with fresh ones, stating the rental prices of skates; and the bar held its accustomed place in a front corner, while on a platform a pianist and cornetist made unimproved music. The girls who formerly danced and drank with the visitors who would let them, now had roller skates on their feet, but the bibulous customs of the resort remained undisturbed. There were two fellows who did fanciful and grotesque skating, and were seemingly employes, beside a dozen who apparently skated for fun, but most of the men in the assemblage were spectators of the girls' feats, some of which were gymnastic in character. The most graceful of these was a swift approach to the bar, a short stop in front of it, and then a gliding off with the hands beer-laden. The most popular, however, was a fall, provided it had spontaneity, and seemed to hurt the faller. It has been suggested as a good measure of reform in the roller skating business that teachers employed in the rinks be ladies instead of gentlemen.


Illustrated Police News, May 16, 1885.