No. 347
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
October 23, 2017

A Train of Cars Rushing Through Fire.

Traveling through fire—Fearful peril of a railway train, at Cedar Swamp, on the Eastern Railroad, Ma
October 23, 2017
...
...

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
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 &
More...
Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 9/26/2025
 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
More...
Strange Company - 10/10/2025
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
Emma Malloy and George E. GrahamIllustrated Police News, April 17, 1886 & May 15, 1886.Famous Evangelist, temperance leader, author, and publisher Emma Molloy opened her home to the lost and lonely, much as others would take in stray cats. She had an adopted daughter, two foster daughters, and she found a job at her newspaper for George Graham, an ex-convict she had met while preaching at a
More...
Murder By Gaslight - 10/11/2025
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
  [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
A Duel on Horseback. | Kidnapped in Broad Daylight.

A Train of Cars Rushing Through Fire.

Train Through Fire

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

One of the most thrilling scenes we have ever been called on to portray occurred in the woods at Cedar Swamp, Maine, on the track of the Eastern railroad, Sunday, Sept. 17.

The train was on its way to Augusta, conveying the 14th Maine regiment, when suddenly, without knowing it, they dashed at full speed into a piece of burning woods. Once in, there was no retreat, and on the train flew through the flames that reared themselves forty feet above the locomotive and cars. The oil of the wheels took fire, and for a few minutes it looked seriously as though the whole convoy was gone. The soldiers were smothering from the smoke and roasting from the flames, and the engineer only kept his post by almost superhuman command. The roar of the flames completely drowned the shrieks and cries of the human cargo, and for a few minutes it was a perfect pandemonium. Fortunately, none of the brave fellows threw themselves from the hurrying train, and the gallant locomotive, Cape Ann, sped them at lightning pace through the fiery ordeal, and dashed them in to fresh air and life, sound, save and except a little scorching which time will remove


Frank Leslie's Illustrated News, October 14, 1869.