No. 161
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
March 11, 2014

Unmindful of their Attire.

A Fire in the Chicago Opera House creates a stampede among pretty actresses who rush to the street dishabille.
March 11, 2014
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Artifact #91James Joseph SmithCommencement ExercisesJeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) ames Joseph SmithCommencement Exercises for Soapy Smith's youngest son, circa 1897-1904.The document has no date, but advertises the piano as being furnished by the Val A. Reis Music Company of St. Louis, which had a store open between 1891-1908, thus, I am guessing that James was between the age
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/10/2025
New to Warps & Wefts? We’ve been online since 2007 with hundreds of articles, posts, over a thousand images, animations, colorizations, newspaper coverage and clippings of the murders and trial day by day, cartoons, AI and imagined imaging, videos, profiles of important people in the case, on the road field trip vlogs and much more. We post every day on Facebook, usually 6-10 posts on various topics so everyone can find something to enjoy reading- why? Because we want a bit of the Borden case every day! We sign off every night around 10 p.m. and upload every morning around 9 a.m. Visit our Facebook and Youtube channel links below. Please do like and follow our Facebook page  Send us your questions! No Patreons or monetization ever. No detail too small to be considered. Stop by to see us- we learn something new every day!  https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/ https://www.youtube.com/@LizzieBordenWarpsandWefts See less Comments Author Lizzie Borden Warps &
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 It's time for this week's Link Dump!Please make yourselves at home.A Maine ghost ship.The once-famed Lyon Quintuplets.Ermengarde de Beaumont, Queen of Scots.A brief history of the word "yclept."The man they just couldn't imprison.It sounds like Shackleton's "Endurance" was a bit of a lemon."The idea that many panhandlers are secretly wealthy is, I'm sure, just an urban myth."  Fun fact
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Strange Company - 10/10/2025
On the afternoon of November 25, 1869, Daniel McFarland walked into the office of the New York Tribune and there shot and killed Albert Richardson, a Tribune editor. Richardson had planned to marry Daniel McFarland’s ex-wife, Abby Sage McFarland. The facts of the murder were irrefutable, but the trial that followed focused instead on the behavior of Abby McFarland. Was her adultery an attack on
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There’s no mistaking the message of this darkly graphic illustration, which appeared in the satirical periodical Puck in March 1901. “The tenement—a menace to all,” the tagline says. Death hovers over the triumphant spirits of alcoholism, prostitution, gambling, opium dens, and other social evils, which escape like noxious vapors through the unlit tenement windows. Its […]
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Ephemeral New York - 10/6/2025
On the afternoon of November 25, 1869, Daniel McFarland walked into the office of the New York Tribune and there shot and killed Albert Richardson, a Tribune editor. Richardson had planned to marry Daniel McFarland’s ex-wife, Abby Sage McFarland. The facts of the murder were irrefutable, but the trial that followed focused instead on the behavior of Abby McFarland. Was her adultery an attack on
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 10/4/2025
There’s no mistaking the message of this darkly graphic illustration, which appeared in the satirical periodical Puck in March 1901. “The tenement—a menace to all,” the tagline says. Death hovers over the triumphant spirits of alcoholism, prostitution, gambling, opium dens, and other social evils, which escape like noxious vapors through the unlit tenement windows. Its […]
More...
Ephemeral New York - 10/6/2025
Artifact #91James Joseph SmithCommencement ExercisesJeff Smith collection(Click image to enlarge) ames Joseph SmithCommencement Exercises for Soapy Smith's youngest son, circa 1897-1904.The document has no date, but advertises the piano as being furnished by the Val A. Reis Music Company of St. Louis, which had a store open between 1891-1908, thus, I am guessing that James was between the age
More...
Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 10/10/2025
Thimble Rig A La Mode. | Mixed Drinks for Six.

Unmindful of their Attire.

unmindful of their attire

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

The Chicago Opera House was damaged by fire on Wednesday evening. At the time the alarm was given the members of the McCaull Company were in the dressing rooms doffing their stage clothes and donning street attire. The cry of fire so excited the chorus girls that they rushed from the building into the street, many unmindful of their attire. Bolossy Kiralfy had a quantity of scenery and wardrobe for the production of “The Water Queen” in the building, but fortunately, it was not damaged.


The National Police Gazette, December 29, 1888.