No. 877
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
July 28, 2026

Squabbling Socialists.

New York professors of piracy have a little domestic unpleasantness among themselves.
July 28, 2026
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Tag: Chicago

A Female Card Sharp.

A female gambler detects an opponent cheating and rakes in the pot.

6/2/2026

A Chicago Heiress and Her Wealth.

Her Scheme to Impress All Paris With Her Wealth.

12/20/2022

That Settled It.

A Chicago man wants a divorce because his wife sings Salvation hymns, gains his suit by having her give an exhibition of her vocal powers in court.

1/22/2018

Won on the Midway.

A World’s Fair Tyrolese beauty captures the love and caresses of an alleged faithless husband and is discovered by his wife.

12/11/2017

Chicago’s Latest Craze.

Every Garden City belle wants to have her hair cut like a little man’s.

4/24/2017

Had a High Old Time.

9/12/2016

The Latest Agony.

A Chicago railroad man and a Chicago porter both say that it is becoming fashionable for young men of that city to kiss each other vigorously when they part for any length of time and when they meet again.

11/2/2015

Getting Above his Business.

How a too presumptuous shoe dealer’s attention to a female customer was resented by her male escort.

8/31/2015

"Ten Minutes for Refreshments and Divorce!"

Our suggestion.-- A divorce court in every railroad depot in Chicago! Time saved, and everybody happy!

3/23/2015

What it is Coming to in Chicago.

3/24/2014

Unmindful of their Attire.

A Fire in the Chicago Opera House creates a stampede among pretty actresses who rush to the street dishabille.

3/11/2014

Baseball Animals.

Cigarette cards, 1880s, 1890s

5/14/2013

Taking a Criminal's Measure.

12/11/2012

Allan Pinkerton.

The Eye that Never Sleeps.

3/27/2012

She Played Kissy Kissy

12/6/2011

Belles of the Bowling Alley.

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

6/6/2011
 Welcome to "Weekend Link Dump:  The Musical!"The bombing of LaGuardia Airport.When dead bodies were asked to pick out their murderer.The amulet that could rewrite the history of Christianity.The world's most haunted museum.  That's the boast, at any rate.It may be time to stop insulting the dodo bird.The U.S. Navy and the Soviets compete to find a crashed F-14 jet.15th century
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Strange Company - 8/7/2026
  [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
Illustrated Police News, February 8, 1879.O.P. Hull, a well-to-do farmer, lived with his wife and six children near the village of Wassonville, Iowa. Mr. Hull was a kind father and affectionate husband who was adored by his family. He especially doted on his attractive and popular 19-year-old daughter, Emma. Her comfort and happiness were foremost in his mind. He would leave nothing undone
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Murder By Gaslight - 8/1/2026
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 Somnambulistic Feat.

Squabbling Socialists.

Squabbling-Socialists Trouble Among the Socialists.

An angry Socialist made himself obnoxious to his brethren who assembled in a saloon in East Fifth street the other night. The chairman, Anton Rabble, was denouncing the member of the Union League Club for declaring Anarchists should be suppressed, when the angry Socialists arose and said:

“I’m not going to be led by the nose any longer.”

“What is this?” said the others, turning around and looking at the speaker.

“Before I pay in my dues to-night I want to know what becomes of the money,” continued the latter. “We are not paid anything when we are sick. For the past six months I and the others have been paying $1 a week. Now, who gets this money? Is it Most?”

“Shut up!” “Hit him in the head!” “The man is mad!” “Kick him out!” shouted the others.

“I’ll brain the first man that touches me with his glass,” exclaimed the man, “I only ask a simple question. There ought to be no difficulty in explaining where the money goes.”

The chairman and treasurer looked queerly at each other, but did not answer.

“I have a wife and five children to support,” continued the man, “We have been living meagerly for the past six months. I became a member of your club on your promises that Most would make a change. The Astors and the Vanderbilts will never divide, I’m afraid.

“You must have patience,” said the chairman.

“I’m sick of waiting any longer. Mr. Chairman, if I’m not too impertinent, I would like to know what you work at.”

“I am a cigarmaker,” was the reply.

“And where do you work?”

“What is that your business?” said the chairman angrily.

“It is my business. I know that you haven’t done a stroke of work for the past six months. I take that back. You did work two days when your wife had you arrested for abandonment. Then you worked for two days on the island before you obtained your release on bail. You have not done any work since, but live on our money."

The chairman became so excited that he fell into a fit, and the meeting ended in an uproar. The man who raised the trouble won five members to his side, and they left the place together.


National Police Gazette, June 5, 1886.