No. 610
Crime, Eccentricity, and the Sporting Life in 19th Century America.
June 10, 2023

January.

Allegorical Representation of January
January 2, 2017
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 "The Witches' Cove," Follower of Jan MandijnFor this week's Link Dump, we are proud to have as our host the lovely Dossie!Watch out for the Bonnacon!Some Brooklyn life-saving pets.An escape from Death Row.19th century love gone wrong.The link between fairies and prehistoric sites.An Indian doctor explains early 20th century English etiquette.That time when there was a Masonic Pug Society.The man
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Strange Company - 6/9/2023
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"Male Seminary and Normal School,"Independent BladeNewnan, GeorgiaNovember 2, 1860,(Click image to enlarge) OAPY SMITH'S CHILDHOOD EDUCATION     The Smith family passed down the history that young Jefferson Randolph Smith II had enrolled in "a Sabbath school, and was able to continue his education throughout the war, after the war’s end and on into Reconstruction." I believe the ad from the
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Soapy Smith's Soap Box - 6/2/2023
Image above, Boston Globe. As the 130th anniversary of the Borden Trial in New Bedford begins, visit our Facebook for daily postings and articles about the Trial of the Century. https://www.facebook.com/lizziebordenwarpsandwefts/
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Lizzie Borden: Warps and Wefts - 6/5/2023
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: […]
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Early American Crime - 12/17/2021
The death-house of Sing Sing Prison, on the Hudson River in New York State, was a separate building attached to the south end of the main prison. It housed up to eight condemned men in 8’x10’ cells along the south wall in groups of four separated by a corridor. The cells were 8 feet high with iron bars on the front and brick partitions between the cells and on the top, with space between the top
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Murder By Gaslight - 6/3/2023
Manhole mysteries usually involve the ironworks company that made the cover—who worked there, how long they operated. But this time, I’m curious about the abbreviation on a sewer cover found in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “Sewer B.R.” the cover reads. Okay, but what’s the B.R.—Brooklyn Railroad? Borough something? I’m unsure of how old this sewer cover … … Continue reading
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Ephemeral New York - 6/5/2023
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 […]
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Executed Today - 11/13/2020
Caught Helping Themselves. | Seeing in the New Year.

January.

Allegorical Representation of January

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.