No. 402
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
January 01, 2018

Afloat on a Cake of Ice.

Perilous Situation of a Skating Party on the Ohio River Near Zanesville, Ohio.
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January 1, 2018
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ALEX'R EVANS
alias: ALECK THE MILKMAN, CHARLES WATSON
PICKPOCKET

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com Proof of reincarnation--sort of--appeared in the “Ottawa Citizen," December 16, 1933:LONDON (by mail).-Here is the man who has "died" three times in three years. He is Mr. Tim Sandell, of Templar street, Camberwell.On the first occasion the report spread among his friends that he had met with a sudden and mysterious death, and that a post-mortem was to be made. His wife's
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Strange Company - 6/3/2026

Artifact #93: Soapy's son, hires attorney to stop the slurring of his father's name.

"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
Amen.

R.I.P.

And old time friends and twilight plays And starry nights and sunny days. Come trooping up the misty ways When my fire burns low.
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/1/2026

1617: A miller of Manberna, the hangman’s last

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

Jack the Strangler Post-Mortem.

Strangler Suspect, Jacob Tolker(New York Journal, May 14, 1897)Eight women were strangled—seven fatally— on Manhattan’s East Side, between May 1894 and August 1900. While the police closed three of the cases, their solutions were so weak that the New York City newspapers continued to list them all as unsolved and continued to speculate that one man committed all eight crimes. “It is not difficult
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Murder By Gaslight - 5/31/2026
On the Russians.

All the beaches open for swimming in Depression-era New York City, according to a subway poster

Say what you want about Robert Moses. But as Parks Commissioner in the 1930s, he opened 11 new public municipal pools across the five boroughs—helping residents keep cool and resist the lure of swimming in the East or Hudson River, which amazingly people used to do. Moses, a swim fan himself, also championed and helped […]
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Ephemeral New York - 6/1/2026

Convicts to Maryland, 1773 by Peter Dickson

  [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
A Magical Duet on the Guitar. | What Kind of Bald Heads May be Sure of a Growth of Hair.

Afloat on a Cake of Ice.

Afloat on a Cake of Ice

Perilous Situation of a Skating Party on the Ohio River Near Zanesville, Ohio.

A party of skaters on the Ohio river, near Zanesville, O., recently met with a perilous adventure. By some means which they cannot explain the ice upon which they were skating became detached from the shore and before they were aware of it they were afloat upon the broad bosom of the river and rapidly going along with the current. They were fortunately rescued, but with some difficulty, Indeed, their escape from certain death is considered miraculous.

Weekly Varieties, February 27,1887.

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