No. 879
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
August 11, 2026

A Serenading Lover Comes to Grief

in Lafayette, Indiana.
August 11, 2026
...
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Tag: 1850s

Grand Panoramic View

Of The East Side of Washington Street, Boston.

4/4/2023

Dogographs.

By a Fast Young Puppy.

10/4/2022

June.

Allegorical Representation of the Month of June.

6/4/2018

Turkey Shooting.

About the beginning of October, turkeys, young and old, move from their breeding districts towards the rich bottom lands near the Ohio and the Mississippi.

11/20/2017

October.

Above we give a representation of a portion of the work which occupies the New England farmer at this season of the year.

10/2/2017

The Valentine.

The subjoined engraving, the design of which is from the graceful pencil of Rowse, is more eloquent than words.

2/12/2017

January.

Allegorical Representation of January

1/2/2017

September.

9/5/2016

May-Day.

May-Day

5/2/2016

Floating Circus.

Spaulding & Rogers’s Floating Circus Palace.

4/11/2016

Chang and Eng, The Siamese Twins.

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

2/29/2016

A Winter Scene.

Winter Pastime – A Skating Scene.

1/25/2016

Kate Warne.

Kate Warne, America’s first female detective.

5/30/2012

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.

3/27/2012
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Strange Company - 8/14/2026
  [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 […]
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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
 Ida Quinlan and Sophia Grant.Mrs. Ida Quinlan went out to buy a pair of stockings at around 9:00 on the night of February 1, 1896, leaving her baby in the care of her sister, Mrs. Sophia Grant. She took a streetcar to the store several miles away and returned to the house at around 11:00. Entering the sitting room, she was surprised to find the drawers of the chiffoniers pulled out and
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/15/2026
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
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
| His Peep Ends Disastrously.

A Serenading Lover Comes to Grief

Seranading

A few nights since, a fond lover in Lafayette, Indiana, seated himself on a barrel turned on its side, while serenading his heart's mistress. In his ecstasy, he rolled the barrel over, slammed his guitar against a shutter in his effort to regain his balance, and disappeared in the cistern. 

The bubbling cry of the strong swimmer in his abony brought out the entire family, including the bull-dog, in various brief and picturesque costumes, ranging all the way from an elaborate robe de nuit and curl papers worn by the innocent cause if it all, to a simple yet serviceable collar, ornamented with spikes, worn by the bull-dog.  P.S. - He was fished out.


Illustrated Police News, March 14, 1872.