"The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnWelcome to the first Link Dump of Summer 2022!Some accounts of encounters with fairies.Urban legends about being rescued by ghost dogs.Accepting that we really don't know jack about the paranormal.The missing bodies of the Waterloo dead.The UK's National Gallery is hitting the road.The law code of Alfonso X.For some reason, there are a lot of John
'SOAPY' SMITH AND TWO COLLEAGUESObject ID
2017.6.350Courtesy of Salvation Army Museum of the West(Click image to enlarge)
New photograph of "Soapy" Smith?NOT EVEN CLOSE. A B & W photograph, said to be of Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith, and two colleagues. Soapy is in the middle, marked with an "X." The photo was taken in Alaska,
You won’t notice anything unusual at first as you walk along quiet, unassuming 92nd Street between Park and Lexington Avenues. But in the middle of the block, amid the quaint brownstones and apartment houses on the south side, stand two startling architectural anachronisms: side by side wood-frame houses with clapboard shutters, low iron fences, and […]
An article I recently wrote for the British online magazine, New Politic, is now available online. The article, “The Criminal Origins of the United States of America,†is about British convict transportation to America, which took place between the years 1718 and 1775, and is the subject of my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: […]
Who murdered John Meierhoffer of Orange, New Jersey? Was it his estranged wife Margaret, or her lover, Frank Lammens?Read the full story here: Who Shot Meierhoffer?
Great news! The sale of Maplecroft is under agreement with inspections concluded and closing pending. A lovely family with children and experience with Victorian properties will make it a family home once more. A happy ending for this historic home. Congratulations to all. “Maplecroft, the historic former home of Lizzie Borden, is being purchased by artist and professor Brooke Mullins Doherty, who will be moving her home and studio from New Bedford. She and her husband Michael, a polymath, along with their three children look forward to respecting the house’s unique history while they restore Maplecroft to a single family residence.”
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 engaged as a carrier of wine, because he and his brother, with the help of […]
Sire of the Year! First actor on the stage, Whereon Time plays his year-long pantomime, Thy beard is worthy of most brilliant rhyme, Thy “frosty pow” is glorious in its age; For thou, bluff January, hast been sage In thy libations, when the old town’s chime Announced thee to the world—stanch war to wage— Peace against Feud and Charity ‘gainst Crime! Welcome, brave month, with icicles on beard, No icicles, I trow, cling to thy heart: Therefrom the voice of Christian love is heard; Therefrom the tears of Christian love will start, Welcome, hoar father of the nascent year, And joyous be thy brief sojourning here!
Yet to thy blazon one sad stain will cling, The latest day beheld a harrowing scene, When this fair land, with Brutus-like demean, Looked on the scaffold dressed for her lost king. O! Mercy, hide the memory with thy wing: Teach us to be like thee—blessed serene; The “doubly blessed” and may the future bring Blessings to crown the country and the queen! Forward! Bluff January! The ball’s begun, With the fantastic and the mistletoe; Saint Stephen’s chapel room will see rare fun, Alas! Comingled with far greater woe. Joy to thee! Merry month! Time’s hoary pinion Will waft the speedily form his dominion.
Reprinted from Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, January 1, 1853.
"We follow vice and folly where a police officer dare not show his head, as the small, but intrepid weasel pursues vermin in paths which the licensed cat or dog cannot enter."
The Sunday Flash 1841